Transcript

0:00
What's up, faithful agents?
0:01
Welcome back to another episode of the faithful agent podcast.
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I have a decent guest for you today.
0:08
I'm just kidding.
0:09
I've gotten to know Anthony Rydell, our guest today over the last couple of weeks.
0:13
And honestly, it has been a joy.
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mean, and I say that in all seriousness, we have a lot of fun together, but you know, when you meet someone who not only loves the Lord, but you just feel like there's something about this guy or this gal, whoever it is.
0:25
He was like, this guy's my brother.
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just, we, we, we think the same way.
0:29
We act the same way.
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He's tall.
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I'm not.
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That's the biggest difference.
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But besides that, I feel like we're basically the same person.
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so sorry, guests, or sorry audience who's listening.
0:39
You're going to hear two of me and I think you're going to enjoy it.
0:42
but Anthony really is an incredible man of God.
0:45
And, and you're going to enjoy today's episode.
0:48
I absolutely firmly believe that as we dive into faith and work.
0:52
and how do we bridge those things together?
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You know, recently my business partner in Tutin Collective, Dave Caggiano, we threw a Christian agent mastermind locally.
0:59
I'm in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
1:01
And we asked Anthony, who was one of our guests, come and share about faith and work and how do we bridge those things.
1:06
And he just spoke very eloquently about it and biblically about it, which matters more than anything.
1:11
So I'm excited to share him with you all today.
1:14
But before we dive in, just a reminder, in case you haven't, we have a free online school, SKOOL.
1:21
for Christian agents, that's in the show notes.
1:23
We wanna serve you, help you learn how to sell three to four homes a year and be a blessing for you and your business, especially entering into 2025.
1:31
And the last announcement is we're entering into Christmas.
1:34
Make sure you take time to rest.
1:36
That's important.
1:37
Christ came so we can enter into His rest.
1:40
He came and took on flesh and lived the perfect life and earned the righteous obedience that we never could and then willingly traded His righteousness for our filthy sin.
1:51
and then came back to life and allowed us in his kindness to say, I will be that bridge that will allow you to enter into this eternal rest.
1:59
So agents take that rest and by taking rest show the real estate world that we trust in a God who is sovereign to help us and provide for us.
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Even if we're not working, we can take that time to enter into that rest.
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So I love you faithful agents, you know that.
2:15
So I hope that you will do that.
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I hope that I will do that.
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as an encouragement, but let me get to our guest today, Anthony Rydell.
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He is married with five children, a new baby too, right?
2:25
That just got here.
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He's the broker of the Keller Williams office in Williamsburg, Virginia.
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He's been in real estate for 10 years.
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He is the self-proclaimed dad joke king.
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So we're going to find that out today.
2:35
I'm a little worried.
2:36
Honestly, I spent way too long looking for a joke because I'm a little worried.
2:40
And he said he gave up modeling to jump into the real estate career, but So you all know, probably modeling his little toe.
2:47
And he said it was more the belly button, which that's a little awkward.
2:51
But that's who he is.
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so I'm glad that he's here.
2:54
Anthony, thanks for joining us, buddy.
2:55
Say hello, man.
2:56
Introduce yourself.
2:57
hey welcome guys, God bless.
2:59
You know, I have to say the pleasure is all mine.
3:01
Seriously, every time that I get a chance to sit with Garrett, I always walk away edified and just, as he just, the Holy Spirit just works through him.
3:10
So really an honor brother to be a part of this today and hopefully we'll just make some more magic, man.
3:16
I mean, praise God, praise God, man.
3:19
Don't watch the video because you won't want to see his modeling face.
3:23
But you can listen to the audio and enjoy it.
3:26
no, man, I'm super glad you're okay.
3:27
So everyone wants to know what's the dad joke.
3:30
And I'm a little worried about how good yours is.
3:33
So why don't you actually go first and then we'll dive into the good stuff and I'll decide whether I should even go or not.
3:39
So all right.
3:40
Give me what you got.
3:42
Yes, please.
3:44
was a serious podcast.
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is a very serious podcast.
3:47
As you can tell, this is a very serious podcast.
3:50
Wow, okay.
3:51
All right.
3:52
So, as Garrett said, I am a father of five, okay?
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And I identify as invisible.
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So therefore, I am transparent.
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And my preferred pronouns are who, where.
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Beat that, brother.
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I can't.
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I'm simultaneously sitting here thinking, can't, I don't know that I can beat that.
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And I don't know if I need to edit that out.
4:27
But it's fantastic.
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And you know what?
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We're the only Christian real estate podcast.
4:31
So we're leaving that in baby.
4:32
We are keeping that in.
4:34
I like it.
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I was feeling so good about it.
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I actually had a bet, a wager, but now that I won, I'll just bask in the glory and just...
4:42
Good just just leave it at that I wish Tyler was here because I would love to hear his response, but you know what I also must be transparent So that's fantastic man.
4:56
How do I go from there to faith and work?
4:58
I don't know but let's talk about something very briefly right because you shared about this moving into the serious part of this right, but you shared about this at our last Christian agent mastermind And I think it's something we need to be aware of.
5:11
We're not gonna go too much in detail on this this time, but I think it's something people need to be aware of.
5:16
And it's about the Gnar rule 10.5.
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So give us an overview, brother, of kind of what that is so we can have awareness.
5:23
We'll talk about it a little bit and then we'll dive into the faith and word component.
5:26
But yeah, hit us up with that.
5:27
well, mean, just to kind of zoom out kind of that 30,000 foot altitude macro level of there's a lot of threats to our industry right now.
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Everybody's aware of the Burnett settlement.
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We also have the Department of Justice.
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We have what is called the three-way rule being challenged in the courts.
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So there's a lot going on already as it is.
5:51
And AR does have its hands full.
5:53
And meanwhile, in 2020, We had some tough discussions on a political, cultural level, and that filtered down through the Realtor Association.
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So we did pass a special ethics code, Article 10-5, and essentially what we can say about anything that could be deemed potentially hate speech against a protected class would be punishable.
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under the NAR ethics committee.
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So what we're seeing is that the first test case was out of Montana was a Christian minister who preached a fiery sermon and was found guilty under Article 10-5 and has since tried to reinstate his NAR membership twice and was just denied the second time on Friday.
6:53
But it has come up.
6:54
of membership because of something he said in the pulpit on a Sunday morning, right?
6:58
Because the challenge is they're saying if you're a real estate agent, you're or if you're a realtor, you're a realtor 24 seven, no matter what you're doing, right?
7:05
There's never a time you're not representing NAR, I guess.
7:09
And so that's how they get away with things like that.
7:11
Is that right?
7:12
Yeah, you know, and I mean, kind of speak into that, that faith and work balance, you know, what I tell my agents in my office is that you are your best marketing piece.
7:23
24 seven, we are our best marketing pieces, but that also comes at maybe a cost, right?
7:28
There's a, there might be a price there where we are always realtors as far as they are concerned.
7:35
So anytime that we are out in the public interacting, we are the face of our businesses, but by extension, the face of the National Association of Realtors and its affiliates.
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So what we can say from the pulpit, there was another case that was a Bible study in which a Realtor was brought before a panel.
7:59
There was a Realtor who spoke up at a school board meeting about some books in the library.
8:04
And again, that also ended up before Ethics Panel.
8:09
And then there's also a couple situations in Virginia.
8:12
I understand actually an agent that you may know more better and you may actually know his story better than mine, who his tagline for his business was serving God by serving people or something like that.
8:22
And that drew some scrutiny.
8:24
I don't think it necessarily became anything.
8:27
But we do know around the same area in the Shenandoah Valley, there is a real estate agent who posted some scripture on his Facebook page and ended up before an NAR.
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Ethics panel.
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So we just have to be cognizant, be aware of what's happening.
8:47
And we don't have to necessarily get into the details or issue judgments today, but I think it warrants a conversation.
8:54
And I think a lot of us, particularly Christian realtors, are starting to become aware of what's happening.
9:00
We understand the intent behind Article 10-5 to a large extent.
9:06
There's a lot there.
9:08
that we can get into at another time.
9:11
But I also think the conversation is how far should we go to try to remedy the problem.
9:18
Yeah, and it's, you know, so I didn't even know it existed until you brought it up, right?
9:22
I'd heard about this real estate agent who he posted scripture, right?
9:26
But the crazy thing to me in his scenario is he posted this in 2016, the NAR 10.5 rule comes out in 2020 and they retroactively use it to go back after him, which is crazy to me, right?
9:40
Is the link that the world will go to shut up a Christian.
9:45
in general, but now as a Christian agent for us, you know, the conversation became, what is our job to prepare for these kinds of things that are going to come potentially to your doorway, potentially to somebody else?
9:56
And, and I think we could dive into that a little bit, but as a Christian agent, we need to be aware that we, number one, represent Jesus, right?
10:05
That's the most important thing.
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We represent Christ in everything we do.
10:08
And number two, just know that the world hates us for that.
10:12
Jesus told us that was gonna happen.
10:14
We shouldn't be surprised when these things show up at our doorstep, right?
10:18
We all know, we've heard of the the cake baker in Colorado, right?
10:24
He wouldn't make a cake for a homosexual couple and went all the way to the Supreme Court and he won, praise God that he won.
10:31
But like, he's just a cake baker that day.
10:33
He doesn't know what's gonna show up on his doorstep.
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The Lord already knew.
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He didn't want to go through all of the crazy scrutiny and all the stuff that he had to go through.
10:41
There's no doubt he didn't, but the Lord did want him to for his glory, for the Lord's glory and for this guy's good.
10:49
And at the end of the day, for the good of our country, right?
10:52
Honestly, because he won.
10:54
And so I think we've got to be aware though, that representing something like the faithful agent or just posting things about being a believer.
11:04
The world can come after us for that and wants to come after us for that.
11:09
And I think for us, the wisdom here, and Anthony, I want your opinion, the wisdom here in my opinion is, my perspective is, I'm not going to go looking for it, right?
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I'm not going to actively try to say something inflammatory to get myself in trouble.
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I don't think that's wisdom.
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I don't think that honors the Lord.
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But when, or if it comes to my doorstep, I'm also not going to run away because who is man right what can they do to me nothing nothing that the lord doesn't desire now i don't want my family to go through that it's not my desire to that's what i'm not gonna go looking for a fight i would say if you're a believer that's like sweet let's go fight everybody that's unwise pride there's something going on in your heart there we need just be ready as a community will talk about that we need to be ready to community support anybody that this shows up and it comes to our doorstep but don't go looking for it Right?
12:00
Be intentional with what you say and more than representing NAR, which, okay, fine.
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You're representing Jesus and you're representing your family.
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You're representing yourself.
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Like you said, Anthony, all those things matter.
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So what should a believer's thought and response be to something like this understanding that they're using this in a big way to say, Hey, Christian agent, this is hate speech because you're holding to whatever traditional view of marriage.
12:24
That's hate speech.
12:26
How do we, as a real estate Christian real estate population, what do we need to do to be prepared?
12:30
Yeah, you know, actually I think my answer is kind of apropos to the season being that Christmas is right around the corner and we serve an infinite God.
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I mean, we really are unable to even articulate the true whole essence of our God, but he has chosen to reveal himself to us in his son and his son did not come.
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in all the glory and splendor that should be expected of the King of Kings and Lord and Lords.
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Instead, came as a baby in the form of the man and was placed in a manger.
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I Luke chapter two, verse seven, he was placed in a manger.
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And then if you read on just in that chapter of Luke, Luke chapter two, 21 to 24, right around there, you'll see that his family goes and makes the sacrifice at the temple and they use two turtle doves or two pigeons.
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which speaks to the fact that they were of a humble background.
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They could not even afford a lamb for the sacrifice.
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So we have this almighty, all-powerful, omniscient, infinite God that we believe in and that we serve.
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And he has chosen to reveal himself in his son.
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if you want to understand the mind of Christ, I think you have to start with self-sacrificial love.
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Christ came as a servant and he came not to liberate his people.
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Maybe they were expecting that in their Messiah.
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He didn't come to conquer nations, but instead he came to liberate us by conquering sin.
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And I think if we take that to heart, if we lead with the sack self-sacrificial love that Jesus displayed in his life, I think we're going to be okay.
14:22
Right.
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know, God's business is good business.
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I said that during the panel.
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But really, if we lead with love, everything else will work its way out, whether it be for, you know, if we end up in trouble or not.
14:36
But I think, again, it's like you're saying, we're not picking a fight.
14:40
In fact, I explained to someone, it's not that we're asking for special privileges or anything or special rights.
14:46
We just want neutrality.
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We just want to be free to be who we are.
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so that we can live out our lives in love and serving others.
14:55
think it's so fascinating, right?
14:57
mean, one of the aspects of this is, in this mastermind that we ran, right, no one has ever changed somebody's mind on social media.
15:07
All right, that's just not the avenue.
15:09
And I'm not advocating, listener, that you just go silent.
15:12
I don't think that's true either.
15:13
I think we've got to stand up for what's right for what's true.
15:16
But I think that, especially, let's be honest, with politics, right, with Trump winning.
15:21
And that became this, I'm going to talk about Trump and you know i'm gonna use it to proclaim these things that may make somebody angry and you know but i'm a stand up for it and again i i don't have a problem christian agent for you standing up for what you believe is true in fact i would say you should but i'm saying if you're gonna stand up for something make sure it's worth standing up for right it's not that i'm not thankful for the direction that the cup of the country went it's that i'm not gonna die on the hill of a politician at the end of the day right?
15:51
heard it said this way, for example, and I'm using this as just an example for us with 10.5.
15:55
I heard it, you know, these pastors were talking about it.
15:58
They're like, look, at the end of the day, these are the barbarians, right?
16:01
The non-believers of the day.
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We're just voting for the best of the barbarians who don't love Jesus.
16:07
And so let's not go out there to inflame people by saying something about a politician.
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Who cares?
16:14
At the end of the day, is that what's going to get you like?
16:16
if you're going to get in trouble do it by proclaiming christ by proclaiming what is biblical in true again i don't want you to get in trouble but what i'm saying is what hill are you willing to stand up and die on in it shouldn't be the hill politics it should be the hill of the gospel and that's what matters far away greater than anything else and so let us be intentional as we're out there in about i'm going out showing house let's say right for example And a client comes to us and says, you know, we've worked with LGBTQ clients.
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Of course we do.
16:49
If they come to us, like, absolutely, we want to serve you.
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We want you to interact with us.
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We hope that our interaction and our continued care of you is going to help you understand who Jesus is.
16:59
Now I got to say that too, but I want them to understand who Jesus is by the way that we serve them.
17:04
Right.
17:05
I'm not going to just say no to that person.
17:07
But what if in the same breath I have this relationship with them and then I'm going out there and I'm posting about, you know, whatever Trump is this, Trump is that, everybody else is terrible, whatever people are saying, what am I going to do?
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I'm going to hurt.
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I don't care about the reputation of a politician at the end of the day.
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I'm going to hurt the reputation of Jesus.
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And how many people say, well, I can't believe in Jesus because look at you guys who are Christians and look at all the things that you say.
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Brothers and sisters, you represent Jesus.
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I don't care that you represent NAR.
17:35
I don't care that you represent something else, you represent Christ and let's stand up for him.
17:39
And so again, I think it's the wisdom that we need to have in our community to say, if you're going to pick a fight, pick the right one.
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And if you're going to stand on the hill to die, stand on the right hill, because I don't want to die on a hill that doesn't matter.
17:51
Right?
17:51
What do you think about that?
17:53
Yeah, you know actually I heard a wise man actually I guess he posted it on Facebook But he said that sometimes we confuse our method with our mission and I think that was right on Those things that we say about the other side in terms of politics and all these things Does that magnify Jesus or does that?
18:13
Take away from Jesus because people are gonna be more likely to tune me out and I think that's just a stu observation that this wise man you Post it on Facebook.
18:22
like, that's really good.
18:23
I was like, yeah, that's excellent.
18:25
I totally agree.
18:26
That's funny.
18:26
That's awesome.
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God.
18:29
Yeah, yeah.
18:30
Right, that's right.
18:30
Who is that guy?
18:31
better have him on the show.
18:33
Yeah, yeah.
18:34
That's awesome.
18:35
So absolutely, yeah, I mean, are called to be representatives of Christ.
18:41
And again, to understand the mind of Christ is love.
18:44
So if we lead with love, yeah, I will serve whoever it is, and I'm gonna lead with love, and I'm gonna reflect the light of Christ into their lives, hoping that if they are in that darkness, that that ray of light, if I just plant the right seed, maybe someone else will come and water it.
19:00
But either way, I will pray that God grows it.
19:03
Hmm.
19:03
Yeah.
19:04
It's such an interesting aspect, right?
19:07
Again, it's we've had this culture shift as we've gone through COVID.
19:11
It's like people have been forced to pick sides and that never happened before.
19:15
And so we've seen so many interesting fractures, honestly, and conversations that have come up because of, you're on this side and I'm on this side and, I thought we were both Christians.
19:25
And it's like, well, we can be and disagree.
19:27
And anyways, we've brought up these really interesting conversations and it's led to all of these pieces.
19:33
And again, I think it's as as agents, right?
19:35
If you've been in the business for 10 plus years, like Anthony and I have, you remember when they would say, you don't talk about politics, you don't talk about sex, you don't talk about your faith, right?
19:44
Those things don't matter.
19:45
You leave them at the door.
19:46
Well, I think what what I've seen through the the launch of the Faithful Agent almost two years ago is agents, Christian agents, you who are listening are stepping up and saying, I'm tired of not talking about my faith.
19:58
That's the whole point.
19:59
That's why I'm here.
20:01
And so again, but it's this call, brothers and sisters, to say, but do it as Anthony's saying, do it with love, do it with intentionality.
20:08
Don't be reckless, because we are recognizing and we do abide by the law of Caesar, right, is what scripture talks about us.
20:17
And so if Nar 10.5 exists, we would be unwise.
20:21
And I would go as far to say we would be in sin if we actively just try to post something that's going to get us in trouble.
20:29
be like well forget them i follow jesus like we still abide by those laws and they can't tell us to stop talking about jesus that will never happen and that should never happen right but we need to be intentional we need to honor the lord by the rulers these placed about us and that's terrible sometimes it should be honest like i hate that there are people trying to regulate the fact that i have to be more intentional about what i post online but at the end of the day isn't that good and godly because should not be intentional anyways because again you represent jesus You don't just, on a tiny micro level, you represent the faithful agent.
21:03
I don't care about that in comparison to Christ, but you represent these things that point directly to Christ.
21:09
So how are you going to do it?
21:11
What are you going to say?
21:11
How are you going to represent Him at the end of the day?
21:15
People are going to come after you.
21:16
Maybe, maybe they will, maybe they won't.
21:18
If they do, it's because it's been ordained by the Lord that those things are going to happen.
21:22
The result of that is going to be because it was ordained by the Lord that this would happen.
21:27
for his glory and your good.
21:29
That's promised to us in Romans eight, right?
21:31
So let's be intentional with what we say, but let's not shy away from being who we are.
21:37
And the question I want to ask you, Anthony, because I think you alluded to this earlier and I think it's fascinating, is to think about the intentionality of our lives online, right?
21:48
So being intentional online means we...
21:52
I don't know that we actually attract people to us online in terms of saying inflammatory things.
21:56
Certainly, they're a follower of, you know, Instagram and blah, blah, maybe that happens.
22:01
Don't get me wrong.
22:02
I think it's much more likely we push people away.
22:04
And so the intentionality online is to say, I don't want to make my net teeny tiny.
22:10
I want to make sure that anyone, the, the LGBTQ person would feel confident in coming to me because I got referred and say, can you help me buy a house?
22:18
I want them to feel that confidence.
22:20
so that they come into my world so that by the Lord's grace there will be a gospel presentation somewhere along the way and should he choose they will soften their heart and follow Jesus.
22:30
I don't want to keep them away and I think the social media aspect is going to make it dangerous and harder for us to maybe do that.
22:37
So my question to you is when it comes to the faith and work component when we do want to bridge that gap we do want to bring those things together.
22:45
How do we do that in an effective way that shows who we are and honors the Lord, but also doesn't alienate the very people that we're called to go be a witness to.
22:57
How do we do that?
22:59
Yeah.
23:00
I guess I would say, and it's almost kind of cliche at this point, right?
23:04
But the greatest sermon you will ever preach is how you live your life.
23:09
And also I think as real estate agents, we have an incredible opportunity to meet people.
23:17
I wouldn't say at their worst, but kind of sometimes they are at their worst or they're close to it.
23:21
One of the most common reasons, two of the most common reasons why people sell their homes is death and divorce.
23:28
And then of course there's job loss, things like that.
23:31
So sometimes we get these people in a really tough spot.
23:35
And if we're reflecting that love into their lives, it gives us an opportunity to really allow the Holy Spirit to use us to change lives.
23:45
And you know, and it's not just on social media, it's not just real estate agents, but anyone everywhere.
23:50
I mean, I just preached on this last week, which I think you may have watched the sermon, but.
23:54
You know, I live in Gloucester, I preach in Gloucester Point, there's a lot of watermen there.
23:58
And you know, maybe a waterman wouldn't really feel like, what could God do with me to share the gospel, right?
24:06
Like how could he build his kingdom through me?
24:08
But he used fishermen, like he literally used your people to do just that, right?
24:16
Matthew is a tax collector and they were reviled, know, tax collectors were viewed as traitors to their own people.
24:24
And yet God used a task collector to meticulously detail not only the genealogy of Jesus, but also his sermon on the mount.
24:33
Someone who's used to paying attention.
24:35
So we're given these spiritual gifts, these natural abilities, and these opportunities through the Holy Spirit to build the kingdom.
24:44
So let's do it and let's not be afraid about it.
24:47
We're not with a spirit of fear.
24:51
That said, it may get tough like you were alluding to it earlier.
24:55
It may not work out in our favor.
24:57
We may end up in front of tribunals and Matthew chapter 10 actually speaks to that, that the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say when we're called to account in front of man and from kings and governors.
25:09
So there's a little bit of that.
25:12
And also I just say take heart.
25:14
The beginning of the book of Acts and also you see in Philippians, What we see is that when the gospel is challenged, when we face persecution, which I would say, being in America, we're super blessed that our form of persecution is that we're gonna be in front of the NAR tribunal, right?
25:32
Like, it could be so much worse, but whenever we experience those things, it means that the enemy is mad.
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And what you see in the Bible is that when people are challenged on the gospel, the end result is the gospel spreads.
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It just keeps going.
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It's almost like gasoline to the engine to make it run even better and faster than before.
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So take heart, like if you face challenges, if you feel like your business is being threatened, it's because you're probably doing the right things.
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I mean, don't be inflammatory, don't pick a fight.
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We're not saying to do that.
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But if you reflect love and that's the response you get back, then you're doing something right.
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It's really good.
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mean, again, I think it's the encouragement of if we're saying what's true and that gets us in trouble, praise God, right?
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If we're saying what doesn't matter at the end of the day, and that's what gets us in trouble, then be careful, right?
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Like just be smarter than that.
26:30
Yeah, go ahead.
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if, so here's the thing, as a Christian, and for me, I didn't grow up in a church, unfortunately.
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So for me, I'm kind of making up for lost time going to seminary and pursuing ministry.
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It's not just being a Christian for me anymore.
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It's being a disciple of Jesus.
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And what I find for me, at least personally, is I feel like I'm a member or a citizen of two kingdoms.
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One is heavenly.
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and one is this fleshly earthly kingdom that I'm currently in, right?
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And one is the one that I have to operate in and the other gives me that example of what I desire or I wish or know that one day will be.
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So if we're in two kingdoms right now, and sometimes we're called to take a side.
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So if you're stuck between these two kingdoms, sometimes we have to make a choice and say, at least for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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That's right.
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And again, I think the encouragement for me as I think back through just the growth of the faithful agent and hopeful that other people will come and do something similar or better, and I'll just join them honestly, but is to say that this is why we also need to be in relationship with one another.
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Because when or if these things come, like they have for these other people around the country so far, I would hope that us as the real, their local church needs to step up, right?
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And the church universal, but I would hope that us as a body of Christian agents would step up and say, we'll support you financially, right?
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We'll pray for you, of course, but we'll also financially support you to get you back on your feet.
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That we would step up and do those things.
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I think it's more important than ever that we are careful and intentional with who are our vendor partners, right?
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Are we supporting the work of the kingdom by partnering with a Christian mortgage lender who is excellent at what they do or a Christian property manager who's excellent at what they do?
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If they're there, if they're not there, then it's okay, right?
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If they're a Christian lender and they're terrible at what they do, then don't work with them, right?
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And encourage them to become excellent.
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I don't mean that, but I think it's really important for us to say, I'm going to be intentional with who I partner with.
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I'm going to be intentional about financial stewardship and putting money away when I can as I sell more homes, because should the day come where I've got to support a brother or sister who lost their livelihood because Gnar took it away because they posted about Jesus, then I'm going to step up and I'm going to help.
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It doesn't mean you're going to individually support them forever, right?
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That's not what I mean.
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But the point is this, I think we've got to be ready as a group and collection of Christian agents to support one another and not die away that if the fight comes to you.
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You're talking about a brother who had been on the show many times, Cody Persinger is the one who says serve God, people.
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Yep.
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Love that brother.
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And I've told him many times, man, because when he was going through that now, never got to the NAR ethics and praise God for that.
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But he was facing some put up some significant pushback.
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And I've told him many times when that happened, said, brother, if that happens, I'm going to come up there and I'm with you.
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And I know 10, 15 other agents were going to come and stand with you because you're not alone in this.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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And so let's be aware of those things.
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And I think recognizing and understanding my hope is as we talk about NAR 10.5.
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right and we recognize the circuit that's there it's been there is as there's more awareness to this that you christian agent would not necessarily sit there and tower in fear that you're gonna lose your livelihood right it's not exciting if it comes to me idle and and it's if it's coming to somebody i'm pretty out there to right and so i recognize if it's coming is probably coming to me as well i don't want to my family through it i don't want to go through that But to the glory of God, I also am not going to shy away from what is good and right and true.
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Because like you said, what is persecution in America?
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Stand before NAR, who cares, right?
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At the end of the day, we're not in China where I could get killed for preaching the gospel.
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And so praise God for his mercy, even in those small things.
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So as Christian agents, it's time to partner up, it's time to buck up.
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It's time to get ready and understand what is true and be ready in season and out of season to explain the hope that we have in us, right?
30:47
Anthony, give us your final thought buddy.
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You take us out.
30:50
Yeah, you know, actually, I think that mentality that we are all the same body and we should have each other's back, I think the church has kind of lost that sense that we tend to go to church and then just kind of put it at Sunday at noon or wherever it is, we just kind of push it aside and go about our day.
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And I think that's part of why the United States of America is the fifth largest mission field in the world right now.
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So by accepting the fact that we have each other's backs and the opportunities, I'm not even gonna say it's a challenge, but just to know that we have the fifth largest mission field in our own backyard to just go and preach the gospel and reflect love and light into these people's lives, to be in that relationship with our Lord and Savior and then share it with others is an immense privilege and that we all should just take heart that we have that opportunity here to do it while we still can.
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Let's do it, right?
31:52
And being in real estate, those doors open, right?
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So, you know, I was thinking about this today and I was thinking of Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom.
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When we get up every day, we should seek first the kingdom.
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Let's build the kingdom together.
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And like you were alluding to with that mindset, let's do it together.
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We don't have to be alone and separate.
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We're all part of the same body.
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So let's just Let's go.
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Yeah, that's right.
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No, I love it, man.
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And I think at the end of the day, brothers and sisters listening to the show, be encouraged, right?
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Be encouraged that we serve a God much bigger than any rule or law or regulation that can be put on us.
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The Lord is good.
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And this is but a blip in the length of eternity as we come together.
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So yeah, let us come together.
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Let's be encouraged.
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Let's pray for one another.
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Yeah, Anthony, please, buddy.
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Yeah, I'll just say this, you our jobs as real estate agents is to help people change their home address.
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I will just say that our job as Christians is to help people change their eternal destination.
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Amen to that.
33:00
Amen to that.
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Brothers and sisters, we love you.
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We thank you for listening.
33:03
We hope you have an amazing Christmas.
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And like I said, you spend time resting and resting in the Father, first of all, right?
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But resting in the fact that Jesus came to earth from heaven, from eternity.
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He's been here since the beginning and there is no beginning.
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And He came and He's coming back to save you, literally you who's listening.
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What a glorious, amazing truth that is.
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So we love you, and that pales in comparison to the fact that Jesus loves you.
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We love you, faithful agents, and we will see you next week.