July 31, 2025 • 34 mins
*GARRETT WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK WITH NEW EPISODES*
In this episode we seek to understand the question that we all wrestle with - what is my purpose? Real estate agents and Christians everywhere want to know why they were made, what is my God-given purpose. Tune in as the guys discuss ways to seek and understand our identities as business owners and our identities as believers.
- Prioritizing God's will in life. 0:01
- Finding God-given purpose and overcoming decision-making pressure. 1:03
- Finding purpose and direction in life through biblical principles. 3:17
- The tension between free will and divine providence. 8:09
- Balancing work and faith through the lens of creation and the Sabbath. 10:22
- Balancing freedom and responsibility in business. 14:28
- Sources of wisdom and the dangers of using Scripture out of context. 19:05
- Self-awareness and identity in Christ. 20:56
- Finding purpose and wisdom in real estate business through Bible reading and prayer. 26:41
- Balancing business and faith with intentional decision-making. 32:28
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Garrett Maroon (00:01):
So Go marry someone, provided you're equally
yoked and you actually likebeing with each other, go get a
job provided it's not wicked. Golive somewhere in something with
somebody or nobody. But putaside the passivity in the quest
for complete fulfillment, andthe perfectionism and the
preoccupation with the future.
And for God's sake, start makingsome decisions in your life.
(00:23):
Don't wait for the liver shiver.
If you are seeking first theKingdom of God and His
righteousness, you will be inGod's will. So just go out and
do something. The end of thematter is this. live for God?
Obey the scriptures. Think ofothers before yourself. Be holy
love Jesus. And as you do thesethings, do whatever else you'd
(00:46):
like with whomever you'd like,wherever you like. And you'll be
walking in the will of God.
Excerpts from just do somethingby Pastor Kevin D. Young. All
right, Tyler, we're tryingsomething a little different
today, buddy. Yes, we are likethat. That's That's good.
Tyler Wilson (01:03):
I just maybe we'll just sit here for a little
longer and let you read to mebecause that was just poring
over me. I liked that a lot. Butnow what do we do?
Garrett Maroon (01:12):
Well, I think what's so cool is you know, as a
as a quick introduction, we'reexcited to be here. We're going
to talk about finding your Godgiven purpose. And I thought
that that excerpt would beimpactful. That book was really
impactful to me. It's calledjust do something. It's a small
little book, Pastor Kevin D.
Young, I was coming out ofcollege, and I was stuck in this
I stuck in this world of I don'tknow what to do next. What do I
do? What kind of job should Iget whatever. And one of my
(01:34):
mentors, one of my buddies who'san older older guy, gives me
this book, and he's like,Garrett. Basically, I remember
him I physically remember himtelling me I literally remember
him telling me, GarrettScripture doesn't say, you need
to grow up and work nine to fiveand cut your grass on the
weekends. It doesn't say that.
It says these things it says isthe what I read in the code
(01:56):
open, live for God, obey thescriptures. Be holy love Jesus,
right, and then go do somethingwith your life. That's what it
says. And I remember you and Iis we're going to dive into this
topic. You and I both been inthis place of trying to figure
out Lord, what do you reallywant from us? Right? Well, I
think we both feel this, thisidea that we have more to give,
(02:17):
and but we don't know how to usethat or put that to work. And
I'm sure our audience feels thattoo. And so man, I just I read
that extra that book came tomind and thought, bro, we got to
we got to talk about that as wetry to unpack and figure this
out. Yeah,
Tyler Wilson (02:29):
I love it. I thought that was a good extra
actually just finished a KevinDionne book he he wrote about
being busy and and what it meansto be busy, super short, very
gracious, and how short it waswhen you're busy, quote unquote,
I think that was on purpose. Butin terms of this purpose, the
image, the image that I alwaysthink about in terms of just
going and doing something. I'vesaid this before, I don't know
(02:52):
if I've shared with it on apodcast, but it's profound, and
it resonates with me is thisidea that when you're making a
decision, and we come to so manycrossroads in our lives,
sometimes, you know the forks inthe road feel much more
significant than others, whetherit's changing a job, or just
honestly deciding, like, whereto put your kids in school, or
what house to buy, like thecertain forks, that you feel
(03:14):
that we put so much pressure onourselves on making the right
decision. And the same thingwith identifying the purpose in
our life. What's the rightpurpose that we have for us?
Well think of this image as ifyou are standing at the entrance
of a wide open field, 1000s and1000s of acres, that there's a
fence that is around that in thelarge, overwhelming majority of
(03:35):
places you can't see the fence,but you walk into it through a
gate you enter in. And then youhave complete freedom and
autonomy and dominion to dowhatever it is that you choose
to within the confines of thatfence, most of the time, of
which you've never even reallybeen up against. And the walls
of that fence, the establishedboundaries that are for your
(03:55):
good to protect you and to keepyou in place are the will and
the scriptures and the what,what the Lord calls you into,
from the way that he createdyou. So if you are in whatever
decision you're makingvocationally, personally,
spiritually if you if you arebutting up against the fence of
(04:15):
what Scripture calls you into,there's clear direction in that.
But in most things when we'redefining our purpose, if we are
pursuing the Lord, if we areaiming, pursuing righteousness,
if we're aiming to be moreChrist, like you're in the
center of that wide open field,where you can literally do
whatever your heart's desirebecause you have been given that
gift from the Lord to go forthand to honor Him because the
(04:38):
purpose in whatever it is you'redoing is to bring honor and
glory to his name and to do withexcellence. It's not a matter of
being on the right path or beingin this this lane that we feel
like is this you know callingthat we have into that we have
to fit into know that take thatcalling that lane of calling
that we in our mind is one roadwide and blow it up and and make
(05:01):
it 1000s of acres huge that youcan go freely and roam through.
Now that doesn't make it simplerto decide when you do get to
those kinds of Crossroads withinthe field of how to make
decisions, decisions can bechallenging, because we want to
make the right one, we want todo the right thing. But again,
that brings us back to the Lordcalling us into total peace when
(05:21):
we are under His provision, whenwe trust that He will provide
for us more than he will thesparrows in the sky. Like when
we truly have thatenlightenment, of his desire for
us to thrive within theframework of those walls, all
those crossroads or those? Thoseforks in the road just become so
much clearer.
Garrett Maroon (05:42):
It's good man. I love that I love that image.
Because, you know, even justtalking about this and reading
that excerpt again, in our coldopen, I think about so much of
my wrestling, it's like, Lord,what do you want me to do? What
do you want me to do? And it'sas if he hasn't told me
anything. Right? And you look atscripture exactly what you said,
like, he's told us exactly whatare we called to do live for
(06:03):
Him, obey the scriptures. Thinkof others above yourself, be
holy, as Christ is holy. He'stold us what we're called to do.
That's our purpose is to dothose things, right? And then go
and make disciples of all thenations, he's called us to go do
those things. That's he's laidit out. Right. That's the
purpose. And I love you know,when you were talking about
that, I was thinking of, youknow, those old books, where it
(06:25):
was like the Choose Your OwnAdventure book? Yes. Right. You
get to that part in the book.
And he'd be like, do you want ifyou want to do this, go to page
120? You want to do that? Good.
Whatever, right? Yeah, greatbooks. Well, and then there's
different outcomes. I feel likeso often, in my own heart, in my
own life, and I know, plenty ofus do this is I kind of act as
if that's the way the Lordworks, too. Right? Is okay, now
(06:46):
it's your choice, you bettermake a choice. And I hope you
don't make the wrong one. If youmake the wrong one, you're not
you're outside of my will. Andnow you're totally screwed, and
everything, nothing's going towork for you, right? And you're
gonna be living in this terriblecondition, and everything's
gonna be awful until you getback to the right page. And
that's not how it works. I mean,that's not what Scripture
teaches us is true. They exactlywhat you said, it's not this,
(07:08):
choose your own adventure. It'slike, no, within the confines of
this book, The here's the rules.
If you want to be in this book,and you want to play this game,
you've got to be holy, likeChrist is holy, you've got to
live for the Lord, You've got toput Him first, above all things,
you've got to serve and loveother people and sacrifice for
them. If you do those things,you get to be in this book. And
you get to make choices becausethe Lord gave you a rational
(07:29):
mind. So use it to make choicesand go in a direction. And it's
not this, Oh, you went to thewrong page. Too bad to start
over. Right? Like, that's nothow this actually works. But I
do you think that we can becomeso scared, and we get so stuck
to make a decision? I'm talkingto autobiographically. Right? So
(07:49):
stuck to make a decision?
Because exactly what you said,it's like, well, I want to make
the right one. And at least forme, what tends to happen, and
then jump in. But what tends tohappen for me is when I just
don't have clarity, I ended updoing nothing. I just kind of
waste time, because I'm like, Idon't know what to do. So I
guess I'll just do nothing.
Yeah, right.
Tyler Wilson (08:10):
That's, yeah, those books, like the best. And
I think that that are the bestbecause they feast on the
original sin and our desire todictate what the outcome is,
like now that they're doing thatto little kids. And that we were
thinking that deeply when wewere 10 years old, reading those
books, and turn to page 72. Youfell off the cliff and died and
(08:32):
Exactly. The other outcome, thenyes,
Garrett Maroon (08:34):
don't do that in life. Don't go to page 72 out of
10. Yeah. What are we earning?
Yeah.
Tyler Wilson (08:40):
But that's why we get so I mean, truly, that's the
I think the source of beinghamstrung in those moments of, I
don't know what to do, like, Ihave to make the perfect
decision. Well, if you're makingthe decision outside of the
framework of God, then it'sgoing to be wrong. If you're
making the decision within thetrust in His provision, then
it's right, no matter what, likethat's the binary nature of
(09:01):
right and wrong decisions. Andso, but so much of our core, and
the way that we've been taughtand conditioned, and what we see
around us is to an original sinis to drive the outcome. I mean,
that's not a bad thing. Likewe're not again, disclaimer,
we're not preaching Jesus takethe wheel like that's, like we
have to, we're called to beexcellent at what we do, and to
(09:22):
champion that, but so much, ifin our core, we're torn up over
the decision that we're going tomake because we think that it
ultimately dictates the outcome,and that our identity or the
success there of the decisionthat we make is based on our
actions, then we're lookingthrough the wrong lens. We're
looking we're looking at makingdecisions through how we can
(09:43):
drive what we're trying to getto, rather than making the
decisions through the lens ofhow do we honor and pursue the
Lord better and better andbetter and more consistently and
more freely. The Lord the Lordcreated us to be free. He has to
have listened to that Arden forus to rule over and to have
total dominion and authorityover for our good and for His
(10:05):
glory and for us to partner withestablishing a thriving kingdom
for his namesake. But when thatwasn't enough for us, right,
simply put, that's the gospel.
And then here we are today stilldoing the same thing, just on
micro cosmic layers of that overand over and over again. I mean,
I love what you're in so much ofit is because we're conditioned
to what's going on around us thedefinitions of, of living freely
(10:27):
are pursuing the right thingsthey get. So they get so muddied
up, they get so clouded like,even this morning, Chelsea and
I, we had our prayer timetogether, and we ended up
usually talking for an hour andlike, barely get into prayer,
because that's just like, theone time that we get to sit
down, distraction of diving intothings but like, yesterday, our
(10:49):
pastor taught on the Sabbath,and the premise of the Sabbath,
and what does that look like.
And so one, something profoundthat he taught us was that
creation. And obviously, we knowthe story of creation that the
world, everything established init heavens in the earth,
everything that abides in it wascreated for six days, on the
(11:10):
seventh day God rested. So thatthe creation story is all of
this build up to what life issupposed to look like as the
Sabbath like that, that all ofthis creation goes into a life
that we are destined to live ina state of like, of Sabbath of
rest and total peace in what Godhas created for us. But even in
(11:31):
just like our legalistic nature,and in what we think as humans
who are setting goals andmotivated and trying to do the
right thing, I need to havesomething that I can hang on to,
we have to have will tell me,Pastor tell me book, what does
the Sabbath look like, you know,on Sundays, I can't do any of
(11:52):
this. I just got to, you know,sit around, and I'd spend time
with my family. That's allgreat. That's awesome. But like,
Take, for example, yesterday, Itook my son. And we went and
vacuumed all of the chewed gumand Fig Newtons out of Chelsea's
van, to celebrate her and to saythank you to her. And I taught
my son what it looks like tohonor his mom and to serve her.
(12:15):
And to be thankful for the vanthat he has to be able to drive
around in like, that's literallymanual labor that I'm teaching
him into, but in the piece andthe rest that the Lord provides
us from a Sabbath definition.
Like that was so restful to me,you know, that was so restful to
him that we got to spin thosebones together. So I'm getting a
little bit off on a tangenthere. But I'm saying the point
(12:35):
of this purpose, what we'retalking about now is so much of
our purpose. We allow to beinfluenced by the people around
us. We allow to be influenced bythe measures of the world. This
is not new stuff that we'resaying. But when we are making
decisions on what we're going todo vocationally, there's that
word, what we're going to dovocationally what we're going to
(12:56):
do with our family, how we'regoing to live our church life,
all of the most important thingsin our life, we should be making
those decisions through the lensof what it looks like to pursue
the Lord. And not a matter ofhow we're driving the outcome.
We just need to be really clearon how we're making decision
again, through which lens we aremaking that decision and, and
(13:17):
that's the only binary nature ofthe fork in the road is through
which way are we justifying thedecision or making the decision
and if that's the right one,then you can't be wrong.
Garrett Maroon (13:31):
Too many agents are feeling the weight of
inauthentic action. Too manyagents are bogged down with bad
clients and ignoring theirfamilies. Too many agents are
waking up each day stepping intothe hamster wheel and chasing an
unending cycle. Well, it's timeto step into something greater
my friends and fellow agents.
That's why we introduced thefaithful agent group coaching,
(13:51):
if you've desire to know yourGod given gifts and how to use
those to build a God honoringbusiness, or if you longed to be
challenged, encouraged andtaught by other brothers and
sisters in Christ, who know notonly your work, but also your
heart. Reach out to us for acall. We'd love to show you the
power of a group of like mindedbelievers coming together to
(14:14):
become more excellent in theirwork and their faith. If you
want to learn more visitfaithful agent.com backslash
chat to grab a time to talk withme. Now back to the show. I feel
like there's this, this ideathat when we are we can become
so fearful in this chooser andadventure we become so fearful
(14:37):
of making the wrong decisionthat we think if we make this
wrong decision that theconsequences just an explosion
back in our face, right? It'seither that and so we're so
hesitant to make a decisionbecause we're afraid that it's
either that or juxtaposed withthis No I've there's freedom in
Christ and there's so much grayso I'm just gonna do a bunch of
(14:57):
stuff not even thinking aboutconsequence. CES, right? And we
tend to, at least in my ownlife, I tend to operate in one
of those two extremes, whereit's, I trust the Lord, He's
gonna take care of me, and he'sgonna make what I do good. So
I'm just gonna go do something,right, which I know is the title
of the book, but doing it notwith the thought of how do I
honor the Lord? How do I loveChrist and love Jesus in this,
(15:17):
but doing it because I'm like, Ijust need to do something. So
I'm gonna go do it. Becausethat's my nature is I don't want
to sit around and think about,I'm just gonna go do something.
That's absolutely my nature. Andso I just expect the Lord to
make it good. As opposed toremember, wait a minute, though,
man, there are consequences fordishonouring the Lord and not
not living within exactly whatPastor the youngest talking
(15:38):
about living in the context ofbeing holy and loving Jesus.
And, and those are my pay toplay things. But the opposite of
that is which I often sit in aswell, as I was talking about as
I sit there, and I don't doanything, because I'm like,
Yeah, because if I do the wrongthing, it's gonna blow up in my
face. And but that's not how theLord works, either. He's not,
he's not vindictive. He's notit. That's not what he does. And
(16:00):
he certainly wouldn't have sentHis only Son to pay the penalty
for our sin, just to then punishus for making a wrong decision.
Because we make wrong decisionsall the time. I do things wrong
all the time. And yet, he isgracious to us on that. And so I
think we've got to find, where'sthat? Where's that middle ground
of freedom, like you've talkedabout? And for agents, as we're
(16:22):
talking about this, excuse me,for real estate agents for
business owners. I think toooften, we sit around and either
A, we sit there and don't doanything, we're not as excellent
as we should be. Because we'resitting around like, I don't
want to do the wrong thing,which often is a cover up for
not doing anything, right? Well,why aren't you doing anything?
Well, because I don't want to dothe wrong thing. That's stupid,
(16:43):
go do something. Right? Or weare the people that say we're
Oh, you know, I remember when Istarted to read and learn and
grow and do all these things.
And so I had gotten all thismindset of the world in my head,
honestly, I'm reading all thebooks and listen to all the
podcasts. I mean, it was insanehow much I was putting in my
brain. And it was firing me upat man, what I turned into was
(17:06):
this rocket ship that just wentfull speed ahead without
understanding or the seeking ofthe what does the Lord desire
for me in this not tell meexactly what I'm supposed to do
Lord here, because that's nothow this works. But with the
understanding of am I can I dothis and look like Christ? When
(17:26):
I do this? How do I reflect whoJesus is or what he's done? For
me, it was just, I'm gonna gofull steam ahead broke because I
live in grace. And that means Icould do whatever I want. Right?
It was kind of this cage stagewhere I just was unleashed,
right. And so I think that we'vegot to come back as agents and
recognize the business ownersand people in general, but as
(17:48):
business owners to say, thefirst question is, whose kingdom
Am I living in? Is it mine? Oris it the Lord? Right? Because
I, I think if we're honest withourselves, and most of the time,
it's my kingdom. And if it's mykingdom, then I get to do what I
want. I get to set the goalsthat I want. I get to aim to try
(18:08):
to make as much money as I wantbecause I want it because it'll
buy me X, Y, and Z and I can seecomfort in this life and blah,
blah blah. But if we go beforethe Lord and say, Lord, make
this your kingdom today, beforewe got on this podcast, I was
praying with this part aboutthis podcast right? How do we
become more excellent in thisand literally praying Lord, did
David's prayer after he cheatswith Bathsheba right and get
(18:31):
your Ico created me a cleanheart? I can't do it myself.
Lord, create in me a cleanheart. And then I'm allow me,
Father to just seek Your gloryabove all things. You're not
going to tell me exactly whathow to do that with this podcast
and blah, blah, blah. But you'regonna say seek Me first. And if
I do that, then I can just go dosomething with the show. And do
(18:56):
it to the best of my abilitybecause that will honor him and
his pastor Jung says I am thenin the will of God. I want to
read this one more excerptbecause I want your takeaway in
this. He says there's three waysto access wisdom. Number one,
read the Bible responsibly.
Number two, seek wise counselfrom others. And number three,
pray for illumination wisdom,and what you already know is
(19:17):
God's will. What do you thinkabout that?
Tyler Wilson (19:22):
I think it's really good. First of all the
the turning back real quick, youtalking about this rocket ship,
this total Grace phase where youcan just go do whatever you
want. That's the least ReformedBaptist thing I've ever heard
you say it's so not not you atall. But
Garrett Maroon (19:38):
it was it was years ago. Oh, gosh. Okay, now
we'll walk that back. That'sright. Imagine how bad it was.
If I'm better now. It was prettybad. And
Tyler Wilson (19:47):
listeners if you only knew Garrett, a decade ago,
you
Garrett Maroon (19:51):
would not be part of this. I would not be
married. Absolutely. The
Tyler Wilson (19:58):
so too. Whoo, get back on track here and thinking
about the sources of wisdom andclarity, the
Garrett Maroon (20:05):
Bible responsibly, seek wise counsel
from others pray forillumination wisdom, and what
you already know is God's will,I
Tyler Wilson (20:11):
think are so good.
And obviously align withScripture. And I think that
they're really hard to do. Andone, because we get no way. And
because so often, if we'rereally honest with ourselves,
and we think about when we'retrying to make a big decision,
we we use the Lord's word, andin Scripture, and we use
(20:32):
affirmations from other people.
And we use things that we knowwisdom that we have. So each of
those three things we use, weuse them out of context, to
justify the outcome that we wantto constantly. And that's
heresy. I mean, simply put, totake the to take the Lord's word
out of context and use it tojustify a fleshly desire is sin.
(20:56):
And we do it all the time. I doit all the time. I mean, I would
say all the time, but like, Istruggle with that, and that's
something that we all need to besanctified. And that's just
reality, which is why, for thesecond part, you need people to
hold you accountable, that aregoing to tell you the truth,
that aren't just going to tellyou what you want to hear, say
yes to everything that you have.
But that requires you beinghonest, and how you filter who
you let into your inner circle,and speak truth into your life.
(21:18):
And then lastly, I mean,screening wisdom, things that
you know, to be true, that'sjust accountability, and being
just crystal clear on thefoundations that you are
building your decision making onfoundations that you're building
your life on. If it's not thefoundations of Scripture, then
then you're not doing it theright way. But to speak a little
(21:38):
practically, or to speak alittle practicality into this
conversation of identifyingpurpose, making decisions in the
vein of purpose. I mean, Ireally believe that there is a
combination of knowing who youare like that the way that the
Lord made you the things thatyou're really good at, and
(21:59):
getting clear on that by that'sthat again, that's that it's an
oversimplification, I know thatthat's hard to do. But that that
is something that we all need todo, you know, figuring out,
getting really clear, maybe noton what we think we're good at.
But what we actually are, andthat's a combination of taking
time to be self reflective, andalso just getting affirmation
(22:20):
from the people that are closestto you, from people or maybe
even people that aren't theclosest to you, like, have you
ever heard somebody that come upto you and, you know, to say,
like, Man, that was reallyencouraging, like you, you know,
you being honest about that,like really encouraged me, or
spoke truth into my life and youknow, an impact at something or,
you know, man, you're justreally your energy, the energy
(22:40):
that you bring every day like itlifts me up, like I'm, I don't
have that and whatever, whateverlittle word it is, whatever
affirmation that you're getting,like, listen to it. You know,
like there's, there's somethingthat when you if you're not
pretending, or trying to dosomething, and you just do it,
and people are encouraged by itlike that's, that's a gift that
the Lord has given you. So don'tignore that. I confess to each
(23:04):
of you listening right now thatthat's something that I have
ignored for a very long time inmy life. And in part because
I've just let it stroke mypersonal pride, and say, like,
oh, that's just like somethingthat, you know, I do really
well. And that's a confession.
But like, also, in part, becauseI'm just ignoring for a long
(23:24):
time, I really ignored the waythat the Lord has made me or the
gifts that He has given me, andhow to implement them into
growing his kingdom. I just knewthat it was something that maybe
I could do, I could turn togglethe switch on and off whenever I
wanted to, rather thanrecognizing that that's
something that's a source or agift that I should be
implementing into what I do allthe time.
Garrett Maroon (23:46):
And let me let me jump in sorry, real quick,
because I think that thatexactly is this idea is not my
idea. But the idea of, Am Iliving in My Kingdom or the
Lord's kingdom and being honestabout that? Because if you're
like, Well, I'm living in mykingdom, then yeah, I should
stroke your ego, because you'rethe king. You're the one that's
in charge, you're the best thereis. But if we're living in the
Lord's kingdom, then all of itshould reflect to say, hey,
(24:07):
praise God, that he gave me asmall part of his character. And
others see that as excellence,right or others see the fact
that I can encourage them. Well,that's not me, bro. That is part
of the Lord's character that hehas chosen to give me for
whatever reason, and praise Godfor that. It's not my kingdom.
He's it's his kingdom. Hereceives the glory for that. And
(24:30):
anyway, sorry, no, it's
Tyler Wilson (24:31):
right. seek it out. So like, you're seeing that
eye, open your ears, like openup your ears, your eyes, all of
your senses, but definitely yourears in terms of what you're
hearing from people from anencouragement perspective, and
lean into that like seek it out.
And I'm seeing here sitting heresaying that like GE knows this
intimately, obviously. But thishas been a this has been a years
(24:53):
if not decades long. Pursuit ofme that it didn't listening to
the affirmation that I've heardfrom other people is something
that I heard but I just likestuffed down and Woodberry away
because it didn't jive with whoI thought I was supposed to be
in the framework of the world. Ifelt that I was supposed to live
a life that looked like xbecause of, you know, some of
(25:14):
the other talents that the Lordhad blessed me with. And so the
affirmation that I was hearinglike, the voices that were
profound, like constantlyspeaking over me that I was
choosing to ignore. I mean, it'sdisobedience. Like it's blatant
disobedience that I had toconfess. And in truth, like it's
Geno's, it's been like superuncomfortable for me for months
(25:36):
now, like once I've let it kindof boil up to the tip of my
tongue. And then like, I use theimage, like I set it on the
corner of the table. And likeI'd let people sometimes, like
glimpse into it, and then maybespeak into it a little bit more.
Now I've kind of moved it to thecenter of the table, we start
talking about it a little bitmore. And there is just so much
freedom that comes when you stoptrying to be who you think
(25:58):
you're supposed to be like whenyou just stop trying to fit
yourself into this mold thatyou've built in your mind that
has been shaped by the ongoingsof the world around you, which
we all do it. Everybody does it.
If they say that they don't doit, they're a liar. And it takes
I mean, here, I'm sitting here,34 years old, feeling like I've
(26:20):
finally unpacked itfractionally, like just taking
the lid off of what it starts tounpack, to truly live a life
that's filled with purpose. Andit starts the first step is
truly the definition of how tolive the life with purpose. That
is not that I'm not the king,and that honoring the Lord, my
God, my king is the king likethat. I mean, we all know that.
(26:42):
We all know that. Like if we'reif we call ourselves Christians,
we would say that we know that.
But there's a difference inknowing
Garrett Maroon (26:48):
it and knowing it, right? Yeah, I read this
morning, somebody to the extentof like, it's really easy to
ascend to mental, what he saylike a mental understanding of
God, and his theology. And whathe teaches us is very difficult
to actually live it. That'sright. And that's so true. And I
(27:09):
think that at the end of theday, as we talk about as Asians,
as people, what is my purpose inthis business? What is the
Lord's already? What is healready told you? That should be
the first response? What does Healready said in His scripture?
What is he already told us? It'sread the Bible responsibly is
(27:29):
number one, three ways to accesswisdom. So go seek that out.
First. I was having aconversation with someone
recently, it was actually abouta relationship they had. And
they said, Hey, what do youthink about this? What's your
opinion? And I said, Well, whatdoes the Bible say? And they
weren't sure. And so we walkedthrough it. They're like, Oh,
wow, I need to do somethingabout them. Right? Why? Because
the Bible told already gaveinformation that already
(27:53):
existed. I've got a mentor,Butch Joyce, who's an incredible
man, who has been anentrepreneur for 40 years loves
Jesus. And what he when he toldme, this was years ago, when I'm
reading this, reading all thesebooks and my cage states, right?
reading all these books, allthese things, I'm this rocket
ship that's on fire. I said,Hey, what are your what are the
best books you've ever read?
Whatever. And he said, You knowwhat, Garrett, this was an
(28:13):
Armstrong said, You know what,Garrett? When I got deeper and
more mature in my faith, when itcame to matters of business, I
mostly just read the Bible. AndI was like, what, what about all
these other good books, and youknow, all the things it's like,
it's not that I didn'toccasionally read those. But I
went to the source of what wastrue. And I went to where I knew
that everything I read wasright, and true, and godly and
(28:34):
biblical. And I made decisionsthat way. And I remember
thinking, Man, that is not whatI'm doing. And so you're seeking
wisdom in your business? Whatdoes scripture say? You are
trying to decide whether youshould go show houses Sunday
morning, or go to church withyour family? Well, what does
scripture tell you about that?
(28:56):
You're trying to decide whetheryou should build your business
in a way that honors the Lord,or if you should just get as big
as you can, as quick as you canand make as much money as you
can? Well, what does scripturesay about that? Right? I think
if we just start there, thenexactly what you said to one of
the reasons we care about thiscommunity that we're that we
have, and we're actively seekingto grow local groups so we can
(29:19):
help you identify where theother believers are in your area
in real estate, is to seek wisecounsel from others now wise
counsel, right. If you meetsomeone and you're like, That
person doesn't know what they'retalking about. That's not wise.
Counsel, wise counsel is counselthat points you back to
Scripture. Right? So seek thatout. And then finally, pray for
(29:40):
illumination wisdom, and whatyou already know, is God's will.
To me that means Lord, I'mwrestling with this reveal to me
what you've already said istrue. So that I could do I could
obey. What you've told me that Icould have put aside this
passivity that I have in person.
sue you and, and go after you,right and love Jesus and be holy
(30:02):
as you call me and live for You,Lord, not just sit here and do
nothing. Give me wisdom and whatthat looks like. And I think,
agents people doesn't matter whowe are, but and our business,
there are so many things thatare thrown at us. A big part of
our confusion. For me, at leasta big part of my lack of
(30:23):
clarity, is that I'm not in aplace where I have one thing I
could do, I'm in a place where Icould do 100 things, and all of
them seem good, right? And we'rekind of pulled in a million
different directions, were givena million different piece of
pieces of advice. And so we aresusceptible in huge ways. Think
about your own life agent, asyou listen to me too. We are
(30:45):
susceptible to sitting there andnot doing anything, right?
Because we're just hoping orsitting there waiting, if I make
the wrong choice, what's goingto happen, or we just go and do
everything, without any claritywithout any thought of how does
this honor the Lord agents,we've got to sit and be still
before the Lord and read theBible responsibly, first and
(31:06):
foremost. And then as we seekeach day to live for the Lord,
to honor Him, to love Jesus tobe holy, as he is holy, then,
and only then should we take thefreedom to go live in a way that
the Lord has put in front of us.
That's where the freedom comesfrom. When we first do those
(31:27):
things, Freedom doesn't start.
When your day starts, Freedomstarts after you've hit your
knees, you've been in prayer,and you've been in the word to
seek out what the Lord has, whothe Lord has said he is and how
we can submit to him today.
That's my encouragement. For us.
It's there's a lot going on inthis world, there's a lot coming
at us as agents is yes, go dosomething have freedom in that
(31:48):
exactly. You said t but alsoseek and understand, Lord, where
is that fence? Because I don'twant to go outside of him. And I
need clarity to do those things.
Man, we we hope this has been ahelpful discussion. We're trying
to figure it out ourselves. Andso if you know the answer, then
call us because I'd really liketo know exactly how this works.
(32:09):
But I think at the end of theday, it is the encouragement
when you're trying to understandyour purpose. This, the Bible
already says a lot about it.
Right? Go do these things belike Christ. That's your
purpose, first and foremost. Andthen after that, there's freedom
in that. But T What do youthink, man? Take us out buddy,
Tyler Wilson (32:28):
man, also good.
And I think that the last, thisisn't anything that we haven't
repeated on the podcast again,but I think applies when you're
the balance of being in those1000s millions of acres of
freedom to go and play butdiscerning, seeking wisdom first
when you make a decision is toremember that when you're saying
yes to something, you're sayingno to something else, and that
(32:49):
we're finite, that we're notperfect, that you're being
sanctified constantly. Andremember that there is freedom
and making your decisions whenthey are made in the framework
of what Scripture teaches youand calls you into so be
intentional with how you spendyour time you're a gift, your
creation, you're made in theimage of God. So value the time
(33:10):
that you have and value thepeople that the Lord's put in
your life value therelationships that are most
important in the hierarchy thathe establishes it first with
being a relationship with Him,then your spouse and your
family, your church, prioritizethose. And so may your yeses be
yeses and your nose be nose asyou guys go out forward. So they
flow agents. Thanks forlistening. As always, we're
(33:33):
grateful for you. We're hopeyou're encouraged and we pray
that you're excellent and allthat you do as you leave here
today.
Garrett Maroon (33:44):
Hey, faithful agents. Thank you so much for
tuning into today's episode. Ihope it encouraged you to both
grow your business and yourfaith. And as always, make sure
you share this episode with afriend who you think would be
encouraged by it and join us onour Facebook group. If you
aren't there yet to cometogether with the other faithful
agents around the country. Justgo to facebook.com and search
(34:04):
the faithful agent. And if youwant to be encouraged more
locally, because after all localgroups is where the real growth
and change happens. Go tofaithful agent.com backslash
local groups to check out whatwe've got going on. And if there
isn't a group near you, you canreach out to us right there. And
tell us you're interested instarting your own. Thank you as
(34:25):
always for tuning into thisepisode. We hope to see you next
week.
So Go marry someone, provided you're equally
yoked and you actually likebeing with each other, go get a
job provided it's not wicked. Golive somewhere in something with
somebody or nobody. But putaside the passivity in the quest
for complete fulfillment, andthe perfectionism and the
preoccupation with the future.
And for God's sake, start makingsome decisions in your life.
(00:23):
Don't wait for the liver shiver.
If you are seeking first theKingdom of God and His
righteousness, you will be inGod's will. So just go out and
do something. The end of thematter is this. live for God?
Obey the scriptures. Think ofothers before yourself. Be holy
love Jesus. And as you do thesethings, do whatever else you'd
(00:46):
like with whomever you'd like,wherever you like. And you'll be
walking in the will of God.
Excerpts from just do somethingby Pastor Kevin D. Young. All
right, Tyler, we're tryingsomething a little different
today, buddy. Yes, we are likethat. That's That's good.
Tyler Wilson (01:03):
I just maybe we'll just sit here for a little
longer and let you read to mebecause that was just poring
over me. I liked that a lot. Butnow what do we do?
Garrett Maroon (01:12):
Well, I think what's so cool is you know, as a
as a quick introduction, we'reexcited to be here. We're going
to talk about finding your Godgiven purpose. And I thought
that that excerpt would beimpactful. That book was really
impactful to me. It's calledjust do something. It's a small
little book, Pastor Kevin D.
Young, I was coming out ofcollege, and I was stuck in this
I stuck in this world of I don'tknow what to do next. What do I
do? What kind of job should Iget whatever. And one of my
(01:34):
mentors, one of my buddies who'san older older guy, gives me
this book, and he's like,Garrett. Basically, I remember
him I physically remember himtelling me I literally remember
him telling me, GarrettScripture doesn't say, you need
to grow up and work nine to fiveand cut your grass on the
weekends. It doesn't say that.
It says these things it says isthe what I read in the code
(01:56):
open, live for God, obey thescriptures. Be holy love Jesus,
right, and then go do somethingwith your life. That's what it
says. And I remember you and Iis we're going to dive into this
topic. You and I both been inthis place of trying to figure
out Lord, what do you reallywant from us? Right? Well, I
think we both feel this, thisidea that we have more to give,
(02:17):
and but we don't know how to usethat or put that to work. And
I'm sure our audience feels thattoo. And so man, I just I read
that extra that book came tomind and thought, bro, we got to
we got to talk about that as wetry to unpack and figure this
out. Yeah,
Tyler Wilson (02:29):
I love it. I thought that was a good extra
actually just finished a KevinDionne book he he wrote about
being busy and and what it meansto be busy, super short, very
gracious, and how short it waswhen you're busy, quote unquote,
I think that was on purpose. Butin terms of this purpose, the
image, the image that I alwaysthink about in terms of just
going and doing something. I'vesaid this before, I don't know
(02:52):
if I've shared with it on apodcast, but it's profound, and
it resonates with me is thisidea that when you're making a
decision, and we come to so manycrossroads in our lives,
sometimes, you know the forks inthe road feel much more
significant than others, whetherit's changing a job, or just
honestly deciding, like, whereto put your kids in school, or
what house to buy, like thecertain forks, that you feel
(03:14):
that we put so much pressure onourselves on making the right
decision. And the same thingwith identifying the purpose in
our life. What's the rightpurpose that we have for us?
Well think of this image as ifyou are standing at the entrance
of a wide open field, 1000s and1000s of acres, that there's a
fence that is around that in thelarge, overwhelming majority of
(03:35):
places you can't see the fence,but you walk into it through a
gate you enter in. And then youhave complete freedom and
autonomy and dominion to dowhatever it is that you choose
to within the confines of thatfence, most of the time, of
which you've never even reallybeen up against. And the walls
of that fence, the establishedboundaries that are for your
(03:55):
good to protect you and to keepyou in place are the will and
the scriptures and the what,what the Lord calls you into,
from the way that he createdyou. So if you are in whatever
decision you're makingvocationally, personally,
spiritually if you if you arebutting up against the fence of
(04:15):
what Scripture calls you into,there's clear direction in that.
But in most things when we'redefining our purpose, if we are
pursuing the Lord, if we areaiming, pursuing righteousness,
if we're aiming to be moreChrist, like you're in the
center of that wide open field,where you can literally do
whatever your heart's desirebecause you have been given that
gift from the Lord to go forthand to honor Him because the
(04:38):
purpose in whatever it is you'redoing is to bring honor and
glory to his name and to do withexcellence. It's not a matter of
being on the right path or beingin this this lane that we feel
like is this you know callingthat we have into that we have
to fit into know that take thatcalling that lane of calling
that we in our mind is one roadwide and blow it up and and make
(05:01):
it 1000s of acres huge that youcan go freely and roam through.
Now that doesn't make it simplerto decide when you do get to
those kinds of Crossroads withinthe field of how to make
decisions, decisions can bechallenging, because we want to
make the right one, we want todo the right thing. But again,
that brings us back to the Lordcalling us into total peace when
(05:21):
we are under His provision, whenwe trust that He will provide
for us more than he will thesparrows in the sky. Like when
we truly have thatenlightenment, of his desire for
us to thrive within theframework of those walls, all
those crossroads or those? Thoseforks in the road just become so
much clearer.
Garrett Maroon (05:42):
It's good man. I love that I love that image.
Because, you know, even justtalking about this and reading
that excerpt again, in our coldopen, I think about so much of
my wrestling, it's like, Lord,what do you want me to do? What
do you want me to do? And it'sas if he hasn't told me
anything. Right? And you look atscripture exactly what you said,
like, he's told us exactly whatare we called to do live for
(06:03):
Him, obey the scriptures. Thinkof others above yourself, be
holy, as Christ is holy. He'stold us what we're called to do.
That's our purpose is to dothose things, right? And then go
and make disciples of all thenations, he's called us to go do
those things. That's he's laidit out. Right. That's the
purpose. And I love you know,when you were talking about
that, I was thinking of, youknow, those old books, where it
(06:25):
was like the Choose Your OwnAdventure book? Yes. Right. You
get to that part in the book.
And he'd be like, do you want ifyou want to do this, go to page
120? You want to do that? Good.
Whatever, right? Yeah, greatbooks. Well, and then there's
different outcomes. I feel likeso often, in my own heart, in my
own life, and I know, plenty ofus do this is I kind of act as
if that's the way the Lordworks, too. Right? Is okay, now
(06:46):
it's your choice, you bettermake a choice. And I hope you
don't make the wrong one. If youmake the wrong one, you're not
you're outside of my will. Andnow you're totally screwed, and
everything, nothing's going towork for you, right? And you're
gonna be living in this terriblecondition, and everything's
gonna be awful until you getback to the right page. And
that's not how it works. I mean,that's not what Scripture
teaches us is true. They exactlywhat you said, it's not this,
(07:08):
choose your own adventure. It'slike, no, within the confines of
this book, The here's the rules.
If you want to be in this book,and you want to play this game,
you've got to be holy, likeChrist is holy, you've got to
live for the Lord, You've got toput Him first, above all things,
you've got to serve and loveother people and sacrifice for
them. If you do those things,you get to be in this book. And
you get to make choices becausethe Lord gave you a rational
(07:29):
mind. So use it to make choicesand go in a direction. And it's
not this, Oh, you went to thewrong page. Too bad to start
over. Right? Like, that's nothow this actually works. But I
do you think that we can becomeso scared, and we get so stuck
to make a decision? I'm talkingto autobiographically. Right? So
(07:49):
stuck to make a decision?
Because exactly what you said,it's like, well, I want to make
the right one. And at least forme, what tends to happen, and
then jump in. But what tends tohappen for me is when I just
don't have clarity, I ended updoing nothing. I just kind of
waste time, because I'm like, Idon't know what to do. So I
guess I'll just do nothing.
Yeah, right.
Tyler Wilson (08:10):
That's, yeah, those books, like the best. And
I think that that are the bestbecause they feast on the
original sin and our desire todictate what the outcome is,
like now that they're doing thatto little kids. And that we were
thinking that deeply when wewere 10 years old, reading those
books, and turn to page 72. Youfell off the cliff and died and
(08:32):
Exactly. The other outcome, thenyes,
Garrett Maroon (08:34):
don't do that in life. Don't go to page 72 out of
10. Yeah. What are we earning?
Yeah.
Tyler Wilson (08:40):
But that's why we get so I mean, truly, that's the
I think the source of beinghamstrung in those moments of, I
don't know what to do, like, Ihave to make the perfect
decision. Well, if you're makingthe decision outside of the
framework of God, then it'sgoing to be wrong. If you're
making the decision within thetrust in His provision, then
it's right, no matter what, likethat's the binary nature of
(09:01):
right and wrong decisions. Andso, but so much of our core, and
the way that we've been taughtand conditioned, and what we see
around us is to an original sinis to drive the outcome. I mean,
that's not a bad thing. Likewe're not again, disclaimer,
we're not preaching Jesus takethe wheel like that's, like we
have to, we're called to beexcellent at what we do, and to
(09:22):
champion that, but so much, ifin our core, we're torn up over
the decision that we're going tomake because we think that it
ultimately dictates the outcome,and that our identity or the
success there of the decisionthat we make is based on our
actions, then we're lookingthrough the wrong lens. We're
looking we're looking at makingdecisions through how we can
(09:43):
drive what we're trying to getto, rather than making the
decisions through the lens ofhow do we honor and pursue the
Lord better and better andbetter and more consistently and
more freely. The Lord the Lordcreated us to be free. He has to
have listened to that Arden forus to rule over and to have
total dominion and authorityover for our good and for His
(10:05):
glory and for us to partner withestablishing a thriving kingdom
for his namesake. But when thatwasn't enough for us, right,
simply put, that's the gospel.
And then here we are today stilldoing the same thing, just on
micro cosmic layers of that overand over and over again. I mean,
I love what you're in so much ofit is because we're conditioned
to what's going on around us thedefinitions of, of living freely
(10:27):
are pursuing the right thingsthey get. So they get so muddied
up, they get so clouded like,even this morning, Chelsea and
I, we had our prayer timetogether, and we ended up
usually talking for an hour andlike, barely get into prayer,
because that's just like, theone time that we get to sit
down, distraction of diving intothings but like, yesterday, our
(10:49):
pastor taught on the Sabbath,and the premise of the Sabbath,
and what does that look like.
And so one, something profoundthat he taught us was that
creation. And obviously, we knowthe story of creation that the
world, everything established init heavens in the earth,
everything that abides in it wascreated for six days, on the
(11:10):
seventh day God rested. So thatthe creation story is all of
this build up to what life issupposed to look like as the
Sabbath like that, that all ofthis creation goes into a life
that we are destined to live ina state of like, of Sabbath of
rest and total peace in what Godhas created for us. But even in
(11:31):
just like our legalistic nature,and in what we think as humans
who are setting goals andmotivated and trying to do the
right thing, I need to havesomething that I can hang on to,
we have to have will tell me,Pastor tell me book, what does
the Sabbath look like, you know,on Sundays, I can't do any of
(11:52):
this. I just got to, you know,sit around, and I'd spend time
with my family. That's allgreat. That's awesome. But like,
Take, for example, yesterday, Itook my son. And we went and
vacuumed all of the chewed gumand Fig Newtons out of Chelsea's
van, to celebrate her and to saythank you to her. And I taught
my son what it looks like tohonor his mom and to serve her.
(12:15):
And to be thankful for the vanthat he has to be able to drive
around in like, that's literallymanual labor that I'm teaching
him into, but in the piece andthe rest that the Lord provides
us from a Sabbath definition.
Like that was so restful to me,you know, that was so restful to
him that we got to spin thosebones together. So I'm getting a
little bit off on a tangenthere. But I'm saying the point
(12:35):
of this purpose, what we'retalking about now is so much of
our purpose. We allow to beinfluenced by the people around
us. We allow to be influenced bythe measures of the world. This
is not new stuff that we'resaying. But when we are making
decisions on what we're going todo vocationally, there's that
word, what we're going to dovocationally what we're going to
(12:56):
do with our family, how we'regoing to live our church life,
all of the most important thingsin our life, we should be making
those decisions through the lensof what it looks like to pursue
the Lord. And not a matter ofhow we're driving the outcome.
We just need to be really clearon how we're making decision
again, through which lens we aremaking that decision and, and
(13:17):
that's the only binary nature ofthe fork in the road is through
which way are we justifying thedecision or making the decision
and if that's the right one,then you can't be wrong.
Garrett Maroon (13:31):
Too many agents are feeling the weight of
inauthentic action. Too manyagents are bogged down with bad
clients and ignoring theirfamilies. Too many agents are
waking up each day stepping intothe hamster wheel and chasing an
unending cycle. Well, it's timeto step into something greater
my friends and fellow agents.
That's why we introduced thefaithful agent group coaching,
(13:51):
if you've desire to know yourGod given gifts and how to use
those to build a God honoringbusiness, or if you longed to be
challenged, encouraged andtaught by other brothers and
sisters in Christ, who know notonly your work, but also your
heart. Reach out to us for acall. We'd love to show you the
power of a group of like mindedbelievers coming together to
(14:14):
become more excellent in theirwork and their faith. If you
want to learn more visitfaithful agent.com backslash
chat to grab a time to talk withme. Now back to the show. I feel
like there's this, this ideathat when we are we can become
so fearful in this chooser andadventure we become so fearful
(14:37):
of making the wrong decisionthat we think if we make this
wrong decision that theconsequences just an explosion
back in our face, right? It'seither that and so we're so
hesitant to make a decisionbecause we're afraid that it's
either that or juxtaposed withthis No I've there's freedom in
Christ and there's so much grayso I'm just gonna do a bunch of
(14:57):
stuff not even thinking aboutconsequence. CES, right? And we
tend to, at least in my ownlife, I tend to operate in one
of those two extremes, whereit's, I trust the Lord, He's
gonna take care of me, and he'sgonna make what I do good. So
I'm just gonna go do something,right, which I know is the title
of the book, but doing it notwith the thought of how do I
honor the Lord? How do I loveChrist and love Jesus in this,
(15:17):
but doing it because I'm like, Ijust need to do something. So
I'm gonna go do it. Becausethat's my nature is I don't want
to sit around and think about,I'm just gonna go do something.
That's absolutely my nature. Andso I just expect the Lord to
make it good. As opposed toremember, wait a minute, though,
man, there are consequences fordishonouring the Lord and not
not living within exactly whatPastor the youngest talking
(15:38):
about living in the context ofbeing holy and loving Jesus.
And, and those are my pay toplay things. But the opposite of
that is which I often sit in aswell, as I was talking about as
I sit there, and I don't doanything, because I'm like,
Yeah, because if I do the wrongthing, it's gonna blow up in my
face. And but that's not how theLord works, either. He's not,
he's not vindictive. He's notit. That's not what he does. And
(16:00):
he certainly wouldn't have sentHis only Son to pay the penalty
for our sin, just to then punishus for making a wrong decision.
Because we make wrong decisionsall the time. I do things wrong
all the time. And yet, he isgracious to us on that. And so I
think we've got to find, where'sthat? Where's that middle ground
of freedom, like you've talkedabout? And for agents, as we're
(16:22):
talking about this, excuse me,for real estate agents for
business owners. I think toooften, we sit around and either
A, we sit there and don't doanything, we're not as excellent
as we should be. Because we'resitting around like, I don't
want to do the wrong thing,which often is a cover up for
not doing anything, right? Well,why aren't you doing anything?
Well, because I don't want to dothe wrong thing. That's stupid,
(16:43):
go do something. Right? Or weare the people that say we're
Oh, you know, I remember when Istarted to read and learn and
grow and do all these things.
And so I had gotten all thismindset of the world in my head,
honestly, I'm reading all thebooks and listen to all the
podcasts. I mean, it was insanehow much I was putting in my
brain. And it was firing me upat man, what I turned into was
(17:06):
this rocket ship that just wentfull speed ahead without
understanding or the seeking ofthe what does the Lord desire
for me in this not tell meexactly what I'm supposed to do
Lord here, because that's nothow this works. But with the
understanding of am I can I dothis and look like Christ? When
(17:26):
I do this? How do I reflect whoJesus is or what he's done? For
me, it was just, I'm gonna gofull steam ahead broke because I
live in grace. And that means Icould do whatever I want. Right?
It was kind of this cage stagewhere I just was unleashed,
right. And so I think that we'vegot to come back as agents and
recognize the business ownersand people in general, but as
(17:48):
business owners to say, thefirst question is, whose kingdom
Am I living in? Is it mine? Oris it the Lord? Right? Because
I, I think if we're honest withourselves, and most of the time,
it's my kingdom. And if it's mykingdom, then I get to do what I
want. I get to set the goalsthat I want. I get to aim to try
(18:08):
to make as much money as I wantbecause I want it because it'll
buy me X, Y, and Z and I can seecomfort in this life and blah,
blah blah. But if we go beforethe Lord and say, Lord, make
this your kingdom today, beforewe got on this podcast, I was
praying with this part aboutthis podcast right? How do we
become more excellent in thisand literally praying Lord, did
David's prayer after he cheatswith Bathsheba right and get
(18:31):
your Ico created me a cleanheart? I can't do it myself.
Lord, create in me a cleanheart. And then I'm allow me,
Father to just seek Your gloryabove all things. You're not
going to tell me exactly whathow to do that with this podcast
and blah, blah, blah. But you'regonna say seek Me first. And if
I do that, then I can just go dosomething with the show. And do
(18:56):
it to the best of my abilitybecause that will honor him and
his pastor Jung says I am thenin the will of God. I want to
read this one more excerptbecause I want your takeaway in
this. He says there's three waysto access wisdom. Number one,
read the Bible responsibly.
Number two, seek wise counselfrom others. And number three,
pray for illumination wisdom,and what you already know is
(19:17):
God's will. What do you thinkabout that?
Tyler Wilson (19:22):
I think it's really good. First of all the
the turning back real quick, youtalking about this rocket ship,
this total Grace phase where youcan just go do whatever you
want. That's the least ReformedBaptist thing I've ever heard
you say it's so not not you atall. But
Garrett Maroon (19:38):
it was it was years ago. Oh, gosh. Okay, now
we'll walk that back. That'sright. Imagine how bad it was.
If I'm better now. It was prettybad. And
Tyler Wilson (19:47):
listeners if you only knew Garrett, a decade ago,
you
Garrett Maroon (19:51):
would not be part of this. I would not be
married. Absolutely. The
Tyler Wilson (19:58):
so too. Whoo, get back on track here and thinking
about the sources of wisdom andclarity, the
Garrett Maroon (20:05):
Bible responsibly, seek wise counsel
from others pray forillumination wisdom, and what
you already know is God's will,I
Tyler Wilson (20:11):
think are so good.
And obviously align withScripture. And I think that
they're really hard to do. Andone, because we get no way. And
because so often, if we'rereally honest with ourselves,
and we think about when we'retrying to make a big decision,
we we use the Lord's word, andin Scripture, and we use
(20:32):
affirmations from other people.
And we use things that we knowwisdom that we have. So each of
those three things we use, weuse them out of context, to
justify the outcome that we wantto constantly. And that's
heresy. I mean, simply put, totake the to take the Lord's word
out of context and use it tojustify a fleshly desire is sin.
(20:56):
And we do it all the time. I doit all the time. I mean, I would
say all the time, but like, Istruggle with that, and that's
something that we all need to besanctified. And that's just
reality, which is why, for thesecond part, you need people to
hold you accountable, that aregoing to tell you the truth,
that aren't just going to tellyou what you want to hear, say
yes to everything that you have.
But that requires you beinghonest, and how you filter who
you let into your inner circle,and speak truth into your life.
(21:18):
And then lastly, I mean,screening wisdom, things that
you know, to be true, that'sjust accountability, and being
just crystal clear on thefoundations that you are
building your decision making onfoundations that you're building
your life on. If it's not thefoundations of Scripture, then
then you're not doing it theright way. But to speak a little
(21:38):
practically, or to speak alittle practicality into this
conversation of identifyingpurpose, making decisions in the
vein of purpose. I mean, Ireally believe that there is a
combination of knowing who youare like that the way that the
Lord made you the things thatyou're really good at, and
(21:59):
getting clear on that by that'sthat again, that's that it's an
oversimplification, I know thatthat's hard to do. But that that
is something that we all need todo, you know, figuring out,
getting really clear, maybe noton what we think we're good at.
But what we actually are, andthat's a combination of taking
time to be self reflective, andalso just getting affirmation
(22:20):
from the people that are closestto you, from people or maybe
even people that aren't theclosest to you, like, have you
ever heard somebody that come upto you and, you know, to say,
like, Man, that was reallyencouraging, like you, you know,
you being honest about that,like really encouraged me, or
spoke truth into my life and youknow, an impact at something or,
you know, man, you're justreally your energy, the energy
(22:40):
that you bring every day like itlifts me up, like I'm, I don't
have that and whatever, whateverlittle word it is, whatever
affirmation that you're getting,like, listen to it. You know,
like there's, there's somethingthat when you if you're not
pretending, or trying to dosomething, and you just do it,
and people are encouraged by itlike that's, that's a gift that
the Lord has given you. So don'tignore that. I confess to each
(23:04):
of you listening right now thatthat's something that I have
ignored for a very long time inmy life. And in part because
I've just let it stroke mypersonal pride, and say, like,
oh, that's just like somethingthat, you know, I do really
well. And that's a confession.
But like, also, in part, becauseI'm just ignoring for a long
(23:24):
time, I really ignored the waythat the Lord has made me or the
gifts that He has given me, andhow to implement them into
growing his kingdom. I just knewthat it was something that maybe
I could do, I could turn togglethe switch on and off whenever I
wanted to, rather thanrecognizing that that's
something that's a source or agift that I should be
implementing into what I do allthe time.
Garrett Maroon (23:46):
And let me let me jump in sorry, real quick,
because I think that thatexactly is this idea is not my
idea. But the idea of, Am Iliving in My Kingdom or the
Lord's kingdom and being honestabout that? Because if you're
like, Well, I'm living in mykingdom, then yeah, I should
stroke your ego, because you'rethe king. You're the one that's
in charge, you're the best thereis. But if we're living in the
Lord's kingdom, then all of itshould reflect to say, hey,
(24:07):
praise God, that he gave me asmall part of his character. And
others see that as excellence,right or others see the fact
that I can encourage them. Well,that's not me, bro. That is part
of the Lord's character that hehas chosen to give me for
whatever reason, and praise Godfor that. It's not my kingdom.
He's it's his kingdom. Hereceives the glory for that. And
(24:30):
anyway, sorry, no, it's
Tyler Wilson (24:31):
right. seek it out. So like, you're seeing that
eye, open your ears, like openup your ears, your eyes, all of
your senses, but definitely yourears in terms of what you're
hearing from people from anencouragement perspective, and
lean into that like seek it out.
And I'm seeing here sitting heresaying that like GE knows this
intimately, obviously. But thishas been a this has been a years
(24:53):
if not decades long. Pursuit ofme that it didn't listening to
the affirmation that I've heardfrom other people is something
that I heard but I just likestuffed down and Woodberry away
because it didn't jive with whoI thought I was supposed to be
in the framework of the world. Ifelt that I was supposed to live
a life that looked like xbecause of, you know, some of
(25:14):
the other talents that the Lordhad blessed me with. And so the
affirmation that I was hearinglike, the voices that were
profound, like constantlyspeaking over me that I was
choosing to ignore. I mean, it'sdisobedience. Like it's blatant
disobedience that I had toconfess. And in truth, like it's
Geno's, it's been like superuncomfortable for me for months
(25:36):
now, like once I've let it kindof boil up to the tip of my
tongue. And then like, I use theimage, like I set it on the
corner of the table. And likeI'd let people sometimes, like
glimpse into it, and then maybespeak into it a little bit more.
Now I've kind of moved it to thecenter of the table, we start
talking about it a little bitmore. And there is just so much
freedom that comes when you stoptrying to be who you think
(25:58):
you're supposed to be like whenyou just stop trying to fit
yourself into this mold thatyou've built in your mind that
has been shaped by the ongoingsof the world around you, which
we all do it. Everybody does it.
If they say that they don't doit, they're a liar. And it takes
I mean, here, I'm sitting here,34 years old, feeling like I've
(26:20):
finally unpacked itfractionally, like just taking
the lid off of what it starts tounpack, to truly live a life
that's filled with purpose. Andit starts the first step is
truly the definition of how tolive the life with purpose. That
is not that I'm not the king,and that honoring the Lord, my
God, my king is the king likethat. I mean, we all know that.
(26:42):
We all know that. Like if we'reif we call ourselves Christians,
we would say that we know that.
But there's a difference inknowing
Garrett Maroon (26:48):
it and knowing it, right? Yeah, I read this
morning, somebody to the extentof like, it's really easy to
ascend to mental, what he saylike a mental understanding of
God, and his theology. And whathe teaches us is very difficult
to actually live it. That'sright. And that's so true. And I
(27:09):
think that at the end of theday, as we talk about as Asians,
as people, what is my purpose inthis business? What is the
Lord's already? What is healready told you? That should be
the first response? What does Healready said in His scripture?
What is he already told us? It'sread the Bible responsibly is
(27:29):
number one, three ways to accesswisdom. So go seek that out.
First. I was having aconversation with someone
recently, it was actually abouta relationship they had. And
they said, Hey, what do youthink about this? What's your
opinion? And I said, Well, whatdoes the Bible say? And they
weren't sure. And so we walkedthrough it. They're like, Oh,
wow, I need to do somethingabout them. Right? Why? Because
the Bible told already gaveinformation that already
(27:53):
existed. I've got a mentor,Butch Joyce, who's an incredible
man, who has been anentrepreneur for 40 years loves
Jesus. And what he when he toldme, this was years ago, when I'm
reading this, reading all thesebooks and my cage states, right?
reading all these books, allthese things, I'm this rocket
ship that's on fire. I said,Hey, what are your what are the
best books you've ever read?
Whatever. And he said, You knowwhat, Garrett, this was an
(28:13):
Armstrong said, You know what,Garrett? When I got deeper and
more mature in my faith, when itcame to matters of business, I
mostly just read the Bible. AndI was like, what, what about all
these other good books, and youknow, all the things it's like,
it's not that I didn'toccasionally read those. But I
went to the source of what wastrue. And I went to where I knew
that everything I read wasright, and true, and godly and
(28:34):
biblical. And I made decisionsthat way. And I remember
thinking, Man, that is not whatI'm doing. And so you're seeking
wisdom in your business? Whatdoes scripture say? You are
trying to decide whether youshould go show houses Sunday
morning, or go to church withyour family? Well, what does
scripture tell you about that?
(28:56):
You're trying to decide whetheryou should build your business
in a way that honors the Lord,or if you should just get as big
as you can, as quick as you canand make as much money as you
can? Well, what does scripturesay about that? Right? I think
if we just start there, thenexactly what you said to one of
the reasons we care about thiscommunity that we're that we
have, and we're actively seekingto grow local groups so we can
(29:19):
help you identify where theother believers are in your area
in real estate, is to seek wisecounsel from others now wise
counsel, right. If you meetsomeone and you're like, That
person doesn't know what they'retalking about. That's not wise.
Counsel, wise counsel is counselthat points you back to
Scripture. Right? So seek thatout. And then finally, pray for
(29:40):
illumination wisdom, and whatyou already know, is God's will.
To me that means Lord, I'mwrestling with this reveal to me
what you've already said istrue. So that I could do I could
obey. What you've told me that Icould have put aside this
passivity that I have in person.
sue you and, and go after you,right and love Jesus and be holy
(30:02):
as you call me and live for You,Lord, not just sit here and do
nothing. Give me wisdom and whatthat looks like. And I think,
agents people doesn't matter whowe are, but and our business,
there are so many things thatare thrown at us. A big part of
our confusion. For me, at leasta big part of my lack of
(30:23):
clarity, is that I'm not in aplace where I have one thing I
could do, I'm in a place where Icould do 100 things, and all of
them seem good, right? And we'rekind of pulled in a million
different directions, were givena million different piece of
pieces of advice. And so we aresusceptible in huge ways. Think
about your own life agent, asyou listen to me too. We are
(30:45):
susceptible to sitting there andnot doing anything, right?
Because we're just hoping orsitting there waiting, if I make
the wrong choice, what's goingto happen, or we just go and do
everything, without any claritywithout any thought of how does
this honor the Lord agents,we've got to sit and be still
before the Lord and read theBible responsibly, first and
(31:06):
foremost. And then as we seekeach day to live for the Lord,
to honor Him, to love Jesus tobe holy, as he is holy, then,
and only then should we take thefreedom to go live in a way that
the Lord has put in front of us.
That's where the freedom comesfrom. When we first do those
(31:27):
things, Freedom doesn't start.
When your day starts, Freedomstarts after you've hit your
knees, you've been in prayer,and you've been in the word to
seek out what the Lord has, whothe Lord has said he is and how
we can submit to him today.
That's my encouragement. For us.
It's there's a lot going on inthis world, there's a lot coming
at us as agents is yes, go dosomething have freedom in that
(31:48):
exactly. You said t but alsoseek and understand, Lord, where
is that fence? Because I don'twant to go outside of him. And I
need clarity to do those things.
Man, we we hope this has been ahelpful discussion. We're trying
to figure it out ourselves. Andso if you know the answer, then
call us because I'd really liketo know exactly how this works.
(32:09):
But I think at the end of theday, it is the encouragement
when you're trying to understandyour purpose. This, the Bible
already says a lot about it.
Right? Go do these things belike Christ. That's your
purpose, first and foremost. Andthen after that, there's freedom
in that. But T What do youthink, man? Take us out buddy,
Tyler Wilson (32:28):
man, also good.
And I think that the last, thisisn't anything that we haven't
repeated on the podcast again,but I think applies when you're
the balance of being in those1000s millions of acres of
freedom to go and play butdiscerning, seeking wisdom first
when you make a decision is toremember that when you're saying
yes to something, you're sayingno to something else, and that
(32:49):
we're finite, that we're notperfect, that you're being
sanctified constantly. Andremember that there is freedom
and making your decisions whenthey are made in the framework
of what Scripture teaches youand calls you into so be
intentional with how you spendyour time you're a gift, your
creation, you're made in theimage of God. So value the time
(33:10):
that you have and value thepeople that the Lord's put in
your life value therelationships that are most
important in the hierarchy thathe establishes it first with
being a relationship with Him,then your spouse and your
family, your church, prioritizethose. And so may your yeses be
yeses and your nose be nose asyou guys go out forward. So they
flow agents. Thanks forlistening. As always, we're
(33:33):
grateful for you. We're hopeyou're encouraged and we pray
that you're excellent and allthat you do as you leave here
today.
Garrett Maroon (33:44):
Hey, faithful agents. Thank you so much for
tuning into today's episode. Ihope it encouraged you to both
grow your business and yourfaith. And as always, make sure
you share this episode with afriend who you think would be
encouraged by it and join us onour Facebook group. If you
aren't there yet to cometogether with the other faithful
agents around the country. Justgo to facebook.com and search
(34:04):
the faithful agent. And if youwant to be encouraged more
locally, because after all localgroups is where the real growth
and change happens. Go tofaithful agent.com backslash
local groups to check out whatwe've got going on. And if there
isn't a group near you, you canreach out to us right there. And
tell us you're interested instarting your own. Thank you as
(34:25):
always for tuning into thisepisode. We hope to see you next
week.
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