Kyle Jackson is the Campus Pastor at Church of the Highlands in Columbus, GA. A former NCAA baseball player at Lipscomb University and Baseball Coach at Lee University, he turned to ministry and joined Church of the Highlands, based in Birmingham, AL. Tasked with opening a Highlands campus in Columbus, Georgia, Jackson and his staff opened in August 2019, and the church has grown exponentially and is making a significant impact on the lives of people in West Georgia and surrounds.
Pastor Jackson joins Mark Immelman on the #OntheMark podcast to talk about sports, leadership, overcoming obstables, excelling in life by finding and fulfilling your purpose.
Kyle and Mark unpack the Bible story of “David and Goliath” (1 Samuel 17) and highlight lessons to learn from the universally known story.
They address and elaborate on a number of skills required to overcome giants in your life and in your golf:
Vision for the Future Preparedness and Focussed Work The Mindset for Overcoming Obstacles “Failing” Forward The Importance of Self-belief and the Value of Speaking Life Uplifting Self-talk Dealing with “Haters” and “Naysayers,” and Finishing the Job
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ABOUT ON THE MARK: Mark’s knowledge, insight and experience have made him a sought-after mind on the PGA and European tours. Through his career, he has taught and/or consulted to various Major Champions, PGA Tour winners and global Tour professionals such as: Larry Mize, Loren Roberts, Louis Oosthuizen, Patton Kizzire, Trevor Immelman, Charl Schwartzel, Scott Brown, Andrew Georgiou and Rourke can der Spuy. His golf teaching experience and anecdotal storytelling broadcasting style makes him a popular host for golf outings.
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[Music] you know folks every so often I get lucky enough to have a mentor on this podcast and if you’re watching on YouTube there’s his smiling mug it’s my pastor his name is Kyle Jackson uh Kyle it’s so good to have you how are you I’m doing well Mark love you thank you for having me on well look as I had mentioned prior to this talked to you about this this uh podcast has been brewing for a long long time and eventually I was um what’s the word convicted enough on the flight home from Dallas the other day that I wanted to do it so I’m so glad that you would join me H now to tee this up people you can watch this on YouTube you’re obviously listening on audio just go and search Mark imman you’ll see Kyle there Kyle before we dive in tell us about you please yeah U well Mark mentioned that I get the opportunity in this season of his life to uh come alongside him in more of a spiritual mentorship as his Pastor in Columbus Georgia previous to that um grew up in Montgomery Alabama underneath a son of a coach and U my dad ended up in FCA fellowship with Christian athletes for a long time I got to play college baseball in Nashville coached college baseball for a while ended up in the business World down in Fort Meers Florida where my wife is from and then ultimately ended up on a church staff there for around 10 years before moving to Columbus Georgia and launching the church church now Church of the Highlands the campus of Columbus Georgia that Mark and his family attend and just thankful to to be in relationship with him and just love what uh God’s doing in our community well look um we’ve gleaned and gained a whole lot more from you joining us than I think vice versa hey I I want to just quickly before we dive into this cool lesson about David and gath um you’ve played sport at the highest level you’ve been a business person you’re Pastor now um you know people think of those things um in different buckets if you will but to me as I’ve been involved now and a little bit more certainly from the spiritual side of instruction and and mentoring and such the lines are tremendously blurred I’d love your to comment there please yeah I don’t um you know I’ve never I try to help people actually see that that um you don’t have to put things in different buckets as you said and separate your life I think that all of us uh have values and we all have filters in our life intentionally or unintentionally passed on to us or learn from other people that I think all of our life can be lived out of those values and Mark for you and I I mean that’s for us it’s uh you know those come from the Bible from others that that maybe are listening to the podcast that’s not where their values come through they come from great parents or grandparents that have been passed down generationally or mentors or coaches or uh professors but but we all have them and I think that you’re really at peace in your life when you don’t have to actually be different people in different rooms and different situations whether the business World whether in coaching a professional athlete a pastor a neighbor a son a friend uh when you can really just be who you are and uh see the world through the same filters regardless of what room you’re in or who you’re with or what situation you’re facing uh makes life a lot easier so I actually I try to help people see that you can actually live your lives out of the values that are in your life and if you don’t think you have them you do so even just clearly figuring out what those are and defining them just makes life easier from parenting marriage business leadership whatever bucket you want to put it in yeah amen and for the golfers listening to this too you’ve heard me at nauseum talk about the fact that you know Arnold Palmer said it back in the day that you got to swing your swing not some idea of the swing and and and I find that as I watch the golfers at the highest level week in and week out the guys who are doing well they have contentment with self I guess is what it’s called and in a strange sort of a way they almost okay with failing you you get to elaborate there yeah well I think uh I think it’s okay to always be I think we should all be growing I think we should all be looking at every area of our life and asking if I grew in this area this year or this quarter or if I grew one% today in this area of my life I think we should all want to grow but I think you can do that out of a sense of contentment that um you know most things in our life if we really slow down for those of us that are listening to the podcast I know Mark’s life my life most things in our life are pretty good we’re very grateful to live in an incredible country to have good families to have transportation and food and friends and for you Sport and um just so many things in life for good and when we can really surround oursel with the 95% of things that are good you can live your life content where you don’t wake up every day with anxiety or pressure or that leads to things like depression or other things you can live your life content with a growth mindset that says I’m still going to get better and everything that I put my hands to all right for those who watching on YouTube I’m wearing my goat hat you can see that’s from The Players Championship um King David uh in my opinion was one of the goats of this manual that I live by you can see their folks on YouTube this the swag that you have though Mark like I’m not sure that he had the same swag that you have and but I don’t know well look you can see it’s nicely tabbed this Bible of mine it’s the NIV tabbed while I had Co back in 2020 21 maybe anyway um folks the story that I’ve it hit me one day under Kyle’s teaching and he was teaching one thing and I found myself in 1 Samuel 17 rereading the story of David and Goliath and it’s one of those stories that I remember as a kid you see on the felt board with the caricatures and stuff and yes the she boy David who kills Goliath and and and the Philistines have to bow to the the the Hebrew Israeli nation and as I’ve read it more and more I’ve realized that this thing is loaded with s lessons in success lessons in life lessons in Attitude Le lessons in mindset lessons in priorities it’s just it’s crazy so I want you Kyle to just give us the the overarching theme for the folks don’t know the story and then we’ll dive in please yeah I love that Mark I think you know whether you’re listening to the podcast today and in the Bible is something that’s important to you or even if it’s not at all important to you I would encourage you I think it’s it’s still the greatest um I think it’s the greatest leadership book ever written so even if you don’t read it from the spiritual context the leadership gold that’s found in it is unbelievable and it’s the number one selling book of all time and still is today uh which proves that uh there’s so much there that is for our lives and that’s what I think I love about today mark is that you know the stories in the Bible sometimes for those of us that have heard them they just seem um like they’re they can’t even be real or that’s just too far-fetched or that was so long ago they probably didn’t have the details right and again whether or not you believe that or not if you really dig in and slow down there’s so much in them that’s not even just about the story it’s principles of life it’s things that you can apply today even though some of these things happened 2,000 plus years ago so you gave a pretty good overview there but the story is basically that the Philistines and the Israelites were at War and the king of the Israelites is the one that probably should go out and fight this Goliath this giant this the Philistines were known to be larger than life in general um and Goliath was the largest of the the largest he was he was the number one player on the PGA tour he’s the guy that you’re playing with on Sunday at the Masters that’s ranked number one woods and you yeah yeah you’re play You’re an amateur playing with Tiger Woods on Sunday uh and everybody knows who’s going to win this battle and even the king of of Israel who was considered a mighty warrior I think we forget that sometimes that he was he was Israel’s best as well wanted nothing to do with this challenge that was put in front of him and then all of a sudden comes this young Shepherd boy named David whose brothers were actually in the Army he was too young to be in the Army so he was bringing food to them heard and saw what was going on and then I think we’ll pull the lessons though from the next part of the story which is he took on the challenge uh and went and defeated Goliath and ultimately Israel uh took the land and and won that battle so it’s just an incredible story honestly when you think about it 2,000 years ago uh coaches still use it to inspire their teams pastors use it to encourage people in their churches parents use it to challenge their kids just such a powerful story that we can pull from today I could imagine like an Indiana Jones type type remake of the story is that cool okay um the first thing I want to hit is as a young man when I’m moved over to the states um I was a fairly accomplished golfer back in the day and and a good teacher and then I moved over here to take a college coaching job and for some 10 years I gave lessons in the Georgia summer on the ranged Bull Creek and the Georgia summer is oppressive and um I remember working six days a week from morning till night giving lessons and that was a blessing in itself but I remember growing to almost despise it because we’re just so difficult and so hard on me but looking back now I sort of view this as a Wilderness time and a time that’s uniquely equipped me for what I’m doing now in a crazy sort of a way um and in a in a certain sort of a way I guess I was a servant so so kicking this off here um in verses we’re in 1 Samuel 17 um David is basically sent off by his dad to take food to his brothers who were fighting the war so here King David who’s about to be the hero of the story who is just a servant boy whilst he’s a Shepherd so I’d love you to to comment that too because there’s something to that where you’re like okay I might be the star on the team or I might be the club champion or whatever but you know you you have to take upon this role upon yourself too to maybe keep things in perspective a bit better you with me yeah absolutely well I think you know speaking to the younger uh listeners on the podcast today because I do I think it translates from you know before you’ve made it whatever made it is and then even once you’ve made it I think there’s uh connections to this part of the story which is I think David was sent like you said to bring his his brother’s food he was just asked to go do something serve be behind the scenes wasn’t good enough yet to be in the show wasn’t good enough yet to be on tour playing in the the tour beneath the big guys doing the the younger brother things and I think what’s so powerful about the story is and we’ll see this in a little while and probably some more leadership to it is that David spent a lot of times when nobody was watching using the gifts and talents that he had without any Applause and I think that he’s standing in a field by himself you know throwing rocks with this slingshot which if you really research and see you know I think we see we think little slingshot as a kid and he threw it and hit a giant which is what makes it unrealistic to us but when you when you research and see the type of slings that these guys had the amount of practice he had standing in fields by himself at dark with no one watching is what allowed him to be successful in the moment when the challenge came and I think I think whether you’re a young leader or whether you’re somebody who’s made it um I think the phrase that I always was told Mark and that my dad always threw at me was that how you sweat in preparation determines if you bleed in battle I think that whether you’re young listening to this or you’re someone who’s very successful and has made it you’re still in a season of preparation we’re always in a season of preparation for something that’s coming ahead of us that we can’t see and I think that’s what David did so well in this moment he didn’t just show show up with food and decide to throw a little slingshot in a rock at a giant he had prepared for years when nobody was watching using the talents that he had when nobody was watching prepared him for the moment when the challenge was in front of him I want to go there too because I’m just looking at the verse here and I wanted to try and share video of the slingshot I’m going to get that right here hopefully in a second um where it says yeah Jesse this is David’s father says to him take this basket of grain and 10 Loaves and carry them quickly to your brothers also give the 10 cuts of to their Captain see how your brothers are getting along and bring me a report back on what they’re doing now I’m a brother to a star okay for for I think there’s something in this for future stars and golfers too where you know you might not be the star in the family just yet but you’ve got to embrace this role this place where you are and and not get ahead of yourself too much absolutely no absolutely I think I think sometimes we try to get ahead of of where we’re at too fast and we’re not ready for it I think there’s a there’s a quote that says sometimes we we want to be further along than our character can actually sustain us um and I think you know again for me my values come from the Bible I think that anything that God has in preparation for me or in the future for me I think that if I’m not there yet I correlate it to you must be doing something to develop my character so that when I get to that place whatever that thing is won’t outweigh the character that I have that he developed in a season again like David when nobody was watching now I’m jumping ahead you can see my screen correct you like it as soon as I said video of somebody throwing a you gotta I remember when you sent this to me Mark you texted it to me when you wanted to do this podcast a year ago and even as a pastor I had never seen this I think probably even in my head I’ve always wondered like how I wonder how the slingshot thing worked with a giant and a rock and a teenage kid and then you sent this and I was like oh now now as Kyle and I normally do when we get to talking we get ahead of ourselves so I was going to show this later but he teased it and if you were watching I try to get it up and then I press the wrong button cuzz I’m not technically Savvy that way but I’ve but I’ve got it and for the audio listeners go check this out on YouTube this video is freaking insane it’s an Israeli guy and the slingshot to Kyle’s point is not the little thing that you have at home it’s a good 2 three feet long and I’m going to play the video you can hear some conversation in the background the target is looks like I don’t know like a sheet you would agree with me or blank big sheet of metal probably 80 yards away 70 yard out easily and it’s probably what 10et across maybe five six Fe by 10 by 15 or something and people he doesn’t just swing this thing around the top of his head like a lassu the movement as I’m about to play here is a full sort of a movement up and down side to side and he spins around like a like almost a hammer thrower in the Olympics I’m going to play the video real fast so nice slinging it around now absolutely Nails the sheet in the distance it’s available on Tik Tok uh just search Sovereign Kingdom I remember when you sent that to me I was sitting in an airport and I was watching it and when he slung it I was like oh everybody looked at me and I’m like just watching David you know throw his slingshot so yeah okay well look it’s incredible and now we talk of preparation well well yeah I’m going to go here and then we’ll go back to his Direction with King Saul and stuff so he go for Preparation and when he goes and he meets his brothers and then his brothers are like what are you doing here you should be back with the Sheep you just want the glory you want to say you were here and that sort of got me to thinking about haters more about that in a in a minute but then when he talks to Saul he goes I got this give me a go because I’ve spent time out in the fields I’ve I’ve wrestled with lions and bears and King them killed them with my slingshot that skill there doesn’t happen overnight no I mean that is preparation breeds confidence um you know anything in life that any challenge you’re going to face you know your preparation is always exposed uh when you’re in that moment and I think that David was able to show up in that moment and because he knew he had prepared so well in the season before that he had confidence to do something that everybody else you know one of the cool pieces of the story and we’ll get to that interaction is that you know all the all the guys that were high up that should have fought Goliath who had technically made it I think probably and the story doesn’t say this but I think it correlates back to golf Mark is that you know they made it so they probably got complacent in their practice they got complacent in their trade they got complacent in their preparation and then all of a sudden they look up one day and there’s a giant obstacle in front of them and they lost their confidence so they wouldn’t go out and fight this fight they wouldn’t go out and fight this giant in their life because they got comfortable and I think for the guys listening to the podcast I think that’s what you see right now that’s brilliant about Scotty and some of these guys in with tiger back in the day their success didn’t make them comfortable their success almost made them uncomfortable knowing that now they’re at the top they prepared even more to stay on top and I think that’s what David was doing he was preparing in a way that when the obstacle was there he had confidence to face the Giant and I think you have to be careful whether you’re young in behind the scenes or seasoned and on top of your game your preparation still matters I want to talk about Goliath the Philistine from gath he came out of the Philistine ranks he was over 9 feet tall I’m reading this out of Samuel wore a bronze helmet That’s Heavy um a bronze coat of male that weighed 125 pounds so think about walking around with 125b on you he also wore bronze leg armor and carried a bronze Javelin over his shoulder the shaft of the spear was as heavy and thick as a Weaver’s beam which is a big thing it was tipped with an iron spear head that weighed 15 pounds so so just think of the strength of this human being and then on top of this and this is what I want to talk about for what was it 40 days he walked back and forth on the battle lines there taunting Israel the entire time so basically getting in their heads right I want you to help people there because we all have these Giants and look Goliath was imposing now your giant might be I can’t do this or I’m not I’m physically infirmed or out whatever it might be but then you have this giant in your face taunting you yeah well I think the giant of the day in our world today and and Mark obviously you’re way more into the golf game than I’ve ever been but I think anybody that’s ever played golf and I think you would agree that the giant of golf is the negative talk in your own head mhm I think sometimes we think the obstacle is going to be something that somebody else puts in front of us or it’s going to be the haters but really the the giant that we face in today’s world it’s what’s right here between you know between the ears the negative talk that’s in your head um and I think again what David did when he showed up and and Saul and him had this conversation one of the phrases he uses in first Samuel right there is he says you know I’ll go and face this Philistine because the same God that delivered me from the Lions and the bears in the in the field with the Sheep it will be the same one that delivers me from this giant so he just had this confidence that he had something of a higher power in his life he wasn’t doing it alone and in a game of golf you know it can feel like you’re on your own it’s you against the world it’s you and your head and your mind and your negative talk but that’s what I love about the golf game is i’ I’ve learned it more and more from you Mark but there’s a swing coach and there’s a you know there’s a caddy and there’s an inner circle of you and and your friends and that you know anything in life that you’re trying to do on your own the giant of selft talk is going to win but anything you do in life and you put people around it to do it with you um there’s a confidence that comes with it I think that’s what David had David knew that he had someone with him in this battle more than just himself which gave him confidence because of the preparation he had to go face this giant in his life well I talked about the haters earlier and and you have the Nay series as well because it goes here in verse 20 he would walk up and down the battlefields and David shows up and then all the Israeli Army run in the opposite direction screaming have you seen the Giants and and I this to me speaks of so many people that are watching or listening to this going you know I want to play golf in college and someone said to me I’m not good enough or I I believe down in my soul that this is possible but you know I had a bad outing last week where there’s always this 247 feedback loop that’s going on where people are going hey have you seen the giant that you’re trying to take down right yeah yeah I think that I mean I think we all deal with that I think you deal with it I think uh I deal with it I think we all wonder sometimes why we’re in the place the seat or have the opportunity that we have um and I do I think it’s the giant of the day I think because of social media I think because of comparison uh we’re always wondering if we’re good enough um and I would even submit to those that would call themselves Christians listening to the podcast today that you know I’m I’m not sure that I’m not sure anything we’re doing in life that we are good enough at is is maybe what God’s asking us to do because anything that we would take on that’s a god challenge in our life that has a giant in front of us that looks bigger than our capabilities proves that we need God in order to win that battle to defeat that giant in our life so I think that in some ways we’re all out of place any anybody that’s growing in life anybody that’s a professional golfer or pursuing the game of golf or growing a business or whatever it is that you’re doing that you listen you’re if you’re growing you’re always going to have things in front of you that seem like they’re that you can’t accomplish them on your own and I think as a Christian you know for those that are listening to the podcast that are or that have the Bible as values in their life I think it’s okay to actually be there because the Bible’s clear that it says that in my weaknesses he is strong yeah so I actually get excited when there’s something in front of me that I feel like I’m incapable of accomplishing on myself because I know if I’ll lean into God then I’m going to see something that I couldn’t have ever done on my own well that’s such a mindset shift and I spoke to that because I want to read you this um when David now and you touched on it ear earlier David goes and speaks to King Saul and he goes and I’m reading from the New Living Translation he goes don’t worry about this Philistine I’ll go fight him and then the reply from King Saul was don’t be ridiculous there’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win you’re only a boy and he’s been a man of war since his youth now yeah he has a mindset thing because we all have our people we hold in higher regard and I can only imagine me going to I don’t know maybe my dad or whoever it might be Kyle Jackson Chris hoders whoever it might be and go I’m going to go do this and they’re like are you kidding have you seen who you are have you seen what you want to go and try and do for the any golfer listening to this going dad I want to be the best golfer in the world and then Dad goes are you son are you nuts I mean it’s how’s this for the mindset shift from a young boy after the king they said to no way you can possibly win yeah I mean it’s that’s I think the power of the story and I think that’s really what God wanted us to get from the story not as much that he defeated a giant that but all things are capable um when we prepare all things are capable when we lean into um in my case God a a higher power that can do greater things than I could ever do on my own I think that the power of the story is that that’s the world we live in today it’s always going to be putting you down it’s always going to be telling you what you can’t do instead of what you can do um and it’s always going to be telling people people are because people have things in front of them that they are nervous or fearful of trying to succeed in or accomplish or a giant they have to face in our world today it almost feels better to tear somebody else down so that it makes us feel better about oursel that we’re not facing our giant so they will tell you that you can’t face yours and um again and I think that’s what comes with having great people around you that believe in you people that always call you higher in our case a relationship with God that we believe is going to come alongside us and things that we can’t accomplish um and again I think all things are possible I think you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength you were the one who very wisely advised me one time to always speak life into every situation and you touched on selft talk and it’s amazing isn’t it how we will happily Speak Life into our friend MH but when it comes to our elves you know if we do it it’s kind of platitudes it’s not like if you read the account of David convincing Saul now that I am the guy for the job right it’s like he was speaking from the depths of his being he’s like I’ve got this because of who’s behind me yeah well I also think that David and we’ll keep going in the story right here Mark but I think David had a great understanding of who he was yeah um because the next part of the story there is he tells Saul that he’s going to do it Saul says okay let’s do it and then you mentioned this earlier about you know trying to be somebody that you’re not you know Saul tries to put all of his armor on David because Goliath has this hundreds of pounds of armor on him and he’s a giant so the next part of the story in first Samuel talks about Saul trying to put all his armor on David David puts it all on and it’s way too big for him way too heavy for him David’s not trying to go fight the giant like Saul would have fought the giant David wasn’t going to go try to fight Goliath with sword and and Spear and shield David was going to go with a slingshot and David just had a David had a confidence in who he was and David had a confidence technically in his swing in his approach and the way that he plays the game and he didn’t try to take on somebody else’s opinion of him he didn’t try to take on somebody else’s way of doing things I think he listened because I think leaders and we all listen we all learn we all want to get better we want to be teachable but I think David had a a good understanding of who he was and who he was created to be which gave again gave him confidence in that moment to not go try to fight the the giant like Saul would have fought the giant or go fight the giant like his brothers would have fought the giant he said no I have prepared in a dark place where nobody was watching with a sling in rocks I’m gonna face the giant with my swing not your swing yeah I love that you preaching Reverend I can say that to you um I I want to talk about that dark place a little bit too but in there in verse um pardon me 40 it says he picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put it in his Shepherd’s bag and I I I thought about that verse for a while and I’m like I can imagine him in the Stream looking for the perfect Pebble Stone for the job he only needed one in the end but he had backup and he picked them all well it wasn’t willy-nilly didn’t just go there and just surge onto the field of battle because he felt confident himself and who was behind him but he still took the time to you know select the proper lient so I’d love you to talk about that and then also I can only imagine all the time spent there in the fields with sheep day and night how there must have been a lot of time for introspection and often times all of us you know when we got the big event in front of us we lie awake at night worried about what might happen where he was galvanizing his belief in well I think I mean when you talk about the five Stones there such a great great reflection I’ve never you know I can’t even honestly say that I’ve ever written anything or processed that too much but what I hear you saying there is that you know he almost he he was okay with and prepared in that moment for failure yeah true that he might throw one and miss and he was going to need you know another rock in the bag like we’re going to take a shot and we’re gonna miss but can I go and take the next shot you know just because I just because I I missed from 150 yards out doesn’t mean that I can’t sink the putt like so the mental part of David’s game right there was knowing I’m going to fail when I take when you anytime you face on a face a giant or a challenge in your life there you will face failure but the question is is have you prepared have you put enough things in your bag have do you have enough Tools in your tool box to when I fail I’m G to keep moving forward because a lot of times what happen is people you know they make a mistake and then they revert back because they didn’t actually they didn’t bring enough to the the battle they didn’t bring enough to the game they didn’t bring enough to the challenge to keep moving for forward when we fail we should fail forward not fail and have to go backwards and start over again and David selecting five Stones showed me that again he he understood that as I face this giant there’s a chance I might fail but if I fail I’m G to fail forward and I love that I’ve never really paid much attention to that part of the story Mark to be honest with you so sounds sounds like another sermon that’s coming at Church of the Highlands hey yeah then I think dark part of P of self you know reflection is you’re right I mean there’s nothing like I can’t even imagine being a professional golfer and walking into Saturday or Sunday knowing I’ve got a chance to compete on the weekend and just laying in bed um I can’t imagine doing what you do Mark which is you know preparing the way you do and and and announcing Amen Corner on a Sunday uh with just hundreds of thousands of people watching I mean the pressure of that will keep you up at night and again I think it just goes back to everything we’ve already talked about I think what puts you to bed at night is having a good self- understanding of who you are that you’ve prepared you’ve sweated in preparation so that you don’t bleed in battle the next day and knowing that your identity is not in uh how everybody else the haters as you called them my identity is not found in what they believe about me because I know what I believe about me and I know the small circle that’s around me what they believe about me I can put my head down at night uh knowing that I I’m going to do the best I can and the people that love me the most are going to love me regardless of how I do okay so now we’ve made it through the night folks and now we’re walking onto the first te for the big day right and say Here’s David he walks out this is verse 41 he walks out towards Goliath walks towards David with his shield Bearer in front of him and he snears in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy and says am I a dog shouts come at me with a stick and then he curses David uh by the names of the Gods then he goes come over here and I’ll give your flesh to the wild birds and the Animals David replies you come at me with sword and spirit I come with you in the name of God Almighty and then goath continues to sort of snare insults and hurl insults at him yeah Goliath’s that guy on Twitter that just won’t get out of the reply thread I mean it’s just get out of the reply thread at Goliath nine feet whatever your your your name is like that’s what he’s doing I mean he’s taunting he’s taunting David just like you get taunted in your profession just like I get taunted in mine just like professional athletes get taunted I mean how you respond to that which is what’s beautiful about what David did right there David actually didn’t give him an answer back to what he was saying he he he really gave him vision for where he was going yeah he kind of said you know you can you can come at me I’m not gonna come at you I’m just gonna keep moving forward I love that about David’s response there because we could all probably do a little better than that in our social media game yeah well well he says you come to me with sword Spear and Javelin but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s armies and he goes today the Lord will conquer you and I will cut off your head and I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and animals etc etc do you speak about prophesying something into being I can imagine golf is yeah it’s the big day it’s the Club Championship or whatever it might be NCA if you’re a Collegian and you get on the tea and there and you you like oh my goodness I can’t do this but yes David going I’m gonna tell you I’m telling you right now what’s gonna happen and I don’t care how big you are right now this is it let’s go selft talk yeah I think it’s back to what we were talking about a minute ago self talk matters a ton M um everybody else can tell you you’re awesome but if you’re not telling yourself that on tbox one on a big day you know you have to believe it more than everybody else believing it my little my little guy is playing coach pitch right now baseball and he’s only he just turned six he’s playing eight and under that’s the one thing we’re working on the most when he when he gets on and he’s amazing he’s so locked in and so in like concentration mode but I tell him before every bat I said buddy when you’re standing in line I want you to visualize getting three hits on Deck before you ever step in the Batters box like I want you as you take your swings in a little on Deck Circle I want want you to picture hitting a ball hard somewhere and getting on first base and ever since we started that about four or five g games in Mark it’s been unbelievable to watch his confidence in the Batters box compared to the first five games when I didn’t really have that revelation of telling him that because he’s actually seeing himself succeed and believing he’s going to succeed before he ever does it so there’s a lot of power in prophesying that you’re going to do something well and telling yourself what you’re going to do before you do it doesn’t mean it’s always going to work out that way but I do believe studies even show that positive selft talk always uh statistically proves that that things go up and and success happens more when you believe you’re going to do something before you do it then convincing yourself that you’re not two more points and I’ll let you go I know you’re busy um yeah we go and so now the altercation is about to happen and um it says yeah goath yells and then it says as goath moves close to attack David quickly runs out to meet him okay I’m picturing the scene 9 feet tall little guy five Pebbles and I can only imagine me I’d be like oh my goodness I’m going to turn tail like everyone’s done before me I I I’m thinking of the golfer in the first tea going okay I’m going to talk positive I can do this I can do this I can do this oh no and then you make some flimsy like lacking everything think golf swing off the first end it kind of dribbles away with authority whatsoever yeah I love this he runs to the challenge yeah I’d love you to elaborate oh man I think uh again I think easier said than done again I think that’s what the story’s trying to do is pull something out of us that we naturally wouldn’t do yeah I think that’s what the Bible’s always trying to do Mark is to pull something out of us that we might not naturally want to do it’s full of so many principles and ideas and stories of success I think what David’s doing right there and I think the reason David could run towards it and hopefully this will encourage someone today or challenge them is that I think David ran towards that battle and ran towards that challenge because he looked back on how many battles and challenges the Lord had won for him in the past so it’s not hard to run towards the next one when I know that I’ve been victorious in the past yeah I think for most professional golfers you don’t get there unless you’ve won a lot of tournaments whether it been in middle school high school college you know some type of Tour golf like you’ve been there before and I think there’s a confidence to remembering you’ve been there before uh and if I’ve been in this there’s going to be very few challenges in the game of golf over the years where you haven’t been there before obviously when you get to the highest level and you’re at a major and you’re in the final grouping of the day maybe you’ve never been there before but if you’re playing any type of competitive highle golf you’ve probably been in that situation more than once and remembering back to the times where you were successful gives you the confidence to face the one in the moment so I think that’s what David’s doing right there I think David has been so successful in the tour below the PGA Tour throwing rocks at lions and tigers and bears to protect his sheep and he had saw how God had prepared him in those moments that now when the big moment comes he runs at that too because he remembers all the small victories from the season before so good all right the Finish to the story does the fancy sling move Nails Goliath in the farhead knocks him over this is where guilty of speed reading the Bible and I missed right and so then I read on and it talks about in verse 49 reaching into his Shepherd’s bag he takes out a stone hurls it with a sling hits the Philistine in the forehead then he goes the stone sank in and Goliath stumbled and fell face down onto the ground verse 50 the celebration so David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone for he had no sword then David ran over pulled Goliath sword from its sheath and he used it to cut off his head and I’m going all right this is what he said but this is also just finishing the job because I always read the thing to say just knocked him over killed him with a stone it wasn’t the case now I’m thinking about this too that how many of us we’ve almost done the job but we don’t finish the job because RAR if I honestly think about this chopping off some dude’s head is Grizzly Man have you got anything for me over here mean all I can think of in the golf world is I guess he probably picked it up and held it over his head just like a golfer would if they won something it was that moment when they put a jacket on him and he held his trophy up and and moved on but no I think you said it I think he went and finished the job I think we all assume that because he hit him with the rock and he fell face forward that that’s when he died it could have been I don’t think we know that detail but I do think he went over and took the sword and and finished the job and um I think I think the challenge there is um it’s great to start something but will you finish it yeah and I think David in that moment could have hit him with the with the rock and turned and ran and told his brothers look what I’ve done he could have ran to Saul and said I told you so he could have celebrated prematurely uh but David just I mean it’s it’s it’s the golfer Mark when you watch it you watch on TV in a major that’s you know come down to the the last putt on 18 and it’s only a foot away and it’s to win a major and it’s it’s they don’t just walk up and aimlessly just like putt it in they they approach that putt like they would on whole six on Friday when they’re trying to you on Thursday when they’re trying to make the cut like they walk up they read it they position themselves they get their hands right they go through their sequence they put a putt in they finish the job and I think that’s what all the great ones in golf have always done they don’t just start something they don’t just do a good job in the middle they always finish um and I think it’s just a good principle in life it’s easy to start something it’s not easy to finish something yeah I think real leaders and people that are succeeding at the highest levels aren’t just starters and aren’t just professionals they’re finishers um and I think that’s what you see in David right there is he just he finished what he started so he conquers Goliath becomes the hero eventually becomes king um is named a man after God’s Own Hearts but he had his own foibles I mean he wasn’t the perfect being by any stretch of the imagination but as I say in my opinion one of the goats of the faith so I I’ll let you close the conversation over there he is one of the goats of the faith and I think one of the unique parts of the whole story of David and Goliath and something that we don’t talk enough about probably is you know what happened to Saul like where’s Saul in this story like Saul was the greatest but then Saul finds himself hiding in a tent and sends some boy to do the job that he was supposed to do yes this this is another podcast yes well and I just think maybe the challenge for all of us listening because I would imagine that you know most of the listeners are listening because of golf but I think what you do such a great job of Mark is you you take a game and you bring people on but you pull life lessons and you make us better men you make make us better dads you make us better husbands you make us better leaders um and and I love how you always pull that in you know we’re most people are listening for golf but we leave with more than golf um and I think you know the challenge and that that little part right there for all of us listening outside of golf is that you know as dads as men as husbands you know Saul wouldn’t deal with his fear uh in that moment so he passed it on to the next generation and and then we don’t hear much about Saul post that and some of it I think is Saul got comfortable you know he was up in the tent with his feet kicked up let me let somebody else go do the job I’m supposed to do but that complacency took him out of the game and I would just challenge all husbands dads golfers professionals whatever it is that we’re that we’re listening don’t let us get to the top of our game and get comfortable because we don’t want to lose everything that we work so hard to build that when we get to the top we have to work just as hard or harder to stay there as a husband as a dad as a business leader as a golfer and I just think that that’s a part of the story we don’t talk a lot about because the rest of the the rest of the story moving forward is a lot about David and you do see David fail a lot and I think what I love about David more than anything is he was open about his failure he learned from his failures he grew from his failures and then he shared his failures with other people and I think that’s what life’s all about man and I think that’s what golf’s about I think that’s what you’re about Mark you do lessons and you coach and you podcast but you you take life experiences uh you share them with us you share them with the people you do lessons with you share them with people on your team as you announce and do other things and people are better because of your failures um and you just continue to fail forward and just I’m excited to see all that God’s going to continue to do with you and what he’s asked you to do um just proud of you thankful to be your friend likewise um for the folks who now want to find more from Kyle Jackson who’s the Superstar and fast becoming a mega star um where do they find you uh website how do they find you don’t need to find me anywhere I mean I’m on Instagram but I’m a part of a amazing Church uh called Church of the Highlands that’s got 26 locations 24 of them are in Alabama a couple in Georgia Pastor Chris Hodes is the founding and Lead pastor of our church and golf lever PC is a big golf lever and and our lead Pastor is an amazing golf lever and actually a really good golfer but I mean my we have great online services if anybody’s on the podcast and you travel you play golf on the weekend you’re looking for something to bring encouragement something to challenge you a community to be a part of maybe uh you don’t need to follow me I would say you know follow our church Church of the Highlands it’s on Instagram Church of the highlands.com uh we have great uh online content for you weekly uh that I think you would enjoy watching I know Mark you and your family have to do that quite a bit you watch from a distance because of your travel schedule and stuff so others of you probably have churches others of you might not be interested but if you ever are I think it could add value to your life last Sunday before the final round broadcast I shouldn’t date this it’s a podcast um I watched the uh the sermon on spiritual gifts I watched that then went to work it was a a great way to start my day Kyle thank you very much um I appreciate you joining me on this and I look forward to doing more thanks for having me Mark
1 Comment
Mark, enjoyed this episode! Thank you for sharing your faith and our God Life lessons through the Lord and his word is an awesome testimony. We need more of this in our world! And, yes, golf also. Thank you again.