Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] After 30 years of following Christ, maturing into the things of God, falling, failing, rising again, being on the mountaintop, being in the valley, trusting God at all times, one of the greatest, most powerful lessons I've learned is that our excuses do not excuse us. Welcome to the podcast. I want to talk about that today. It's our mission, men, to live, to live upright, and actually to motivate our families to do that, to actually motivate all of our context, everyone we influence to live upright.
[00:00:30] And then there's the problem, right? Well, we're not like Jesus. We failed, we had some sin, we have some then. But what I'm trying to help you see is don't let a setback or a failure or a weakness become an excuse to continue sinning. That's where it becomes wrong. Righteousness. Yeah, Jesus was righteous, and he never tasted death like we've tasted. He's never tasted sin, except for maybe on the cross when he died for us. But what I'm trying to say is that righteousness isn't always doing it right the first time. It's making it right. And through the blood of Christ, we can make things right, we can ask God to forgive us, we can make things right with God, and then we can make things right with man. So there is no weakness of ours or shortcoming that should ever become an excuse. We're not going to stand before God one day and be like, this is why I didn't live upright. And he's going to be like, okay, I excuse you, it's just not going to happen, it's false. Now the enemy wants us to believe that it can happen. The enemy wants us to believe. All men deal with that. All men deal with lust, right? Like I read this in one Peter four this week, this phrase, living in sensuality, it's like, dude. And it came right after this thing of like get rid of all your fleshly desires and passions and live the rest of your days in the flesh for the kingdom of God. That's the goal for all of us, guys. Get some comrades, do life with some other men. When's the last time you prayed for somebody, a man, a friend, and you had their backs, right? So don't get stuck on your excuses. If you got some excuses right now and it's terrible thinking, get rid of it, destroy it, kill it. Don't think that your excuse of like, oh God, I'm just like all these other men, all men struggle with lust, all men struggle with this, whatever your struggle is, lying, cheating, stealing, there's a big list of stuff we struggle with, but we want to strive to live in the things of God, to live, to walk in liberty, to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:02:27] So men after God, yeah, we need each other. We need to strengthen one another, but we don't have to be held down, held back and destroyed by our excuses or by our shortcomings. The Bible says a righteous man falls seven times and rises again.
[00:02:45] And that's what I'm committed to. I'm addicted to that. It's like God, you know what? Yeah, I failed. I'm going to make it right with man and make it right with God. And I'm going to keep on going after you. I'm going to learn, I'm going to continue to grow, I'm going to continue to mature in the things of God, and I'm going to continue to influence the world, to live upright. A man of God that walks in biblical masculinity, he wants to be a man who honors God.
[00:03:08] You want to honor God with your lifestyle, with your decisions, with the motivations of your heart. Like we want to be right with God. That has to be a passionate goal of ours. Like, I want to be right with God. Christ makes me right with God. But I want to live holy. I want to live a holy life.
[00:03:25] I want to let go of the gross darkness of this world. I mean, that phrase living in sensuality hit me because I understand the battle of overcoming pornography and lust and all that kind of stuff.
[00:03:38] One of my number one things in my life was that kind of stuff.
[00:03:42] And that doesn't all go away. I mean, you have to fight and battle against that stuff and apply the blood, apply the cross, apply camaraderie, right?
[00:03:51] Men who are going after the things of God aren't going to let excuses stop them. They're going to keep rising up. What excuse is stopping you today? What's standing in front of you like a wall? Because you know what? The enemy will use guilt and shame to stop you. Bible says that the Holy Spirit convicts us of the guilt, not with the guilt. See, the guilt comes when sin enters into our temples.
[00:04:16] That's when the guilt comes, when shame comes. And if you don't feel shameful about your sin, then that means you really have a problem. If you don't feel guilty about your sin, then you really have a problem. You need to fast and pray and plow the follow ground, break that up, man, that hard ground, and get a soul again before the thing, before God. Don't just live in these excuses. So, guys, I want to challenge you today. Kill the excuse. Be a man who honors God. Be a man who walks in affection towards your wife, your children. Be a man who motivates.
[00:04:46] You're trying to inspire everyone that you are in contact with to live upright by the way you live, talk, think, everything. And I'm not saying you got to be thumping your bible everywhere you go and be shouting it from the rooftops. And there's times for that and there's places for that. Sometimes we got to be covert about it. And your employer doesn't pay you to evangelize your coworkers, right? That's the point I'm trying to make.
[00:05:10] Got to do it the way Holy Spirit says, wise as serpents, harmless as doves, that type of stuff.
[00:05:17] We built a powerful culture.
[00:05:20] Love for you. To use the content, send it to another guy in the app. Send it to him through a text message. Watch these little videos. Use them to build camaraderie in the kingdom. There's already hundreds of men in this app, and we just released it not too long ago. I believe millions of men will come in to gain kingdom strategy to have this content. And we have so much coming. It's so awesome.
[00:05:42] And I really mean that. Like, you're going to see some cool stuff pop off here soon in our culture, content wise.
[00:05:49] But, hey, guys, I just want to encourage you today, what excuse stands before you? Are you guilty, filled with shame? Rise above it. Make it right. Make it right with God. Make it right with man. Kill your excuses, guys. Be a man who honors God. Be a man of affection. Walk in the liberty of Christ. Engage the spiritual disciplines. Be a man of war.
[00:06:10] Go get in the word. That's our 212 goal. Two chapters a day, twelve minutes prayer. We're here for you.
[00:06:18] All of us are here for one another to champion one another onto this lifestyle. And until next time, kill those excuses and live upright.
