Dead Men Walking #139 David Reece: Christian Dominion In Business & How To Set Yourself Apart

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Exploring theology, doctrine, and all of the fascinating subjects in between, broadcasting from an undisclosed location,

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Dead Men Walking starts now. Well hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Dead Men Walking podcast.

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Check it out and you can see him at jacobsupply .com and we thank him for being a sponsor. Cool, now that we got the business out of the way,

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I'm excited about this one. I say that every week, but this time I mean it. That's 137 times of saying

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I'm excited, but I really am. This guy, this guest that we have, I just know we're going to line up on so many things and I'm really excited to talk to him.

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He's the CEO of Armored Republic and he's going to get into that a little bit. He's also the pastor of Puritan Reformed Church.

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It's Mr. David Reese. David, how are you, sir? Greg, I'm doing well. I appreciate you having me on and I'm excited to be able to talk about Christian business and talk about Armored Republic and I appreciate what you're doing in terms of helping people to be aware of a lot of the things we've got to deal with in the culture.

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Absolutely, and you know I said we're going to hit it off because I want to talk about obviously being a

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Christian, having values, owning a business, or even being an influencer in a business. We talk about that a lot on this podcast just because I do own my own business and have for quite some time.

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You're the CEO of Armored Republic, but why don't you give the listeners a little overview of who you are. Maybe a one or two minute bio, let them know your background, where you come from, and maybe get into Armored Republic a little bit.

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Yeah, so about seven years ago I had the opportunity to get into Armored Republic and so we're also widely known as AR500 Armor.

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So 2012 the company was founded. Basically, body armor was not broadly available to the general public and if it was available it was like six or eight hundred dollars per plate, which meant you were spending a couple of grand on a setup.

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So we came into the marketplace and the goal was specifically to figure out how to provide affordable body armor to the

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American consumer because the idea is if you get body armor in people's hands, right, you need a rifle to resist tyranny and body armor is the second piece of equipment.

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It allows you to be able to resist tyranny more effectively, so it gives some backbone. So the same reason you'd buy an

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AR15 is the reason you'd buy body armor. So basically our goal was to see there's 20 to 30 million people with an

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AR15. Our goal is to try to get body armor into those people's hands as well. So we came out with steel body armor.

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There were problems with steel in the past in the sense that it was either heavy or you'd have this issue with like fragmentation.

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A bullet hits steel and the issue is it's going to fragment so that can get into the neck and get into your arms.

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You're holding a firearm and so this idea of how do you deal with that. So two things happened that were developed that allowed this to kind of become a solution for the general public.

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One was that there was a development of steel where it was a lot harder and it was more capable of stopping rounds without having nearly as much weight.

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So the development of steel that occurred in the mining industry really improved the capability of the use of steel for body armor.

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And the second thing was we figured out how to basically modify the material that was being used on spray applications in terms of like truck bed liners and stuff like that and make it more elastic so it could capture fragmentation.

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So those two things being able to have harder steel and being able to capture fragmentation effectively were the things that made it so the steel body armor could come out.

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So in that environment of $600 to $800 per plate we were able to come out with a $65 plate.

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And so that dramatically right we're talking order of magnitude bringing down the cost of buying a piece of body armor.

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And then we've been able to develop all the types. So we sell there's four big types of body armor. There's steel, there's ceramic, there's polyethylene, and there's soft body armor.

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There's stuff you see like you know cops wearing in terms of the stuff that just kind of fits around, molds around, it's you know it's flexible.

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So we make all those types but that was sort of the thing that was a dramatic price reduction thing that made it so we could enter the market and help people to be able to afford body armor that could kind of be available be there as a piece of emergency gear.

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So I came on board. Basically there was this kind of groundswell of interest.

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I quickly took over. I had kind of a background in dealing with some operational issues and manufacturing and strategy.

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And so there was just this kind of blowing up of demand. So I came was able to take that over. And the owner of the company at the time was not a believer.

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And so he and I sort of started to engage. We started to talk about Christianity in terms of the workplace and how if we're going to have values as a company they have to be based on something.

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And so I started to posit that the word of God should be the source of those values. And he made a profession of faith.

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That's what happens when you hire a pastor as a CEO. I love it. So he promoted me he originally hired me as a director.

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Then he promoted me to CEO. And then from there I became a minority partner in the business.

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And eventually I bought the business from him. And we had a really great relationship and were able to have really strong trust.

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And so that was sort of the process that happened. So I completed the buyout about a year ago. And so that I've been running it for seven years and did that.

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And so I'm passionate about the idea of building a Christian culture in the workplace.

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And that's kind of the background there. And so at the same time, I was pastoring a church. And so running a company made it so that I could put less of a burden on my congregation.

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And so I didn't need to draw any sort of money for that obviously, but was able to continue to do both.

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So that's a little bit of the background there. Wow. Now I don't want to nerd out on you a little bit because we might lose the audience, but I want to go back to that material because I saw a

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YouTube video of the fragmentation test that you guys are doing to where you see all this fragmentation on a regular steel plate.

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And then with this material that you have, I mean, it's just, it's night and day. And so is that proprietary to you guys or is that something you specialize in?

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Because it's quite amazing. And like I said, I don't want to nerd out on you here. I am a gun owner and I do appreciate things like that, that you're doing, but talk about that just for a second.

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Is that a special material you guys industry wide now? No, I appreciate that. So it's a special material.

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So the thing is in the sort of that material is called a polyurea. So that's, that's kind of a spectrum of materials.

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And basically you can have different kinds of ways you design it. So one of the things is in the chemistry world, it typically doesn't work to be able to patent things because you can normally design a thing.

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And then if somebody knows your design, if it's published in a patent, then they can kind of veer off 1 % or something and make it similar enough.

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So it's a trade secret in terms of the mix, but we spend a lot of time working through developing what we have.

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And so our material is something that's gone through a lot of different types of testing. And the interesting thing is you're basically trying to balance a number of properties because if it's too rigid, it kind of blows out.

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If it's too elastic, then it's going to end up kind of not being strong enough to capture the fragmentation.

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And so you're trying to figure out how do we do that? And you're trying to figure out how does that work across lots of different temperatures? So, you know, if it gets too cold, it's the elasticity is not going to hold up, but we're trying to figure out how do we have the broad range of likely kind of temperatures and situations that people are going to be into and have that fit the widest number of them.

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And then the other thing is we recently launched a new product that is also kind of taking steel to a new level where we've done an alloy mix where it's a very thin alloy layer.

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And it has this backing material that it makes so that the steel front serves in sort of the same way historically as ceramics do, where they there's this kind of fracturing out.

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So we've been able to use the high hardness properties of steel in a way where it serves sort of similar benefits as what ceramic does historically.

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And so it's like four and a half pounds, which I don't know if you're familiar with armored or four and a half pounds for a thing that you do multiple hits that can, they can stop rifle rounds and all that.

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It's a pretty impressive thing. So we're really excited about having just launched that product as well. And it's called our A3. So that material you called, you talked about is called

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Fraglock. It captures fragmentation. And then this other new armor that we've launched is called

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A3. So sorry, you got me excited. No, it's very, it's very exciting. I love to see people that are passionate about what they are doing.

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And that's what I wanted to get into a little bit. You know, as a believer, as a Christ follower, and as a business owner, and even listeners that are either business owners or influencers in your business, you know, one of the most important things that I do every day is along with eating and sleeping and raising kids and homeschooling and all that is how can

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I glorify God in my business? And that's what I want to ask you. Now, that's a very broad question, but I think you might have some answers to it, not only being a

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CEO, but being a pastor. So what are some things we can do to glorify God in our day -to -day business?

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Right. So I think one of the key things to think about here is the sufficiency of Scripture, right? The Bible is the

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Word of God. And it's not just that the Bible is true and all the stuff it addresses. The Bible is true, and it addresses everything.

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And so the Bible is sufficient. It is the Word of God. And it's going to have principles that allow us to understand how we should form our businesses.

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So what we need to do, we often like, you know, we'll go in and we'll go to like Bible Gateway, and we'll do a search. It's like businesses.

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There's not very much in the Bible of business moving on. I guess I'll do what I want. Right. So the issue is, where does business fit in the law of God?

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And so business is the activity of the individual and of the household. And those

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God establishes a covenant relationship with individuals and with households. And then there are churches and states.

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And so we go, well, business isn't the purview of the state, and it's not the purview of the church. And so we look at the dominion mandate, where we're commanded to work and to keep, to subdue the earth, to fill the earth.

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And this obligation to work, to name and order is business work.

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And you know you're being efficient if you're making a profit, and you're being inefficient if you're not. And so this idea that we look at, how do we increase our dominion?

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Well, that's profit. And so the idea of increasing dominion, that's

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God glorifying. If you're doing honest work and you're increasing your dominion, right, that's work.

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If you are trying to do something that's God glorifying, but you're inefficient at it, and you're reducing what you have, then you're doing the opposite of dominion.

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You're reducing your dominion. You're giving it away. And so this idea of trying to be profitable is the intelligent application of resource usage.

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And so we think about the idea that the household is where we think about the relationships between people in businesses.

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And so I think one of the important things, I have my kids, when they get old enough, I kind of start to train and do something in the business.

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So this idea that the family should be working together, should think about what is it that we can do to effectively help each other to increase the estate that we've got.

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And so you're trying to care for your children's bodies and your wife's body and your own. You're trying to provide for their souls.

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And then you're trying to increase the property, the wealth that you pass off to them. So this vision of a long -term passing on of wealth and wisdom and skills to your own children,

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I think is an important part of the view of business that you're thinking, this is a long -term thing. This isn't a churn and burn.

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This isn't like something where it's just a disposable thing. You're building a business and it's a reputation and this long -term idea of reputation.

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And the next thing would just be, so if we realize that the business is a part of the household, the way you treat people who work for you is going to be different.

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And you think about the fact that you have obligations towards people who work for you to be a prophet, priest, and king.

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And so you go, I need to speak truth and correct error. And I need to, as a priest, pray for them and care for them and build a relationship and self -sacrificially serve.

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And then this kingship is sort of this providing and protecting. And how do I make it so that people are protected also from things that would cause waste?

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Because one of the tendencies when you have people that work for you is you kind of go, well, I want to interrupt you with something else.

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And if you're not protecting them to accomplish the tasks you assigned to them, you're kind of creating a bunch of waste. So I can go into a bunch of those things more, but that's sort of this overview of what are the institutions and what are the role, how do we serve that sort of frame of mind?

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Yeah, I would also say too, just two quick things is when you use the word profit as well too, we live in a culture now that almost calls it the

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P word. It's an evil word, right? When in fact, profit is a mutually beneficial exchange. The buyer and the seller both walk away happy because the product in the hand of the buyer, he wanted that, or he or she wanted that more than the money.

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And the seller needed the money more than the labor and the product. So it is a good thing.

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I think profit, the Bible speaks about profit all the time. It is a very good thing. And like you said too,

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Proverbs speaks very clearly about a wise man leaves a wealth and inheritance to his children and his children's children, right?

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And so we have to look at this as believers and too often I find, you know, even small business owners might say, well,

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I'm a Christian business, right? And it stops at, well, I don't have alcohol at my

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Christmas parties. That's the level of Christian, right? And I would argue there and go, look at, I'm a reformed Presbyterian.

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We do have some bourbon at my Christmas parties and we do it all for the glory of God and with self -control, but that's a whole nother story.

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And I feel like what you're hitting on here is it has to be in this dominion view, it has to be part of who you are, of a

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Christ follower, and then walk that out in your business, in your relationships, how you treat people, business decisions.

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Can you just hammer down or nail down on some of those points that you were saying and what's some practical things that maybe you even seen as your role as CEO and now owner of your business,

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Armored Republic, of how you walk out those kingdom and dominion principles in business?

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Yeah, I mean, so part of it is you have to have an emphasis on truth because American business culture is very pragmatic, it's very focused on getting stuff done, and that's sort of the expectation.

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And you have to do that, right? You have to get things done, you have to be competent, you have to give people the authority and resources they need to do things because you can't just sit around and talk, right?

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Because you're not going to get things done. So there's things that have to be done, but having intentional effort to disciple the people that work for you in terms of creating written documents that talk about biblical principles, trying to reference the

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Bible in why. And it's funny, because lawyers will often talk to you and say, look, you're going to make a target out of yourself.

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The funny thing is, the more explicit you are about the Christianity, the more you're going to push people away who don't want to -

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That don't want to be part of it, yeah. Right, right. And so you're saving yourself from people who really hate what you're trying to do.

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You don't want them to be bamboozled. You don't want them to come in and be surprised, right? So we talk about it in the interview process.

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We talk very much about this is a Christian company. And so we're trying to apply the Ten Commandments in terms of how we deal with the business, that kind of thing.

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And so there are sort of intentional projecting out. But then when you're dealing with people and you're trying to develop people, teaching them, this is the worldview, this is what the

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Bible teaches, and this is what I'm trying to do, here's why. And so that idea and inviting a willingness to, okay, look, we don't have to agree about everything, but feel everybody talk to me about it.

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We can argue about it. So I've had a lot of employees who just dramatically disagree, but they understand where I'm coming from and they understand sort of certain boundaries about how do you, okay,

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Mr. Reese is going to be displeased with this. Let's not make that. And here's why, because he's expressed this before. And so you end up with people who don't even agree with what you're doing, being able to understand what you'd want and what you don't want, and to be able to kind of be a part of supporting that.

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And so there's a way in which they end up coordinating with you and helping you to accomplish your

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Christian mission as a company. And so that process of discipling and explaining yourself, even if people disagree, it's important that they understand what you believe and why.

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And then this idea of using the hiring process and your marketing process to both repel and attract.

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Because people find out about your convictions, they're attracted to you because they're on board with what you're trying to do.

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And so that gets you a totally different kind of buy -in than somebody who doesn't know anything about what you're doing and then may find out about it down the road, as opposed to somebody who seeks you out based upon what you're doing.

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And so those two things, the discipling of employees, and also this projecting out of what it is you're trying to do, those are things that help you to build a team that's more aligned.

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But this ability to then be able to really give people jurisdictions and to try to say, look,

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I don't have time to micromanage you. God has given me a limited amount of time. I need you to spend your time solving this thing.

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And having a clearly carved out jurisdiction, that's a part of that kingly calling as a leader. You're providing for them a zone.

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You're saying you're responsible for this, and then you're going to come back and check on it. And so I think those are really big things, this sense of you're a rational creature, you're a responsible creature, and I'm going to hold you accountable for what you do.

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If you have discipleship of projecting out of who you are and what you're about, and you give people jurisdiction and expect them to perform in accordance with the values that you've laid out, and to be able to show them, look, the word of God is my authority, and I'm going to apply it.

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Those things have a dramatic effect, and they build up, and they have this sort of like multiplication effect across time.

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Yeah, I love it. I absolutely love it. One of my favorite things to do when

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I started my brokerage was to write my own policy and procedures. Now, I had some attorneys with the legality of what needed to be in it.

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I have to have those by law if I have agents. But it was such a beautiful thing because I'm writing out these principles, and every principle has a scripture verse and what

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I base it on. And it's like every time I have an agent come to me and go, hey, could I join? Sure, here's my policy and procedures.

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And they go, jeez, one guy goes, it was like I was back in Sunday school when I was seven. The last time I was in church, I was reading a

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Bible. They go, yeah, that's the point. That's why it's called covenant real estate. We got a little double entendre going on there, right?

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Covenant being a contract and also the theology behind it. I thought I was really smart when I thought that up and then realized there's about 200 other agencies across the nation that have that, so not so smart.

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But another thing that you just alluded to is, and this will move us into our next subject, was

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I found when I'm very upfront with my beliefs and my value system and what I do and don't stand for in my business, the clients become extremely loyal.

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Now I might shudder some clients. Hey, I don't want to work with that. I don't, not necessarily my bag, but the ones that I do help are extremely loyal to where the middle of the road guys that don't really tell you where their value system is.

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And hey, I just would like to make a commission or further my business or make a profit. They can do very well.

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But I found when I talked to them, they just say, usually my clients are one and done with me. Now every industry is different. Real estate's a little different than what your industry is, but I found they become very loyal because they go, yeah, the value system runs so deep that that's who

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I want to align myself with in business. Is there something to that when you're trying to create loyalty from your clients and customers in a business as a business owner yourself?

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Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. I think one of the things is in a product world, what happens is a lot of the times

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I think people say you're using Jesus to sell whatever. So it's using Jesus to sell body armor. So there's sort of this, there is a backlash effect.

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And at the same time, there is this sort of like interesting thing where Christians are so, we're so deprived of sort of the public display of Christianity that if I see somebody else showing that they're

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Christian in public, I'm like, ooh, I am surprised that I'm like, here's a guy that is just putting himself out there for the

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Lord. And I appreciate that. And then there's this, the funny thing is also with Christianity, right? Everybody holds you to a higher standard.

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It is quicker to say you're a hypocrite. Yeah. And so the funny thing is it creates a pressure to perform.

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Sure. And so a part of that is this like need, when you associate yourself with Christ in the public, the quickness with which people will throw it back at you and the quickness with which they will dishonor the

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Lord makes it so that you become more responsive to problems out of your desire to honor the

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Lord there, which is good because it makes you better at dominion. Yeah. But the other thing is there is that loyalty.

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There are some people who go, Hey, I'm going to give you a shot because you're a believer and I want to work with believers.

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And if you serve them well, you know, that's the key honored the name of Christ. Yes. Then, then you really get their loyalty.

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If you fail, they will hate you forever. Yeah. And I wasn't trying to say, use Christ to gain loyalty.

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I was just saying exactly. You said it much better than I did. There is a high standard when you implore the name of Christ in anything that you do in our personal life, our business life, whatever it is, we better try to live up to that standard as best we can.

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Now, yes, we're all fallen and yes, we need grace and all those things, but you're exactly right. That, that standard pushes us to then we're, we're not representing ourselves.

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We're representing Christ and all that we do, including our business. So as we round the corner here so how do, how do we get our business to stand out?

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If I've got a listener or listeners right now, and they go, I own a business, I'm an influencer in a business. I lead a business.

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And I'm a believer. How do I either grow or, or let my business stand out as a believer in doing it that in a way that still glorifies

23:11

God? Yeah. So I think that there's, there's, there's two things. So one is the way that you, you stand out is by being willing to say the truths that other people aren't willing to say that everybody knows are true.

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Right. And so there's, you know, the emperor has no clothes type of things where you're saying, yeah, here's this thing and this is true.

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And so if you have a particular industry where there's, there's something that other people aren't willing to say. So in the tech, in the tactical space, the funny thing is firearms companies, ammunition companies, body armor companies, they're all afraid of leaning into the consumer space in such a way as to really fully identify there because there's so much more money in government dollars.

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Yeah. The government, the government contracts is so much more. And so we talk about body armor and we say body armor is for the purpose of resisting tyrants and criminals.

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And it's a tool of liberty. And so other people want to say it's a safety device. It's a whatever, but we just leaned into, this is a tool to resist tyranny.

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Lean into truth. Yeah. Right. And so that's why people are buying body armor. You're not buying body armor because you, you, you, you think that, uh, you know, it's going to help you to stay safe while you're hunting.

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You know, I mean, sure you can use that, but that's not the motive for buying body armor. Right. And so the motive for buying body armor is you're going,

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I want this thing in case I have to resist tyranny. And that's the, that's the major motive. And so just making voicing that and then leaning it and making it from a

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Christian perspective, as opposed to like an anarchic type of like, you know, uh, Hey, you know, it's the zombie apocalypse.

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Yeah. Right. Right. So instead it's, it's, you know, here's a tool of liberty to, you know, to protect your God given rights, right.

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Or talking about how there's no King, but Christ, right. This sort of, this sort of connecting it there.

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So it makes sense. So even an unbeliever goes, yeah, that's what I want this thing for. And then at the same time, giving it a lie rooted in the eternal word of God.

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And so it both gives a, a, what this thing is for that people are going to go.

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Yeah, that's the truth. And other people aren't willing to say it. And then a rooted in the word of God type of thing.

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And so that gives both of those. And so you'd said earlier, I didn't mean to suggest that you were saying we need to sell Jesus in some sort of a, you know, a cynical way, but I'm just saying in the product world, there's a little bit more of that.

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I think in the service world, it's so obvious how useful it is to work with Christians. Yeah. Because there's this like, oh, you actually have a sense of responsibility beyond just what are you going to get caught by men in.

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And right. And so I think for the service world, it's more obvious that working with a believer is going to provide that benefit of caring about you as a fellow immortal soul.

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But, but in the product world, I think there's a little bit more difficulty there, but I think it still pays off and the value of pushing you to be more effective.

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And that leads to the second thing. And the second thing about how it helps to, how you advance yourself in the marketplace is as you are presenting yourself as a believer, and as you're giving that truth that other people aren't willing to say, because they have a little bit of a concern about over -offending or whatever, as you're presenting the

26:13

Christianity of the company in that context and serving people well and owning mistakes, right? If you make a mistake and you fix it well, and you treat the customer properly, it's almost better than if you hadn't made the mistake, because if they feel like you took good care of them, when you drop the ball, they're like, oh, these people fix their mistakes.

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Yeah. And so you don't want to do that, right? Because fixing mistakes is more expensive and wastes all sorts of things. But if you take care of people, when you make a mistake, then the result is that people go, hey, this is a responsible company.

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And so you do well for people and the people you drop the ball with, you try to fix it for them and make it right. And when you do that, then that gives credibility to your profession of being a

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Christian company or being a company that's willing to speak the truths that other people are afraid to say. And as a result, it kind of, just like your profession of faith in a church is backed up by works, here in the business world, you're presenting yourself as a

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Christian company, you treat people well, and it adds sort of an emphasis to it and draws attention to you in that way.

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Yeah, absolutely. It's legit. It's literally putting your money where your mouth is. Yeah, I love it. So as we round this out here, we know you're going to be down at the

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Fight Left Feast conference, you're going to be giving a special business session, I believe on October 6, is that correct?

27:25

I think it is. Yeah. At the very beginning of the conference. Can you tease that out a little bit?

27:31

Now, I know you can't get into the super secret stuff you're going to be talking about. But maybe just give us a little hint for the listeners.

27:38

I know a lot of the listeners will be down there. We do it every year. We're good friends with the Cross Politics guys, we appreciate their support.

27:44

So what are we going to be what are we teasing out at Fight Left Feast this year? Yeah, so what

27:49

I'm going to be talking about is starting a business as a Christian. And I want to talk about some of the kind of mental models that I use.

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And I think that one of the most important things that you need to be able to lead people is you need to have a sort of systematic framework for making decisions.

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So you study the Bible, you build out a systematic theology, you think about the Bible, what does it have to say about a business activity?

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What does it say about institutions like the household, and those mental models? What are your duties, right, prophet, priest, king, those kinds of things help you to know what your duties are and what to default into.

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So the law of God is awesome, because it provides that. And so there are there are four things that a

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CEO ought to do, that's distinct from any other job in a business. And then there's also five things that every business needs.

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And if it's not a business, if it doesn't have these five things, it's not a business. And so my goal is to help people to think about how to plan a business with a simple mental model, where you can like back of napkin, plan a business, and make it work on a basic level, just by thinking about these five categories.

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And then thinking about how do I when you start a business, figuring out how do you start to eliminate everything off your plate, except for these four things that CEOs are supposed to do.

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And when you start to get success, and you're able to start getting people to start taking some of the work off of your hands, you have to make sure to not delegate these four things.

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So my goal is to help people to think about those five categories of what every business has to have in terms of being actually a business and the four things that a

29:14

CEO needs to make sure that they're doing and not delegating. Oh, wow, I love it. I mean, it's so needed.

29:20

And I don't see a whole lot of other people doing it this way. And I think it's going to be a great session.

29:27

So listen, we got a lot packed in here in just the couple minutes we've been together. Would you like to stick around for a few more minutes where we do fresh 10 segment, ask you 10 questions that you don't know, just to get to know you a little bit more.

29:39

How about it? Absolutely. Let's do it. All right, here we go.

29:53

It's fresh 10 with David Reese. I bet you he never thought he'd have to sit through that music as a Puritan pastor, but he did.

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That's what we do. We take smart, learned men and we lower them down to our level. All right, here we go. Question number one, what's the hardest part about owning a business?

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Hardest part. So for me, the hardest thing is conflict with people. I don't naturally like conflict as a

30:17

Puritan, right? I gear into doctrinal conflict and I'm able to be motivated because of the fact that I'm like, look,

30:24

I care about the truth of God. And so I have to care about this particular point of doctrine, right? I'm like, this is what God says.

30:29

But when it comes down to things, when you're leading a business and you have preferences or things where you're telling people to do stuff or to do it this way or whatever, there's a psychological burden of that because I care about relationships.

30:41

And so this like that thing. So holding people accountable is really hard, but you can't get away from it because you totally abandon your responsibilities if you don't hold people accountable.

30:51

And I think that for me, that's the difficulty. And I think based upon the gifting set that people have, whether you're more prophetic or priestly or kingly in terms of the types of giftings that the

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Lord has given you, you're going to find different things more difficult. But for me, in my makeup, that's the hard part.

31:07

There you go. I love it. Number two, what property do you always go for when playing Monopoly? What are we going for?

31:14

We boardwalk, we have Baltic, we are somewhere in the middle of railroads. So I'm a fan of the cheap development ones.

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So I think that when you look at anything where I can't remember the exact, whatever the ones that have the cheapest upgrade is set.

31:28

So the cheapest cost to add an additional house, I think you find a good return on that. That's the dark purples and the light blues.

31:36

That's what my eight -year -old goes for and he beats me every time with it. All right. Number three, what's a favorite handgun, rifle, or shotgun since you're in that industry?

31:45

Yeah. So my everyday carry is a Glock 43, which is a really, really, it's like a sub -subcontact.

31:52

That's my everyday carry. Did we just become best friends? I think we did. Did we? It's a stepbrother's moment here.

31:58

That's mine. Okay. I'm tracking. Right. I mean, the thing is the best gun is the gun you're carrying.

32:05

Yes, absolutely. And so the Glock 43 made it so it was just so easy to carry and I love it.

32:12

And so I love Glocks in general. I'm a sucker for Glocks. But I love

32:17

AR -15s and I can't remember the name of the model. There's a modification on the AR -15 that has replaced the forward assist with a bolt.

32:25

And I can't remember the name of it, but that rifle, I had to sell it back in the crash in 2008 because I had to pull some cash out of that.

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But I've always been like heartbroken over having to sell that rifle. And so that not having a forward assist, but instead having that bolt, that was something that I love.

32:43

So I'll have to remember the name of it. Sorry, I don't remember. No, there you go. And you want to know what on those 43s, you can get a little clip that just bolts onto the back, those two bolts on the slide.

32:52

And it's a very slim clip as well. So you can wear it inside. It's very concealed. Very nice.

32:57

I like the answer to that question. Number four, what was your first job? So my first job was really for my dad, but he helped me to deal with real estate and to learn how to do stuff like change out the guts of a toilet or whatever.

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And just some of the simple things they're like, he's like, here's stuff you hire a plumber for, here's stuff you just do.

33:19

And so those kinds of things were helpful. But my first job outside of the family, I worked for a

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Walmart as a cashier. And then I became a customer service manager in that. So I was working for less than $10 an hour doing that stuff.

33:33

So awesome. Number five, one book, everyone should read outside of the Bible. One book, everyone should at least pick up and take a look at.

33:40

Okay. So Gordon Clark is a great presuppositional apologist and he

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I'm going to cheat. There's a little volume called Christian philosophy and it's three books in one.

33:51

So trinityfoundation .org has it available. And so it's got this great set of apologetics there, but I'm going to cheat one more time.

33:59

And that is, he also has a book called the Christian view of men and things, which is a great job of showing you how you pull people into going to the more basic things.

34:06

It's like, Hey, you like talking about politics and history? Well, I'll tell you what, you can't discern what history is about unless you know how to determine the purpose of history.

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And Hey, you can't determine anything about politics unless you know what's the difference between right and wrong.

34:21

And so he's kind of drawing you down in that. So those are sort of these two great books, the Christian view of men and things and the introduction to Christian philosophy by Gordon Clark.

34:29

Absolutely. Can't go wrong with a good precept book. Number six, what theologian or scholar has had the greatest effect on your life?

34:38

So I remember struggling with assurance for salvation and Martin Luther's boldness about the gospel and about the freeness of the salvation that we have in Christ was amazing for me.

34:49

But being able to have a sturdiness of knowledge, Gordon Clark had an amazing impact on me in terms of the work that he did in terms of defending the fact that the word of God is the authority and that you don't prove the word of God, but that the word of God proves other things.

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And so Gordon Clark just did an amazing job of showing the unleashed lion. That is the Bible. Perfect.

35:11

This is the one most people cheat on because they want compilation albums, but what three albums are you taking with you on the

35:16

Island on the deserted Island? So I'm sure this will shock you as a Puritan.

35:22

I don't listen to a ton of music. However, so, you know, we, we sing songs,

35:28

Psalms, acapella. Uh, but, uh, I think, uh, there's a, there's a really great set of cello suites by Bach.

35:35

Uh, that was put out by Yo -Yo Ma. He did an amazing job playing that. Um, and also I think that, uh, uh, so I'm going to go with classical music, but that's going to be the main one.

35:45

And, uh, you said I need three. No, you can go with that one. Just one is fine too. Uh, that's so funny.

35:50

You say Bach too, because when I was taking piano, when I was younger, we had these things called finger powers and they were basically, uh, chromatic runs and things like that to practice your tempo and all those things and crescendos.

36:02

And one year for my recital, I think I was 10 or 11. I played a piece by Bach and it was super fast and very, you know, and my, my piano teacher gave it to me and I thought

36:11

I was playing something, uh, you know, something that he had played before Kings and things like that.

36:17

And then after the recital, she said, well, that was one of Bach's finger powers for his students that you just, that everyone gave you a standing ovation for.

36:23

So that is the level Bach was at. His students played these pieces that were just absolutely amazing. So I get that number eight, we got a couple more.

36:30

What is something most people assume about you, but isn't true? You know,

36:35

I think most people think that, uh, I'm a disagreeable or difficult person. Um, again, because of the fact that as a person you're going, okay,

36:43

I have a very particular view of, of, of doctrine and of worship and of church government and trying to apply the word of God to that.

36:53

And, and I think that the, the reality is that, uh, you know, anybody who's a serious

36:59

Christian, you're trying to accommodate to people on places where you can give. And, and it's just that there are truths of God that as we become aware of those truths, we can't give in on them.

37:09

So I think that, that oftentimes that's sort of the, the. Yeah. Okay. Question number nine, as we wrap this up, what was the last thing that you

37:17

Googled? The last thing that I Googled, um, I think I was looking for a procurement offices for a particular country in Africa, uh, that I was looking for a contact to be able to potentially see if we could provide them with body armor.

37:35

So that, uh, I don't want to say that particular country, but I don't know. All right.

37:41

Last question on fresh 10. What's one thing I should ask you, but I didn't today. Hmm. This is your chance to critique the podcast.

37:50

What should I have asked you that I didn't? I think the one thing that you should have asked me that you didn't is, uh, what do

37:58

I mean by the idea of the priestly and prophetic, uh, and kingly, uh, giftings in terms of how those things are organized and break it down for us.

38:12

You got a Christ, right? What does the title Christ mean? Um, and the title

38:17

Christ means anointed, right? Messiah has to do with the idea of anointing with oil. And so oil is used to represent strength and the idea of empowering for office.

38:28

And so Christ is the triple anointed, but that's his title. He's, you know, Kings were, were, were anointed and priests were anointed and prophets were anointed, but Christ is the triple anointed.

38:37

So he is the triple office. And, and so we are all prophets, priests, and Kings. And so we look at the tasks that are associated with that.

38:45

And so the prophetic has to do with thinking about truth, right? And the priestly has to do with holiness and being focused on the goal and kind of building the team and focusing on the goal of the glory of God.

38:55

And the kingly is about judgments in terms of applying the law and making choices. And, and I think that it relates to us as rational creatures in terms of the image of of, of knowing and purposive and choosing beings.

39:10

And this idea that there are gifts around that. And I think when you start to look at the gifts and start to intentionally see what gifts of the

39:18

Holy spirit are associated with which office you, it starts to organize spiritual gifts in a way in your mind and thinking about kind of the gifting sets that people have in a way that is more effective than any personality test or anything else.

39:33

And so for leadership, prophetic priestly and kingly associated with knowledge, holiness, and righteousness is one of the most powerful things

39:40

I've seen in the scriptures in terms of understanding differences in personality, in terms of being a leader.

39:46

So good, David, we could sit here and talk all day. I know you are a busy man. We have to get you right along here, but that was fresh 10 with David race, man, throw out every throw out this socials forum, tell them where they can find you, where they can find any information about your business church, whatever you want.

40:02

And we'll make sure we link this all up for all the listeners. Thank you. So AR 500 .com, we'll take you to armored

40:08

Republic. And you'll be able to see body armor and things like that there. The church is Puritan PHX .com

40:15

Puritan PHX .com. And so we're in Phoenix, Arizona. And, and we, like I said, we sing songs.

40:21

And so I'd love to have you come join us and sing songs with this to the honor of the Lord. And so you can see us on, on Facebook.

40:29

We are 500 or armored Republic. You can find us on there or Instagram. So awesome,

40:34

David, I'm looking forward to seeing you down at fight left face in a few weeks. Thank you for spending some time with us. We love you, brother.

40:40

Thank you, Greg. Yes. And guys, thank you so much for listening as always feel free to follow us at Instagram, Facebook, or any of those social media, dead men, walking podcast,

40:50

DMW podcast .com. We love you guys as always, God bless. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at dead men walking podcast for full video podcast episodes and clips or email us at dead men walking podcast at gmail .com.