Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hey, Brian Phillips here today in the studio on the gray SOPs podcast. I got three of my good friends in the room right now. I got Lenny LaGuardia. I have Joshua Thompson and Ryan Evan now, too. These guys are kind of from out of town. They're in town this week for this man and war event that we have in Lake Geneva. It's going to be a powerful time together. We're going to discuss today on today's podcast. We're going to get into the idea for the theme for this month is war. So today we're going to talk about the disciplines of war and what we mean by that is we mean that what it means to actually spend time with God. It's that simple. It's the discipline of spending time with God. It doesn't happen automatically on the one hand. And then on the other hand, like we're sons and daughters, so we don't want to get, get caught up in like performance either.
Speaker 1 00:00:58 So we're going to kind of talk about the spectrum and just offer. We literally talked about this before we got started. We have over a hundred years just between the four of us, of, uh, of, of serving God time in our lives. So there's a wealth of experience today here on the podcast. We want to encourage you as always to check us out on all the social media platforms at gray SOPs, two 12. You can find us anywhere underneath that hashtag, or just find a set that, that location. Well, gentlemen, it's good to have you here with us today. I'm going to lay out kind of a, a quick thought here. Um, Psalm 27, David talks about this one thing I ask of the Lord that I will seek after that I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Speaker 1 00:01:44 And as we all know, David was a pretty man's man kind of guy killed Goliath. When he was a young guy, he was a very bold leader, killed lions and bears, uh, went up against really strong, uh, critical, abusive leadership, uh, in King Saul and survived all kinds of things, and then walked into his assignment eventually as King of Israel. And so we want to, uh, w we're pulling from his life today, this whole concept of like, cause I believe that he was centered in the presence of God and he uses words that here's this tough guy, right? This kingly kinda of in thinking about how busy he would have been as a King, right? Like these guys, aren't just sitting around doing nothing. Um, and David uses the language, you know, that I want to have this one focus. So no matter what we're doing our lives, this one focus, which we call in the five-star charge, we call war and I want to also kind of drop right here, quickly, go to Greece, s.net, click on the five-star charge and actually sign up for it.
Speaker 1 00:02:39 It'll actually start to kind of pepper our logo across as cool Google map that we have. We want to see who's out there kind of tuning in and getting connected, getting committed to the charge that we're putting out there. And at the very center of this concept of war there's this focus. And this one focus that David had in his life actually gave him strength in all other areas of his. So today I've got these, uh, these amazing men of God in the room with me, and we want to take a few moments and just kind of dive into some questions, two quick questions that we can kind of tackle any way we want to gentlemen. But one is like, where what's your passion for the presence of God? What's your discipline of war? You know, getting to that place of God's presence. What do you, what does God's presence mean to you?
Speaker 1 00:03:20 Maybe bring some definition to that. And the other question we're gonna throw in there later, and you can talk about it at the same time or at different times is what, why are, why are we so passionate to help really the nations, our neighbors, all the way out to the nations come into this place of God's presence, whether we're winning souls or we're just making disciples. It's a, it's a strong passion of everyone here in the room. So welcome today. You just flew in from Kansas city. I gotta get a weekend ahead. Yeah, you guys are great. So let's, uh, love this place. Tear into this, the presence of God, the disciplines of war. What did, what does it take guys? You got, we've got a hundred years of experience sitting here. So what are some of your thoughts? How would you encourage men and women, uh, families listening to go after the presence of God? Why does it matter? Why does this matter to people
Speaker 2 00:04:11 And matters greatly? And I think, uh, for me, it's the dignity of what God has invited a person into. When you look at who he is, the glory of who he is, he dwells in unapproachable light yet the invitation that he has to, to be near, uh, when you mentioned Psalm 27, and David's one thing I think it all goes to that verse four, he mentions later in the song, verse eight, he there's actually an invitation. He said, when you said, seek my face, David sang to the Lord, my heart responded. My heart said to you your face, Oh Lord, I will seek. And it's a powerful, wonderful reality. When you feel the draw, the tug of heaven on your heart and the joy that comes in responding to it. And just for myself, I look at me today at 35 compared to who I was at 15, okay.
Speaker 2 00:05:20 We'll say 20 years. And when, when I, when I look at the way the Lord has led me the way that he's brought me out of sin, shame, condemnation, and he's, he just, what he's done is he's, he's brought an order to my life. That's why there's a lot, a lot of, uh, talk about the way that you relate to God. Some people will predominantly call him father or Jesus, or, but I find myself constantly calling him Lord. And I asked him, I asked one day, Lord, why, why do I always call you Lord, Lord, why Lord? You know, but, and what I came to the conclusion of, of is the dysfunction of my life and the order that he's brought, my heart finds a safety in referring to him as the Lord of my life. And obviously he's a lover of my soul. He's, he's my brother he's, you know, and I've referred to him in those ways.
Speaker 2 00:06:22 And I love him very dearly, but referring to him as Lord, the time that I spend with him takes me out of disorder, takes me out of confusion, takes me out of condemnation and shame and aligns my heart to truth. And to me getting in the presence of God on a daily basis, as you know, as, as often as I can. And obviously we don't, we don't do it every day. And we try to, and you, you, sometimes you spend five minutes. Sometimes you're able to spend a couple of hours, but I find my heart is alive. When I am with him. My heart is living and vibrant when I'm with him. And when I'm not, when I'm, when I'm not near, when I'm not pressing in, I feel the dullness and my spirit and I there's a noticeable difference.
Speaker 3 00:07:19 Yeah, no, absolutely. I, uh, I would agree. I th I th I think it's, it's the battle that we all face of getting dull, you know, it's, it's, um, you know, we want to be, we want to be sharpened. We want to be, um, you know, um, just edified in the presence of God, you know, no daily. And for me, it's always been about consistency in my life. You were kind of touching on this earlier, Josh. Um, but finding that, like, no matter what's going on throughout my weeks, my days, my months, I can always track how I'm doing. Like, even with my wife, how I'm responding to my kids, how you're responding in a workplace, you could really track track a lot of that back to am I in the presence of God? You know, because we are, we are meant to be carriers of his, of his presence, ambassadors of a coming kingdom.
Speaker 3 00:08:06 Um, and, and, and if I'm out of touch with that, that reality in my, in my spirit, man, you know what I mean, my Spirit's going to grow Dole. And so for me, it's always been about, um, you know, if we can take it into those really practical levels, you know, uh, you know, even I remember when I was at IHOPs and Mike Becker used to challenge us to read 10, 10 chapters a day, right. You read the whole new Testament in a month. And I took him up on that and I could barely get through probably two or three chapters on a day at the time. But over the coming weeks, man, I just began golfing myself in the word. And I Bible came with me everywhere. I went and every little bit of free time, I read a little bit here and a little bit there, and it became this lifestyle thing for me.
Speaker 3 00:08:43 Um, but what happened for me was that I just began falling in love with the word of God. I began falling in love with the truth, you know, and, and a lot, like you were saying earlier, too, man, about the, you know, just concept of the renewing of my mind on a daily basis, you know? Um, and, and, and I, and I love in the scripture where it talks about how the entrance of his word brings light and he is light. And in him, there's no darkness, you know? And it's like, when I'm, when I'm struggling in a fallen world and darkness is surrounding me and within me, right? Like we're, we're constantly struggling with those pressures, those thoughts, those temptations, the lusts, um, the desires and worldly passions, um, that are bombarding us on a daily basis. I've got to get in touch with the one who doesn't have these temptations. You know, I've got to get in touch with the one who darkness has no hold in him, you know, and for me, it's that place that I find freedom. Right. I find renewal, I find regeneration. I find, um, that the presence of God strengthens me for the battle that I have to fight every day.
Speaker 4 00:09:45 Yeah, definitely. For, for me, this is Lenny here. I I've just been immersed once again, in Matthew five, the sermon on the Mount. And in looking at that, you know, I used to think the sermon on the Mount, you know, the be attitudes when they were what I needed to tell other people, I know it's what, the way I thought they should live. And then I would actually judge them, you know, at a time or two, like, you need to be more meek. You need to be, you need a more in a little bit more, but I'm aware in war, you know, and, and today I was today, I was looking at, uh, I was talking to, uh, uh, my friend, Mike <inaudible> and Daniel Lim back at the international house of prayer prior to getting on a plane, uh, Psalm 71, 17 through 20 Oh God from my youth, you've taught me, you know, and that means he, he, he marked me in my mother's womb.
Speaker 4 00:10:43 You know, he marked me before I was even there and then goes on and says, you know what? I, even after that, I steal today, proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, Oh God do not forsake me until I proclaim your mic to another generation. So for me, in an older age, you know, and, and going through a few things, which I seem to be going through them all over again, I'm just a little wiser in some different things. I don't get hooked. I don't get tested. I don't have a spirit of accusation hit me near as hard in my insecurities as I used to, but I'm just wanting to lean in to a, that topic you're talking about Brian, because it it's, it's, it's key. And, and there truly are there there's, there's the temptations, you know, Matthew Matthew talks about, uh, chapter five verses 21, the, the temptations, the six temptations that, uh, attack us, uh, what attacks are, are our marriage, you know, uh, what gets us angry.
Speaker 4 00:11:49 And these are the six temptations that we need to really be aware. Matthew five, 21 through 48, anger, emotional, uh, you know, um, insecurity and mortality dis regarding the marriage, covenant making false commitments, you know, and demanding personal rights. So I love what you said, Josh. We get that time with the Lord to just really shut down because, uh, I know that we are, we are moved by other people and we're moved by pleasing people and we're moved by, you know, leading people and what have you, but, uh, shut it all down so that we would gain that time with the Lord. For me, it's being poor in spirit. And, uh, my little portion with that and to be poor in spirit is to realize, uh, the, not to the deficiencies that are in my life, but just what I lack in being poor in spirit and how the Lord wants me to be poor in spirit so that I would be tender and I would be tender so that I would not attack that I would not judge would be tender so that I would be able to really understand is pursuing.
Speaker 1 00:12:56 Yeah. One of the things I love about you millennium and walking with you many years, uh, 15, maybe 20,
Speaker 4 00:13:03 We're talking about it today. Josh and I was at 20 years, I think,
Speaker 1 00:13:06 20 years. And I'll come out to Kansas city with like, I do these three or four times a year, and you're, you're here more and more two or three times. You're like, we want you to be a heavy part of our culture as a spiritual fathers. Great blessing. But whenever I talked to Lenny, whether it's by phone or in person, sometimes a how you doing and let me be like, Oh man, I'm just keeping my head down because we all hit stuff. Right. And we all go through things. And I know what he means when he says that. And I really respect that about him. And I know part of the strength that he gets is being in the presence of God. You know what? I'm on Kansas city. He gets me up earlier than I usually get up. I stay up really late at night.
Speaker 1 00:13:44 I'm really a late night kind of guy. Like I can run to one, two, three in the morning, but you know, getting up at five six in the more like you, um, although I do like it though, I actually do. I just have to make sure I'm in bed by nine or 10, but the passion for the disciplines to be with God, you know, we were kind of talking about before the podcast started, we were talking about the variants, right? Like you don't build a relationship with your wife off 10 minute dates on the one hand, but on the other hand, so like, if we're looking at our time with God or covenant with God, it was beautiful relationship because that's what drew me into God. I was raised kind of around church a little bit when I was a kid like Easter and Christmas, for sure.
Speaker 1 00:14:20 I was in church. Um, maybe a little more than that. You know, I did little overnighters here and there, but when I, when I was 17, 16, 17, and I heard the gospel message and I T I tangibly literally felt the call of the cross for me to die, to come into the salvation texture, repent, and like lower my life into the kingdom. I felt all that. And it was so tangibly real. I knew in that moment that I was actually giving my life to God, a God that I would learn about from day forward. You know, I just, I just, but when I, when I heard of his power and I, and I felt the dynamic of his power, it's what still moves me to this day to get into the presence of God. So, you know, on the one hand, it's like, I'm an, uh, you know, if you, if we look at like a biting and producing, you know, there's a, that's a scripture that you're biting me.
Speaker 1 00:15:09 I abide in you, but then we have to go and produce fruit that remains, I'm more of a producer, right? Like, I'm, I'm a little less on the abide, you know, where there's like other people like, Oh, I just want to sit with God and have a guy for hours and hours. And I'm like, I, and I'll do that every now and then really charge the batteries. But then I can run for a long time off that, which can be an error, you know? And then you bring in the tension, Paul brings up, right? Like the things I want to do, I don't do. And the things I don't want to do, I do. And you know, there's all this kind of mixture. But at the end of the day, this concept of focus, this concept of a, you know, I've heard Mike pickle teach on it, like, get it on the calendar.
Speaker 1 00:15:40 You have better odds of getting time with God, if you, if you schedule it. Right. And I found that to be true, you know? So, um, that, that's my passion of this whole discipline of Wars. I understand my rhythms and kind of how I'm wired. I don't keep myself to, like, I got to do it every day at five o'clock, but some people are wired like that. Some people are like, they're methodical like that. I'm not, I sometimes I'll be like, Hey, today, I'm gonna spend time. It got at 10 o'clock at night and put on. I hop, you know, cause I, this, most of my devotions are just turning on. I have feed opened my Bible and read or listen to the <inaudible>
Speaker 4 00:16:12 21 years, 25
Speaker 1 00:16:14 Casey.org, just to go right to the website or open the app on your phone. And I just get right into just a flow. You know,
Speaker 4 00:16:21 W what you're bringing up is reminding me of what I told a young father a few weeks ago. Uh, I asked this young man, uh, you know, young man being younger than me. And I'm a young man, but, uh, this guy is younger. Anyway. Uh, I said, you know, where do you feel? You get fed? You know, what are your disciplines in terms of reading the word and your devotions and this and that without putting a big, heavy guilt trip on him. Cause I don't want to do that. That's, that's a religious spirit. I wanted him to naturally supernaturally, you know, get a hunger and thirst for the word. So I started talking to him and he, I started identifying with it. I said, well, where do you, where do you go to church? And he told me, and I go, well, how's that going for you?
Speaker 4 00:17:05 Ah, that pad as guys over here. And then I made this decision and uh, there's the lady over there she's Oh. And so I said, Hey, the timeout, why don't you do something next Sunday that you've never done before? Why don't you go there and put out of your mind, everything you think that church did wrong or that organization did wrong. And why don't you go there? And just with one single focus, hear the word, hear the word, preached here to word, taught whatever they do. They're worshiped the Lord. Ah, you know, don't judge the song, you know, where in the Bible do you get to choose the song you worship to? Oh, you know, so I said, why don't you just go there and listen to what he has to say or whoever speaking. And then while you're listening to it go, he must have put seven, 10, 12 hours into that message.
Speaker 4 00:18:06 And I guarantee you, if you shut out all the voices of what their ministry is doing over there and that, and how bad you were, and then they accused you of this and that, and you just go right to the pulpit, right. And you listen to that word. I go, you're going to get a heart of appreciation. You're gonna get a heart of appreciation for that. That, that, that pastor that's delivering the word. Right. And he did it, he went back. He goes, you know what? I go through. I go to church now and I shut off the voices. I shut off the voices of what they're doing over there. The children
Speaker 1 00:18:38 I laugh because it's like, cause I feel like that's demonic voices, even though I'm not trying to hyper spiritualize it. But dude, the enemy is so crazy. <inaudible> turn the body of Christ apart, tearing us apart. Just not, you see it in hop. I mean, Kansas city, it's not a perfect place. Right? You got, you got this 24 hour furnace going and there's all kinds of hell come out of the woodworks. Isn't it like, it's everywhere. It's like, I mean, you know what we deal with here? Do you guys deal with times a hundred? You know, like, but we deal with it. Yeah, I have to. So I found in my own personal life, things that helped me in my walk with God. The disciplines is if I, I may not do at the same time every day, but I do schedule it. I think about my day, every day I wake up.
Speaker 1 00:19:20 I, the key things, I kind of rotate through. The things that are very important to me is first of all, reading the Bible. So just get a Bible reading plan. If you don't, if you don't know what you're doing, just get a plan. There's a million of them, uh, on the internet, right? Just get a Bible reading plan, follow one of them, solve that battle. So then each day, you know what you're going to read in the Bible. Um, I spend time reading the Bible. I spend time meditating on scripture. So whatever I read out that day, I'll try to take a little chunk of it. Like what you're doing with the poor and spear. Like you're just meditating or you're thinking about it, right. You're mulling it over. Right? Like, and that kind of keeps you in just this consciousness and this place of being with God, like all day, like God helped me that. And you're always learning, you know,
Speaker 4 00:20:00 Conscious of what I don't have that I want to pursue.
Speaker 1 00:20:04 Yeah. You're hungry. It keeps you well, the key of being a disciple is being a learner and we have to be learning from our father. Um, I also, I also put another category out there, a Bible study and I like to study the Bible. So that's a totally, and that actually in Jesus's day, the highest form of worship was actually the study of the text that led people to obedience. Not, not, not necessarily like a Hillsongs concert, right. Or some type of like we think worship is like the big show, the lights, the Jesus is in the room, the big preachers coming to save us all. Um, it was actually quite different. It was quiet. It was, it was with a smaller community and you'd be studying and studying and studying so that you, your life would be obey God. And so then worship by song was what we call it around here and then glorify, you know, I want my life to glorify him. So those are just key things I focus on in my life and that whole discipline of war. Uh, so make sure you're getting a Bible reading plan mix. You're meditating, you're engaging God. And then prayer, you know, I mean you want to engage God in prayer, but excellent. A lot of times I think I don't pray a lot. I listen a lot, you know what I mean? I listen a lot more than I pray when I'm with God.
Speaker 4 00:21:10 Uh, these are excellent. I, I, I got changed. Uh, and, and you, you will know what I'm talking about. So, so will Josh and Ryan, but, uh, Mike Bickle, uh, has a teaching library. Uh, if you want to go to it, I op uh, casey.org, look at it, Mike pickle, teaching.org. And you can go to Mike buckle.org. You can get to it a couple of different ways, but in there, one of the teachings is a power of a focus life where he takes a look at five, six different disciplines. And he makes sure that he spends 20 minutes on those type of things. So there are tools out there that would get you into the work. What you just said was amazing. I think it's good.
Speaker 1 00:21:55 Excellent. I mean, but that approach though is just like, I was going to the gym, right? It's like, I'm not exactly going to hit the dumbbells for 20 minutes. I'm going to, you know, you gotta,
Speaker 4 00:22:04 I just had a total knee replacement and, uh, I'm telling you the first day was not fun. But the first day they got me out of bed. As soon as I got back and I'm walking, I'm doing laps. As many as I can around the nurses station, you know? And, uh, then I did it the next day, the next day, the next day. Right? Next thing I know the doctor is saying, Hey, you're doing really well. You're like, you're liking the top 5%. It wasn't overachieving. I'm a, like an underachiever man. Like, I'd tell my wife when you come visit me, bring Culver's, you know, green, green Chick-fil-A or something. But it's, it's that little time each day. And I, I, I saw pay off with, uh, this knee.
Speaker 1 00:22:53 Yeah, but you did the discipline. You did the work and then what you saw the reward or the payoff in, and that there's a great reward.
Speaker 4 00:22:59 It goes down, you're getting more range of motion. You know, same with our, our spirit, we got a hungry spirit. We don't even know it. We got a hungry soul. We don't even know we've got darkness in there. We don't even know
Speaker 1 00:23:09 People on this podcast right now that, and I'm not, I'm not a doctor. So don't take this hook line sinker, but we don't diagnose the spiritual problem. You know, we've got all kinds of doctors out there throwing drugs at all kinds of issues that really are income from the inner man, the actual hearts. And we have heart issues, you know, deeply God. And so when we engage the, when we engage these disciplines of war that we're talking about, actually, it's actually good for your bones. It's actually good for your body. It nourishes your soul. Like you might even like come out of like some type of sickness in your body, just cause you've been disciplining yourself to be with God, just like you're saying the gym, you know, all these things led to a reward. Like, you know, it makes me sad when I leave the condition of our culture. We're the most in debt, obese, depressed adult cohort we've ever had in the history of our country. And we're sitting here talking about the answer and this type of conversation is kind of like muted in our culture. It's not, it's not as valued as it ought to be, but we're going to keep speaking about anyway. Right? We're going to put our head down. We're going to be the ox and keep plotting anyway. Right.
Speaker 1 00:24:13 So anyway, uh, I've been a Mike hog. How you guys fill in some blanks here. It's the Linea Brian's show. Ryan's like, what's, what's, what's your thought on the pastor thing, Ryan, you always joke about that. Cause you're like, it's hard. Like when your father and I, Dr. Ken Hanson are on the podcast together, Ryan, and be like, Hey Man, if we speak for a living, I worship so sing to us. Right. Sing, sing about the devotions. Can you do that? No, I can't. Let's do a little mini musical,
Speaker 3 00:24:51 But I got, I got, I do have one more point, you know? And it was like, kind of when you were talking, Lenny, you know, you're talking about focus. Right. And, and the thing that, the thing that all this does, right? When we, when we have the disciplines going where we're making a plan where at least putting it on the calendar, we're saying, and I'm going to put effort and I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to reach for something, right. I'm gonna, I'm gonna create some goals and, and create some designations in my time slots. And I'm gonna make room for God. Like, like in my life. Um, w when we choose to focus our energy right into, um, the knowledge of who he is, like, he begins to show us who we are. He begins to show us what's on his heart.
Speaker 3 00:25:30 And I think that that's, that's the more important thing is that as we turn our focus towards him, he then opens up his world to what he is focused on. Right? Like, like, like what his heart is doing, what he's wanting to say, like, and then we become disconnected from the, uh, um, not, not that we're disconnected, but it's kind of like that whole concept of being in the world, but not of the world. Right. Because we're seeing through his eyes where we're, we're, we're, we're hearing with his ears now where we're, w we're getting a different vantage point different perspective. And that's what I've always appreciated about the place of the presence of God in my life is that it gives me new perspective. And when, and I see from a different vantage point, I see from the, from the high place, you know, if I can, if I can go up and be in the throne room, if I can be seated with him in heavenly places, and I can just get a different viewpoint of what's going on in my life, what's going on in the world. Like, maybe I'll know how, I don't know how I know better, how to pray. I don't know how better, how to connect and partner with God to see what he wants fulfilled in the earth. Right?
Speaker 4 00:26:29 You said something powerful, just real quick. You said, uh, when we do that, he opens up his presence to us, I'll say it a different way that happens. But when we do it, we see his presence that has opened up to us. We don't have to obtain it. Right. We're just making a conscious choice. Yeah. Sometimes I go in, I got a disease, you start with the disciplines and then it opens up. Choose to actually, it's already opened up for us. I mean, he's already clear on what he has for us, right?
Speaker 2 00:26:58 Yeah. When you, uh, when you sent that text out today with kind of the itinerary, what you're wanting to speak about, it's funny. Cause my, my first thought was, uh, the Proverbs four 23. And then when I was looking over the four-star charge, that's, that's what you meant, or the five-star charges four or five minutes of the five-star
Speaker 4 00:27:20 Chart lacking one of those
Speaker 2 00:27:22 Probably. Um, but you mentioned that right on there that we are to watch over our heart, to govern our heart with diligence. Because from if flows the wellspring of life or the, you know, the spring of life
Speaker 4 00:27:36 Read Proverbs, what is the text?
Speaker 2 00:27:39 Watch over your heart with diligence for, from it flow the Springs of life. That's the NASB. And I mean, I think about, I mentioned earlier from where the Lord met me initially to where he's brought me today, my cooperation sometimes gladly, sometimes joyfully, sometimes kicking and screaming and not wanting to do it, but where he's taken me, where my heart is today, I look back and I see he was wise in everything that he did. And my, you know, just as a, a sinful man, sometimes my propensity is to take a step back just to chill, to, to let things, let things slide. But I realized I've had to fight tooth and nail to agree with his heart for me. And to allow him to bring me where I am today. I'm not going to, I'm not going to let myself slide. I it's too important to me to have a tender heart before the Lord.
Speaker 2 00:28:50 It's too important to me to, to be connected. I know what it's like to not be. And I refuse to let myself go back there. And you, you asked the question earlier, why is it important first that we for ourselves go after it, but also why, why do we want other people to, to engage as well is because I see the difference. I see the lack. And immediately when I started asking myself about that question, asking that question, I was reminded of Psalm 34, when it says, verse three, magnify the Lord with me, unless I exalt his name together. It was, this thing was never meant to be alone. We weren't meant to be fighting alone. The war is never one by one person. We were created to pursue the Lord together, to pursue friends together,
Speaker 1 00:29:42 Together, together to be together. Yeah. And I know that there's an, there's an attack on together. You know, there's an attack on tearing apart. The brotherhood they're tearing it, you know, turn apart. That's our model. We're a band of brothers being trained by grace to conquer darkness and to empower the world to live upright. You know? So it that's one of my main passions. There's three main passions in grace ops. It's evangelism, winning, getting people to love God that go all forget church. You know, I call it the kind of like in all due respect, I'm kind of one of my sub, like a knucklehead kind of crowd out there. I like off forget church, but they're all about God family country. But they, they might have like a fear of God, but they don't have, they don't like follow God. You know, there's, there is war on tearing apart.
Speaker 1 00:30:25 Like, let's just do church online. Let's do church. I don't need it. I can just do it myself. You know, there's this, there's this terrible warfare on that. And I think what you're saying, if I were to add a freeze to it is like a taste and see, yeah, right. We tasted God, we tasted his power. I think in my own life, the discipline that I've had in my life, the most, the most powerful times that Mark me, like where someone says, well, what, what, what verses God's spoken over you? What comes from when I was in prayer for an extended period of time, you know? So now I don't have like an extended period of prayer every day. But the days I do that, when I have those divine encounters with God, they Mark me in deep ways and they, they shape my life and they've actually put me on the trajectory I've been on for 25 years, you know?
Speaker 1 00:31:11 So, and then like Lenny was saying, well, you know, we don't want to over make it too religious and make just overemphasize the presence of God. Like this. Isn't a big hyped up religious thing. And I agree with them, you know? And he's like, sometimes you're just, you're going to hit it for 19 minutes and you're going to get it. You're going to get what you need. And I agree. I think we just got to do all of it. You know, we've got to, we've gotta be centered in the way I know him do all. I walk every day with this guy next to me, Ryan, right? I'm starting to, you know, walk with you like a friend and a brother. You know, this guy, like I do this with what we, you know, comrades like partners like brothers, you know, and we strengthen one another, you know, that's what a culture does. That's the culture, the grease ups culture is actually got expectations in it. And our expectations, one of them is that you would take on the disciplines of war, that you would actually be a person devoted to the things of God. That's an expectation in our culture. And when you get enough people doing it, it's going to create that healthy peer pressure.
Speaker 4 00:32:04 You know, you had five things that you said you do have discipline. I'd add a sixth one. And that is find a friend, someone you can be accountable to. You know, I was being prayed for just recently, like really recently, you know, by a group of comrades and, and they're going for it, man. Show him, do him, man. Lord loves him and I was eating it up. And then one of the voices go real quick. They go and Lord, let him find that friend that is closer than a brother that can talk to him that he'll listen to, that can listen to, you know, whatever. And, uh, that was amazing. So when you brought that up, I just think, you know, find somebody
Speaker 1 00:32:46 And it's like, what Josh was saying, this community is exactly right. And it is community. And I think when we, when we left, when we, when we really see, and I say it this way a lot, you'll never find your personal assignment until you understand his heart for community. Yeah. You'll never see you until you see us. Yeah. You never will. You'll never, you'll never see your assignment. And if you do, you'll be off a little, you'll never understand. You'll be disjointed to the truth.
Speaker 4 00:33:13 We're his friends. We're friends of God, but it's the plurality it's always about.
Speaker 1 00:33:18 I always say this, like people, some people will kind of look at me funny. I'm like, God loves us more than he loves you. Like he loves, he loves the Puro more than the individual. So I would say it's like 60, 40, right? Like he's, if I had to pick numbers, just playing around. Cause it's, it's just a tool, but God's 60% in love with us. And he's 40% love with you, right. When it's really a hundred and a hundred. But we, we negate that other community parts so many times in our culture. Yeah. You know, we're in, and that's what this whole gray subs things about. Yes, absolutely. So my passion to win souls is because I love God. And when you see his heart in the scriptures, you want the whole world, you want your neighbors when everybody kind of get involved and getting fine, God, and there's hope, there's hope, there's hope. And there's power to overcome this world. And his grace will help us live the way we really want to live. I mean, it's just live a life of power in our life of excuses, you know?
Speaker 4 00:34:10 Yeah. Hey man. All right.
Speaker 1 00:34:14 All right. Well you guys hungry? Yeah. Maybe we should wrap it up that way. I love all you guys here. Thanks for investing your time into the gray ups culture as always. We always didn't want to encourage you until next time to live upright.
