May 23, 2025 • 50 mins
In this debut episode of the Deeper Roots podcast, we discuss our motivations for starting the podcast, our journeys, and the concept of 'deeper roots' in spiritual life and community. We also explore the power of unified effort and sacrifice through a playful debate on whether a hundred men could defeat one gorilla.
00:00 Introduction and Soda Talk
00:26 Welcome to the Deeper Roots Podcast
01:01 Meet the Hosts
01:32 The Meaning of Deeper Roots
02:17 RJ's Perspective on Deeper Roots
03:30 Jason's Perspective on Deeper Roots
05:26 Isaiah's Perspective on Deeper Roots
08:09 How the Podcast Came to Be
08:13 Chris's Journey to Podcasting
09:29 RJ's Journey to Podcasting
13:33 Pastor Jason's Vision for the Podcast
15:39 Isaiah's Vision for Church Content
17:35 The Importance of Community
25:26 Consistency in Faith and Leadership
27:03 The Importance of Vulnerability and Community
32:40 Emotional Expression in Biblical Context
34:30 Redefining Manhood Through Scripture
38:00 The Value of Brotherhood and Mentorship
45:06 The Power of Collective Wisdom
50:08 Concluding Thoughts and Reflections
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Trying to find anything to keep me from soda.
(00:02):
Oh, yeah.
What's your soda of choice?
Man, I don't have one.
Sprite.
I don't discriminate.
SPEAKER_04 (00:08):
Sprite.
SPEAKER_02 (00:09):
Oh, Sprite.
Sprite number one.
There's no other option.
SPEAKER_04 (00:11):
Somebody said Sprite tastes like when my foot falls
asleep.
UNKNOWN (00:15):
What?
SPEAKER_04 (00:16):
So
SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
I don't know what that tastes like.
(00:46):
We walk through theseconversations of getting deeper
in things of life and godlinesshere on this podcast.
But I'm going to stop yappingand pass the mic to my co-host
here sitting to my left.
And I guess we'll go around andintroduce ourselves.
Sounds good to me.
This is Chris Edwards.
For those that don't know what Ijust did, I ran this morning.
So I have a towel with me and Ilook crazy.
(01:07):
But we are getting deeper andthat's part of my health thing.
So now you're part of the familythat you know that I need to
lose weight.
So again, my name is ChrisEdwards.
Thank you for tuning in today.
As Isaiah had already said, heis on the ones and twos, mixing
us up, making us sound great.
So if we sound horrible, we willblame him and he will be fired.
(01:27):
But Deeper Roots, that is thename of our podcast.
So on today, I think we shouldstart from the foundation of
what is that title?
mean to each and every person inthe room?
As I said already, my name isChris Edwards.
I am gonna start with RJ and lethim introduce himself and tell
us what does Deeper Roots meanto you?
SPEAKER_04 (01:50):
That is me, RJ Mims here.
Wasn't prepared to answer thatquestion.
We're a very professionalpodcast.
But I'm also trying to loseweight.
27 pounds down as of thismorning.
Oh, congratulations.
Broke through a littlethree-week plateau.
(02:11):
And then finally this week,another three down, so we're
good there.
Congratulations, man.
Thanks.
I think the heart of the podcastis a lot of times we meet on
Sundays, we meet in otherservices, but a lot of times we
don't get a chance as a familyand as brothers to sit down and
(02:34):
dig a little deeper and talkabout our lives and talk about
family and talk about the Wordand God And, you know, in a
longer form and a longer settingwhere we can actually have time
to talk back and forth anddiscuss, discuss topics and this
type of thing and I think toquote one of the, I might mess
(02:56):
it up, but one of the, I wasthinking about what my reason
would be, and it's my favoritenon-biblical author, A.W.
Tozer.
He said, though my flame may notbe big, it is yet real, and
there might be some who couldlight their candle at it.
(03:17):
And I think that's like my heartas a pod, is that let's just
talk about the Lord.
Lord, talk about the things ofGod, and maybe there's some
people that could get somethingfrom it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
My name is Jason Davis, and I am thankful to be a
part of this group.
Been something on our heart fora little while, and so the fact
that we get a chance to sitdown, and a lot of the
conversations that we havebefore service, after service,
during the week, we're justputting, pressing record, and
(03:50):
and sending them out now.
But this has been a part of ourculture for years, having men
sit down and discuss and talk.
And that's not a common thingbecause I think isolation and
individualism is definitely apart of our culture.
But I think in the kingdom, it'scommunity, it's togetherness,
(04:12):
it's accountability, a lot ofthe things that we'll discuss.
And it gives us a chance to growtogether.
And when we fall, to havesomebody help us get up When we
rejoice, have somebody torejoice with us.
So I love the title.
I love the fact that it will becalled Deeper Roots.
Because this goes on behind thesurface.
A lot of what you see aboutChristianity happens on the
(04:35):
surface.
It happens in front of people.
It happens with glamour or pompand circumstance.
But I think real growth happenswhen no one's watching.
It's the things that are done insecret, the things that are done
behind the scenes.
So that's really my hope forthis, is that we're kind of
pulling back the veil a littlebit and letting know what's
(04:57):
going on in our hearts deeperconversations, longer
conversations than we're able tohave in the short settings that
we've been used to.
So I'm grateful for Isaiah andChris and RJ and the privilege
of being able to talk throughthis.
And I know you guys off thepodcast or out of church and
(05:17):
just as a testament to what youguys carry, who you are, your
love for the Lord, your love foryour family.
And it's a privilege to be apart of this.
SPEAKER_02 (05:26):
I'm Isaiah over here on the ones and twos, setting up
everything and making sure, youknow, everybody's equalized.
Thank you all so much forlistening.
I think that.
For me, deeper roots kind of hasa twofold meaning, like to just
piggyback on what you guys said,like, yes, it's about community.
Yes, it's talking with a groupof men, but also my life is
(05:47):
getting a little deeper at thesame time.
Was that a bar?
I'm at a very pivotal point inmy life where I am now moving
from fiance to husband.
I'm trying to get from apartmentto house.
I'm trying to get from, youknow, five, less than a hundred
(06:07):
figures to over a hundredfigures.
So there's a lot of transitionalmoments for me.
And that's, I'm kind of buildinglike the start of this family
tree.
It's kind of like, are my rootsdeep enough to even hold a
family tree?
You know, like our, is my walkwith God deep enough for me to
even care and hold another heartand be a leader in the family?
(06:28):
Um, is, are my habits even deepenough to hold more money or
more responsibility or morecareer and all this kind of
stuff?
And I think that this is, oh, itis the first time I sit with a
group of men every week and haveconversations around life and
godliness.
I've never had that before.
So all this is very new to me.
A little bit of background.
(06:49):
I met you guys through thechurch.
I think I moved here about threeyears ago and I Googled churches
near me and then went to a bunchof churches and just visited a
ton of them and then landed hereat Impact and was kind of like a
pew warmer for a little whileand then I was you know in the
media booth warming up that seatfor a little while but never
(07:11):
really had a very strongcommunity or got out there and
talked
SPEAKER_04 (07:14):
just a question did you did you move to the media
booth to serve or just to befurther away from everybody
SPEAKER_02 (07:23):
that's a good question you can hide back there
in the media booth for sure noone of the deacons here at the
church was like hey you've beencoming here for a little while
you know what you do and I waslike you know I do a little
video and live streaming andstuff like that he was like Meet
me in the media booth next week.
Nice.
And that was pretty much how Igot there.
So some of the first people Iever met were the people in the
(07:43):
media and sound team.
And just kind of grow fromthere.
And then, but I was still kindof missing out on that
community.
So there was a few key people inthe church that saw I left a
little faster.
And so they walked a littlefaster than me and got to me.
And then, you know, dominoes ledto another.
And now I'm here on a podcastyapping with you guys, which I
did not think I would end uphere.
(08:05):
But yeah.
Yeah, that's my little yapsession on Deeper Roots there.
But how did you guys come to thepod?
Like, how did you get to thismoment?
So for me, it was actually asuggestion of one of my wife's
friends.
She was like, hey, I got an ideafor you.
Why don't you just start apodcast?
You never know who may want tolisten.
(08:27):
I enjoy conversations we have.
And then she even went furtherand was like, you should also
ask some people from your churchto discuss a podcast.
Because she was like, you neverknow.
Coming from visiting your churchand the men in your church, I
think the world needs to hearthe voices of impact.
the men from Impact, and I thinkthat could actually be
impactful.
(08:47):
So that was the first thought.
Then I spoke to Pastor Jasonabout it, and he said, Podcast
had been on his mind, but I lethim talk about that.
And then ironically, I spoke toRJ, and RJ was like, I'll let
him speak on that part of how hefelt when I reacted and said
something to him.
And then, of course, you knowthe story between us.
I spoke to you about it, and allof y'all were kind of in the
(09:08):
same lane around the same time.
But that is generally how itcame to my mind.
And I am probably the newest topodcasting, being that I don't
listen to podcasts.
So it was definitely somethingfar-fetched for me to do.
But I was like, hey, I ain'tworking.
Let's do it.
Why not?
Okay, that's supposed to be.
Let's do it.
Let's rock out.
Perfect timing.
What about you, RJ?
SPEAKER_04 (09:29):
Yeah.
similar you know it's somethingi do listen to a lot of podcasts
uh been into them for a whilemainly because i drive a lot and
then being in heavy equipment alot you get bored so a lot of
audio bible a lot of podcastinga lot of uh anything to uh
(09:51):
occupy my mind so um but yeahit's it's something um that i've
thought about off and on for awhile but um But I think about a
lot of things.
I have a lot of ideas that comeacross my mind, so not all of
them can get acted on.
But yeah, just similar to whatyou said and what that person
(10:16):
said to you, I think there'ssomething that's happening, the
ideas and the thoughts and thethings that are discussed in
this house led by our pastor.
I think it needs to be heard.
need to be heard by the world.
I don't think it's something, Ithink it's something fresh.
It's not something that, say,the perspective that's spoken.
(10:42):
So I think, and then coming froma lot of conversations that
we've had, I hadn't, until wegot here, I hadn't got the
chance to sit down and talk withyou guys in super long form.
But I know traveling with PastorJason, getting to talk and ask
all my thousands and thousandsof questions over the years.
(11:02):
So I, I initially, when Ithought, when I, when it first
crossed my mind, I just wantedto be asking people questions
because I was like, I'm acurious guy.
I just want to, you know, I justwant to, you know, learn
whatever's on my, whatever's onmy mind.
So, but yeah, when Chris broughtup the idea, I had just
recently, it had just recentlybeen kind of stirring because
(11:25):
I'd recently met with PastorJason a couple of times and we
had some great conversations,but but they weren't long enough
for me.
And I had recently been thinkingabout it, and I was going to
bring it up to him the next timewe got together.
And then I thought about, Isaid, you know, and I told Chris
when he brought it up to me, Iwas like, I was just thinking
(11:47):
about, like, it was justburning.
Like, I got to talk to somebodyabout it.
And I told you that I seen youin it.
I didn't see you, but now I seeyou.
I was in the back.
I was in the back.
And the funny thing is, I thinkwe talked about that with, I
talked about that with Isaiah,you know, weeks ago, is he's one
(12:11):
that I didn't really connectwith.
We just kind of like mutuallylooked at each other with like a
little head nod, never reallyhad a conversation.
It took a while for me to...
for me and Chris to kind ofconnect I feel like I don't know
why we just kind of look at eachother like two gorillas just
(12:31):
what's going on with this guyand then eventually eventually
you ever see that thing wheretwo guys walk by and they nod
their head then like threemonths later they shake hands
and then like six months laterthey're brothers you know that's
how I feel like with Chris wekept running into each other and
then eventually you know comingback here and eventually it just
(12:54):
you know without manyconversations it just felt like
felt like a brother so yeah Ithought it was funny that you
two who I slowly connected withwe wind up in this in this
situation but I'm excited Ireally like you guys
SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
That is exactly how men connect in community.
We've had conversations for acouple of years.
It's been on and off.
A couple of people have broughtit up.
I listen to podcasts off and on.
So it's something that I enjoy,mowing the yard, driving down
the road, stuff like that.
(13:32):
I enjoy listening to them.
So we've had conversations acouple of years ago, had a
couple of talks about it.
But nothing really, you know, itwasn't, to use your phrase, it
wasn't really burning like thenecessity of it.
And I just feel like earlierthis year, it just kind of
became more, man, this is whatwe experience, what is natural
(13:54):
and normal for us inconversation.
I think it's, you know, the oldsaying is, if I was a fly on the
wall, you know, what you couldcatch.
And I kind of feel like thatthat's a mentality of, you know,
allowing others to kind of be aon the wall at some of our
conversations.
And so once it was kind of moreof a burning insistence this
(14:18):
year.
I just had conversations withChris, and it was on his heart,
and it's just the way God works.
You have a conversation withsomebody, the Holy Spirit's
already been dealing with thatperson, and then it just feels
like God connects things andputs it together in perfect
form.
So I love what you guysrepresent.
I've said that a couple of timesalready.
(14:38):
I love what you represent andwho you are, and I think you
have a lot to offer people.
You have a Amen.
Amen.
(15:00):
You're being able to share inthis form what God is doing in
your heart.
And I think that's powerful.
Anytime somebody has an exhaust,it always causes them to grow
and mature and develop.
And I'm excited for the world tobe blessed by you guys and for
you guys to develop and grow,all of us, as we go through this
process.
(15:20):
So it just seems like a greatform to have the outside of the
polished eloquence of scheduledtime, scheduled gatherings, this
seems much more letting the veildown, having the conversation,
letting people in, and growingtogether.
So I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
I think for me, I've been in the church my whole
life, born in the baptism water.
And one thing for me, I've seenthe church not do well at making
content or putting more stuffout there beyond Sunday.
For those of you who don't know,I work in content.
(16:00):
I do a lot of social media.
That's my nine to five.
I have my own social mediaplatforms that I use, and I
constantly consume influencersand creators, and I love and
admire their work.
And I've always thought tomyself, the church is one big
content house.
And I don't think I'm the onlyone to come up with that idea.
I think God knew that too.
That's why he was like, thefirst thing I'm going to do when
I get down there is find somedisciples, teach them, and then
(16:24):
send them out.
It's content.
I think he gave Paul the abilityto write and make sure that he
was a philosopher in some sortsto be like, write these letters
and use the communications ofthe time to get the word out.
I think, you know, when God usedwriting on the tablets or
passing word from oraltradition, all this kind of
stuff.
And he was like, yo, we got somereally great content.
(16:46):
We need to push it out there.
So it's always been in my spiritto kind of, do more content
under a church house, a churchroof setting.
And so getting to know you guysand Chris, I think you said
something to me and Pastor Jasonsaid something about, hey, you
know, think about this podcastidea.
What do you think about it?
I was like really gettingexcited.
I was like, yes, do more of thisstuff.
There's so many opportunities toextend the Sunday experience
(17:10):
into the daily life.
And I feel like, you know, ifthe church is really living out
the mandate of going to theworld and preach the gospel to
every creature, that includescontent on all the airways.
So really happy to have thismedium right here of audio with
you guys and kind of, you know,share life and godliness.
Just listening to what everybodysaid and what you were
(17:30):
elaborating on right then, let'sgo a little deeper, right?
I feel like this podcast debunksand goes beyond what most people
would say is performance onSunday, right?
A lot of people feel right nowthat Christianity is
performance-based.
And because of that, they blamethe pastors and they blame
(17:50):
what's going on in the pulpitfor how their life is being
lived.
But it's their personal choiceto listen to what the pastor has
said or the advice the pastorgives.
And I think with this podcast,you have four men that go
beyond, even though the pastor'sin the room, but you have a
pastor for me that...
(18:11):
One of the things that drew meinto Impact and had me to really
resonate and stay, his word wasgreat, but his life was greater.
He lived everything he said.
From the pulpit, I sing behindthe scenes.
And that was the part thathelped it go deeper.
And the behind the scenes orunder the surface is what helps
(18:32):
you withstand the storms on thesurface.
And because of Pastor Jason'sroots and seeing it from a
different lens, I felt that theworld needed to see that from
impact leadership, theconversations that we have in
that little close environmentand understanding the storms
people went through from impactleadership, but the
conversations that withheld thembecause it was coming from a
(18:54):
personal space, people livingit, people doing more than just
talking about it and just goingabout their day on Sunday like,
yeah, preach, but now I'm goinghome to watch the game, don't
talk to me, don't bother me, butit's nonstop and you can't
separate was preached from thelife that's lived.
And I think for me, deeperroots, that's where it comes
from.
And that's where it stems.
(19:15):
And that was what my friend wastrying to explain to me when she
said, I think you should do apodcast with the men of impact
because there's not a lot of menthat one get that because of I'm
just going to call it spade tospade.
Where I'm from, the church ismore manipulative and trying to
reproduce more of themselves.
Lock the doors.
(19:36):
And try to produce more ofthemselves than produce
followers of Christ anddisciples.
And that was something thatimpacted.
provided the community an impactfor me was great.
I'm not going to lie.
I was waiting and watching forthem not to be who they were, to
(20:01):
have the energy that they have.
I thought it was performance.
But now I've been here going onseven years and been behind the
scenes, been on the peaks and inthe valleys, and they have all
remained the same, from DeaconWinfred to Miss Karen to Sarah,
Pastor Kevin.
No matter what I've seen themface, anybody that was a
(20:21):
foundational pillar for when Icame into this church has always
had the same mentality and viewabout God, regardless of what
they were facing so much.
So you don't even know whatthey're going through sometimes.
Like somebody literally has totell you this is what they're
going through for you to belike, oh, I would have never
known that because they justremain constant.
And I just feel that is part oftheir roots being truly deep.
(20:44):
in the word and it started withthe leadership and the life they
chose to live.
That's something I had to learncoming to Impact is I'm not as
consistent in community as Ithought I was, but I really
enjoyed it for myself.
You know what I mean?
And it was like, but are yougiving what you're getting?
So I was getting text messagesor calls from people at Impact
(21:07):
Church and being like, hey, howyou doing?
What's going on?
Where you at?
Why you walking out so fast?
All this kind of stuff.
And then I kind of got used toit But then I was like, like the
other past Sunday, my fiance goton to me and she was like, you
know, you kind of talk to thesame people and you're not
really getting out that shewants me to outside more and
like talking to people.
Cause I'll just be insideediting all the time.
(21:28):
She was in the second row.
She was, she was, and I was inthe media booth, but she, she
is, she is a Jesus Christextrovert.
Like she is go out there and getit.
And so when I was looking in theBible, I see they did the same
thing.
They didn't just talk tothemselves.
The disciples didn't just talk.
(21:48):
They went out and sought people.
And so it's like, now that I'min this community, now that I
enjoy the benefits of it, am Inow doing the outreach myself
and getting out there?
And I've been a little convictedabout it.
So last Sunday, I met a guy thatI've been giving head nods to
for quite some time.
And we talked for like a good30-ish minutes after service.
(22:09):
And it felt so good to be like,not only am I a part of the
community, but I'm furthering
SPEAKER_01 (22:13):
it.
And
SPEAKER_02 (22:14):
so it's like, I will say this podcast, for those of
you who don't know, a littleinsight, this is not our first
episode.
We've been kind of doing sometrial practice to get there.
But I've gained so much fromjust yapping with y'all once a
week.
And I'm like, oh, now that Ihave this new light in my life,
I can be a light bearer ofcommunity a little better
because it's been modeled forme.
(22:35):
And now I want to kind of takeup my cross and do the same
thing.
So,
SPEAKER_01 (22:38):
so good.
Yeah.
Some things, not to make it tootheological, but some things
that have been on my heart, likescripturally and biblically, is
Hebrews 7 talks about that Jesuswas after the order of
Melchizedek and talks about thefact that he was a priest, but
he was also a king.
Both of those things resided inthe same person, meaning to back
(23:01):
what Chris was referring to, isthat with the tribe of Levi,
which was another form or orderof priesthood, that That was
their only responsibility, wasto be a priest.
And so it was kind of amonastic-type feel.
They're separated off for thework of the Lord.
But Melchizedek was different.
(23:21):
There was a link between his...
There was no divide betweensecular and spiritual.
There was no, this is myspiritual part of my life, and
this is my secular part of life.
And that's what Jesus...
I think that's what he wascommunicating for healing on the
Sabbath.
And then...
Going into different areas, itwasn't a segment.
(23:43):
His relationship with the Fatherwas not a segmented part of his
life.
It was his life.
And hopefully this podcast andhopefully our relationships
shine through through theseconversations is that
Christianity was never supposedto be held to a Sunday morning
at 10 o'clock.
It's a lifestyle.
It's a 24-7.
(24:04):
And that shouldn't be anintimidating feel.
That should actually be afreeing thought because you
don't have to have two differentimages that you're keeping up.
You don't have to have a churchimage and then a home image and
then a work image of having tochange who you are based on the
situation that you're in.
When the gospel is looking in onthe life of Jesus, some of them,
(24:29):
Matthew would call it thekingdom of heaven is what Jesus
brought to the earth.
And others, Luke would call itthe kingdom of God.
But John didn't use the wordkingdom at all.
He just used a Greek word, zoe,which just means life.
It is abundant life.
And that's, I believe, whatJesus was bringing.
(24:50):
That was the kingdom was to letus know you could live life and
it not have to be spiritual andsecular.
It's just all connected.
It's all one in the same.
So when we go to our job, whenwe go to a sports game, all of
what we do, if we do it with theright heart as unto the Lord,
(25:11):
all of it is spiritual and ithonors the Lord.
So it's not a turning off who Iam after Sundays or turning back
on who I am when I'm havingconversation with you guys or
you the same way.
It's just, this is who I am.
This is what the Lord is showingme.
If it's a Friday night orSaturday or Monday, we're having
the conversations about thethings of God because this life
(25:34):
is a beautiful place to resideand stay, and it doesn't have to
be turned off or on.
So my last statement, I go backto what Chris said about the
consistency of the people thathe's interacted with.
Please don't feel like what hemeans by that is perfection.
There is so much so much roomfor growth in myself and so many
(25:58):
others that are a part ofleadership.
But the word that he used isconsistent, not perfect.
meaning that the attempt is toremain the same in every
situation that you are.
And that means being humbleenough to apologize, being
humble enough to confess yourfaults one to another, admitting
(26:19):
where you messed up.
And this will be my first ofmany shout-outs to one of the
most incredible men that I haveever known and my father.
What a beautiful testimony I hadto grow up in a house where he
preached and then he came homeand raised kids, the same
(26:41):
mentality that he had when hewas in the pulpit.
And you guys know him today.
If you run into him at arestaurant or you run into him
with a chainsaw, he's just thesame person.
So anything that we get a chanceto do and be is because we've
had it modeled well.
He set up a great picture ofwhat ministry and ministry
(27:02):
families ought to be.
It wasn't one thing on Sundayand another thing on Monday.
SPEAKER_04 (27:06):
And I think that's why with that vulnerability is
so important and community is soimportant because from afar, it
may seem like nobody has thesame issues you have.
UNKNOWN (27:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (27:23):
And I'd been through that, too, because I was like,
all the friends that I made hadbeen in church all their life
and had parents that raised thema certain type of way.
And I was like, these people donot know the struggles.
that I'm dealing with.
And some of that might be true.
(27:44):
They have different strugglesthan maybe I do.
But I think that's why it'simportant to connect with people
away from church and talk tothem about their lives and talk
to them about their wives andtheir families and that type of
thing.
And then you see how the Lord isjust leading them just like He
is you and protecting them andhelping them get through their
(28:05):
own issues.
So I think very, very importantand something you talked about
here, Reese, vulnerability onyour own struggles and issues
and problems that, you know, inthis life that we're walking
with the Lord, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (28:23):
I think that's why the enemy fights it so much is
because he knows God I thinkthat's why division is one of
his tactics and tools that heuses, because division creates
isolationism, it createsindividualism, and the things
that grow in the dark, thefunguses that grow in the dark,
(28:44):
sorry for the gory illustration,but the things that without
light, they continue tomultiply, continue to reproduce.
That's why I think vulnerabilityand openness, putting things in
the light, putting things Pleasedon't hear that our openness is
wallowing in sin or celebratingsin.
(29:05):
We bring things to the light tobe healed, to be comforted, to
be covered, but also to berestored, to see God's grace
ministered there.
Yes.
When you hide it, when we put itin the back, it grows, it
multiplies, it expands.
(29:27):
It comes to a point where you'renot able to control it anymore.
But the honesty of what RJ justmentioned, the honesty of each
one of us have inclinations,have vulnerabilities, have
weaknesses.
Instead of acting like theydon't exist, putting those out,
making them knowledge for thosearound us so that we can be We
(29:51):
can be prayerful for oneanother, encourage one another,
provoke each other, as Hebrewsays, to love and good works.
I think that's where ironsharpens iron, continues to make
and develop, see us transformedin community and relationship.
I can't make this
SPEAKER_02 (30:10):
up if I wanted to.
I know I've been hanging aroundthese guys too long.
What's the scripture I pulledup?
James 5.16, confess your faultsone to another and pray for one
another that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayers ofthe righteous avail of much.
Amen.
Which is the exact same thing hejust said and said it much
(30:30):
better than I probably wouldhave.
But I think that's one of thethings too for this is the
vulnerability piece.
The church has...
We're supposed to confess oursins one to another, but I feel
that the church has created anatmosphere that you don't want
to confess to your brothers andsisters.
You want to perform in front ofyour brothers and sisters
(30:50):
because typically when peoplehave been vulnerable in the
church, it gets blasted onsocial content and social
content on social media orthey're looking at you and
they're finding fault with youinstead of trying to pray for
you and find healing.
Now they just want to talk aboutyou and spread your business all
over the place and it's createda sense of fear and resentment
or running from what the churchwas really there for and that
(31:13):
community, which is why thiscommunity, as I go back to what
I was saying earlier, seeingthem do those things, be like,
hey, this is a situation I wasgoing through and using their
situations to be like, hey,you're not by yourself, like you
said, RJ.
And I think men have the biggeststruggle with that of sharing
their faults to another manbecause I should have it
together.
I should be able to withstandit.
(31:36):
I'm even going to talk abouteven being emotional.
and letting the feeling of Godjust freeing you in a service,
like you'll even fight yourtears, and I know I will, in a
service that's overwhelming andGod is just trying to break you
free of something.
And I'll be sitting there like,nope, not today.
I ain't going to cry.
I got it.
You got me.
I'm good.
But I'm not going to shed asingle tear because now I'm not
(31:59):
a man no more.
But instead of it being about mebeing a man, the importance is I
have the presence of God in thatmoment.
But instead of receiving it, I'mtrying to fight it because I'm
still worried about my communityand what they may say or the
people in the pews that'sprobably going through something
10 times worse than I am or needit more than I do.
But I'm worried about themjudging me because I'm sitting
(32:20):
here crying.
Oh, he weak.
Oh, his life is jacked up.
He probably done did somethingto his wife or kids.
That man made bad decisions.
Like, why is he crying?
Like, he should have ittogether.
But instead of just like, youknow what, God, I don't care
what they think.
Yeah.
I'm just going to go ahead.
And if they do see me crying,maybe there is a brother that
comes and put his hand on myshoulder and actually starts
praying instead of judging.
And this is why the saints gotto read their Bible.
SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
Because
SPEAKER_02 (32:43):
when you start reading your Bible, you realize
every man in the Bible wasemotional publicly.
SPEAKER_01 (32:48):
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (32:49):
All of them.
SPEAKER_01 (32:49):
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (32:50):
Jeremiah, they called him the lament.
He cried all the time.
David, he wrote the Psalms.
Have you read the Psalms?
That is some emotional stuffright there.
Like there was so much.
publicly the out display ofemotions and not even from like
these patriarchs in the biblebut from Jesus and God himself.
Even Jesus was, Jesus wept for,help me out, Lazarus.
(33:14):
And he was like, man, it was apublic display of emotions at
all times.
And I don't know when wedecided, well, I do know it was
the devil.
He came through and he was like,actually hide your emotions.
Actually don't tell anybody.
But if we were all epistles andwriting these gospels or writing
our books, or we had somebodydisplaying our lives in some
kind of written form like theydid in the Bible, they would see
(33:36):
so much life happening thatwasn't just a form of godliness.
You know what I mean?
And I think that's, I justpraise God for putting that in
the Bible because if you want toget real theological, these
other books are, they don't putall that emotion in their holy
books, holy quote-unquote stuff.
They show a more perfectedversion of their gods, a
(33:58):
perfected version of theirprophets.
But God was like, no, this isimportant for you to have
community and be able toidentify.
I did it.
I put on flesh to identify withyou.
And that's just so incredible tome.
SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
It's a beautiful thing you mentioned.
So a theological way ofdescribing what Jesus did when
he came in flesh, inincarnation, is he showed us
what a human was supposed to be.
What is a new way to be human?
And this is no shot at ourculture, but there are so many
(34:36):
things in our culture,especially around manhood, that
is exactly the opposite of whata healthy man ought to be, and
it is celebrated, and it isvalued.
Going back to the closing Thebrashness, the demanding, that
is celebrated in manhood.
(34:57):
If you release, if you exhaustemotions, you share emotions,
you express emotions, that'sconsidered devalued.
And if you hold it in, it'svaluable.
And I think that's why biblical,like understanding scripture,
understanding who Christ is,allowing the Holy Spirit to
break down walls in our ownlife, it really shows us what is
(35:19):
a healthy way to live.
I think about my grandfather,like on my mom's side, my
maternal grandfather, like hewas the quietest, like, I don't
know, he just never talked,never raised his voice.
But I remember a time or two,and I don't mean this in a bad
way, I just, he grew up in a, hewas a farmer.
He grew up in a generation wherethat was what manhood was, is
(35:43):
you didn't share.
And I remember, even at a youngboy, I remember seeing him reach
a place where his lid came off,where he'd been holding in
feelings and emotions for solong, and he exploded.
And I look back on it.
If he would have had consistentexhaust, it wouldn't have filled
(36:04):
up like it did, because all ofus have, God made us as humans
to have emotions.
And if we don't let them out, itis going to grow, you know,
build up to the point where theycome out.
And a lot of our expressions asmen, it comes out in anger.
It comes out in seeking thrilland satisfaction in other places
(36:27):
instead of being okay with, notjust being okay with, but
looking for and celebrating thefact I'm walking as a healthy
man, even if culture tells methis shouldn't be something that
I do or this isn't a valuableplace in life.
It just really allows us to see,and you're exactly right, Jesus
(36:48):
did it, The people of Scripturedid it.
Powerful thing about Scripturesin general is the fact that we
see the weakness of our heroes.
My last point, Chris, this iswhy I think this is so
important, because we have thisimage as men.
(37:10):
We are supposed to be...
all-knowing.
We are supposed to beall-powerful.
We are supposed to have theanswers when our wives ask us,
when our kids ask us, whensitting in church, people are
supposed to look to us asleaders to have all the answers.
And that's one of the thingsthat I think Jesus helps take
the pressure off us.
(37:31):
We don't have to be the heroesof our own story.
We don't have to be right.
We don't have to have all theanswers.
We just have to know that wehave connection and relationship
with him, and he does.
And actually in our humility iswhere our strength comes from
because we trust him.
SPEAKER_04 (37:48):
There might eventually be some crying on
this podcast.
For sure.
We may have already had somehappen in
SPEAKER_02 (37:57):
the past.
I'll tell y'all, I cried.
One of our trial episodes, ithit me so hard because we were
talking about mentorship, whichis another aspect of community.
And being like, you don'tmentor.
Mentees should go seek mentors.
And it hit me.
I was like, yo, I don't seekrelationships like I should.
And in that moment, it justbuilt up.
(38:18):
I started crying.
I went home.
My fiance was like, how was thepod?
I said, I cried.
She was so happy.
SPEAKER_00 (38:26):
She was like, you are good.
It's
SPEAKER_04 (38:32):
hard to, it is, it's hard to do.
It's a hard thing to do.
And like he said, um, but I've,I've never seen more men cry in
one place than, uh, servicesthat impact, specifically
baptism services.
You ever look around in thebaptism service?
(38:54):
And I mean, obviously there'ssome incredible things going on,
but you look around and all themen are just Boo-hooing.
And it's special because there'salways these family moments.
There's been a lot of youngpeople.
And you just see these kids andthese young adults.
And then you see these men thatare surrounding them, this
(39:17):
like...
uh, doesn't, doesn't care, uh,care if they're crying or care.
And this, that's for men thatthat's naturally very, uh, very
difficult to express.
But when you see some of thethings that we've seen, I mean,
it gets, it gets away.
It gets a little bit easier toexpress, uh, when you start
(39:38):
thinking about what God's donein your life and in your
family's life and in otherpeople in the church.
And it's, it's very encouraging.
Like, uh, Pastor Jason broughtup his grandpa.
I started thinking about mineand kind of daydreamed off for
just a second.
I still heard what you said.
I got you.
(39:58):
But they were both very quietpeople.
I was thinking like my dad'sdad, I mean, to this day, he's
my only living grandparent, buthe lives off in the woods by
himself and doesn't talk tonobody unless they come see him.
And then my other grandpa, hehad a TV shop on the corner of
(40:22):
Randleman Road here inGreensboro, North Carolina, in
the hood.
And he had a little TV shop, andhe stayed there.
all the time.
He was either there or he wassitting, he had one seat, a lazy
boy recliner.
I don't know if it was lazy boy,but it was the style, the old
(40:43):
real cushiony ones that was, youjust sink melted in.
Cause he was probably, you know,six, three, three 50, you know,
big, big guy.
So when you sat in his seat, youjust kind of melted in it, but
both, both very quiet guys.
And I remember I remember afterhe passed my grandma told us was
(41:07):
telling us how much he cared forall those grandkids they had
like 30 some like grandkids andI remember her telling us how
telling us several times shementioned that he would cry and
thinking about like, cause he,he would always try to come to
(41:27):
games.
Can't make everybody's game.
You got 30 grandkids, but Imean, they drove an hour several
times to come see me play littleleague, little league games, but
just hearing her say, and I'mlike, man, I never got to see
that.
Like got to see him getemotional and that type of
thing.
And I was like, man, I wish, Iwish people, they will feel more
(41:48):
comfortable to wear that and notjust, not just do it in their
own home, you know?
SPEAKER_02 (41:53):
Yeah, no, I agree.
It is difficult for me to showmy emotions, me personally,
because sometimes I feel like Iknow that there's strength in
crying or tears or confession,that kind of stuff.
I think it's a pride thing forme personally.
It's like, I just need to dealwith this.
(42:16):
I need time to think on my own.
I need my cabin in the woods tolike sit down and gather all my
thoughts together and get it outthere.
And, you know, what Pastor Jasonwas saying earlier, we don't
know everything.
And I think in my youth and mygrowing up, I don't know how I
learned it.
I don't know who taught me, butit was just like if I pick
myself up on my bootstrapsenough times, I'll be able to
(42:38):
walk.
And then I read the Bible and hewas like, no, a threefold cord
is not easily broken.
You do need a friend.
David did need Jonathan.
Paul needed Silas.
The Father and the Son and theHoly Spirit and the personhood
of God, Yahweh, they all needeach other.
And it's like, I think it'ssomething that we're a part of
our sin nature to be isolated.
(43:01):
But when I read The Bible, oneof my favorite groups in the
Bible that I wish was writtenmore about them was the David's
Mighty Men.
I think they would rival Wakandato this day.
You know what I mean?
They just seem so cool.
And I was like, I am praying formy mighty men, like the group of
people around me that I can bandtogether and show all these
(43:23):
emotions but still look strong,you know?
Like be in service, be able togive God glory and still carry a
Glock.
Like I'm looking for them typeof Christians.
SPEAKER_04 (43:33):
Hey, man, you've been doing them blindfold
deadlifts.
You see them.
You're going
SPEAKER_02 (43:43):
to be all right.
I need to take some.
enhancements because my friendsare strong.
I don't know if you saw theirblind dead list, but they was
pulling like 400 pounds and Iwas struggling with my little
350.
And I'm like, goodness gracious,I need to start a church
weightlifting club.
There we go.
(44:04):
There we
SPEAKER_04 (44:04):
go.
That's the new facility.
Can we throw in a gym somewhere?
Beside the basketball gym, weneed an attached weight room.
And supplement store.
SPEAKER_01 (44:21):
Oh, come on.
Hey now.
You know.
Hey now.
For those who need it.
Got me.
A little boost.
Speaking of supplement store,let's...
I was thinking as you weretalking, like, with Lazarus,
Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth,going back to the John 11
reference that you made.
Lazarus, come forth.
But then he looked at thedisciples after he was raised,
(44:45):
and he looked at the Mm-hmm.
And the endeavor of thedisciples.
He told the disciples to loosehim and let him go.
(45:06):
So we've been talking a lotabout emotions.
But also, I think this is goingback to the pride point that you
mentioned of individualism.
I think there is a component ofunderstanding that every car has
blind spots and every individualhas blind spots.
Yeah.
And you need a brother to pointyou out.
(45:28):
Hey, this is a spot you don'tsee very well.
And just because you referencedit, and all of us have been
there and are there, you know,Scripture talks about the...
the pride of being a novice, ofnot knowing what you don't know.
And so there's all of a suddenthis pride that comes with, I
got this thing figured out, butyou have no life experience that
(45:51):
tells you, you don't really haveit as figured out as much as you
do.
And I think nobody knows thoseblind spots unless somebody is
able to be in your world.
Hey, you're going to back upover this tricycle unless you
notice somebody is in the back.
that's pointing you in thedirection, hey, avoid this trap.
(46:12):
And are there some things thatyou're just going to walk
through, even at the advice ofothers, and you're going to
choose to do even what you want,myself even included, you're
going to choose to do and you'regoing to learn through
experience.
And I'm thankful for the teacherof experience, but a lot of us
would not have some of the scarsand wounds that we had if we
(46:33):
also listened to the voice ofthose who are a little bit
further along in the journey.
And I think that's the beauty ofdiscipleship and transformation
that comes from trustingsomebody else with your blind
spots.
We see this in military.
We see this in sports.
We see this, and it's okay to doit in those worlds.
That brotherhood is okay.
(46:54):
And I feel like the Holy Spiritis doing something powerful in
the brotherhood in the kingdomwhere it's now okay to let
somebody have your back.
It's now okay to let somebodycorrect you.
it's okay to receive feedbackfrom somebody and not be damaged
and hurt by it, uh, to know thatthey have your, they have good
intentions about things that,uh, being a part of your world.
SPEAKER_04 (47:18):
Yeah.
I remember it reminded me of oneof the first, uh, early when I
came to, uh, the church inReidsville, I remember pastor
Mike, uh, talking about, um, youknow, the world says experience
is the best teacher.
And I remember him saying, uh,wisdom is a better teacher
because you don't have to, youdon't have to experience.
(47:41):
Now experience is a stronger,more, uh, I don't know if
stronger is the right word, butyou won't forget it.
I tell you that.
Um, but I would rather ourexperiences be able to, uh, stop
people from having to go throughthe same thing.
things, things that we wentthrough and having, having other
(48:04):
brothers that are able to say,Hey, Hey, Hey, I, I went down
that road, uh, of ambition, or Iwent down that road of, of
allowing lust thoughts tocontrol me.
I letting social media take overmy life.
Whatever the case may be,there's a thousand different
(48:24):
ways that could go.
But unless you have otherpeople, because we all had our
own journeys, but when fourpeople or more are able to get
together and you talk about thethings you're dealing with,
there's a good chance thatsomebody around has something
that can help you out.
SPEAKER_02 (48:42):
Exactly.
Just like a hundred men can beatone gorilla.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (48:47):
foolishness, man.
SPEAKER_00 (48:48):
Come
SPEAKER_02 (48:50):
on, man.
A hundred men could beat onegorilla.
SPEAKER_04 (48:53):
Gorillas are four foot six.
I mean, they're tiny.
They're like 400, 500 pounds.
What gorilla have you seen?
Short-wise.
I mean, height-wise.
They do have long arms and thickskin and no neck, so chokes and
guillotines are out of thepicture.
No joint manipulation because Idoubt you could arm bar a
(49:18):
gorilla.
SPEAKER_01 (49:19):
There's a lot of thought being put into
SPEAKER_02 (49:23):
this.
For those who don't know, thisis a huge thing on social media
right now of whether 100 mencould beat one gorilla.
And so there are graphs andcharts and professors going in
if this is possible.
This
SPEAKER_04 (49:34):
is good.
This fits with our conversation.
Because 100 men one by one couldnot beat a gorilla.
But 100 men with a plan andsacrifice could beat a
SPEAKER_02 (49:50):
gorilla.
Absolutely.
I think if 100 Isaiah's took ona gorilla, at
SPEAKER_04 (49:53):
least 30 of them surviving.
Ooh, I like that.
70 Isaiahs.
And you're willing for
SPEAKER_02 (50:01):
70 of you.
Yeah.
Hey, GGs, buddy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, for the greater good.
Yeah.
This is where we should end thepodcast.
And on that note, thank you fortuning in today to episode one
of Deeper.
We
SPEAKER_04 (50:16):
ended on 100 gorillas?
SPEAKER_01 (50:20):
No, we ended on.
Pastor Jason, can you give us.
If it's a unified, mobilizedeffort.
Yes.
100 gorillas.
I mean.
No, no, no.
A hundred men can take onegorilla if it's unified.
They're all on the same page.
And someone is willing tosacrifice, lay down their lives
to be a part of it.
(50:41):
I agree with you.
I think 100 men, if they're ofthe right mindset, yes.
One can put 1,000 to flight.
Two can put 10,000 to flight.
Great.
And we need all
SPEAKER_02 (50:52):
y'all listening to like, share, and subscribe to
the podcast.
Thank you for listening to DeepRoots Podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (50:57):
Appreciate
SPEAKER_02 (50:58):
it.
We'll see y'all next time.
Trying to find anything to keep me from soda.
(00:02):
Oh, yeah.
What's your soda of choice?
Man, I don't have one.
Sprite.
I don't discriminate.
SPEAKER_04 (00:08):
Sprite.
SPEAKER_02 (00:09):
Oh, Sprite.
Sprite number one.
There's no other option.
SPEAKER_04 (00:11):
Somebody said Sprite tastes like when my foot falls
asleep.
UNKNOWN (00:15):
What?
SPEAKER_04 (00:16):
So
SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
I don't know what that tastes like.
(00:46):
We walk through theseconversations of getting deeper
in things of life and godlinesshere on this podcast.
But I'm going to stop yappingand pass the mic to my co-host
here sitting to my left.
And I guess we'll go around andintroduce ourselves.
Sounds good to me.
This is Chris Edwards.
For those that don't know what Ijust did, I ran this morning.
So I have a towel with me and Ilook crazy.
(01:07):
But we are getting deeper andthat's part of my health thing.
So now you're part of the familythat you know that I need to
lose weight.
So again, my name is ChrisEdwards.
Thank you for tuning in today.
As Isaiah had already said, heis on the ones and twos, mixing
us up, making us sound great.
So if we sound horrible, we willblame him and he will be fired.
(01:27):
But Deeper Roots, that is thename of our podcast.
So on today, I think we shouldstart from the foundation of
what is that title?
mean to each and every person inthe room?
As I said already, my name isChris Edwards.
I am gonna start with RJ and lethim introduce himself and tell
us what does Deeper Roots meanto you?
SPEAKER_04 (01:50):
That is me, RJ Mims here.
Wasn't prepared to answer thatquestion.
We're a very professionalpodcast.
But I'm also trying to loseweight.
27 pounds down as of thismorning.
Oh, congratulations.
Broke through a littlethree-week plateau.
(02:11):
And then finally this week,another three down, so we're
good there.
Congratulations, man.
Thanks.
I think the heart of the podcastis a lot of times we meet on
Sundays, we meet in otherservices, but a lot of times we
don't get a chance as a familyand as brothers to sit down and
(02:34):
dig a little deeper and talkabout our lives and talk about
family and talk about the Wordand God And, you know, in a
longer form and a longer settingwhere we can actually have time
to talk back and forth anddiscuss, discuss topics and this
type of thing and I think toquote one of the, I might mess
(02:56):
it up, but one of the, I wasthinking about what my reason
would be, and it's my favoritenon-biblical author, A.W.
Tozer.
He said, though my flame may notbe big, it is yet real, and
there might be some who couldlight their candle at it.
(03:17):
And I think that's like my heartas a pod, is that let's just
talk about the Lord.
Lord, talk about the things ofGod, and maybe there's some
people that could get somethingfrom it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
My name is Jason Davis, and I am thankful to be a
part of this group.
Been something on our heart fora little while, and so the fact
that we get a chance to sitdown, and a lot of the
conversations that we havebefore service, after service,
during the week, we're justputting, pressing record, and
(03:50):
and sending them out now.
But this has been a part of ourculture for years, having men
sit down and discuss and talk.
And that's not a common thingbecause I think isolation and
individualism is definitely apart of our culture.
But I think in the kingdom, it'scommunity, it's togetherness,
(04:12):
it's accountability, a lot ofthe things that we'll discuss.
And it gives us a chance to growtogether.
And when we fall, to havesomebody help us get up When we
rejoice, have somebody torejoice with us.
So I love the title.
I love the fact that it will becalled Deeper Roots.
Because this goes on behind thesurface.
A lot of what you see aboutChristianity happens on the
(04:35):
surface.
It happens in front of people.
It happens with glamour or pompand circumstance.
But I think real growth happenswhen no one's watching.
It's the things that are done insecret, the things that are done
behind the scenes.
So that's really my hope forthis, is that we're kind of
pulling back the veil a littlebit and letting know what's
(04:57):
going on in our hearts deeperconversations, longer
conversations than we're able tohave in the short settings that
we've been used to.
So I'm grateful for Isaiah andChris and RJ and the privilege
of being able to talk throughthis.
And I know you guys off thepodcast or out of church and
(05:17):
just as a testament to what youguys carry, who you are, your
love for the Lord, your love foryour family.
And it's a privilege to be apart of this.
SPEAKER_02 (05:26):
I'm Isaiah over here on the ones and twos, setting up
everything and making sure, youknow, everybody's equalized.
Thank you all so much forlistening.
I think that.
For me, deeper roots kind of hasa twofold meaning, like to just
piggyback on what you guys said,like, yes, it's about community.
Yes, it's talking with a groupof men, but also my life is
(05:47):
getting a little deeper at thesame time.
Was that a bar?
I'm at a very pivotal point inmy life where I am now moving
from fiance to husband.
I'm trying to get from apartmentto house.
I'm trying to get from, youknow, five, less than a hundred
(06:07):
figures to over a hundredfigures.
So there's a lot of transitionalmoments for me.
And that's, I'm kind of buildinglike the start of this family
tree.
It's kind of like, are my rootsdeep enough to even hold a
family tree?
You know, like our, is my walkwith God deep enough for me to
even care and hold another heartand be a leader in the family?
(06:28):
Um, is, are my habits even deepenough to hold more money or
more responsibility or morecareer and all this kind of
stuff?
And I think that this is, oh, itis the first time I sit with a
group of men every week and haveconversations around life and
godliness.
I've never had that before.
So all this is very new to me.
A little bit of background.
(06:49):
I met you guys through thechurch.
I think I moved here about threeyears ago and I Googled churches
near me and then went to a bunchof churches and just visited a
ton of them and then landed hereat Impact and was kind of like a
pew warmer for a little whileand then I was you know in the
media booth warming up that seatfor a little while but never
(07:11):
really had a very strongcommunity or got out there and
talked
SPEAKER_04 (07:14):
just a question did you did you move to the media
booth to serve or just to befurther away from everybody
SPEAKER_02 (07:23):
that's a good question you can hide back there
in the media booth for sure noone of the deacons here at the
church was like hey you've beencoming here for a little while
you know what you do and I waslike you know I do a little
video and live streaming andstuff like that he was like Meet
me in the media booth next week.
Nice.
And that was pretty much how Igot there.
So some of the first people Iever met were the people in the
(07:43):
media and sound team.
And just kind of grow fromthere.
And then, but I was still kindof missing out on that
community.
So there was a few key people inthe church that saw I left a
little faster.
And so they walked a littlefaster than me and got to me.
And then, you know, dominoes ledto another.
And now I'm here on a podcastyapping with you guys, which I
did not think I would end uphere.
(08:05):
But yeah.
Yeah, that's my little yapsession on Deeper Roots there.
But how did you guys come to thepod?
Like, how did you get to thismoment?
So for me, it was actually asuggestion of one of my wife's
friends.
She was like, hey, I got an ideafor you.
Why don't you just start apodcast?
You never know who may want tolisten.
(08:27):
I enjoy conversations we have.
And then she even went furtherand was like, you should also
ask some people from your churchto discuss a podcast.
Because she was like, you neverknow.
Coming from visiting your churchand the men in your church, I
think the world needs to hearthe voices of impact.
the men from Impact, and I thinkthat could actually be
impactful.
(08:47):
So that was the first thought.
Then I spoke to Pastor Jasonabout it, and he said, Podcast
had been on his mind, but I lethim talk about that.
And then ironically, I spoke toRJ, and RJ was like, I'll let
him speak on that part of how hefelt when I reacted and said
something to him.
And then, of course, you knowthe story between us.
I spoke to you about it, and allof y'all were kind of in the
(09:08):
same lane around the same time.
But that is generally how itcame to my mind.
And I am probably the newest topodcasting, being that I don't
listen to podcasts.
So it was definitely somethingfar-fetched for me to do.
But I was like, hey, I ain'tworking.
Let's do it.
Why not?
Okay, that's supposed to be.
Let's do it.
Let's rock out.
Perfect timing.
What about you, RJ?
SPEAKER_04 (09:29):
Yeah.
similar you know it's somethingi do listen to a lot of podcasts
uh been into them for a whilemainly because i drive a lot and
then being in heavy equipment alot you get bored so a lot of
audio bible a lot of podcastinga lot of uh anything to uh
(09:51):
occupy my mind so um but yeahit's it's something um that i've
thought about off and on for awhile but um But I think about a
lot of things.
I have a lot of ideas that comeacross my mind, so not all of
them can get acted on.
But yeah, just similar to whatyou said and what that person
(10:16):
said to you, I think there'ssomething that's happening, the
ideas and the thoughts and thethings that are discussed in
this house led by our pastor.
I think it needs to be heard.
need to be heard by the world.
I don't think it's something, Ithink it's something fresh.
It's not something that, say,the perspective that's spoken.
(10:42):
So I think, and then coming froma lot of conversations that
we've had, I hadn't, until wegot here, I hadn't got the
chance to sit down and talk withyou guys in super long form.
But I know traveling with PastorJason, getting to talk and ask
all my thousands and thousandsof questions over the years.
(11:02):
So I, I initially, when Ithought, when I, when it first
crossed my mind, I just wantedto be asking people questions
because I was like, I'm acurious guy.
I just want to, you know, I justwant to, you know, learn
whatever's on my, whatever's onmy mind.
So, but yeah, when Chris broughtup the idea, I had just
recently, it had just recentlybeen kind of stirring because
(11:25):
I'd recently met with PastorJason a couple of times and we
had some great conversations,but but they weren't long enough
for me.
And I had recently been thinkingabout it, and I was going to
bring it up to him the next timewe got together.
And then I thought about, Isaid, you know, and I told Chris
when he brought it up to me, Iwas like, I was just thinking
(11:47):
about, like, it was justburning.
Like, I got to talk to somebodyabout it.
And I told you that I seen youin it.
I didn't see you, but now I seeyou.
I was in the back.
I was in the back.
And the funny thing is, I thinkwe talked about that with, I
talked about that with Isaiah,you know, weeks ago, is he's one
(12:11):
that I didn't really connectwith.
We just kind of like mutuallylooked at each other with like a
little head nod, never reallyhad a conversation.
It took a while for me to...
for me and Chris to kind ofconnect I feel like I don't know
why we just kind of look at eachother like two gorillas just
(12:31):
what's going on with this guyand then eventually eventually
you ever see that thing wheretwo guys walk by and they nod
their head then like threemonths later they shake hands
and then like six months laterthey're brothers you know that's
how I feel like with Chris wekept running into each other and
then eventually you know comingback here and eventually it just
(12:54):
you know without manyconversations it just felt like
felt like a brother so yeah Ithought it was funny that you
two who I slowly connected withwe wind up in this in this
situation but I'm excited Ireally like you guys
SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
That is exactly how men connect in community.
We've had conversations for acouple of years.
It's been on and off.
A couple of people have broughtit up.
I listen to podcasts off and on.
So it's something that I enjoy,mowing the yard, driving down
the road, stuff like that.
(13:32):
I enjoy listening to them.
So we've had conversations acouple of years ago, had a
couple of talks about it.
But nothing really, you know, itwasn't, to use your phrase, it
wasn't really burning like thenecessity of it.
And I just feel like earlierthis year, it just kind of
became more, man, this is whatwe experience, what is natural
(13:54):
and normal for us inconversation.
I think it's, you know, the oldsaying is, if I was a fly on the
wall, you know, what you couldcatch.
And I kind of feel like thatthat's a mentality of, you know,
allowing others to kind of be aon the wall at some of our
conversations.
And so once it was kind of moreof a burning insistence this
(14:18):
year.
I just had conversations withChris, and it was on his heart,
and it's just the way God works.
You have a conversation withsomebody, the Holy Spirit's
already been dealing with thatperson, and then it just feels
like God connects things andputs it together in perfect
form.
So I love what you guysrepresent.
I've said that a couple of timesalready.
(14:38):
I love what you represent andwho you are, and I think you
have a lot to offer people.
You have a Amen.
Amen.
(15:00):
You're being able to share inthis form what God is doing in
your heart.
And I think that's powerful.
Anytime somebody has an exhaust,it always causes them to grow
and mature and develop.
And I'm excited for the world tobe blessed by you guys and for
you guys to develop and grow,all of us, as we go through this
process.
(15:20):
So it just seems like a greatform to have the outside of the
polished eloquence of scheduledtime, scheduled gatherings, this
seems much more letting the veildown, having the conversation,
letting people in, and growingtogether.
So I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
I think for me, I've been in the church my whole
life, born in the baptism water.
And one thing for me, I've seenthe church not do well at making
content or putting more stuffout there beyond Sunday.
For those of you who don't know,I work in content.
(16:00):
I do a lot of social media.
That's my nine to five.
I have my own social mediaplatforms that I use, and I
constantly consume influencersand creators, and I love and
admire their work.
And I've always thought tomyself, the church is one big
content house.
And I don't think I'm the onlyone to come up with that idea.
I think God knew that too.
That's why he was like, thefirst thing I'm going to do when
I get down there is find somedisciples, teach them, and then
(16:24):
send them out.
It's content.
I think he gave Paul the abilityto write and make sure that he
was a philosopher in some sortsto be like, write these letters
and use the communications ofthe time to get the word out.
I think, you know, when God usedwriting on the tablets or
passing word from oraltradition, all this kind of
stuff.
And he was like, yo, we got somereally great content.
(16:46):
We need to push it out there.
So it's always been in my spiritto kind of, do more content
under a church house, a churchroof setting.
And so getting to know you guysand Chris, I think you said
something to me and Pastor Jasonsaid something about, hey, you
know, think about this podcastidea.
What do you think about it?
I was like really gettingexcited.
I was like, yes, do more of thisstuff.
There's so many opportunities toextend the Sunday experience
(17:10):
into the daily life.
And I feel like, you know, ifthe church is really living out
the mandate of going to theworld and preach the gospel to
every creature, that includescontent on all the airways.
So really happy to have thismedium right here of audio with
you guys and kind of, you know,share life and godliness.
Just listening to what everybodysaid and what you were
(17:30):
elaborating on right then, let'sgo a little deeper, right?
I feel like this podcast debunksand goes beyond what most people
would say is performance onSunday, right?
A lot of people feel right nowthat Christianity is
performance-based.
And because of that, they blamethe pastors and they blame
(17:50):
what's going on in the pulpitfor how their life is being
lived.
But it's their personal choiceto listen to what the pastor has
said or the advice the pastorgives.
And I think with this podcast,you have four men that go
beyond, even though the pastor'sin the room, but you have a
pastor for me that...
(18:11):
One of the things that drew meinto Impact and had me to really
resonate and stay, his word wasgreat, but his life was greater.
He lived everything he said.
From the pulpit, I sing behindthe scenes.
And that was the part thathelped it go deeper.
And the behind the scenes orunder the surface is what helps
(18:32):
you withstand the storms on thesurface.
And because of Pastor Jason'sroots and seeing it from a
different lens, I felt that theworld needed to see that from
impact leadership, theconversations that we have in
that little close environmentand understanding the storms
people went through from impactleadership, but the
conversations that withheld thembecause it was coming from a
(18:54):
personal space, people livingit, people doing more than just
talking about it and just goingabout their day on Sunday like,
yeah, preach, but now I'm goinghome to watch the game, don't
talk to me, don't bother me, butit's nonstop and you can't
separate was preached from thelife that's lived.
And I think for me, deeperroots, that's where it comes
from.
And that's where it stems.
(19:15):
And that was what my friend wastrying to explain to me when she
said, I think you should do apodcast with the men of impact
because there's not a lot of menthat one get that because of I'm
just going to call it spade tospade.
Where I'm from, the church ismore manipulative and trying to
reproduce more of themselves.
Lock the doors.
(19:36):
And try to produce more ofthemselves than produce
followers of Christ anddisciples.
And that was something thatimpacted.
provided the community an impactfor me was great.
I'm not going to lie.
I was waiting and watching forthem not to be who they were, to
(20:01):
have the energy that they have.
I thought it was performance.
But now I've been here going onseven years and been behind the
scenes, been on the peaks and inthe valleys, and they have all
remained the same, from DeaconWinfred to Miss Karen to Sarah,
Pastor Kevin.
No matter what I've seen themface, anybody that was a
(20:21):
foundational pillar for when Icame into this church has always
had the same mentality and viewabout God, regardless of what
they were facing so much.
So you don't even know whatthey're going through sometimes.
Like somebody literally has totell you this is what they're
going through for you to belike, oh, I would have never
known that because they justremain constant.
And I just feel that is part oftheir roots being truly deep.
(20:44):
in the word and it started withthe leadership and the life they
chose to live.
That's something I had to learncoming to Impact is I'm not as
consistent in community as Ithought I was, but I really
enjoyed it for myself.
You know what I mean?
And it was like, but are yougiving what you're getting?
So I was getting text messagesor calls from people at Impact
(21:07):
Church and being like, hey, howyou doing?
What's going on?
Where you at?
Why you walking out so fast?
All this kind of stuff.
And then I kind of got used toit But then I was like, like the
other past Sunday, my fiance goton to me and she was like, you
know, you kind of talk to thesame people and you're not
really getting out that shewants me to outside more and
like talking to people.
Cause I'll just be insideediting all the time.
(21:28):
She was in the second row.
She was, she was, and I was inthe media booth, but she, she
is, she is a Jesus Christextrovert.
Like she is go out there and getit.
And so when I was looking in theBible, I see they did the same
thing.
They didn't just talk tothemselves.
The disciples didn't just talk.
(21:48):
They went out and sought people.
And so it's like, now that I'min this community, now that I
enjoy the benefits of it, am Inow doing the outreach myself
and getting out there?
And I've been a little convictedabout it.
So last Sunday, I met a guy thatI've been giving head nods to
for quite some time.
And we talked for like a good30-ish minutes after service.
(22:09):
And it felt so good to be like,not only am I a part of the
community, but I'm furthering
SPEAKER_01 (22:13):
it.
And
SPEAKER_02 (22:14):
so it's like, I will say this podcast, for those of
you who don't know, a littleinsight, this is not our first
episode.
We've been kind of doing sometrial practice to get there.
But I've gained so much fromjust yapping with y'all once a
week.
And I'm like, oh, now that Ihave this new light in my life,
I can be a light bearer ofcommunity a little better
because it's been modeled forme.
(22:35):
And now I want to kind of takeup my cross and do the same
thing.
So,
SPEAKER_01 (22:38):
so good.
Yeah.
Some things, not to make it tootheological, but some things
that have been on my heart, likescripturally and biblically, is
Hebrews 7 talks about that Jesuswas after the order of
Melchizedek and talks about thefact that he was a priest, but
he was also a king.
Both of those things resided inthe same person, meaning to back
(23:01):
what Chris was referring to, isthat with the tribe of Levi,
which was another form or orderof priesthood, that That was
their only responsibility, wasto be a priest.
And so it was kind of amonastic-type feel.
They're separated off for thework of the Lord.
But Melchizedek was different.
(23:21):
There was a link between his...
There was no divide betweensecular and spiritual.
There was no, this is myspiritual part of my life, and
this is my secular part of life.
And that's what Jesus...
I think that's what he wascommunicating for healing on the
Sabbath.
And then...
Going into different areas, itwasn't a segment.
(23:43):
His relationship with the Fatherwas not a segmented part of his
life.
It was his life.
And hopefully this podcast andhopefully our relationships
shine through through theseconversations is that
Christianity was never supposedto be held to a Sunday morning
at 10 o'clock.
It's a lifestyle.
It's a 24-7.
(24:04):
And that shouldn't be anintimidating feel.
That should actually be afreeing thought because you
don't have to have two differentimages that you're keeping up.
You don't have to have a churchimage and then a home image and
then a work image of having tochange who you are based on the
situation that you're in.
When the gospel is looking in onthe life of Jesus, some of them,
(24:29):
Matthew would call it thekingdom of heaven is what Jesus
brought to the earth.
And others, Luke would call itthe kingdom of God.
But John didn't use the wordkingdom at all.
He just used a Greek word, zoe,which just means life.
It is abundant life.
And that's, I believe, whatJesus was bringing.
(24:50):
That was the kingdom was to letus know you could live life and
it not have to be spiritual andsecular.
It's just all connected.
It's all one in the same.
So when we go to our job, whenwe go to a sports game, all of
what we do, if we do it with theright heart as unto the Lord,
(25:11):
all of it is spiritual and ithonors the Lord.
So it's not a turning off who Iam after Sundays or turning back
on who I am when I'm havingconversation with you guys or
you the same way.
It's just, this is who I am.
This is what the Lord is showingme.
If it's a Friday night orSaturday or Monday, we're having
the conversations about thethings of God because this life
(25:34):
is a beautiful place to resideand stay, and it doesn't have to
be turned off or on.
So my last statement, I go backto what Chris said about the
consistency of the people thathe's interacted with.
Please don't feel like what hemeans by that is perfection.
There is so much so much roomfor growth in myself and so many
(25:58):
others that are a part ofleadership.
But the word that he used isconsistent, not perfect.
meaning that the attempt is toremain the same in every
situation that you are.
And that means being humbleenough to apologize, being
humble enough to confess yourfaults one to another, admitting
(26:19):
where you messed up.
And this will be my first ofmany shout-outs to one of the
most incredible men that I haveever known and my father.
What a beautiful testimony I hadto grow up in a house where he
preached and then he came homeand raised kids, the same
(26:41):
mentality that he had when hewas in the pulpit.
And you guys know him today.
If you run into him at arestaurant or you run into him
with a chainsaw, he's just thesame person.
So anything that we get a chanceto do and be is because we've
had it modeled well.
He set up a great picture ofwhat ministry and ministry
(27:02):
families ought to be.
It wasn't one thing on Sundayand another thing on Monday.
SPEAKER_04 (27:06):
And I think that's why with that vulnerability is
so important and community is soimportant because from afar, it
may seem like nobody has thesame issues you have.
UNKNOWN (27:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (27:23):
And I'd been through that, too, because I was like,
all the friends that I made hadbeen in church all their life
and had parents that raised thema certain type of way.
And I was like, these people donot know the struggles.
that I'm dealing with.
And some of that might be true.
(27:44):
They have different strugglesthan maybe I do.
But I think that's why it'simportant to connect with people
away from church and talk tothem about their lives and talk
to them about their wives andtheir families and that type of
thing.
And then you see how the Lord isjust leading them just like He
is you and protecting them andhelping them get through their
(28:05):
own issues.
So I think very, very importantand something you talked about
here, Reese, vulnerability onyour own struggles and issues
and problems that, you know, inthis life that we're walking
with the Lord, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (28:23):
I think that's why the enemy fights it so much is
because he knows God I thinkthat's why division is one of
his tactics and tools that heuses, because division creates
isolationism, it createsindividualism, and the things
that grow in the dark, thefunguses that grow in the dark,
(28:44):
sorry for the gory illustration,but the things that without
light, they continue tomultiply, continue to reproduce.
That's why I think vulnerabilityand openness, putting things in
the light, putting things Pleasedon't hear that our openness is
wallowing in sin or celebratingsin.
(29:05):
We bring things to the light tobe healed, to be comforted, to
be covered, but also to berestored, to see God's grace
ministered there.
Yes.
When you hide it, when we put itin the back, it grows, it
multiplies, it expands.
(29:27):
It comes to a point where you'renot able to control it anymore.
But the honesty of what RJ justmentioned, the honesty of each
one of us have inclinations,have vulnerabilities, have
weaknesses.
Instead of acting like theydon't exist, putting those out,
making them knowledge for thosearound us so that we can be We
(29:51):
can be prayerful for oneanother, encourage one another,
provoke each other, as Hebrewsays, to love and good works.
I think that's where ironsharpens iron, continues to make
and develop, see us transformedin community and relationship.
I can't make this
SPEAKER_02 (30:10):
up if I wanted to.
I know I've been hanging aroundthese guys too long.
What's the scripture I pulledup?
James 5.16, confess your faultsone to another and pray for one
another that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayers ofthe righteous avail of much.
Amen.
Which is the exact same thing hejust said and said it much
(30:30):
better than I probably wouldhave.
But I think that's one of thethings too for this is the
vulnerability piece.
The church has...
We're supposed to confess oursins one to another, but I feel
that the church has created anatmosphere that you don't want
to confess to your brothers andsisters.
You want to perform in front ofyour brothers and sisters
(30:50):
because typically when peoplehave been vulnerable in the
church, it gets blasted onsocial content and social
content on social media orthey're looking at you and
they're finding fault with youinstead of trying to pray for
you and find healing.
Now they just want to talk aboutyou and spread your business all
over the place and it's createda sense of fear and resentment
or running from what the churchwas really there for and that
(31:13):
community, which is why thiscommunity, as I go back to what
I was saying earlier, seeingthem do those things, be like,
hey, this is a situation I wasgoing through and using their
situations to be like, hey,you're not by yourself, like you
said, RJ.
And I think men have the biggeststruggle with that of sharing
their faults to another manbecause I should have it
together.
I should be able to withstandit.
(31:36):
I'm even going to talk abouteven being emotional.
and letting the feeling of Godjust freeing you in a service,
like you'll even fight yourtears, and I know I will, in a
service that's overwhelming andGod is just trying to break you
free of something.
And I'll be sitting there like,nope, not today.
I ain't going to cry.
I got it.
You got me.
I'm good.
But I'm not going to shed asingle tear because now I'm not
(31:59):
a man no more.
But instead of it being about mebeing a man, the importance is I
have the presence of God in thatmoment.
But instead of receiving it, I'mtrying to fight it because I'm
still worried about my communityand what they may say or the
people in the pews that'sprobably going through something
10 times worse than I am or needit more than I do.
But I'm worried about themjudging me because I'm sitting
(32:20):
here crying.
Oh, he weak.
Oh, his life is jacked up.
He probably done did somethingto his wife or kids.
That man made bad decisions.
Like, why is he crying?
Like, he should have ittogether.
But instead of just like, youknow what, God, I don't care
what they think.
Yeah.
I'm just going to go ahead.
And if they do see me crying,maybe there is a brother that
comes and put his hand on myshoulder and actually starts
praying instead of judging.
And this is why the saints gotto read their Bible.
SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
Because
SPEAKER_02 (32:43):
when you start reading your Bible, you realize
every man in the Bible wasemotional publicly.
SPEAKER_01 (32:48):
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (32:49):
All of them.
SPEAKER_01 (32:49):
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (32:50):
Jeremiah, they called him the lament.
He cried all the time.
David, he wrote the Psalms.
Have you read the Psalms?
That is some emotional stuffright there.
Like there was so much.
publicly the out display ofemotions and not even from like
these patriarchs in the biblebut from Jesus and God himself.
Even Jesus was, Jesus wept for,help me out, Lazarus.
(33:14):
And he was like, man, it was apublic display of emotions at
all times.
And I don't know when wedecided, well, I do know it was
the devil.
He came through and he was like,actually hide your emotions.
Actually don't tell anybody.
But if we were all epistles andwriting these gospels or writing
our books, or we had somebodydisplaying our lives in some
kind of written form like theydid in the Bible, they would see
(33:36):
so much life happening thatwasn't just a form of godliness.
You know what I mean?
And I think that's, I justpraise God for putting that in
the Bible because if you want toget real theological, these
other books are, they don't putall that emotion in their holy
books, holy quote-unquote stuff.
They show a more perfectedversion of their gods, a
(33:58):
perfected version of theirprophets.
But God was like, no, this isimportant for you to have
community and be able toidentify.
I did it.
I put on flesh to identify withyou.
And that's just so incredible tome.
SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
It's a beautiful thing you mentioned.
So a theological way ofdescribing what Jesus did when
he came in flesh, inincarnation, is he showed us
what a human was supposed to be.
What is a new way to be human?
And this is no shot at ourculture, but there are so many
(34:36):
things in our culture,especially around manhood, that
is exactly the opposite of whata healthy man ought to be, and
it is celebrated, and it isvalued.
Going back to the closing Thebrashness, the demanding, that
is celebrated in manhood.
(34:57):
If you release, if you exhaustemotions, you share emotions,
you express emotions, that'sconsidered devalued.
And if you hold it in, it'svaluable.
And I think that's why biblical,like understanding scripture,
understanding who Christ is,allowing the Holy Spirit to
break down walls in our ownlife, it really shows us what is
(35:19):
a healthy way to live.
I think about my grandfather,like on my mom's side, my
maternal grandfather, like hewas the quietest, like, I don't
know, he just never talked,never raised his voice.
But I remember a time or two,and I don't mean this in a bad
way, I just, he grew up in a, hewas a farmer.
He grew up in a generation wherethat was what manhood was, is
(35:43):
you didn't share.
And I remember, even at a youngboy, I remember seeing him reach
a place where his lid came off,where he'd been holding in
feelings and emotions for solong, and he exploded.
And I look back on it.
If he would have had consistentexhaust, it wouldn't have filled
(36:04):
up like it did, because all ofus have, God made us as humans
to have emotions.
And if we don't let them out, itis going to grow, you know,
build up to the point where theycome out.
And a lot of our expressions asmen, it comes out in anger.
It comes out in seeking thrilland satisfaction in other places
(36:27):
instead of being okay with, notjust being okay with, but
looking for and celebrating thefact I'm walking as a healthy
man, even if culture tells methis shouldn't be something that
I do or this isn't a valuableplace in life.
It just really allows us to see,and you're exactly right, Jesus
(36:48):
did it, The people of Scripturedid it.
Powerful thing about Scripturesin general is the fact that we
see the weakness of our heroes.
My last point, Chris, this iswhy I think this is so
important, because we have thisimage as men.
(37:10):
We are supposed to be...
all-knowing.
We are supposed to beall-powerful.
We are supposed to have theanswers when our wives ask us,
when our kids ask us, whensitting in church, people are
supposed to look to us asleaders to have all the answers.
And that's one of the thingsthat I think Jesus helps take
the pressure off us.
(37:31):
We don't have to be the heroesof our own story.
We don't have to be right.
We don't have to have all theanswers.
We just have to know that wehave connection and relationship
with him, and he does.
And actually in our humility iswhere our strength comes from
because we trust him.
SPEAKER_04 (37:48):
There might eventually be some crying on
this podcast.
For sure.
We may have already had somehappen in
SPEAKER_02 (37:57):
the past.
I'll tell y'all, I cried.
One of our trial episodes, ithit me so hard because we were
talking about mentorship, whichis another aspect of community.
And being like, you don'tmentor.
Mentees should go seek mentors.
And it hit me.
I was like, yo, I don't seekrelationships like I should.
And in that moment, it justbuilt up.
(38:18):
I started crying.
I went home.
My fiance was like, how was thepod?
I said, I cried.
She was so happy.
SPEAKER_00 (38:26):
She was like, you are good.
It's
SPEAKER_04 (38:32):
hard to, it is, it's hard to do.
It's a hard thing to do.
And like he said, um, but I've,I've never seen more men cry in
one place than, uh, servicesthat impact, specifically
baptism services.
You ever look around in thebaptism service?
(38:54):
And I mean, obviously there'ssome incredible things going on,
but you look around and all themen are just Boo-hooing.
And it's special because there'salways these family moments.
There's been a lot of youngpeople.
And you just see these kids andthese young adults.
And then you see these men thatare surrounding them, this
(39:17):
like...
uh, doesn't, doesn't care, uh,care if they're crying or care.
And this, that's for men thatthat's naturally very, uh, very
difficult to express.
But when you see some of thethings that we've seen, I mean,
it gets, it gets away.
It gets a little bit easier toexpress, uh, when you start
(39:38):
thinking about what God's donein your life and in your
family's life and in otherpeople in the church.
And it's, it's very encouraging.
Like, uh, Pastor Jason broughtup his grandpa.
I started thinking about mineand kind of daydreamed off for
just a second.
I still heard what you said.
I got you.
(39:58):
But they were both very quietpeople.
I was thinking like my dad'sdad, I mean, to this day, he's
my only living grandparent, buthe lives off in the woods by
himself and doesn't talk tonobody unless they come see him.
And then my other grandpa, hehad a TV shop on the corner of
(40:22):
Randleman Road here inGreensboro, North Carolina, in
the hood.
And he had a little TV shop, andhe stayed there.
all the time.
He was either there or he wassitting, he had one seat, a lazy
boy recliner.
I don't know if it was lazy boy,but it was the style, the old
(40:43):
real cushiony ones that was, youjust sink melted in.
Cause he was probably, you know,six, three, three 50, you know,
big, big guy.
So when you sat in his seat, youjust kind of melted in it, but
both, both very quiet guys.
And I remember I remember afterhe passed my grandma told us was
(41:07):
telling us how much he cared forall those grandkids they had
like 30 some like grandkids andI remember her telling us how
telling us several times shementioned that he would cry and
thinking about like, cause he,he would always try to come to
(41:27):
games.
Can't make everybody's game.
You got 30 grandkids, but Imean, they drove an hour several
times to come see me play littleleague, little league games, but
just hearing her say, and I'mlike, man, I never got to see
that.
Like got to see him getemotional and that type of
thing.
And I was like, man, I wish, Iwish people, they will feel more
(41:48):
comfortable to wear that and notjust, not just do it in their
own home, you know?
SPEAKER_02 (41:53):
Yeah, no, I agree.
It is difficult for me to showmy emotions, me personally,
because sometimes I feel like Iknow that there's strength in
crying or tears or confession,that kind of stuff.
I think it's a pride thing forme personally.
It's like, I just need to dealwith this.
(42:16):
I need time to think on my own.
I need my cabin in the woods tolike sit down and gather all my
thoughts together and get it outthere.
And, you know, what Pastor Jasonwas saying earlier, we don't
know everything.
And I think in my youth and mygrowing up, I don't know how I
learned it.
I don't know who taught me, butit was just like if I pick
myself up on my bootstrapsenough times, I'll be able to
(42:38):
walk.
And then I read the Bible and hewas like, no, a threefold cord
is not easily broken.
You do need a friend.
David did need Jonathan.
Paul needed Silas.
The Father and the Son and theHoly Spirit and the personhood
of God, Yahweh, they all needeach other.
And it's like, I think it'ssomething that we're a part of
our sin nature to be isolated.
(43:01):
But when I read The Bible, oneof my favorite groups in the
Bible that I wish was writtenmore about them was the David's
Mighty Men.
I think they would rival Wakandato this day.
You know what I mean?
They just seem so cool.
And I was like, I am praying formy mighty men, like the group of
people around me that I can bandtogether and show all these
(43:23):
emotions but still look strong,you know?
Like be in service, be able togive God glory and still carry a
Glock.
Like I'm looking for them typeof Christians.
SPEAKER_04 (43:33):
Hey, man, you've been doing them blindfold
deadlifts.
You see them.
You're going
SPEAKER_02 (43:43):
to be all right.
I need to take some.
enhancements because my friendsare strong.
I don't know if you saw theirblind dead list, but they was
pulling like 400 pounds and Iwas struggling with my little
350.
And I'm like, goodness gracious,I need to start a church
weightlifting club.
There we go.
(44:04):
There we
SPEAKER_04 (44:04):
go.
That's the new facility.
Can we throw in a gym somewhere?
Beside the basketball gym, weneed an attached weight room.
And supplement store.
SPEAKER_01 (44:21):
Oh, come on.
Hey now.
You know.
Hey now.
For those who need it.
Got me.
A little boost.
Speaking of supplement store,let's...
I was thinking as you weretalking, like, with Lazarus,
Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth,going back to the John 11
reference that you made.
Lazarus, come forth.
But then he looked at thedisciples after he was raised,
(44:45):
and he looked at the Mm-hmm.
And the endeavor of thedisciples.
He told the disciples to loosehim and let him go.
(45:06):
So we've been talking a lotabout emotions.
But also, I think this is goingback to the pride point that you
mentioned of individualism.
I think there is a component ofunderstanding that every car has
blind spots and every individualhas blind spots.
Yeah.
And you need a brother to pointyou out.
(45:28):
Hey, this is a spot you don'tsee very well.
And just because you referencedit, and all of us have been
there and are there, you know,Scripture talks about the...
the pride of being a novice, ofnot knowing what you don't know.
And so there's all of a suddenthis pride that comes with, I
got this thing figured out, butyou have no life experience that
(45:51):
tells you, you don't really haveit as figured out as much as you
do.
And I think nobody knows thoseblind spots unless somebody is
able to be in your world.
Hey, you're going to back upover this tricycle unless you
notice somebody is in the back.
that's pointing you in thedirection, hey, avoid this trap.
(46:12):
And are there some things thatyou're just going to walk
through, even at the advice ofothers, and you're going to
choose to do even what you want,myself even included, you're
going to choose to do and you'regoing to learn through
experience.
And I'm thankful for the teacherof experience, but a lot of us
would not have some of the scarsand wounds that we had if we
(46:33):
also listened to the voice ofthose who are a little bit
further along in the journey.
And I think that's the beauty ofdiscipleship and transformation
that comes from trustingsomebody else with your blind
spots.
We see this in military.
We see this in sports.
We see this, and it's okay to doit in those worlds.
That brotherhood is okay.
(46:54):
And I feel like the Holy Spiritis doing something powerful in
the brotherhood in the kingdomwhere it's now okay to let
somebody have your back.
It's now okay to let somebodycorrect you.
it's okay to receive feedbackfrom somebody and not be damaged
and hurt by it, uh, to know thatthey have your, they have good
intentions about things that,uh, being a part of your world.
SPEAKER_04 (47:18):
Yeah.
I remember it reminded me of oneof the first, uh, early when I
came to, uh, the church inReidsville, I remember pastor
Mike, uh, talking about, um, youknow, the world says experience
is the best teacher.
And I remember him saying, uh,wisdom is a better teacher
because you don't have to, youdon't have to experience.
(47:41):
Now experience is a stronger,more, uh, I don't know if
stronger is the right word, butyou won't forget it.
I tell you that.
Um, but I would rather ourexperiences be able to, uh, stop
people from having to go throughthe same thing.
things, things that we wentthrough and having, having other
(48:04):
brothers that are able to say,Hey, Hey, Hey, I, I went down
that road, uh, of ambition, or Iwent down that road of, of
allowing lust thoughts tocontrol me.
I letting social media take overmy life.
Whatever the case may be,there's a thousand different
(48:24):
ways that could go.
But unless you have otherpeople, because we all had our
own journeys, but when fourpeople or more are able to get
together and you talk about thethings you're dealing with,
there's a good chance thatsomebody around has something
that can help you out.
SPEAKER_02 (48:42):
Exactly.
Just like a hundred men can beatone gorilla.
That's
SPEAKER_01 (48:47):
foolishness, man.
SPEAKER_00 (48:48):
Come
SPEAKER_02 (48:50):
on, man.
A hundred men could beat onegorilla.
SPEAKER_04 (48:53):
Gorillas are four foot six.
I mean, they're tiny.
They're like 400, 500 pounds.
What gorilla have you seen?
Short-wise.
I mean, height-wise.
They do have long arms and thickskin and no neck, so chokes and
guillotines are out of thepicture.
No joint manipulation because Idoubt you could arm bar a
(49:18):
gorilla.
SPEAKER_01 (49:19):
There's a lot of thought being put into
SPEAKER_02 (49:23):
this.
For those who don't know, thisis a huge thing on social media
right now of whether 100 mencould beat one gorilla.
And so there are graphs andcharts and professors going in
if this is possible.
This
SPEAKER_04 (49:34):
is good.
This fits with our conversation.
Because 100 men one by one couldnot beat a gorilla.
But 100 men with a plan andsacrifice could beat a
SPEAKER_02 (49:50):
gorilla.
Absolutely.
I think if 100 Isaiah's took ona gorilla, at
SPEAKER_04 (49:53):
least 30 of them surviving.
Ooh, I like that.
70 Isaiahs.
And you're willing for
SPEAKER_02 (50:01):
70 of you.
Yeah.
Hey, GGs, buddy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, for the greater good.
Yeah.
This is where we should end thepodcast.
And on that note, thank you fortuning in today to episode one
of Deeper.
We
SPEAKER_04 (50:16):
ended on 100 gorillas?
SPEAKER_01 (50:20):
No, we ended on.
Pastor Jason, can you give us.
If it's a unified, mobilizedeffort.
Yes.
100 gorillas.
I mean.
No, no, no.
A hundred men can take onegorilla if it's unified.
They're all on the same page.
And someone is willing tosacrifice, lay down their lives
to be a part of it.
(50:41):
I agree with you.
I think 100 men, if they're ofthe right mindset, yes.
One can put 1,000 to flight.
Two can put 10,000 to flight.
Great.
And we need all
SPEAKER_02 (50:52):
y'all listening to like, share, and subscribe to
the podcast.
Thank you for listening to DeepRoots Podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (50:57):
Appreciate
SPEAKER_02 (50:58):
it.
We'll see y'all next time.
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