Speaker 1: Thanks for watching and listening to the Win Loved Leads Podcast.
Speaker 1: You'll be hearing today from some of our special guests
Speaker 1: as they share with you stories of faith at work.
Speaker 1: You can help more people find out about the podcast
Speaker 1: by liking us on social media pages like Facebook and LinkedIn.
Speaker 1: Now join us as we explore people of faith at work.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Welcome once again to the Win Love Leads Podcast. Rick
Speaker 1: and I are joined today by Justin Brown. Justin Welcome,
Speaker 1: where are you today?
Speaker 2: Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. I'm
Speaker 2: a heel billy. I'm from the heels of East Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Bill.
Speaker 3: A quick primer for you and our guest is Justin
Speaker 3: and I have been friends for a couple of years.
Speaker 3: I've been on his podcast, and I couldn't think of
Speaker 3: anybody I'd rather have on ours than Justin's.
Speaker 2: Thank you have me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well, Justin, tell us about yourself. For people who don't
Speaker 1: know you, who is Justin Brown?
Speaker 2: Justin Brown is just like the name sounds. It sounds
Speaker 2: so common. It sounds like an a list, like I'm
Speaker 2: a bank robber on the run or somebody on the
Speaker 2: road from the lill that's changed my name to this
Speaker 2: common thing. I'm just a normal nine to five guy.
Speaker 2: I'm a factory rat most of my life and raising
Speaker 2: a family and kids, going to work and paying my bills,
Speaker 2: paying my taxes and coming home and rents and repeat.
Speaker 2: You know, there's nothing really special about me whatsoever. But
Speaker 2: I grew up in church my whole life and read
Speaker 2: the Bible and was always fascinated with the Word of God.
Speaker 2: I was that annoying kid in Sunday school asking one
Speaker 2: hundred questions, getting on the teacher's nerves. And of course
Speaker 2: I went through my teenage years, I went into rebellion.
Speaker 2: I know nobody's ever done that. But I made my
Speaker 2: way back to God in my early twenties and I
Speaker 2: started just finding all these treasures in the Word of
Speaker 2: God that I just looked over my entire life and
Speaker 2: started making my way and getting getting all the crap
Speaker 2: out of my life and ended up through that journey
Speaker 2: just found podcasting. And this has been my thing for
Speaker 2: uh probe past two and a half years, and it's
Speaker 2: just something that I've dove into and just really enjoy
Speaker 2: I love having these conversations like we're having today and
Speaker 2: digging through the word of God and finding those treasures.
Speaker 2: That's just me. I'm just a regular old guy like
Speaker 2: everybody else, but just loves to talk.
Speaker 3: Well, tell us a little bit about your family justin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my wife is and as Rebecca, got two kids,
Speaker 2: Jackson and Kyla. Kyla seventeen. She's now senior in high school.
Speaker 2: Uh so she's actually doing well enough to get early graduation.
Speaker 2: My son's fifteen. He's just getting his driver's ermit. So
Speaker 2: look out everybody if you're in the East Tennessee area.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's that's my that's my little try.
Speaker 1: But justin, talk to us about how you have both
Speaker 1: thought through and actually done integrating rather than compartmentalizing your
Speaker 1: faith in the workplace and your family life and your community.
Speaker 1: And what does it look like for you.
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's I love the whole idea and I've just
Speaker 2: recently come to terms with it. It's a process, and
Speaker 2: it is being saved and going to be saved because
Speaker 2: God meets us all where we're at. And it's a
Speaker 2: process of slowly weeding out that garden and walking with
Speaker 2: God and allowing the Holy Spirit to clean all that
Speaker 2: stuff up out of your life and with me. I
Speaker 2: always seen it as I'm just not good enough. And
Speaker 2: I see all these people in church and man, they
Speaker 2: got their act together, and man, will I ever get there?
Speaker 2: And I have to do X y Z to please God?
Speaker 2: And just personally, I put a lot of burden and
Speaker 2: heavyweight on my shoulders that was really unnecessary, and as
Speaker 2: I got older, for me personally, the spirit of Christ
Speaker 2: is just a spirit of humility. Every time that I
Speaker 2: have an experience with the Holy Spirit, it is humbling.
Speaker 2: It's just like I've never been a really judgmental person,
Speaker 2: but it actually makes me see how ugly, how messed
Speaker 2: up I am, how far I got to go. I'm
Speaker 2: definitely a lot better than what I used to be
Speaker 2: and where I was, but I still got a long
Speaker 2: way to go. So I just try my best in
Speaker 2: my workplace and in my daily life to just to
Speaker 2: show love and humility. And I know I fail every
Speaker 2: day Romans eight, But to just be an image bearer
Speaker 2: of Christ.
Speaker 1: Your your comment about judge, judging and and love and
Speaker 1: being forgiven in Christ reminded me of Jesus' words in
Speaker 1: Luke Southern that the one who is forgiven much loves much,
Speaker 1: and the one who's forgiven little loves little, and when
Speaker 1: we consider our own forgiveness, it transforms transforms our perspective
Speaker 1: on other people.
Speaker 3: That's quite a contrast act justin because I think there's
Speaker 3: sort of a common perspective that as people grow more
Speaker 3: and more, the danger that comes along with that is
Speaker 3: to grow more and more in your judgment of others,
Speaker 3: as you're comparing your goodness to the lack of goodness
Speaker 3: in others. But your point is so good that in reality,
Speaker 3: as we're growing closer to Christ, we're actually becoming more
Speaker 3: aware of just how deep our sin goes and how
Speaker 3: much we are forgiven. How would a factory worker see
Speaker 3: God in the workplace?
Speaker 2: Honestly? And it's funny because your experience dictates your worldview.
Speaker 2: And that's because many people that I've had encounters with
Speaker 2: in the workplace have been those image bearers of Christ
Speaker 2: and influenced me. I've seen God work through people when
Speaker 2: I was honestly coming back to Christ in my life.
Speaker 2: I was working at this particular place, and God moved
Speaker 2: me into this position. And everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 2: God puts you where you're at for a season, for
Speaker 2: a purpose. You just have to lean in and say yes.
Speaker 2: And usually it's in hindsight that you see God's hand.
Speaker 2: But where I worked at there was all these different facilities,
Speaker 2: and there was this one facility that everybody wanted to
Speaker 2: go to, and it was in chemical compounding and plastics.
Speaker 2: They called it Gilligan's Island. It was this little bitty
Speaker 2: what't little bitty, but it was just a compared to
Speaker 2: the whole factory itself. It was a little significantly smaller,
Speaker 2: but it was a huge tower and so all the
Speaker 2: chemicals and stuff would get mixed there, and there was
Speaker 2: this tower that had an air conditioned control room. You know,
Speaker 2: you got dirty and it was hard work, but you
Speaker 2: had a lot of sit downtime, you had air conditioner.
Speaker 2: And now only had like five or six employees. So
Speaker 2: when the job opened up there, everybody wanted to go there.
Speaker 2: And I'd only been there a few years, and there
Speaker 2: was people that worked there for ten years trying to
Speaker 2: get into that compound department and couldn't get in. But
Speaker 2: I was like, hey, I'm going to apply. I want
Speaker 2: to put my name in the hat. And I did
Speaker 2: and I was selected, and then I got put with
Speaker 2: this guy and without mentioning his name my first impression,
Speaker 2: and this is when I was first coming back to Christ.
Speaker 2: So this guy was, for lack of a better term,
Speaker 2: he was a holy roly. He didn't curse, he quoted
Speaker 2: scripture often. He was at church every town, doors open,
Speaker 2: and I grew to love this man. But my first
Speaker 2: impression was like, he's one of those judgy suit and
Speaker 2: tie guys. I'm going to have to watch myself anything
Speaker 2: I say or do, he's going to look down on me.
Speaker 2: But as I got to but I got partnered with him,
Speaker 2: and so it was only two guys each shift. So
Speaker 2: I got partnered with him, and throughout the nights man
Speaker 2: we would have these discussions. And like I said, I
Speaker 2: grew up in church and I knew the scripture and stuff,
Speaker 2: but I was still coming to terms and coming back,
Speaker 2: and he really witnessed to me, and he changed my
Speaker 2: mind on a lot of things, taught me a lot
Speaker 2: of things. And I seen a lot of people do
Speaker 2: some dirty things to this man, and he always took
Speaker 2: it with a smile and never got angry at nobody.
Speaker 2: And I remember I talked to him and I just
Speaker 2: do like, man, why don't you say something? Why didn't
Speaker 2: you do that you let people run over you? And
Speaker 2: he was like, no, he said, not accountable for what
Speaker 2: these people do to me. He said, I'm accountable for
Speaker 2: what I do. I have tons of little stories of
Speaker 2: just how that man and how he walked and how
Speaker 2: he lived had just a profound effect on me and
Speaker 2: brought me back into a relationship with God a lot
Speaker 2: faster and taught me a lot of a good lesson.
Speaker 2: So I can't remember who said it, but my wife
Speaker 2: used to quote it all the time, and it's kind
Speaker 2: of stuck with me. But it was a preach of
Speaker 2: gospel wherever you go and occasionally speak, and I was like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, so so many times this wicked thing just
Speaker 2: ruins up our witness to Christ instead of helping. But
Speaker 2: that was probably looking back, one of the first things
Speaker 2: is just that's how I see God in the workplace
Speaker 2: is through people and their testimony and how they react
Speaker 2: and things. And that's something I look back now, it's like, man,
Speaker 2: I really screwed that up a lot of times.
Speaker 3: Well, join the club. It's a big club too, justin,
Speaker 3: isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful thing when that God always takes crooked
Speaker 1: sticks and manages to draw straight lines with crooked stick.
Speaker 3: Yes, he does. And that that reference your wife was
Speaker 3: referring to. I think there's some some question whether for
Speaker 3: Saint Francis of ASSISI actually said it or not, but
Speaker 3: he's kind of given attribution for making that statement. Preach,
Speaker 3: preach a gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.
Speaker 3: How do you feel like you've demonstrated that in the workplace?
Speaker 3: Can you think of any examples yourself?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but honestly, I can give you more bad examples.
Speaker 1: That's how good.
Speaker 2: But no, Once I, you know, I went through that,
Speaker 2: and then I ended up going into other workplaces and
Speaker 2: stuff that really kind of stuck with me. And and
Speaker 2: I guess I can give his first name because it
Speaker 2: kind of goes with this little joke I want to give.
Speaker 2: But his name was Chuck. And so it was like,
Speaker 2: once I got older and figured everything out, I would
Speaker 2: ask myself a certain situation, what would Jesus do? Well,
Speaker 2: I applied it to Chuck, like with what would Chuck do?
Speaker 2: Because that, you know, Chuck was something that I had
Speaker 2: firsthand experience with. But honestly, I've tried to just open
Speaker 2: some people in the workplace and be my best version
Speaker 2: of an imaguer of Christ. And so like with people
Speaker 2: through work and people have problems and you spend ninety
Speaker 2: percent of your time at your job and you get
Speaker 2: to form relationships with people, and the world is it's
Speaker 2: just everybody's stuck in their bubble. And I mean, it
Speaker 2: is a wicked place. But I like to think that
Speaker 2: most people are genuinely good people and they're they're carrying people.
Speaker 2: But we get so involved in our own little bubble.
Speaker 2: It's like the mouse on the wheel. We're too busy
Speaker 2: running and spending our will to look around and be
Speaker 2: attentive and help others and things like that. So it's
Speaker 2: like when you get to form these relationships with people,
Speaker 2: they will they'll confide in you about things that got
Speaker 2: going on in their life, and even non believers, and
Speaker 2: so try to listen and show sympathy and show them
Speaker 2: that I genuinely care about their situation and try to
Speaker 2: give the best biblically sound advice that I can, and
Speaker 2: especially with non believers, because honestly, I have actually witnessed
Speaker 2: to people that were hardcore atheists, I mean, like blatant,
Speaker 2: like angry, did not believe in God, didn't want to
Speaker 2: talk about God, and I would like to think I
Speaker 2: don't want to take credit, but i'd like to think
Speaker 2: but through some of my dialogue and witnessing to them
Speaker 2: at least soften the ground for Christ to come in.
Speaker 2: Then they end up turning their life over to God
Speaker 2: because I use those as basically bank transactions, is how
Speaker 2: I explained it to people. It's like too many times
Speaker 2: us as Christians, we go up to people, and you know,
Speaker 2: we're quick to go up to people and chastise them
Speaker 2: and belit them and kind of come over the top
Speaker 2: of them. And granted they might be doing stuff wrong,
Speaker 2: not living their life right, but nobody's going to listen
Speaker 2: to somebody scream and pointing their finger and belittle on them.
Speaker 2: And so I tell people, you've got to treat people
Speaker 2: like bank accounts. You can't just walk up to a
Speaker 2: bank and demand a withdrawal and not made any deposits
Speaker 2: or investments. They're going to turn you away and laugh
Speaker 2: at you. So people's no different. So in your daily life,
Speaker 2: just show care for people. You know, hey, how was
Speaker 2: your weekend, What did you do this week? How's the family? Well,
Speaker 2: your mother's sick with cancer. Hey, you want me to
Speaker 2: pray for it? Will you allow me to pray for her?
Speaker 2: And you see them the next week or next day, Hey,
Speaker 2: how's your mother doing? Just show concern and compassion and
Speaker 2: those are deposits in that person's account. And then once
Speaker 2: you have done that, made those deposits, then you can
Speaker 2: look into to make them withdrawals. And so because it's
Speaker 2: a lot you're in a lot better position. You can
Speaker 2: just say, hey, we're friend, I care for you, I
Speaker 2: pray for you. I have invited you over the house
Speaker 2: for lunch. And do you think what you're doing is
Speaker 2: edifying to God? Or do you think this this thing
Speaker 2: that you're doing is helping your situation because you're coming
Speaker 2: from a place of love instead of chastise what You've
Speaker 2: made several investments, So there's some actual things in there
Speaker 2: that you can pull from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Justin, you remind me of the old saying people
Speaker 1: don't care what you know until they know that you care.
Speaker 3: Well, Justin. You know, a lot of us, I think
Speaker 3: we kind of do our jobs day to day and
Speaker 3: while we might even have or sense that opportunity to
Speaker 3: be christ in the workplace, some of us feel like
Speaker 3: that's kind of all we can do. That's just about
Speaker 3: it about it, But that's not the choice you made
Speaker 3: a few years ago and you started you kind of
Speaker 3: took things to another level. I had the pleasure of
Speaker 3: being on your podcast a couple of years ago. We
Speaker 3: talked about a Christian worldview back then, and what I
Speaker 3: was really impressed with you guys then that was that
Speaker 3: you didn't just sit around and talk. You did your homework.
Speaker 3: So what that said to me was just how hard
Speaker 3: you guys were working. And so you got a job
Speaker 3: and you got this passion around the Dig podcast. Walk
Speaker 3: us through a little bit. How do you do all
Speaker 3: of this and why are you doing all this? So
Speaker 3: tell us a little bit about your passion about and
Speaker 3: about the Dig podcast.
Speaker 2: We honestly, it's one of those things I tell people.
Speaker 2: Your God is a heavenly father, and each and if
Speaker 2: you are a father, then each of your children are
Speaker 2: so different. It takes a total different way to persuade
Speaker 2: one in the other. It takes a total different way
Speaker 2: to discipline and correct one from the other. God is
Speaker 2: no different. And I would love to say that I
Speaker 2: chose to do the Dig Bible podcast because I felt
Speaker 2: it was my duty and to Christ and to help
Speaker 2: the body of Christ, and because all those are our
Speaker 2: noble and great things. And with me, I've always just
Speaker 2: been fascinated by the Word of God, and I've just
Speaker 2: loved history, and I was deep diving into these subjects
Speaker 2: on my own and studying the Word and even looking
Speaker 2: into the things that are in the Bible that you know,
Speaker 2: you don't hear about it in church. You know, the
Speaker 2: Bible is the most supernatural book in the world. It's
Speaker 2: got that I believe it has the answers to everything.
Speaker 2: So from twenty twelve to twenty twenty two, I've just
Speaker 2: been just studying and reading and deep diving this stuff,
Speaker 2: and reading the Hebrew and going back to the Greek
Speaker 2: and seeing the original languages and how these words sometimes
Speaker 2: have different meanings and it changes the context of the passage,
Speaker 2: and it does it just opens up so much more
Speaker 2: stuff and brings a better appreciation to the Word.
Speaker 3: And come on, now, justin an old fact, factory worker
Speaker 3: can't be looking to Hebrew and Greek.
Speaker 2: Now, come on, here's the thing we are without an
Speaker 2: excuse anymore. There's so many Bible apps, and one that
Speaker 2: I will shamelessly plug is Logos Bible software. If this
Speaker 2: guy that barely graduated twelfth grade can do this, you
Speaker 2: could do this. You go in there and they have
Speaker 2: these things called inner linears and you can pull up
Speaker 2: your Bible digitally on your computer, laptop, even your phone,
Speaker 2: and you can select Hebrew or Greek and it has
Speaker 2: it all in line, side by side, so you can
Speaker 2: see the words how they compare, and then even highlight
Speaker 2: them and do word searches. You know how many times
Speaker 2: this word was used, and so many times we forget
Speaker 2: to realize that these languages are no different from ours.
Speaker 2: We have one word that has four to five different meanings.
Speaker 3: So that's a great plug for logos. Bill, I think
Speaker 3: you're an equal user of Logos as I am. And
Speaker 3: we'll even in the show notes going to link there
Speaker 3: because we gain a lot of value and all that's available.
Speaker 3: They're so good plug for those guys, So keep going
Speaker 3: justin and then.
Speaker 2: What so after doing all this one day, it was
Speaker 2: just some people call it a conscience, some people call
Speaker 2: it the universe, and us we call it God the
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit. Something just hit me one day and was like,
Speaker 2: why are you doing all this? Is it just to
Speaker 2: selfishly just have all this and not share it with people.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, well, maybe I can do
Speaker 2: a small group. Maybe I can just invite fifteen to
Speaker 2: twenty people and we'll get together once or twice a
Speaker 2: month and hang out and talk about these things and
Speaker 2: study the Word of God. And I honestly had three
Speaker 2: guys show up and we had three meetings, and we
Speaker 2: talked about Mike Kaiser's of the Unseen Realm, his book,
Speaker 2: and Mike Kaiser, for those that are unfamiliar, is he's
Speaker 2: a Greek Scholar's he Ruth Galler, He's got multiple doctor's
Speaker 2: degree in ancient dead languages. When seminary just a very intelligible,
Speaker 2: knowledgeable guy, and he talks about the unseen around the
Speaker 2: supernatural world view the Bible, and the first couple chapters
Speaker 2: of that book he talks about not the one rebellion
Speaker 2: that we as Westerners focus on, the Adam and even
Speaker 2: the Garden, but he says there was three rebellions. There
Speaker 2: was the Garden, there was the Tower of Bibble, and
Speaker 2: then there was Genesis six. So we talked about those
Speaker 2: in our first three meetings and Steve was like, man,
Speaker 2: justin we need to be recording this stuff. This is profound.
Speaker 2: Other people need to hear this stuff. And I knew
Speaker 2: nothing about podcasting, and I was like, uh uh, no way.
Speaker 2: And once I actually got to looking in and seeing
Speaker 2: what podcasts were and how people were able to be
Speaker 2: face to face at least digitally and talk with these
Speaker 2: authors and these scholars and these just intelligent ten thousand
Speaker 2: hour research people and ask their questions and things like that.
Speaker 2: Now that kind of enticed me because God knows the
Speaker 2: desires of my heart and he was like, okay, justin,
Speaker 2: I can give you what you want, but you're gonna
Speaker 2: do what I want to help me. So I selfishly
Speaker 2: was like, okay, let's do this. I figured it out
Speaker 2: just to be able to talk to these guys and
Speaker 2: learn some more, and it just totally grew and just
Speaker 2: blew up. And from three rednecks in a ten garage
Speaker 2: that never touched a piece of audio equipment, don't have
Speaker 2: any alphabet suit before our name, no college degrees, are
Speaker 2: studying Greek and Hebrew and talking about the Word of
Speaker 2: God and deep diving and talking to these authors and
Speaker 2: researchers and stuff, and just really uncovering these treasures as
Speaker 2: in the Word of God, is just an amazing journey
Speaker 2: now that I can sit back and look at it,
Speaker 2: because it was one hundred percent God. There's no way
Speaker 2: three dumb rednecks from East Tennessee you can grow a
Speaker 2: podcast following up, you know almost. We're almost two years
Speaker 2: in now and we got almost two hundred thousand downloads
Speaker 2: and reaching people into India, China with the Word of God.
Speaker 3: Totally amazing. Justin and tell us the name of your podcast.
Speaker 2: Yep, it's called the dig Bible Podcast. And if that
Speaker 2: wasn't enough, I'm just a glutton for punishment. I was like, man,
Speaker 2: I need more, I need more. So I started another
Speaker 2: podcast called Prometheus Lens Podcast, and with that one is
Speaker 2: more like, how do I word it? It's ah, it
Speaker 2: is the ministry that is not a ministry because the
Speaker 2: dig I mean, if the Bible's in the name, it's
Speaker 2: more right there in your face. And the Prometheus Lens.
Speaker 2: I go into different things. I go into the wu
Speaker 2: as we call it now. I look at Bigfoot, I
Speaker 2: look at aliens. I look at conspiracy theories, lost civilization,
Speaker 2: Graham Hancocks, the weird stuff. But I filter it all
Speaker 2: through a biblical lens and the Bible. So a lot
Speaker 2: of people that listen to this show are not Christians,
Speaker 2: They're not believers, and so I get their attention with
Speaker 2: these fascinating subjects and filter it the biblical lens and
Speaker 2: a biblical worldview and show the way of Christ while
Speaker 2: I have their attention and trying to plant seeds that way,
Speaker 2: but at the same time selfishly scratching that itch that
Speaker 2: I have.
Speaker 3: Well, anybody that's listening that thinks this guy is a
Speaker 3: dumb hillbilly is not paying attention because I've watched you
Speaker 3: and Steven and Ben as you guys, and listen to
Speaker 3: you often because I'm fascinated by many of these topics too,
Speaker 3: But you just don't bring up a topic and have
Speaker 3: a superficial conversation about it. I love how you do,
Speaker 3: really do dig, both in the Prometheus Lens as well
Speaker 3: as in the Big Bible podcast. Hey, I wonder Justin
Speaker 3: if you were to think back, let's say, back up
Speaker 3: as you like to say, twenty years ago and just
Speaker 3: could kind of have a conversation with the young Justin Brown,
Speaker 3: what kind of advice would would you give him?
Speaker 2: A man? And that's a double edged sword with me
Speaker 2: because I'm an experienced guy. I think I'm a firm
Speaker 2: believer that my experience has shaped who I am today,
Speaker 2: and that if I would have changed a lot of
Speaker 2: the stuff that I went through in the past I
Speaker 2: went down, maybe I wouldn't be who I am today
Speaker 2: and doing the things that I'm doing today. But one
Speaker 2: thing for sure, in the very least I went through
Speaker 2: the mud. I tell people my story is the story
Speaker 2: of the prodigals. One hundred percent. I rolled in the
Speaker 2: pig excrement. And granted, there's some lessons to be learned
Speaker 2: from rolling in the pig excrement if you're fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to learn from it, but I didn't have to roll
Speaker 2: in it. As long as I did, I would love
Speaker 2: to just go back and tell myself that, and honestly
Speaker 2: just not even tell I guess from mind myself of
Speaker 2: something that I already knew. That you are a son
Speaker 2: of God? Are you acting like a son of God?
Speaker 2: Are you behaving like a son of God? And you
Speaker 2: have a mission, you have a purpose, you are wasting
Speaker 2: it And sorry, guys, gosh, And like I said, I
Speaker 2: learned a lot of good lessons, went through a lot
Speaker 2: of unnecessary stuff, and hurt a lot of people that
Speaker 2: I wish that I could avoid. But God takes what
Speaker 2: the devil means for harm and turns it for the
Speaker 2: glory of those who love him. So yeah, I went
Speaker 2: through a lot of sexual promiscuity. I went through a
Speaker 2: lot of drugs, a lot of manipulation, a lot of
Speaker 2: hurting people. And I hate that and would love to
Speaker 2: take that back. But God takes that and uses it
Speaker 2: for the best of the situation, for the kingdom. Because
Speaker 2: now that I do have this podcast, in this platform
Speaker 2: I do, I tell my test money often, and it
Speaker 2: is it's one of those humbling things that makes you
Speaker 2: feel too inch, it's tall, it makes you feel dirty.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, God reminds you it's not
Speaker 2: about you, it's about him. It's about the Kingdom. It's
Speaker 2: about the Body of Christ and those that are rolling
Speaker 2: in that pig extrament right now, and by hearing your story,
Speaker 2: hearing your testimony can help pull them out. And you know,
Speaker 2: with my testimony being the way that it is, I'm
Speaker 2: going to reach people that people that never done those
Speaker 2: types of things or had those experiences are not going
Speaker 2: to reach. So that's just one of those things that's
Speaker 2: the body of Christ. Some people are legs, some people
Speaker 2: are arms. Not everyone's the same. So it's like we
Speaker 2: have to use the gifts that God has given us,
Speaker 2: use the experiences that we have went through, and do
Speaker 2: our best to glorify God because there is other people
Speaker 2: just like us going through the same things that we
Speaker 2: are going through or have went through that we can help.
Speaker 3: It's exciting to hear you acknowledge where you were. I'm
Speaker 3: exciting because I'm reminded of something I heard someone say
Speaker 3: the other day that every time I think about how
Speaker 3: little I have, I try to remind myself of how
Speaker 3: much I've been given. And I don't think that any
Speaker 3: of us can avoid envy at times. And then in
Speaker 3: the same way, I don't think there's any of us
Speaker 3: that can avoid regret. And you've been so articulate justin
Speaker 3: just to recognize that the things that we most deeply
Speaker 3: regret and in a lot of ways probably should. I
Speaker 3: have so many regrets myself. Some I'm still discovering that
Speaker 3: I recognize that in spite of me, God has been
Speaker 3: gracious and generous and forgiving when I've I've done nothing
Speaker 3: to deserve any of that. Thank You for sure.
Speaker 2: What we deserve.
Speaker 1: It makes grace all that more amazing when we ponder
Speaker 1: who we are left of ourselves.
Speaker 3: Would you give any or wisdom to some of the
Speaker 3: younger folks who maybe are in their early stages of
Speaker 3: work and frustrated with life and are wondering where God
Speaker 3: is in their life?
Speaker 2: I guess with honestly, with me, something that I tried
Speaker 2: to instill into my kids. I tell the mistake take
Speaker 2: some words of advice from an old man, and it's
Speaker 2: experiences that I've had and I wish that I could
Speaker 2: change and go back. I tell them. Number one is
Speaker 2: the OQP. Only quality people. You are who you surround
Speaker 2: yourself with. So make sure that that is only quality people.
Speaker 2: And if you are the smartest, the most righteous, the
Speaker 2: most whatever in your friends circle, you either need a
Speaker 2: new friend circle or you need to expand that friend circle.
Speaker 2: We need someone constantly pushing us to become better and
Speaker 2: to grow ourselves. You know, we need things to chase
Speaker 2: and aspire to in life. We have a finite time here,
Speaker 2: so we need to make the most of that time.
Speaker 2: I don't care if you're an eagle, if you're running
Speaker 2: around with a bunch of turkeys, it's a matter of
Speaker 2: time before you forget how to fly and you start clwking.
Speaker 3: There's some of that East Tennessee wisdom coming out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Another thing too, is up with your jobs and
Speaker 2: with what you do. I know, especially right now with
Speaker 2: everything the way it's going, inflation is through the roof,
Speaker 2: and it's gotten a lot harder on people, especially the
Speaker 2: middle and lower middle class. So we think a lot
Speaker 2: about money. Money is important. We need money to live.
Speaker 2: Don't make money your deciding factor in your profession or
Speaker 2: what you choose to make a living with. I used
Speaker 2: to joke really and proudly tell people that I'm a mercenary,
Speaker 2: and people like, huh. I'll be like, well, you know,
Speaker 2: mercenary goes to the highest bid or whoever pays any
Speaker 2: the most, that's where he's going to go. I said,
Speaker 2: that was me, I said, when people look at my resume,
Speaker 2: I mean, I wasn't a job hopper. I held these
Speaker 2: jobs for a long time, but when I found another
Speaker 2: job that paid better, I went. And it's like I
Speaker 2: worked in I built wood trusses and floors and roof
Speaker 2: trusses and stuff for a long time. Don't a lot
Speaker 2: of cortry work, went from there to forge and steel
Speaker 2: and went from there and was heat treating steel, and
Speaker 2: from that I went into see and see machining and
Speaker 2: then went into plastics and chemical compounding. So it's like,
Speaker 2: if you look at my resume, you're like, go e man,
Speaker 2: this guy's done everything. And it's because I was a mercenary.
Speaker 2: I went where the highest bidder was and there was
Speaker 2: large lumps of my life that I was just absolutely
Speaker 2: miserable because I was a slave to the money. I
Speaker 2: absolutely tested the job, I tested the people that I
Speaker 2: worked with, and I was just slowly just killing myself,
Speaker 2: not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally. I used to
Speaker 2: tell people, it's like every time I punched that clock
Speaker 2: at some of those jobs I was at, it was
Speaker 2: taking a piece of my soul every time I clocked in.
Speaker 2: And my advice that I would give is to tell
Speaker 2: people that you have to sacrifice something in life. We
Speaker 2: are sacrificial creatures, but luckily we get to choose what
Speaker 2: we sacrifice. So if you like going on nice vacations,
Speaker 2: having nice cars, nice houses and stuff like that, then yeah,
Speaker 2: you're probably gonna have to take a high paid job,
Speaker 2: whether you like it.
Speaker 3: Or not.
Speaker 2: If you're a person that likes family time and experiences,
Speaker 2: then yeah, you can afford to get a job that
Speaker 2: doesn't pay as much and have as long hours, but
Speaker 2: you are sacrificing the nice vacation, the nice cars and houses.
Speaker 2: And so figure out what's important to you and adjust
Speaker 2: your lifestyle accordingly, because if you can find what you
Speaker 2: love to do and figure out a way to make
Speaker 2: money doing that, then you are going to be so
Speaker 2: much happier in your life. If you're going to be
Speaker 2: emotionally happier, you're going to be more pleasant to be around.
Speaker 2: And then that's just going to rub off on your
Speaker 2: family and your friends and the people around you. And
Speaker 2: then while you're doing that, if you are a Christian,
Speaker 2: and if you're watching this show, it's a pretty good
Speaker 2: high probability that you are. You find what you love,
Speaker 2: you find a way to make money doing what you love,
Speaker 2: and while doing that, do the kingdom work and be
Speaker 2: a good imager of God. Chasing the dollar and being
Speaker 2: a slave to that green paper rectangle shaves years off
Speaker 2: your life. It makes you a miserable person, and it
Speaker 2: damages your image bearing capabilities.
Speaker 1: Think about what when Jesus said, what is it profitable
Speaker 1: man if he gains the whole world but forfeits the soul.
Speaker 2: Solomon's prime example, if you read Ecclesiastes, he had it all,
Speaker 2: but he was miserable.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Really comes across that way, doesn't it. And obviously
Speaker 3: end of his life was not one to be proud of.
Speaker 3: Justin you, you've been super to give us as much time,
Speaker 3: especially I know you're one day off, so thank you
Speaker 3: so much for sharing it with us.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the conversation. Like I said, guys, I have
Speaker 2: a podcast. You didn't have to twist my arm too
Speaker 2: hard to talk to you.
Speaker 3: Well, tell us where we find your podcast and mind
Speaker 3: our listeners of the two podcasts you're now doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the dig Bible podcast that was the genesis of
Speaker 2: my podcasting journey. Still doing that, me and two of
Speaker 2: my buddies out of my buddy's garage. You can find
Speaker 2: us anywhere podcasts can be found, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, We're
Speaker 2: on all the social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, te talk X,
Speaker 2: all those fine venues, and the same thing with the
Speaker 2: Prometheus Lens podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, all those places. See
Speaker 2: anywhere that you can sume this type of content. If
Speaker 2: you just search up our name, you'll be able to
Speaker 2: find us there.
Speaker 1: Super well, justin Thanks so much for your time today,
Speaker 1: and we will look forward to perhaps chatting again sometime.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'd love it. Just wind me up, let
Speaker 2: me go.
Speaker 1: Thanks for watching and listening. Don't forget to click the
Speaker 1: light button on your app. You can find more episodes
Speaker 1: like this at our website when Loveleads dot com. While there,
Speaker 1: you can also sign up for our newsletter, where we
Speaker 1: explore many of these topics deeper and be the first
Speaker 1: to hear about upcoming podcasts, topics and guests. You can
Speaker 1: help more people find out about the podcast by liking
Speaker 1: us on social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Finally,
Speaker 1: please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Until next time, remember the difference it makes when Love
Speaker 1: Leads