Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Engaging the five-star charge, honor, affection, Liberty, war, and Valor. I'm in the studio tonight with Ryan, Evan sub Ryan,
Speaker 2 00:00:18 Man. Good to be here with you. Uh, Hey, we want to take care of some, uh, quick admin before we start this podcast, or really before we get into this topic, because it's going to be a good one today, guys. I'm, uh, I'm really excited about this, about what it means to be a man of honor, how to honor God with our lives, gage unit, engaging it, applying it to our lifestyle. And, uh, so we're going to get into that here soon. Um, but before we do that, uh, I want to ask if you haven't already subscribed to this podcast, go ahead and subscribe to it. Um, subscribe to our email list, go visit grace sops.net. Um, when you get a chance, uh, make it, make it as soon as you can. And, uh, let's, let's get connected. Uh, it's a great way for us to stay connected to you guys, keep you guys plugged into our culture and, uh, and yeah.
Speaker 1 00:01:05 Yeah. And you can find us on all social media platforms at gray SOPs to 12, search us and find us it's this stuff's taken off, man. I mean, we already got 600 guys in a, in the gray SOPs men's group. If you're interested in that, you can find us on the groups at gray SOPs, two 12 on Facebook, but you got to search the groups. So we don't talk to me about engaging the five-star charge on our website. You've heard us talk about it. You've heard us reference it. Literally Ryan, it took you and I, we worked on it for a solid year just to language easily. So when we say the words, honor, affection, Liberty, war, and Valor in the first four of the five-star charge, focus on your inner world, your mind, soul spirit. And then when you got that kind of stuff set, and your disciplines are there.
Speaker 1 00:01:56 You're walking with the abandoned brothers. As we've mentioned many times, then you can live. It actually helps you live a life of Valor on the battlefield of life. So we all, we we've been saying it's simple, but it isn't easy. So we want to talk about, we want to kind of define it out a little bit more here today. What it means to honor. We're just talking about honor. And on our website, we have established a life of honoring God. So that's kind of where we're going today. How to engage a life that honors God and powered by Greece. But Ryan, why does this charge? I mean, we're, we're talking about a lifestyle way of living, you know, why does it matter? Why do we even come up with this stuff? You know what I mean? We, I mean, we've poured so much energy into this. I remember him at rhino. I took a trip to Paducah, Kentucky. Once
Speaker 2 00:02:43 I forgot about that, you remember that you sat in the Starbucks, we started rough draft and all this stuff,
Speaker 1 00:02:48 Oh man, we, I mean, how many versions have we got? You know, just honing.
Speaker 2 00:02:52 And this is probably version 21.2.
Speaker 1 00:02:54 Yeah. I mean, just so you guys know how, I mean, Ryan, I have a great relationship and we discovered, we discovered probably a few years ago, we've been running together for well over a decade and probably will for the rest of our days. I mean, we just feel like God's really called us together to do powerful things, do mighty things together. And gray SOPs is one of those fields of battle that we kind of, uh, work very well together. And so, but one of the things that we found out about our strengths is, is I might go, you know, get the big stones, the big vision, the big chunks, and Ryan's really good at going, okay, now we've got to take the chisel and the hammer and start getting this into shaping and find telling it. And so, so y'all bring like this big chunk of like vision to the table and rhino rhino take a few months and be like, well, I gotta get my mind around how to shape this into something that looks better than this. And so, and, and it's actually cool cause we, we, we flow that way and it works really well. So why, why does the five-star charge? Why did we create it? I mean, we think about the hour we live, we think about, you know, this timeframe right here, right?
Speaker 2 00:03:56 Well, in an age of moral decline, you know, and you can, you can see this in our bio, but, but we're w we're out to empower men with this five-star charge we're out to, um, you know, God is more concerned about our character than he is about our destination, about our dreams, about the desires that we have, um, about the promises that he's, he's wanting to fulfill through us. I think that, you know, and we've talked about this in many of our podcasts, we, you know, go back and look through, um, go back, listen to some of our podcasts concerning the life of David. And you'll hear a lot of this language in there where God was more concerned about crafting David's character. Um, as a man, you know, that would make him ready, uh, for, for the position that God was wanting to bring him into, which was the palace to be the King. Um, but God, God spent much more time producing in David godly character. So that by the time he could assume the throne that he could actually walk in the purpose that God created and intended for him, um, that he would actually be able to handle, handle the weight and the pressure, um, that that position would be
Speaker 1 00:05:01 Brilliant pressure. Yeah. You know, we think about moral decline. You think, you think about how America is just kind of been sliding down. Our morals have been kind of, you know, eroding, uh, begins culture against this, uh, attack on God, through our schools, through our, through our speech. Yeah. Through our speech and culture. I mean, okay. I'll give you one proof. How has America morally declined? Give you one proof yoga pants. Oh, I thought I'd just say that a little bit there. I know all them girls, they like it. You know, I live in a household when they're so comfortable, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, Oh, whatever, but that's a proof, right? It's just the morality of our culture. And I'm not saying if you wear yoga pants or more, I'm just saying there's this less and less. We're we're, we're not guarding even protecting our, even females protecting men from lusting after them.
Speaker 1 00:05:55 Right? Like just these, these, uh, you think about people who are together with other spouses, but not married. You know, that's, that's part of a moral decline. You think of the divorce rates, even in the church culture, it's part of this decline. The divorce is actually, it's a violent act against covenant and God highly dislikes divorce. And if you've been through a divorce, you, you probably say, yeah, they exactly described it. And I also want to let you know that God offers healing and there's hope for you. And you know, your purpose and gifts in the kingdom still continue. Doesn't mean that God doesn't like it. He still loves you after a divorce, but we just see that our country's more and more and more, and you can see in our politics, you can see the, the great divide in our country, this moral decline, this lack of character, this lack of virtue. So grace ops is kind of, we're trying to charge the hearts of men and we've crafted this. Five-star charge to be a lifestyle that you would adapt, not something that you'd ever perfect. Right. But it'd be something that you would work on. Something that you would kind of like a plumb line, right. Something you'd return to like in your golf swing or your coaching with football, whatever, you know, whatever you're doing wrong. And there's gotta be some fundamental you come back to.
Speaker 2 00:07:08 Yeah. And I think that, you know, a lot of these, uh, the words that we've developed right through this five-star charge that we've taken time to craft, right. It's, it's, it's, it's gone from creating these ideas, right. These concepts of like, of re of defining biblical masculinity through the word of God. Right. And we've taken these different concepts to different elements of, of what does that look like? What does that supposed to mean? What kind of responsibility am I carrying? And we've, we've kind of tried to consolidate that, you know, and, and really, you know, without freaking too many people out, it's, it's been a work of the Holy spirit that's revealed, you know, to me and Brian have like these four inner inner world reflections, the honor affection, Liberty ward that are dealing with the inner man in order to produce a man of Valor that could go out and be bold that it could be courageous on the battlefield of his assignment.
Speaker 2 00:07:56 You know what I mean? Um, and it's been this, it's been this amazing journey that we've, we've, um, been able to, um, kind of go on with each other of really, really trying to define something, um, that, that, that men can grab, hold of and use as a target. And I think that at the end of the day, that's a lot of this, a lot of the five-star charges, it's a target man. It, what it does is it says here's the standard, you know, and, and again, it's not about perfection. It's about just pursuing it daily of saying, you know, and, and it's the same with God's word. God's word has provided a standard of, of living, right? He says, be Holy as I'm Holy be perfect as I am perfect. And he's created a standard amongst believers, you know, those that would call him Lord, call him, um, um, savior, call him the Christ, call him the King of Kings.
Speaker 2 00:08:45 He's created a Lord. He says, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. And so in the same manner, we're creating a standard and men with men in the culture in which we, we live and we're trying, um, bring it in a palatable way, uh, that helps men live the way God called us to live. And, and I will say this too, that, that, you know, we've got some great things coming for you guys. Um, we've got some great resources that will be coming for you. Um, we'll be working on, um, a book that really outlines the five star charge over the next several months. Um, that that is very interactive. It'll be easily, um, digested and easy to engage. Um, you know, we we're, we're, we're continuing to define these, these points of honor affection, Liberty, war, and Valor. We're continuing to, uh, just kind of grow upon each foundation and just go further and further. And so
Speaker 1 00:09:40 Resources, our Caresoft's culture is going to, that's what we're going to work hard on resources,
Speaker 2 00:09:46 The description of what we're actually calling you to, um, we're working hard on our end to get these things in place, um, so that you guys will really,
Speaker 1 00:09:55 And a lot of work, it's been a lot of work and it's fun to get it out there. So there's an attack on morality and there's also attack on masculinity. And one of the, one of the issues of masculinity is what is masculinity nowadays? So the five-star charges our way of actually defining biblical masculinity. We're saying, Hey, this is what a man of God would champion himself to be like, this is the lifestyle you would kind of catch him in. This is a type of heart he would have. And that's why the band of brothers is important. So we know that the whole gray SOPs, the logo, the look, the, feel, the call, everything about it, kind of attracts all different types of men at all different types of water levels. So we talk in about Christ and about scripture, and we know that you might even be listening to some like, Oh, I don't know if I'm a hundred percent on the same page you're on.
Speaker 1 00:10:41 So we just want to invite all the guys, just give us a shot, right? Give us a listen and, and just kind of hear the heart and the foundation of what we're looking at and see if it can help improve and empower your life to even be better. So looking at honor, this concept of honor establishing a life of honoring God, and we've already defined that it's a lifestyle. Jesus was very clear about, uh, you know, you might even know this, no matter what water level you're at, you might no, no, no. This concept, when Jesus said your kingdom come, your will be done, right? Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, or when he said hollowed, he was actually referencing lifestyle. So to hollow, the name of God had to do with how you lived. Cause the opposite of hollow in the days of Christ was actually profane.
Speaker 1 00:11:29 So to profane the name of God, isn't just using God's physical name in vain. Although that's one customer, I can't stand it here. I cringe a little when I hear it, but w but to the opposite of honoring and hollowing, the name is actually to profane it in our lifestyles. So we want to take today's episode and actually the next five episodes. And we can kind of walk through each of these and kind of go deeper in the concepts of how we're, how we can engage it as men, how we can call ourselves into this lifestyle. And so we want to, we've kind of talked about it on a few different episodes, this Malakai messaging that we find in scripture. And it's interesting because in Malikai chapter one, Malik has a minor prophet of the scriptures and Malakai is addressing some, some issues in the corruption of the, of the, of the priesthood 400 years before Christ came before the birth of Christ.
Speaker 1 00:12:27 Malakai is addressing a corruption. Now he's a prophet. So he's speaking to Israel in the priesthood on God's behalf. And there's some powerful concepts that he brings up in this first part of his letter. He says, he, he speaks on behalf of God. And God says through Malakai, if I'm a father, where is my honor, if I am a master in your life, where is my fear? Where is, where's not fear. Like we're afraid of you, God, but fear like we're in awe of you. God, we, we see your beauty. We see who you are. And it causes us to act differently, causes us to be captivated and captured by who you are. And because we've been captured by you, therefore, I want to live a life that knows you and a life that honors you. So right out of the shoots, he's, he's addressing this corrupt priesthood, and he's talking about honor and fear any, he pulls this powerful statement out, you know, Oh, there'll be one among you who would stop the vanity of what's happening in my structure, in the temple.
Speaker 1 00:13:40 And I want to go into all the details around that, but God just was like, I just wished there'd be one man among you, who would stop not destroy. I want to be very clear, be in the reason I'm being clear on this, because God has a system set up for us even today in this hour, how we can engage them in how we can know him. And the reason why we bring up this whole concept of the priesthood is because Malika was addressing a corrupt priesthood. But when God, actually in the very beginning, you know, you might remember the movie, the party of the red sea. And when God pulls his people from 400 years of slavery out of the land of Egypt and he saves them heals, then delivers them, all that great stuff. He brings them to Sinai through the wilderness. And all of a sudden, he finally, they finally get to sign I where God is proposing covenant, his people.
Speaker 1 00:14:26 And he actually proposes the idea that every single one, every Israelite would be a kingdom and priest unto him. Now that's God's language. It's not my language. And we're keeping that kind of around this concept of honor, because it's one of the greatest ways we can honor the Lord is to understand what we're actually laying down right here to understand that after Christ came after Christ was raised from the dead God, actually, instead of inviting us in to a priesthood, he's at, he actually declares it over us as an identity that we're actually a Royal priesthood unto him as very, very powerful, very important. So Malik has addressing the corruption in the priesthood of that day. And God still has the assignment of a priesthood on us today. We, I call it like the, every believer priest. It. So if you believe in God or you, you follow after Christ, or you, you say, you know, I call myself a disciple to be a man, a biblical man who honors God, you have to understand in your role, your duty, your responsibility as a priest of God, it's a powerful thing.
Speaker 2 00:15:30 Yeah. And understanding that, that, uh, that priestly duty, um, you know, I want to kind of pull us, um, in a direction where we're, where God States in this passage, he says, where is my honor? Um, I want to just kind of highlight that for a second. You know, it says that through Malik, I got asked to priests of Israel, you know, that they show such little respect and honor to, to him in their sacrifices, you know? And, and th there's an, there's an interesting, I don't know an interesting concept in all of this, you know, I guys, I've, I've been so challenged. Um, you know, Brian's been actually preaching, was it last three, four
Speaker 1 00:16:09 Sundays
Speaker 2 00:16:11 On the, on the book of Malika? You know, even I remember the first, the first message it called me into a great repentance of, of, of where in my own life guys I was, you know, I had felt that I was defiling, um, the filing, my offering before him, you know, felt like I was, I was not living to the standard in which he was calling to calling me to live. I wasn't living worthy, you know, and the beautiful thing guys, you know, cause I don't, I don't want anybody, you know, to, to run like the beautiful thing is that when we understand repentance, you know, um, and that, that, that we can, we can come boldly before the throne because he loves us that he, because he's chastening us, um, because we're sons, you know, and I think that even in my own repentance, over the past couple of weeks where I felt like I was falling short of honoring God and like truly honoring his name, honoring him, like re you know, like bringing reverence to him, um, fearing the name of the Lord, um, where I had found myself in, in, in particular areas of my life, where I felt like I was in error.
Speaker 2 00:17:14 Um, the beautiful thing about repentance and the beautiful thing about when God disciplines, a child or his sons and his daughters is that is the very fact that you are a son. You are a daughter of the King, right? If he is correcting us, if he is disciplining us, you know, and I look at like, you know what he's doing with the priesthood, right? Look, if he didn't care, he wouldn't discipline them. He wouldn't bring Malakai, um, to, to, to talk to them about the defilement of the offering, you know, uh, w what was the, for the, in, you know, they were,
Speaker 1 00:17:47 They were Melika is addressing four key issues. And when we say these you'll you'll identify with our current modern day was that worship had become routine. So they're going through the motions, but they're not engaging the presence of God. They're not engaging. Divorce had to become widespread. Now, this is talking about the people of God, not the people outside of God's kingdom, not the unbelievers. If we would, we would kind of say today, the third thing is it was addressing, uh, social justice was being ignored. And the fourth thing was that tithing, honoring God with the Holy tithe was actually being neglected. And so these are the four things that Malika is addressing, and yet we've been bringing them up. And I think it's, it's very, it's, it's really amazing because God's bringing a, these things against him there it's because it's the way they lived.
Speaker 1 00:18:41 It was their lifestyles. It was like, Hey, you're claiming one thing with your mouth, but you're not acting, you're missing the point. You're missing the point. So that's why God's like, Hey, we're there just be one among you who would just stop? Just one of you, stand up and stop this, not destroy the altar, not destroy sacrifices, not destroy my structure, because I think that's clear that we need to be clear on that. Not they'll just destroy the whole thing, throw the whole thing out. God has a way for us to Olivia as a design. And he goes on and he says, I want you to know something in, in your, in the midst of your corruption, God makes a declaration. He says my name from the rising of the sun to its setting. My name is going to be great among the nations. And that's a very powerful thing for God to say in the midst of corruption, because he's making a declaration that even despite you and your life and the lack, you're your hypocrisy, my name is going to be great.
Speaker 1 00:19:35 And so in this hour of a 21st century culture, moral decline attack on masculinity, we don't, we want to say, Hey, men, if we can establish honor from a biblical definition in our lives, men of honor honoring the Lord, the reason why we want to do that is because it'll make his name great. It's what helps God be seen in the world? Not just lip service, not just half hearted, half ways, right? Like you ever had a coach that called that audio, like you want to put a half practice in or half day. Right? I mean, Malakai's like the coach, he's like the good coach coming in, right. Scolding the team like boys. Absolutely. You're, you're not really on target today. You're not champions today.
Speaker 2 00:20:15 Anyone who's played sports. Right. And had a great coach, like, I mean, a great coach. Um, you would understand, you know, I remember, I remember when coach and I'm not even gonna, I'm not gonna say his name. Not that he's not, not that, not that he would, he would be on this podcast. Not that I'm bitter or anything, but I remember, I remember man practice, we, you know, w w it was pretty intense. We had, we had two and a half, three hour practices, you know, in football and, and Intuit days. Well, yeah, during the summer. Yeah. But we'd have these two, two hour, two and a half hour, you know, practices, you know, they, they chap us, you know, work, us work as good. Um, and then my coach, my defensive coach would make us stay afterwards and run sprints. Right. For like 30 minutes, man, like another 30 minutes, because he said that that you will be stronger than anyone else on this team.
Speaker 2 00:21:05 You know what I mean? And, and I did. I remember, I remember him sprints. Yeah. I remember, Oh yeah. Not lapse after two hours of practice, you know what I mean? Like where everybody's tired and he's like, no, you guys get to stay extra because you're going to put in extra work. But it was because he believed in us, you know what I mean? And because he was drawing, the greatness out of us was saying, you can live to a higher standard, you know? And I remember, dude, I still remember one time in practice. I was going through the motions. I really was. Um, I wasn't, you know, I was the captain of the defense and I was missing tackles during practice. I was just kinda going about it in a weak way. And I remember my coach basically written my helmet off in front of everybody and just got, grabbed me by the shoulder pads, screaming in my face, saying, you want to call yourself a captain. You want to call yourself, you know, you're supposed to be the leader of the defense and all this other stuff, you know, and you're out here giving me this, you know, and, and he didn't say it as kindly, you know what I mean? I mean, there was quite a few profanities in there, you know, but I mean, he tore me to shreds, you know what I mean? But, you know, he pulled me aside later and he said, it's because I believe in the greatness that is inside of you. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 00:22:10 Let you live. And he's also standard of a captain. Absolutely. You want to live below that standard. I'm going to get in your face. I mean, that's what grace is. Grace offs, the operations God's grace. And that's what the five-star charges. Greece wants to train us to honor God so that we can live upright. Yeah. It's very powerful. And so we find that we find the same passion in Malakai addressing the lack of honor. And so we want to use that as fuel in this charge of, Hey men, let's be men of honor, let's stop our lives, evaluate our lives because that's kind of chapter. One's like stop, evaluate, return to my ways. And then God off actually offers a solution to, we find in chapter two, there's a solution. And God actually says, you know, all that, you would be like, Levi, that you would actually be like Levi.
Speaker 1 00:23:02 And when God says Levi, he's not talking about one, man, he's talking about one tribe. So when originally, when God at Sinai, when God proposed covenant Israel and said, I want all you to be kingdom and priest, they were like, ah, that's kind of freaky, Moses. We're not, we don't know. We can all say yes to this, but the Levi's. So there are 12 tribes of Israel and the Levi's said, we're in. We want to do this. God, we want to be priest unto the Lord. So the Levitical priesthood started and the priests were the ones that lived close to God. They, they, they did the duties of a priest. They walked in the responsibilities, they walked in tenderness and sensitivity. I mean, there, there was a, it was high standard. Like your coach, you want to be a captain. I mean, that's what God's doing in Malakai.
Speaker 1 00:23:50 Even through gray SOPs, God's using that Malakai message into this nation of America, into the American men, no matter what water level you're at. And, you know, cause like the whole concept of honoring God, right? Like, God, what is it like God country, family. Like, that's kind of like a mantra out there kind of a way of life or priority system. And where I want to kind of drill down into some of that is like, let's not just say God family country, like in a country song or on a bumper sticker and then live whatever way we want to live. Right. Let's not just have like some kind of like tip our hat at God kind of, kind of like notion, but let's really, let's really take to heart, like what it means to be a man in a country. Cause guys, our country's falling apart right now. Right. And if men would rise up and actually turn their hearts into a place of honoring God, I don't know, man. I think it could really could reap some great rewards on our country and the generations to come
Speaker 2 00:24:47 Well. And I think that, you know, and this might, it might be a little bit of a tangent and I'm not going to go far off, but you know, we're talking about, we're talking about words without action, right? In this statement of saying the professing of a belief system, right. Whatever that is, whatever your belief system might be. You know, this is for me particular, um, it's been a thorn in my side. It's been agitating me at levels that I can't fully describe, um, on this podcast. But the, the, the concept of people's ideologies, right? Their, their, their, their, their ways of thinking or their thought processes of things that they, they confess that they believe. But at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, would you lay your life down for it? Like, would that be on display? Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 00:25:42 Like when, when something demands something from you, you know, and I, and I look at the Christian faith in the, in the same way, like, is, is, is this lifestyle of being a Christian, a disciple of Christ? Um, is it, is it, is it just a Facebook status? You know what I mean? Is it something that you profess, but you don't live out? You know? And I think that that's what this five-star charge is doing, man. We're, we're, we're, we're trying to cut through the facade and say, Hey, look like you can't just confess this and then not live the lifestyle, you know? And that's what that's, you know, even, even, um, in Malakai's day, when, when, when God is using him to address the priesthood, he's doing the same thing. He's saying you can't have the appearance of the priesthood without living up to the standard of which I've called the priesthood Deliv.
Speaker 1 00:26:36 Yeah. And God, actually, it's interesting how he talks through Malakai to chapter two, right out of the chutes to chapter two. He, if you will not take it to heart, to give honor to my name. And that's kind of a powerful statement. So there's mercy in that statement, if you will not take it to heart. So God's like I'm giving, even in this modern day culture, through grace, through this message, through the plural voices out there right now, calling our country into this lifestyle, if you won't take it to heart, that I'm going to act in a particular way. And if you take it to heart, that I'm going to act in a particular way. So we were kind of like, God's like, what, what will you do? And, and we have to show them that through. So honoring God, right? We're not asking, we're not even Ryan and I we've been doing this over a decade and we call each other on stuff in our own lives all the time.
Speaker 1 00:27:28 Right. You confess things to me. I confess things to you. You're like, Hey bro, are you tired? You okay? Like, same. I do the same to you. I do that with a few other guys in my life. And we're, we formed that band of brothers where we're doing this in a community, trying to be disciples, trying to actually honor the name of God. So God says like, if you, if you don't take it to heart, this is interesting. Going back in the biblical temple days where they were sacrificing. God's like, if you don't take it to heart, I will rebuke your offspring. I will spread dung on your faces that the Bible says, I mean, the Bible is pretty awesome. Uh, it's awesome book. I will spread dung on your face as the dung of your offerings and you shall be taken away with it.
Speaker 1 00:28:08 And the issue here was God wanted Israel to bring him the best. And that's what we're talking about in this charge. Honor, affection, Liberty, war, and Valor. That's honing in a lifestyle, bringing God your best. And what God was saying in the days of Malakai was, you know, the priest who actually are receiving these offerings on my behalf, the way I had set it all up, they knew that these offerings weren't the best. Some of these offerings were lame and sick animals not fit. Guy was like, go take those to your governor. You wouldn't even do that because you honor your governor more than you honor me. And in God was like this lame sacrifice, this lame offering and the dong that's left behind on the offering, which the priest is supposed to clean up and take outside the camp. And there was a way to handle all of the carcasses and it'd be able to do all that.
Speaker 1 00:29:04 They weren't even doing that. Right. And God said, if you're not going to take my messaging to you, my, my plea of mercy and grace to you, if you're not going to take it to heart, I'll take the dung and I'll wipe it on your face and it'll be a sign against you. I will actually stand against you. And, and I will actually curse the blessings that I've given you. And I just think about the land in which we live. And it's like, Oh, how we're kind of like this, this messaging could be just so such a powerful, it's the same thing. You know, it's like, and we're calling the men into this whole concept of let's honor, God and I, this is deep waters, right? I mean, like, that's why I was saying like, you might have different water levels, but no matter what your water level is, I know we're putting in a language in a modern day kind of interpretation of that.
Speaker 1 00:29:51 You can grab, hold of and go, yeah, I get that because let's just face it. Right. The Bible was written, all of scripture was written at like a third grade reading level, a third grade, understanding third grade bro, third grade, you know, and we go to college and learn all this stuff. And sometimes we over-complicate the simplicity of it. I'm not saying we shouldn't be learned, man, and be good stewards and study and shore ourselves approved. Yes. To all that. But at the same time, it's, it's a simple, simple message. What God's called us to. And so God actually offers some solutions. We'll focus on that here for the next few moments. Then he starts to turn the attention to Levi. My covenant with Levi may stand. I want it to stand. I want it to continue. It was one of life and peace. It was one of fear.
Speaker 1 00:30:39 Levi, the Levitical priest to the plurality of all the priest that whole tribe honored my name. They had all, they were in awe of my name. And it goes on to say, true instruction was in his mouth, all the priests and no wrong was found on his lips. Now God's referencing a time before Malakai and he's saying, Hey, the priest in the days of Malakai want you to actually remember the covenant that was made with Levi. I want you to return to this type of lifestyle of being an, all my name, honoring my name that no wrong would be found in your lips that you would live sensitively and that true instruction would be in your mouth. And it goes on to say, he walked with me in peace and uprightness and turned many from iniquity. So there was this priesthood that would help turn the hearts of many believers from the iniquity, those hidden even the hidden areas of our lives.
Speaker 1 00:31:42 Like I, I've always kind of looked at iniquity as like this subconscious level where there's darkness inside of us. And maybe even places we're not fully aware of and not saying that to be spooky or weird, it's just, you know, we assume things sometimes our own pride in our own narcissistic ways, Oh, I'm good. You know, it's all good. But iniquity, it goes in and he says this priesthood, they actually lived in such a way that their lifestyle and their ways helped, helped turn many. And boy, do we need that today in this hour? That's why this is a, this is a charge of character and virtue. May we live in such a way that honors God, that helps turn many away from equity, from the falling away, the falling short, the lip service and not the heart, the heart engagement that God is actually really after the priests were the ones that lived sensitively before God, they walked in a manner worthy of their calling.
Speaker 1 00:32:41 And so that only matters because God still calls all of us a priesthood and that's not high on the biblical knowledge today. You know, we like the idea of Jesus being our savior. We don't like the idea of him being our Lord. You know, we liked the idea of saved by grace, God, family country. I'd say by grace, let's sing a song to it, right? But we don't like the idea of being trained by grace. Like Ryan was giving the example of his coach. Grace will come up to you and rip your home on off and grab you by the shoulder pads. Won't scream profanities at you, but will say, Hey, you want to be, you want to live as a standard. My priest I'm equipping you. I'm loving you. Come on, come on. You could do so much better than this. Don't overlook this lifestyle.
Speaker 1 00:33:22 And it goes on and says the lips of apprecia garden knowledge, people should seek instruction from his mouth for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts. And that Lord of hosts is a really big term that we don't have time to get into here. But we want to offer this as a way of how we want to have a life of honoring. God will take it much deeper than just God family country take. What does it mean to know God? What does it mean to be a priest of the Lord? What does it mean to actually come into his salvation? Come into his kingdom? What does it mean to walk with God, man? What does it mean to have true instruction on your mouth that people would come and ask you for wisdom? They would come ask you for counsel based on the way
Speaker 3 00:34:06 You live.
Speaker 1 00:34:09 That's what we want to offer to you in this charge, this con, this kind of this category of honoring the Lord, that we would actually understand our duty, our responsibility, and we'd walk in a manner accordingly, a manner worthy. Yeah, we don't want to be a, we don't want to be a people who pollute water, lower the standards. Um, I've become a big fan of, uh, Gordon Ramsey in the last year or so. I've watched a lot of his shows. I love his passion, fire intensity, his focus, everything sees mean, but he's actually, he's really doing everybody in awesome favor. And I love that on his episodes, the hell's kitchen thing or the kitchen. Make-over one. I can't remember the name of him. He's got a few shows, but all he cares about is truth. That's all he cares about. Tell me the truth. Tell me the truth.
Speaker 1 00:35:00 Tell me why you suck. Tell me why this is falling apart. That's all he cares about. And if you lied to him, he gets mad. You know? Cause he's like, I don't have time to hear your lies. I just want the truth. If you, if you, you could even tell him the worst thing ever. He's like, Oh, this is terrible. It's worse than I thought it was. But he still respect you because you told him the truth. But he, but what I've learned in his show is is he that's what he cares about is the truth. And he cares about the standard of how that food goes out, because he knows if that food goes out and it's all at the same high standard that those customers are gonna be happy. And they're going to return for more and see, we've made a big error in our country.
Speaker 1 00:35:29 At large, we live in a day and age where you got the largest churches and look at the moral decline of our culture. We've got the date. We live in a day and age where more claimed Christ than ever before. But look at the it's, we're missing the lifestyle. We're missing the point of what it all means. And so we have polluted the definition. We have lowered the standard. We've been sending food out. That's been half cooked, you know, and it's really because there hasn't been this lifestyle, this comradery of like, Hey, let's do this together. Cause again, honoring God, isn't something you arrive at. It's it's a foundational piece you've returned to it's it's one of those pistons in your engine. You know, I was like, Oh man, am I my firing on all cylinders today?
Speaker 0 00:36:14 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:36:15 So that's it. We want to call you in to a life of honoring God, take this charge. Seriously. It's simple, but it isn't easy until next time
Speaker 0 00:36:26 Live outbreak. <inaudible>.
