The Greater Call Podcast – Episode 2: Perfectly Human

📌 Episode Overview
Welcome to The Greater Call Podcast, where we explore life, leadership, and legacy through the lives of biblical heroes. In this episode, hosts Mark Immelman and Pastor Kyle Jackson dive into the extraordinary journey of King David—from shepherd boy to warrior, poet, and ultimately, the greatest king of Israel.

📌 Key Takeaways from David’s Story
🔹 The Ultimate Leadership Story – David’s rise from obscurity to royalty is a testament to perseverance, faith, and preparation.
🔹 Failing Forward – David’s failures were not the end but stepping stones to his purpose. His story reminds us that setbacks don’t define us—our response to them does.
🔹 Preparation Meets Opportunity – David’s triumph over Goliath wasn’t luck; it was the result of years of unseen preparation. Hard work in the quiet places prepares us for legendary moments.
🔹 Mindset Matters – From his self-talk before battle to his humility after mistakes, David’s life highlights the power of perspective and trust in God’s plan.
🔹 The Power of Humility & Honesty – Despite his great successes, David remained teachable, admitted his failures, and sought redemption. True leadership requires vulnerability and growth.

📌 Memorable Quotes
🗣️ “Failure is not final—it’s part of the journey.”
🗣️ “If you haven’t failed, you’re not trying big enough.”
🗣️ “Your preparation in private determines your success in public.”

Connect with Us:

📲 Follow us on social media: @TheGreaterCall (Instagram, FaceBook, YouTube, & X)
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: Search ‘The Greater Call Podcast’
📩 DM us for prayer requests, leadership advice, or to share your story!

Website→ https://markimmelman.com/the-greater-call/

✨ Be full of joy in all things, no matter where you are. Be thankful. Go and be a legend! ✨

Transcript

 The Greater Call Episode 2 

 [00:00:00] 

Welcome to the greater call podcast, a place where you can go for insights and lessons on life, leadership, and legacy. As we dive into the lives of the legends and heroes of our faith. So glad you could join us. I'm Mark. That's my good buddy, pastor Kyle Jackson. Kyle, how are you? I'm doing great. Episode two.

Let's go. Yeah. Can you believe it? Episode two, about one of my favorite heroes in the Bible and King David, David, the shepherd. Um, talk about him just for a second while I grab my notes. Yeah, David, I mean, obviously so much to pull from. And again, I think we set up in the first episode, Mark, just what we want to do with this podcast is just show people the.

Heroes in the Bible are so applicable to their everyday life now, and David was a shepherd and made his way all the way to being a king. Ultimate leadership story. And there's so much in between all that, and I think you rattled it off before we even started recording here. Just shepherd to king, but everything inside of that is what we can learn from today.

Yeah, for me, Kyle, you know, [00:01:00] just like everyone, I guess, watching this, David, you think of, I don't care if you're a Christian or not, you know the story of David and Goliath. Right. Shepherd boy goes out there on the battlefield, slingshot knocks over the giant, slays the giant hero of the Israelite army, becomes the king.

But the more I read into David, right, the more I was like, gosh, this guy's complex. I mean, I wrote down some things here that jumped out to me. First off, shepherd. Then a poet. He wrote the lion's share of Psalms in the Bible. Um, giant killer. He was the king. Of the Jews, the Israelites, he was the ancestor to Jesus and, and then he's known as arguably the greatest king of the Jews, of the Israelites, uh, one of the greatest men in the Old Testament, but also this guy, I mean, just so much to celebrate, right?

Like just the man, slow your roll. Yeah, he's the [00:02:00] man, but this guy was a murderer. Well, before he was a murderer, he was an adulterer. He was a liar. Eventually, sir. He betrayed people and he had someone murdered when he got himself into trouble and I was like, gosh, through this all though, he's known in the Bible, that very book right there as a man after God's own heart.

Yeah. And this was in a strange way. It's made me feel okay about myself. It's kind of made me, um, well, I've always believed this, but it's galvanized for me, the fact that anything is possible shepherd to King, not just King, greatest King, ancestor to Jesus after being a murderer and an adulterer. I mean, the more I say this stuff, the more I'm like.

This is like the impossible come true. Well, I think, uh, you know, we've had a lot of conversations about David. He is your favorite He is my favorite last last [00:03:00] episode We spent some time on my favorite joseph and it just flows out of me because I think it's so much of my life story I think there's so much about David's life that we both can look at but so much of your story That's going to flow out of you today Um, and again, I think we talked about this before we jumped on to recording this.

I think David's story is just this beautiful picture of what I call failing forward that he failure was not final for him. It wasn't fatal for him. It was just a part of his story. And everybody listening to this podcast, from a teenager who's playing high school golf to a successful business leader and anywhere in between, we all experienced failure.

Um, and I think sometimes we feel like when we fail, uh, it's over. Um, and it's the end of something, and sometimes it's just the beginning of something, depending on how we want to look at it. Hmm. I want to share this personal experience. On your way to legendary, it's not a smooth ride. If you haven't failed, I don't believe [00:04:00] you're trying anything big enough.

So true. I mean, if you want to become a legend, you keep climbing the ladder. And as I've always heard, and as a long-time college coach now, retired. Um, I always said to folks, I'm like, the closer you get to the top of the ladder, the fewer of the people that are up there because it's hard and certain people just stop climbing.

And I think, you know, as this podcast was sort of part of my soul, now it's coming to life thanks to you, and your care and your love for this. I think it's one message that I want to share with people is that you're going to fail. Just get up and go again. What's the old thing? Go fall down seven times, get up eight.

Right. And to me, the more I learn about David, because again, the first thing when I folks, I have another podcast called on the, it's golf insights and Kyle joined me because I was like, I want to do a podcast on David and Goliath [00:05:00] golf improvement. For you non-golfers out there. Cause I watched this guy in the battle versus Goliath and the preamble to that.

Basically, do everything that one needs to do to be successful in the land of giants. When you're taking that next step. Yeah. And I think his preparation, uh, just in that story. Again, it's the story that everybody knows. The preparation that that got him to, you know, we all like to celebrate the victory that he had.

But that victory wasn't an overnight success. No, it was completely possible because of what he did, and we talked about this in the last episode, but what he was doing when nobody was watching, I mean, the practice, the perfecting his craft in the fields at night when he's, uh, shepherding sheep, just preparation was so key to David's success early on.

Let's go to that shepherd time there because David was a shepherd, will always be known as a shepherd, but And now diving into the story of Goliath, there was that this wilderness time in episode one with Joseph, [00:06:00] we talked about the prison time, right? To me, it's kind of like metaphor because as I look back on my life now, I'm lucky enough to be a part of arguably the preeminent broadcast golf broadcast crew in the world.

Yet I spent probably. Well, all told, teaching a lot more, but I would say 15 years of my life on a driving range at a public course in Columbus, Georgia, in the dog days of summer, giving lessons from nine to six every day. And I remember just being so whipped after those summer months because they are brutal down here.

And now looking back that, and it wasn't wilderness time. This is a metaphor, right? That time uniquely qualified me for what I am doing now. Correct. No, I couldn't agree more. I think, you know, speaking of your journey. I'm sure there's failures along the way, but just sitting and telling a 17-year-old kid using [00:07:00] metaphor, using, uh, illustrations, teaching, figuring out what they were passionate about or what they do outside of golf to help them speak.

You could speak a language to them. You've done this with me. You speak a language to me of something I'm passionate about to help me figure out golf. And you were doing that one on one for years in the middle of the summer from 9 a. m. till 6 p. m. at night. But now. All of that preparation and using your words and learning how you can say things that people can understand.

I, again, coming into this podcast, this is what we're doing is we're taking stories and trying to put it into words and things that people can understand and use in their life. So, like, I just think anything that we ever do in life, God doesn't waste it, and he can use it for something good. And he does have a plan for your life, and everything you're walking through and everything you're doing has purpose to it.

I just think we struggle seeing that sometimes. And I think that's a part of David's story as well. I mean, he went through so much. Uh, to be the legend that he is now to all of us thousands of years later. Yeah, don't despise the wilderness time, I guess. So Shepard Boy, now we, we sort of working into the story everyone knows.

[00:08:00] Um, he is out there with the sheep, day and night. It's a 24-hour job, alone with his thoughts. Because I doubt that, you know, wolves and lions and bearers and stuff are around all of the time. But he did say, as he approached the battle with Goliath, that his time as a shepherd, with a slingshot, prepared him for battle.

But I first want to go with you to, you've been there, I've been there, everyone watching there, watching this has been there. You know, that time when you're alone with your thoughts. Yeah. Because it can be lonely. It can be sometimes depressing. Um, but if you're in the right mindset, because David, I guess, felt something inside when he looks up at the night sky going, there's something bigger in me.

I guess where I'm going, Kyle, is we have these dreams, [00:09:00] these visions, and I'm going back to Joseph now, but those nights where he was preparing himself in his mind. For what was in the future, yet he didn't know what was really in the future. Yeah. Well, there's, that's the battle of the mind. I think you've actually put some stuff out that I've enjoyed listening to.

Cause I think you're very passionate about mindset, very passionate about things that can be accomplished. That you don't think can be accomplished, but it does start in the mind, and the mind is such a complex thing that God's given us, but there's also so many life circumstances, other voices in our life that can make our minds think that things can't be accomplished.

And I would love to hear, um, again, you're even some of your journey of going from coaching to. You've even said things to me like, you can't believe that you've been given this opportunity, this type of influence. You got the haters of the world out there that want to pick apart everything that you do.

Um, and it does start; it starts in the mind. It's you're, you're a glass-half-full kind of guy, not a glass empty. Okay. This is not about me, though. Okay. The haters. Yes, David, right. So his brothers, uh, he's not old enough. [00:10:00] And strong enough to be in the army. So your brothers are out on the front line. He's Shepherd Boy at home yet inside

he's got this thing. And then his dad says to him, Hey, kid, go and take some food to your brothers. Who were like way more important than you right now. There's mindset in that too, to think, well, you know, right time, uh, I'm in this time right now where I'm learning yet I'm serving and if I'm just true to where I am.

It's uniquely preparing me for what's upcoming. Absolutely. I think, again, I think David's story is a story of, he was, he was courageous. He had a courageous mindset that just, he knew that he had God with him. He knew that if God was with him that he could accomplish things far greater than what he could accomplish on his own.

And there's so much of his story. Again, David and Goliath make sense to all of us, right? A shepherd boy defeating a nine foot giant that everybody who was older than him was supposed to go fight. They were terrified of him. If you know the Bible, Saul was supposed to go fight. [00:11:00] What they wanted was a king.

Saul was one of the haters, though. David shows up there for the folks who don't know the story, so he makes his way down to the front lines of battle. The Israelites are being tormented by the Philistine army, wherever you come from in the hemisphere of the world. Um, say it for me.

Philistine. Philistine is how we would say it in the south. Philistine army. They're being taunted and they've got this basically the tip of their spear. This giant of a man Goliath. Um and so David goes down there and he's got the audacity bravado whatever it is inside to say to King Saul after he's delivered the food.

He's like, I can take this guy out. For real? Imagine, put yourself in Sol's shoes and I'm David and going, Hey King, don't worry man, I got this. And he must look at me and go, You? Talk about haters. Right, well I mean Sol was the one that should have been fighting the battle. Like, if you [00:12:00] know the story, the Israelites wanted a king.

They wanted a, they, they decided they didn't want to just follow God. They wanted somebody to govern them, rule them. So they hired this warrior king. Saul was not just your average guy from what the Bible says. He was, he was pretty stout himself, but my man was hiding in the tent, not fighting Goliath when this teenager shows up and says, I'll do it.

Um, and it was a mindset issue. Saul had God on his side. Saul would win the battle if he would have gone out. But you know, his mindset, his mindset wouldn't allow him to do it. David showed up with God on his side, and he had the mindset and courage to go do it. And I think it's the preparation that David did in the shepherding and slinging a slingshot around and fighting off wolves from the sheep that David obviously had a mindset in those dark, those dark hours that Uh, was positive, that had courage that was built, that knew that God was on his side, but Saul had God on his side too.

And Saul should have been, Saul should be the hero of this story, and it's David, [00:13:00] based on mindset. So what you're saying is, folks, you can have your chance, but you've got to be courageous. And I've heard something to the effect of courage is not the absence of fear. It's just, okay, I recognize my fear, but I'm still going ahead with whatever your mandate, your mission, your job, whatever it might be, just going into it knowing that you are prepared for, for what's upcoming.

Well, and I think David used innovation, uh, creativity. Um, I think Saul's mindset was he's nine foot tall with a sword. And I'm not that with a sword. And even though he had the same God on his side with God's people, he wins. David decided to go out as a teenage boy and use creativity, innovation. He picked up stones.

He used a slingshot. Nobody else thought that way. And I think sometimes when we face challenges, uh, the fear [00:14:00] can slip in, and it blocks our this beautiful mind that God's given us to be creative. To problem solve, to think of solutions, not, not failure. And I think David walked in with just this youthful, I can, I can beat this giant.

Saul's looking at it practically black and white. David walked into the challenge and said, Let's get creative here. I think I can win this thing. We can be our own worst enemy. 100%. Huh? You know, you put it like that and I'm like. I don't even think we could say we could be, I think we are. But you put it like that and I'm like.

And then I put myself in that I'm like, no, are you, are you with me? I mean, and I recognize the fact because when we did this, got this golf podcast, the one point I tried to make was if you want to be really good at golf, you need preparation. And David spent days preparing. I'm sure he didn't just sit there on the rock gazing at the sheep all day and all night.

He had a slingshot. So [00:15:00] he was having a little fun, you know, when you sent me the video, I mean, again, it was like, we think little slingshot that we had growing up in the backyard, you know, throwing it seven feet. But what they used was, I mean, it was more than just do it in a circle and let it go. I mean, there was technique, there was athleticism, there was.

Precision, timing, strength- so much went into this. Yeah, it's cool. So there's the preparation, but then he gets there and again, you, Saul, no? How do we play this? Whatever the case might be. So he's in Saul's tent, and he goes, I can take this guy out. Saul eventually gets over himself and goes, Okay. I mean, we may as well try.

The guy's dispensable. I mean, look at you. Right? He had no issues of sending David out to his death. Yeah. We won't do a podcast on Saul, will we? No. Okay. But here's the leadership of it all. Saul has the change of mind, the change of heart. Maybe he's sending the lamb out to the slaughter. And as I say that, I'm like, David is a preamble to [00:16:00] Jesus way down the road.

And, but he says to David, he goes, Hey, little man. Uh, yeah. Put on my armor because you're the way you are. You're about to be cannon fodder. Yeah. And David puts the stuff on, and I can imagine these like too much for him, too heavy for him. I mean, imagine a seven-year-old putting on college football helmet pads, and he's like, no, I can't do my thing with the stuff on.

And I made a golf lesson out of this thing. You've got to have the right equipment. So if you're a business leader or whatever, you could have the right systems in place. And David had the, whatever it is, to go, no, I don't need the stuff. I have enough belief in me and my slingshot because I've worked and practiced and spent that wilderness time wisely, that I don't need protection.

Well, how about this? I mean, David said, God, this is what you've placed in my hands. And I'm going to steward what you've placed in my hands well. I have faith and courage that [00:17:00] this is what you've given me in this season to accomplish what You're asking me to accomplish, and I'm gonna trust that what you've placed in my hands is enough.

Oh God. And then he goes, goes, okay, but let's, we need to talk about trust because that is like real trust over there. Yeah. It's called faith. Yeah. You know, the essence of faith is trust. Um, and I think, you know, I think one of the pieces you pulled outta the story the last time we talked about this that I'd never paid attention to was that he picked up multiple stones.

Yeah. He went down to the brook and picked up, uh, translations. Go three or five pebbles, but. But from what I understand, he took time picking up these pebbles, selecting the right tool for the job. Right. And then the interesting piece is even though he had faith or he would have never walked out to do what he was going to do, he still planned that he might fail.

Yeah. Like, he picked up more than one. He didn't just pick up one. The first one was a kill shot. I'm going to throw this one, and it's going to happen. He actually had three to five. And his little pouch going, I might fail, [00:18:00] but if I fail, I'm going to fail forward, and I'm going to keep going until what, what I'm supposed to do is accomplished.

And I just, I love his whole mindset in that he had courage to go to Saul. He said, This is what you've placed in my hands. I've done the preparation work in the past. I know God's on my side. I'm going to plan to fail by picking up more than one pebble. And then he had the courage to go do it. There's just so much in that story, more than just a shepherd boy killed a giant, and we all celebrate it and make paper cutouts at vacation Bible school growing up as a kid.

There's, when I think about the people listening to this podcast, like, anything that we're doing, that we're accomplishing something, we are going to experience failure. Yeah, it's like David, um, because, so, so then, again, I'm imagining, and I'm putting myself in these shoes. There's gonna be apprehension.

He's got this mammoth guy over the way. calling him a dog, right? Basically, making fun of him. Yeah. Cussing him, taunting him, taunting everyone. And in modern-day living, you know, social media, I've often said [00:19:00] to people who've asked me for counsel, they're like, so what advice do you have? I'm like, you want to be a legend, or you want to, you know, be, have influence.

Yeah. Have the spotlight put on you be prepared for hate. Cause if you're not doing anything worthwhile. Everyone's gonna love you or if you're not standing for anything and you're just vacillating back and forth Between this and that just to get likes and follows and the sort of stuff you might you'll still have hate But David was the epitome of just going forward into it having all these insults hurled at him and through it all he kept saying Whatever man, I've got the God of Israel the God of my ancestors on my side.

So it's like he was almost self-talking himself. Yeah. Into this place to where like, I'm going to something scary, but he kept reciting this stuff to himself, saying, I'm ready. Well, yeah, I mean, I just think David was, David wasn't focused on his credentials. He [00:20:00] wasn't focused on his title. He was focused on Shepard Boy from, uh, he was focused on, I think his character was developed in those dark fields at night and his preparation and perfecting his craft.

And when that when that moment came, I think God gives us moments all the time. Mark. The question is, have we done the preparation in the dark to be ready for those moments? Um, and I know you work hard toe. It sounds like you're just making a call in a tournament, but you put a lot of hard work into when that moment comes for you, you're prepared.

In my world, there are moments and messages or moments with people over coffee. Or moments in a phone call when somebody's going through a tough thing. Like, I've had to do the work that I have to do to have the wisdom and the insight to encourage people and to point people to, in my world, God's Word, uh, to what's going on.

But if I don't do the work in the, in the field at night, if I don't do the work when, when people aren't watching, then I'm not ready for those moments. I think God gives us moments all the time. In the workplace, at our school, on the phone, uh, on our Instagram, whatever it might be. The question is, is [00:21:00] your character ready for that moment and have you done the work to prepare yourself to be able to take advantage of that moment that God might be giving you?

Yeah, you said it earlier and as you're saying that this is stirred inside of me that there's a humility about David too. I mean, it wasn't the fanfare, it was like, look I've arrived. He goes, I've just got a job to do. Right. And so out he goes there and the whole time he goes, it's not about me. He's talking about the God of his ancestors, he's on his side.

And then there's a self talk or prophecy in a way where, because for the folks who don't know the story, it's in 1 Samuel in the Bible, it's open there. Um, he looks at, uh, Goliath, and he goes, I'm going to knock you out with this pebble, and then I'm going to cut your head off. People don't know that Goliath actually died from having his head chopped off.

And lo and behold, the pebble shot wasn't the kill shot. He knocked him out and then went and chopped off Goliath's head with [00:22:00] Goliath's sword. And I just love kind of how you speak that thing into existence. Because I feel like legends that I've been around, they sort of do that. You know, it's not like there's a bravado about them, but when they start talking, that faith you reference, you're kind of programming yourself a little bit by the productive self talk.

Oh, no doubt. I mean, I think David became a legend in that moment, not because of the pebble that we all like the story of the slingshot, but when he He cut his head off and finished the job, he became this legend. And then obviously he moves in the full stent army generator he took off and ran. And, and then really David's story from there is a story of up and down and opportunities to, uh, succeed and fail.

And you talk about being humble. You got a bit of a big head for a while. You think maybe because, 'cause apparently they're going back into, um. It's Jerusalem. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And people are like, well, Saul killed these thousands and David kills 10, 000. He had every opportunity to Fanfare all [00:23:00] over the show.

Oh, sure. And again, when we talk about your legend in your own mind, I think that's what we think we all want. I think we all think we want more followers. We want more influence, but with influence and followers or whatever that word might be in your, your sphere of what you do. becomes greater opportunities to be humble.

Um, and I think that's what David did throughout the story. Like, I don't know from situation to situation if he always chose humility, but you know, I've, I've always read David's story. You see him in the book of Psalms, just Messing up, but coming back to God, humble, teachable is a great word. I think that people aren't as teachable today as maybe we used to be.

I've always defined teachability, Mark, as the willingness to relearn everything you think you already know. Um, like, are you willing to relearn what you're the expert at? You know, I've had to do this in my world. I mean, nowadays with technology ever evolving daily, it's You're relearning everything you think you already know.

That's my story of even the church that I'm a part of now. Like, for 10 years I was a part of a great church in Florida. I moved to this one seven [00:24:00] years ago because we felt like God was asking us to do that. We left everything in Fort Myers, family, friends, packed up our two little kids, moved to a place where we knew no one because we felt like that's what God was asking us to do.

And everything was different, not better or worse, right or wrong, but I had to relearn vocabulary. I had to relearn systems. I had to relearn mindsets. I had to relearn. Uh, how we do things because how we did things there were different than how we do things here. And it was a very humbling season for me because I thought I knew How to be a good pastor if you want to use the word good I thought I knew how to care for people.

I thought I knew how to Communicate in a way that would be effective and I've had to relearn everything. I thought I already knew And it's been a very humbling process and I've grown so much because and there's moments where I wasn't humble there's moments where pride would slip in to a mindset or You'd say something that comes out the wrong way because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Um, and I've learned so much in the last five or six [00:25:00] years of having to choose humility and to remain teachable and to get feedback and process that feedback through old filters and create new ones. And I'm sure you've had that journey as well as a broadcaster of people giving you feedback and ways to say things.

I think people are so, they love stories, but they love to hear about our failures and our learning as well. Like I'd, I would imagine, um, over the last seven or eight years of doing this, there's been moments where you go back to the hotel and you get into that mindset of, I could have done better, should have done better every time.

Every time. Yeah. Well, Folks, if you want to be legendary at something, because I've learned this the hard way, if you're a parent, be legendary at that. And speak about learning because I grew up in a militant home. I mean, it was like, if you didn't win, it's because you didn't practice hard enough. Right.

You know, if you misbehave, there's instant consequence. You don't get any Not a lot of grace. You're not allowed to defend yourself. Well, no, no defense of your position at all. [00:26:00] And I'm the father of two girls, love them dearly. Okay, but, but I speak about learning. It's a, it's, it's a learning curve every day.

A daily decision to learn. For all the folks watching this, whether you are A captain of industry, or some hotshot pastor, or a golf broadcaster. Parenting, man, you need a healthy dose of humility and that willingness you talk of to learn, because otherwise, you'll be an abject failure. Well, I think we see David, the reason God continued to use David and promote David even, and we read so much about David as his story goes on, and he makes some major mistakes.

I'm getting to that. Mistakes that in the world today, people would, they would cancel you. You would, they wouldn't even remain your friends. Um, they wouldn't even, you know, allow you to speak into their life from a biblical standpoint or a Christian standpoint because these mistakes were so big, but to watch how he remained teachable and humble through that and God continued [00:27:00] to use him, I think is so much for the listeners to hear today, because I think even when we think about our faith or we think about anything that we're doing as a leader.

As a coach, as a business, an entrepreneur, we think we always have to get it right. And when we don't get it right, maybe because of our upbringing, or there wasn't a lot of grace in the home, or we weren't allowed to make mistakes that we feel like, again, failure can be final. And again, David was a fail forward kind of guy.

And he just continued to remain humble, continued to learn, continued to grow. And we can continue to learn from his story because of that. Yeah. Failure is never final. Um, I've got to talk about the Bathsheba. Yeah. Um, for the people who don't know, so here's King David, um, just adored by everybody can do no wrong at the height pinnacle of his career.

And he's in his palace quarters, I guess, and glances out the window and there's this hot little number down the way [00:28:00] there that he sees and he arranges for her to be brought over. She's married, Bathsheba. And so David commits adultery. Not that I'm condoning this sort of stuff. But again, this, David was called a man after God's own heart.

But it even gets worse after the adultery part. Oh yeah, he has her husband killed. Like, then goes and, I mean, just, So much to learn there. We make a mistake and then we go into a dark place and we make a bigger mistake because we compounding the we compounded. Yeah, we compounded the problem. And, you know, part of that mark just to pause for a second is I think this is where we get in trouble for listeners on, you know, we don't want to make those mistakes.

Nobody wakes up one day going, I want to ruin everything. I want to be on the front of the newspaper for something negative. Nobody, nobody wakes up or dreams about that day. Um, and I think one of the most unique parts about the story is David should have been out at war. Okay. And he wasn't doing what he was called to do.

And when he wasn't doing what he was called to do, he found himself in a place of boredom and he made a [00:29:00] massive mistake and then compounded on that mistake because he wasn't doing what he was called to do. And I just think as listeners listening today, we got to be very careful with, with the idle mind.

It's the devil's playground. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so we, we see a lot about the Bathsheba, Bathsheba, say it again in your way, Bathsheba, there we go, you said it cooler anyway, Bathsheba. We got it, you know, we, we talk about that part of the story and his failure, but the reason he failed was because he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing.

And there's just so much to learn from that. I think for listeners to, to make sure that we always have our eyes focused on what. We're supposed to be doing that. We have accountability around what we're supposed to be doing so that we don't ever end up on the front page of the paper, or we have this negative story that we have to tell about ourselves because we weren't where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there, you know, building on your fail forward premise, failing for doesn't mean failing twice.

I mean, we're gonna fail, but not making the same mistake or doubling down on stuff [00:30:00] to kind of sweep that thing under the carpet. Hopefully no one notices. Yes. Yeah, I would imagine all through your life as a golf coach when you, when you correct a player that takes a shot and you correct him and then he Five holes later is in the same position and does the same thing that you just like it's the most frustrating thing as a coach It's the most frustrating thing as a pastor.

It's the most frustrating thing. What little league baseball coach. Oh my word I mean, I'm the most legendary little league baseball coach in Columbus, Georgia right now. I'm like, you know It's the most as a parents the most frustrating thing to show someone You know, why you made that mistake, show you the right way to do it and then watch him make the mistake again.

But again, what I love about this story is that God didn't stop using David, but I think it's because David chose humility. He chose to be teachable and God continued to use him. I'll never forget, you know, my dad has taught me many things. And one of them, when I got into golf coaching [00:31:00] and golf teaching. I remember because he's still to this day, giving me, you know, nuggets of wisdom and insight, and sadly, if you want to become a legend, I would advise that you listen to your parents because they've been there.

Um, he would always say to me, so you want to teach? And I was like, yeah, well, I can't beat my younger brother at golf. So the chances of me being number one golfer in the world was scuttled by my own household. Um, But I felt like I had the teacher spirit within and he said, if you want to teach, don't be prepared or don't be ashamed to say, I don't know.

And, and that is when you get to that place where you talk about humility, where it's like as a leader or legend that you are comfortable enough with who you are to go, I don't know the answer to that, but give me a minute or let me consult with my people or whatever you do. Um, to, to not have to then lie or bend the truth or [00:32:00] whatever, to just give some sort of a fake answer.

And then the rest of the time you're chasing your tail to try and fix up your own misstep because your ego wouldn't let you admit that you were, you didn't know what the answer was. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's again, it goes back to what we're staring through me right now. Well, it just goes back. I think we live in a culture that humility is lost.

I think humility. Uh, is a secret, uh, to honor of honor. I think David, we honor David today, not because of the mistakes he made, but because of the lessons he learned and he walked through them humbly. I think when we can do that as a parent, I think, you know, I talk to people all the time. I'm like, well, have you apologized to your kids about that?

And they're like, apologize to my kids. I'm the parent. And I'm like, right, but you made a mistake. Like, so just, we choose humility. Like as a pastor, can I apologize to a church member? When we said something and didn't follow through and or do we make the excuse of what? Sorry, we're just so busy Sorry, we didn't respond to that.

No, it's like [00:33:00] hey, man, I'm sorry. You are a priority and I missed it Can you apologize to a kid that you told to take the the swing this way for that specific shot? But it wasn't the right call as a caddy Like, just choosing humility, learning, growing, it's a secret to honor because the more you stay humble, the more people are attracted to you.

I think humility is the greatest attraction, uh, to a leader, a humble leader people will follow. Well, apparently I haven't reached a legendary status as a parent just yet, but it's a work in progress. Um, I'd written down here, like if you read the Psalms and David had this. It comes from a place of humility, I guess, this contrite, repentant heart.

It's like, you know, beyond the Bathsheba thing. But thereafter, it's like he recognizes whenever he makes a mistake, and he just is like an open book. Yeah. Going, here I am, God. It's me again. I mean, I've screwed up again. Yes. But, [00:34:00] but here I am. I'm so sorry. But that goes back to the point you were making earlier about, you know, being able to be humble enough to be able to ask for forgiveness as a leader.

Failure either grows you or breaks you. Um, you know, I don't think there's really an option either way. Like it's either you're going to grow and learn from it and be better on the other end or it's going to break you and you're going to choose pride and people are going to see it. And you lose influence and you lose respect from people when you, when you don't grow from failure, you lose respect from those that are following you.

Because we cover it up with pride and excuses. It's so easy to make an excuse. Um, and I think when you just choose to fail, bounce back, and you're better from it, I think you gain so much influence from people. I think that was David's story. He bounced back. He stayed true to who he was. He continued to ask God for forgiveness and search my heart.

God pull anything out of it. That's offensive to you. And I think again, we're attracted to David today as a leader. Hell, they got the star of David on the Israeli flag. Right. [00:35:00] Legend. Right. That's legendary. He did okay. Yeah. Um, I also too. I guess this is all coming from a place of mindset and belief and, and where his mind was.

And I can imagine the young shepherd boy, who's now the king, the poet, writing these psalms, these hymns. And most of them, I love that they'll start with like, I'm so down. I'm so depressed, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like four lines of like, I'm miserable right now. But then he goes, but yeah. Then by the end of it, he's, but he goes, but God, you're the greatest positive.

I look up at the heavens and I just, I marvel at you. And for me, it's cool too, because this stuff has helped me to change my mind because we can get so wrapped up in the grind of getting to where we want to be that, you know, you just don't take a minute to just. Kind of look around. I can imagine David sitting there, just gazing up at the sunset going, Gosh, God, you are freaking [00:36:00] incredible.

And you're on my side, man. This is cool. I think David got to a place where we all need to get to, where we don't take ourselves too seriously. And I think that's what you see with David. He's frustrated, frustrated, frustrated in the first four verses of any psalm that you want to read. Go read them, it's crazy.

I mean, it's like hellfire, brimstone, the whole lot. And then he's like, but God, you're the best. Yeah, I think he had a good perspective of himself. I think his failure gave him a good, Perspective of who he really was Um, and even though we can be frustrated and need places to vent just like david did as a king He kept his eyes on the main thing and the main thing for him was god I know the main thing for you and I is god.

That's what we've called this the greater call Like I have a calling in my job as a pastor to Point people to their God given purpose to get them closer to Jesus, to make their lives look more like him, to do what God's called us to do, which you do as you call, you know, events and tournaments and great shots.

But I think we both realize there's a greater call to our life as a Christ follower to look like Jesus, to do what he's asked us to do. [00:37:00] Um, and again, I just, I think, um, when I think about this podcast and just leaving people with practicals on, on David, I'd love to hear. Just a couple of your main thoughts on it.

If people walked away from a day and they said, you got to listen to this. Here's the thing I took away from David's life. Like, what are your leadership lessons that you've pulled? Pressure. Um, after you talking there, I was thinking about the Psalms. And I'm like, this is David journaling, you know, and so many psychologists now saying, you know, take a minute and just write.

Right. Reflections of your day. Yeah. Yeah. David, I don't think realized that we're going to be read by millions of people, you know, many hundreds of years after. So, so I think that the Psalms were his journal. Yes. This was a bad day, but, but it always ended on a positive. So there was a mindset there. Um, I feel like he was the expert.

You said this about learning from his mistakes. Um, I think he was clearly a really hard worker. Um, he had to have been, um, given [00:38:00] what he did and being able to, cause look, I'm a Christian and I believe in Jesus and God Almighty. But when I go on to a pressure filled situation, I'm like, Oh my God, and I'm, can I do this?

And then eventually the settling down comes. He had one shot. Well, not one, he had a few, but he basically had one shot that he delivered on. So, so he had to work hard to be able to pull that off. And then there was just a willingness to be honest. Yes. And I feel like honesty is liberating. I feel like honesty is the best policy, um, as much as what it hurts.

And he has a guy who's done some stuff, man, he has done stuff, but in the end, because he was humble, because he was honest, he's. He is one of the, arguably the greatest hero in the world tells us that vulnerability is a weakness, but the truth is it's a strength. Yeah. I mean, David might be the most vulnerable person that we learned from in history [00:39:00] of just putting all of his mistakes out there for us to learn from.

And we look on him as a strong leader because he was willing to do that for us. Not a weak leader but a strong leader. And I would just say this to anybody that's watching, uh, today or listening today. Um, listen, your failure is not final. Uh, we're obviously not condoning to go do things like David did it and then just expect everything to be okay because there are consequences to the things that we do and there's a standard of how we should live.

But we're all going to make mistakes. I make them as a pastor. Mark makes them as a parent. I make them as a parent. We make them as husbands and friends. You're going to make mistakes. Uh, but God's very clear all throughout his word. He's not looking for a perfect person. He's looking for someone that has the right heart posture, uh, to learn, to be teachable, to ask for forgiveness.

And that's who David was. He had the right heart posture, and God used him in a mighty way. He's the legend, Kyle Jackson. I'm Mark Immelman. Thank you for following us. Tell your friends, follow us on social. We are at the greater call on X on Instagram and on YouTube. Appreciate you joining us. Go and be a [00:40:00] legend.