Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Hey. Welcome to the Grace House Podcast. Brian Phillips here with you today. It's a crazy world out there. Seems like crazy amount of stress and anxiety, inflation, all kinds of things can be bombarding us. But how do we live centered? How do we live at peace in the midst of all this? How do we stay calm? Them poised want to encourage you today with a simple charge. Abraham Lincoln said if you give me 6 hours to cut down a tree, I'll spend the first 4 hours sharpening my axe. So today, how are we keeping our axe sharp men? How are we staying focused on the things that matter? I have a couple of areas I want to bring to you today. Areas that aren't always highlighted, especially in the culture in which we live. And sadly enough, maybe not even in the church culture in which we live.
[00:00:55] But the first one comes out of Psalm 69. It's something I'm very passionate about. It keeps me sharp. Is focusing on the scripture says zeal for your house has consumed me. And then it goes on to talk about how the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. So what are you doing to stay spiritually filled with zeal? Not just knowing good things about God.
[00:01:19] I think that's one of the most convicting things to me, a sign of spiritual boldness is saying the right things, being in the right places, maybe even doing the right things, but not being right inside of our hearts, not having a disconnected heart from God.
[00:01:40] And it's easy to do. I slip into that at times, right?
[00:01:45] We have to be alert being filled with Zeal. I love the idea of Zeal because I love this idea connected to Zeal because I kind of thought a lot. I've always thought through the years like oh, I'm a type A. I'll just get like I'm going to go do a workout, take a pre workout or something and get all jacked up right and ready to lift weights or whatever you're going to be doing that day in the gym.
[00:02:12] It's not like that the Zeal of the Lord isn't like a pre workout. It's not a ramp up. It's not like any kind of energy I'm bringing to the scene.
[00:02:20] It's quite the opposite. I still myself. Focus on the word meditate, slow down, breathe, deal with sin and then focus on loving God, seeing God.
[00:02:37] Focus on the grander, massive global picture of God ruling and reigning sovereignly over the nations.
[00:02:46] Tuning into his will, not just my will and desires, but yielding my will to his coming under his authority.
[00:02:56] So the good news of the Gospel attracts us to the kingdom, but we can never divorce that from the bottom line of the kingdom, which is doing the will of God. And that's what the Holy Spirit's helping us do, is to do the will of God. So if I want to be filled with Zeal for the Lord. If we can be like David and be like, hey, Zeal for your house, for your presence, for all things you Father, zeal for those things has consumed me. So if we want to get consumed with Zeal, we're not ramping up and taking a spiritual pre workout.
[00:03:30] We're just going to sit down and stare and gaze upon our Father. We're going to spend time with him, enjoy time with God, enjoy time in the Word.
[00:03:40] Actually engage self control, which we can do. It's actually a spiritual it's part of the fruit of the spirit to actually engage self control and say, I'm not going to do this today. I'm going to do that today. And that's why fasting is important for disciplining the body, disciplining the will, especially in this day and age, man, we've got so many distractions.
[00:04:01] So how are you doing at maintaining Zeal?
[00:04:05] Not the Zeal you might bring, but the Zeal that comes from gazing upon him. And it starts, this starts this fire within that's the Zeal, the Lord we want to carry through the earth. So that keeps your axe sharp. And there's times I get dull in this, guys and I've got to motivate myself. And that's actually my second point, is like the Bible says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
[00:04:31] So you can start let's just start with if you're a married man, how is your relationship with your wife? Your relationship with your wife should be helping sharpen your life. It should be helping you be sharper. Invest in your wife. The Bible says that one puts a thousand to flight, but two puts 10,000 to flight. Do the math right. It's pretty awesome. So spend time investing into your wife.
[00:05:00] Build her up, encourage her, tell her how great she is.
[00:05:05] That's a hebraic. Practice on shabbat is they actually bless the wife in front of the children. It's a powerful thing. If you haven't really encouraged your wife lately, do it. That's investing into your wife, investing into that iron sharpening iron relationship, that's going to help you and her both fulfill the call of God on your lives.
[00:05:25] Practice. If you've got children, practice blessing your wife in front of the children. That's powerful, what it does for the family, and it will come back to you. Maybe not that day or that week. And if you've been terrible in this area, then you've got some repairing to do. But get busy at it. If we want to keep our acts sharp for battle, we want to keep our acts sharp for the things that we're called to do.
[00:05:45] We've got to be doing the right things. We'll be focusing on the right things, especially in this day and age where anxiety and inflation and all kinds of stuff is coming against us. Global wars, I mean, possible World War Three scenarios in our minds. I mean, these are the days to be more in tune with God than ever before.
[00:06:04] So when it comes to your children, if you have children to turn your hearts to them, turn your hearts to those little hearts and invest in them and pour into them and make sure that you're equipping them and you're being the best dad that you can possibly be to those children, provide for them and protect them, but engage with their hearts. It's not just being in the house. It's being the man of the house.
[00:06:30] It's not a barbaric role of dragging your wife around by the hair and barking orders at your kids.
[00:06:36] This man of God, this man after God is a man who's tender and kind and compassionate and his children see all that. Yeah, you're tough when you need to be, but invest in your children. Turn your hearts to them. Make sure they know that you're there for them. Build them up, encourage them and help them. These are tough days for teens and youth, and for children, these are hard days. So be an extra supporter. My kids know that I got their back. They know that I love them. Man, I pour a lot into my children. Not perfect, and I'm the first one to admit that to my children.
[00:07:14] And then the third area, well, we're on secondary, but I'm kind of hitting a couple of things. Your wife, your children. And now what about your brotherhood? What about your band of brothers? What about building outside? You've got to have one or two powerful relationships, guys.
[00:07:30] So take a risk. Build a relationship. If you've got a guy that you can be authentic with and kind of let the guards down, invest into that relationship, spend time there. Let that iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another. God wants us to sharpen one another, not cut one another. He wants us to allow his grace. I'm grace to my comrade, my brotherhood of men. I'm covering over them, and then they're doing the same thing to me. They're covering them. They're not overlooking things, but it's the covering. It's providing a shelter of, like, oh, hey, go ahead, get it out, man. Let it out. I'm here for you, man, and I'm going to call you to that higher level that I know that you're designed to operate at. So if you build a strong brotherhood of men, two, three guys, even just one guy, and you build and invest in your relationship with your wife and your children, you're going to have powerful iron sharpening iron experience in your life. You want that relationship with your wife. One puts 1002, puts 10,000. Come on, guys. And then your comrades, your brothers that you're walking with, man, you got to have those guys. You got to have someone that you can call on your bad days. My wife calls it like, I go into my got to be in a cave mode. Just let me have my cave time.
[00:08:47] I go down, but I got to have brothers that walk with me, and I do. I've got great men of God in my life that journey with me and walk with me and sharpen me and challenge me at times. And it's very powerful, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's the way God designed us. You actually need this in your life. So focus on those things today men. This week, focus on and greasing zeal and focus on the ironing, these iron relationships of your life. All right. Hope you enjoy this little charge. Have a powerful week. Make it a great week. Go after the things of God.
[00:09:23] Be counterculture. Go after yeshua. Go after this kingdom and don't look back. Until next time, live upright.
