A Really Embarassing Moment: Dave Yarnes - Part 1

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome back. It's time to man up. If you have ever struggled with obeying the voice of God, I mean the prompting of God, like immediately obeying, wait till you hear the story today.

You will never again, I don't think you'll ever again walk in delayed obedience after hearing this story today. Stay tuned. Man, what an interview I have lined up today. Dave Yarns, a Christian business leader who oversees multiple businesses, is a founding director of KBA, Kingdom Business Association, and KBA equips business leaders to impact their area of influence and work for positive change in their communities.

That sounds pretty good. Dave, welcome to the show. It is so good to be here. You're one of my favorite people in the world, and man, I'm just so blessed to be here. Thank you for having me.

Well, I appreciate you actually made the drive all the way up from Fort Mill, South Carolina, to the studio here, which is always an honor. It's just an honor. Our friendship goes back quite a number of years. Yes, very much so.

Yeah. We have built, I feel, a lasting friendship over these years. For our listeners out there, let's just jump right into it. I like to just hear in my background.

It made me feel better about life and about myself. Maybe I'll send you things that you can read, and if you can forward them to my wife as well, that'd be great. I can make that happen.

I can make that happen. But you've got an extensive... I actually said on the opening, you've got an extensive... I mean, when I read your bio, for real, I was like, wow, oh my goodness. In fact, let me just mention a couple things here. I'm looking at your bio here, 30 years, a serial entrepreneur.

We'll have to talk about that. I need to know what a serial entrepreneur is. For the last 30 years, like I said, starting and owning everything from hotels to restaurants to hedge funds to a nationally chartered bank, a performing arts center, a pharmaceutical company. I mean, man, your business acumen and proudness has a wide variety and range of successes. Well, thank you.

My edification level is skyrocketing now, but I'll tell you the common thread was more starting really from nothing. I grew up in Buffalo, New York. Blue collar town. Yeah, blue collar town. You know who else is from there? Who's that?

The total package, Lex Luger. That's right. He's a Buffalo boy. He's a Buffalonian. And we're famous for chicken wings and cold weather. He took me to the famous chicken place. The Anchor Bar. He did. Yeah, that's where it all started.

That's crazy. Yeah, so Buffalo is like this blue collar town, and everybody just kind of survives. But watching the Lord open opportunities, because when you look at the list of things like banks and hedge funds and pharmaceutical companies and a lot of stuff I did overseas, you say, well, is there some college course or how did you do it? It literally was opportunities opening up and having Jesus there to help with faith and to go through and learning as you go.

So other people have this kind of career path that stays in a very narrow tranche. But for me, it was just one thing opened up into another. And I would love to say that it was success after success, but setbacks and things. But that's the common theme, just kind of following the Lord's leading, so to speak. So on that note, so you dating way back then, I mean, you feel it was either the prompting of the Lord or the leading of the Lord that even out there in the business world that really did... I mean, was that something that you... I mean, were you very prayerful about that in those decisions to get involved?

How would you view that? I think for all of us, and back in the day, whatever that was, if you really wanted to serve the Lord, it was either missionary or pastor. We really, I would say, throughout the body of Christ, there wasn't this kind of like, you can serve the Lord as a politician, you can serve the Lord as a businessman, Hollywood, Main Street. There were a couple of books on the shelf that talked about marketplace ministry. But really, back in the day, there were people like me that wanted to give everything to God, but I didn't want to be a traditional pastor or a missionary.

I had other giftings. So I think what I do now is a result of facing that struggle and trying to help other people. Say, hey man, whatever you do, do it unto the Lord. You could be in Washington, Hollywood, Main Street, but use your gifting that God has given you to advance the kingdom. You know, it's an interesting insight, I think, on your part, because I believe I've had these discussions, even recently, about still kind of this mindset of separation between marketplace and ministry. And where, as you just said, oh, I'm called to the ministry. Well, okay, I'm gonna be an evangelist like myself or a pastor or a missionary or whatever. But you don't necessarily hear people say, oh, I'm called to the ministry and I'm gonna be an insurance agent. That sort of thing.

But they are kind of one and the same. It's all ministry, right? I think we call it the secular-sacred divide. Are there secular things really? Whatever you do, you do it unto the Lord, and his blessing is there. And we've seen people with tiny little shops that influence their city massively.

They pray, they see their, you know, countertop as their pulpit, and they know they're part of the community. And, you know, I could go on and on about it. But I want to say this, like, one funny story about obeying that taught me something early on. And on the way home, I was thinking about, it's so humiliating, but yet what a good thing. Empowering.

It's humiliating but empowering. Come on. So I just got married. We've been married 28 years, so going back. And my father, yeah, Gina, my wife Gina, 28 years. Great, great time.

So my father-in-law was kind of intimidating. It's like the first year of our marriage. We go to this Promise Keepers event. You remember those events?

Like 40,000 people in this giant stadium. And here I am with my father-in-law on one side and my brother, who really didn't know the Lord, on the other side. And this is, ladies and gentlemen, this is about being quick to obey. So the guy gets up and he starts talking about if you're having trouble with your marriage. And I just had this fight with Gina before I left.

I mean, I don't know what it was about, you know, the kind of fights that happened to all of us. But, oh man, was I convicted. But I'm not getting up to answer the altar call because my father-in-law is right next to me, right? So I dig my fingers into that chair, and I'm like, Lord, I don't mean to be disrespectful. I'm not moving. And the prompting to get this, because he's like, get it right, you know, come, you want to get your marriage. And finally, in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to just pop up like a jack in the box.

I don't care what it takes. I'm going to go down. I'm going to get this thing right. I didn't realize that his altar call for that was over. And when I popped up, he had just said, if you're a struggling homosexual, I want you to come forward now. Like a jackrabbit in front of my father and my brother. And you could tell by the look in their eyes, you know, like that thing where they looked away. And you know, people are struggling with that. I'm not trying to make light of that.

I'm just trying for my situation. It was, you know, it was this sense of like, son, I want you to obey quickly. You know what I mean? Because the cost of delayed obedience can be forever, you know, and listen, we didn't say anything to each other for the next few days. I think to this day, he kind of still looks at me sideways and, you know, the more I tried to explain it, it didn't work.

Well, and you mentioned something very, you know, delayed, delayed obedience is still disobedience, right? So, but, oh my gosh, I can't, I kept just trying to be, I could almost visualize the look on his face. And then, and then your old brother, you said.

Oh yeah. And you know, I'm walking through the, you know, you got to filter your way out. People are slapping me on the back.

You go get free, man. And then they fall. They kind of pushed me into a little area, you know what I'm saying? Oh my gosh, well. And I think it is, you know, I think, because I think what you feel sometimes in life, I don't know if it's for you, but like, I call them clarions, where like, everybody else hears exactly from the Lord, exactly what they're supposed to do for every area of their life, and they have this thing. Yeah.

The rest of us are what I call wanderers, you know, when you see it in the book of Acts, where Paul is like trying to find the will of Lord. Right. And as the Lord opens the door, he goes through. Right, right. Well, I think the moral of that story is, act, act immediate. Again, as you said, this is not necessarily, whatever you're struggling with, right, you can be struggling with all kinds of things, whether it's homosexuality, pornography, drugs, alcohol, I mean, it can be lots of, lots of struggles out there. But the important thing, when there's the prompting of the Lord, don't dig your nails in. Exactly.

Go ahead and respond and pursue freedom. Yeah, I think so, and man, we need to normalize this in the body of Christ, don't we? I mean, you know, because there is this shame and fear. Right. Like, I'm ashamed of something I thought or did, and I'm fearful that if I tell Nikita that he's not gonna like me anymore, he's gonna judge me.

Look down on you. Yeah. And I think, you know, going back to the business thing, the issues of the kingdom are as strong with a pastor or as a missionary as they are with the marketplace minister. Whether it's a politician or whether he's a shop owner, it's not like he gets a pass from the devil in some demilitarized zone and doesn't have to deal with temptation or greed or lust. I mean, those things are prevalent there, but we tend to say, well, you know, he's in a secular environment.

No, man, that's gotta be one of the biggest myths to break. If you feel you're receiving value from this show, it's time to man up and you'd like to support the show along with Koloff for Christ Ministries, go to koloff.org, koloff.org, and make a donation of any amount. A note, you want my latest book, and you'll receive a personalized copy of Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Well, and to your point, my pastor has always said, look, I get a captured audience, you know, 30 minutes, 40 minutes on a Sunday morning. Those of you guys like yourself out there in the marketplace, and for all those listening today, you know, you're out in the marketplace working. You're not necessarily a pastor or a missionary or an event. But he said, what an opportunity you have, what a mission field, and what an opportunity you have, those of you men and women and young men, young women, out in the marketplace, who are spending 40, 50, 60 hours sometimes with your co-workers and customers and people you're coming into contact with. And so I agree that somehow we've got to get away from this separation, I like what you said earlier, the secular and the sacred, right?

And merge those two together, right? Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, if you think about it, it says, when the righteous rule, the people rejoice. So whether it's government, we want righteous men and women, you know what I mean? They don't maybe go to the same church I go to, maybe they're Catholic or Baptist or charismatic, but they're acting righteously. And the righteous car dealer and the righteous insurance guy and the righteous nurse and the righteous movies coming out of Hollywood, when the righteous rule, the people rejoice. But if we're not telling people that that can be their area, their platform, and we're not preparing them the same way we do seminarians and stuff like that and saying, hey man, it seems to me you're called to the marketplace.

I wish somebody had, well, a couple people did, a couple people tried to help me because I wanted to serve the Lord and they needed to say, Dave, it seems like your skill set is set in the marketplace, go and do that. Yeah. Well, and let's talk a little bit more about that because as David mentioned, some of your, like I said, your acumen and your proudness in business, which is extensive. And I know I'd mentioned the Kingdom Builders Association, but there's a broader covering that you were mentioning before we came on air. Talk about that. Yeah. So just to give you some kind of a background, the Kingdom Business Association that I have the privilege of being the president of is a group of businessmen around the world of businessmen around the world, really largely entrepreneurs.

That's our thing. So there's not a lot of like artists or politicians, but we're really trying to encourage, form relationships, training, equipping around the sense of go and build the kingdom of God in your marketplace. But what I found out was there are other organizations like KBA around the country that are Catholics.

They meet together, a couple of Catholic brothers praying about their business. And then I found a number of really great patriotic guys and they put together with myself and some other people called the National Federation of Christian Business. It hadn't been done before.

Okay. Catholic to Baptist, Pentecostal to Presbyterian, people that are concerned about the rights of Christian small business in America and are pushing forward. Who would have thought? I mean, who would have thought back in the day that we would be struggling with laws and an anti-business environment like socialism, like we are now?

Who would have thought? And so there has to be a proactive group out there kind of challenging laws, educating people, uniting people. And I'm proud to kind of throw my kind of efforts in with the National Federation. And throw your hat in the range for this week and be a voice. Which I think, Dave, is really needed in today's marketplace, but in our world today is for Christ followers, for believers, not to be what I think I've come to learn the, quote, silent majority anymore, but to have a voice and utilize your platform, business or otherwise, and stand up for the Christian values that you say you believe in. Yeah, because if we don't, I mean, there's a very vocal minority, use whatever term you want.

For me, socialism is counterintuitive to the kingdom of God. So that voice is loud. And if we don't show up, like you were saying, we don't have a voice. I've got a bunch of friends that are Christian filmmakers, and they need to have a voice of reason for morality, for movies that make money that are entertaining, that are high quality, that you don't just kind of like shrug and, you know, oh, this is a Christian movie, so we're expecting it to be a B class.

They're making movies. And, you know, I've got a number of friends that are politicians on Capitol Hill that get together and pray. But taking ground, being vocal, now is not the time to be hidden.

Now is not the time to say, well, you know, I'm going to practice my faith in the closet. Right, and stick my head in the sand. But, well, let me ask you this about this organization, because I know with KVA, I know you do an annual conference down in Fort Mill. I know you do, I know your right-hand man Henty has weekly prayer calls, has a weekly coaching call that people can plug into. Right, and thank you for being a part of those coaching calls, by the way.

Yeah, it's been fun. Yeah, because, you know, I mean, we bring up topics that are really common to people, and, you know, I think a lot of the devil's strategy really is isolation. Nikita, you're the only one that has this problem. You're the only one that thinks this way.

You're the only one that is in this predicament. And then when you start to build relationship, whether through organizations like KVA, which has a very prophetic flavor, or more of a national organization like the National Federation of Christian Business, nfcb.us, where you're saying, you know, listen, it's important for me to... There's a realtor in Virginia that got her website shut down because she had John 3.16 on the website, so she was trying to be barred from doing certain types of business. I don't want to get into the legalities of it, but, you know, people that don't want to perform services for customers that they feel are antagonistic to their faith, or just the threat of undue government burden in their business, someone has to stand up and say, wait a minute, America is the only country in the world founded under the premise that God is sovereign over man, and man is sovereign over government. Not only do I have ability, I have responsibility, and we're the only country in the world. This is really cool. You can wake up tomorrow, and you can start a business, and you don't have to ask anybody for anything.

Nobody's permission. You could start selling Nikita Kolov action figures, which I tried to get, and I got outbid. I wanted to bring them with me today.

I got outbid on eBay. I just stepped away for a minute. I'm just glad you didn't say... I didn't say... ...Kolov doll. I didn't say doll purposely.

Girls play with dolls, just for the record. This thing is... Men have action figures. ...crazy cool.

It had like a little chain on it. I was going to bring that guy in, but I got outbid, but... You got outbid. We're going to find you one of those. They're out there. They're rare.

They're rare, but both the single and the dual, with Uncle Ivan and I, but they're out there. Let me ask you this. What do you see as one of the biggest challenges for business leaders today? You know, and this one is really just from the top of my head. I've come across a couple of large organizations recently, and they said this. We don't want to use the name Christian anymore, because it's inviting people that are against us.

Kind of angst against it. Yeah, yeah, and they're being attacked, so they want to do this thing kind of under the cover and under the radar. I have great respect for them, but that is not the gospel. Right. You can't put light under a bushel.

You have to be salt, and that is a mooring. I mean, the freedoms that you and I have to start a business and to use that business, and whether it's a crucifix if you're Catholic or, you know, rosary or, you know, whatever. You know, your ability to integrate your faith shouldn't be something that we're ashamed of, and something. This is what made America.

The belief that we're sovereign under God. I mean, this stuff resonates through the history of the founding fathers. In fact, the Reverend Billy Graham comes to mind. I've been watching a lot of his classical sermon, which are timeless, right? Timeless, powerful.

And Dave, his altar calls just blow me away every time. Like, hundreds, and in cases, thousands respond. But he said every single time, you might want to know why I'm calling you forward publicly. Jesus called everyone out publicly. Oh, wow. Yeah. And he said, Scripture says, if you deny me before man, I'll deny you before the Father.

Wow. And that was his mantra, if you will, for calling everyone to the altar to stand before God and stand before their fellow man and make this declaration, and I am giving my life to Jesus today. But he was every single time adamant about you coming forward publicly, making that declaration. You know, I've been writing a book about marketplace miracles, but I'm shifting it a little bit to talk about people that are light and salt in the community, and that changed their society. Simple little things, like a guy had a little scripture or something. I can't remember the exactitude of it, but someone came into his store, and that little scripture plaque opened up a conversation and changed the guy's life who was thinking about suicide that day.

He's never going to enter a church. I mean, it's just one small thing, but who knows what that life saved and turned around is going to do. And think of the ability.

First of all, just the size. Half of the gross domestic product is small business, and we believe 10 million of them are Christian-owned. We just need to unite, and we're one of the most powerful economic forces on planet Earth. What, let me ask you this, what advice or what encouragement might you give to people of faith, you know, people who are Christ followers, you know, whatever their background might be, but they're out in the marketplace, you know, as they hear us talking today, and maybe they're already encouraged, but would you have any advice or encouragement for them to, again, maybe they've been apprehensive to be salt and light, or how they could do that out there in the marketplace. I mean, you know, first of all, if you're listening to a show like this and you're following Nikita Koloff through his experiences with Man Camp and what he's doing around the world, stay in touch because it says, Be not deceived, bad company doth corrupt good morals. We can't be deceived that not staying in touch, like somehow, Nikita, I am strong enough that I can just not associate with other Christians and keep my faith. And then the second thing, I really believe in the power of relationship.

Find some, you know, men, find some ladies, find some other businesses. When you start confessing, you know, issues and talking about stuff, the power of God, it says, and there he commands his blessing life evermore when brethren dwell together. Well, in fact, you remind me of James, I believe 516, it says, you know, confess your sins one to another that you might be healed. Yes.

Just the opportunity, just the ability to be able to have somebody you can be transparent, honest, and open with. And what great advice for the marketplace. I want to get here before we run out of time because I already mentioned, again, I already mentioned some of your entrepreneurial background and being a serial entrepreneur. Yeah, serial with a, I think an S not a C right now, like Captain Crunch, but more. Correct. That's correct. Which kind of just covers a variety of businesses and investments.

But let me get here. You've also written books. Yes. And you've offered three books, The Prosperity Matrix in 2015, An Introduction to the Three Circle Strategy for Fulfilling Life in 2017, which I read and loved by the way, and Ignite Your Passion Chart, Your Course on Your Own Life 2018. Just give us a snapshot of, and are you planning on writing any more books, but just tell us about that.

Well, thanks. So kind of the essential thing to these three books are spirit, skill, and self-development. There's a mixture of three. If I want to operate on somebody and I pray over it, if I've never done an operation before, you're not going to let me do it.

You know, skill, spirit, self-development. Of the three, there's that little book in the middle, The Introduction. It's a great one to give to unbelievers. It's a great one to use in businesses because it's not overly layered with Christianese. It's just a basic book.

But it's designed to help people in the marketplace. Where can they find your books? Anywhere, Amazon, all the places like that. That little book was the number one seller on Amazon. You had to pick the category.

I chose Norwegian folklore, and I ruled that. Yeah, nice. Wisdom on your part. And last but not least, before we let you go today, with everything we've already talked about, I said, and in your spare time, I'm like, does this guy even have spare time? In your spare time, you're an executive coach, a consultant, and a keynote speaker. My gosh. Yeah, daveyarnes.com has all my info there and nfcb.us.

Okay, say that one more time. Dave Yarnes, d-a-v-e-y-a-r-n-e-s dot com, and nfcb.us. Those are a great way to get a hold of me.

Anybody can be a part of the NCE? Yeah, Christian businesses, any faith, we are calling you in left and right. Awesome. Well, listen, I'm going to have you back because there's so much more to talk to you about.

Oh, so much fun. My gosh, you're going to want to tune in to the next show that we do with Dave as well. Dave Yarnes, amazing man of God. I really hope you were blessed by some of our discussion today, and if you're out there, if you're in the marketplace, you're out in the workforce, I hope there's a nugget of truth you're able to take away today for you that spoke to your heart. And if you don't know Jesus, today would be a great day to surrender your life to Jesus, whether you're in the marketplace or you're in ministry. Thanks for tuning in to It's Time to Man Up. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands, and godly fathers that appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me. Remember this, it's time to man up.