Dave Barnes: It’s been one of the greatest gifts God’s given me in my forties, just kind of pulling me more toward prayer. He just really engages people’s heart level honesty.

Engaging With God on a Heart Level: Dave Barnes & Justin Gambino – Episode #455

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we welcome Nashville singer/songwriter Dave Barnes. Growing up in a small Mississippi town before moving to Music City, Dave discovered his love for music through a series of seemingly small but pivotal moments. His breakout hit, “God Gave Me You,” became a life-changing milestone, coming to life after Dave had prayed a simple prayer for encouragement, and ultimately catching the attention of country superstar Blake Shelton, who went on to record it as well. 

Later in the episode, we’ll hear from Justin Gambino, a singer/songwriter from Houston, Texas. Justin’s story takes him from a troubled youth where he had a brush with the law to finding his place in this world through music and serving his country. 

Let’s begin with Dave’s story.

Dave Barnes: My name is Dave Barnes. I am a husband and a dad. Vocationally, I am a singer, songwriter, podcaster, dreamer, friend, son, and brother. So a little bit of everything, you know?  

God’s Big Plans From Small Town Beginnings

If you had set me down at fourteen and said, “You’re going to be a singer when you grow up. Professionally, that’s what you do.” I’d have been like, “I think you’ve got the wrong guy. There’s another Dave Barnes or Dan Burns that you’ve mistakenly, alphabetically gotten wrong.” 

I grew up a PK, a pastor’s kid. I was born in Columbia, South Carolina. We moved to Mississippi when I was six years old. I lived in a small town from six to sixteen, then we moved to Knoxville when I was in high school. I spent my last couple years of high school there, which is kind of when I got into music.

Music really mattered to me which felt really different from a lot of my friends. I started playing in a band there, playing drums, and enjoyed it. I could tell I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I was studying drums and playing drums in bands around Murfreesboro where I [went to] school at Middle Tennessee State University, about twenty miles from Nashville. My freshman year, my roommate had a guitar and he was kind enough to let me play, and I would just play for hours and hours. For whatever reason, it was very intuitive to me to use the guitar as a vehicle to write songs.

The minute I started to do it, I was just completely enamored. I was like, Man, this is kind of fun. It obviously was such a different thing, because when you’re writing songs for yourself, it’s just a very different thing than like just writing songs for whoever. God in His kindness kind of kept opening these doors that I kept walking through, because there was no pedigree in what I’m doing now in my family, there was none. My parents love music but there wasn’t any sense of like, Oh, well, your uncle plays guitar or, One of our cousins lives in Nashville and plays music. It was just like, I just think this is what I’ve got to do. A lot of my faith has come from these moments in my life of just seeing God accomplish these crazy things sort of in spite of me.

“A lot of my faith has come from these moments in my life of just seeing God accomplish these crazy things sort of in spite of me.” – Dave Barnes

The Story of “God Gave Me You”

Looking back on my song “God Gave Me You,” that was a life-changing moment. I love telling the story because it’s about God, not me. I’d been playing music for about fifteen years. I was really struggling with my career and just feeling like, Does it matter, why am I doing this, what’s the point? 

I was teaching in a Sunday school class at our church and I was doing this study on what I would call the studs of the Bible, notable people in the Bible, [about] how they prayed, and it was crazy to discover how informal so much prayer is in the Bible. I would argue most of the prayer in the Bible is informal, as opposed to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5-7] prayer or these kind of more formal moments—most of it is just people talking to God and it really rocked me. This carries on with Jesus in the New Testament. He wants honesty. God loves honesty, I think because it does away with formalities. It shows intimacy. He already knows it. I remember that season praying for encouragement, and it’s funny because I remember God was like, “Just pray for encouragement, it doesn’t need to be super detailed.”

“God loves honesty, I think because it does away with formalities. It shows intimacy.” – Dave Barnes

So it kind of started with me writing that song. I played it for my producer at the time—a guy named Ed Cash who’s in We The Kingdom. He’s produced everybody and their mother in the Christian music world. I was done with my record, and we were just about to go to mix, and I wrote that song. And so the record was done, but I was like, I’m just going to send it to Ed and see if it’s something he likes. He texted me that night and was like, “I called the guys. They’ll be at the studio in the morning at 10:00.” I was like, “Oh, I guess that means you like song!” 

So, we produce it that way. Then this guy named Chris Hauser who’s a really big radio promoter in the Christian world called my manager and said, “Hey, I heard Dave’s record and I think God could use a smash for the Christian space.” Now I was like, “That’s not my space.” And I felt so clearly that God was like, “Dave, when you pray for answers, you don’t get to qualify the answers I give you. That’s not how this works.” And I was like, “Touché Lord. Well played.” 

“I felt so clearly that God was like, ‘Dave, when you pray for answers, you don’t get to qualify the answers I give you. That’s not how this works.’ And I was like, ‘Touché Lord. Well played.’” – Dave Barnes

It was a big hit for me on Christian radio. That’s how Blake Shelton heard the song, was on Christian radio. He was driving home one night and heard it and pulled over. He was dating Miranda Lambert at the time, [and he] called her and said, “Hey, I found this song that makes me think of you.” She loved it. So at first, it was going to be in their wedding, then a really good friend of mine was working at his label and was like, “Hey I think he’s going to record it.” 

And then it was just a monster hit. That prayer was one of those moments in your life where God goes, “Hey, I’m going to just blow this thing out of the water.” Then it sort of opened up to me writing for other people, which was also a blessing because we were just starting our family and I wanted to be home more. So God just answered that one prayer with a million answers in that season.

Prayer and Community with Others

In the last five years, God has really impressed on me this idea that His intention for me and for His children is to not be alone. Now to qualify that, it doesn’t mean not having solitude. God wants us to have that. That’s how we commune with Him in so many ways, and He can communicate with us so well and clearly. But I think I would argue the greater amount of our time, He wants us to be with other people. His intention is not for us to be secluded.

“God has really impressed on me this idea that His intention for me and for His children is to not be alone.” – Dave Barnes

I think [we’re] in the day and age where we sort of think we’re in community, because we see so many people on our phones, we see their lives. I think having people in your life and going toward them really matters and I think the farther we get from that, there’s just so many narratives that can get told to ourselves—about ourselves, about other people—that are really detrimental. I think ninety-nine percent of the time when I have a problem with someone, the more I go toward them, the better and easier that problem gets. The further I get from them, almost 100 percent of the time, it gets worse. 

“I think ninety-nine percent of the time when I have a problem with someone, the more I go toward them, the better and easier that problem gets. The further I get from them, almost 100 percent of the time, it gets worse.” – Dave Barnes 

And so I think community is a discipline. It’s not something that comes easily, and I would say as we get older—and man you throw a family inside of that, it is so hard. But I think it’s a discipline like running or working out or reading your Bible or praying. It’s something that we have to decide to do and have parameters around. 

Something I wanted to sort of close with—[I was] thinking about this verse because I think it’s such a beautiful verse—Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” I just think it’s such a beautiful verse to think about as we think about community for anybody who’s really struggling with this idea of being close or being together. I think it’s really encouraging to me to see that God, this is something He very much wants.

“I think community is a discipline.” – Dave Barnes

Narrator: To learn more about Dave Barnes, visit www.davebarnes.com, and be sure to check out his new album, Featherbrained Wealth Motel, wherever you get your music.

Stay tuned to Justin Gambino’s story after a brief message.

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Celebrate the Season with Jesus Listens for Lent & Easter

Walk through the season of Lent with an intentional focus on your Savior, and prepare for the joy and victory of His resurrection with Jesus Listens for Lent & Easter. This book offers seasonally-themed devotions from Sarah Young’s New York Times bestseller Jesus Listens. Inside, you’ll find prayers, reflections, and Bible verses based on Jesus’ life and sacrifice, plus stunning spring and Easter illustrations, making this a holiday treasure to cherish for years to come. 

This book makes the perfect gift for anyone longing to draw closer to Jesus during the Lenten and Easter seasons, for families who want to cultivate a tradition of seasonal prayers and devotions together, and for those looking for peace, forgiveness, and a deeper experience of trusting God. 

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Find Jesus Listens for Lent & Easter today at your favorite retailer. 

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Our next guest is Justin Gambino, a singer/songwriter from Houston, Texas. Raised in a loving, church-going family, Justin drifted into a dangerous lifestyle as a teenager, leading to a fateful moment before a judge who offered him a life-altering choice—one that took him across the world, through deep struggles, and ultimately back to the music and faith that had always been key to his existence. 

Justin Gambino: My name is Justin Gambino. I am a singer/songwriter and recording artist out of Houston, Texas. I’ve been doing it full-time for ten years now. It’s such a privilege to be doing exactly what God is calling me to do.

I’m one of six, big family, and in the Gambino family there was never any sleeping in on Sundays. We were always going to church if there was something going on at the church. I mean we were just very involved with everything that was going on. My mom homeschooled all six of us from kindergarten to graduation. 

Growing up, my mom would say that at the age of five, I would bring my Bible to church and I would strum on it like a guitar, because I’d see the pastor and the worship leader playing the guitar. I was very interested in music at a very young age. At the age of fifteen, I got my first guitar for Christmas. I will never forget that Christmas morning. The guitar was sitting in its case behind the Christmas tree. That was really special.

Grateful for Second Chances

When I got my first guitar and I look back on my life, the same exact year, I started getting introduced to a completely different crowd than what I was raised around. I got my first job at the age of fifteen. I was homeschooled, playing my guitar each chance I got, and had a part-time job after all my homeschooling was done.

[After] about two to three years of that, now I am in a completely different mindset. My goal now at the age of sixteen, seventeen, eighteen is just all the wrong things. I’m still going to church, but now I’ve acquired this new mask to put on—pretending to be a Christian, when behind the scenes, I’m going out partying, I’m getting addicted to smoking and drinking. I mean, kids partying, you can imagine all the things that are available at these parties. 

And then this group of friends that I was with, I started to break the law with them, and I committed theft just right after I turned eighteen years old—breaking and entering. Just two months after I graduated, I’m standing before a judge, looking him dead in the eye, and I’m wondering, How in the world did this homeschooled, Christian, church-attending kid get to this spot where I’m standing before a judge? 

The judge is looking at me like I have two heads. And he starts asking me, “Why are you standing before me here today? Look, I can see that you’re a good kid and you just took a wrong turn. Here’s what I’m willing to do today.” He said, “You can go to jail today and be there for six months to two years, but I also want to offer the opportunity for you to serve in the military and get your life back on the right path. Your theft charge is enough for a felony and I don’t want to do that to you. The choice is yours.” And so I chose the military that day. I was completely hopeless, but God stepped in and opened up a door for a different path.

“I was completely hopeless, but God stepped in and opened up a door for a different path.” – Justin Gambino

Discovering Worship in the Deserts of Iraq

I went to boot camp, and within two months, they’re saying, ”Hey, our battalion is getting called up for a deployment in Iraq, so get your things in order, get your affairs in order, and we’re gonna start mobilizing.” It’s 2007, and I’m entering into the sandbox and fighting for the very freedom that I took for granted when I was getting into trouble. 

I remember being in Iraq and thinking to myself, Man, I don’t even know where God is in my life. I’ll never forget it was on a Wednesday, and I just feel this tug on my heart to go to chapel. So I show up on my first night—there’s about twelve of us in the congregation—and on my first night there, I kid you not, the chaplain looks around and says, “Does anybody here know how to play guitar and lead worship?” I am crossing my arms thinking, I’m not raising my hand. I left that life back home. And before I know it, the chaplain’s looking at me because I’m raising my hand. I don’t remember raising my hand—I guess it was the power of the Holy Spirit that’s raising my hand. 

The next thing I do is I go back to the call center and I call my dad. He answered and I said, “Dad, can you send me my guitar? Can you pack it up and send it to me? There’s an opportunity to lead worship.” I get choked up every time I share this part of the story because I look back now and wonder about the feelings and the emotions of my earthly father—what he was feeling when he heard the voice of his prodigal son call home and say, “Dad, there’s this opportunity to lead worship. Can you send me my guitar?”

“I get choked up every time I share this part of the story because I look back now and wonder about the feelings and the emotions of my earthly father—what he was feeling when he heard the voice of his prodigal son call home.” – Justin Gambino

The last portion of the deployment in Iraq had a little glimpse of hope in it because I got that guitar in my hands leading worship and playing some songs for my troop buddies and my Navy buddies.

Navigating Mental Health Post-Iraq

Coming home from Iraq, I really genuinely thought that I could just come home with a fresh start—that all the problems that I brought with me to Iraq, they stayed there. And little did I know that they just got put on the back burner. I go back to the same habits, the drinking, the smoking. Now all that is coupled with suicidal thoughts, with just the memories and the things that I experienced over there. I mean, I could not go a day without a drink—just to quiet the mind, so to speak.

I am angry—just the smallest things will set me off—and I can’t control my anger. And so now here I am a veteran with access to a handgun, with access to alcohol, with access to all the things that I’m addicted to. I am just struggling to stay alive because all I want to do is retreat, drink, and repeat. Retreat, drink, and repeat. And I couldn’t take much more of that. I’m in my final years—my reserve time in the military—and I’m just trying to make sense of where I’m at in life. And so that was a really dark season for me.

I am very, very thankful for a friend of mine and a mentor still to this day. He invited me to a Friday night Bible study and said, “Hey man, why don’t you grab your guitar? Come to the Bible study and let’s just see what God does.”

The night that I fell on my apartment floor was one that I’ll never forget. I can’t remember how many Friday night Bible studies I had attended at this point, but now my faith is deepening, and this kid that was saved at a young age and baptized at a young age is finding his way back to the Father’s house. I was coming back from Friday night Bible study, still with the desire to end my night with a drink, and I just remember falling on my knees. I said, “Lord, I can’t quit this on my own, but I also know that I’ve never asked You to take it from me. So I’m asking You to take it from me and take this hurt, this pain, this guilt.”

“I just remember falling on my knees. I said, ‘Lord, I can’t quit this on my own, but I also know that I’ve never asked You to take it from me. So I’m asking You to take it from me and take this hurt, this pain, this guilt.’” – Justin Gambino

I read Jesus Calling coming back from Iraq. It was just something that I needed every single day to nurture my spirit. It just continued to just shape me as a Christian into what God was calling me to be.  

I felt like I had two sandbags weighing me down to the floor and it felt like someone lifted it. I’ll never forget going to my cabinets in the kitchen in my apartment. I took every single bottle, and without hesitation, they all went down the drain. I never touched it again.

Reframing Old Memories with New Ones

I ended my enlistment with the Navy with an honorable discharge, and I was still working a full-time job and pursuing music. In 2015, I quit my job and that put me on the journey of pursuing music full-time. I took a leap of faith and I went out on the road. 

I find myself in Salt Lake City—I just got done leading worship at this church, and I’m sitting in my van. And the Lord says, “Justin, I want you to go home. I want you to do a night of worship and a night of revival for your hometown.” And I was like, That sounds like fun. That sounds like a blast. Alright, Lord. And ever so softly, He said, “I want you to do it at the courthouse.” And I said, “Absolutely not. No way. You can’t get me to go back to the place where I have bad memories. You can forget it. You’re gonna have to find a different venue or a different servant because I’m not doing it.” And I’ll give you one guess who won that argument. It was the Lord. 

Before I knew it, I’m calling my pastor at my home church and I’m saying, “Hey, this is what I feel like God’s telling me to do.” And he said, “Well, if you need someone to preach at it, I’ll be there.” The city manager said, “Yes.” The mayor said, “Yes.” Even the county judge said, “Yes.” I was thinking, Maybe this judge doesn’t know who I am, and I asked him. I said, “Do you remember me?” He said, “Oh yeah, I remember you. And I want to tell you that you are more than welcome to have a night of worship and revival on the grounds of the courthouse.” That was the day that Justin, a child of the Living God, came home for the first time in a long time. This prodigal son came home.

Just this last December, we held our fifth annual revival on the grounds of that same courthouse. And God has continued to provide the finances for that revival year after year. God has made a way so that we could hold that revival and we’ve seen people come to Christ at that event. Now I look back and I’m like, That’s exactly why I went through what I went through—so that I can stand here and I can be a road sign and say, “Jesus. Jesus is the way.” And I pray that it doesn’t take you as long as it took me to come home.

I want everyone to see what God has done in my life and how He called this prodigal home. That’s been the fuel of my songwriting as of lately. It’s been the fuel behind the tours and everything that I’ve been doing to work on new music. I just want to share with everyone what He did for me. 

Jesus Listens, January 13th:

My risen Savior, 

I’m so thankful that You have given me new birth into a living hope through Your resurrection from the dead! Moreover, I am a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 

I need to be made new in the attitude of my mind and to put on the new self.

Please help me to receive this assignment with courage and gratitude— staying alert and looking for all the wonderful things You are doing in my life. 

In Your magnificent Name, Jesus, 

Amen

Narrator: For more information about Justin, please visit www.justingambino.com, and be sure to check out his album, Made New, wherever you get your music. 

If you’d like to hear more stories about finding hope, check out our interview with Matt Forté.

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Next week: Kurt Avery

Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we’ll hear from Kurt Avery, the founder of Sawyer Products, a company on the forefront of innovation in water filtration, insect repellent, sunscreen, and first aid. Kurt shares how his faith ignited his passion to give back to those in need.

Kurt Avery: I’m not a scientist, but I’ve always been on the fringe of science. I’m a marketer, but you’ve got to look at creation. And if you look at creation, how do you not get to the conclusion there’s a God? It’s phenomenal. From micro to macro, creation is phenomenal. So you have to have the establishment that God is out there, and He’s bigger than us—way bigger than us.