The Greater Call Podcast – Episode 4: Faithful Existence

🎙️ Episode 4: Faithful Existence

In This Episode:
Mark Immelman and Pastor Kyle Jackson explore the story of Noah—arguably one of the most well-known figures in the Bible. From building the ark in obedience to God's call to leading through uncertainty and ridicule, Noah’s life offers timeless lessons in leadership, legacy, and faithful living.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

🛠️ Obedience Over Outcome:
Noah followed God's direction to build the ark without knowing exactly why or when the rain would come. His story reminds us that success often begins with simply saying "yes" to God.

🧱 Discipline and Consistency:
Building the ark took over 100 years. Noah’s day-by-day commitment, despite public mockery, teaches us that small daily disciplines compound over time into something great.

👣 Leadership Lessons:
Leadership requires doing the right thing even when it’s hard. Noah led by example, maintained his integrity, and earned the trust of his family—not just through words, but through consistent action.

🏠 Vision + Mission:
Having a clear vision is powerful, but without a mission and clear steps to get there, it’s just an idea. God gave Noah both a vision (build the ark) and a mission (specific instructions to follow).

🦺 Legacy and Influence:
Noah’s faithfulness didn’t just save him—it preserved humanity. As leaders, parents, or mentors, our obedience and consistency leave a lasting legacy.

🌈 God's Presence in the Storm:
The rainbow at the end of the flood wasn’t just a symbol for Noah—it’s a reminder for us, too, that even in our darkest storms, God is still with us.

🧭 Leadership Truths:

• Leadership is lonely, but obedience brings purpose.
• People often trust the leader before they trust the vision.
• What you put in will come out when pressure is applied.
• Trust is built over time through integrity and action.

📖 Verses Referenced:

• Genesis 6–9 (The story of Noah)
• Habakkuk 2 (Write the vision and make it plain)
• 2 Timothy 2:20–21 (God uses clean vessels)

🧠 Quote of the Episode:

“God doesn’t call the qualified—He qualifies the called.” – Pastor Kyle Jackson

🙌 Join the Movement:

We're building a tribe of men and women who lead with faith, live with purpose, and leave a legacy. Follow us, subscribe, and share with your friends!

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

Faithful Existence _ The Story of Noah

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Greater Call Podcast, episode four. And Kyle. Uh, fours are good in golf. 18 fours make 72. So I guess that four should be a good one. Welcome to the show. How are you? Mark. Good to be with you man. Fours are good in baseball as well. Being that I'm a baseball guy and you're a golfer. Uh, there's four bases and you want to get to the fourth one that, uh, it counts.

[00:00:37] Uh, yeah. For the folks who are what, not listening or watching this on YouTube, do, please search and subscribe to the Greater Call. Follow us on social media. The handles on X and Instagram are at the greater call if you are not watching. Go check it out. You'll see my man Kyle, pastor Kyle Jackson wearing his Auburn regalia.

[00:00:57] Given what we're in the midst of March [00:01:00] Madness. You couldn't resist, could you, Kyle? Couldn't. We're not very good at a lot of things, mark. So when we're good, we wear right. Well, one thing you're good at is teaching and in episode four we've done one, two, and three. And they were all enlightening. I almost feel like we went from Joseph number one, then we went to David number two, and then I felt like Paul, I was sitting over from you, uh, for the viewers.

[00:01:22] Now you'll see we are in different rooms, uh, doing this via squad cast, so it's a new look. We're just trying different things, but I was sitting over. From you. And we were talking about Paul and I was like, gosh, this is incredible. And then I was like, we need more than one show to do, Paul. Completely. Well, you're in episode four, faithful Existence about Noah.

[00:01:45] It's, uh, in my opinion, arguably the most well-known story in the Bible, right? The arc and the floods and stuff like that and the, the dove, and then everyone was washed away. It's one of those that everyone knows, in fact. There's been a movie made about it and [00:02:00] Russell Crowe was Noah in the movie. Um, I want you, for the listener, for the viewer to give us kind of the storyline through Noah before we get into the life, the leadership and the legacy lessons we can learn from him.

[00:02:15] Absolutely. Yeah. And I, again, I would echo what you said. I thought episode three, if you've, if you're watching or listening and you missed Paul, I would go back and. Check that one out. I thought, man, just, I thought, uh, some great things fell out of that mark from you. And just some things that weren't even in the notes or the, the, the outline.

[00:02:32] Um, so ma make sure you go back and watch that, but yeah, faithful existence. Uh, the story of Noah. So again, like you said, most people know it. Uh, for the sake of summing it up though, Noah was the central Bible. A figure, uh, that really was a farmer turned into a, a general contractor. He was, uh, ship builder called, by God.

[00:02:51] He was called by God to, uh, build this ginormous, uh, ship. Uh, you know, you have to take yourself back all the way, you know? To those [00:03:00] times of just the, what a massive, uh, ask, uh, to do. And he said yes. Uh, he obeyed, uh, that call and he took just a long time of building this ship, really with nothing out in front of him to know why he was building it or when he needed to build it by.

[00:03:16] Uh, he just was faithful every single day to what God had asked him to do. And honestly, it was in a corrupt. A time, uh, of the world. And the reason that God had called him to do that is because he was going to send a flood to wipe out a lot of things and really start over. But he wanted to preserve life.

[00:03:30] He wanted to preserve some animal species. Um, and he asked Noah to do this. Noah gets made fun of by everybody. I mean, it is the, the thing that you're doing, you're an entrepreneur. You felt like you're called to do something, you do it, but your friends and your family are making fun of you as you do it.

[00:03:44] Yeah. It seems outta left field. It doesn't make any sense in the natural what you feel called to do. That's Noah and he builds this ship. Obviously the flood comes, uh, he gets two animals of every kind. He gets a small group of people in his family. Uh, onto the ship. And [00:04:00] that's how we preserved mankind.

[00:04:01] That's how we preserved animal species. And it's become one of the most powerful stories in the Bible because that was the restart, uh, to what, uh, God wanted to do. And then obviously the rainbow is a big piece of that story that people know about and love, and I think it's unbelievable that still happens today after crazy storms.

[00:04:17] Uh, just that rainbow comes in any city, in any state at any time while you're driving or looking out your window. Just, uh, it was a reminder to Noah that he would never do this again. And I still think it's a reminder to us today. That even in storms in our life, he is present. I want to, you know, we call this faithful existence because that's basically what it was.

[00:04:36] I mean, building this arc. The Bible scholars talk that it took anywhere from a hundred to 120 years now. Yeah. Um, gosh, nowadays that's, it's essentially your lifetime, right? Right. And we could have called this thing look eyes forward or focused or ignore the haters because here in my research bible, it says, the story of Noah's life involves not one, but two [00:05:00] great tragic floods.

[00:05:02] The world in Noah's day was flooded with evil. And then because of that, God responded and flooded the world as it was known then to rid the world of evil. And he saved Noah. So let's dive in. Um, you talk about the man, uh, he was, he was a farmer who was tasked by God to become a ship builder. Um, and as I look at him, if you look at just human leadership qualities that are.

[00:05:30] Tantamount to success. He followed God's law. He followed the directions, how to build this arc. He followed the stuff to the nth degree. I mean, it's like he never, ever wavered from God's call. And that to me is, is admirable. I, I, I couldn't begin to fathom it, especially in a situation where you're building this massive arc by yourself.

[00:05:55] No helpers outta Cedar Wood. In the middle of a [00:06:00] drought in the desert. I mean, I can only imagine what's happening with the folks around him because the world was a pretty ugly place right now. So he must have got noise all the time. But this guy was his resolute and followed directions. It's, it's like, it's like he had this almost connection to God.

[00:06:17] Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. I mean, I think, I think the story is really, if we summed it up in one word, you may, you might sum it up in a different word, mark. If I summed it up in one word, it would be obedience. Um, he felt like God asked him to do something and he was obedient to it, to the details, to, uh, you know, doing it without an answer of why or when, uh, he was obedient to it once people started making fun of him.

[00:06:40] Uh, you know, just leadership requires faith in God's plan, honestly. And, uh, even when it doesn't make sense, a lot of times when God asks you to do something, it doesn't make sense. And again, I even think that's part of your story of the podcast. Like, you know, you kept feeling like God asked you to do this.

[00:06:54] Uh, you wanted to push it away, and even in your own story would say that you did at some point, but then there was a moment in time where you're [00:07:00] like, you know what? I need to be obedient. Even if it doesn't make sense of where this is going or what it's supposed to do. I just, I feel like God has asked me to do it.

[00:07:06] And I think that's Noah's story, just faithful obedience, uh, to the detail, uh, through the, through the culture that was canceling him. Mm-hmm. Just like we experienced today. He just never wavered because he knew God asked him to do something and he said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be obedient, uh, to the end of this call.

[00:07:23] Let's talk about this before we dive into some sort of legacy moves. 'cause this is a legacy. I mean, I read the other day that, um, parts or what of what was known as ARC was found on top of error. So, which is crazy. Okay. Um, we know the Bible's true, but this is like wow to me. Yeah. Um, but let's talk about the person first off.

[00:07:47] Now this is if we are fathers or husbands or uh, um, even in the workplace. He lived, he was a wholesome guy. He did the right thing. Despite living in this culture that was [00:08:00] riddled with just doing wrongdoing, you know, from you, you name it, from the sexual aspect of it, to corrupt to crime, the whole thing.

[00:08:09] Murder, rape. Yes. No, he's like a one guy. That was living clean. Yeah. And that's hard. So I, I want it's you to put on your pastoral hat here and help, because we all aspire to this, but it's just so very hard, especially if we surrounded with a 24 7. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, whether you're listening as a, a dad or, uh, like you said, a business leader or I think we, we all lead somebody.

[00:08:37] We all lead something. And if you don't think that you, do, you at least lead yourself. Mm-hmm. Um, and leaders, you know, leaders have to learn how to stand firm, um, in their values, uh, despite external pressures. Um, and I, you know, I always, when I sit with people and they ask yeah, like, I think everybody agrees with that.

[00:08:53] Mark. I think that you would say in any given moment that you wanna live through your values. If. If pressure was put on you, I think [00:09:00] that you would, I would say that I wanna live through values for us, that's God's values. For others listening, that might be something else passed down from, you know, three generations before you, values of your family and who you are, what your last name stands for, who you wanna be known as.

[00:09:13] Mm-hmm. I think we would all say we want to live through those values when external pressures come on. But, uh, I think the, the thing when I sit with leaders or, or different people in my office or. You know, end up with somebody that's, that hasn't lived through their values. When external pressures come on and I, I hear the end of that story.

[00:09:30] I hear how they got to where they are. For me, it's always a simple principle and it's, if you wanna live by your values and you, you don't wanna give into the external pressures of the world. It really comes down to the principle of whatever you put into something, um, is what will come out of that something when pressure is applied to that something.

[00:09:47] So whatever you put in is what will come out when pressure's put on. You get this from a golf perspective, like you can't just show up at a. Not put in the work the week before, the day of the morning of you. You can't just show up to a tournament, not put the work in, not just in [00:10:00] your swing, but also into the mental aspect of the game, to the details of the course, to the work with your caddy, and expect to show up and, and be in contention on Sunday, on whole 17 when everybody's watching, and, and expect in that moment for what's gonna come out as what was put in when pressure is put on.

[00:10:16] If I, if I sat on a balloon that was blown up and it popped, what would come outta that balloon? It's it's air. Whatever was put in that balloon is what came out of that balloon when pressure was applied to it. And I think for most people that struggle with living through their values with external pressures in the world is that we're not putting the right things in before that pressure is applied.

[00:10:36] Mm-hmm. When that pressure is applied, what comes out? We don't like, it's ugly. It's not who we say we are. And again, I think going back to Noah's story, I think he lived a life that was wholesome. He was pursuing the right things. And when that pressure from the culture was put on him, he was able to stay obedient and very focused on what God called him to do.

[00:10:55] Is, this is an opinion question, but you're a wise man, so I, I wanna pitch this to you [00:11:00] anyway. Um. Again, he's building an arc that was, I think in modern days it was 420 something yards long. I mean, this thing was messed Right. And it's high. Three stories high. And he is doing this by himself. Yeah. And as not, she's building the arc, it's sourcing the material.

[00:11:17] It was 120 year project. Again, I'm like, how many of us, let's just take health and wellbeing? Because if you wanna be a good dad, a good business leader, a good father, if you wanna leave a legacy, you know, health is wealth. And so, um. I think of like, I'm wanting to get in shape. I know you're doing a great job of it right now.

[00:11:38] And you're like, okay, I'm gonna change my eating and I'm gonna work out and I'm gonna now commit to this. And two weeks in I'm like, whatever. You know, you are laughing at me. Um, he has a guy, you said just obedience, but I wanna talk about the discipline because obedience only goes so far. Right. You, you know, there's [00:12:00] those mornings when motivation and discipline overrides obedience because it's easy just to hit snoots.

[00:12:06] Wow. You know, but's great. It's, it's, it's that little extra that gets us up and, and, and keeps us going and, and that almost becomes a habit eventually, which will lead us to achieving this mission, which I wanna talk about. But let's talk about that. Let's talk about that, please. Because. It's a 24 7 endeavor.

[00:12:24] It's a seven days. Uh, it's, it's a 365 endeavor and you've gotta be just up for it, even on those days when it doesn't really feel like you wanna do it. You with me? Absolutely. Oh man. I, I think, you know, I think we live in a generation right now where there's a lot of people that want what other people have, but they're not willing to do what other people do.

[00:12:42] Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we think that. We think that we should be where somebody else is and we have no idea the story of what they do on a regular basis to that got them to where they are. I've, I've always said at John Maxwell, the great leadership, uh, guy of, of our generation [00:13:00] maybe that's wrote so many great leadership books.

[00:13:01] He says, you know, small disciplines, uh, repeat it with consistency every day, lead to great achievements. Slowly over time. And I think we live in a culture that we, we, we like the Hail Mary in football. I don't know what you would call that in golf. We like the hole in one. Yeah. Like we, we like the Hail Mary.

[00:13:19] But I was looking at stats the other day. I think it's 7% of Hail Mary type throws, throws of 50 yards or more in a game are actually caught in a game. 7%. Um, and I think that we think that when we are asked to do something big, Noah. That, you know, if he would've taken that approach instead of taking the every day, I'm gonna get up every day, I'm going to accomplish something, every day, I'm gonna do something.

[00:13:45] Well, even if it's small, those small consistencies over a period of time is what gets you, uh, to those great achievements. And it's, it's really creating more first down markers in your life than it's throwing Hail Mary passes like. We see the few things in our life where somebody [00:14:00] threw a hail Mary and it worked, but that is not the story for most people.

[00:14:02] I think your story, my story, and most of the people we know that are successful, um, are successful because they are disciplined and they felt called to something. There was conviction there. They obeyed that conviction and then they have just put disciplines in their life to do things well little at a time.

[00:14:21] And those little things over time compound just like a, an investment account, would they compound over time into something way greater than, than we could have even imagined. But small disciplines over a long period of time help you achieve something. Great. I wanna build on that, Kyle, because you, you got me thinking of this beautiful image where you talk about first downs in.

[00:14:40] American football for our international viewers and listeners, where essentially you've gotta just gain 10 yards and you get four tries, right? Um, if you do it in three, well you, you, even if you gain 10 yards, you keep the ball, you keep the drive alive. Um, and if you basically do three yards a play. You [00:15:00] gaining a first down and maybe you have that five yard day and then you have a one yard day.

[00:15:05] But I guess it's just always the, the moving forward because I have to have thought, unless I miss something in the story and correct me, God didn't sort of say to, uh, Noah, look bro, um, the storm's arriving on X date. You're gonna have the thing done by then. Yeah. It's like God almost waited for Noah to complete the mission.

[00:15:25] Then there was a span of time where now Noah's gotta collect all the animals and God waited for him then. Then he's gotta get the family on board with this whole thing. So then he had to convince his family that he wasn't crazy. Okay. So we'll get to the family, but. But, but you see what I'm saying? I have to think that some days it was a six yard day, and some days it was a one yard day.

[00:15:45] Yeah, dude. Do you feel like this is the case? There might have been a few days, mark, there might have been a few days where they He lost some yards. Yeah. Uhhuh, like he, the, the material didn't come in, the material didn't fit and nothing got accomplished, but he still got up. He still attempted. [00:16:00] He still put a foot forward.

[00:16:02] Um, and some of those things are out of our control again, I think, I think that's what you and I would sit if we sat with somebody and told 'em about how you got to where you are today. Uh, and, and, and where I got to where I am today. And I don't think either one of us feel like, you know, we've achieved anything.

[00:16:14] But, but I think we would talk about how the, the more we kept getting up and doing our part, the more doors God has opened. Um, and if we're just sitting around wanting to throw a hail Mary. Waiting for God to tell us the exact date, waiting for God to paint the picture, waiting for God to make it easy. Uh, that's just not been most of the people's story.

[00:16:34] We know it's been us getting up and doing what God's asked us to do. A little at a time, failing some, succeeding some bringing other people around us who believe in what we're doing and also serving other people that in what they're doing. And through that, God has opened up doors and made things that we're supposed to do more clearly.

[00:16:50] So, uh, it's not a hail Mary. It's a, it's a hand the ball off and get three yards up the middle kind of race. I'm laughing because as you're talking about, [00:17:00] you know, a little step forward, a little step back. I, have you ever watched a chameleon walk? They sort of go for real me throughout my career, I guess that was me.

[00:17:09] It was like, oh, oh yeah. And eventually I get there and then there's another step and my eyes all over the show. You know, maybe now that I'm 54 years young and a little wiser, I'm, I'm going forward a bit better than my chameleon days when I was younger. Okay. Alright. Do that. Okay. Um, take a breath. Um.

[00:17:31] We've talked about vision and mission. In fact, the previous podcast with Paul Vision was a part of it. Now, the vision in these instances, Paul, to take the gospel to the gentile world, know it, to build the arc, the vision came from God, right? Oftentimes with us and the folks listening and watching, the vision comes from God, but it's inspiration from within.

[00:17:55] My dad's always said to me, and I've told, spoken on this very show about my mom who always reads [00:18:00] me, Habakkuk two, whatever it is, was like, write the vision on the tablets, right? And a little order your steps ish. Um, you write the vision because it's the dream. And my dad says, the vision is your dream. The mission is what you do to make the dream a reality.

[00:18:17] Um. I, I wanna say this, and this is speaking to leaders, aspirant leaders, uh, whoever it might be, people who are over in charge of anything. Putting a vision in front of your employees or your family or your team is always a good idea. And then not just saying, Hey, we want to win the national championship.

[00:18:38] We wanna improve sales, we wanna be a God-fearing family who makes it to church every Sunday morning. It's like, how are we gonna do this? Right. But that is the mission. And we saw Paul accept the mission, like he was all in. Um, I, there's not much said about Noah and the mission of it, but I gotta feel like over [00:19:00] that amount of time to stick to the mission.

[00:19:04] There, there was a definite vision in front that drove his actions. Uh, are, are? Yeah. Are you, are, are you on board with me here? Oh, man. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think it's divine. I think vision can be defined a lot of different ways. I think I would define vision as, uh, direction. Mm-hmm. Inspiration, clarity, conviction.

[00:19:24] Um, and like you said, and again, I, I've, I've got to work with businesses and churches over the years, a lot of people have a great vision statement. But the, the vision's on the wall, but it's not being played out down the hall. Yeah. Um, because there's no mission attached to it, there's no systems attached to how to.

[00:19:42] How to make the vision actually happen. Um, and I think that's where, again, I actually do think, I think Noah had a vision of, we had to build this arc, but I think God gave him a mission, which was the specifics to what he was supposed to build and the specifics to go get two animals of each kind. So like the vision was build the arc, the [00:20:00] mission was to this actual like.

[00:20:02] Like, God was so detailed, I want it this size, and it probably needed to be that size. 'cause he also said, I need two animals of every kind and for two animals of every kind to get on a ship of that, that's the size that it needed to be. And just so I think God actually gave him a mission through the specifics.

[00:20:17] Mm-hmm. Within the vision. Yeah. Well, if, if I was advising people, you know, I've been over teams before. You're over a team of pastors and, and serve people at your church. Um. The per the specifics is it, you know, because if there's specifics, you clear out the wash. Right. And the less chance there is for like debate over topics or situations or whatever, the more clear cut the vision is and then the mission's defined.

[00:20:50] The less wiggle room one has. Yeah. And if you look at the way God operated, like the exact measurements were given to the arc as you referenced the animals, you've gotta [00:21:00] get one of each male and female. It actually says not just two males, right? That would be bad. And it actually says in the Bible, because then they will not be able to procreate and, and then.

[00:21:09] You look at other situations like we'll get to it in a future, uh, podcast where, um, the arc of the tabernacle is built by Moses. And I have to admit that even then you read through this stuff and you read the Bible and it's kind of like boring because when they were doing the tabernacle, it's like the same thing and it's gonna be this high and this wide, and this color is gonna be used.

[00:21:32] That doesn't allow for any deviation from the mission. So in other words, the goal that's been set is almost guaranteed to be achieved. Um, yeah. You there? Yeah. Well I think, I mean the most practical thing I can think of Mark, is again, maybe this even helps somebody, is like the vision for our family is that, you know, we are emmans.

[00:21:52] The vision for my family is we are Jackson's, sorry Ms. Jackson, you can tell that I'm for real. Sorry, I couldn't resist you [00:22:00] the amount of that that came out when I was in high school. So you could imagine the amount of.

[00:22:12] I want, I we want to be Jackson's. That's the vision. You want your family to be emel image, you're passing something down. Well, that's great, but without the specifics, without the missional side of that, what is, how do you, how are you a Jackson? So like we have family values, there's seven of 'em, and they're in our kitchen.

[00:22:27] On the wall it says, Jackson's are fun. Jacksons are generous. Jacksons are honoring. Jacksons are obedient. Jacksons are kind like we took the, the values that my parents passed down to me and the values that Jen's parents passed down to her, and we morphed them together. And now we parent through a value based parenting like the mission.

[00:22:47] The vision is we want them to be Jackson's, uh, but the mission is is that we're teaching them to be generous in every. Occasion, we're teaching them not to just be obedient to their parents, but obedient to what God asked them to do, obedient to their teachers. [00:23:00] We're asking them to be honoring of people in authority, whether we agree or disagree.

[00:23:04] We're asking them to, uh, be kind in every situation when somebody makes fun of them at school. The goal is not that we say something back, but we choose kindness. So if we want them at 18, 21, 25 years old, when they get married one day. To be a Jackson, then you have to have some specifics, which is the mission, uh, if that, that gets them to what you've said a minute ago is the vision.

[00:23:25] The vision was Noah built a ship, but the mission was the specifics, uh, to how to get there. Not just build a ship, but let me give you the specifics so that it can, when you get to the end, it is what God wanted it to be. You know, I'm so thankful for this venture, this, uh, Odyssey you and I are on. I'm thankful for you because.

[00:23:47] You say you've got that stuff written down now, folks. I've been to Kyle's house once, twice. I think it maybe in your house and I have not seen that. I'll look for it. But I've learned now from your council because [00:24:00] like as a dad, um, this is how I want the kids to turn out and it's said. Then, you know, it's not there.

[00:24:10] It's not there to be seen. It's not there as a reminder all of the time. And then I get myself all hot and bothered when they don't behave like they should. But it's, maybe it's on me, the leader, because I should have that written down saying, I are this, I are that. This is what we stand for. Because if you do that.

[00:24:26] There it is. It's written on the tablet. Now we're going down the rabbit trail here, mark. But I, I hope it encourages somebody. It's one of the best things we've done. Like we don't tell our kids, you don't do that, don't do this. That's not how we act. We like when my 7-year-old son is being stingy, we don't be like, Hey, you know, share that.

[00:24:43] Give that to your sister. We just say, Hey, coop. Jacksons are generous, man. Are you being generous? Um, like, it's like we are, we are parenting through those filters. Like when I think about the emmans, Emmans are encouraging. Emmans are excellent, emmans are faith-filled. Like so they, when well wish [00:25:00] they pick up their stuff off them in their room.

[00:25:02] Well, yeah. Right. So instead of just saying, you need to pick that up, we go, Hey, Emmans are excellent. We didn tidy. Can we, can we make our room excellent? And we're teaching them who we are, not just what to do. Love it. Um, you know, it is a, yeah, that's no really cool. Again, I'm learning here, um, and now learning is one thing, but applying is another.

[00:25:22] Um, right. Noah did, uh, but I wanna say this too. There was a consistency in his approach because there was a real courage of his conviction. Now, I'm certain when you have the voice of God speaking to you. Like, I'm sure it was for him. And it's like, okay, yes sir. Kind of thing. And you know, nowadays maybe people don't have the brush with God or the voice that they hear, but you have that special something inside that Holy Spirit stuff.

[00:25:50] And then sometimes we can just dull it. But he had courage of convictions and then the patience of of the thing too, because. Like you talk about how you want your family [00:26:00] to treat others. Yeah. He is got all these folks that are wrongdoers are heckling him. The haters man. The haters are hating every single day.

[00:26:09] 'cause here's this guy carrying a big block of wood to a place where he is building a ship in the middle of a desert, and they're like. Dude, you're a nut case. So there was the courage of what he was doing, but then the patience and the consistency of it all to just keep doing the right thing. I feel like that's, that consistency aspect of it is almost paramount to any successful leader, dad, father, mother, you know, businessly, whatever.

[00:26:36] Well, I think, I mean, again, I think this is something you, you should speak to more than me because I think the, the sport that you love and the sport that you've given a lot of your life to. I just, I think it might be the, the one sport at the top of the chain that if you don't figure some of that out, consistency disciplines, like, I mean, that is the game of golf.

[00:26:56] And I just, I'm even curious from your perspective, I. You [00:27:00] know, you're saying all that, but I'd love to even just hear your, your leadership thoughts back to that on just why that matters so much. Again, you, you see it all the time. There's no way you can be successful in the sport that you love without those qualities in your life.

[00:27:12] Well, okay. I'll put on my golf teacher Hatcher for a minute. Yeah, I can do this. People like it. Okay. Um, you're pretty good at it. I always say to people, I'm like, golf is a mercurial sport. There's so many variables on the go from one hole to another. We play on an inconsistent field, unlike a baseball field where you know what the dimensions are, soccer field, whatever.

[00:27:36] We outside weather's variable. We play through weather unless it's electricity. So there's a lot of variability on the go. So consistency is kind of the, the, the comfort blanket through it all. But the reality is building a consistent golf swing is next to impossible because we humans and we fallible. So I say, look, you gotta understand that I.

[00:27:59] [00:28:00] Inconsistency in performance is likely, but your consistency in how you respond and react to the performance, that's where the consistency lies. And, and, and in a way, I feel like that is the real leadership lesson because as a leader you can have the vision written out, you can have the vision, mission, and then you're like, well, folks down the hall, they're not really listening so much.

[00:28:21] The leader is how you respond to that. That's, and then how you get them back into line to say, look, this, if you do this and we do that, and, and you stick to this and you react like this, that's when the ship, pardon the pun, um, that's completely on purpose. That's how the ship starts going in the right direction again.

[00:28:39] So the consistency in golf is more how you react and you respond to situation than what you do. Feeling like you're gonna perfect what you're doing every single time. Absolutely. No, I, I, that's, that's why I want you to speak to it because I think, I think that is, it's so hard to remain consistent in our culture [00:29:00] today.

[00:29:00] Uh, there's a lot of distractions that keep us from being consistent. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of, again, think about the game of golf. I mean, you could go watch a hundred golf reels today and somebody would tell you to do something a little bit different with your swing. So how do. There's so many different ways that I could do something, but I do think consistency, um, is a secret sauce in leadership.

[00:29:20] I think consistency is a secret sauce when God asks you to do something. Um, again, if you're listening to the podcast and you, and you follow God, um, I, I think we, we think that if we hear him and we go do one thing, then it's gonna all just happen overnight. And I just, there's nothing in my life that I felt like God's ever asked me to do.

[00:29:38] That 24 hours later was exactly where I wanted it to be. The goal is you just continue to remain consistent to what you know God's called you to do. And, uh, it's never gonna be in your timing that something happens, but timing is everything and God's timing is perfect. So just stay consistent to what he's asked you to do, and you'll look up yours down the road and it'll be even better than you thought it could be.

[00:29:58] Yeah, I, I feel like, I feel [00:30:00] like it's important for me right now to say, folks, um, this podcast Vision. Is to help someone somewhere to live a more full life, a complete life, uh, um, a life filled with joy and happiness, success, hopefully, um, to help people in leadership roles, because Kyle and I both believe that everyone, no matter you're stationed in life, is a leader.

[00:30:23] You have influence over people or situations somehow. And then a large part of this is legacy. Um, and, you know, making that difference so that when you've checked out one day and you've passed on to the heavenly fairways or the heavenly baseball fields for Kyle, um, a place where Auburn always wins, um, that can't happen, by the way.

[00:30:43] Anyway, um, I digress. Um, I, I'm now with Noah and the family on a Winship. Um, they say, it says in the Bible that the, the rains came down. The floods came up from under the ground. [00:31:00] The waters rose for, I think it was 40 days straight. Yeah, 40 days to a point where the level of the water was over 20 feet above the highest peak of the mountain.

[00:31:14] So there's water everywhere, and there's this one alone ship. Now it's not a carnival cruise, it's a wooden ship. With three stories of animals and animals, don't stop doing animal things just because they're on a boat. It's hardly like you're with like a bunch of people full of decorum behaving themselves.

[00:31:36] So it's hot and sweaty inside there. 'cause it's humid, it's stinky as all heck I'm sure. Um, and then you've got your family with you who you had to convince that you're not crazy and you've gotta come with me. Now there's probably, they probably the, the Noah family, he had three sons and his wife and their son's partners.

[00:31:57] They're probably like, well. Good thing we listen to this [00:32:00] guy 'cause he spared us our lives. So maybe they're partly believing, but now they're in that ship for, it was over a year. Yeah. Uh, I need to look at my Bible. Correct me if I'm wrong here, Kyle, but they're in there for all this time and it's not the most comfy living conditions ever.

[00:32:18] And then the rain stopped. Now the waters have to recede. Right. And Noah goes to the little window and he sets a raven off there and it comes back. Yeah. And then he sets a dove off and it comes back. And this goes on for days. Yeah. Until the dove comes back with an olive branch in its beak. And so he goes, okay, well the waters have receded some, and then they keep doing this.

[00:32:40] Okay. Now that's long-winded to ask the question or get your take on this. So much of leadership is keeping the peace I. You know, you've got animals in there, you've got unhappy people who've not set their foot on land for a long, long time. You know, stuff, I'm sure is a [00:33:00] little ragged and niggly inside there.

[00:33:01] People are, their, their nerves are wearing thin. Surely they haven't slept. And Noah the architect of all of this. Um, it's keeping the peace, it's, it's maintaining the common vision. It's maintaining. Some decorum in amongst your tribe that's stuck on a ship with a bunch of animals for so long, your take.

[00:33:27] Yeah, I think, I think you're right. I mean, leadership is, you know, it's very lonely at the top, so I'm sure Moses felt lonely at times At the top of all of this, like. Uh, anybody that has a vision, anybody that goes after it, anybody that builds something and pulls people along with them, you know, it, it, it can be lonely at the top sometimes.

[00:33:51] I just can't imagine that Noah, and we don't know this for certain, but I can't imagine Noah did all of this, um, and didn't care for [00:34:00] those that he was leading well through the process. Yeah, like I think the fact that they e the fact that they even got on the ship, mark. Tells me that Noah had such a, uh, was so influential in their life that they honored their father, that that, uh, I'm not even sure they had to believe in what was going to happen, but they believed in him.

[00:34:23] And I think sometimes even as leaders, we feel like as lonely at the top, but I bet there's more people that believe in us than we think there are true. I bet we're doing better than we think we are. Sometimes I bet we matter to more people than we think we do. I just think we feel lonely at the top because people think we're too busy to ever do anything.

[00:34:39] They don't invite us to do things because they don't wanna put pressure on us. All the things that it's like, no, invite us. We might say no, but we might say yes. I. Um, so I think Noah, I think the, the thought is to think that his family got on that boat and they still think he's crazy. I think it might be the opposite.

[00:34:54] I think they, I think they trusted Noah more than they trusted the vision. Okay. But, and that's, that's, [00:35:00] uh, there's a phrase that says people will trust the leader before they trust the vision. Okay. And I, they trusted Noah because of how he lived his life previous to building the ship. What he put in is what he, what came out, what he put into those kids is what came out when pressure was put on.

[00:35:14] Mm-hmm. They, they did what he asked them to do because of the way he lived his life before they got to this moment. And I think a lot of times as leaders or people that have ideas, we want people to follow us. We want people to believe in us. We want people to trust where we're going. But a lot of that has to do with how you treat people previous to that season of life.

[00:35:32] A lot of that has to do with, or have you been found trustworthy with the relationships you have previous to this big vision that you have now, which should encourage all of us today that God's gonna continue to put things in front of us to accomplish in the years to come. And my encouragement would be to use, if you haven't lived your life where people.

[00:35:47] Trust you where people, uh, don't, uh, you know, don't believe, uh, the things that you say because there's been integrity issues in the past. Like from this day forward, let's be the type of people that care for the people around us so [00:36:00] that when we have that great idea again, they'll come with us because they believe in us even more than they do the vision.

[00:36:05] You know what? I really love that. Um, yeah. Trust is earned, right? And, and, and, you know, people are real. Uh, I'm, I'm sure, and I keep on getting back to the fact that he's this lone man, the one moral, one man of moral fiber that was left on the earth. So much so that God looked at him and is like, I'm gonna save you and your family, and you are going to be the father of the generations that come.

[00:36:31] Hmm. Um, and that trust is earned even with his family. So for dads and moms and and such over here, it, it's, it's, it's more than what we say, right? It's, it's what we do as well. I, I, I'm a big one for saying stuff, but my actions speak louder than my words. I'm sure. Like, I think, I think his family watching, you know, him not retaliate to those that made fun of him.

[00:36:56] Yeah. I think his family, watching him get up and do something [00:37:00] little every day to accomplish this goal, I think his family. Looking at his obedience and conviction to God. Like, I think that's what built all the trust. I don't think they had to understand where this was going or when the storm might be coming, or why are we doing this?

[00:37:14] Getting two animals. This is crazy. I think they believed in the man more than they maybe did the vision. And then I think they were very thankful they believed in the man because the vision came true. Um, and I, I, I just think, uh, again, here's the question mark. Why did God choose Noah? Well, it was, it says in the Bible, and I'm just paraphrasing here, that he was the only righteous man left on the earth, right?

[00:37:39] Yeah. Right. And God will always do that. Now. There's no righteous men on earth today. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible is so clear. I'm a sinner and I'm a pastor. You're a sinner and you are a golf announcer and the greatest person that we know is still a sinner, and we don't have to live under the weight of that and the guilt of that [00:38:00] because of what Jesus did on the cross for us.

[00:38:02] We don't have to walk around in guilt and shame for our mistakes, but, but God is looking for people that are clean vessels. There's a great verse in the book of Second Timothy, for those of you that read your, read the Bible, for those of you that don't, I think it's a great thought. I think the Bible's full of principles, whether you follow God or not, that work in your life, by the way.

[00:38:20] And there's a, there's a verse in two Timothy that says, God will use, um, everything inside of a house. Some things are made of wood and clay. Others are made of gold and silver. Some will be used for common purposes, but the latter will be used for special purposes. And I think God's looking for people that are trying to live their life pursuing, living their life.

[00:38:41] Trying to do what the Bible says. You know, as we do that, we become clear vessels, cleaner vessels. You prayed that prayer before we got onto the podcast today, mark, that you would God make me a clean vessel today. 'cause when you're a clean vessel, God can flow through you in ways that he can't. When you're not a clean vessel, what you put in is what will come out.

[00:38:58] When pressure's put on [00:39:00] and he is looking for a vessel that's clean, that he can use for special purposes, he will use Christians. He will use people in their brokenness and in their sin because he will use articles of wood and clay too. If we want, what other people have, we have to be willing to do what other people do that have this type of influence.

[00:39:17] And a lot of that, again, in the Christian space or how we see things is because they're, they're doing things the right way. Just like Noah was doing things the right way, and God chose him to do something great. And we wonder sometimes, why does God choose them? Why do they have more influence than me? I think we might be surprised on how they live their life.

[00:39:34] Yeah. The disciplines, the consistencies, uh, the chasing after holiness things, uh, that maybe we aren't doing. Uh, and God, God can choose anybody. I, uh, one of my favorite people in the world, Chris Hodges, says God has favorites. Mm-hmm. Here's the coolest part of that is you get to choose whether or not you're one of them.

[00:39:52] That's very cool. Okay. Um, I'm, I'm glad you brought that up because in the previous podcast and for new listeners, thank you for joining us. [00:40:00] Share this with your friends. Go check out the episode on Paul, because the point that Kyle made and one of the overriding, um. Elements to the podcast. The topics was that leaders, God uses every part of Paul's existence.

[00:40:13] He was a Roman, he was a Jew. He persecuted Christians. You know, it was the whole thing. Yet every part of him was used. You bring, you bring up a good point there because I. I jotted down some lessons, and that was from my research bible here. And the one was, we may be faithful, but our sinful nature always lives with us because what happened then?

[00:40:33] So now they're on land. Noah becomes a farmer again. He's farming everything, including grapes. He makes wine, gets drunk, he's kind sons come in and see him. And this was taboo in the day. Um, so that was a sinful sort of an uh, situation, but yet this is still a guy. There was that saved. His family and all the animals to reestablish sort of civilization on the earth, even though he had that sinful nature.[00:41:00] 

[00:41:00] Yeah, we're gonna make mistakes, right? I mean, you could sit down and swap stories every week. Every week. We make mistakes as a husband every week. We make mistakes as a parent every week. We make mistakes as leaders every week. We make mistakes in our profession. Um, and I just, anybody that's listening today, you are not defined by your mistakes.

[00:41:20] Your best days are ahead of you. Um, the Bible says that God has a hope and a plan for your life. Um, you gotta get back up. You gotta keep moving. Um, this is not about being perfect. I always say this is this. God's never looking for perfection. He's looking for heart. He's looking for posture. Yeah. He's, he is not looking for somebody to be perfect.

[00:41:38] He's looking for somebody that has a heart posture that says that when I do make a mistake, I'm gonna learn from it. I'm gonna move forward and I'm gonna be an example to others moving forward. And again, I think that's what Noah did. I think he came outta that season. There's probably a lot of pressure on him and then he let go of that by maybe, you know, drinking a little bit too much.

[00:41:55] But I love that it also says that his sons protected him from that. Yeah. To his son. [00:42:00] Right. 'cause he had lived his life in such a way that even in his worst moment, they wanted to protect him. Mm-hmm. Uh, because of who he was, majority of the time. Not all the time personally. You know, Noah, the story of Noah to me was always like that Wow.

[00:42:16] Cool story kind of thing. Yeah. I remember the rainbow, I remember the arc and I sort of remembered bits of it, you know, it's like that childhood story on the felt board you and the cool stuff. But the more I dove into this, the more. And the more I got into the nitty gritty of the story and instead of just reading the words on the page, I sort of tried to put myself in Noah's position.

[00:42:37] A couple things occurred to me and they were real to me, and the first one was that, you know, God doesn't remove the obstacle, but he makes a way through it. Like you think of the Red Sea, we're gonna get to Moses, right? Um, eventually. But Moses, yeah, the Israelites are Red Sea in front, Egyptians behind.

[00:42:56] It's not like, okay, God just goes, sea be gone. He is like, we'll split [00:43:00] the sea. Walk through that thing. So walk through your deal and with no, it was the same thing. There's this mayhem going around. Instead of God just going, well, I'm gonna pick you up and go and put you in greener pastures over there. He is like, dude, you build a big boat, it's gonna take you all of your life.

[00:43:15] You then sit on that boat for more than a year and something, but then you'll be fine after that. So it's like God is there and the lifeline that you get is not always moonshine and roses. It takes some of our personal investment as well. Yeah, absolutely. Couldn't, couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more.

[00:43:32] I think, you know, I like even just some final reflections of, you know, I think, you know, I, I think sometimes where we fight and resist is that God might ask us to do something that we don't feel qualified for, but God doesn't, I mean, all throughout the Bible, God never calls the qualified. He just ends up qualifying the call.

[00:43:52] Yeah. And, and Noah wasn't qualified to build an arc. He's a farmer. Like he's not a construction guy. Like he's [00:44:00] not qual. I wasn't qualified to be a pastor like I was. My life was way off from that in one season of my life. But when God calls you to do something, you know, if you're listening today, I. Stop fighting and, and resisting the fact that you don't feel qualified enough to do it based on skill, based on how you've lived your life in a pre previous season, based on your status, based on your financial situation.

[00:44:23] God's always just looking again for somebody to be obedient and then when you are, he qualifies you through that because you said yes to the call. The the obedience is the thing. And if I was to leave, sort of put a bow on this conversation. That's why this show is existing and why we want it to grow.

[00:44:41] Eventually, after we've looked at all these heroes of the faith, we'll get to the ultimate in Jesus. But really the truth is if you just look at how they live and you just do exactly what they did, you setting yourself up for, it's not so, to your point, it's not necessarily the qualified who called. It's just if you do the right thing, you might be [00:45:00] unqualified.

[00:45:00] Right. We'll get Jesus in the fishers, the, the fishermen who became fishers of men. It's, it's such a cool concept, and in a way, Kyle, it, it sort of, it brings hope, you know, that any one of us think about, think about who we've talked about already, just in the podcast. Mm-hmm. Joseph Unqualified. Yeah. Called, uh, Paul Unqualified, called Noah Unqualified, called David Unqualified Shepherd.

[00:45:27] Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Every, every, every, again, we're, this is about the legends of the faith and I, I, I'd hate to say that we're gonna find somebody that was qualified, but as I think through 'em, in my head, most were, the disciples were not qualified for the call. It, it was always, I. Obedience. Always. Always obedience.

[00:45:47] Well, folks, thank you for downloading this one. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support. Share this with your friends. Go follow us on social. The handles are at the greater call on X and on [00:46:00] Instagram. If you wanna reach out, if you need prayer or advice. Kyle is ready. He's, uh, all buckled up and ready, ready to help out, DM us there on Instagram or on social.

[00:46:11] We'd love to hear from you. Um, and like I say, share this one with your friends because. All we're trying to do is grow a tribe a, a tribe of people who, who believe in what's possible, and we are just following essentially the blueprint from great leaders of our faith that came before us. Appreciate you downloading this one.

[00:46:32] Be blessed and go and be a legend. Go listen to Mark on Amen Corner at the Masters coming up so