174: What Your God-Given Assignment Will Cost You | Noah Herrin

In this episode, I sit down with Pastor Noah Herrin of Way Church of Nashville, TN, to talk about faith, obedience, and what it means to stay close to Jesus in every season. We unpack church planting, grace, biblical conviction, disappointment, healing, and the difference between chasing your own opportunities and stepping fully into the assignment God has placed in front of you. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Intro 02:40 What God Is Building at Way Church 07:09 Commitment to the Craft of Faith 10:43 How to Keep the Fire Alive 17:19 What Saturday Teaches Us About Easter 25:43 Faith, Grace, and the Work That Follows 33:07 The Challenge Facing Young Believers 34:17 Why Biblical Literacy Matters 43:11 A Simple Way to Read Scripture 50:08 Stewarding What God Entrusted 56:34 Do You Want to Be Healed? 57:24 Theo Von, Faith, and Honest Questions 01:04:15 New Wine Requires a New Life 01:07:42 Assignments Over Opportunities 01:10:28 How to Recognize Your Assignment 01:15:55 Taking Big Swings for God 01:19:11 Final Gratitude and Closing Thoughts ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠ https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠ YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Nick Bare?

  Pastor Noah Herrin of Wade Church in Nashville, Tennessee. What's up, brother?

• 0:12Speaker 01

  What's up, man? Honored to be here.

• 0:14Nick Bare?

  Thank you for being here.

• 0:14Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me.

• 0:16Nick Bare?

  How about that dinner last night?

• 0:18Speaker 01

  I'm still, uh, basking in the glory, you might say.

• 0:22Nick Bare?

  Well, I was pretty, uh, I was pretty happy with the, um, decision to go for sushi.

• 0:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:29Nick Bare?

  As I was preparing for this podcast, you know, we decided on sushi weeks ago.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 0:36Nick Bare?

  I made the reservation. It's currently Steph and I's favorite sushi spot in Austin, Uchiko. And I was on your website, just going through some stuff.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:46Nick Bare?

  And like your blurb says, like, one of your favorite things to do is finding the best sushi spot in Nashville.

• 0:53Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 0:53Nick Bare?

  I was like, oh, we're good.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  Locked in.

• 0:56Nick Bare?

  We're good.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  I was very, uh, I was very excited about the sushi spot because, um, for those of you listening, it was planned six weeks ago. And when Nick was like, hey, let's have you on the podcast, we'll go eat dinner. He literally said, I just made a reservation here and sent the spot. It's pretty rare for me to reserve a spot at a restaurant six weeks out. So I knew, like, you've been thinking about this meal for six weeks.

• 1:17Nick Bare?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:17Speaker 01

  And it did not disappoint. It was absolutely incredible. I think we had every single type of nigiri on the menu. It was amazing.

• 1:25Nick Bare?

  Well, ordering sushi for me is such a, uh, an experience.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29Nick Bare?

  Like, growing up, I'm from a small town in central Pennsylvania. We had one sushi spot, which was in the town next to us. It was called Wasabi.

• 1:37Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:38Nick Bare?

  And we would go get sushi once a year.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, special.

• 1:43Nick Bare?

  Yeah, it was special and we'd order like, uh, chicken teriyaki.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:48Nick Bare?

  And maybe like a California roll.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:51Nick Bare?

  And then as I got older, I was introduced to... All you can eat sushi and more advanced rules and then nigiri.

• 1:58Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:59Nick Bare?

  So when Steph and I go for for nigiri, for sushi, it's, you know, it's a few rolls.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 2:04Nick Bare?

  But I'll look at the menu and I don't even know what I'm ordering, like three of these, nine of these, 12 of those. And then I'm hoping like we ordered the right amount.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:15Nick Bare?

  Because regardless, whatever gets put on the table, we're throwing it back.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  We're in. Yeah.

• 2:20Nick Bare?

  And Steph goes one for one with me. She went, we all went one for one last night.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:24Nick Bare?

  Pretty much for the most part.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 2:26Nick Bare?

  And it fueled our run this morning.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  It was fantastic.

• 2:28Nick Bare?

  Our sauna and plunge. It's been a great.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  It's been a great 24 hours.

• 2:31Nick Bare?

  Last couple, yeah, last couple of days together.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 2:35Nick Bare?

  But I really appreciate you making the time.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Absolutely, man.

• 2:38Nick Bare?

  And come on the podcast. Steph and I had the amazing opportunity to visit Wade Church.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:44Nick Bare?

  A few months ago when we were in Nashville and love what you guys are doing.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  Thank you, man.

• 2:50Nick Bare?

  I mean, the the worship was powerful and so intentional. I know you guys are expanding and

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:56Nick Bare?

  and building something absolutely amazing. And I really enjoy your sermons, your messages.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 3:05Nick Bare?

  To be able to witness it in person was great, but I also keep up with your podcast.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:10Nick Bare?

  I keep up with your sermons on on iTunes.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:14Nick Bare?

  I listen to them all the time because they're so clear. There's no fluff. They're scripture based.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:22Nick Bare?

  And there's always for me a very clear takeaway that wakes me up in the moment of where I am. And that's typically a morning run.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:29Nick Bare?

  Log in five to eight miles.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, thank you, man. That means a lot. It's cool what God's doing for sure. It's it's when we moved to Nashville, we were, we were expecting, like, we didn't want to, we weren't going to pick up our family and move somewhere, thinking that we were going to be a part of something that God wasn't in. And anytime God's in it, I really believe that he wants it to be something that we have to depend on him to do. Like, I don't think God's ever going to call you to something that you don't need him for.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  And with that, I think oftentimes it's stuff that's bigger than you, like it's That we have this phrase at our church called only God, like we want to live lives only God could get the credit for. And so when we moved to Nashville, we were, we were very much of that mindset of like, we know God's called us. We know that this is going to make an impact. But what has happened the first two and a half years of our church has blown our minds like just truly like, there is no way that a person or a group of people could get the credit for what God's doing. It is truly the Lord that is doing something in Nashville right now. And yeah, it was super cool for you guys to come. I think you guys came on, uh, it was like the Sunday that we did the Christmas thing with the kids.

• 4:42Nick Bare?

  Yep.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Which is always my favorite Sunday. You just never know what's gonna happen. So.

• 4:46Nick Bare?

  You kind of alluded to this last night at dinner.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 4:50Nick Bare?

  But I didn't pry on it and I'm curious now. You said it was kind of an interesting story of how you got to Nashville.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:56Nick Bare?

  Where were you before Nashville?

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:58Nick Bare?

  And then why Nashville?

• 4:59Speaker 01

  So we were in Atlanta for about two years, um, leading up to Nashville. I served on my dad's church, uh, on my dad's staff at his church. And we're there for two years. Um, I kind of did full-time traveling ministry. So I actually preached a hundred different places in the last year before we moved to Nashville. It was like way too much travel, but this was pre-kid. And Matty would go on a lot of them with me and.

• 5:26Nick Bare?

  It's fun.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  It was so fun. It was so fun. Different cities, different churches, and we actually were exposed to so many different great pastors and great churches that we were inspired by and we would go, oh man, we really like the way that they run their staff meeting, or we really like the way that they structured their service or the way he preaches. And we were just constantly like all these data points of like, this is, this is what we want to, we want to start in Nashville. And, um, we felt like we were called to plant a church. I felt like I was called to plant a church. That, that means start a church, by the way. One time I told someone I was a church planter and they thought I did church landscaping. So I have that preface it, but I, when I was 21 years old, I was being discipled by a church planter.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  And it didn't make any sense to me. I was like, why did you start a church? That sounds like the riskiest, like you could just go work at a church, like why, why would you do this? And he said that, um, he felt like. Church planters were kind of like the Navy SEALs of the Kingdom of God, that you just jump out of an airplane and hope you hit a bird. And the moment he said that, I remember we were at this little Starbucks in Cleveland, Tennessee. There was like something in my heart that was like, I like that. Like, I want to be like that. Like, I want to have the kind of faith to jump out of an airplane and hope that Jesus takes over. And so we felt that early on. And ultimately Nashville, it came down to, we got some advice from a mentor. He said, "Plant in the city that you love the most, because when the ministry gets hard, you won't be tempted to leave."

• 6:53Speaker 01

  And so when he said that, we had already fallen in love with Nashville. Maddie, my wife, looked at me and she was like, "We're moving to Nashville." And we moved about six months after that.

• 7:02Nick Bare?

  Oh, wow.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  So.

• 7:04Nick Bare?

  It's funny you bring up Navy SEALs.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:08Nick Bare?

  I recently had DJ Shipley.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:12Nick Bare?

  On the podcast. Tier one operator. He was a Navy SEAL and then spent time with DevGru.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 7:22Nick Bare?

  Just an impressive.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:25Nick Bare?

  Operator. And I asked him the question, "What separates tier one operators from the rest of the conventional military?"

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 7:35Nick Bare?

  And he said, "Commitment to the craft."

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 7:38Nick Bare?

  And if you think about, you know, what it takes to plant a church and be a pastor and held to this, this higher standard, it requires commitment to the craft, commitment to the skill, commitment to the Word.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:55Nick Bare?

  Commitment to the relationship with Jesus Christ.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:58Nick Bare?

  And without it, you cannot be a tier one operator, a tier one pastor.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 8:02Nick Bare?

  A follower, a teacher, a believer.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely, man. I think, um, I think for, for being a pastor, it's like.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  The thing, if there was like a one thing, are you familiar with the concept of the one thing?

• 8:16Nick Bare?

  Like the book?

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so.

• 8:19Nick Bare?

  It's been a while since I've read The One Thing.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was like.

• 8:21Nick Bare?

  I should reread that, actually.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  It was pretty like revolutionary for me when I picked it up in my early twenties of like, I didn't know what my one thing was. I didn't know what I wanted it to be, but basically for people who are listening who aren't familiar with the book, there's like one thing that you could do every single day that moves the needle for whatever you do the most, right? Whether it's spiritually or professionally, you kind of like strip down, reverse engineer, your goals down to the one thing you can do every day that moves the needle. And when I first got into ministry, I thought the thing that would move the needle was my knowledge about the Bible, my knowledge about the Word, which is so important, like, like I'm not saying that it's not.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  But the longer that I'm in the game, the longer that I'm pastoring, I really think the one thing is what can I do today to fall a little bit more in love with Jesus? And that is the one thing, because I actually think the greatest thing a pastor or a dad or a business leader can give to their family, their church, their business, is actually their relationship with Jesus. Like, that's the most powerful thing you can give your people is when you're around them and you're the same person on the microphone that you are in the lobby, or you're the same person in the board meeting that you are in the gym. I think people see that and they go, "I want to be like that." What do they have?

• 9:46Speaker 01

  It reminds me of this scripture in Proverbs that says that "those who refresh others will they themselves be refreshed." And it's like when you're around someone who's really in love with Jesus, you just are like so refreshed by them that you then want to go refresh others and you want to be someone that is refreshing like them. And so it's been a, it's been like a real like mindset shift for me of like some days, the thing that I do that does make me fall the most in love with Jesus is read the Word. And then some days, the thing that made me fall more in love with Jesus was going on a walk with no music, with, with no agenda other than to just listen to the Lord. Some days it's listening to a sermon, some days it's listening to this podcast and being like, wow, like hearing Nick and Steph's story just encouraged me so much in my relationship with the Lord. And it's like,

• 10:30Speaker 01

  when you're falling in love with Jesus, the rest of it falls in place.

• 10:39Nick Bare?

  Why do you think people sometimes fall out of love with Jesus?

• 10:45Nick Bare?

  You know, I think in many things we do in life, you discover this new thing.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:51Nick Bare?

  Maybe that's a hobby.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:53Nick Bare?

  Maybe that's like a newfound passion or a new skill. Maybe it's being saved.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:00Nick Bare?

  By Christ, and there's this fire. And I don't want to say the fire burns out.

• 11:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:06Nick Bare?

  But it goes from being this like wildfire.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:10Nick Bare?

  To then being a steady, maintainable, sustainable fire.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 11:14Nick Bare?

  But then some people's fire burns out.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:17Nick Bare?

  They give up on the sport.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:18Nick Bare?

  They give up on the hobby.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:20Nick Bare?

  They give up on following.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:22Nick Bare?

  When it comes to following Christ,

• 11:25Nick Bare?

  why do people fall out of love?

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's actually, it reminds me of the book of Revelation. There's this critique of churches from Jesus. And he critiques this one church and he says, "You fell out of love." Like, "You lost your first love." It's his critique, and the first love being him. And I really think what you see is like, a lot of times, a new believer, they have the most passion out of anyone in the church they go to. Like, they respond to every altar call. If there's an altar call, they're the ones that are in the front row. They're the ones that are amening, they're journaling, they're in the small group. And a lot of times, the people who've been following Jesus the longest are the opposite. They're kind of like, if we're just being honest, they're the most rude, you know? And I really think there's two main things.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  I think the first one is, I'm convinced that passion, following Jesus, is directly tied with how often you remember what He did for you. So those people who just gave their life to Jesus, they've had a fresh taste of the grace of God, and they are just, "I cannot believe what Jesus did for me. I cannot believe that He would die on a cross for my sins and pay the penalty of death for me." And then you've followed Jesus for 20 years, and you've heard the message of grace, you've heard the cross, you've heard every sermon under the sun, and you just kind of take it for granted. Granite a little bit more, you you get used to it a little bit more.

• 12:51Speaker 01

  And I think that that is like something that we all have to push back on. And we just have to constantly remind ourselves of how good Jesus is. The other part of it, and I think this one is really, um, it was revolutionary for my relationship with Jesus. Is I think a lot of us, what we do is we focus on our love for God. So we're like, if I could just love God more today, that's how I'm going to stay on fire for God, is loving Him more. But our love is so inconsistent. I mean, uh, like, like even those of us who are like the most disciplined and we try really hard to love God. Our love eventually falls, like it falters, it's flaky, it's inconsistent.

• 13:36Nick Bare?

  Conditional.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  It's conditional, absolutely. And it's not a good foundation for you to build your life on, your love for God, it matters. But a much more solid foundation is to build your life on God's love for you. Because it's unconditional, it never fails, it's strong every single day, it's not dependent on performance, it's not dependent on my past. It's dependent on the fact that God's heart is for me. And so what I've been trying to do for the last five years is to remind myself and to learn more about God's love for me. Because inevitably what happens is the more I learn about God's love for me, the more I love Him.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  And the more I learn about God's love for me, the more I want to do the things that God wired me to do and created me to do. Like my obedience to the Lord, my faithfulness to the Lord, comes out of a place of me just naturally wanting to do it. Versus like, I've got to do this thing because this is what the Bible says.

• 14:36Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  It's like, I want to do this thing because I love God back. Does that make sense?

• 14:41Nick Bare?

  It makes sense. Um, on on your first point.

• 14:46Nick Bare?

  Oh, we constantly need this reminder of of the sacrifice. Yeah. That Jesus made for us. I felt that reignition of fire. Not to say that my fire burnt out, but when I was initially saved. I mean, it was the whole house. Yeah. Was in flames. In a good way. In a great way. Yeah, yeah. In the best way possible. Yeah. And then it became this steady burn after. Yeah. That and I settled into this new life and say, okay, I gotta have some endurance. Hmm. As we were talking about previously. Yep. There's no finish line. That's right. To this journey. Hmm. And for much of my life, I have approached it as here's the milestone I need to get to.

• 15:31Nick Bare?

  Here's the finish line I need to get to. This is different. This is an ever evolving, growing, learning, relationship and journey. But come Easter, this Easter felt very different. Wow. Than any Easter before. Wow. Where I felt the the sacrifice. Hmm. That Jesus made. Yeah. For us. Yeah. And it was a very heavy Easter and this reignition of the fire. Hmm. Was kickstarted and relit again. It's like, man. Yep. He he died for us. Yeah. Of like this brutal. Brutal. Death. Mm hmm.

• 16:11Nick Bare?

  This crucifixion and it was, as you were explaining that, I kept thinking back to, man, that what I felt Easter morning. Was like the same thing I felt when I was initially saved. Yeah. So finding ways to remember. Yeah. To remind ourselves, this is why we follow him. This is the the sacrifice he made for us. Yeah. It is not to be taken lightly. Nope. And it can't just be become like part of the norm. Yeah.

• 16:40Nick Bare?

  I was listening to a podcast Easter morning. That was kind of explaining this and it's, it's really easy. I mean, I did for much of my life. Easter is just another holiday.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:53Nick Bare?

  And yeah, Jesus, Jesus rose.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:56Nick Bare?

  And it's like this bubbly, happy conversation and talk. But like, there's a lot of deep pain and sacrifice rooted.

• 17:08Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 17:09Nick Bare?

  In that and like to recognize and respect that I think is really important.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Absolutely, man. It's, it's a crazy story and every time we get to Easter, like I think about, I think really hard about like Saturday in the Easter story of like Saturday is the day that gets skipped often. When we talk about Easter, like 2000 years ago, Saturday was a horrible day. It was like the day that all the people who did believe in Jesus were like, wait, he's still dead. Like, like he, like this guy that we picked up and followed and sold everything to follow and gave up our old life to follow. And thought he was going to set us free to follow. He's in a grave like every other person. It was like a real day of disappointment and I actually am so encouraged by Saturday because there was a time when I just,

• 17:55Speaker 01

  this, this picture of Christianity was painted for me of like puppies and rainbows, kind of, you know? It's like, everything's just always going to work out exactly how it's supposed to and there's going to be no trouble. And that's clearly not the story that we see in the Bible. And it's actually really encouraged me in times where things aren't going well and I am discouraged. And it feels like the timeline doesn't match my expectations to just be reminded that even on Saturday, in my disappointment, God is still working, like God still has the final say. And often, man, it's like in those seasons of disappointment is actually where I've grown the closest to the Lord.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  It's like when I've gotten to know him in a way that was much deeper than in the mountaintop season, where everything was, was going great. It was like, I almost needed a, a season where. Everything was dark for me to just be like, man, I don't have another option but to run to the Lord. And I hope that he can handle this mess in every single time he has. And that makes Easter so much more special to me is that it's not just a story of Jesus rising from the dead, but it's this story of Jesus ultimately proving that he always does have the final say, even on the other side of disappointment.

• 19:16Nick Bare?

  Hmm, yes. Something I've been, I've been thinking on recently, I was having this conversation with a mentor this past week, was about appreciating the storm that you're in.

• 19:33Nick Bare?

  And the conversation we were having was in reference to the gospel.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:38Nick Bare?

  After Jesus fed the 5,000.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 19:41Nick Bare?

  And they got in the boat and there was a storm.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 19:43Nick Bare?

  And the disciples were asking Jesus to, to stop the storm.

• 19:49Nick Bare?

  And I often find myself, if I think about like the last decade of my life, I've been in a storm for the last decade of building a business and being an entrepreneur and building anything, you're just constantly, you're, you're battling battles and fights and blocking and tackling on a daily basis. And as my mentor and I were, were having this conversation, he was challenging me to really appreciate the storm that I'm in because this storm is shaping me. God might be using this, this storm.

• 20:23Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:24Nick Bare?

  To shape me into the person he wants me to be.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:26Nick Bare?

  And we were kind of talking about this at dinner last night and you brought up a proverb and like it really,

• 20:34Nick Bare?

  it really resonated with me last night. And as I woke up this morning, I went and reread it and just like sat with it for a while. And it was Proverbs 14, four,

• 20:46Nick Bare?

  where there are no oxen.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:48Nick Bare?

  The manger is empty.

• 20:50Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:51Nick Bare?

  But from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:56Nick Bare?

  And I sat with this for a while and I'd love for you to kind of break down and explain it.

• 20:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:59Nick Bare?

  But my interpretation is if we apply it to our life.

• 21:05Nick Bare?

  We want comfort.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 21:07Nick Bare?

  We want cleanliness.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:08Nick Bare?

  We don't want the mess of our environment or other people.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:13Nick Bare?

  Or relationships. And that sounds great.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:17Nick Bare?

  But when we have that, there's emptiness.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 21:21Nick Bare?

  We need the hardship. We need the discomfort. We need the, the relationship management.

• 21:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:26Nick Bare?

  And to be challenged and pushed.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:30Nick Bare?

  To have abundant harvests.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 21:32Nick Bare?

  And I was sharing this with one of, uh, with the entire creative team.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 21:36Nick Bare?

  This morning.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 21:37Nick Bare?

  And the question I was asked, and I know how to respond, so I'm

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:41Nick Bare?

  curious your, uh, thoughts on this. What are the abundant harvests?

• 21:46Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 21:47Nick Bare?

  That we are getting in the context of this scripture?

• 21:51Speaker 01

  It's great, man. Um, it's one of my favorite scriptures because like you said, we would all prefer the cleaner route. We'd all prefer no friction. We'd all prefer things to just go up and to the right and whatever area of life we're talking about. Um, when I read that scripture, I'm reminded I can have impact or I can have no friction, but I can't have both. So the context that I think of is mostly relational when it comes to that verse. I think about the oxen as, as people, no offense, people. Um, oxen are great animals. They, they do great things, but like, that's what I'm thinking of is like so much of the mess of life comes from us being in relationship with other broken people like us.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  And so when we're in those relationships, it can feel like, man, like this is a really hard conversation I'm having to have today with a coworker. Or this is a really difficult season that my friend is going through that I feel like I'm supposed to walk with them through this, but man, this is a mess. And this is added stress and tension to my life and it has nothing to do with me, but I feel like I'm supposed to go through this. It feels messy and you can either remove yourself from that. But if you do that, you also remove yourself from the opportunity to impact their life, to, um, to plant seeds that might.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  Bloom immediately, they might bloom 10 years later, they might bloom long after you're in relationship with that person. Uh, one of my favorite scriptures is Galatians 6:9, it says, "Don't grow weary of doing good, for at the proper time you'll reap a harvest if you don't give up." What I love about that scripture is like, we've got one job, which is to not give up. And then all of the other, um, results are up to the Lord. It's like the actual fruit, uh, I've been thinking about John 15 this week, which is Jesus, when he says that, um, he's the vine and we're the branches. And he's, his command is just remain in me and you will bear

• 23:51Speaker 01

  much fruit. And the thing about a branch is it never has to strive to be a branch. It just stays connected to Jesus, just stays connected to Jesus. It just stays investing in people and the fruit happens naturally because of that. So fruit could be, hey, there's someone on my team, or there's someone that works for me, or I work for, that I'm just consistently like a person who encourages them. I'm just consistently in their mess with them. When they have hard days, they tend to come to me to talk to, talk to me. I try to encourage them, whatever it is. Maybe they don't have a relationship with Jesus right now, but maybe five years from now, when their life hits rock bottom, they remember who the rock at the bottom of your life was. And

• 24:35Speaker 01

  they go, hey, Nick, dude, I'm struggling. And every time I've ever struggled in the past with smaller things, you always had this peace about you. Can you tell me where you got that? And then boom, gospel opportunity, you know, fruit from years of messy stable, you know, messy, messy situations, hard conversations, or maybe it's sooner than that, you know, maybe it's, they already follow Jesus, but it's like you're getting in the mess with them and they're realizing, man, I, I actually follow religion. I didn't have a relationship with Jesus. I was just doing things because I thought I was supposed to do it. But, um, as followers of Jesus, we have this like, this crazy thing. There's no other religion like this, where we're

• 25:17Speaker 01

  immediately saved and then also immediately called. So we're immediately saved and then Jesus is like, okay, now I'm going to turn you into a fisher of men. Go and help other people find me. And that's what I think about with that scripture is like, that's messy work going and sharing the gospel and encouraging people.

• 25:38Nick Bare?

  I wanted to touch on this later in the conversation, but this feels like a good time.

• 25:44Nick Bare?

  You know, we, we know Ephesians 2, 8 through 9.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:49Nick Bare?

  That we are saved through faith. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And it is not from ourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:03Nick Bare?

  So when you, you read and hear something like this, it's not by our works.

• 26:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:08Nick Bare?

  It is by grace you've been saved through faith.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 26:13Nick Bare?

  But then, on the contrary, you read something like James 2:17.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:18Nick Bare?

  Faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 26:24Nick Bare?

  So how do you respond to, this is the one faith, this is the one religion.

• 26:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:28Nick Bare?

  Where we are saved, it is by grace you are saved through faith.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 26:33Nick Bare?

  But it does not mean that faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:41Nick Bare?

  How do you respond to that?

• 26:42Speaker 01

  So I think it's really about the order, and I think both are actually absolutely true. It kind of goes back to what we were saying a few minutes ago about falling in love with Jesus. So, um, the best way I know how to describe this is when Maddie and I got married, I didn't do any chores around the house because I just, I, I don't know what I was thinking. It was, I wasn't thinking. That's what was happening. And one day I came home from work and she was extremely upset with me. She was like, I asked you to do the laundry last night. You did not do the laundry. You haven't done any laundry since we got married. I mean, she was letting me have it and I deserved it. Um, I was just very late. I watched sports when I came home from work and I did nothing. And, uh, so she, the next day she was gone for like three or four hours.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  And I thought, I am going to do every single piece of laundry in this house. And what I did is I, I like left all of it folded on the bed so that she could see that I had done it. And, um, so dumb. And when she came home, she had never in our entire relationship been so excited about what she saw. Like she started trying to kiss me. I mean, it was like, I was like, you need me to vacuum? Like what else do you need? You know? Um, but I learned in that moment that great relationships require effort.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  That if you want to have a relationship that actually thrives, you can't just be like, well, I hope that this gets better. And then you don't put effort into the relationship. And what I think about those two scriptures is our relationship with Jesus can only start because of what he did for us. It is only started by our faith and belief that he actually is God, that he actually did die on the cross, that he actually did raise from the dead, and that it counted for us. Like, that is the only way you can begin a relationship with Jesus. But because you love him, you naturally want to put in effort into the relationship.

• 28:36Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  You naturally want to get to know him. And the more you get to know him, the more you fall in love with him, the more you're gonna start doing the things that he wired you and called you to do. And so this, like, James is, I love the book of James. It's like one of the most, like, hard-nosed, like, this direct-to-the-point.

• 28:52Nick Bare?

  I love the book of James.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  It's amazing. And I love it because it's a reminder that this journey of following Jesus, I really think the audience he was speaking to is not dissimilar to American Christianity, which has slipped into a little bit of, how can, it slipped into a little bit of what can I get out of following Jesus?

• 29:14Nick Bare?

  Hmm.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  Versus, here's everything that I have, Jesus, you're the Lord of my life. And I really think what he's saying is like, hey, like, you're just making this all about you. It's time to get some skin in the game here. Like, you call yourself a follower of Jesus, like, do the things that he did, like, follow in his footsteps. Like, you say you're a follower, but you just, you're just, you look like you did before you accepted Christ.

• 29:40Nick Bare?

  Yeah, that's good. Dude, it makes me think of, uh, Steph's birthdays.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 29:48Nick Bare?

  Steph is...

• 29:50Nick Bare?

  A big like holiday.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 29:53Nick Bare?

  Birthday, make a moment.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:56Nick Bare?

  Experience.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Lots of balloons.

• 29:57Nick Bare?

  Yes, like balloons, cards. And I have historically for our entire relationship failed. All she's ever wanted is flowers and a card.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:09Nick Bare?

  And I'll be very honest, like I have failed many times. I've gotten caught up in my life and work.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:18Nick Bare?

  In my training and it's 11pm the night before the big day. And I'm like crap.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  I did it again.

• 30:26Nick Bare?

  I did it again. So I'll go like make something on the computer or like I'll make a custom card, which is like a piece of paper folded over and I'll write some stuff on it.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  Custom does make it sound better.

• 30:37Nick Bare?

  It does, it does, but she knows.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:40Nick Bare?

  I forgot. Not, not even that I forgot, I just didn't care enough.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:46Nick Bare?

  And I hate to say that, but it's the truth. So her birthday was three weeks ago.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:52Nick Bare?

  And I was like, I'm doing it big this year. Like I'm, I'm, I'm making up for like, this is the new standard.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:01Nick Bare?

  I did it all, dude. I, I, I got one of those companies coming to the, the, uh, sign in your yard.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 31:08Nick Bare?

  It's like happy birthday Steph. She's into tennis right now, so there's a tennis ball on it.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  Good one.

• 31:13Nick Bare?

  I got flowers delivered. I got custom cupcakes done.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 31:18Nick Bare?

  Uh, I took the day off of work. I got her a birthday present. We went into Austin, we went into the spa. Uh, she's been craving like a chicken Caesar wrap. So I found the best chicken Caesar wrap spot.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 31:31Nick Bare?

  Austin I could find. We went to this like natural regenerative butcher and grocery shop afterwards, got coffee. Uh, she wanted homemade burgers and fries for dinner. I did that. I did it all.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  Come on, man.

• 31:44Nick Bare?

  And she was so happy.

• 31:46Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 31:47Nick Bare?

  Not the, not because of like what I got her.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:51Nick Bare?

  And it was the thought, it was the intention, it was the works.

• 31:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:55Nick Bare?

  Like she knows I love her.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:57Nick Bare?

  But it was the action that I took.

• 31:59Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 32:00Nick Bare?

  That like reinforced the love that I have for her.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, man.

• 32:05Nick Bare?

  And that was an eye opener for me because I watched how just like it made her feel. Like, man, I could have, I could have been doing this for a long time.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:16Nick Bare?

  And I didn't because I relied on the fact that we got married. I'm committed.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  We're already good.

• 32:22Nick Bare?

  We're good. We're wearing our rings.

• 32:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:24Nick Bare?

  What else do we need?

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 32:26Nick Bare?

  And I was so wrong. But I resonate with that.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:30Nick Bare?

  And the way that it aligns with faith and and works and deeds.

• 32:36Nick Bare?

  Makes so much sense.

• 32:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's faith first. If you try to do works first, there's no relationship with God. Your works can't earn it. Like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how what your spiritual pedigree is, who your dad is, who your mom is, how much money you've made. It just doesn't matter. It's like you got faith is first. And then, once we realize that it's his works that did it, not ours, then we naturally want to do things that he's called us to do.

• 33:01Nick Bare?

  Yeah. I'm curious, you know, running a church in Nashville, Tennessee,

• 33:09Nick Bare?

  which,

• 33:11Nick Bare?

  I mean, as a whole, you know, we spent

• 33:15Nick Bare?

  a nine-month sabbatical in Nashville.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:19Nick Bare?

  In 2023.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  I like that nine-month sabbatical.

• 33:21Nick Bare?

  Sabbatical.

• 33:24Nick Bare?

  The people in that area. There it's it's different.

• 33:30Nick Bare?

  Yeah, Steph and I were in, we were visiting Franklin a few months ago. We're in a coffee shop. And there was this group of mid-20-year-old girls that came in.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:42Nick Bare?

  And they were dressed very southern.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:44Nick Bare?

  Proper. They were all carrying their bibles. Right. Wow, this is like really awesome to see.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:51Nick Bare?

  Especially when you compare two parts of Austin, Texas.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 33:54Nick Bare?

  Just being very honest. But Way Church.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:57Nick Bare?

  Has a younger audience demographic.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  We do.

• 34:02Nick Bare?

  What problems do you see that the younger population?

• 34:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:08Nick Bare?

  Is struggling with when it comes to their faith and their relationship with Christ?

• 34:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think.

• 34:13Nick Bare?

  Or the world.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  It's, I would say the biggest one, and it's so encouraging like that you saw those girls carrying their Bible around because I would actually say that the biggest issue with younger Christians is biblical literacy, meaning that they, they don't always know what the Bible actually says. And the reason that that's, that's really dangerous is because there are so many things, whether on social media or conversations that you're having with people, that people can say that sound really, really good and valiant and loving, that are actually super contradictory to what the Bible says. Um, I have a mentor who told me 10 years ago, he said, Noah, one, there's coming a day

• 34:58Speaker 01

  where people are gonna set aside the Bible in an attempt to become more like Jesus. And what he was saying is, like, there are going to be things that people think Jesus would do, or Jesus would say, because they sound like the most loving thing that you could do. And because they don't actually know what Jesus said and did 2,000 years ago, they're just gonna do that thing that sounds loving and tolerant and good now. And they're going to miss who the real Jesus was. Because if you're building your life on a Jesus that's not from Scripture, you can call him whatever you want, but it's not Jesus. And that's the danger that I see with young people is whenever

• 35:42Speaker 01

  the Word is not the foundation of who Jesus is in your life, you'll fill, you'll fill that foundation with feelings, you'll fill it with whatever culture is filling it with, and you'll have this kind of mutt Jesus that has some stuff that's accurate and some stuff that's not. But ultimately, you're gonna end up in a place that is not the place that God wants you, because your truth is not coming from the Word. Um, the way that I say it to our church all the time is that if Jesus said it 2,000 years ago, he would say the same thing today, because the Bible tells us that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if he was for it 2,000 years ago, he'll be for it now. If he's against it 2,000 years ago, he'd be against it now.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  And a lot of young people, when talking about the things that Jesus is against, they get super uncomfortable. Like, well, why would he be against that? Well, why would he not want me to have that? Why would he, why would he say no to that? And what I'm trying to teach our church is that anytime Jesus says no in Scripture, it's always because he has a better yes. It's because the designer always knows how the design works best. And so we have to like, I really think lean in with the next generation of like, this is what the Bible says, this is why it says it. And ultimately, this is why it's for your good.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  And if we don't do that, I think what we're gonna see is just this continuation of a Jesus mixed with culture that is not actually who Jesus is.

• 37:14Nick Bare?

  Do you have any examples of that?

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think sexuality is like the one that's like, it's like really,

• 37:22Speaker 01

  it's really prominent right now. So like, just an example would be a couple who comes to church and they're sleeping together. You know, they're living together.

• 37:30Nick Bare?

  But they're not married?

• 37:30Speaker 01

  But they're not married and, and they don't, they don't see any, any, uh, any problem with it. They're like, I love her, she loves me and uh, we're gonna get married one day. Like, what's the big deal? And it's like, okay, well, first of all, like, all throughout Scripture, we see that God's design for sex is in the context of marriage. Like, ah, but like, that means that I've gotta like move out and like, she's gonna have to find her own spot and she's gonna have to pay for that. And like, that doesn't feel like a win. That doesn't feel like, like Jesus would want us to have to pay twice the amount of money. And it's like, well, the whole reason Jesus said this is because a lot of people who are doing what you're doing, this doesn't end in marriage. This doesn't end in sacrificial love for each other.

• 38:13Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 38:13Speaker 01

  Like, there's a reason why sex was held out to the end, because a lot of times, the moment you start getting that, you stop serving the other person in the way that you should. And, um, but like in the short term, it's just like, well, you're gonna make us like, completely upend our life. Like, that sounds so hateful. And it's like, actually, it's the most loving thing that the Lord could do is cause you to move out. And it's one of the reasons I tell people like, I'm for quick engagements. Like, if you, if you know that you love them, like, get married. Like, jump, like, don't wait. Like, just, just go all in. But that's like a, a pretty practical, common example that I think you see a lot.

• 38:48Nick Bare?

  Have you had anyone at the church? Who who came away, they weren't married, they were living together.

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 38:55Nick Bare?

  They were sleeping together.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 38:57Nick Bare?

  And then they were realizing that they made a mistake.

• 39:02Nick Bare?

  They went went backwards.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we had a couple that was invited to a small group. They were living together. Um, they'd been dating for about a year. And they just they just genuinely had no idea that it was it was the same. That like they didn't grow up in church, so they gave.

• 39:18Nick Bare?

  That's how that's how Steph and I were.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:20Nick Bare?

  Yeah, we we moved in together before we were engaged.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:24Nick Bare?

  And we didn't we didn't know.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot of people don't. And and dude, and it's like. The Lord has so much grace for that. You know, like, I remember this couple in particular, they actually both gave their life to Jesus at our church. So they're like, they're like passionate, like we're talking about, like all this passion, just clueless about like anything the Bible says. They're just like, Jesus died for my sins. I I have eternal life. This is amazing. And they start going to this small group. And um, this was like right at the beginning of the church. So we only had eight small groups at the time. Now we have like, I don't even know how many, but I went to one of them. And I meet this couple and they're asking like. The most elementary Christian questions. And I think a lot of times people are like. Oh, like they should know better.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  But people who have real spiritual maturity, when they're around people that are in sin like that and asking questions like that. It's the most encouraging thing because it's like, what better place for someone who's new to their faith, who doesn't know what the Bible says? To be asking those questions than around other Christians who are also trying to follow Jesus and live a life that's submitted to him. What ended up happening is about three months after they started coming to small groups. Um, they moved out, they got their own places because they realized like this isn't what the Lord has for us. And they actually ended up breaking up.

• 40:44Nick Bare?

  Oh.

• 40:44Speaker 01

  Like six months later. And one of them is now engaged to another girl because it's been like a year and a half now. Um, and the other one is dating someone else. Both are in healthy, like holy relationships that are honoring the Lord. And the guy is the one that I'm the closest to, um, naturally. And he talks about how life changing. He was like, I really think what would have happened between the two of us is we would have gotten married. Because we were so comfortable living together and so comfortable sharing what we were sharing. I think we would have gotten married and I don't think that we were supposed to get married. And we just couldn't see that. We were living together. And it's like, so sometimes it ends up working out like really good. Sometimes the relationship ends up ending.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  But it's like, you can't argue with the results now of their life because they both are like, we're so thankful that we moved out.

• 41:33Nick Bare?

  Yeah. I think what happens with some people, uh, couples sometimes is.

• 41:41Nick Bare?

  Like say you start, you start dating.

• 41:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:44Nick Bare?

  And then you move in together.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:46Nick Bare?

  And then his becomes hers and hers becomes his.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:50Nick Bare?

  Before they commit to each other.

• 41:52Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 41:52Nick Bare?

  Decide to get married. But here you are now in this situation where you're living together. You're not yet married.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:00Nick Bare?

  You're starting to think, maybe this isn't the person for me.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:04Nick Bare?

  But we're already in it.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 42:06Nick Bare?

  So it's, it's gonna be so much harder to get out of it than just to keep going.

• 42:10Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 42:11Nick Bare?

  All right. Let's like, let's just take the next step. Let's just get married now.

• 42:14Speaker 01

  Keep going.

• 42:15Nick Bare?

  Cause we're already in it.

• 42:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:17Nick Bare?

  And that's like a, it's unfortunate place to be.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:21Nick Bare?

  And I think that's one of the, the downfalls outside of listening to the word of God.

• 42:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:27Nick Bare?

  That, that could potentially lead to.

• 42:28Speaker 01

  For sure. I also want to say like, if there's someone listening to this and you're living with your girlfriend or your boyfriend, like, um.

• 42:36Speaker 01

  I, it used to drive me crazy when I would like hear like pastors talk about like different sins or whatever. Like, I just want to be super transparent. Like. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Like, we could sit here and have a four hour episode of me just telling you all the things that I did that were against. The will of the Lord. And the really cool thing about the grace of Jesus is, um. All it takes is a moment of repentance to be forgiven. And then you just turn and, and follow Jesus and do what he asks you to do. And there's no condemnation for you. So. I just wanted to say that for anyone who might be in that season because I know that there's a lot of people who are.

• 43:05Nick Bare?

  That's helpful.

• 43:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:07Nick Bare?

  I was sharing this with you earlier. We've been talking about Pastor Joby Martin.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:12Nick Bare?

  Twenty-four hours.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  Legend.

• 43:14Nick Bare?

  And I was listening to a podcast of his earlier this week. And he was, he was talking about how to read the Bible. And I thought this was very helpful. This would have helped me a long time ago, but he had three steps. Like, as you're reading the Bible, you ask yourself, like, what did I just read? What just happened?

• 43:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:33Nick Bare?

  And that is the context.

• 43:34Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 43:35Nick Bare?

  And then the second question you ask, what does this mean? The actual interpretation of the word.

• 43:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:43Nick Bare?

  Not your interpretation.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 43:45Nick Bare?

  God's interpretation, the actual interpretation.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 43:47Nick Bare?

  And then number three, now what?

• 43:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:50Nick Bare?

  Like, how do I apply this?

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:52Nick Bare?

  To, to my life, what I'm doing.

• 43:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:57Nick Bare?

  And you said something earlier that I would love for you to kind of

• 44:01Nick Bare?

  tap on again.

• 44:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:04Nick Bare?

  People start their journey of faith and it's like, what can God do for me? Like, how do, what do I get out of this?

• 44:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:11Nick Bare?

  As opposed to like, how do I glorify God?

• 44:13Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 44:15Nick Bare?

  How do you help people understand like what that looks like and means and how to, how to explore that?

• 44:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. So like, um, I think Jesus very easily can become a means to an end. It's like, I hear that he died for me. That's amazing. Yeah. Like, I trust you. Like, there's two places that I can spend eternity. One is really high and one feels like San Diego. Like, yeah, I prefer the one that's not really hot. Like, I'll do that. I follow you, Jesus. And then like, you don't actually, you don't actually really have a relationship with the Lord. You're just sort of like using him to get to heaven. Does that make sense?

• 44:47Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  And then all of a sudden, you like start, basically, Jesus becomes an accessory. Like, you wear the cross, but you don't follow him. You wear the cross, but you don't ever do the things that he did. And, and that's what like we're pushing back on is like,

• 45:03Speaker 01

  really following Jesus comes with a cost. Like, when Jesus said, pick up your cross and follow me, those early disciples knew, like, this comes with a cost. This is going to cost our reputation. This is going to cost maybe our finances. This is going to cost maybe our plans, our decisions. And ultimately, when you know that there's a cost following Jesus, you've got to decide. Do I want to do this enough? Like, I know we were talking about John 5. Like, do you want to be healed? In John 5, there's like this guy who's, um, he's been lame. He's been paralyzed for 38 years. And it's like, that seems like a really

• 45:43Speaker 01

  obvious question of like, you've been lame for 38 years. Of course you want to be healed, but, but Jesus doesn't ask dumb questions. You know, like, like there was a reason he asked it. And I, I think the reason he asked it, we talked about this, um, last night and this morning, is because there's a comfortability that comes with your brokenness and with your, uh, consumerism even. And following Jesus, like really following Jesus, uh, it looks like giving him your most valuable possession. Jesus can't be your most valuable possession until he has your most valuable possession.

• 46:18Nick Bare?

  Hmm.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  And so it's like,

• 46:22Speaker 01

  for some people, that's going to be money. And for other people, it's going to be what they do. You know, their vocation, their job. And so what I'm not saying is like, you have to quit your job or you have to like, give away every dollar in your bank account. What I am saying is that truly following Jesus looks like Jesus saying, hey, like, they're taking up an offering today and you're in the service and you hear him, like tugging on your heart to give towards it. You're not going, no, like this is mine. It's you going, yeah, I'll give that a hundred dollars in the offering that he's asking me to do because he's the Lord of my life, not my money. Or, oh, okay, like you want me to go this direction in my business? Man, that's a really hard decision, but ultimately you're the Lord of my life.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  And so I surrender all to you and I'm going to do that. Like I value your plans more than my plans. That's what we're talking about is like, I'm just, um, he's not just someone who adds to my life, but he's somebody who if he asks something from me, I willingly lay it down. Does that make sense?

• 47:25Nick Bare?

  Yeah, I mean, everything is his.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:28Nick Bare?

  You know,

• 47:31Nick Bare?

  I, uh, my, my prayer time, like I explained to you is in my sauna at night.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love that, by the way.

• 47:36Nick Bare?

  Which I'm excited for you to get a sauna.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 47:39Nick Bare?

  It's like, it's a challenge. Being the first like 12 minutes of that prayer time is, it's very.

• 47:52Nick Bare?

  Present.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:52Nick Bare?

  It's very deep. The last three minutes, it's hard to focus on anything.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 47:57Nick Bare?

  So like you've really got to go like.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Well, we were in there today, man. I was, I was real close. I was like, I don't know how much longer I can do this.

• 48:02Nick Bare?

  That's why I kept adding water on, like I'm, I'm smoking them out. Before we get in the water.

• 48:10Nick Bare?

  But that's like, it's really powerful time for me. And when I'm in the sauna, I look out, our, the way our sauna is set up, it's in our backyard and I see our pool. I see our fire pit. I see the backyard. I can see where my kids' room are.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:27Nick Bare?

  And it creates the perfect backdrop for a place of gratitude. And I sit in there, I'm like, I start every prayer off with, Lord, I'm so grateful.

• 48:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:37Nick Bare?

  For all the abundance, the security, the wealth that you've provided us. It is more than I could ever want or ask for.

• 48:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:47Nick Bare?

  But all of this is yours.

• 48:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's great.

• 48:49Nick Bare?

  And one of the things that I was, I was telling you about Chad Wright.

• 48:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:54Nick Bare?

  Chad Wright shared with me months ago and has become part of my, my prayer every day is like, God, please conform me to the image of your son, Jesus Christ, at all costs.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 49:05Nick Bare?

  And I like, I say this and I really mean it. Take it all. Take it all.

• 49:11Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 49:11Nick Bare?

  If you want it. The house, the money.

• 49:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:15Nick Bare?

  All of it. And when I walk into HQ and then I'm oftentimes touring people, they ask me a question.

• 49:24Nick Bare?

  How proud are you that like this is, you built this, this is all yours?

• 49:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:29Nick Bare?

  And I used to be like super prideful, like, yeah.

• 49:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:32Nick Bare?

  I worked really hard for this.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:33Nick Bare?

  Look at it.

• 49:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:35Nick Bare?

  And I can honestly say, now when I'm, I'm asked that question, like, none of it's mine.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 49:42Nick Bare?

  It's not mine.

• 49:43Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 49:44Nick Bare?

  None of it.

• 49:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:46Nick Bare?

  But that's been like a spiritual journey.

• 49:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:51Nick Bare?

  It did not happen overnight.

• 49:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:53Nick Bare?

  But that that was forged through the storms that I've been in. And many of these storms in the last year that have helped me learn that.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. Are you familiar with the the parable of the talents?

• 50:06Nick Bare?

  I don't think so.

• 50:07Speaker 01

  Um, you should read it soon. I think it's my favorite parable. So like Jesus tells you all these stories um, in the gospels that are called parables. And there's one called the parable of the talents. There's basically these three guys that he gives different talents to. And talents in Bible times, it was like a certain amount of money. Um, so it's not like you're gifting like we would think of the word talent now, but he gives each of them a different amount.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  And uh, basically, he gives one a lot, one kind of a medium amount, and one a little. And the one with a lot and the one with the medium amount, they go and they make a return on the talent that he gives them. They like go invest it and they bring back a return. They they multiply it. And then the one with one talent was so afraid to lose it that he buries the talent. And when Jesus comes back, or not Jesus, but Jesus is telling the story. So the man who represents Jesus in the story comes back. And he's like, okay, what'd you get? What'd you do with it? And he has to like dig it back up. And he's like, look, I didn't lose it.

• 51:16Speaker 01

  And the man in the story rebukes him and basically tells him to to leave like he's he's very upset with him. And when I hear you saying that, I think of like God's blessed you. He's blessed all of us with a certain amount of talent, a certain amount of gifting, a certain amount of money, a certain amount of whatever it is. And what he's looking for is stewards, not owners, who who realize like this what he gave me, I'm going to go make the biggest return on investment possible, meaning the greatest impact possible with what he's given me. Whether that's the biggest impact through my finances, through my influence, through my time, through my gifting, whatever it is. So that ultimately I can bring back. And the thing that I always remind myself is you don't get to decide the amount of talent that God gives you.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  The only thing you get to decide is will you bring him back and investment on it?

• 52:06Nick Bare?

  Hmm.

• 52:06Speaker 01

  That's it. Because we just, we all get a different amount and some people can say, that's fair, that's not, doesn't matter. It's all his. The, the, the person that you find yourself comparing yourself to the most that has more talent or whatever the thing is than you. It's like, it is the Lord's, like you nailed it. It's like, and when you realize it's all his, it, it not only helps you have a better relationship with what he's given you, but it helps you have a better relationship with others. To not compare, to not compete and just go, man, if we're all trying to steward this for the glory of God, we're all gonna hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, which is the goal of our life.

• 52:43Nick Bare?

  Here's a question for you.

• 52:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:48Nick Bare?

  We all have been given these different levels of talent.

• 52:52Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 52:54Nick Bare?

  And I'm following, it's not for us to own.

• 52:59Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 53:00Nick Bare?

  It is for us to appropriately steward.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 53:04Nick Bare?

  How do you respond to someone that asks the question? This person has more talent than, than me.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:11Nick Bare?

  And they're not a believer.

• 53:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:12Nick Bare?

  And they don't think the same way that I do, and they're not doing to glorify God.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:17Nick Bare?

  How am I supposed to think of that individual and what they have?

• 53:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. I think, um, our first posture as a believer should be not yet. You know, like that's the heart that I think the Lord wants us to have is like, they're not stewarding it for him yet. Because they haven't met the right person.

• 53:36Nick Bare?

  That's fair.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Who's gonna lead them to Jesus.

• 53:38Nick Bare?

  That's fair.

• 53:38Speaker 01

  There's, there's this, this other proverb that says that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. Which means like, there are people like that, that I fully believe either haven't met Jesus yet, and they're going to meet Jesus and it's gonna be, you know, dude, you're a classic example.

• 53:54Nick Bare?

  I'm, I'm, I'm literally thinking that as you're saying that.

• 53:56Speaker 01

  You're a classic example.

• 53:57Nick Bare?

  I'm a, that's me.

• 53:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:59Nick Bare?

  In a nutshell.

• 53:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. So there's examples like you, who it's like, they just haven't had their encounter with Jesus yet, but one day that will be stewarded for his glory and praise God. Um, I think God uses all sorts of crazy circumstances where like he blesses a thing and you don't see why he blessed it until way later. And there's other examples, unfortunately, where people never follow Jesus, but that money doesn't go with them to where they're spending eternity and eventually it gets repurposed for God's kingdom. Um, fairness?

• 54:31Speaker 01

  In the Kingdom of God is a really slippery slope to mess with. And the reason I say that is I saw

• 54:41Speaker 01

  the number one, like, most questioned thing

• 54:46Speaker 01

  for people who don't follow Jesus, as far as like, the thing that they wrestle with is like, why do, why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? You know, flipping it? And there's so many reasons for that, but even in the premise of the question, there's kind of some like, things that are messed up, because according to the Bible, there are no good people. Like, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. There was only one good person, and his name was Jesus, and he willingly sacrificed himself for us. And so just coming from that place of like, hey, like, I try to do good, but ultimately, like, without Jesus, I can't. Like, that's the first thing. But the other thing is, like, because we live in a fallen world, that's the part that, that people really miss. They're like, well, if, you know,

• 55:31Speaker 01

  if I'm following Jesus, why doesn't he bless my thing? It's like, well, that's not, that's not the point of following Jesus, is to be, to be more blessed on earth. The point of following Jesus is to go, man, I'm already the most blessed person of all time, because my eternity is secured, and no matter what happens to me on this side of eternity, I am going to be with Jesus forever.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  And so, I just think like, there are so many things that we won't know on this side of heaven, as far as like, why God chooses to do some of the things that he does, bless some of the people that he blesses. But I think the, the healthiest posture for our own soul is when we see someone that God's blessing. If they're a Christian, I like to say it this way, it's like, don't get upset when God blesses your neighbor, because it means he's in the neighborhood. It's like, like, just celebrate, dude, like, you know, it's kind of like the ice cream truck. Like, I never got mad when the ice cream truck stuck to my neighbor's house. Like, I knew he was gonna come to my house next.

• 56:26Nick Bare?

  Yeah, that's good.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  That's like a healthy posture to have, I think.

• 56:28Nick Bare?

  That's good.

• 56:31Nick Bare?

  You brought up John 5, and I did want to talk about John 5.

• 56:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:36Nick Bare?

  My mentor and I were having a conversation this past week about John 5. And he asked me the question, Nick, do you want to be healed? In reference to the story of Jesus asking the paralyzed man.

• 56:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:53Nick Bare?

  Do you want to be healed? And

• 56:57Nick Bare?

  he made me think about it in a way that I've never thought about before. You know, I've, I've written, written this,

• 57:06Nick Bare?

  read this scripture before.

• 57:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:08Nick Bare?

  Many times. And I always just like read past it.

• 57:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:11Nick Bare?

  And I never

• 57:15Nick Bare?

  tried to interpret what Jesus was actually asking.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 57:18Nick Bare?

  This man. And then as I was preparing for this podcast, I went on your Instagram.

• 57:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:24Nick Bare?

  And I saw you made a reaction video to Theo Von.

• 57:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:27Nick Bare?

  Which have you ever, he, he lives in Nashville, I believe. Have you guys ever connected?

• 57:30Speaker 01

  Um, I met him one time, believe it or not, he was in a sauna at a place, it was like a public place, a public gym that had a sauna and I opened the door to get in the sauna and he was sitting in there with headphones on and just looked up and I immediately closed the door because like we kind of head nodded and it was just like the, I'm gonna let you do your thing. And I turned around, so um, I don't know that he would remember that, but I have met him. It was just very brief.

• 57:53Nick Bare?

  Well, when I was in Nashville, I was, uh, I was going to Soho House one day.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's where it was. That's where I met him.

• 57:59Nick Bare?

  Oh, was?

• 57:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:59Nick Bare?

  He was passing, he was walking past me as I'm walking past him like, oh my gosh, this is Theo Von. And as he's passing me, he stops. He, he dabs me up, pulls me in, gives me a hug.

• 58:13Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 58:14Nick Bare?

  What's up, brother? And then just keeps walking by me.

• 58:18Nick Bare?

  And

• 58:19Speaker 01

  So good.

• 58:19Nick Bare?

  I walk up to the, the host that checks you in at Soho House. And I was like, that was Theo Von. And she goes, yeah, he does that to everyone.

• 58:29Nick Bare?

  But you made a reaction video.

• 58:31Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 58:33Nick Bare?

  He's been sharing some really, some good stuff lately. You can tell he's, he's really exploring.

• 58:39Speaker 01

  He's hungry.

• 58:39Nick Bare?

  His faith.

• 58:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:42Nick Bare?

  In a very like authentic and genuine and vulnerable place.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 58:46Nick Bare?

  Which is cool. But you made a reaction video and he was talking about John five.

• 58:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:51Nick Bare?

  And you can, you can watch his, his gears turning.

• 58:56Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 58:57Nick Bare?

  As he's explaining like what this meant to him.

• 59:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:01Nick Bare?

  And as Jesus is asking this paralyzed man, like,

• 59:06Nick Bare?

  do you actually want this new life?

• 59:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:09Nick Bare?

  Because like you have right now, like you are being provided for. You have comfort. People are taking care of you. As soon as I heal you, you won't have those things anymore. Are you ready to endure and embrace? What's on the other side of healing?

• 59:22Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 59:24Nick Bare?

  And as I was reading this and we were talking about it, I think a lot of us, myself included, we say we want the other side.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:34Nick Bare?

  We want to be healed. But then we don't take the action to get there because there is fear of what is on the other side.

• 59:41Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 59:42Nick Bare?

  And the, the more I read the Bible,

• 59:49Nick Bare?

  to be honest, the more impressed I am by like the golden nuggets. Like you can reread the same chapter a thousand times.

• 59:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:00Nick Bare?

  And you pick up on something new every time.

• 1:00:02Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:00:03Nick Bare?

  And it is the most beautifully written thing.

• 1:00:06Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:00:08Nick Bare?

  Ever.

• 1:00:08Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:00:09Nick Bare?

  And I think like 20 years from now, I will still be mind blown. By how much is in it that I actually don't see right now.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. Absolutely. It's, it's the only book where the author is always present. So like the Holy Spirit is always there when you're, when you're reading it. I think that's a big reason why we're always getting things out of it. What was crazy about that Theovan clip, first of all, I love that he, like in that clip that I, that I reacted to, he says, uh, there's a story. It's called John five. I just love the way he started that. He is, I believe this without my heart. Theovan is going to be an absolute force for the kingdom of God one day. Like that's what I believe.

• 1:00:49Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:00:51Nick Bare?

  I would love to have a conversation with him.

• 1:00:53Speaker 01

  Oh my goodness. Uh, there's, yeah.

• 1:00:58Speaker 01

  So I had just preached a sermon two weeks before on John 5. So it was fresh. It was like fresh on me. And one of our team members, he's actually here with me. His name's Andrew. He sent me that clip. And he was like, dude, we gotta like, you gotta respond to this. Like, one, he was like, this is incredible that he is wrestling. And this is going to encourage so many people that he is wrestling with, with the Bible and with what God says. But two, he lives in Nashville, and maybe he would see this, maybe, maybe this would encourage him in his faith. You know, he was getting pushed back, as you can imagine, for even bringing up the Bible. And so we were just kind of like, let's put something out there that's like for this, that hopefully people see and, and encourage him in. And we had

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  tons of people who did that. But in order for you to pick up the new thing that God wants to do in your life, you've got to put down the old things. And what you could see in Theovan, and what I absolutely believe you could see in John 5, if we were there 2000 years ago, is this man, healing would require me to put down so many old things. And this isn't super popular to talk about in 2026. In fact, it like gets you canceled a lot of times on the internet. But it's so easy to have a victim mentality.

• 1:02:12Nick Bare?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:02:13Speaker 01

  About like what you've been through. And

• 1:02:19Speaker 01

  there is a difference between being a victim and having a victim mentality. So a victim has something happened to them. A victim mentality is when you let that thing happen to you for the rest of your life. Where because that thing happened to you, it now affects every part of the way you think. It affects the conversations you have. It affects the relationships with you have.

• 1:02:44Nick Bare?

  It becomes your identity.

• 1:02:45Speaker 01

  It becomes your identity. And I think that that's what happened with the paralyzed man, which is why Jesus had to ask him a question that seemed so obvious. Do you want to be healed? 38 years, Bible scholars believe that he actually made good money as a beggar, that you can make great money in that area of town. That there was no real incentive for him to stop begging. Like, it just-

• 1:03:08Speaker 01

  It makes me think of this, like, if you're a victim who's listening to this, you've had something bad happen to you. As followers of Jesus, we have all the compassion in the world for you. And so what we're not saying is that you need to toughen up. We're simply saying that because of what Jesus did for you, you can get up. Like, you don't have to stay there. Like, you have victory. You are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus, is what the Bible says, which means that on the other side of you saying, yes, I want to be healed, there is actually victory. Like, you can have a new identity. You can be somebody, not just better, but alive. Like, the gospel is not about becoming better, it's about becoming alive. And when I think about the words of Jesus,

• 1:03:52Speaker 01

  "I am the way, the truth, and the life," the life that he's talking about is the life that you've been looking for in all the wrong places, you've been looking for in your old identities. But the life that Jesus offers is Zoe life, which is abundant life. It's life to the fullest. It's life that, that actually fulfills.

• 1:04:10Nick Bare?

  Do you remember the scripture, I think it's in Matthew, that talks about new wine, putting new wine in old wine skins?

• 1:04:18Speaker 01

  Yep, yep.

• 1:04:20Nick Bare?

  And that, I've been trying to find it, I'm flipping through Matthew, but...

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know the reference.

• 1:04:30Nick Bare?

  That really spoke to me when I first came across it.

• 1:04:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:36Nick Bare?

  Where, if I imagine, I give my life to Christ, and I am saved, and I am new wine.

• 1:04:48Nick Bare?

  It's really easy to say, like, I want a new life, I want to be healed.

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:52Nick Bare?

  I want to lean into this relationship.

• 1:04:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:55Nick Bare?

  But it's, it's also really comfortable to go back to our old ways and old rhythms.

• 1:05:01Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 1:05:02Nick Bare?

  But if we put the new wine in the old wine skin,

• 1:05:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:06Nick Bare?

  the wine skins burst.

• 1:05:07Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:05:08Nick Bare?

  Like, you can't put the new wine in the old wine skin.

• 1:05:10Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:05:10Nick Bare?

  So, once you have transformed,

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:14Nick Bare?

  you have, you have to take the step forward and be bold.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 1:05:18Nick Bare?

  Or you will explode internally

• 1:05:21Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 1:05:21Nick Bare?

  from your old ways.

• 1:05:22Speaker 01

  Let me think about Theobin. Like, let's just use him as an example. Let's, let's say, Theobin decides, like, I'm going all in for Jesus. Like, I'm gonna have, like, a radical transformation and, and follow Jesus. It's like...

• 1:05:37Speaker 01

  How different would that make Theon's life? Like the sold out comedy tours that he does? I'm I'm of the conviction that I think he would still sell them out with a different demographic of people who are like, dude, we love what God's doing in your life like. But like his content would probably have to change. His shows would change. His whole persona of what, I mean, his identity would be completely transformed.

• 1:06:04Nick Bare?

  There's at least so much, so much fear in that.

• 1:06:06Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I mean, and and anyone who says that there isn't is being naive. Like, there's so much fear in that. Like, let's just be real. And the whole reason we reacted to the clip is because we wanted to acknowledge like, this dude has a lot to lose if he decides to follow Jesus. And people don't talk about the cost of following Jesus.

• 1:06:24Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:25Speaker 01

  And we made the clip to say, hey, Theo, we see you, we're praying for you. And on the other side of you picking up your cross and making this decision, I promise you, it is way going to outweigh the cost, the benefits that being a follower of Jesus come with, that knowing Christ is Lord of your life is going to outweigh anything. Paul said, I counted as nothing. One translation says, um, I count it all as as dog poop compared to knowing Christ Jesus is Lord. It's like, um, ultimately, you can't make that decision for anyone else. But but man, I, we just made the clip trying to encourage him like, you can do this, dude. It is fearful, but man, on the other side, it's so much better.

• 1:07:08Nick Bare?

  That's why they call it being bold.

• 1:07:10Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:07:10Nick Bare?

  Like, that is his. When you have, I mean, it's bold regardless, but when you have a lot. I don't want to say to lose, but like.

• 1:07:21Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:07:21Nick Bare?

  There's a lot that you're turning off.

• 1:07:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:25Nick Bare?

  In that step.

• 1:07:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:26Nick Bare?

  That is a bold move, but is so respectable.

• 1:07:31Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:07:32Nick Bare?

  To stand for something as opposed to fall for anything.

• 1:07:35Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:07:37Nick Bare?

  The last thing I wanted to touch on.

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:38Nick Bare?

  You, you shared this in a sermon and man, this like spoke to me a lot.

• 1:07:45Nick Bare?

  You said, "We serve a God who does not give opportunity, but gives assignments."

• 1:07:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:52Nick Bare?

  And you went on to talk about the difference between a God-given assignment versus a man-made opportunity.

• 1:07:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:01Nick Bare?

  How do we know if we're pursuing a God-given assignment or a man-made opportunity?

• 1:08:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it might be helpful for me to try to define the difference first. A man-made opportunity might make your name great. A God-given assignment will make God's name great. A man-made opportunity might bring more money into your bank account. An assignment will bring more people into heaven. So opportunities are not necessarily evil or bad. So that's, that's something that needs to be said. It's like, there will be opportunities that come our way. And just because it leads to more of something that this world has to offer, as long as it's not sin, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad.

• 1:08:42Nick Bare?

  So money, wealth is not bad?

• 1:08:45Speaker 01

  It's not bad. It's, it's bad when it becomes the thing that rules us instead of us stewarding it. That's when it becomes bad, right? Jesus never said that money was evil. He said, "The love of money was the root of all evil." And so that's really important distinction. But unfortunately, what happens is a lot of people sacrifice their assignment for more opportunity. So we were talking last night, like, I think it's really clear, just from being your friend for the short amount of time that we've been friends, that your assignment is to help other people. Like from the day, like the first time I met you at the park, you were like talking about coming back to Austin because you cared so much about your team. You cared so much about helping people.

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  And it's like the avenue in which you have helped people for the last 14 years, I think you said.

• 1:09:32Nick Bare?

  14 years.

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  14 years has been helping them. Become healthier, helping them grow in their fitness, helping them grow in their discipline, helping them grow in these different areas. Like, that's clearly the assignment on your life, is to impact people and to help them. What would be catastrophic would be going, "Hey, instead of helping people, what I would prefer to do is just chase more opportunity that's going to lead to more money, more whatever." Sometimes our assignment does lead to those things naturally, and that's okay. But where it doesn't become okay is when we sacrifice what God's called us to do, so that we can gain more of what the world has to offer.

• 1:10:13Nick Bare?

  So how do you know if you're... Sometimes an opportunity can look like an assignment.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:10:20Nick Bare?

  What's a confirmation that you're pursuing the right one?

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  So an assignment will always bring glory to God, first and foremost, and it will always be for the good of other people in some way, shape, or form. So those two things are kind of pillars. The other thing is, your assignment often comes with a cost of some kind. So, you know, for instance, I'll just talk about my assignment, I feel like is to is to be a pastor, to teach people God's Word, and to make disciples. Like, that's what I feel like my assignment is. And the cost of that is that sometimes I have to say things that are very against culture. And we were talking about last night offline, some of

• 1:11:07Speaker 01

  the things that have people have done and said about my family because of it, and some of the things we've had to do just safety-wise. And it's like, I'm not despising that, that just comes, that's just the cost of what I'm called to do, and I'm honored to do this. Like, compared to people in other parts of the world, that's nothing, that people say mean things to you. In other parts of the world, people die for doing what I do. So, I'm very blessed. All that to say, there's often a cost that comes with it, and sometimes it's hidden. But the other thing about an assignment is that it's really hard.

• 1:11:40Speaker 01

  And can be extremely challenging, but at the same time, there's a grace on it. So like, it feels like you're running downhill a little bit. Where I'm still exerting lots of effort. I'm still like, my heart rate is still up. But this shouldn't be as easy as it is. So like, an example of this would be like, when we moved to Nashville, it was like, we had zero money, we were so poor, we would walk by the pond and ducks would throw bread at us. Um, we had no team, we had nothing. We just knew like, this is the assignment God's given us, is to start this church. And it was really, really hard. Like, we were, I mean, we started with six people. And we're meeting in our living room, and we're praying, and we're casting this crazy vision to six people.

• 1:12:23Speaker 01

  And for the last two and a half years, we've seen fifteen hundred people give their life to Jesus for the first time. Um, we're about to start a second location, all these things in two and a half years. And it just kind of feels like we're running downhill. Like, hard things, hard conversations, hard, um, obstacles. But it just feels like God's hand is on it. Um, the Bible would call it God's grace. God's grace makes impossible things possible. And that's when you know you're running in your God-given assignment, is I'm doing hard things for the glory of God, the good of others, and there seems to be a grace on it. Does that make sense?

• 1:13:05Nick Bare?

  Absolutely.

• 1:13:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:07Nick Bare?

  Yeah, actually, like, it's really good to hear.

• 1:13:09Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:13:09Nick Bare?

  Um,

• 1:13:12Nick Bare?

  because that is confirmation to me.

• 1:13:14Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:13:14Nick Bare?

  At least I think that I'm on assignment right now.

• 1:13:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:20Nick Bare?

  There is a, a huge cost,

• 1:13:23Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:13:24Nick Bare?

  Uh, in sacrifice to, to the assignment that I believe I'm on right now.

• 1:13:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:30Nick Bare?

  And I'm still battling a lot of battles.

• 1:13:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:34Nick Bare?

  Uh, and fighting the day-to-day. And it's by no means easy. But of where I'm trying to get to.

• 1:13:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:42Nick Bare?

  And I believe that my assignment is taking me to, it does feel like I'm running downhill.

• 1:13:46Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:13:47Nick Bare?

  Things are just falling into place.

• 1:13:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:49Nick Bare?

  Other parts of my life. You know, outside of that direct assignment.

• 1:13:55Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:13:55Nick Bare?

  Yeah, it's like, there's still a lot of hardship. But for where I feel like God is taking me. And I've told Steph this, like, all these things are falling into place almost too easy.

• 1:14:07Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:14:08Nick Bare?

  Like, without us having to do anything.

• 1:14:09Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:14:12Nick Bare?

  And it's a really good, like, as I'm, as you were explaining that, that is a very good breakdown.

• 1:14:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:20Nick Bare?

  Uh, like, what the difference between a man-made opportunity and a God-given assignment is.

• 1:14:25Speaker 01

  And when you try to pursue the man-made opportunities, it exhausts you.

• 1:14:29Nick Bare?

  Oh, I know.

• 1:14:31Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 1:14:32Nick Bare?

  Dude. I know. Yeah, and like,

• 1:14:38Nick Bare?

  you know, right now, I'm in a stressful season of life. And I'm working really hard, but I'm not exhausted.

• 1:14:47Nick Bare?

  For the first time in a long time.

• 1:14:48Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:14:49Nick Bare?

  For a long time.

• 1:14:50Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:14:51Nick Bare?

  I have been exhausted from, per, I mean, much of the last 14 years.

• 1:14:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:57Nick Bare?

  I feel like I was in some sort of zombie state of pure exhaustion.

• 1:15:03Nick Bare?

  But for the first time in a long time, I don't feel like I'm in that state right now.

• 1:15:07Speaker 01

  Man, it's awesome.

• 1:15:08Nick Bare?

  It feels really good.

• 1:15:09Speaker 01

  You're running your lane, man.

• 1:15:10Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:11Speaker 01

  Assignment.

• 1:15:12Nick Bare?

  But it, it doesn't mean it's all blue skies and rainbows and,

• 1:15:19Nick Bare?

  it'd be really easy for me if I didn't have the perspective or insight or the right people around me.

• 1:15:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:24Nick Bare?

  These conversations.

• 1:15:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:26Nick Bare?

  To focus on all the bad things that are happening.

• 1:15:28Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:15:29Nick Bare?

  And be like, man, there's nothing working.

• 1:15:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:33Nick Bare?

  But I just have to look at it a little bit differently and think, oh, everything's working.

• 1:15:39Nick Bare?

  There's like, there's things that aren't,

• 1:15:42Nick Bare?

  I'm not happy about.

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:15:44Nick Bare?

  But like, it's all still leading me, I'm still running downhill.

• 1:15:47Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:15:48Nick Bare?

  And I can feel that.

• 1:15:49Speaker 01

  And what I, what I, what I love about, um, being around guys like you is it, I feel like you naturally get the idea of taking big swings for the kingdom or big swings for your assignment. And like, that's, that's the thing that I, I really hope as people are listening to the end of this, like,

• 1:16:10Speaker 01

  I hope people will do more of that because like when I read scripture, like we've talked a little bit about ambition even on this this podcast in a roundabout way. It's like the Bible says, do nothing out of selfish ambition. But there's a big difference between selfish and godly ambition. Like selfish ambition is pursuing manmade opportunities. Godly ambition is going, hey, I just believe that God is so big and God is so good. And that he actually wants to like wring out every possible part of my life for his glory. That we should take bigger risks for the kingdom of God. Like when you read the story of David, there was no part of that dude that was not full of godly ambition.

• 1:16:53Speaker 01

  Like when he runs out and goes to fight Goliath and calls him an uncircumcised Philistine, which is like the ultimate Bible diss word ever. And then and then attacks him. It's like, dude, that's the kind of fate that I want to have as like we're pursuing our assignments. It's like, man, like this is a big swing. But imagine how much glory God could get from this if this works. Like, I think that God really loves to show up for people like that and show out because he knows that he'll get the glory from it.

• 1:17:23Nick Bare?

  Yeah, I like thinking of myself as a warrior of God. Like Leonidas from 300.

• 1:17:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:30Nick Bare?

  With like the six pack of abs, his huge chest, the beard and like the

• 1:17:35Nick Bare?

  the sword and like the armor. I imagine like that kind of warrior for God. As opposed like this softer, gentler.

• 1:17:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:47Nick Bare?

  Person. But

• 1:17:52Nick Bare?

  yeah, man, the the journey has been so rewarding. And it's really hard for me not to take the big swings. Because I've never gotten excited about the incremental stuff.

• 1:18:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:08Nick Bare?

  Like even when it comes to business, I'll have people come in here and do an audit and show us where we can make incremental progress. Like, don't get excited about the incremental stuff. Where's the big swing? Like, let me go take the big swing. And I know it's like massive risk, but huge reward at the same time.

• 1:18:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:28Nick Bare?

  That's what I want to be on that mission.

• 1:18:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. In the kingdom of God, man, it's really nice knowing that the Lord's behind you.

• 1:18:34Nick Bare?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:35Speaker 01

  You know, taking this big swing, but ultimately, if he's the one who told me to do it, it's him who's footing the bill. It's him who's gonna show up, you know? And it brings a lot of exhilaration and at the same time, peace. Just because who better to have on your side? You know, it's like, what is, what is, what is money to him? What is team to him? What is fear to him? And it's like, it's all got to bow to him. Yeah. So I'm taking big swings.

• 1:19:06Nick Bare?

  Well, brother, I appreciate you. This was great.

• 1:19:08Speaker 01

  It's an honor.

• 1:19:09Nick Bare?

  I love what you're doing. I can't wait to be able to sit, you know, Sundays.

• 1:19:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:16Nick Bare?

  Listen to your sermons.

• 1:19:17Speaker 01

  It's gonna be awesome.

• 1:19:17Nick Bare?

  At some point, but very grateful for you, dude.

• 1:19:20Speaker 01

  Grateful for you, bro. Such an honor to be here. Thanks for taking care of us. And I love this podcast, so it's a huge honor to be on it.

• 1:19:27Nick Bare?

  Thank you, man.