In this episode of the Iron Saints Podcast, host Dan Willis continues his verse‑by‑verse study of Luke, focusing on Luke 6:46‑49, the parable of the wise and foolish builders. Willis argues that true discipleship is demonstrated not merely by verbal profession of faith (“Lord, Lord”) but by building one’s life on the solid foundation of Christ’s teachings. He links this passage to Romans 6:1‑2, emphasizing that believers should have no means to continue sinning for the sake of grace. Willis challenges listeners to inspect the “spiritual house” they have built—examining foundations, walls, and roofs—to identify areas needing repair, renovation, or complete rebuilding. He encourages daily devotion, scriptural immersion, and honest self‑assessment, urging men to pursue maturity beyond initial enthusiasm. The episode includes a guided prayer in which Willis lifts specific prayer requests (e.g., Eric Hoak, Anthony, Bruce & Birgit, Ada & Amara) and invites listeners to submit their own requests via social media or email. Throughout, Willis stresses community, global reach, and the importance of sharing the podcast with other men, framing the message as a call to ongoing spiritual renovation rather than a one‑time salvation event.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.
Welcome back, Saints. We are back at it again. Huge thank you to all of you guys that have been following along, tracking, sharing the podcast out. Uh, some pretty cool conversations that I've had over the weekend, uh, with a couple of you guys that are out there listening. Uh, very excited that we get to continue through Luke together. I know that this has been a long walk and it will probably be even longer given how far along we are in the book. But huge thank you again, guys, to everybody that's there. Um, yeah, it's nuts to see people around the world listening and enjoying the, the scriptures every day. So a huge thank you to you guys. I did take a bit of a break due to technical errors, so hopefully we have that all figured out and there won't be any more technical issues. But without further ado, let's get down to it. So when last we spoke, we were taking a look at the— out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, and how that might directly affect how we engage with social media, how we speak on social media, especially in a digital world like today, how what we say can have huge implications even though we're hiding behind anonymity or pseudonyms online. The reality is God knows our heart. God knows the things that we're saying and why we're saying them. And so it's crucial for us to consider Consider that why we say the things we say and how we say them, even online, even behind a suit, and that may not necessarily divulge who we are. God knows what's going on and why. So consider that. We are going to continue on through Luke today. For those of you that have a Bible handy, fantastic. You can follow along in your version. I always like to read to you guys, though. I'm a big fan of reading along for those who, you know, maybe driving, don't have a Bible handy, aren't able to do that. So I Personally, like to read. I I do like to read from the ESV, so that will always be the version I read from. You're welcome to read from whatever version you prefer. But let's get down to it here. Yesterday was a tree and its fruit bearing good fruit, bearing bad fruit, abundance of the heart. Today we're tackling Luke chapter six verse forty-six through forty-nine. So why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my word and does them, I will show you what he is like. He's like a man who builds a house who. Dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Oh boy, we got a doozy today. If you love me, you will do what I do. If you cry, Lord, Lord, Christ, you are my Lord, You're going to do the commandments. You're going to do the things that he says. Now, this isn't a matter of salvation. This is a matter of the caliber of your character, right? This ties directly to the context of what we had just read just before this in the chapter of good tree, good fruit, bad tree, bad fruit. If you belong to Christ, if he is your Lord, if he is your life, your entity, your character is going to be one that responds to his teaching. It's going to be one that responds to his commands. Comfortable for yourself. There's a great verse in Romans: "Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound? By no means." And often this verse just gets kind of thrown out there and tucked away, right? Like oh yeah, by no means. Yeah, you you shouldn't do that is how it how it's often translated or the the meaning placed on that statement. The interesting thing with that though is when you when you look at at what that actually means when when you go back to the meaning of that saying and the context of that in in the original writing it It's not, yeah, you shouldn't do that. It's not, well, you know, by no means. It's literally, you have no means by which to do that thing. Well, isn't that the same thing? Not really. It would be like me looking at my dog and saying, fly. If dog could speak, he would say, by no means. It's just not possible. There shouldn't be a means by which he is capable of performing that action. Essentially, that's what's going on there is this idea of shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound? By no means. Are we going to keep sinning because we know that grace is greater? Grace will be greater? No, no, we shouldn't have a means of doing that. Are we going to continue to sin? For sure. That's there. We're told over and over and over again in Scripture, I do the thing that I do not wish to do and I don't do the thing that I wish to do. Those who say that they are without sin are liars. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That is there. You are going to continue to sin. But this notion that we are going to continue to sin because we know that grace will abound that much the more— again, not criticizing grace. Grace will most certainly do that. But that you are continuing to sin, continuing to choose to do wrong, continuing not to obey the commands of Christ— there should be no means in your heart for you to do that. Again, that, that's the crux of the I do the things I do not wish to do, right? And that's what Christ is getting at here. Lord, Lord, you call out, right? Lord, Lord Jesus. But what? What, you're gonna disregard his commandments and his teaching? You're going to disregard the word of God? You're going to disregard everything that he's asked you to do? No. First of all, grace is freely given. That's there. It's for you. It— your salvation is not bound to your actions and your deeds. However, in being saved, your heart is going to be changed. You're going to be transformed by the renewing of your minds, and your life itself will be a living and pleasing sacrifice to the Lord. We know these things, right? Put them It's you building a solid foundation, right? Your faith. When you— when we're new believers, we get so excited, we're so pumped to be Christians, and we want to learn all about it, and we want to do all the things you're supposed to do, and we want to go to church, and we want to worship, and we want to— but over time, does that, does that dwindle? Does that fade? Does that go away? I challenge you guys to look at the house that you built. And I know I, I recently went through this endeavor where I started in Genesis and I worked my way through the entirety of Scripture, and I looked through every single instruction Instruction and edict and command given to fathers and husbands as to what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do. And from that, I, I found so much fruit and so much blessing in taking a look and examining my own house, right? We do that from time to time. We inspect our houses and go, okay, well, yeah, you know, the gutters need to be replaced soon, the appliances are getting kind of worn out, backyard needs some work, roof is looking a little interesting, uh, you know, just different things around the home that you got to deal with. I would encourage you guys to be doing that, either your daily devotion or taking some additional time and just ripping through the scriptures and allowing scripture to rip through you. Take a look at the house that you've built. Is the foundation strong? Does it start with Christ? Does it start with grace freely given? Is that there? But then from that, are you growing in maturity, or did you stop there? Did you lay the foundation and not really put up anything else on top of it? Did you just build kind of a cardboard shack on top of the foundation? Or, or have you built something and, you know, things have kind of fallen off along the way? You used to be really good about daily prayer or devotion or attending church regularly or helping in your community or evangelizing, whatever it may be. Is there something that's broken on the house? Is there something that needs a tune-up, a fix-up, a restoration? Maybe it needs a complete overhaul. Maybe you never had it in the first place and the house needs an addition. You need to go a step further. I challenge you to pray through that today, guys.
Amen.
I challenge you to pray through that today. And I'm gonna pray for us right now. I'm gonna get us through this. I'm gonna pray right now. But as I pray, guys, be aware, wherever you guys are listening to this, if you leave a note, if you leave a comment, I do read those comments. All the social media networks that I watch regularly are there— Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. They're there for you guys to see and look at. If you put a prayer request in there, if you guys are analyzing your house today and go, you know, there's these things that I'm wrestling with that I'm having a hard time with, or things that I'm missing as a man of Christ that I need to have in my life, Feel free to throw those out in prayer requests, and I will pray for them. If you want me to do that anonymously, I can do that. Just your first name, I can do that too. If you don't really care, first name, last name, and you're happy for me to pray with both, I'm happy to do that as well. But I'm gonna get down to praying here and really take the time to consider. If you have something to pray for, feel free to throw it out, and I will do my absolute best to pray for it on the podcast. Let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for the blessings that you give us. Thank you for the foundation. Thank you for the teaching, the guidance that you give us to build on the foundation. Thank you that the foundation is Freely given. We didn't need to do anything. We didn't need to buy the land. We didn't need to lay the foundation ourselves. You did that work, Lord. You chose us. You chose us while we were yet sinners. You loved us while we were yet sinners. Christ paid the price, not by any works of our own, by Him alone, in faith in Him alone. It's a beautiful start to what could be a beautiful house, Lord. I pray that You're working in the hearts of everybody listening, that we would continue to build on that foundation, that we would build good and godly things by following His commandments, by following His teachings, by doing the things that He needs to do, and not relying on grace. grace to cover the multitude of sin. Instead, repenting, confessing, and building, continuing to build. Something breaks, confessing, repenting, and coming back to it. Lord, I lift up all the men with unspoken prayers that have building to do, renovations to do in their own house. Pray that that would go well. Lord, lift up Eric Hoak to you. Seems like he's doing exactly that right now. He was a lead pastor. He stepped down for the year to draw closer to you, Lord. Sounds like he's evaluating not his foundation, but the thing that has been built on top of it, Lord. And I pray that you're with him, that he continues to be focused, to draw near on that, to continue to have his attentions on You and your commands for his life. I lift up Anthony to you, praying for the anxiety that Anthony carries. Anxieties of this world can be a burden, Lord, and they can distract from us. They can pull us away from what you would have us do and who you would have us be. So I pray that you're with him there. I lift up Bruce and Birgit to you, Lord, that as they head to the missions field in Uganda, I'd be praying that their support team would come together back home so that they can go without concern, without worry, and be able to focus fully on on the passion and purpose that you have for them there. I lift up Ada and Amara to you, Lord. Huge blessing that these. Little ones were born 4 months early, and yet they were able to cling to life, that they were able to be here, both with the medicine that was able to assist them as well as you, Lord, your hand over them. I just am so thankful for them, Lord, and I pray that you continue to do a work in their lives and their family's life. Thank you for all you do for us, Lord, for the commandments that you have for us, that you give us a guide, that you give us teachings, that you give us the things that we're supposed to do and we're not left in the dark. Amen. That is it for today, guys. Thank you again to all you who are listening. Thank you again to any of you that are willing to share this out with other men in your congregation. men that you know that you think that could benefit from this. It's been crazy to see how quickly it's spread, not just here at home in North America, but globally across the world in Europe and Asia and Africa. Seeing listeners coming from all over the world is so cool to see. Again, a huge thank you to all of you guys that have taken the time to share that out, and I will catch you guys tomorrow with the next episode.
Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.
