Rylee Meek and Christian define biblical manhood as strength paired with humility, discipline, and household stewardship. They ground it in Scripture and warn against pride, anxiety, laziness, and isolation, offering discipline and accountability as remedies.
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Foreign.
How we doing, everybody?
Welcome back.
Welcome back to the King's Council Live. You got myself the Riley Meek. Just see our things popped up and hope dealer.
In the house. Oh, Happy Friday.
Yeah. What's up, guys?
How you doing?
Doing well, man. How you doing?
I'm doing well.
You got a couple hairs sticking at the bottom of that hat, man. You gotta get them up there.
Oh, I gotta show my hairs when I can, man. Proven my manhood today.
Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, a little foreshadowing there.
Yes. Welcome, guys. Welcome, welcome. Let us know where you're dialing in. Calling in from. I don't even know what I always say. Dialing.
Yeah, I'm just.
I gotta get that out of my. My system. Let us know where you're tuning in from. How about that? Love having you guys here live every Friday here for the King's Council live, whether you're on rumble or YouTube or maybe you're just listening to an audio version on some of our podcast streaming platforms. I'm not sure where those are.
Apple Spotify.
Apple Spotify.
I don't know what else there is. Yeah, I'm an Apple guy myself.
You are?
Yeah.
You are an Adam's apple guy. Another man.
That's right.
Another man joke.
That's right. With a big grizzly beard.
With your grizzly beard. Yeah. But today, guys, we're going to dive into. If you saw the title, what is a man? And we want to dive into what biblical. Biblical masculinity actually is. If you guys remember the episode or the show. Matt Walsh didcumentary a few years ago. It's been a few years since I come out already. What is a woman? I think there's still even confusion.
Yeah, well, he never got an answer.
He never couldn't get an answer on what a woman was. But. And I. I think that even is with. With manhood, when it comes down to it, I think there is a question of what. What is a man? What makes a man? Because I think there's a lot of people, you know, you can be a male and not be a man. Can I say that?
Yeah.
Right, Right. You can be no different than you could. You could have a wife and not be a husband. Right. You could have kids and not be a father. So we want to dive in today. Just like, really, what is. What does the Bible actually say as far as, like, what is a man? What does it mean to actually be a man?
Yeah. When you think of men. Manly. A manly man. Right. Who would you think of? Who's the first person pops up to.
Your head, I just look in the mirror.
Okay. Okay. All right.
Manly man.
Man.
I don't know. I'd never thought about that.
No. Pops into my head first and it's probably not good. As a teacher of the word of God.
Right.
Denzel Washington.
I knew it would be a black guy.
Yeah. Well, number two is probably Mike Tomlin, the coach. Another black guy.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, let me find a white guy. Riley.
Me. Dwight over here.
Yeah.
Oh, man. I don't know. I mean, I know. I think, I think of Mark Driscoll, you know, puts out. He's got a lot of good stuff on. On men. He leads real men. Faith.
And he takes a lot of heat for being one of those toxic masculine.
Yes.
Masculine guy.
If you're masculine.
Masculine, masculine, masculine. That works too. Give me some more coffee.
I'm the linguistic on today's episode. We might have a problem here.
Yeah.
I also think of Joby Martin. I like. He's put out, puts out some good stuff about men.
I mean, these are obviously just kind of all Bible teachers that I'm thinking of, which is probably a good thing, actually.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah. I went, Denzel, you went? Yeah. Manly Bible teachers. That's fair.
Denzel's a believer, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's. Yeah. I don't know how, how long he's.
Been walking with the Lord, but I don't know. I always admire men who are masculine. Like, if you look at him, it's like, oh, that guy, he's probably like a football coach or he hits the gym, stuff like that. Then you talk to him and he's quoting scripture. You could tell he has a heart for the Lord. I always admire that. Oh, always.
No question, dude.
Because I, I know you, you talk about khaki wearing Christians and that, that kind of early.
Nothing wrong with khakis.
No, but earlier in your walk, you just, just the, the circle around you of men who love the Lord. They were not the manliest type of men.
Right, Absolutely. Yeah. I think that was part of my.
You know, I'm not saying this is right, but just my distaste for Christianity in general. But it's because I didn't know what it was. Yeah, right. And I think, I mean, as we are called to be image bearers of Christ, his ambassadors here, his representatives here on this earth. And so I think it's important that men and women we get this.
Right.
Right. Because I, I believe this is going to be something that we're going to be held accountable for one day. It's like, how did we. How did we walk out our manhood? How do we walk out our womanhood for our women listeners on here? Because that's something that we're gonna have to give an account for. Right. And it's not. We're not saying, you know, to be crystal clear, it ain't about having, like, callous on your hands and chopping wood. I'd be the furthest from a man if that was the case. Right. Because my wife hangs the pictures in our house here. I'm not necessarily proud of that, but I just know my skill set. I know how God's designed me. I could do. I could do it. Right. But there may be. There may be more holes in the wall than should be if that's the case. Right. Because I'm just going to, like, you know, eye it and then. Because I know the picture will ultimately cover the hole right in the back, you know, so there just might be like 11 holes back there before I get frustrated and then put my hand through the wall and then.
Right. You know.
Right.
And then show yourself a real man.
Yeah.
But you're always of the mindset if you. If you have the money or make the money to pay somebody to do something you don't want to do. It's one of the benefits of making decent living.
Very true.
Or have Ash do it. Either pay somebody to do or have Ash do it. One or the other.
Yes. I. I like to pay people to do it, though, because. And I don't. That sounds like an arrogant thing to think or say or do, but I don't. That's not my posture behind it. It's like I would rather sow into somebody else that has that skill set, knowing that they're providing for their family. And it's a way that I can bless them. God's blessed me. I can bless them and so on and so forth. Right. So. Because I also know, too, I'm busy with a lot of other things, and that would absolutely take away from time that I should be spending with my family or. Or could be spending with my family. And so it's about. I think we all have different skill sets. Or, you know, some of us. Some of you love to do that. Like, that could be your time to check out is to hang pictures. Right. Or chop wood.
Yeah.
But that's just not. That's not my. But I think the point of what we're getting at is that that's not necessarily manhood. Right. Again, you Can. You can have big muscles, you can go chop trees down and still not be a man according to what the Bible says.
True.
Right.
Yeah.
You can, like, no different than you can birth babies and not be a mother. Right. There's lots of women out there like that.
Yeah.
Right.
And men nowadays, too.
Right? Well, depends. Depends on the definition. Right. Well, we're going to stick with the Bible and that's going to be our standard, as it should be everybody's standard. Right. But the world. The world creates its own definitions of things. Clearly, we've seen that. And so we always want to go back to the. To scripture of what it actually means. Obviously, we're all created in God's image.
Image.
Right.
We're.
We're image bears. We are all God's creation. We get to. We get the ability to be adopted as sons and daughters. And, and. And from there, essentially, it's like. Call it again, just like the sanctification process that we get to go through. It's. It's. It's now this pursuit, I think, that we are. Are on. To be the best man that God's created us to be. To be the best woman that God's created you to be. Specifically. We're going to talk about manhood, though, because we don't have any women on this show. Wouldn't it be funny if we just got on here and talked about what it meant to be a woman?
Right.
Not that we couldn't. I mean, Bible gives us a clear path or definition, but we'd probably want a woman's ex. Probably expertise on that.
Yeah. So. Yeah. Well, let's.
Joe Sharraldo could tell us.
Shout out. Joe Sharaldo. Well, we talk about feminine men.
I love you, Joe. We're just. We're just making sure he's actually listening.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now if, you know, Joe retired. Fdny.
Manly men, men, men. Menly men, men, men. Did you ever watch that?
What is that?
Two and a Half Men?
Oh, Charlie. Yeah, so a couple times. That was funny.
It's funny. Did you. Did you watch the. Did anybody on the show here watch the Charlie Sheen documentary? I think it's on Netflix. Maybe it's on Amazon.
I don't know.
Wild.
Then talk about how he was, like, low, not so manly. Oh, as far as getting a little.
That's a little. Yeah, he talks about it very openly.
Yeah.
He. The guy did so much cocaine. So much cocaine that his dealer actually started to cut it.
Yeah.
Like, because his. His people were not.
You know, I don't know. What the. His PR people, people that his managers were like, hey, we know he's not going to quit, so just like, can you cut it in half? And half and half to the point where it was no longer even any cocaine. And he's finally, like, it's not even doing anything for me. So he just quit.
So. Great.
So did he. Did he blame, like, sleeping with men on the cocaine?
I don't know if he gave it the full blame. I mean, that was, like, it definitely opened the door to it.
Okay.
But I don't know if he put, like, the full blame on it, but it was really weird.
It would take a lot of cocaine at not just. I don't know what it would take.
There's not enough in the world.
Yeah.
Praise the Lord.
Yeah.
But. Hey. Right? Yeah.
But this is a Christian show. And of course, whenever we talk about cocaine usage, we're gonna get blocked on someone. Not Rumble, though, so. Right, yeah. Praise the Lord for that.
You can't. I figured they would allow that to be on YouTube. You just can't say things like Jesus Christ.
Right, Right. But if we question what a woman is, even probably maybe pop up an algorithm, getting flagged.
All right.
Yeah.
But it's all right. Anyway, we're mainly on rumble for our three and a half YouTube watchers.
Do you keep on saying that?
Well, it's about what it's at.
We're up to like, 13.
Thirteen, baby.
It's growing.
It's growing.
It's growing. Everybody has their different ways of watching.
That's right.
I. I don't. I rarely watch. Watch podcasts or shows or anything. I just listen. Yeah. And even probably half the people on Rumble right now, you're just listening. It's in the background. Something like that. But if you're paying attention, then compliment Riley on his hats. Say, nice hat, Riley.
Thank you. Yes. This is actually Redemption Ranch. This is one of our ministry partners. Right. So the King's Council, if you guys don't know the King's Council, we are a nonprofit. Right. And so it's been a few years in the making of just, like, what we're about. We started out as kind of a coaching company discipling entrepreneurs.
And, you know, we have this show. We're gonna be doing some events here coming up in the. In 2026. But our heart really is to obviously just discipleship at the core. Like, let's dive into the word. Let's talk about culture and what's. What's going on. How do we apply this into our Daily Lives. But also we want to partner and we want to fund some amazing projects and Troy Brewer Ministries is one of our partners. We're actually funding a. It's not technically an orphanage, but that's just kind of like where your mind initially thinks of. They call them Forever Homes, a big project in Mexico in which we're actually going on here in a couple weeks to check out know one of the projects that we've been funding and so really excited about that. They go can rescue. Listen to this, bro. The.
So Troy Brewer, Brian Schwartz, some of you guys know Brian. We've had him on some shows here. He's going to be on some more. We're going to do some events and things like that in. In the. The coming months. One of a mentor that. That pours into. He's been pouring into me for quite some time and now we hop on with a handful of guys on Tuesday mornings with him. He is kind of on the board with Troy in this ministry and they go rescue kids, man. And child trafficking is one thing that is just evil and not okay. And that's one of the projects that's obviously near and dear to our hearts and is wild. Troy had met with. I don't remember who it was. The higher ups in Mexico, like the government authorities and they said, hey, we can. We know where these kids are. We literally know where they are. We just don't have any place to put them.
So they just let them stay where they are.
Yeah.
Which is getting molested, raped. It's just. It's just so evil and awful. And so they asked Troy and the ministry to build this place for them to actually, you know, not. Not just rescue, but to redeem these ghettos. Right. And so Redemption Ranch is also part of their ministry. It's out in. Is it west Texas? Technically, it's about three hours north or.
West Texas would be out like Odessa.
Three hours west of Dallas. So not quite that far west is west, but not west Texas.
Yeah.
But it's a cool little place that pastors ministry people can go to and. And get a little reprieve that's sometimes needed. But a lot of what they do there is rescue. The rescuer they would call it. So people that are literally in the like in the battle every day and they provide resources and funding and tools that they need to actually continue to do what they do. And so a great, great project, great ministry, great organization and yeah, enough about that. But that's to me, that's men being men.
Yep.
Yes. Like it's it's literally seeing evil and not being okay with it and not just sitting on their butts saying, well.
What am I gonna do? Right.
Right. I guess I'll pray about it.
Yeah.
You know, but like, no, let's go do something about it, because we have the means and the capabilities of actually doing that. And. And I think we'll see that today as we dive into what it means to actually be a man. Right. To stand firm. Firm and to. To stand for something. Right. Versus. Or die for nothing.
Yeah.
Right.
All right, let's get into it.
Let's do it up. So foundationally here, we understand that obviously, we're all created in God's image. God created us from the dirt. Right. Or dirt people. Just from the dust of the earth. And as I would have. I think I briefly mentioned this, it's like being a man is. Is a pursuit. Right? It's like something that. That we are. We should be. It's. Call it again, the sanctification process of the character of who we're becoming. Right. And of. Or who, ultimately, the goal that we're all reaching for is to be Christlike, the most Christlike that we can possibly be. And so, obviously, if we had an example of, you know, who's the greatest man that ever walked this earth, it would be Jesus.
Amen.
Right? And I think a lot of people have a mindset of Jesus as a lamb, but they oftentimes forget that he's. When he's returning. Like, as a lion baby. Yeah, like, he. He is lion in lamb. And so. And as men, I think we have that version of both of those within us. Right? And so.
Yeah, I think. I think I just want us to have a strong understanding. It's. Being a man is not. Is not being.
You know, the top guy in the room, the toughest guy in the room. Right? And not being, like, not in touch with their feelings, that's absolutely a portion of it. But. But it's. It's both, right? It's like, yes, you should be. When I walk into room. I mean, any guy listening to this right now, you walk into a room, you're sizing every guy up. Am I real. Let me know in the chat if. If you're not.
Or just confirm for me. Don't tell me if you're not, because I don't want to know who our beta men are. I'm just kidding. Not really, but I think that this is something that I. I'm a short guy, right. Most people know that. That's why I got A booster seat here sitting next to Christian. So it's like I, I know that I'm not the, the. I'm not walking in a room and towering, but I wanna, I want like we're, it's just something what I think a man is like, we're ingrained to do. Right. And it's not like I'm gonna go beat up every man in this world, but it's like, you know, the thought always crosses my head if some, someone wants to start some stuff, I'm. I'm game.
Right.
I want to be game. I want to be ready.
Yeah. Well, not.
I'm not going to be the one to start it, but I want to be the one to finish it.
Yeah. Well, man. As head of household where Provider protector.
Right.
So I think it goes a long way when you see somebody who's just like ridiculously out of shape, who wheezes when they walk up a flight of stairs. If something goes down, how are they going to protect their family?
Absolutely, bro.
And I don't want to say I don't love that person, but like as far as respect that person, I don't know, like, I don't want to sound rude about it, but.
For me, I. My goal and I have two older sons and a five year old, so three sons altogether. My goal. And I'm 44. My goal is to always be stronger than them.
Yes.
Always. There's going to come a time when I'm not. But sure as of right now I am.
Yes.
So. And I'm happy with that.
Yes.
But it's not just being the, the strongest. I, I want to be physically fit. So something were to go down, I could protect my family. And maybe it'll never happen my entire life, but if it does just at one time and I'm not fit for what happens and I, I fail as protector of my family, then what?
Yeah, then what. Then what? Exactly. Right. And this isn't. I mean, didn't even plan on really talking about this. But part of being the physically fit, I mean that, that is in my opinion, part of being a man. Right. And it has nothing to do with being fit in my opinion, but it has to do with being disciplined.
Yeah.
Right. Like you don't need a bag of Cheetos every night. Right. You don't need a gallon of ice cream or whatever it is that your, your thing is. But it's having the discipline to fuel your body appropriately. Right. Because again, we're. I, I believe this is absolutely going to be something that we're going to be judged upon as well. Right. It's like, yeah, this is. This is God's temple. Like, well, this is two.
This is two.
And that is too. Right. And also, if you're an obese person listening to it, you are, too. If you have. If you've received Christ as. As Lord and Savior of your life, like, that's God's temple. Right. And so this is something that we should take seriously and, and become disciplined in. And I'm not saying that to, like, make anybody feel bad or. Or shame you, but I'm hoping to convict you and can encourage you. Like, let's get. Let's get our crap together here.
Yeah. If Jesus showed up at your doorstep tomorrow and you looked outside, you see it's Jesus Christ himself, would you tidy up a little bit real quick? Like. Like, get the. The clothes off the couch or whatever it is real quick. You want to try to make it presentable as he enters your dwelling place. Absolutely. He is. He has Enter your dwelling place when you place your faith upon. Upon him as Lord and Savior. And. Yeah, it's just I. That's somewhere I got convicted of that. I go through seasons with, like, I used to, you know, put on my, like a bear, you know, you got to gain some weight for the hibernation season to keep you warm.
Sure.
And then, like, kind of lay off going to the gym a little bit. But it's like, why am I doing that? The Holy Spirit's always inside of me. I want to be.
Yeah.
Almost respectful to. I mean, we're being respectful to God, like, absolutely. Yeah. And he blessed us with this life. He bless us with the. The air. Every breath that we breathe, every. Every. Every year that we have on Earth, whether you're alive 5 years, 50 years, 100 years. Everything we have is a blessing from him. So why not cherish it and. And always look at it as a gift.
Absolutely. Yeah. And also, heck, if you're married, do it for your spouse, too. Yeah, right. Like, believe me, they don't. They don't love it. They might. They're gonna love you regardless, but they don't love, you know, your dicky doo, right?
What?
Never heard of that?
I don't know. Are we allowed to say that?
Yeah, dude, it's where your stomach sticks out farther than your dicky do.
Okay.
You never heard that?
No.
Oh, come on.
No.
I'll teach you my ways.
I've heard of a booty do.
What's that?
That's when a girl's stomach sticks out Further than a booty do coming from.
The black man and the king's council here.
Oh, let's get back.
But anyway, I think a wife, even if she, you know, is into a big, cuddly, larger than average size man as a husband. Right? Sure. Even if she, she likes that, I, I guarantee that that wife will be more turned on by the discipline. Even if she prefers a, a, a softer, chunkier body than a hard chisel body, I guarantee she'll be more turned on by the fact that you're disciplined to actually go to the gym and be fit and be healthy.
Yep, absolutely. Yeah. That's good. That's good. And this goes for women too, I guess. I know we do have a lot of women, women listening to this, but I think they would probably agree that they would like a, you know, you don't have to be. Again, this isn't about six pack abs or anything, but it's like, hey, if I got to go run a half mile to rescue my kid that's just got kidnapped, I better be able to do it. Yeah, right. Like, it's like, just put yourself in practical situations if you need the motivation to, to make this thing happen. Right. Other, I mean, your greatest motivation would be like, I want to do this for the Lord. Right, that should be. But do whatever it takes. Yeah, right. So let's get, let's get back to this though. So biblically, just foundationally, there's multiple scriptures that we can cover here with you guys, but First Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 11 says, When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. And I think this is for a lot, as I even said a little bit ago, it's like you can be a male and not be a man. Mm. Right. And so it's, there's a, there comes a time in your life, it doesn't matter what your age is right now, but you could still be dealing with childish ways. Right? We, I mean, heck, we have guys that we disciple within our, our community here, whether it's our, you know, sales organizations or the King's council that are 21 years old and far more mature than some of the 40 and 50 year olds that we, we hang with. Right. And so your, your, you know, quantitative age, it is only a small, small, very small portion of this, of what it means to be a man. And at some point some of us had to become the man of the house at an early age for, you know, maybe some unfortunate reasons. But at some point in time, we have to put away these childish Ways get out the basement, get off the Xbox or whatever the junk is, and. And step into the actual identity that Christ has for you. First Corinthians 16:13 says, to be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Right. This is good. So this is. Again, it's like what. What I consider. This is like a. A pursuit of manliness. Again, Biblical manliness. Of. Of what this means. And we're going to give you guys kind of the.
I think would be almost like a blueprint.
Yeah.
That David actually gave us. Right.
He did indeed. In Second Kings, chapter one. Now David's on his deathbed, and.
It was Solomon that was gonna take the reign. He was going to be king. And it says now the days of David drew near, that he should die, and he charged Solomon, his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth, basically meaning, I'm out of here, bud. This is all you.
Those that don't know Solomon is David's son.
Yes.
To make it clear.
Yep. And David said to him, be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. Prove yourself a man and keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, and his. As it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may fulfill his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart, with all their soul, he said, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. So the first thing is be strong. Right. So, and then when he says strong, prove yourself a man. I. I think that the preface of be strong, then prove yourself a man. And then the charge of simply obedience to the Lord, that in David's eyes, this is how you prove yourself a man. You're. You're strong. And it doesn't just mean physically strong, but strong in your convictions. Strong to.
Yep.
Strong in boldness for truth.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. This is like character development. Right. And what I think is cool about this, it's like this is literally David passing the throne to Solomon. And it's not like this is how you rule the people or. Right. You know, this is what it means to be king, but it's about to be a man.
Yeah.
Right. Like, this is the wisdom. A dying father to his son. This is the wisdom that he provides him. It's like number one, you know, be strong.
Yeah.
Right. But not strong like you Know, big muscles like Christian, but.
Trying to put some humor into this.
Oh, thanks.
I know everybody's laughing at that.
Yeah.
Should have done some push ups like you normally do before we.
I didn't. I didn't want to be out of breath.
Right.
But. But show yourself a man literally means be established. Prove yourself to be what you already are.
So that's what it means in the Hebrew.
Right, right. Okay. So, you know, obviously we were kind of speaking in Jess when we're talking about Matt Walsh's documentary, what is a Woman? We're not talking about chromosomes, we're not talking about genitalia, that sort of thing.
But that's common sense stuff.
Right. But it's more. What is it? What is a man? I. I am a man.
Right.
Just based on my. My gender. I'm a male.
Right.
But what is. How do I prove that I'm actually a male? And then what is God's calling for me as a man? And it does go all the way back to the garden, right?
Yeah.
With Adam. Yeah, essentially.
Yeah.
I was thinking of another topic.
I was teeing you up, but I guess the wrong segue.
I was thinking of another topic and then I'm like, yeah, yeah.
So say. Go ahead, say.
But ultimately, Adam worked the garden, right?
Yes, yes.
And work was enjoyment until the fall. But ultimately. And even when God placed Adam in the garden, it. It wasn't. There wasn't even instruction to work. It. It was just. This is what he did in the garden.
Yeah.
Because that's. That's what you were created for.
Absolutely.
To tend the garden, to work. Yeah.
I love this topic so much. We've talked about this a lot in the king's council. It's that, you know, when God created man, he created us to work the garden. Right. And so if any of you men out there don't like to work, and mind you too, this was pre fall. Right. A lot of people think that the curse that we live under is to have to work. It's like.
No, no.
God created us to work for the garden.
Right.
Like, this was the, the first version of worship comes from that word work, which is like avad or avada, I think. Don't. Avad or avada.
Avad.
Avada.
Okay. Yeah.
Which is. Is another word. It means work. Semicolon worship. Right. And so it's like this was a part of our, our form of worship as man. As men. And, and so when we, when we. Again, I think this comes back to just a perspective of like, okay, now I know I don't have to work. I get to work. Right. And it's like, and it is to ultimately glorify God. Right. But then also to provide well for my family. Right, right. And, and obviously the, the even pre fall too, God gave us woman. Right. Which is fascinating too, to think about. It's like he knew it wasn't good for us to be alone. Right. And so he gave us a wife to actually live with and care for, which we've fumbled the ball on that thing. Right. But so we, we're living in this, you know, time period now where it's like, all right, we, we're looking to a lot, A lot of the things that God gave us as a blessing can sometimes feel like a curse because of our, our mindset towards it and ultimately our, you know.
Man, I was, I'm trying to think of a better word than what I was going to say, but.
Okay, sorry.
Our idioticness. Right. We can call it that. And, and so, but we, we can. When we start to understand this, it's like, what was the God's original intent for creation? I think it, it helps us lay the foundation of. Okay, what does it mean to actually truly walk life out as a biblical man? Right. As, as, as a dude that, that can. Chooses to enjoy work. First off, if you don't like your job, find a different job.
Yeah.
I mean, there's lots of them out there. And, and also just change your mindset about it. It's, it seems difficult, but it's not that difficult when, when you again, you've, you've got to continually transformed by the renewing of our mind. And if you've given your life to Christ like you've received him as savior, boom, you're a new creation. You can retrain your thoughts and your mindset on how you look at things. Right. And this is where, I mean, obviously it is. What the enemy has done from the beginning of time is just the tomfoolery of tricking us into thinking that God wasn't good. Right. And he didn't want what was best for us.
But we have to come back foundationally to like, what is, what does scripture actually lay out? What does it actually truly show us?
Yeah. Amen, David. I mean, Solomon was only about 20 at this time here. And David doesn't define manhood by.
How old is David?
David was, gosh, he was.
I think 26 when he became king. He wasn't very old when he died. Okay. He wasn't an old, old man.
I knew it. Not too Long ago. But I've been studying, I've been studying Hezekiah, I know he was 25 when he became king. A lot of kings were young. Oh yeah, I mean, I think it was Joe ash, he was 7, which was probably just kind of like by default, he probably wasn't quite qualified.
Right. Hopefully had some good advisors.
But Hezekiah, who out of all the good kings that Judah had, he stands out as the one who followed in the footsteps of David the most. And just as you know, we had talked about, Ahab was like the worst of the, the evil kings. Hezekiah was the best of the good kings and he was only 25. Think about that. 25 years old. Yeah. Nowadays, like when women are looking for men, they, they don't find a 25 year old who's mature enough or stuff like that. 25 year olds nowadays, they're playing Fortnite or Call of Duty or something and you know, eating chips on the, in the mother's basement.
Right, right, right.
But back in the day, and even if you think about just the age of people when they get married now, and it's certainly not the 18, 19, 20 like it was with our parents generation, by any means, right?
Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Culture has, has definitely. And I think this maybe even be something that we touch on the enemy plays a long game with this. Right. And culture has done no favors. I mean the world's never going to do us favors of, of walking out, you know, what the Bible actually commands and, and what it means to, to truly obey God. But the end of the end of the day, if we love God, Jesus says if we love him, we will obey him.
Yep.
Right. And so that's what we want to do here. But if we come back to this, this verse that, you know, David talking to Solomon, it's like be strong. Right. What does that actually mean? And, and not, not just from the physical standpoint that we talked about, but more like spiritually the character that we're developing. Right. Of as you, I think you mentioned this just like having integrity, having you know, a moral compass and choosing right and wrong. Yep. Right. And if you don't know what right, what that is, that's all the more means of why you should get into the word of God and understand like what are these statutes? Right. And it's, what are these commandments that we've been given? And oftentimes I think because we live in the end days. Right. In the New Testament days, it's like we, we rely so much on grace that we think we can do anything.
And you know, just because we maybe verbalized a prayer that we can, you know, do whatever we want. Because I gotta. I got the ticket to heaven, baby.
Yeah.
And I would argue like you are deceived. And it's. Unless you're actually bearing the fruit of what it means to be what the Bible calls a Christian. Right. Or, you know, a follower of Jesus. I don't think the Bible actually calls us Christians. A couple times it's in there, right. But mostly in a derogatory manner. But what it means to be a follower of Jesus is that we should bear fruit. Right. And that fruit is, is evident of if we're actually followers of Jesus. So.
Yeah. When you're talking about being strong in Ephesians 6, the passage of putting on your armor of God, it always struck me that, you know, it tells you to put on the armor of God and go through the helmet of salvation, all the armor. But right before it says, be strong in the Lord.
Yeah.
And mighty in his power. So it's like, okay, before I even put on this armor, which that's the key, I got to get this armor on, but I got to be strong in the Lord first. And that always struck me, it's like, man, that's almost more important because if I'm not strong in the Lord first and that strength again being that discipline, obedience to the Lord, it's really courage. It's, it's not being afraid to be bold to tell the truth and not, not even just be bold and tell the truth, but act out the truth, what God's calling us to do. Not worrying about what the world says about us, not worried about what it looks like to other folks who have no idea, you know, the way we live our lives as Christians, like we, we should look, our lives should look radical compared to the world.
Right?
Because we, we serve a, a God and that, that's mighty. But we're not even citizens of this here world anymore. We said yes to the Lord. We became citizens of Heaven. We're ambassadors here. This, of, we've talked about this in the past. If we fit in with the world, then are, is this, Are, are we citizens of the world or are we citizens of heaven? I mean, you should be able to distinguish absolutely who somebody's a citizen from by their fruit, like you said.
Yes, absolutely. Which comes back to if you, if you don't know what it, what that even means, or if you're brand new Christian or you're trying to figure this thing out, it really literally, what, what David says him is to, you know, keep charge of the Lord. Right. So it's like, what does this mean? It's like to, to live by the word of God. Right. To know his statutes. And he gives, gives some specific examples or like call it seven.
Terms, if we want to call it that, of, like, what that actually means. What, what is, what is it? What, what are God. What is the. What does God's word actually say? Right. And so it's like if we break that down, there's the word, charges, ways, statutes, commandments, rules, testimonies and laws.
Right.
And so he's essentially telling Solomon to order his life completely around.
God's Word.
Yeah, yeah. And if you, if you read Psalm 119, that, that almost every scripture in Psalm 119 refers to God's laws, rules, statutes, commandments. Right. But it all comes down to scripture. And like, the way we interpret that is. It's God's. It's God's word.
Yeah. Period.
It's the Bible. It's what I'm holding my hand right now. So. And all of that is found in here. So if we're obedient to, to those things, it's. It's a pretty good blessing that we get. I mean, pretty much we'll be blessed in all that we do.
Right.
Prospering. All that you do and wherever you turn.
Yeah.
It's like. Which sounds, and I don't want it to sound like legalism. Just obey, obey, obey, and you'll be blessed. But at the end of the day, that's really what it comes down to. Because when we're disobedient, when we're rebellious against God, then typically it's when heaven's blessings aren't falling upon us. Yeah, but we, we shouldn't, we shouldn't want to obey God out of obligation. We should want to do it out of love.
Yes.
Because of the relationship that we have. It's like with our children. I want my, my child to, you know, clean up after himself because I told him to, but I wanted to do it because he fears the consequences and repercussions if he doesn't do it. I want him to willfully do it because it's pleasing to his father. He knows his father would be proud of him. He knows that his father will. Will give him that, that thumbs up, the high five, the wink, whatever it is. Because. Because I know he's being obedient and ultimately he's growing because he's becoming disciplined. He's learning good Habits. And it's not because just out of fears, like, or just, just doing it half heartedly because like, oh, I know I got to do this.
Yeah, true. But I also would argue that there is a good healthy fear of the Lord that we should have. Yeah, right. Like, and a lot of people would say, you know, fear the Lord is like this on reverence of him. And I think that's true. But also.
This freaking God.
I mean, there should be a healthy fear there, right? Of like.
I don't. Who am I to not like it? Who am I to not? I mean. Yeah, right. But we get so boastful and arrogant because we're man. Right. Who's gonna tell me what to do? I'll tell you who. God. Right, right, right. And we're called to humble ourselves. Yeah, right. And, and I think that's the, the biggest sandwich that most men need to eat is a little humility.
Yeah, I know it was for me, is for me, but I'm getting better at it.
Yeah, well, I, I think that's one of the biggest ways that the enemy takes out men is their pride. Just uses their pride against them.
Against them. Right, right.
Because you could have all the attributes of a, a, a manly man, a godly man, but ultimately now those things where yes, you're head of household and you have authority. Right. But now is it where you don't listen to anything anybody says?
Right.
So you're, you're way or the highway or anything when it comes to like you take that good trait and then like the enemy does with anything. Right? Yeah, he, he turns it against you. He, he, he, he morphs it into something that you know, that is not there for the reason God gave it to you, quite frankly.
Yeah. What God creates for good, the enemy will use for evil. No different than what you know, the enemy means for evil. God will use for good.
Yep.
Right. And that is, I think any of our.
I just had like a chess match in my, in my head play.
Yeah.
As you said that you know, just like ultimate checkmate by, by God.
Totally. Yeah.
Like, like the enemy thinks he's in this like chess match with, with God right now. And you know, obviously he, he lost when Jesus resurrected. But the, the fact that we're, you know, the Lord hasn't come back yet. He, he ascended into heaven and he hasn't come back yet. And I know the enemy, even though he knows his ultimate fate, he's like, O I, I could still out, out connive God. And, and he does, he, he's had nothing but time to.
Plot his schemes, his plans, and. And come up with the. These attacks. And if the enemy's playing the long game, like, obviously the enemy would love for all of us to just, you know, rebel against God, like, at the drop of a hat, but he'll distract us, right? He'll get our eye off the prize and get us to just kind of drift. And even when it comes to masculinity, I mean, I think the enemy knows what a good biblical, masculine man is. And, you know, it's been a couple hundred years already since the Industrial revolution started where, you know, men went out to work instead of working the land and kind of discipling your kids, especially your sons, you know, day in and day out, as you're teaching them to work, but also teaching them how to live, how to be a young man into a man. And then ultimately, over these last couple hundred years, and in particular the. The last handful of decades, in particular, especially in this country where this movement of, you know, this feminist movement and. Yeah, and just now we've talked about it. Just, Just. Just the idea that anybody could be what they think they are in their own brain is just the fact that that's accepted. I mean, you look. Look around, you just see more sissies walking the earth today. And I'm not saying, you know, in the 1950s and 1960s, where, you know, probably more men used to punch their wives in the mouth at the time. I'm not saying that was right either.
Right.
But at the end, men were manlier back then than especially the generation you see today. It's like, oh, oh, where the. Where the leaders and. And honestly, if it ain't it should be the parents, but the church collectively raising absolutely these young kids.
Yeah. The church, the body of Christ should be the. The ones influencing culture in every aspect of life. Right. And you mentioned the Industrial Revolution. And then I think of even, you know, wars, men having to go out to battle. So then they come back with PTSD and probably to a completely different household that's been ran by mom.
That then, you know, I'm just thinking of, like, what our brains can comprehend as far as, like, prime examples of how we've gotten to where we are now. Yeah. Where, you know, I imagine, like, during the time of war, it's like, now dad is, like, checked out mentally, emotionally. Yeah.
And.
Yeah, it's just. It's fascinating just to think back over even the last 150 years.
Yeah.
Like the domino effect here. And as we mentioned earlier, like, the enemy will play the long game on this. Right? And we're, we're now eating everything that we've been losing at in this quote unquote chess match. You know, as far as what it means to actually be a man of God. Right. To truly.
Be strong, but also obedient. Right. To have, to and to have courage and to disciple our kids. Right. And to lead our spouse well, yeah, right. In a loving manner the way that Christ did. Like we're, we're to love our wives the way Christ did. And that means he literally died for us. Right. It's like as a man, are you, will you do that? Are you prepared to do that? And that means eat a humble sandwich every morning.
Right.
And hold your tongue.
Y.
Right. And, and that's what we're called to do. Right. And, and the, the wild thing is, is that when we do that, it's amazing the response from our spouse. Right. And this isn't like a marriage event, but it's just, it's, it's, it's wild. But here's, here's the thing. We gotta go first, man. Like that's, that's our job. That is our, our cross to bear, if we want to call it that. We go first and, and radically see how your spouse will respond when you don't snap back at them. When you, when you don't lead as a, as a boss, but as a true leader and, and leading by example and what it means to come in and, and love and, and hold them and listen to them. And as much as you might not want to, that's your job. That's your duty. Right. Because I don't. It doesn't really matter what you want to do. Are you going to be obedient to what God has called you to do?
Yeah. Amen. Well, I want to touch on some of these because this is fascinating. Just the deconstruction of masculinity over the years. And we touched on a, on a couple Industrial revolution, the world wars, and from the 60s, the 80s, the sexual revolution and feminist movement.
Right.
And that's when Hollywood and universities began teaching that traditional gender roles were the cause of societal problems.
Right.
And the result was, you know, masculinity starts to deconstruct a bit. And then it really, from the mid-1900s all the way to the present, the rise of secular humanism and psychology. And that means manhood became self defined instead of God defined. Society moved from theology to psychology. Sin became sickness and repentance was replaced with self expression. Schools and culture Began teaching that identity is fluid and self created authority and absolute truth were dismantled and follow your heart replaced. Follow God as a result, as a generation of men trained to suppress their God given strength rather than sanctify it. And then you look at the decline of the nuclear family. Right. Which is really just starting like really in our childhoods and a little bit prior in the 70s probably where divorce rates skyrocketed in the 70s and 80s and single parent homes became the norm and when boys grow up without fathers.
Right.
That they, they are so far behind the eight ball when it comes to just how you do life and what you learn and what you're molded and shaped into from a boy becoming a man. When it's a single parent home and there's a lot of great single moms out there, but little boys need men. Yeah. And when you look at today now, I mean this is relatively new, but you got kids being adopted. Thank God they're adopted. But when they get adopted by a same sex couple, especially when it's two men.
Yeah. Right.
I, I mean the, the kid's going to be confused as anything with, with two women, but two men. So now you have two men in the house and neither one of them are actually playing the role of man.
Right.
You know.
Yeah.
So. So tell me that won't feminize a child. Yeah. And ultimately, and I'm trying to be somewhat sensitive, but like you think that kid is going to grow into anything but a.
You're right. Right.
And, and I don't want to make such a blanket statement like that because I, I know God could redeem, God could cover at the end of the day, but you're just setting that kid so they have so much more to work through to actually try to become what God has called them to be or believe that they are what God is calling them.
Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's so true. And you can just see this, this whole kind of domino effect in, in culture. And so.
What I want to just cover like a few, few ways or just talking about exposing what the enemy will use against men.
Yeah.
We'll kind of run through these somewhat, somewhat quick. But the first one you mentioned already in this, this pride. Right. Like this is again, what can you, what can seem to be like our.
Strong trait can easily be our curse at the same time. Right. And so I think it's great to be bold and be confident as a man, but there's a point where that confidence turns into pride and arrogance. Right. And James, chapter 4, 6 tells us that God opposes the proud, right? Man, I don't want to be opposed by God at all. Yeah, right. But he gives grace to the humble. And dude, this is how we get through this. Life is God's grace. Yeah, right? And it's, it's. And just so we're clear on what grace is, because I think people get this confused with, with God's forgiveness. Like, that's God's mercy, right. His mercy is, is us not getting what we deserve. And his grace is getting more than we deserve, right? So when we understand that it's, you know, when we're, when we're tempted with pride, it is God's grace that allows us to eat that humble sandwich, right? It's like. Or when we're tempted with, with lust, it's God's grace that gives us. Because Scripture tells us that he always gives us an out. There's always an out.
Yeah.
When we're tempted, right. When sin is crouching at the door, there's always a way out, and that's through God's grace. But we, we've got to. To make that choice, right? And this comes back to just, even what David is telling Solomon of like, hey, to, to be strong, to. To have integrity, to have moral character so you can, you know, obey right and walk in the statutes that he's commanded you. So pride, right?
Anxiety and worry. This is, I think men, we might not express this, but this is something that we might have a lot of. Right. Women are probably a little bit more better at expressing it and I think even just be kind of vulnerable. Like when it comes to Ash and I's relationship, I don't ever even want to express it because I don't want her to get anxious or worried, right? And then that might shut off the reasoning of. Might be a little dispute that we have because I don't open up to her, right? And so I think this is something. As men, there should be some boundaries because again, head household, this is the hat we carry, right? Like, this is the burden that you've been given. And, and you, you are needed to lead well with this. And, and when it comes to anxiety and worry, 1st Peter5.7 says to cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Right? And it's like this is, it's, you know, we're. If. If Jesus is truly Lord, if we're, if we're literally following, you know, Matthew 6:36, seeking first the kingdom and all that we do, we know everything else is going to be added unto us that whole everything else. The first 32 verses of that is like provision.
Yeah.
Right. It's like it's, it's, it, that's what it is. And again, if head of household, that's oftentimes what our worry and anxiety is. If you're worrying, anxiety is something other than that we maybe have some other issues. Yeah. Like probably pride. Right, Right. But most, most men I think are. It's like, how am I going to provide? I'm going to take care of the family. It's, you know, hopefully not like somebody disliked my Instagram or something like that because then that's probably pride.
Yeah. Right. But there, there's a lot of go getters out there. But it, that becomes an idol because you're so, you're taking that burden of being protector or provider. Excuse me. And work becomes an idol now and it's great. You're, you're out, you're working 70 hours a week. You're providing a house is paid for, you got the vehicles, you know, the kids are good. But now it's back to that single mother house all of a sudden because you're not home.
Yeah.
To actually be with your kids. And a lot of those men have realized later on in life, like remember that song, what's his name? Harry Chaplin. Cats in the cradle, Cats in the.
Cradle in a silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man on the moon. When you coming home, son?
I bought.
I don't know when but we'll get.
Together soon then, then, then I know we'll get together soon then, then.
But that song is so true. Like yeah, yeah, yeah. Literally. I, I mean you listen to that song, you could almost tear up. Especially if you're a, whether you were a kid or an adult that could relate either way, if you're the adult now, that's now, you know, just busy. Too busy for your father who was too busy for you. Right?
Yeah.
And absolutely. It could like bring a tear to your eye because at the end of the day you're not going to care. Guess what? We could have gone on one less vacation for me to spend more time with my family.
Absolutely. It was so good.
Would you rather be a 90 year old billionaire right now or a 25 year old thousandaire?
Right.
I, I'd rather be the 25 year old, no question. Yeah. Because nothing could replace time.
Yeah. Yeah. If somebody asked me right now to trade, trade places with Warren Buffett, would any like even think of it listening right now? Would any of you trade places with Warren Buffett? I mean, the guy's got it. He's gonna die soon. You would think so, right? It's like, that's not. That's not what. What success is. Right. And I think that's just what we have to understand. We think about, like, well, I'm gonna work hard for four years, and then we're gonna reap the benefits of it. I doubt it.
Yeah.
I. I really doubt it. Right.
Warren Buffett's 95 years old.
Dudes eats McDonald's every morning.
Yeah.
It's wild. He's wild, man.
Well, he used that money. He must know how to live forever.
Oh, yeah. You know, he's getting stem cells. Right. Loading up on his Peptides. Right. Um, But. But anyways. Yeah. What's most important in life? There ain't nobody on their deathbeds, like, I wish I worked more.
Right.
And. But on the flip side of that, another one that the enemy can get us with is laziness. Right?
Or just like, yeah, the pendulum swings, right? Either overwork, you never see your family. You're like, I'm gonna enjoy every single day. Or even, like, some of these guys now that. That prefer the mom to go out or the wife to go out and work, and it's like, listen, the men are. We weren't built. We're not wired to be the ones that are home nurturing the children. Yes.
We're.
We're home.
We.
We play a part. But what a woman's able to do.
Absolutely.
For their children, like, we're just not built for it.
Right.
And I don't care how loving, how caring how, you know, I. I don't care. Like, the. The man is the one that's supposed to go out and work, and the woman's supposed to really take care of the kids because. Not because she's less than.
Because we way more than, bro.
I'm saying we're not as good as that.
Not as good.
And not. Not to say that a woman can't go out and work by any means, but we're just not as good, like, as nurturers. What. What? Little babies need that nurturing. Like, we have it, but not like a mom does.
Absolutely.
We just know.
Absolutely.
But.
But this is the importance, is what you're saying earlier. It's like, why a child needs both.
Yeah.
Right. Like, when I see Titus fall and he. Or he's crying or he's struggling with something, I'm, like, watching him. I'm letting him cry. I let him, like, handle it, because to me, it's like, well, I'm gonna teach him how to figure things out as a man. Right? And Ash is like, what are you doing? Pick him up.
Yeah. I was like, like, r. He's only three months old. What are you doing?
Like, someone's got to hang the pictures in this house.
No, but I mean, laziness is a. I think it's a. A real big thing. Right? And, you know, if scripture tells us if we don't provide for our family.
Like, if you don't work, you don't eat.
You know what scripture says, right? And, like, it's. It's. You are wicked and lazy. Right. And you will get rewarded for that. Know. Or unwared.
Yeah. If you don't provide for your family, you're as bad as an unbeliever.
Yes. It's like, oh, that's bad. Yeah, it's bad.
That's bad.
Yeah.
Yeah. Another way the enemy will. Will attack men is through isolation. Right? And this is, I think, again, what culture has done a. A really good job at telling us what a man is, is, you know, we don't express ourselves or we just hold all our feelings in. I think there's, you know, some sort of responsibility to that. Again, as I mentioned even before, about not wanting to put that pressure or stress on. On my spouse. But also, I think there's a brotherhood that needs to be where you can be vulnerable and you. You can be open, like, I can be with you and vice versa and some other dudes in our life. It's like, because we need that, right? And. And because when we. When we isolate, this is where the enemy has a freaking heyday, man.
Yeah.
Hey. Day with us. Because it's like, all we have is our thoughts. And, bro, we. We do not think well on our own.
No.
Right. And so I think it's very important that we just have those bros in our life, that it's fun. We crack jokes and bust each other's chops all the time. But also, I've been crying before, right? Yeah, I have.
Yeah.
It's like. Because there's moments in life where it's just like, I don't know what else to do right now.
Yeah. And I was like, I don't know about this guy. I don't.
You're, like, called Joe Char Aldo.
Just kidding. He didn't say that.
Yeah. He'll tell you what Kleenex to buy with the lotion in it.
The dude wipes.
But no, that. That is so important because it. It. You need that outlet to express and you need people in your life to hold you accountable.
Yes.
Plain and simple.
Yeah. And even like that isolation, I think it leads into another huge one for men. And that's lust. Right. Pornography. Right. Which is lust. It's, it's. And it's something that literally of. Of all sins in the Bible, it's the one that we're actually. We're commanded to flee from. Right. So it's not just like.
You know, repent or don't do it, but flee from it.
Yeah.
Right. It's like, you know, you need to flee from that, because if the enemy gets any sort of little stronghold on you in that man, he's. He will take you down. And this is what will take literally everything down, whether it's starting with looking at chicks on Instagram to leading into actual pornography and cheating on your spouse. Right. And I would argue pornography is literally cheating on your spouse. Right. And it's. It's a version of adultery. And it's just not for men. It's just. It, It's. It should absolutely not be anything that we give any sort of room for.
In our lives or woman suffer or women.
Yes. But I'm. We're. We're talking about men right here.
Right.
But, yeah, same.
Same for women.
I mean, any of these things with the laziness, the isolation, all these can be applied to women as well. But I think, you know, men and women have different inclinations of what they're going to fall into. And.
Yeah. So, but this, you know, we'll just talk about even less. Even more. It's like, you have to, number one, you got to be aware of these things. Right. And. And have the. Have a desire to not do it. Right. Not just the remorse after you do it, but it's like at that point in time, like, what are you going to do to not do that again? Right. And sometimes it's. You have to put. You got to get radical with this. It's. It's not radical, though. It's just like, it's what's obedient.
Yeah.
Right. But you might have to put measures in place, like getting rid of social media or, you know, they have plenty of protection apps and things like that where it's just like, you, You. You can't put yourself in those situations because somebody just doesn't fall into cheating on your spouse. It doesn't just like, oops, I fell and landed on her. Right, Right. No, no, no. It happens emotionally. And then it just. It leads down this path to. All of a sudden you, like, Wake up and your life is a freaking pit of trash.
Yeah.
Right. And so you got to keep these things in check, these boundaries in place to actually, you know, keep you in check. Left undone just left us to on our own. We're going to do some stupid crap.
Yeah.
Right. And so, you know, and our desire should be how do I, how do I obey the Lord? Hopefully at some point you break that stronghold entirely where it's like those things aren't in place. But it doesn't mean that you just start to live this, you know, grace train of a life again. It's like, no, you, you still have boundaries. You still have things that will never allow you to get to a point where that could be a problem. Right?
Yeah. When as he was, when as he was born, he's five now, I thought I would really enjoy most, you know, doing the, the boys stuff with him.
Right.
Like teaching them how to throw football, how to shoot a basketball, stuff like that. And he's five and I, I love those things, but there's nothing more I love more and, and pleases my heart when he gets excited about it than just filling him with the word of God. Yeah, like that's. I, I just shared with you earlier that, that rap song where the lyrics in it said if you don't like the truth, you're, you're a dead liar. Like Ananas. And Ezzy, he thinks he's a little rapper at this point. It's hilarious.
Well, he's black.
Half, half, right. So he'll, he'll rap a song then do your taxes as well. All right, but.
So I said, ezzy, do you know who Ananias is in the Bible? Like who he's talking about? He said, yeah. I said, who's his wife? He said, sapphira. I said, why did God strike them dead? He said, because they lied. I said, what did I lie about? He said, money. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I don't even remember teaching him this. That, you know, that's not exactly something you go go over specifically with a five year old kid. And it's definitely in none of his Bible stories that he's watching, but that was remarkable. Like that, that's more pleasing to me than, than like seeing him. He's only five, so you know, he's doing a little basketball now, but if he were to, you know, strike out 10 batters when he's right playing baseball or if he scores 40 points in a game, him knowing the Bible, but, but actually having a heart and an Interest for the Lord waking up every morning, going over, he goes in peas and he goes to his prayer mattress and he bows down and he prays every morning. And yeah, we're going to instill that in him to, to develop the habit of it, to create the discipline to do it. Because I mean, heck, as an adult, not every morning I feel like getting up and praying. But you, you gotta still do it. Still do it.
Yep.
And to know that he, he knows who God is and he's aware of God's presence and just, you know, things of the spirit, probably more than an average 5 year old. Because this is what we teach him.
Yeah.
It's just. And then talking about David and the charge he gave Solomon to, to be a man. At the end of the day, if Ezzy never knew how to throw a curveball or throw a football or anything, or knew how to build a freaking deck or anything or, or you know, change the oil on his own car at the end of the day, it's like, are those some things that I'd be proud of my boy if he could do? Absolutely. But I don't care if he loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.
Right.
And love loves others as himself, then I won as a dad. Right. It's like I, I beat the game.
Question. It's the best. Absolutely. Which I think is a, is a big thing. Like men, your, your first priority, your first ministry needs to be your household. Right. And, and for some of you listen to this, it might be like, well, I just don't know. I don't know how to do that, or we're going to feel awkward or all of a sudden this would be new and different for your spouse. And so she, you're not going to sure how she's going to respond to it. Eat a pride sandwich. Yeah, right. Because that's what it is. You need to humble yourself. And maybe she knows the word more than you. Let her. Let her walk you through this. Right. Like this. It's, it's, it's submitting to God number one so you can shepherd your household appropriately. That's, that's first and foremost, that's more important than your business. It's more important than another small group. Maybe some of you are ministers, pastors that even listen to this. It's like priority number one is your household. This is the, the first gift that, that God has given you to steward. Well, right. And when, when you approach it as, okay, this is what I, this is my first call. First is to shepherd and lead my household. Well, that's a new level of just understanding of, like, what matters most. Right. It's not about going to make a ton of money to provide for the family. You need to go work to provide for your family, but not at this sake of not shepherding them.
Yeah.
Right. It's like that, that has to be priority number one.
Yeah. And if you, or say you're. You got married to somebody or both unbelievers or she was a believer and you're just not it as far along in your walk with the Lord as your wife, then guess what? I bet if your job, you know, gave you some new software you had to learn for the presentation next week, you figure it out.
Right? Right, Absolutely.
If you actually care, you'll figure it out. You'll. You'll go to a church, you'll. You'll start listening to Christian podcasts. You'll. You'll find a sermon online and start listening to, to teachings and stuff. If you're serious about it.
Yeah.
If, if you're not, then you're not going to do it.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that is, again, that comes back to that discipline. Right. And I think, I mean, I know we're, we're going over a little bit of time today, but I just think that it's so important for this and I think I just want to re. Re read again First Corinthians 16, because it's so good. I mean, David gave us that charge, but in the New Testament, then Paul just essentially echoes this and it's like, this is what as a man we need to do is be watchful. Right. Stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Right. Let all that you do be done in love. Right. So be alert, be ready, be watchful over your household and your family. And what does it mean to love? It doesn't mean that kids get run of the house. It doesn't mean that you just do whatever your wife says because you don't want to ruffle the, the waters.
Yeah.
Right now she probably has really good ideas. Right. So, but this is still. You got to step into this role as a man on how to lead appropriately, but in with humility. Right. And in a loving manner and even in what are the qualifications of an elder? Tim, Is that Timothy?
Yeah.
Second Timothy.
Yeah. All right.
One wife.
Yeah.
Full of faith.
So good, because I think, I mean, that's literally what it means to be a man. Right. If we think about just qualifications of an elder. What I just typed in qualifications.
I just want to Pull these up.
Of an overseer. Yeah.
And then we'll end it with this.
Yeah. To be above reproach. Qualifications of an overseer.
Be above reproach. The husband of one wife. I mean, that's pretty good. Pretty good wisdom there. Be sober minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. Right. Hey, this. This is like. This is what you got to do. Might not think you're capable, but you can make yourself able.
Right.
By learning and digesting it for yourself. Right. Nobody's good at everything. Just naturally.
Right.
It just takes a lot of time, effort and work. Right. Not a drunkard. Come on, man. How about that, right? This is, I think, a. A big thing that we might not have been known by other people, but if you're just at home at night slugging beers and. And just, you know, getting through the evening to get to the next day, this is something we have to take seriously. Not violent, but gentle. Not quarrelsome. Not a lover of money. He must manage his household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. If anyone does not know how to manage his household, how will he care for God's church? Right. These are obviously qualifications of an elder, but it's like, dude, I think that should be an aspiration for any man. Right? We should all.
Seek these type of attributes or characteristics, which is good.
Yep.
Got any closing thoughts?
No. I just pulled up Titus 1:7 where it says, for a bishop must be blameless. And this is qualifications for. For elders as well, but it says specifically, a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God. When you're talking about all those things, being a steward.
Yeah.
Is like a faithful steward of what you have. And guess what? Everything you have came from God.
Absolutely. Your.
Your life, your job, your spouse, your kids, everything came from God. And if you have, it means God has entrusted you, whether it be for a short season, a long season, to steward it, to manage it well. And like the parable of the talents, everything that we have, our job is to add value. Add value to it.
Yep. That's good. That's good. So, men, this may seem overwhelming, but I don't want it to be right. A marathon, to me, would be overwhelming if I had to go run that today. But I can run one mile, right? Don't give me that. I can run a mile, dude. I could go run. I guarantee you I could go run a marathon right now.
A marathon.
Nope. Yes, you would.
You would get there.
I can get through it.
I know you would, dude.
Like, I climbed that freaking mountain.
I Know, Father time's catching up on training now.
A boner. Be out of my leg before I would stop.
That's true.
Right.
You're very tenacious.
Yeah. I think men should be.
Yeah.
Like, come on. It doesn't care about your feelings. It's gonna hurt, but get through it. Right. It wasn't the point of it, but what I was getting at with that is that you give me that look. You didn't think I could run a mile or a marathon, but then I said, but I can run a mile. And then you're like, come on. I wouldn't enjoy it, but I'm gonna do it.
Maybe next week we'll.
Right, here's. Here's my point.
Take the show to the track.
Here's my point in all of this. You can't read the Bible in one day, but you can read one chapter. Right? You. You're. You're not gonna just radically, all of a sudden change everything in your household, but you can develop disciplines and habits that will eventually get you there, because the pursuit of becoming a man, it is a pursuit. It's not something that happens overnight, but it's. It's a sanctification process that we go through. Right. And. And if you keep priority number one is God, your. Your wife, number two, your kiddos, number three, and, like, that's the order. It's like you can now shepherd, administer your household appropriately.
Yep.
Right. And if you. If it's overwhelming and you don't know what to do, dude, reach out to us. Join kingscouncil.com. start to hop on Bible study, and then what you learn there, Teach it to your kiddos. Yeah. It's that simple. Right? It's. It's. You don't have to learn everything. Right. But it's just. It's a start of. Of reading it, understanding it, and starting to apply it.
Yeah.
In your life.
And it's such a good community. You know, I. I lead them the Bible studies, but there's so many qualified, like, teachers of the Word, just seasoned, mature Christians that have so much insight that it's good conversations. Great community. Yeah.
Great community.
Join kingscouncil.com.com and King's Council Bible study.
Yes.
Got it.
Got it.
All right.
We're way over.
Yeah.
Get you guys out of here this Friday. Thanks for sticking with us this long, and we will see you guys all next Friday.
See you guys. Have a blessed weekend. Peace.
