Yesterday Was Easy w/ Captain Brad Geary

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01:26

In Matthew 16, Jesus chastised the Pharisees who could interpret the appearance of the sky but failed to interpret the signs of the time in which they lived.

01:37

Who are the Pharisees of our day? This strong hold of sort of whiteness and white identity and pristineness is really part of what keeps us from making progress.

01:53

We need to do better. The Church, rich in theological scholarship, has lingered in academic sanctuaries and ivory towers, failing to translate its lofty doctrines into a tangible and practical cultural apologetic.

02:09

At the Worldview Youth Academy, we bridge this critical gap. Here, theological depth is not an end in itself but a means to engage with contemporary cultural issues for the glory of God and the expansion of his kingdom.

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Our mission is to cultivate thinkers who can articulate and apply Christian truths within contemporary societal challenges.

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So embrace this call to worship God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your mind.

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We will do better as this next generation tears down the idols of our modern culture and works to build a brighter future toward Christendom 2 .0.

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Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men. The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.

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Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make brosives.

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Don't go into the world and make homies. Disciples. I got a bit of a jiggle, Nick. That's a joke,

04:08

Pastor. When we have the real message of truth, we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not.

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Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love.

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That's 1 Corinthians 16, 13 through 14. What's up, y 'all?

04:46

Welcome back to another episode of Apologia Radio. I am very, very excited for the show.

04:52

Pastor Jeff is Ohio, I believe, right now. Kentucky, somewhere in there.

04:58

Doing some awesome stuff. Louisiana? Nope. We were in Louisiana.

05:05

Oh, that's right. But he's there meeting with some legislators for an abortion now. So I am hosting today.

05:11

I got Lil' Zeezers. Yo. We were in North Dakota, eh?

05:17

Yep, North Dakota. Don't you know? Last week. And really good stuff going on there, man.

05:23

Yeah, super exciting. That was hard to get to. It's kind of out there.

05:29

But we made it. Barely. It was a windy descent. By the skin of our teeth, we made it. Good stuff there.

05:34

We're thankful for Amber Vibetto we're working with. And we have three legislators. One Senator, two

05:40

House members running our bill there. So we're excited for that. We got my right -hand man over here.

05:48

Pastor Zach's back with us. Howdy. How are you? Doing good. Excited for today. Yeah. Yeah.

05:54

Yeah. Yep. Me too. I'll introduce our guests here in a minute. Before we do that,

06:01

I want to mention a couple sponsors I'll do here. Top one is... Oh, dude,

06:06

I forgot it again. I am the worst at this. I literally put it out, my NAD patch. I put it out so I remember to put it on and I still forget to put it on.

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Okay. ionlayer .com. You can go there. Sign up for their NAD patches. They're pretty awesome.

06:26

We love them. And they are a great partner with us for the gospel. You can go to ionlayer .com.

06:33

Put apology in the coupon code and get a sweet discount on your order there. We've talked a lot about the benefits, so I won't spend a lot of time there.

06:41

And then, of course, I want to mention Amtac Blades. It's funny,

06:47

I was just texting Bill. Amtac Blades. Bill Rapier, who's a good friend of our guest today.

06:55

He's awesome. We're actually... I was just talking to him this week because we're going to have him come here in December and do a two -day shooting tactical combat shooting course.

07:05

That's going to be rad. With our security team. Very excited about that. We love Bill. And you can go to amtacblades .com.

07:11

Put apology in the coupon code. Get 5 % off your order. And he gives 5 % to EAN to help us save babies.

07:18

We love Bill. Good brother. Awesome blades. And I don't think our guest has a battle axe yet, so we need to get on that.

07:26

Bill needs to send him a battle axe. Speaking of our guest, excited to have Captain Brad Gary back with us.

07:33

What's up, brother? Hey, guys. Good to see you. Glad to be back on the show. Thanks for having me.

07:38

Yeah, of course. It's crazy. I think we... I don't remember if it was April or May we had you on originally.

07:44

And it's just been... It's a lot going on for you for sure. Yeah. I've gotten to know

07:50

Brad really, really well. He's become a good friend. And I'm just excited for this opportunity for a number of reasons.

07:55

But why don't we just right off the bat, we'll just let everyone know what's going on with you. Update on your situation and how people can be supporting you.

08:03

Yeah, I appreciate it, man. You guys and Ben Zeisloft over there at the

08:09

Sentinel, you were really the spark that lit the tinder, which has just kind of exploded, which has been great.

08:17

Shortly after we talked with you all and those stories aired, we got connected with Sean Ryan as things kind of built and more stories gained more momentum.

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And then we recorded with him. Man, we recorded, I think, about eight hours of footage, just long story formats, told our whole thing.

08:33

They cut that down to about 555, I think. And then from there, that accomplished exactly what we hoped.

08:40

We gained a lot of momentum with constituents, which gained us momentum with Congress and the

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Senate. And they've recently taken some actions, which I can't necessarily talk too much about yet.

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But that should be revealed very soon here, as soon as they decide to release what they're doing in support of the truth.

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So it's been a whirlwind of a journey, man. And God's been evident through the whole thing. His hand has been there with us.

09:03

So we really appreciate you helping us give our voice some magnitude.

09:09

Thank you. Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, we talk about this a lot. Sean Ryan's show is one of our favorite shows.

09:15

And I mean this. Your show is one of my favorites by far. Thanks, brother. And probably the longest.

09:23

I don't know that I've seen a longer. I think five hours had been the max before. So you're right at six hours.

09:30

It was great, though. It was close. Go ahead. No, no, no. You first. I was just going to say, when

09:36

I was watching, I was texting Brad because a lot of the puzzle pieces were coming together as I was watching that show.

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And we were just saying how it's cool that God's kind of sovereignly bringing a lot of puzzle pieces together, people that we know mutually.

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And he's doing something for sure. He's always doing something. But he's doing something in the military and the

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Navy and just how he's allowed us to get involved in helping the SEALs and other operators.

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And so, yeah, you were going to say something. Yeah. It's really interesting. I was watching

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Sean for a while and I remember telling my wife I was out here doing some woodworking. And I walked in and I said, you know, if our story's ever going to be told, if the truth's ever going to really get out there, it's got to be in this kind of a format.

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It'll have to be in some sort of a podcast long story format because it's just gotten so convoluted and intertwined.

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One news story is not going to capture the nuances here. And so we said, yeah, we'll see what God does with that.

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And then a few episodes later, as I was listening to Sean, it got to the episode where he talks about his newfound faith and how he became a

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Christian. So I got super excited and I ran in again and I told my wife, man, if the

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Lord ever takes our story to that level, this is the guy I'd want to give first right of refusal toward for this kind of a format because, you know,

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Prior Seal does an incredible job interviewing people. And now he's a believer in Jesus as well.

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And she's like, well, yeah, let's pray about it. And then shortly after that, that our interview happened and then Domino's just started falling.

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And the next thing I know, Sean's calling me up on a Saturday morning and we're sitting out here having a Zoom call right here actually.

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And I give him kind of the general story and he's like, hey man, we want you on now. We'll prioritize this.

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This is an important story. And I wasn't ready for that. Like we had thought about articulating this in his show, but the risk of doing that while active duty.

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And so we had initially envisioned we would do this down the road, but he said, hey, whatever it takes. If I have to have your two attorneys there with us side by side, can you clean?

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Let's just, let's see if we can set this up and you guys know the rest. Yeah. It was pretty neat to see how God lined all those things up for us.

11:45

Yeah, it was crazy. And then like right after you, we had Trump on and Dave Evans. These were getting like just crazy big guests.

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So, well, here's the, here's the funny thing is that so my wife was, was, was going through Sean's social media and he did this like pulse of all of his folks where he said, hey, you know, who should

12:05

I interview next? And, and she saw Kash Patel's name come up a few times. Yeah. And Kash is an old friend of mine from before he even entered politics.

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We go way back. So I texted Sean, hey, if you're interested, you know, I know, I know

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Kash. I see that a lot of your audience wants to listen to him. I'm happy to connect you to. So we did. And then he got on and then he's the one that connected

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Sean with Trump. So, and then he got JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, but his show is just taken off in some, with some incredible interviews lately.

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Megyn Kelly was on. She was fantastic. That was good. So, yeah. So it's pretty interesting how, again, these relationships and networks make connections and all thanks to my wife,

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Amy. She's the one who set that one up. Good job, Amy. Bill said he's ready to do Sean Ryan. So if you want to work your magic.

12:49

Perfect. I'll see what I can do. That would, that would, there's like so many dudes that have been on that you guys all like served with except for Bill.

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So it's time to get Bill on. That would be an interesting one for sure. Yeah, yeah. If he'll talk.

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But he said he's ready, so. That's the hard part, getting Bill to talk. Yeah. He's a very, very, very introspective man.

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Yeah. He's about as old school of a seal as it comes. Yeah, he really is. Very cool.

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Did you want to say anything about that? No, no. That'd be cool to have Bill on. I love that guy.

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Yeah. I love that guy for sure. Well, look at me. You're looking about to hit the surf right here, bro.

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Like you just. Hey, we're in Southern California, man. You always got to be ready for the surf. You never know.

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You never know when the swell is going to come in. You get to hit the surf in a fun way now, though. That's true.

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Although the water is still pretty cold out here. Yeah, I wear wetsuits now. But, but yeah, it's, it's nice when you get to choose when you want to, when you want to hit the water.

13:47

How's the sewage problem been? I've heard it's been kind of gnarly lately. It was gnarly over the whole summer.

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I mean, almost like you probably shouldn't have gotten in the water. It just now cleaned up the other week. And so the currents finally kind of cleared it up.

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It's always around the rainy season here because the rain hits Tijuana, flushes all that sewage into the ocean.

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And so the currents can't keep up when there's like rain every other day. So we've had a bit of a dry spell now for the last few months.

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I think it's finally clean, just in time for some winter weather to roll in. And I'm sure it'll, it'll make it gross again.

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They really got to solve that problem. I was going to ask, did you get gummy bears on Sean? I did get gummy bears.

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You did? Oh, right on. Because I don't remember at the beginning that they, Yeah, he did. Oh, he did. Oh, good.

14:31

Yeah, they were delicious. Oh, sweet. Yeah, they're delicious. Right on. I don't think you can,

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I think he sells a lot of them all the time. Yeah, he does. If you go on his website, it's just every time they're, they're sold out.

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And they're just, That's what I keep hearing. I think they're regular gummy bears, but yeah. Yeah. I don't know what company he outsources for them because it's his label on them.

14:49

Yeah. But they are, they're pretty dang good. So we've been on kind of a hunt now to figure out which brand he uses so we can just get them, you know, with a different logo.

14:57

Sweet. Same flavor. That's funny. Now imagine if you would have had those in buds, you would have done thousands of pushups to have those be,

15:04

That's right. Hiding those in your backpack. That's right. Hide them in my locker, get in trouble. Yeah. Each gummy bear counts as one.

15:12

Yeah. You got any? I like gummy bears. You do like gummy bears? That's good. That's good input.

15:17

Yeah. Gummy worms. Sour gummy worms. Awesome. Well, let's just get right into, let's talk about identity.

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And so one of the things you said, you talked about on Sean Ryan was identity. You had this crazy dream.

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You have that, I don't know if you got that painting with you. That painting is really cool. I do. I do.

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I can pull it out here in a second. All right. Cool. So why don't you just start there? Tell us that story. And I like having this conversation with, excuse me, with, with, you know, seals and other operators and stuff, because it's such an important conversation.

15:53

And a lot of the guys, you know, this, the guys that get out, they retire. You got your friend DJ. That's what they struggle with, right?

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That's why a lot of guys are killing themselves when they, when they get out, because their identity has been trained assassin and they get out.

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And then they no longer need that skill. you know, and so they have major identity issues.

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And so I, I love what you had to say. So I was, I was like, you take it from there. Yeah. Go for it.

16:24

Yeah. Thanks. It's good. It's good. It's such a tough, it's such a tough issue.

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And you're right. I, I, I went to a suicide awareness, stand down, maybe about a year ago in our, our community kind of overall.

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Person who deals with that topic. She said, the people that have the statistical highest rate of suicidal ideations are fit into two categories.

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One, they're on the way out of the teams or two. They're under investigation. And I thought that was interesting.

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I've been thinking about that a lot more and I think it has to do with the double -edged sword of the nature of what the

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SEAL teams are more than most other. The entire military is focused around team and, and teamwork and what we can do together.

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But the SEAL teams hyper -focus on that. We've talked a lot about that. You guys have talked about it. You're tracking all.

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That is like one of the best things about us. And I think it's what makes us really, really good on the battlefield is this singular focus on the team and understanding that together we can accomplish more, especially when we're, we're really relying on each other through those, those operations.

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And so our guys go all in, into the culture too. And, and it's interesting because every SEAL team has a little bit of a different culture and guys will get the tats, you know, and they, you know, and they're just there.

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They go, they just dive head first into this culture and they, they live it. They breathe it. We all do.

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And it's super exciting and contagious. And then the double -edged part of that sword is at some point, you're going to realize that this is nothing but a season of life.

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Very few of us are like, are like Secretary Mattis who do a no kidding entire adult life in the

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Department of Defense. Most of us are going to do anywhere between five to 20 years. And at some point the

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Navy is going to say, Hey, thanks for coming. It's been awesome. Congratulations, but you peaked or you hit, you know, our threshold and it's time for you to move on.

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And for most guys that, that transition is going to come mid thirties to mid forties. And when you, when you've given everything to this community,

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I mentioned a little bit about this with Sean, that idea of addicted to feeling important and then immersing yourself in this culture.

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When all of a sudden you realize that, that the teams are moving on without you, because it's like a bullet train and you're jumping off and all of a sudden you're not on the text threads anymore, or you know, guys aren't calling you for the linkups and, and you realize that they've moved on without you.

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I think that produces an identity crisis. You know, I, I had a, a senior enlisted at one point in my career.

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And he was, he was getting near the end of his, and it was around the same timeframe that I had that conversation with Jonas, where he said he was addicted to feeling important.

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And this was kind of starting to form in my head on, on some of the dangers that I was going to, that we were all kind of hadn't been aware of, but we're becoming more aware of.

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And my troop chief said, you know, he said, I've given my entire adult life to this community and this command.

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And as I'm approaching the end, I realized I don't know if it was worth it. And as I'm, as I'm leaving, you know,

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I don't have the relationships with my family that I wish I did. And I'm realizing that the teams are going to move on without me.

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And so it's, it's that, like I said, double -edged sword in our community. That's so good at diving into the culture, but then so dangerous because at some point it has to end.

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And then who are you? If you, if you've formed your identity as this operator in the seal teams, then, then that's a risk because what are you outside of that?

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And if you haven't poured into your family or you've burned your family to the ground for the sake of that identity, and then, and then they move on without you and you've got nothing left.

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That's, that's a dark place to go. It's a dark place to go. And, and my realization through this leading up to that dream was,

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I always said, I'd give it lip service because I learned these things back. Like when we talked about with Jonas, so it was 2011 timeframe.

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And I always said, Hey, I'm a, I don't want to be known as a seal is my identity. I'm a, I'm a,

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I'm a man of God. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I happen to be a seal in my job. That's nice to say what

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I've realized in this journey for me is that that wasn't really the reality of it. I had let this thing become my identity and, and I loved it for what it was doing as my identity.

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And it had become my idol. And an interesting thing happened is we were progressing in our journey.

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At first, all the prayers were very supplication based, right? Like Lord, you know, vindicate us

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Lord, you know, take us out of this, this trial, like, um, uh, free us from this, this pain and the suffering.

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And then at some point about the halfway point, right around when we had this dream, our, our, our desires started shifting and our prayers made a deliberate shift.

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As we started seeing God's hand more evident, we realized, Oh, he's sovereign. Okay. If he's sovereign, then, then none of this is wasted and this is all ordained.

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And so our prayer shifted to Lord, um, whatever path you, you have laid out that will bring you the most glory.

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Let's just go on that path, whatever that looks like. And if that means more suffering for us to get to that point, then so be it.

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So we, we, we, we, we added into our prayer journal, Lord align our desires to your will.

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And what's the Lord's will. We know that's to glorify his name. Uh, and so when we started doing that, we noticed that our prayers became more powerful because if your prayers are in alignment with his will to glorify its name, then chances are, he's going to answer them.

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Uh, if you're praying that like, Lord glorify your name, he's going to do it. And, um, it was really, really cool.

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So I had this dream and it was a lucid dream slash vision slash whatever you want to call it, but it was unlike anything

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I'd ever experienced. And, uh, it was pretty neat how we got to the point where we were talking about that with Sean, because prior to that I was doing this transition course.

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Uh, it's like a 12 week foundation that helps you start to articulate, uh, everything you've done in the military and to the private sector.

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So it kind of helps you catapult to, to eventual retirement. So part of that class is they have you tell a story and they want to take a five minute story that encapsulates your why, you know, what's your why that's going to drive you into this next season of life.

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And my executive coach was, was saying, Hey, you know, make sure you keep this sterile professional, keep politics out of it, keep religion out of it.

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You know, try not to be emotional. It's just very, uh, formulaic. And, and while I appreciated that advice the night before, um,

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I just was convicted and I felt the Lord telling me, Hey, I think I want you to tell that, that dream.

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And I, man, I've given hundreds of speeches in the military and I've talked at men's groups at churches. This was next level because I had never crossed that threshold.

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So overtly, right. I've talked with churches about Jesus and I've talked with military about military. And I've, I've, I've bridged those gaps as a man of faith.

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Like I lived boldly in my faith, but never like this. Right. I mean, you heard the story. It's, it's in your face.

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There's no, there's no subtleties there. Right. And, uh, and I was getting really nervous about it and I was praying about it.

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And, and I was, it was only to a group of about 40 peers, but the Lord, I heard him tell me,

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Hey, if you're not willing to glorify my name in front of 40 of your peers, why would

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I give you a bigger platform, uh, to do it anywhere else? And so I realized

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I have to do it. And I, uh, I sat there in the class, uh, more nervous than I've ever been for any speech, got up, sent it and, uh, sat back down and, uh, you could have, you could have heard a pin drop.

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I mean, the tension in the air was so thick and I'm just sweating like, oh my gosh, that was, that was incredibly uncomfortable.

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And exhilarating at the same time. And then I said, well, Lord, I answered what

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I felt you, you prompting me to do. Let's see where this goes. What's really cool about it is two things happen.

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One, it was really only a couple of weeks after that decision that, uh, that God aligned me with Sean Ryan, do all these other things we kind of talked about offline.

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Um, and even at the beginning of this. And so I felt very much like, oh, this is exactly what he's doing now.

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He's giving us this bigger platform because we showed, we were faithful in this small thing. And now he's giving us a bigger thing to be faithful in.

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So even going into Sean Ryan, Amy and I were saying like, okay, the entire goal here is to glorify

24:52

God. Yes, we have to tell this backstory and we have to tell this main part of the story, but we were very deliberate as we planned this discussion with Sean on making sure we insert these specific parts about our faith based journey here and how that was going to glorify

25:05

God. Uh, here's the cool thing too. You know, I talked on the show about this being our season of pruning in preparation for the coming season where we're going to produce more fruit.

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Uh, the second thing that happened after I talked in that class is one of the guys from the class hit me up, uh, about a month later and said,

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Hey, will you meet me for a beer and a cigar? So we, we met up with the local, uh, McPease right here in Coronado and sat down together and we get past the initial presentries.

25:31

And he said, Hey man, it's, it's pretty obvious to me after hearing your story and watching you that you're a man of faith and that's helped you through a lot of struggles in your life.

25:38

I said, yeah, that's, that's a good read. I'm glad you saw that. And he said, cool. I've struggled. Hey, can we talk about Jesus?

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And, um, I've never in my life had someone, I've never had someone sit down and just ask me overtly, let's talk about Jesus.

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So we talked for like two and a half hours and it was such a, it's such an exciting thing to see.

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And I came home right away and I told Amy, I said, listen, this is the first fruits of the coming season. Uh, we've been faithful here.

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God has changed our perspective. We're looking at this entirely through a new lens now from the spiritual side of this, the spiritual warfare and the

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God glorifying end state here. Uh, and this is the first fruits. And then another cool thing

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I've heard from countless people after Sean Ryan. Um, but, but one, about four different people hit me up.

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Uh, one of them was one of my old instructors. And he said the same thing. He said, Hey, listen, I watched the show watching you, your family deal with this through your faith and having that anchor.

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He said, provoked my heart to pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I got baptized last week and I'm now saved.

26:39

No way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And four people have told me that now. Uh, so Amy and I were in tears as we heard this and we thought,

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Oh my gosh, like there's more of the fruit of the season to come. First off, second off, if all of this was just for that, then it was totally worth it.

26:58

Let's go back and do it again. You know? Um, what an incredible blessing. And obviously the

27:03

Lord sovereign, he doesn't need me to provoke someone else's heart. Like that's not, that's not what I'm saying at all.

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Uh, but, but he blessed us by allowing us to be a part of that. And, and I've never been in a place where someone so overtly said something like that to us.

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And then Amy and I said, we've already won. Like, what's like, we've already won. This isn't even, we're not even fighting the same fight.

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They think we are anymore. Yeah. We're on a, we're in a completely different perspective now.

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And really all that remains is time and details to see how God's going to glorify his name even more through our journey.

27:37

Um, like I said, we had to tell so much of the story of what happened, uh, to insert the faith based things that the

27:45

Lord's done. But what we talked about from a spiritual aspect is really only like 20 % of what he's done in our lives over this last two and a half, almost three years now.

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I don't know what it looks like yet, but we're excited to share the rest of that story in some form, some venue. Uh, we don't know yet, but we know that we know that, uh, it's going to happen because we know that that's going to glorify him.

28:05

When, when, when we point people toward him, you know, people have hit us up and said, man,

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I just can't believe how strong you guys have made through this. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, no, I've been incredibly weak. I've hit my knees every single day in total exhaustion and submission.

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And in that weakness, that's where his strength is made evident through us. And then he gets that glory, not us.

28:26

So it's, it's been incredible. It's been incredible. Yeah. I mean, what's amazing when we first met with, with, uh, the guys in Va Beach, you know, several years ago, they kind of encountered a similar, similar battle with you where, um, they're realizing that the fight they have is bigger than,

28:46

I don't know whose computer is beeping, but I don't think it's mine. Um, sorry, hold on.

28:51

Maybe it is me. That's right. I'm not hearing anything here. Okay. Uh, let me just shut this down. Maybe it's, um, but they're realizing that the fight is, uh, much bigger than them.

29:01

Um, and it's, you know, you talked about, um, you talked about suffering, right? And as I'm, as I was listening to you talking, talk about that, like you guys, that's what you do is you suffer the whole time.

29:14

Like you, they purposely make you suffer so that you can endure suffering to the highest levels.

29:20

And then this is a different kind of suffering, right? This is something that's new to you. You haven't experienced.

29:26

Um, and so I think to tie the conversation together, like why, why is your identity in Christ so important here in the midst of the suffering?

29:37

Why is your identity in Christ the difference maker? Yeah. Yeah. It's the other to answer that question.

29:46

Let me also mention that. Um, I think the other part of the seal themes that, that contributes to this identity crisis in so many is your entire value is determined by what the team thinks of you.

30:02

Are you a teammate, right? Are you, uh, are you selfless? Are you under the boat with them?

30:07

Do they value you tactically? And so that's a, that's, that's awesome.

30:13

Like I said, it's, it's again, it's the double edged blade. It's awesome, but it's super dangerous. And so for me going through this and then making these decisions to go public, knowing that it doesn't matter what my reasons are.

30:24

Some people will not like what I'm doing here. when your identity is wrapped in what others think of you, that can start provoking an identity crisis also in a level of depression.

30:35

And that was, that was the final chain that the Lord had to break in my life was this, um, this, this, this, this care about my identity in, in their perspective of my value.

30:49

And, uh, it, it almost broke me. It took me some really, really hard places. And then it took me a couple of days to get through those hard places.

30:56

Um, thank, thankfully I was on my way up to the mountains when it happened. Uh, so it was kind of on the way to this like Sabbath in the wilderness when

31:04

I hit that, that probably darkest moment of my whole journey. Uh, but then a few days later, I remember I was sitting with my wife and I said,

31:10

Hey, I got to share something with you. I got to share how this took me to a really hard place. It was, it was embarrassing because, you know, we don't want to be weak as men in a, certainly as a husband, but I, but I had to admit that I got to a very, very weak point.

31:22

And I said, but here's what the Lord convicted me of this. And he said, why do you give, this is yours to give and take.

31:28

Why did you give these other men that control and that power over you?

31:34

You can take that back. You know, you don't need to define your value by what they think of you.

31:40

And, and if you're giving that willfully, which you did in the seal teams, as you needed to do to some degree, uh, now that's hurting you.

31:46

And that that's totally in your control to pull that back and give it to me and me alone. And so once that, that clicked, um, that's what we did.

31:54

And we said, you're right, Lord, you're right. That's ours to give and take. I don't need to care what they think of me, but that's a hard chain to break when you've done 24 years, um, in this community where that's been everything.

32:07

You know, your value is determined by what they think of you. Um, so when we broke that final chain of our identity and where I find my personal value, uh, and that was even,

32:17

Kelly, man, that was so far in this journey. That's probably the last chain that he had to break. And when he finally did, it was, it was just total freedom because now, now

32:24

I knew every step we take, if we're looking for our value in Christ and our identity in Christ and in his being, being his servant, well, then every step we take, if we know that was done in prayer and consultation and listening for the promise of the

32:37

Holy Spirit and, and within the same prayer that these steps would glorify his name, then we can rest easy knowing we took those steps.

32:45

Even if it takes us to a place that brings more suffering, I won't look back on those steps and regret and say, ah, we should have, could have, would have, no, because we made that step in union with the

32:55

Holy Spirit. You know, our souls were harmonized with him. And if that brought us to where we're at now, then that's exactly where we're supposed to be.

33:02

So it takes away the second guessing piece. And if it takes us to a place where other people don't like us even more, well, then that's okay too, because I no longer find my value or my identity in their, their thoughts or feelings about me.

33:15

It still stings a little. When I hear about it, it's a bummer because you, you know, you thought you thought some of these guys were your friends.

33:21

Sure. But, but man, it's just like, it's like rubber bullets.

33:26

Now they just, they're kind of bouncing off me like, okay, it's a bummer. It's unpleasant to hear, but it doesn't hurt my identity anymore.

33:31

It doesn't hurt my, my, my self value and where, where we find our value. That's awesome. So I want,

33:37

I want you to tell us about the, specifically about the dream. But before we get there, you guys have any thoughts you want to jump in?

33:44

I just think it's interesting listening to you tell your story, what was attractive to those other men and drew them to seek you out and wanting to hear more about Christ was this emphasis on purpose.

33:57

The meeting was okay. I want you to tell us your purpose, give us a story, but don't bring

34:02

God into it at all. That was the basis of it. And I just think that that's so ironic because what's attractive to men and really anyone in this day and age is an idea of a transcendent purpose that exists outside of us.

34:18

That's really pulling and driving our lives. That's what people are hungry for. I think they see the, they see the result of their own choices, the result of their own lives and they hunger inherently to exist for a purpose that is greater than themselves.

34:34

I think that is obviously what's attractive about belonging to a team like the seals because there's a brotherhood, there's a mission that exists outside of you and you fulfill a purpose that you have a duty within that and a goal that you are striving to realize and you're working together to accomplish that.

34:51

But I just find it compelling that what's attractive about the purpose outside of you is that you didn't choose this life.

34:58

God chose you. It's, it's his compelling purpose acting on you from the outside that drives you to a place of humility and dependence upon his will, his ways, doing things according to his purpose and people looking at that from the outside saying, that's attractive to me.

35:16

I want to know more about that God that draws you to live, not for yourself, not for your own desires, not for your own fulfillment, but for his name and for his glory.

35:26

I think that men in particular need more of that and I think that is very attractive, especially to men who have existed within a community that's, this is mission, this is purpose, this is brotherhood.

35:43

Yes, that still exists, but ultimately it's in service and in worship done out of a heart of praise to the

35:50

God whose team he has made as a part of by the death and resurrection of his son. We are his children were brought into this purpose.

35:58

We have this mission now that exists outside of us, no matter what occupation, no matter what office we occupy, no matter what sphere we find ourselves in, we exist for him.

36:10

And that is what is pulling us, right? We're not even seeking it or trying to seize it. He's taken hold of our hearts and he is leading us to this destination.

36:19

And so I think you're right. You know, if we're, I love what you just said, because if we're a model today, if we are image bearers of God, uh, embedded in our

36:30

DNA is, I think, um, going to be that attraction, that, that idea that like, I want,

36:35

I want to be reunited with my God. I want to get back to the garden of Eden where I walk with my

36:41

God. The only way to do that is through Christ. Um, so there's this,

36:46

I think there's a natural desire. We're interested in people that are that kind of committed. What's really interesting to me is specifically with,

36:52

I think our generation, we were lied to by a lot of American society for the last, whatever, a couple of decades where this idea of like, well, you go to church on Sunday, uh, be a person of faith, of course, but then go to work for the other five days of the week.

37:07

Do your thing. Don't talk about religion at work. Um, kind of just, just be a professional, right? That's what we were encouraged to be.

37:13

And then, and then Saturday's yours. But then, then one day a week you can come back to church and, you know, have corporate worship.

37:19

And then, I mean, that's, if we know that we're fighting, not in earthly powers, but against principalities in the spiritual world, if this is a spiritual fight, that's a terrible strategy.

37:30

Uh, when I, when we deploy as SEAL teams, we don't, we don't operate one day of the week downrange against our enemy.

37:36

That's a, you know, what are you doing? You're not even, you're not even making a dent. And yet that's what, uh,

37:41

I think the enemy has lulled a lot of men into over the last couple of decades is this idea that, yeah, you're good enough just doing one day.

37:47

We can be a nice guy, right? Like be a nice guy the other five, six days of the week, but, but don't actually put on your armor and don't actually engage and don't actually stand up and be who you are.

37:58

And that's super dangerous because it's lulled a lot of men into a sense of complacency. And I think, uh,

38:04

I think being lukewarm in a lot of ways. So you're right. The more, but the more believers

38:10

I'm, I'm seeing God wake up the men of his church in a lot of different ways. And the more

38:15

I see them wake up and start becoming more bold in their faith, uh, I'm seeing other people attracted to that more and more too.

38:22

There's really, I really think there's somewhat of a revival going on. Uh, I, I'm seeing it within the men of the church.

38:29

I don't know if it's happening outside of that. I don't want to isolate women either, but I'm really seeing it in men for sure. A calling and a purpose and, and people being attracted to that.

38:38

It's really interesting to see and it's fun to be a part of. I think one other thing that's really great about what you're saying too, is the smashing of that artificial dichotomy of public and private, right?

38:51

I have a private faith that exists in this small corner that never actually touches these other areas of my life.

38:59

It's a sacred, secular divide, right? You mentioned you can be a professional in this sphere over here, keeping

39:05

God off to the side, going to church on your own time, being a worshiper of the living God in the walls of your mind and in your sweet little heart, but never letting that faith actually get out into the world and interact with it.

39:17

It actually challenged the claims of the world with the Lordship of King Jesus. I think that is the fundamental thing that needs to go.

39:25

There needs to be a liberation of Christianity from its cultural captivity. It needs to go beyond the four walls of the church and actually come into contact with the world in the various spheres, which,

39:37

I mean, you're demonstrating that potency. Bingo. Yeah. And I, I appreciate having this conversation with you and we had, we had

39:46

Bill on, we talked about identity with Bill as well. And there's a couple of reasons why I'm kind of fleshing out here in my mind.

39:52

But as you know, as pastors, like we have this conversation a lot with, with people like identity struggles and finding joy and contentment in Christ is a major, major underlying issue for a lot of, a lot of Christians.

40:04

And I think why I like having you guys talk about this, because you're, you're about the most extreme end of like what identity is, right?

40:16

Because literally every second of your life, when you're, when you're a team guy is wrapped up in who you are as a seal.

40:24

Like you can't do anything, you know, like, and a lot of ways I feel, I feel that not as extreme, but as a pastor,

40:31

I know, I think, I think Zach, I want to hear your thoughts on this, but I feel that because it's hard for us to be able to escape being a pastor.

40:40

It's hard for us to be able to, you know, spend time with our family and do other things because we're constantly on call.

40:47

And so I, I, I sympathize with what you're saying and I appreciate that. And, and I always want,

40:52

I want, I like asking you guys these questions because again, because so many Christians struggle with this and they have so many issues in life because they're finding their identity in their job or income or struggles in life, disease, you name it.

41:10

Like there's all these different identities they're finding or they're finding their identity in all these different things except Christ.

41:16

And so I want to hear what you, you're just going to say, yeah, that's cool. Yeah. I've got so many things going through my head, but no,

41:24

I totally agree because what I wanted to kind of explore was something else is that you can't necessarily be separated from like what you're talking about, our pastoral identity, because that's who we, that's who we are.

41:38

But, you know, we, we shouldn't allow the sum and substance of a subset of our identity to become at all.

41:44

And I think that's what you're talking about, because I would, I wanted to ask you probably on the other side of the spectrum, have you seen guys within the teams that didn't identify as a seal when they, they should have, because that's definitely, you know, when you're working as a seal, that has to be your identity.

42:01

But what you're saying is it's not the sum and substance. It's not at the top of the chain when it comes to the definitional aspects of who

42:08

I am as a man. So have you seen that kind of like, Hey man, you are a seal or I could say, hopefully

42:15

I'm making sense has, you know, on the other side of this, this conversation, can you not identify as a seal and not in, you know, could that lend to, you know, ineffectiveness or something like that?

42:27

Absolutely. Absolutely. I've seen that more at the tactical level. You, you can see it when someone's, someone's not assimilating into the team culture, right?

42:40

And hopefully it's a good culture for whatever reason, like, like they, they have a separate identity and they, they don't fully assimilate, don't fully cross into this, this culture of the seal teams.

42:52

And you can see them get ostracized. You can see them for whatever reason, usually it's not personality as much as it's just hard to put your finger on.

43:02

And you see them get isolated. You know, the guys will go out and not invite them or, or on target. They'll get put on like a corner, like,

43:10

Hey, you're going to stand guard on this corner while we do all the big stuff over here. And they just kind of get marginalized.

43:15

And when you find yourself in that spot, I've watched other people get there. It terrifies us all.

43:22

Like that's the last place you want to be is on the outs of the team. And so there's absolutely a sense, a need inside of us all to, to identify as that seal and be like, okay,

43:33

I'm all in whatever this looks like. I will, I will, you know, merge my own identity to be this so that I'm valued so that I get to go do this thing with all of you, you hyper performers and, and be included in this club.

43:49

It's almost like really positive peer pressure again, when it's a good culture, right?

43:55

It's like peer pressure to do incredible things together, but you have to be a part of that, that club.

44:01

I mean, it's one of the reasons why we say there's a difference between being a seal and being a team guy. You can graduate our program and be a seal.

44:09

You'll get your pin, but are you a team guy? You know? And, and not everyone, not everyone's talked about as a team guy.

44:16

Yeah. And so that's kind of how, you know, if someone refers to that guy is that's a team guy. It's a good dude. Good dude and team guy are kind of the two terms that we'll use when, when it's like, okay, you know, that guy was like a, no kidding, good operator.

44:29

He assimilated. He did a really good job. So it's very hard. It's very hard if you don't go all in with our community.

44:35

Yeah. One more thing. Okay, cool. Little shifting gears a little bit, but you know,

44:41

I think what's happened to you is a travesty that the way that you've been treated and what you've had to go through is just, it's a blight.

44:49

I think on, uh, you know, the armed forces and, and, um, everybody involved with what you're going through.

44:56

So, and so it's, it's hard not to be impacted by that, of course, for you as an individual.

45:02

And I was, I liked the way that you're thinking about this when you said earlier, if this is all for God saving souls, like it's worth it, you know?

45:11

And, um, I was thinking about Genesis 50 when, um, you know, uh, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers.

45:17

Remember after his brother sold himself into slavery or sold him into slavery. And then the day his dad dies and then they're freaked out.

45:25

They're like, what's going to happen to us? And Joe, or Joseph says this, he says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about, um, that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

45:37

Right? So he had this perspective. Hey, you've got it for evil. This is evil against me, but God was doing something to save a lot of people.

45:44

And I appreciate that, but it's still impossible not to be impacted by, just the treachery against you, you know?

45:50

So the question here is, and I think, you know, this, that there's people in our personal lives that want to join the

45:56

Navy and that want to become seals. So how are you kind of navigating being treated so unjustly and so sinfully against your person and get your own family?

46:08

How are you navigating now? Young men coming to you and asking you, well, given everything that you've gone through,

46:15

I don't want to go through that. Is this, is this what I'm going to be looking towards? Like, how do you now answer young men who are seeking that type of job position?

46:24

That's a really good question. He's thinking about what he can and can't say right now. Yeah. Well, yeah.

46:30

I mean, yeah. I obviously have to be careful, but, but, but I don't need to be careful because I know, I know exactly how

46:36

I answered them. And so I could tell you truthfully, I say what I said on Sean Ryan, that I still love the

46:42

United States Navy as an institution. I still love Naval special warfare as an institution. And, and again, if, if the, if I could go back and do it all again, knowing it would take me where I'm at today,

46:54

I would do it in a heartbeat without even a second thought because of how much fun it is.

47:00

And I had the time of my life getting to work with these kinds of people. Even that last commanding officer tour, which has brought,

47:05

I mean, it was a two year tour and it is now brought, we're coming up on three years of, of pain. That's a, that's a, that's a bad investment of time for what you get back out of it.

47:15

But at the same time, I would still go back and do it again. So the, the current CEO, he's now twice after me of that very command.

47:22

We had this conversation, him and his wife and, and me and my wife went out to dinner and they asked us like,

47:28

Hey, like we're a little nervous about accepting these orders because we've watched and seen what happened to you. And I told him exactly that, dude, do it.

47:36

Um, the impact you get to have in other people's lives, the leadership opportunities, the, the opportunity to hand the baton off to the next generation and leave your mark in their lives.

47:50

There is nothing more important and powerful than that. So I would tell everyone, absolutely sign up and serve.

47:56

If you have a desire, if God's put a desire in your heart to serve our nation in the armed services, you know, writ large, not just to mention

48:03

NSW, but, but at all, we need honorable people. And I've said this, like I was so blown away and impressed by this, this generation that came up through the ranks.

48:12

Some of the, these, uh, these young Patriots just blew my mind. It really did give me hope.

48:18

Okay. There's, there's parents out there that are still raising, uh, respectful, hard as nails

48:24

Patriots. And they are still signing up for a life of selfless service, whether they do one tour or five tours, they're signing up, which, which is reason to have hope.

48:33

Now we know that the numbers are down, recruiting's down, and there's less of them than there have been in the past, which is a concern.

48:39

But the ones I was seeing, um, man, uh, there's a lot of reasons to be critical of the

48:45

Gen Z -ers. Brad, our organizations are beloved. People lead organizations. People make mistakes.

48:51

You know, he said, find forgiveness in your heart. Um, and, and this was way before Sean Ryan.

48:57

So he hadn't heard much of my story just a little bit. And I said, Hey, sir, you're singing my song. I found forgiveness in my heart.

49:04

There's no bitterness. Exactly what you were just talking about, um, when you were back with, with Joseph, like that story, all of a sudden, uh, was tangible to me when

49:12

I had that realization as well. So I told General Mattis, Secretary Mattis, you know, the man, uh, callsign chaos.

49:18

I said, well, I found forgiveness. There's no bitterness at all. Now I love the organization. I love the institution. Everything I do now is out of love for that organization.

49:27

And that he grabs my hand, pulls me in really close. And he said, well then damn, the torpedoes full speed ahead.

49:34

And I said, I laughed. I was like, I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, like what every, what every, uh, warfighter would love to hear out of that man's mouth.

49:42

And, uh, so yeah, it's, it's, hey man, follow the promptings. We need, we need good people and, and there's good people still wanting to come.

49:50

This, my case should not deter them. It should, it should make them, uh, cautiously aware of, okay, yeah, there's people that make mistakes out there and I might end up working for one at some point.

50:04

That's going to happen in the private sector too. You know, right. This is the world we live in. Yeah. That just, sorry.

50:10

No, it just seems like that's the selfless aspect of being a soldier, you know, and, and that's what we, we can count on when

50:18

God brings us to a tremendous amount of suffering, which you've gone through, which is, um, and you continue to go through and just the sanctifying aspect of it.

50:26

That's what I see in you because you, we can't be like, okay, I'm going through an incredibly difficult time.

50:33

There's a lot of like treachery and lying and sinning going on and at the highest levels, but you, we can't say,

50:40

Hey guys, don't join the Navy or don't, right. Don't join the, because we would be eliminating the tip of the spear and that would put, that would put national security in jeopardy.

50:51

Right. If we just said, Hey, I'm going through a lot. Don't do it. Honorable men wouldn't join.

50:56

And it would just exacerbate the problems that we have and put us all at risk. So I, I just,

51:01

I see a lot of just selflessness and you say, Nope, I love them. We got to have them regardless of the pain that I'm going through.

51:08

I think that's just incredibly honorable. So thanks man. I appreciate it. It's been a hard journey to get there.

51:14

Like I've talked about, right. A lot of, a lot of anger, a lot of anger. I can't imagine.

51:20

Yeah. Yeah. But you know, the Lord's good and gives us grace for each day. And, you know, he broke some of the, most of those chains.

51:29

That's good. Yeah. So can you tell us or tell us about your dream then? And we'll end, we'll wrap it up after this.

51:36

Yeah. So you want me to tell you the whole dream again? Yeah, please. Cause I, I mean, I know Zach's heard it, but this one hasn't probably, and our listeners may not have some.

51:45

Yeah. It was, it was incredible. It was incredible. So it actually, it was right in the morning time as you're kind of coming out of your dreams today and you're slowly waking up, but you're not fully awake yet, which is why

51:56

I call it kind of a lucid dream. And I'm not one who normally remembers my dreams. I wake up, you know, I know

52:01

I had some dreams. I very, very rarely remember any of them. And this one was just clear as day.

52:08

And it was, uh, it was right as our fight was intensifying and we were starting to realize the magnitude of the lies and the betrayals.

52:16

And it was all just pouring down on me is I'm realizing that the path I thought I was going to be on is probably not the path that, that the

52:23

Lord is, is actually directed for us. And that was producing this identity crisis that we've kind of just talked about.

52:31

And that morning, as I, as I'm in this lucid state, uh, I, I all of a sudden envisioned myself and it was pretty clearly

52:38

Afghanistan. Uh, and I'm at the base of this mountain and, and the sounds of warfare were all around me.

52:44

I could hear, you know, I dual comms on, I could hear gunshots in the distance. I could hear voices subdued.

52:51

I could hear helicopters. I could hear these, these sounds of war, but I was by myself. And I'm, I'm climbing this mountain and it's like big boulder mountain, like just, you know, uh, having to just scramble up these boulders.

53:02

And so I'm slipping, I'm, I'm, I'm tripping, nothing's fitting right. My guns hanging weird.

53:08

It's like banging into my knees. Uh, my sweats making my helmet kind of slide and my nods are fogged up.

53:15

Uh, so nothing's fitting right. Like everything's an irritant and it's one of those days where nothing's quite right.

53:20

Everything's a little off, but I'm, you got to climb the mountain. So I'm climbing this mountain. And then all of a sudden, uh,

53:28

I'm at a funeral. And if you don't know at our funerals, one of the traditions we do is we'll pull off our seal trident and we'll, we'll pound it into, um, the casket, uh, of our fallen.

53:40

And then everyone gets in line and does that. And when we bury our teammate, we all give a part of ourselves, you know, to them in that moment.

53:46

And so that happened. And then all of a sudden I'm back on the mountain, just like a flashbulb back and forth.

53:53

But the, the, the climb is even more difficult this time. Like I'm, I'm now carrying more weight somehow, but I keep climbing.

54:02

And then I'm back in another funeral, another tribal. And then I'm back on the mountain. This goes back and forth just bird after bird after bird into each casket of all the teammates and friends that I've lost over the years.

54:15

And each time again, I'm carrying more weight with me as I'm climbing this mountain. And I finally get to the top and I am,

54:22

I'm bone weary, fatigued. By the time I get to the top, I'm just like, I'm, I'm hunched over heaving, heaving, uh, unable to catch my breath leaning on this wooden post.

54:33

And I'm looking at my sweat, just, just dripping off my face as I'm trying to catch my breath. And I finally, uh,

54:41

I finally get my breath enough to just lift my head. And I realize I'm leaning on the cross and at my head level are, are

54:50

Jesus's feet. And they're this, this bloody pulp and they're dripping.

54:56

And I can't even bring myself to look higher. I'm just looking at his feet and I hear a voice say, um, how beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news.

55:08

And I'm sobbing now and I'm crying and I knew precisely what I needed to do. And so I pulled off my last trident and I pounded it into the foot of the cross, uh, below his feet.

55:19

And then I woke up. And so, you know, it was one of those, it was incredibly real, but at the same time we start to second guess these things.

55:28

And I, and I, over the next day or so I was like, well, you know, what were you saying there, Lord? You know, it's pretty obvious at first, but you start to like, you know, was that real or was that just, you know, my, my own brain doing some weird things.

55:41

So, um, so I'm sitting right out here on this porch doing my, my time with the Lord one morning, a few days later.

55:47

And I was at this crossroads moment where I had to make some decisions. And I knew that if these decisions ended up taking me to where I'm at now, which

55:56

I suspected it was something like this, which would leave, make me leave the community that I loved. Um, that's what these decisions were going to likely produce.

56:05

And so, so I knew I was, I was crossing a threshold that I couldn't come back from. And I knew it was going to probably result in, in where we're at today.

56:12

So I was praying about it and I was like, Lord, were you really telling me, were you really telling me to give you my bird? Were you really telling me that this has become an idol for me that I need to give to you?

56:21

Um, if so, I was, I was almost like it was a Gideon moment, right? Like I just need to be doubled, you know, like for sure that you, you meant what you said to me in this, in this moment, it was the wildest thing.

56:33

As I'm praying for like one more sign, like Lord, please be patient and give me one more sign. And I'm on my prayer app that morning and I just flipped to the next screen and it just has different verses that it'll prompt you with and kind of lead you toward a, you know, in a prayer.

56:47

And this next verse that popped across my screen was from Exodus. I think it was, uh, I think it's chapter 20 verse three.

56:52

I'll have to double check here. Uh, but, but it blew my mind. So Moses is coming down off the mountain and, and what he says is paraphrased, but he says the, the

57:03

Lord, your God says, uh, you know, you shall not have any other idol before me. You shall not carve for yourself beasts, uh, of the air, uh, beasts of the ground or beasts of the, of the water beneath the ground.

57:16

So sea, air and land, which is the seal trident, the seal trident seal stands for sea, air and land.

57:22

It is a, it's an image of an Eagle from the air. Poseidon's trident for the sea and a, and a rifle to represent the land.

57:29

And here I was asking, like, are you sure this is an idol you want me to give you? And that the next verses from Exodus, I couldn't believe it.

57:36

Uh, so I start just crying and I'm laughing at the same time. Like God's hand was so palpable in this moment as I'm asking for one more just validation that I was reading.

57:45

It's the right way. He's like, Oh yeah, I got one for you, Brad. And I'd read Exodus. I mean, I'd read Exodus tons of times over the years.

57:52

Never before had I read that verse to be what it was in that moment. And, it just rocked me.

57:58

And what was really fun about it is now having shared that verse with a lot of other Christians who are seals, they've had the same reaction as me.

58:06

Like, Oh my gosh, I've never seen that verse what it is. My, my boss at the time was actually getting an

58:11

MDiv, uh, online from Liberty University masters in divinity. And I'm telling him about it that day.

58:16

He's like, what? I don't think that says that in Exodus. I'm like, pull it up. So we pull it up and he's reading.

58:22

He's like, Oh my God, prior seal too. So we, it's just been so neat to see

58:27

God use his scripture from thousands and thousands of years ago to apply to what he was asking me to do right now.

58:34

And that was this turning point moment for us where we realized, Oh yeah, this has become too much of my identity. It's become an idol to me as much as I never wanted it to be.

58:43

And it convinced myself it wasn't. No, no, it really is. And so I pulled it off and I pounded it into the cross.

58:48

And then, um, since then, you alluded to at the beginning, uh, after Sean Ryan, I, I've been watching this painter online invader girl.

58:57

Art is her name. Uh, our name is Sarah, but she goes by invader girl art and she does this just really, uh, deep, uh, work and, and really captures,

59:10

I think our conflict well, and some really eerie ways that are just, um, they tell a story.

59:16

Every one of her paintings tells a story and I've been following her for a while as I saw some of these paintings that man, these really speak to me. And so I called her up and said,

59:23

Hey, you know, would you be willing to paint this for me? Here's my dream. And I laid it out for her.

59:28

And she's like, well, I'm not really taking commissions right now. I'm pretty busy. I'm swamped. And so she's like, tell me, tell me about this dream, this vision you had.

59:35

And then we finished the conversation. She's like, Oh yeah, I'm doing this one for you. So, so she ended up painting it for me, which is, which has been fantastic.

59:43

We've got it hung up in our house and, and it's just such a reminder for our whole family. Like, Hey, we put our idols on the cross.

59:49

Like we follow Jesus first. And, uh, that is, that is where we find our identity. Amazing.

59:55

Just curious. Uh, and I don't know if you know the exact number, but how many times have you had to pound a trident into a casket?

01:00:02

It's been quite a few for you. Well, I mean, I talked about extortion. That was 31 Americans right there.

01:00:07

And, and, um, uh, you know, we've done more than that. We've lost Danny Dietz, the guys from red wings, and we've lost other guys since then too.

01:00:15

I, I mean, galley dude. So we're probably talking over 40 through my career at least, at least.

01:00:22

And there's others, there's others that I didn't get to the funeral for, you know, we've lost more than that, but, um, I've probably pounded 40 into, into various caskets or, or boards, you know, some of the families asked for us to do it on a board.

01:00:34

They can hold that board in the house. It's like, it's like, so we've done that as well. Yeah. Gotcha. Any thoughts?

01:00:41

It's amazing to me, the, I didn't come here today expecting to hear the biblical basis for the armed forces from Exodus, but it's a powerful point.

01:00:51

I think just what you're saying about identity is so important. No matter what we do in life, no matter who we are, no matter what roles we fulfill, no matter what, we need a hope that is intentional.

01:01:03

and that will last beyond the grave. I think that the Bible gives us such great eternal perspective in terms of being children of God, as Peter says, being born again to a living hope.

01:01:16

It is a hope that transcends the demands of the grave because our savior has first passed through there and has given us an inheritance that is kept safe for us.

01:01:27

It is guarded in heaven and it is, uh, imperishable, right?

01:01:32

It can't die. It's undefiled. It's free from stain. It's free from blight. It's free from corruption and it's unfading, right?

01:01:41

It always retains its, uh, character, its brightness. Um, it can't be, uh, taken away from us in the way that, uh, so many things seemingly, uh, can be, you know, we have our, our rights trampled by government.

01:01:56

We have the sense of who we are taken away by no longer belonging to this particular group. All of those things can be taken away from us by a forcible hand.

01:02:06

But one thing that can never be taken away is who we are in Jesus Christ. Our union with him, um, our identification with his death and with his resurrection and our enthronement with him, ultimately, in heaven, above all things, in heaven and on earth.

01:02:23

And we need that hope. That's the hope that the world needs to hear about is that the love of God is stronger and of more precious value than anything that this world can give to you and anything that it can take from you.

01:02:39

And that is the love that you need to make it to tomorrow, um, as well as live this day out all the way into eternity.

01:02:46

That's the only hope that's going to carry you throughout the course of your life because it's incorruptible.

01:02:52

It's imperishable. It's unfading. And it's kept in heaven for you, guarded in Jesus Christ because he's conquered the grave, right?

01:03:00

He'll never die again. And so, that's the anchor that you have for your soul. Amen. Absolutely.

01:03:07

So, we'll, uh, we'll close out here. So the, I'm, I'm very excited here.

01:03:12

So, uh, I titled this episode yesterday. It was easy. There's a reason why. You guys have probably all seen, I've been wearing a bunch of gear, which you can find at chop .apologiestudios

01:03:21

.com. Um, so I've been working on for about a year this, this little show.

01:03:27

So I'm actually going to premiere the first episode here in a minute at the end here. Um, so very excited for this.

01:03:33

They're going to be a little short, seven minute ish episodes. Um, just on basically on biblical manhood and masculinity.

01:03:42

I'm taking a lot of what I've learned from these guys. Um, you know, not having deep dove into seal ethos, a lot of, a lot of things, not everything.

01:03:52

I'm not gonna say everything, but a lot of, of stuff coming out of that community. Can be, um, can be based, is, is based off a biblical principle and, and it's been very encouraging to us.

01:04:05

Um, and so I've learned a lot. And so basically what I'm going to be doing in these, in these shows is taking some of that stuff and, and, and showing it from a biblical perspective.

01:04:16

And I just want to really challenge men to be better Christian men, better Christian dads, husbands. Um, and so Brad's actually, it worked out well that we, that time, that timing on this, uh, cause

01:04:27

Brad's actually helped me on some of, some of my episodes. Um, they're all scripted. So he's helped me on some of those.

01:04:33

I've sent them to him, got some feedback from him. And, um, so yeah, I'm super excited.

01:04:38

Um, so we're going to drop the first episode here at the end. And the goal is to, um, have one like every two weeks, essentially going to do them in seasons, 31 episode seasons.

01:04:50

And, uh, so I have a bunch recorded and there's a bunch more written. And so I'm really, really excited for that.

01:04:56

Um, so like I said, I'll, I'll close out the show here in a second, playing that. I know you're excited for it. Cause Zach's been giving me a lot of feedback on it as well.

01:05:03

It's awesome. I'm wearing one of the shirts right now. So that's, today was easy. That, uh, that's a quote from my great uncle, freedom costs something.

01:05:12

That's one of the episodes will be coming. Um, that was his, uh, his logo, his, um, patchy war 413th.

01:05:20

Uh, no, did I say that right? Yeah. Uh, squadron bomb squadron in red war, war two.

01:05:26

He was a tail gunner in a B 17. Um, so I'm wearing one, one of the shirts, got the hats, we've got all kinds of gear.

01:05:32

So again, and get that shop. No apologies, studios .com or you can also get all these cool tracks, some coffee.

01:05:38

And of course I want to mention Bradley Pierce and heritage defense .org. Um, if you're homeschooling, please go sign up.

01:05:47

Um, you should as well. You homeschool, uh, yeah. Heritage, heritage. Right now.

01:05:53

Yeah. So, basically, uh, you have a lawyer on call. So if any three letter agency whom you're maybe knocking on your door, come,

01:06:05

I think we're signed up for this. I think we're perfect for this. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's bright. Have you met Brad Bradley Pierce?

01:06:11

Sorry. The other bread, do you know Bradley Pierce? Um, I don't, I don't think we've met. Okay. So he was, he's how

01:06:18

I got hooked up with Davis. So we, we all went out to Va beach that day.

01:06:24

So Bradley's our constitutional lawyer that writes all of our, all of our bills. Are you saying Virginia beach? Yeah.

01:06:29

Okay. Va beach. Sorry. That's the team guy slang. Um, so, uh, I watched too many seal things.

01:06:36

So I just started regurgitating. Um, so yeah. So Bradley is the one that knew Davis. Um, anyway, so Bradley is one of the, one of the founders of heritage.

01:06:44

He's one of the guys on call half the time. So, uh, yeah, they're great. It's super affordable.

01:06:49

But if you go to, um, heritage, French .org, you put apology in the coupon code and get your first month free.

01:06:55

Any other thoughts before we leave now? We appreciate you, man so much. And, uh,

01:07:00

Hey, you know what, if things don't work out voiceover career for you, did you see all those, did you see all those comments on Sean?

01:07:09

I was laughing so dang hard because I did not expect that. Like I had,

01:07:14

I never really thought much about my voice, but that was apparently like a hit. Like everyone's talking about, yeah,

01:07:20

I need to do books on, on audio recording. We're going to have them do one for us.

01:07:25

Actually. I'm excited about that one. You got that right. Did you read it? Yep. Yeah.

01:07:31

I'm halfway through and I'm blown away, man. Dude, isn't it amazing? It's it's next level.

01:07:36

I didn't, I didn't know what I expected, but I am like, like Galileo. These, these, these dudes are theologians.

01:07:42

Whoever, whoever the authors were or are very impressed with their level of, of just knowledge in, in, in scriptural truths.

01:07:51

It was very impressive. Well, if you want me to connect you with them, I can, like I said, two of them are active and I won't say where, and one of them is medically retired.

01:07:59

So I wonder if I'm already connected with them, not even realizing it, but I, it is, it is on my list of things to ask you.

01:08:04

Okay. Yeah. So we'll, we'll talk about it offline then. Yeah. All right. Okay. Well, thank you everyone for your support.

01:08:13

And we could always use your help with an abortion. Now we have, now we're looking at possibly 22 bills, right?

01:08:19

It just keeps growing. Yeah. Which is amazing. So in 25, we're looking at 22 different States.

01:08:25

So we could use your support there. You guys, I mean, we literally, that's how we make it happen. These bills, it's by supporters and, and generous

01:08:33

Christians who donate their hard earned income. So thank you for that. And thank you for all, all access subscribers as well.

01:08:41

You make this possible. And I do want to mention one more thing. Cause I keep forgetting to, we, we are locked and loaded for reform con 25.

01:08:49

It'd be April 24th to 26th in Tucson. We're going to be meeting and we're partnering with Ezra Institute.

01:08:55

We've been talking about it, but it's official. We're going to have ticket sales going up here very, very soon. So we got some great speakers committed.

01:09:02

I'll wait till we announce it, but it's going to be a good one. So I'll be watching for that. So you guys can get your tickets, come have fun with us.

01:09:11

And Brad, where can people go to support you or probably would stand with warriors? I'm guessing.

01:09:18

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're I mean, you know, Davis has been with us, as you know. So just yeah, that's really it.

01:09:26

And the biggest thing is, is just pray, you know, pray that God would be glorified through this whole journey. And that he's a

01:09:32

God of justice and that, that his justice would be seen here on earth. We're not guaranteed that, but we're hoping for it for sure.

01:09:40

Amen. Amen to that. So, yeah, I can go to stay with the warriors .org. If you're interested in helping

01:09:45

Brad and his, his firing on, I know some people in the chat said they weren't sure what was going on. You can just look up Brad for another show.

01:09:53

We did back. Like I said, it was April and may, or you can go watch the six hour episode on Sean Ryan, which is even better.

01:10:01

So I recommend 1 .25 speed. If you're going to do that. Definitely. Awesome.

01:10:08

Actually, that's funny because I listened to the podcast. I don't want to watch it. Although I did watch that one on YouTube because I wanted to see it, but usually

01:10:13

I listen to the podcast and I do do it. 1 .25. So, all right. Well, thank you so much, everyone.

01:10:19

I appreciate it. And here we go. I'm very excited for this. Dropping yesterday is easy. You guys want to pull that up?

01:10:27

If you are new to apology studios, my name is Luke Pearson. I am the discipleship pastor at apology, a church in Mesa, Arizona.

01:10:36

Welcome to yesterday was easy. My good friend, pastor

01:10:48

Toby Sumter started a vlog series called having two legs, which can be found on the

01:10:54

Canon press YouTube page or on their Canon plus app. I highly recommend you check it out as it has greatly blessed me.

01:11:02

It has also inspired me to do this show. Yesterday was easy. Toby typically tackles cultural hot topic issues with each episode, ranging anywhere from two to 20 minutes long.

01:11:15

I intend to be slightly more structured with a much more narrow focus. My goal is to produce 1200 word episodes, which should hopefully result in five minute long shows.

01:11:25

And this initial installment of yesterday was easy. I would like to lay out my desired purpose of this show, as well as explain the reasoning behind the name.

01:11:34

Believe me, they are very much connected really since COVID God has greatly impressed upon me.

01:11:41

The need for strong, courageous Christ like men and our American churches.

01:11:46

I truly believe that one of the main reasons our culture is literally going to hell is because overall

01:11:52

Christ bride is lacking brave men that love their savior. The heroic men of yesteryear have faded into folklore, whether it be our fearless founding fathers or the gutsy gallant

01:12:05

GIs of the two world wars or the persistent pastors throughout our nation's history, whom the aforementioned men look to for guidance and direction.

01:12:14

I fear that gone are the men with the courage of George Washington, the boldness of George Patton and the ability to preach like George Whitfield.

01:12:23

Instead, our culture idolizes effeminate men like sodomites, George Michael and boy

01:12:28

George and Liberty hating George Soros. And before you say it, because I already know what you are thinking,

01:12:35

I am not at all saying that old blood and guts was a Christian, but I am saying that he was brave and he was a hero that risked his life for the pursuit of Liberty and to put an end to evil.

01:12:46

There is a reason those men have been called the greatest generation, but sadly they are all gone now.

01:12:51

And I'm concerned that the younger me first and the gimme gimme snowflake millennial generation has all but forgotten them.

01:12:59

So why the name yesterday was easy. Seems like an odd name, right? In September, 2021, we were afforded the honor and pleasure of having a private meeting with 20 to 30

01:13:10

Navy SEALs in an undisclosed location. And if you don't know much about the SEALs, one, you should to shame on you.

01:13:18

And three, let me tell you something about them. The Navy SEALs are hands down, not only our greatest warriors, but also the greatest, most skilled bad -ass warriors in the history of man.

01:13:30

But there was something unusually great about this group of SEALs. These highly trained operators also love

01:13:37

Jesus. They find their identity and their savior first. They are Christians operating as Navy SEALs.

01:13:44

And the reason we gathered with them was because their faith compelled them to take a stand against tyranny.

01:13:50

They were being forced to take the COVID cookie by, let's just say, someone in upper management, but due to their strong convictions, they have viewed this as an unlawful order.

01:14:01

We went to meet with them with the intention of encouraging them to stay strong and fight against what we consider to be a tyrannical and unjust mandate.

01:14:10

Something that is a direct blow to our God -given personal liberty. We did, and still view these warriors as our last line of defense against all out oppression.

01:14:19

These godly men swore an oath to the constitution and intend to keep it. And so we desire to encourage them to take a stand under the banner

01:14:28

Lex Rex, or the law is King. Needless to say, we came away inspired by them to keep fighting tyranny in their jurisdiction.

01:14:38

I've watched the Buds Class 234 documentary more times than I can count. If you don't know what that is, stop what you're doing right now and go watch it on YouTube.

01:14:47

As a man, I already had a tremendous amount of respect for these giants among men, but I left this meeting with a new set of heroes.

01:14:56

As I have gotten to know these men, I've taken a deep dive into the seal community and therefore seal culture.

01:15:02

Many aspects of their ethos have had a formidable impact, not only on me, but also on my ministry.

01:15:09

This culture has been the inspiration behind this show that I want to now share with you. There are a number of inspirational sayings within the seal community, two of which you will hear in each episode.

01:15:21

The first is the only easy day was yesterday. Hence the name yesterday was easy.

01:15:26

The other is get hard, stay hard. I will be ending each installment with stay hard.

01:15:33

The idea is this yesterday was yesterday. Today is today. Yesterday was easy.

01:15:38

Today is not. So firm up your resoluteness, gird up your loins, get hard. And not only get hard, but stay hard.

01:15:45

No whining allowed. When life is hard, you deal with the cards you've been dealt. Stop complaining.

01:15:51

Rake the rocks. God has given you all to his glory. If feminacy will not be tolerated, put your purse down, pick up a shovel and start digging, rub some dirt in your wounds and get to work.

01:16:03

This show is for men. This is not for your mom and him. No, your wife, no, your baby girl.

01:16:09

I fully intend to use harsher language and be more direct in order to inspire men to act like men.

01:16:16

Not all quotes I will use are from Christians or even necessarily godly men, but I promise that they will always reflect biblical principles by which we, as men, should live.

01:16:28

I've already quoted the Navy Seals. I plan on using quotes from some of my favorite movies like Tombstone or some of my favorite actors like John Wayne.

01:16:36

Don't be upset when I do. I am only trying to point you back to a biblical definition of manhood.

01:16:43

In closing this inaugural episode, I want to share with you a story from one of my closest seal brothers.

01:16:50

His dad is the epitome of a hard, God -fearing Christian man. Whenever my friend had a rough day, his dad would tell him, when you wake up tomorrow, if your feet hit the ground, it's a blessing from God.

01:17:03

I absolutely love that. Every breath given to you by God is his richest blessing upon your life.

01:17:09

So often we take that for granted. So often we, as clay pots, want to whine and complain to the potter about the circumstances he has sovereignly placed us in.

01:17:19

Christian men, let's knock that off starting right now. Let's put that effeminate, manby -pamby crap to death.

01:17:26

Let's become resolute, hardworking, God -fearing, Christ -like, blood, sweat, and tears type of men.

01:17:32

Men that are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and most importantly, that Christ himself would be proud of.

01:17:39

Speaking of the aforementioned John Wayne, he once said, tomorrow is the most important thing in life.

01:17:45

Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives, and it puts itself in our hands.

01:17:51

It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. Yesterday was easy. I hope you learned something.

01:17:58

Stay hard. I love that ending.

01:18:06

Yeah, it's good. We filmed that last week. Good job, dude. Good stuff. Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's solid, dude.

01:18:12

I'm excited for these. Yeah, well, I appreciate it. It's funny, when I wrote that, I didn't know I was going to be friends with you and talking about Bud's 234.

01:18:21

Brad, we talked about this last time he was on, but he was one of the main stars, if you will, from that.

01:18:28

Yeah, yeah. Super weird how it all comes full circle like that. Yeah, for sure. Yesterday was easy tattoos.

01:18:35

When are we going to get them? Oh, dude, you're right. I need to get on that. That's my next one,

01:18:41

I guess. Forehead? No, right on my neck. Now I'm really going to make people mad talking about getting tattooed.

01:18:52

All right. Well, thanks again, everyone. Oh, I forgot to mention that this is also going to be in podcast form, which is not live.

01:19:01

So I think we're going to air the episodes on Wednesdays, every other Wednesday on YouTube, but the podcast is live now, so you can go ahead and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

01:19:11

Just look up yesterday. It was easy. My man. Later, y 'all. You. Adios, amigos.

01:19:17

Brad, thanks, brother. We'll be in touch. Thanks, dudes. We'll see you around. God bless you. Peace out. Appreciate you.