Navigate Podcast
Welcome to Navigate, we are two long term friends doing life and ministry together. I got tired of the same ole answers when I started looking for help when it came to my walk with God. So together we go deeper than most would on topics that most people have heard or were taught but never fully understood. It is our way of simplifying concepts that we may have over complicated throughout our lives. Bringing theology and life experience into each episode. It is our hope and desire to help Navigate your Christian walk with you
Navigate Podcast
Character
What happens when we refuse to face our character flaws? Looking at Solomon's life—a man granted divine wisdom who still managed to self-destruct—reveals a sobering truth: whatever sins we tolerate will grow alongside our successes.
Tim and Justin dive deep into the nature of character development, challenging the therapeutic culture that has seeped into church communities. They explore how we've normalized "processing" our issues without actually addressing them, creating environments where victimhood receives more attention than transformation. This pattern stands in stark contrast to the biblical model where trials aren't just to be endured but are God's primary tools for character formation.
The conversation takes a powerful turn when examining fear as the root of most character flaws. Those areas where we refuse to trust God completely—whether in relationships, finances, or ministry—become the cracks in our foundation that eventually threaten everything we build. Solomon's first compromise—marrying Pharaoh's daughter for political security—eventually led to worshiping false gods and losing his kingdom.
What are you walking past in your life? What messes—physical, relational, or spiritual—have you chosen to ignore because addressing them seems too difficult? The longer we wait, the more work it takes to restore order. True growth requires not just identifying problems but confronting them, inviting accountability from people who will speak uncomfortable truth.
Ready to face what you've been avoiding? Join us for a challenging conversation about becoming who God intended you to be, rather than settling for who you've always been. Subscribe now and share with someone who needs to hear this message of transformation!
Hey guys, welcome back to Navigate. Justin, what's up buddy? What's up my brother? We are still doing this.
Speaker 2:We are it's awesome so much victory. It's crazy. It's really hard to contain it, you know.
Speaker 1:It is hard. Yeah, sure, sure, I'm sick at the moment, so I might come off a little bleh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope all of you listening to this are wearing a mask, because you could get sick. You could get COVID through a podcast. It's so crazy. At this point I hope you all have vaccines, man, if somebody hasn't listened to this podcast, they may think I'm serious, I'm not just so we're clear and I'm thanking God every day for RFK. We're clear and, uh, I'm thanking God every day for RFK.
Speaker 1:Moving on, I am uh dealing with a head cold, so nothing crazy, but whole family got it.
Speaker 2:Of course, he's clearly dying just for those of you listening yeah, he's not going to make it and, um, I'm going to have to impersonate Tim in the future for this podcast.
Speaker 1:Then it's not going to go well yeah, my wife always mocks me because how, what a pansy I am when I get sick.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like a thing, you know, the girls make fun of guys because guys don't handle you know like colds. Well, I guess. And uh, they're probably right. I asked my wife the other day I was like do do I handle colds well? And she was like you know, you used to not anymore. And I was like noted, noted, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a scene in game of Thrones where the King's dying. In the first season he's like give me drink or give me death. Every time I'm sick, I feel.
Speaker 2:I feel that way, just getting up in the morning, brother, you know what I mean. Bring me coffee, or I'm just staying here. I'm not going to be. Just take me out, hook it up to an IV, mainline it, it'll be awesome. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:I wanted to talk about character, character building, character in church and God and stuff. Yeah, this really kind of came about because I'm sure you know these people too, man. You get these people in like prayer gatherings, right, or Bible studies or something, and they always seem to have the same thing to complain about, just because they enjoy complaining about it, to the point where they're always in tears and they always get the most attention. You know, yeah, what's the worst to say? I started thinking about these types of people. I'm like man. It seems like people are afraid to change their character the way God wants them to in order to move on.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, yeah, it's so weird. We just live in a weird time in general, where being a victim is valued in a really strange way, and this is seen, obviously, in all of our culture. But the church is not free from this. You know what I mean. Somebody's going through something really hard, or even consistently going through the same thing. That is not a big deal. But if they come in and say you're in a small group or something, start talking about the same problem they always do. Everyone in a Christian circle feels obligated not to like cast shade or call that person to more, but to like it just becomes a therapy session for that individual. One of the worst things that happens in a in a Christian small group is when somebody says I'm going through something and then everyone in the circle slowly goes around and gives a bit of advice, um, which is like it seems like a good thing, but it can be exhausting when when it's something really simple, like bro, you should just get up earlier you know it'd be fine.
Speaker 2:You're like you should, or just hey, uh, go to the gym, you know, or, or, um, my, my family's struggling financially, but you and I both know you haven't cooked a meal at home in like four years. Again, it's just one of these weird things where, uh, a lot of it, I think, is mentality. But, man, you can get a lot of attention and you can almost, um, almost, position yourself as more spiritual somehow If you're always the guy going through something and the reality is everybody is going through stuff. There's rare seasons where somebody is not and you can have the, you know the, the problem of, like, the guy who never shares anything and just pretends that everything's fine all the time, which is a which is also a problem, um, but our culture definitely values victimhood and victimization a lot, and empathy, and the therapeutic mindset in churches today has really only amplified the need to not solve that person's problems but just just sitting it with them. You know what I mean and, and you know, put them on the couch and, uh, to have them tell you about, you know, their mother or something, and it's not, not healthy, not not good.
Speaker 2:I just saw, um, a bunch of stats on this and I posted something about this on Facebook. I looked it up after I saw this clip but dude the statistics in our it like from the dawn of the therapeutic age, the more counseling and therapy and and like self-help stuff and medication that we're putting out. Uh well, we have more of that now than we ever had in any generation and we are more mentally jacked up than we have ever been. You know what I mean. There's more anxiety and depression and names for things that don't even make sense. I think it was Key and Peele or something.
Speaker 2:But somebody was like I have asymptomatic Tourette's. Everyone's like wait, what you know what I mean. It's like it's like Tourette's, but without the symptoms, and everyone's like you were so strong for sharing right now. But I mean like that's kind of the world we're in. It's like everybody needs a reason to feel like they're going through something that other people aren't and everyone just has to bow and accept it and be okay with it and like, dude, the biblical model is just just far different.
Speaker 2:And I think if you raise your kids um, you know you, you don't just baby them through everything, but you teach them about life and about god and like what it's supposed to look like. I think you dodge a lot of that, but it is a very attractive thing in our culture today to be a victim. Intersectionality has made a horrible dent in, in churches, unfortunately, where you would think there would be an immunity to those things. There's not, and it sucks. But you, I'm sorry, you wanted to talk about character and I I really went, uh down a whole different tangent there, sorry. So, um, tell me, tell me how this connects to character for you, kind of what were you, what were you thinking?
Speaker 1:I think it's more of the ability to want to change, or people who feel like they don't have to change, like this is how God created me, this is how I deal with things. This is, but if you're the same person every single day, complaining about the same stuff all the time, you're not really building anything, yeah, and we'll even along with that mentality I was sharing earlier.
Speaker 2:We'll even say things like I guess this is just my cross to bear, you know what I mean. Like I heard a guy say that about his pornography problem. Like I guess this is just my cross to bear and I'm like, or it's my thorn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's my thorn in my side.
Speaker 2:Dude, sin is not something that God gave to you, period Like. That is not something that God was like. You know, I'm just going to give this sin pattern to him that he'll never break free from and that somehow is the thing that he's supposed to carry. That is just from the pit of hell. So hear me say this If anyone who has listened to this podcast you have a sin problem and you've been painting it as your cross to bear, I want to tell you right now then crucify it, then kill the thing and quit letting that happen.
Speaker 2:But it is weird how some of these things people carry and they begin to see it as pious because they put themselves in this cycle of guilt and that they punish themselves mentally. They're like man. I can't believe I did this again. Or I can't believe this happened again and you, instead of allowing Jesus to be the one that justifies you, get in this your own cycle of like shame and guilt. And then I punished myself by feeling this way for long enough, and now I feel, now that I've atoned for my problem, I can sin again and you will literally put yourself in a cycle where you will be the one who is atoning for your sin in a profane and way that doesn't work, um, and acting like you're a more spiritual person for doing it. It's a very weird mental type of like asceticism, you know, or, uh, what's it? What'd they call it Flagellation? It was these guys who would like beat themselves on the back with like you know whips and stuff like that, like it's.
Speaker 2:But people walk around and do that mentally all the time, you know, walking around, beating the heck out of themselves, acting like somehow they're more spiritual, they're closer to God, you know.
Speaker 1:For it, which is very strange. I've felt that too right. It's like who am I to pray for things if I act or think this way sometimes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a weird thing where you can feel like you are doing the right thing by distancing yourself from God because you are aware of what a sinner you are and you don't realize that I think you're belittling the cross and the work of Christ every single time that you do that Like, oh, you're right, yeah, Jesus is. You know what he did. It was great for everyone else, but for you, you better, you better keep your distance. You know what I mean. Like you know, Jesus is allergic to you, but everyone else, I believe the gospel, for it's a poisonous mentality.
Speaker 1:I heard a commencement speech once and it's not biblical but it just made me laugh. Well, this guy was like we all have problems. 98% of people don't care about your problems and the other 2% are happy you have them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's probably accurate. So, to come like, come full circle. Here's the thing I've been thinking about with character Tim and maybe we can connect this. But I've been, I've been spending a ton of time recently reading about Solomon. Solomon and like his, um, his life, what he did, all the things that are involved in it, and it's kind of a, it's kind of a crazy ride. It's not a ton of scripture that talks about it, but he's such a prominent person and obviously you know a couple of books in the Bible he penned.
Speaker 2:But he comes to power and God gives him this seat. He, you know, he gets anointed King and, uh, one of the first things that he does after God gives him the kingdom and is like I'm going to establish you, I'm going to take care of you, do the right things that I've called you to do, is he marries up a daughter of Pharaoh. One of the first things that he does right off the bat is I'm going to marry Pharaoh's daughter to solidify my relationship with Egypt, so that you know I have a friend, I don't get attacked, I don't have any problems or issues or anything like that. And clearly, if you know Scripture, if you know the Old Testament you're not supposed to marry outside of. You know the covenant people You're not supposed to unite yourself with. You know people like that in general. And it's this beginning moment in his life where he marries this girl that he's not supposed to, presumably because of a fear of being attacked, or you know what I mean. Having an enemy right away. It was a mutually beneficial thing. You know what I mean. Having an enemy right away is a mutually beneficial thing. You know what I mean. Kind of short up his bets and make sure all his bases are covered, that one slip up like later on becomes a thousand wives. You know and I was just thinking, you know, it's like these ladies later on. If you, you know, if you read, it's like later he's sacrificing Chimash and Molech and all these places. It says he clung to his wives in love. He wouldn't let them go and eventually they ended up ruling his life. His story later, everyone knows, is super wise, really dumb, you know, crazy smart, really really foolish. What a strange combination and there's a whole paradox there that's worth talking about.
Speaker 2:But what I think is this every politician is just a person right, but you give them a platform and you amplify their lives, and what gets amplified with the good things that they do is also the sin patterns and problems that they have, right. So we love to look at politicians or we love to look at coaches or whatever the thing is, and you see something in their life that's not put together. You're like, wow, scoundrel, look at this guy. But if you're honest, the habits and patterns that you have in your own life okay, let's take those and let's amplify the good and the bad. Well, you have the same outcome. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So think about it this way Solomon marries this girl up front that he's not supposed to, and his life goes on that one place where he wasn't willing to trust God, or that one place that he caved early on. If you don't kill that early, you take it with you and it grows along with everything else that you're doing. If you allow this weed to grow in your garden and you're watering it along with everything else, you don't get rid of it. Well, it turns out that thing grows right along with everything else and gets bigger and bigger, and the thing about weeds is they're a lot easier to grow you know what I mean than produce and flowers and whatever else you're trying to grow, and I think character is the same way. If you have things in your life now that you're not dealing with, those are going to amplify along with all your other prayers.
Speaker 2:So Solomon asked God for wisdom you know what I mean. And God says I'm going to give you wisdom and because you asked for wisdom, I'm going to give you a long life and I'm going to bless you and I'm going to do all these things. And man, his kingdom is growing and amazing things are growing. And what is growing at the same time? His lust problem. You know what I mean, his problem with all these women and all these things. And at the end of his life, god tells him dude, you let this thing. The smartest guy in the world has been really stupid and now you're going to lose your kingdom. I'm giving it to someone else, I'm handing this to somebody else and they're going to get it instead of you. And what's crazy to me, tim is the guy that gets elected to be king who's going to take over, let's say, 10 of these tribes, two of them. God basically says I'm going to hold on to, because I told David that I would, but this guy gets these kingdoms and Ahijah the prophet goes and basically says hey, you're taking over, you're going to be the new guy on the block, you're going to do all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And immediately Solomon hates this guy and wants to kill him. And all I could see in my heart and head as I'm reading this is dude, he became Saul. Saul wanted to kill David after David was anointed king, because Saul was being a crappy king. David lives his life, does all this stuff. His son gets handed the throne and then Saul literally becomes his father's enemy Because insecurity and the need for safety and this desire to like, short up his bets and make sure everything is okay by marrying this, you know, this daughter of Pharaoh Becomes the thing later that turns them into his father's worst nightmare and the very thing that his dad fought against his entire life.
Speaker 2:And so character character is the thing that will make you or break you, and you're I mean, I'm fond of saying, like you know, god won't give you more than your character can sustain to remind people that, hey, you need to be solid on who you are and what God has called you to do, or you're going to have a bad foundation to build anything else off of, and there's a sense in which that's true. There's another sense in which God will allow you to grow and have talent and have ability and do these things and he will allow you to grow beyond your own ability, to show you that it will crumble and to make you a lesson for other people. You know, and everybody looks at. Like you know, we think about all the people that we know that have just crumbled under the weight of fame or whatever else it was, and it seems like it's kind of a shameless culture. Now you got guys like Tiger Woods that when he was cheating on his wife or whatever, the whole world was appalled. Bill Clinton everybody's appalled. But now you got guys like Bella Chick with a 20-year-old girlfriend or something I don't know. Did he marry her now? And everybody's like it's fine, he's just an old guy doing old guy things. We're in a different day and age.
Speaker 2:But I just think what is it Numbers? I think it's 32, 32. I could be wrong. But he says be sure, your sin will find you out. And it's true. Whatever you have going on in your life that you are not willing to kill or deal with is growing. It's not staying there and you may think that the amazing things that you're doing everywhere else like Solomon, building this amazing temple for God and started by worshiping the Lord and doing all this stuff the sins are growing with it. Whatever cracks are in your foundation are showing up in the house, no matter how you decorate. Foundation are showing up in the house no matter how you decorate.
Speaker 2:And I think you have to take serious assessment of your own life and if you want to know where your character foibles are going to be, you got to find your fears. What are the things that I'm afraid of? What are the things that I'm consistently worried about? Where do I not trust God? And those are the areas usually where you're going to find faulty allegiances. Those are the areas where you're going to find character flaws. Those are the areas where you're going to find cracks in the foundation, because we always do things the stupid things that we do generally come from a place of fear or just a distrust of God. I don't believe he's going to do this. I don't think he's going to come through here. I don't really trust him with this, and then I replace it with something that is ungodly, but I continue to do godly things in all these other areas. Well, the bill comes due, you know, and at some point those things show up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I, I, I. I think I learned something about myself lately, actually, after our podcast last week Cool Um, always trying to wait for the next best thing. Yeah, you know and I've been asking a lot of questions lately, being at this church that I still work at, I'm like why am I still here, like I don't understand so much change and so much stuff's happened, and then I walk into my office and it's just a tool, shit. It really is, cause I've made it that way. Yeah, like I need to start taking some ownership of. Actually I'm here, I'm going to make the best of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Do something with what you actually have. Start to start to build, start to take possession of it, or orwinters ownership right ownership yeah, I'm taking ownership of my office.
Speaker 1:I'm redecorating the crap out of it to make it more you know, officey.
Speaker 2:Yeah I had a. I had a chef who always told me he said whatever's wrong with your kitchen in two years is what's wrong with you. Yeah, you know, I always hated that because it's like don't put that on me this is not my fault.
Speaker 2:Those people are crazy, but there's a sense of which is true. Whatever's wrong with your family is probably what's wrong with you. Whatever's wrong with your church is probably what's wrong with you. Whatever's wrong with your business man, you're in it. I mean, you're a reoccurring theme in all of the frustrations that you're dealing with and it's worth noting that.
Speaker 2:Is there a issue or problem or character flaw or whatever that I have that I continue to see in all the things that are going on and I just keep blaming everyone else for it. I keep acting like it's somebody else's problem or someone else's issue, or I can come up with 50 reasons for why I shouldn't be the person to deal with it. We'll say that to Jesus. You know what I mean, whose whole life was taking on everyone else's problems and crucifying you know what I mean and giving them a way out. Jesus didn't earn our sin. He didn't deserve that. It wasn't his fault. He literally did take on everyone else's problems. And your life is different. Your problems have to do with you and I'm not saying everything that happens in your life is uniquely your fault, but I would say everything that God gives you in your life is your responsibility.
Speaker 2:And reading through the book of James with our team this last Sunday, tim, and he talks about this classic text right that joy, count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance or endurance. And he talks about it being able to produce. So you have trials, you have endurance and you have joy in this text. And then he basically says so that you would be perfect, lacking nothing. That word perfect, it means an intended purpose Like this, like God is putting you through trials to allow you to become who you were meant to be. And without those trials and frustrations you don't become that person Like, literally, you will stop halfway, you'll stop growing, you'll stay a teenager.
Speaker 2:How many of us have met that person who is 40 years old and is still 15? You know what I mean. You've met this guy who's 60 years old and dude, got wounded or got into some sin pattern early on and just never, never grew past it. Because he refuses to face the thing that God has put in his life. He won't take ownership of it. It's the Luke 14 that we talked about. It's the house that got halfway built, just didn't make it to its finish, and I think what's worth noting in that is that trials and endurance and joy all come from the same. Well, they all come from the same glass. And if you refuse to take ownership of that glass, if you refuse to drink the entire thing, you don't get the joy, you don't get the endurance and you don't become who God is calling you to be.
Speaker 2:And we all know this like intuitively, it is our trials and difficulties and how we handle them that make us the people that we are. And can you imagine Tim going through your life and never actually having an issue? We all hate that guy. We can't. We can't stand that person who's had literally we have terms everything handed to him. What are we saying about that person Doesn't have character, he's shallow, he doesn't get it, he's not a man. And being a man means working the ground, partnering with God and creating kingdom soil around you. I think sometimes we forget that, as we work kingdom soil, that kingdom soil is working us. Us working the ground is actually making us into the people that we were called to be. And so I think I said earlier, if you want to identify your character flaws, look for the areas where you have fear driving your life. But then the thing is we also live in a day and time where it's very, it's sexy, if you want to say it that way, to identify your fears and your struggles but not to face them. Identifying something you're struggling with and facing it are not the same thing, and I think we equate knowledge with action because we think like, oh, he's so deep, he identified that this particular thing came from a moment with his father.
Speaker 2:I watched the Kid with my family a couple days ago with my son, do you remember this? With Bruce Willis, yeah, and he like runs into himself when he was a kid and like all this. I was like it's a funny movie. I thought my kids would like it better. They're like this is weird, dad. And I was like you know funny movie. I thought my kids would like it better. They're like this is weird, dad. And I was like you know, maybe it is weird.
Speaker 2:You got like some psychoanalysis going on. But it's Bruce Willis, you know, and all I can see is Die Hard the entire time, and so it's fantastic. But the movie is ultimately showing him like this was the issue in my past life or you know in my early on in my life that I've never really grown past it. And great, identifying the fear and the problem is halfway there. But you got to face that. You got to allow God to get in your life and do some work in those places and maybe invite some other people into your life for accountability in those places to call you to more. And I just think accountability now means telling somebody I did something wrong, not allowing those people to be invasive intentionally.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I mean, if you want work to get done, if you want to get past some of those things, you are going to have to face those fears and allow God to change you, and we don't like change. He's got to weed the garden and we don't want to pull up the good things in the process of pulling up the bad things. And guess what? There's a, there's a price to facing your fears. There's, there's a cost to it. And look, the return is tenfold, but it's not immediate, and I think that's what keeps us sometimes from taking ownership.
Speaker 1:What's a?
Speaker 2:what? What's an example?
Speaker 2:of what you just said, of not only acknowledging the fear that you have but actually facing it. So I have a friend of mine. I love this. I may have brought this up on the podcast before. I love it.
Speaker 2:Andrew, we've had him on the podcast a couple of times. He told me that his struggle with pornography changed when he stopped telling his friends that he was struggling with porn or watching porn. But when he told his wife you know, like I'm not going to tell the guys that are going to pat me on the back and be like praying for you, man, you know we're in this battle together he was like no, I'm going to tell the person who is actually going to be able to call me to more and expect more of me, and not just pat me on the back and say that it's okay. And he said when he started talking to his wife about his struggle, it became an entirely different ballgame. Oh, I don't get to hide this or just talk about it with guys who act like they understand and will give you a pass because they might be struggling with it themselves, but somebody who's actually going to say you need to get this crap together because it's hurting us right now. We've got to pray on this, but actually looking into the pain that it causes. We got to pray on this, but actually looking into the pain that it causes when bringing that stuff up, it matters, it really does.
Speaker 2:If you have a problem with lying and you're like, oh, this happens sometimes or I do this, I think you have several people begin to call you and say, hey, how are you doing in this area? And call you out on it. Have them start checking your work, talking through different stuff. That's going on. I think inviting intrusive, frustrating conversations is a really, really good thing. I think if all of your friends are like you, you might be in some danger.
Speaker 2:If you're the smartest guy in any room and this goes back to Solomon the wisest guy in the world didn't have counselors. The wisest guy in the world didn't have a Nathan. The wisest guy didn't have people around him telling him hey, I don't know if you realize this, solomon, but you're actually blowing up everything that your father did, and so I think facing your fears means putting them on the front border, not saying that this is an issue that I struggle with, but saying this is a project for me, now that I am going to be working on every single day until it's dead, and that means a focus and actively changing things in your life to see it happen, and that usually means having to learn new things and grow in areas that are uncomfortable because you got a bunch of other projects and things that you want to prioritize. Tim, do you have things in your life that you're bad at?
Speaker 1:I try not to be, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I find that the older I get, the more I realize I don't know how to do and it sucks. Like the older I get, I'm like I'm not good at that, I'm not good at this, I'm not good at this. And finding people who are better at things than you are is incredibly humbling and I kind of hate it because I don't feel like, look, I got a guy right now that I'm hanging out with. He just he's better with cars and stuff. Like I got a lawnmower, tim, that I'm trying to. It broke down and I'm like I got to get this thing going. I have I'm YouTubing the crap out of this. You know what I mean. I'm like I'm going to solve this thing. I literally spent one day, uh, trying to fix it. I broke it further, like I, I did. I just did it wrong. You know what I mean. And and you got to get to a place where you're like I need someone who knows more about this to jump in this and help me with this thing. And he you know my buddy jumps in, isaiah and he's literally tearing the thing apart and he's like oh yeah, it's like this and it's like that. I'm like, dude, I could, I could explain to you what superlapsarianism is, but I could not tell you you know how to change this fuel line. I have no, I have no idea. And I think that's embarrassing for me in some way because, yeah, that's probably an area I need to grow and I need to work on and figure out.
Speaker 2:But I think some things you can punt on. You may not need to be the guy who knows how to make a pavlova okay but there are things in your life that as a man, you need to learn how to do. And if you've been dodging character stuff and you think that God's going to be okay with that or someone else will have character for you, you're wrong. Like, you need people in your life to help grow you in certain areas. And I'm a big fan of saying look in your areas of talent, in your gifting, work on this stuff that you're good at, and like, like growing that and then and then hire around your you know the areas where you have problems or issues or struggles on. You know I'm not the administrative guy who's super good at. You know spreadsheets and whatever else Great. Find somebody who can do that and let them do it for you. But I think an area where this seeps into church and into you know Christian lives and pastors and different things.
Speaker 2:We tend to apply, maybe, that principle in areas that we shouldn't with regard to virtue and character, and those are the things that you can't order out for You're going to have to hold those yourself. And I've seen a lot, tim, just the drift that happens in older age, like Solomon, or those things that you didn't deal with when you were younger. Grow and grow and grow and eventually you become the guy that's just okay with it. You become all right with where you're at and how far you've gotten. You begin to say it's, it's good enough.
Speaker 2:And the thing about that verse in james that's so frustrating when he talks about you know, these trials are bringing about what is what is perfect is that god is expecting perfection and he's bringing that about. Obviously you're declared righteous. So somebody's here, he's preaching works-based salvation. I'm not Stop. But God is actually saying I will not stop until everything in you that needs to die has died and the fullness of what you were meant to be is here. Which means, as long as you are breathing, he's not done. And that means as long as you're breathing, trials are coming. Why? Because that is God's mechanism by which he brings about what is perfect in your life. And what you do when you walk into those messes defines you ultimately or tells you whether you're going to keep growing or become the person God has called you to be or not. If you're only as good as what you walk by, it's important to it's important to know what you're walking by. It's important to notice those things and not be the guy who has the same 12 boxes in his garage that he's just never dealt with. Uh, eventually those things become invisible to him cause he's chosen not to deal with it and, uh, it'll matter later. You know, I think there's a book I read to my son called Andrew and the fire Drake really good book.
Speaker 2:But he, he's taking this young boy through these different stages. Basically, god has put him here and he doesn't really remember how he got here, what the deal is, but he has to walk through these different stages to get to a place where he can actually defeat the dragon and save the girl. And he walks into this. You know, this next challenge that he has, or whatever, and it's just a room and it's just kind of a like, like. It's not a room. It's a garden and the garden's kind of a mess. There's just stuff kind of everywhere and and like he's trying to figure out, what am I like? What am I doing here? Like what is the, what is the thing that I'm trying to accomplish? And so he gets a you know drink of water and then he just starts trying to clean the place up. He moves rocks over here and wood over here and puts this gate kind of back together and just starts doing things and he ends up passing the test and the, the you know the, the person, the angel, basically comes to things and he ends up passing the test and the the you know the, the person, the angel, basically comes to him and he says well done, uh uh, very few people, um, pass the hard work test. Very few people pass this. Like, things are not put together. I'm going to put them together. Things are not, you know where they're supposed to be. I just need to fix it. I just need to. I'm just going to go ahead and take care of it.
Speaker 2:How many times do you walk past dishes in your house? How many times do you walk past a bed that's not made or your kids' toys all over the floor and again look, five kids, there's a perpetual mess in our house. The question is am I willing to clean it up? Am I willing to be the kind of person that when I walk past messes, I walk past stuff. That's not right. Am I willing to take ownership and do something about it? And I think if you do that externally, you start to learn to do that internally too. Oh, this is out of place, this is out of order. I need to fix this too. And I think just a good, easy tool for everybody is ask yourself the question what am I walking past? And when you start to fix that stuff, I think you have the ability to start doing that internally too and you become a doer of the word and not just a hearer who walks past stuff and knows the right thing to do but just doesn't actually do anything about it. Because you can train yourself. You can create patterns in your own life where you know all the right things and think that's the same as is doing it.
Speaker 2:But hard work is um. Hard work is often a test that christians don't pass. I find it's easier if you's another. Here's another example uh, our dogs um, I got three of them right, okay, so they're prolific eaters, which means that they're prolific. You know, uh, there's not a nice way to say this defecators is okay and uh, what's that?
Speaker 2:What's that verse? A man who has many oxen shovels a lot of poop. You know, I'm trying to think it's in Proverbs somewhere. But I'm always trying to tell my kids like, hey, go get out there, go clean up the dog poop, go go clean it up, go take care of this. And it's the longer you wait, the more crap there is.
Speaker 2:And this is just true in your life.
Speaker 2:The longer you wait, the more you put it off, the more work that you're going to have to do, and the more you put it off, the less you want to do it.
Speaker 2:Do it today, like, just do it. The sooner you do it, the less work you will have, and the more consistent you are, the less you have to deal with stuff. But I'm telling you that that pile of crap keeps growing if you aren't willing to do something about it, if you weren't willing to do something about it. And again, at some point you wake up and you have a thousand wives and you're worshiping Molech and God's saying I'm taking your kingdom from you. And it's funny. But it's not funny because that principle applies in all kinds of places in our life which you don't deal with now, face now, take care of now, will become something later in your life that ends up ruling you instead of you ruling or mastering it, like god says in genesis 4 and what's interesting about that to me is that those guys, those people you're talking about, who just get okay with it yeah, older they get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they force the people around them to be okay with it too. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, you find people who are in that same spot right and look. Grace is great from God, and grace is great in moments where wisdom is applied. But grace is not a freebie that allows you to live in piles of garbage. Grace is something that calls you out of, that gives mercy, but calls you to more. This is why the gospel is not you're free from sin. Now. Do whatever you want, I'll see you in heaven. God gives us this pesky heart that then begins to prick us and teach our hearts what we're supposed to do, and the spirit is constantly calling you in uncomfortable places and telling you you need to deal with this, you need to deal with that, and if you have more counselors around you that are pointing out all the great things, and not counselors that are calling you to more in the areas where you're not put together, you don't have counselors anymore. You have something else in time. Yeah, it's just real, just real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, cool dude. I think that's probably going to be close to our time, awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I just want to encourage you guys If you've got stuff going on in your life right now that you need to face, call some people that you don't know I would say super well. Call some people who don't know you well enough to know how to navigate all the social intricacies of helping somebody feel comfortable in a conversation. Call some people that don't know you super well and invite them in, because they won't know you well enough to be polite. They probably would have some things. I would also recommend people who are solid in those areas. Don't invite people who struggle with the same sins into the area where you're struggling with sin. It could be somebody who's conquered that and has been through it. That's different. This is why I don't like young adult groups. Take all the people with the same patterns and problems and issues and put them all in a group together. That'll be perfect. That'll help them. That'll help them a lot.
Speaker 2:Now you need people who are outside of that circle to be invited in, to begin to speak to you in those areas. Start cleaning up the little things in your life and watch God show you some other things internally and as you take accountability and ownership for what's outside of you. It's a great first step in identifying the things that are wrong inside of you and in that you might be the person who, instead of ending up like Solomon, ends up more like David. I made some mistakes, I made some problems, but I wanted to face those things and I love God to the end that I tried to fight for those things and I could get into David's story and some of the issues there. None of us are going to do a perfect outside of Jesus, but all of us in Christ should be people who are actively finding things that are trying to destroy them, so that their kingdom, when they breathe out and give up their sword, is not handed over to somebody who has no business running it. Yeah Cool.
Speaker 1:And I would say don't be so offended too when somebody does yeah, it's Proverbs.
Speaker 2:And I'll say don't be so offended too, when somebody does yeah, oh, it's Proverbs, I think 27,. Uh, a wound from a friend can be trusted but an enemy multiplies kisses.
Speaker 1:Right, it was a real story real quick, back in the kitchen days, yeah, when we got saved, you know, you know that elevator that went from the bottom kitchen to the top kitchen, yeah, yeah, one of the cooks got stuck in there with me on the way up and I remember I don't know why I did this I just looked at him. I was like, do you watch porn, did you? Yeah, so blunt with him and he was so, like you know, deer in the headlights.
Speaker 2:And he's like, oh my gosh, no.
Speaker 1:But it led to some good conversations and then a good friendship after that too. So I say that just to say being blunt is kind of helpful too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't need to therapy everyone with regard to their problems. Sometimes you need to father them, and that means like calling out more Around it. Walking with them through it and calling things what they are. Yeah, if something is gay and stupid, call it gay and stupid and keep going.
Speaker 1:Cool, awesome. Thanks, man, all right, appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Love you, bro. Hey, praying for all you guys who are listening and thanks for joining in. If this podcast was a blessing to you, send it to some other people and, um yeah, subscribe and uh, love putting out content that blesses you yeah, definitely all right, guys.
Speaker 1:Catch y'all next time, see ya.
