Taking Your Thoughts Captive

The inaugural episode of Q&A w/ T&C focuses on a foundational question for men: How can they manage their thought life effectively, particularly as Christian believers? The hosts discuss the importance of stewarding one's thoughts, just as one would steward time, money, or health. They emphasize that thoughts can originate from three sources—God, oneself, or the enemy—and that the key lies in responding to these thoughts in a godly way.

Please remember to subscribe and share this Podcast with other Christian men. We are thankful to each of you. 

The Mentoring Christian Men Worldwide Podcast is a collaboration between Prodigal Man Ministries and The MST Project.

Find more information about these ministries at https://prodigalman.com/ and https://themstproject.com/. 

Transcript

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 Hey guys, I want to welcome you to the inaugural podcast for Q& A with TNC. Now, don't be confused. That is not questions and answers in terms and conditions.

That is questions and answers with Tim and Christian. And this inaugural podcast, we're just going to discuss  Who are we? What's the purpose of this podcast? What are we doing? Uh, who, who am I? Who is Tim? Who is Christian? Uh, and then we're going to hit the question of the day at the end. And so that's the concept behind this podcast is we want to be able to empower God's men, men of the church,  To answer some tough questions that are oftentimes either ignored largely by by the church at large both nationally and internationally uh, and also  Give good quality actionable steps.

Uh, one of the things that drives me nuts I don't know about you christian and I had the privilege to to speak to some men at an event on monday night  I i'm not a big fan of information without application I can't stand it. I want Application so don't just feed me a bunch of information as a man. Give me a step by step.

How do I do things like Overcoming  bad thoughts. So that'll be what we talk about today because everything everything starts in the mind But before we get ahead of ourselves, uh christian, why don't you talk about your background? And why don't you first actually start by telling us where you're at right now in the world  or tim?

Well, I know for you. It's morning for me. It's evening, which is great because we're covering the whole world, right? And so no matter where my coffee  Actually, I should have brought my coffee too. I need a little, uh, pick me up this evening, but yeah, I'm in Thailand actually. I've been out here for over 20 years.

Uh, been out here serving God, do a lot of, uh, mentoring, discipling with men around the world, but God has called me, uh, to, to make my home in Thailand. And so I'm out here in the big city of Bangkok, 10 million plus people according to the latest, uh, census, but who knows? It could be more, it could be less, but, uh, I love what you said, Tim.

Yeah, practical application, right? Discipleship is truth shared and consistently applied. And so I think this is going to be a great forum, a great place for men to hear solid truth.  But also easy to understand and then even easier to apply And so looking forward to doing that together with you and and being a real blessing to men around the world. 

Awesome, man Yeah, I can you know the great thing about technology, right? It has both sides of the coin here It's got the horrible evil. We see that technology is used for and what a cool concept That we can take an international perspective from christian lenti And then my limited american perspective You Well, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't sell yourself too short, Tim.

Come on, buddy. It's not limited. You're well, here's the thing I get, you know, yes, it is, but here's the thing.  It doesn't limit God's word. I might think I'm limited. I might think my Americanism limits me, but the truth of God doesn't, is not, it's not regulated by culture. It's not regulated by boundaries.

It's not regulated by, by whether you live in Thailand or whether you live in America. Uh, men deal with the same issues. And I think that was one of the coolest things as we kind of circled the, you know, the wagons here on what to do with this podcast. Why is it relevant? And I think the relevancy is because men, regardless of whether you're in Africa or the United States, God has given us the same edict, the same identity, the same purpose, everything is the same.

And that is the pathway to getting to fulfillment. So I know we're going to, I have a hard time not jumping into content. So I do apologize, Christian, but all right. So you're in Thailand children. Yeah.  Uh, no kids. Well, I'll tell you what, we'll say spiritual children around the world. But no one around the world, spiritual children around the world.

And we kind of like it like that. So yeah, they're not here.  Well,  the good answer is, uh, yes, that's a great question. It's 17 years this year,  17 years this year. And how about for you? How long have you been married? So you got me beat. I am 15 going on 16 will be 16 years in August.  And so you're catching up.

Yeah, I know, but you always be ahead, bro. You always be ahead, and that's the way time works. I don't know, this weird 12 hour difference in Thailand, though, we'll have to see how this, you know, how that works out.  I was thinking about that before coming on, like, is this, am I talking into the future? You are.

This is strange. Are we in a Marvel movie right now? I can tell you that today looks good. And you're going to have a good day today too. I can tell you that today's going to be a good day for you. But man, I think we're borderlining on heresy right now, Christian, we better step back.  Let's let's just go back to the issues.

Yeah. So we'll go back to what we're good at.  So Christian is, you know, he's been in ministry for going on 20 years now. This is his calling. He's been overseas and missions, you know, my path has been a little bit different. I, uh, we have my wife and I've been at 16 years. We have four beautiful kids. 10, 8, 5, and 2.

We kept it all Old Testament. We went Naomi, Asher, Judah, and Shiloh.  Um, and you know, we, we actually have one in heaven. We lost a child from a miscarriage between three and four. Uh, very painful. I mean, if, if you're listening to this and you've ever gone through that, it is very difficult to do, but I will tell you, God has been glorified.

Through it in, uh, in a very specific way recently, uh, we don't have time to get into that today But I I'm hopeful maybe we can hit that on a separate podcast where we where we talk about  How do you deal with tragedy in your life as a man? How do you hold on to, uh, knowing that God is still good and that he is still going to work things for the good, even though you may not understand it?

Um, so my background, uh, when I graduated college, I grew up Catholic and, uh, I grew up with a, with a Catholic household, though, that, uh,  My dad really focused on the personal relationship with God, which as I grew older, I found to be very unique. Everyone would tell me, Oh man, it's not like my Catholic upbringing.

It was just kind of go to church and then go home. Uh, well it was different. My dad woke up every morning reading the Bible and understanding he did have a personal relationship with God. Uh, where I began to veer away from that is really in college. I went to college, um, at Eckerd College in St.

Petersburg, Florida.  I'm originally from an hour south of Boston. And so that was a little bit of culture shock, but also an awesome one, because I was looking at the sun for, you know,  11 months out of the year, only, you know, only a handful of days that were not sunny and not warm, um, as opposed to the dreary, you know, weather of the Northeast.

And so, uh, it was a great change. And I, in that process of going to school really started feeling this calling to, to investigate what I was believing.  And part of that, I think, was because I was being challenged, but also because I knew that, based on my father's example, my mother's example, the example of the family I grew up in, that this was real and it worked. 

And I got involved with a ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ. It's called CRU now. They introduced me to Ephesians  For it is by grace you have been saved by faith, and this is not of your works. It is a free gift of God, so that no man may boast. And that changed everything. Because a lot of Catholicism is this idea that you believe in God, you have this relationship with Jesus, but you have to do good works in order to enter heaven. 

Um, and I finally connected the dot. The dots, excuse me, that the, the, the relationship with God is what motivated me to do good works. My heavenly, my, my destination was already secure,  and I just had to make sure that I understood that I was to be motivated by what Jesus did for me, not to be motivated to try to win his approval somehow. 

And you know, that might be Theology 101 for a lot of people listening to this, but at 21, 22 years old, it was mind blowing for me.  So I, from that point, I started thinking to myself, okay, well, this is what I'm supposed to do. Let's go make disciples. Like I was fired up. Uh, and so after graduating college, I was going to go into the ministry with crew.

Uh, and then God just took me on a different path and he started taking me down the path of, uh, local politics, government work. Um, and what he really showed me is that it doesn't matter where you're planted. You grow my kingdom. And that was profound for me because I think sometimes we get so caught up in this idea that we got to go do things that are going to, you know, specifically be ministry related. 

You know, and later in my life, what happened was, as I was going down this path, God began to open these doors for me to get involved in more ministry things outside of my professional life. So for about three and a half years, I sat on a board, uh, an Oasis, it's called Oasis, Oasis Pregnancy Care Center.

It's right around Tampa. They get about five or six different sites now. And that was a blessing. I was able to work with a ministry that would help them grow, help them, um, you know, save, uh, children from abortion, help fathers grow. And it was during that time, God finally gave me that big calling on my life.

And he said, listen, you're treating the symptom of a bigger problem. And I'm thinking to myself, What are you talking about, Lord? Yeah. What's that symptom? What does that look like? And he said, men are the problem and also the solution.  Amen. And I thought to myself, wow, this is like, what am I doing here?

And so I quickly, you know, after three and a half years of serving on that board, I stepped off and I said, man, I gotta get involved in my men's ministry at church because we've got to start in the church. We've got to strengthen the men of the church. So that they can understand the importance of their leadership in their home of it and not just the matter of what that's going to do for the kingdom, but what that will do for them.

I'm a believer that God is going to put you in a situation as a man. He's going to grow you as a man for the purpose of your fulfillment in the glory of his kingdom and the good fruit that you're going to bear in your life, not just for this generation, but for the one after and the one after and the one after.

And I can, I can attest, I can testify to that.  Because my dad, that's what he did. That's what he still does to this day. His father, my, my grandfather who passed away, he, he had the ability just to walk away from his faith because his wife was taken from him from cancer when he, I think he was in his early 30s, but he held on and, and he raised four great kids that are still today.

Totally relying on their faith.  And so I started getting involved with the local ministry in my church. I ended up launching my own ministry called prodigal man. Uh, prodigal man now, uh, is just in the, in more of what in the infancy stage, but it's growing pretty rapidly because I think I'm hitting a nerve where men want to walk and they want to live in victory.

They want to feel fulfillment. Um, and they need to be shown how to do that too. You know, men may want it, but they might not know how to do it. So you're really, I mean, you're, you're scratching the itch. You know, you're like, look. I know I can identify with you. I can relate to you now. Let me show you and and that's great Yeah, and that goes back to what we're saying before like we can share all the information in the world in this podcast But if we don't actually show application for a man struggling with a particular question, what are we doing here? 

Because men need application and if application is the pathway to leadership, right? Like we can know how to love our wives, but if we don't actually put it into practice, you know If I don't tell you come home and do the dishes for your wife if she's in the middle of 87 other things Come on, man, like that, you know It's the practical application of those things that are going to bear the fruit just not the information, right? 

So anyway, that's me. Um, you know, I, we now live just right around, uh, Tampa, Florida. We go to an awesome church called Grace Family Church. Um, and uh, we just had the blessing of like 30,000 people at our Easter service. It was unbelievable. Wow. At Raymond James? Yeah, it was Austin. He, uh, they called it, uh, Easter for Tampa Bay.

And, uh, anyway, we're getting off subject, but, okay. So yeah. So you didn't see, uh, you didn't see Tom Brady there, did you?  No, no. We didn't see Tom Brady, but we did see Tony Dungy.  Oh, very nice, which is pretty cool. He's actually an active member of our church And that's awesome because I know he's a very strong believer mentor discipler all that isn't it dude.

He's unbelievable He actually will come that's awesome. And there's a funny story. So he'll come on wednesdays and teach Uh our bible study sometimes he'll actually get in there and teach because he loves teaching I think it's probably the coaching nature of him as well Right, they tell this funny story about when he came.

He's so humble, dude He came and he started getting involved in the church. He said hey, how can I um, You How can I volunteer? And somebody at the church said, man, well, we need help with traffic.  And so  you're already putting the pieces together, Christian, but it is hilarious. He starts helping with traffic and it's backing up all the way onto the main thoroughfare because everyone just wants to either stop or look at him or say hi.

He was fired the next day from traffic. Oh, that's great. Look, when you see him again, make sure he becomes the first, uh, Describer of the Q& A with TNC. Yeah. Oh yeah. And so, uh, yeah, let's get, let's share with him. I think it's, I think we're gonna have some fun. I think that the, uh, that's great. I think that the podcast will eventually, we'll eventually get to the point where we could bring in some subject matter experts, you know, that, that would be able to, to supplement what we're talking about here.

So,  Melissa, have we anything but I think Christian, I, I think, I think we got it covered. I think you're, you're in America. I'm in Thailand. We've got almost every part of the world covered with the time zone. That's right. Uh, we've, we've relayed that look. There's a lot of good podcasts out there  geared towards men, and we're not trying to supplant another podcast.

We're trying to give another avenue for men to grow and to find, not just fulfillment, but what does it mean to fulfill the call of God for the man of God? Because Tim, as I shared with you before, and I share with other men, I think that call is found in 1 Timothy 6, When men are like, what kind of man do I need to be?

What kind of man do I need to pursue? What kind of man do I need to become? 1st Timothy 12 lays it out very clear. And it starts off with, but you Timothy are a man of God. And you know, whether you, you know, interchange it with your name or your friend's name, Paul already lays it out who you are. You are a man of God.

And therefore, this is how you are to live. And therefore this is what you are to pursue. So I think we're going to do a great job. We're going to do our best. We're going to share honestly, uh, openly, we're going to share truth, but we're going to break it down in a way that, again, as you, uh, as you mentioned, apply and make it easy to do so,  you know, make it easy to do so.

So keep it simple,  keep it simple, keep it focused.  Absolutely. So here we are. Inaugural podcast for Q& A and TNC. And again, question and answers with Tim and Christian, not terms and conditions. Here we are.  And uh, you got our background, right? So you know kind of where I'm coming from, you know where Christian's coming from.

Um, and we're excited about the uniqueness of this. And you've heard a little bit about our background, but uh, you know, let's, let's jump into a question. Shall we, Christian? You got it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's, what's, what's our first question? Let on one of these. I, I think we've, we've burned enough time and we, if, if anybody's listening, they're probably thinking to themselves, all right, let's get to the question.

That's me. Just so you know, if you're thinking that that's me when I listen to podcasts, let's get to the point.  , right? And, and you know, there's, uh, look, there's gonna be a lot of podcasts 'cause I think there's a few thousand questions we have to work through. So, uh, oh my gosh. So let's start with number one.

One out of number one. Yes. Mm-Hmm. What do we got?  So we agreed on number one being probably the foundation foundational question for all men because we know that everything starts between our two ears, our thought life. So how do we deal with that Christian? What is, what have you seen in your ministry working with men?

How have you seen somebody go from really, really bad struggling in their thought life, maybe dealing with, you know, Thoughts of either vengeance or lust or pride. Um, how have you, what's your first step with a guy? That's like, man, I am transformed now. I believe in Jesus. I, but, but my thought life is just killing me.

How do you, how do you help that guy with the first step?  Well, that's a great question. And you're right. It's a common question because I think of. Man, nobody knows your thoughts, nobody knows what you're thinking, only God knows. Now, of course, your actions can be evidence of what you're thinking or what you've allowed to, you know, uh, marinate, so to say.

So one of the first things that I tell men is when it comes to your thought life, like anything God gives us, everything is to be stewarded.  It's to be stewarded well, you know, so a lot of times we think that stewardship is rooted in our giving, right? And so that's what I heard at church all the time.

Steward your money, make sure you give your 10%. But actually I've always tried to teach men anything from God is a requirement to be stewarded. Well, your time, your health, your money, your words, your attitude, your thoughts, your everything is to be stewarded. Well. So when we look at our thoughts, our thoughts are to be stewarded.

Well, and I think, Tim, you would agree and I, I think you teach as well that obviously our thoughts can come from three sources. Right. God,  us, or the enemy, the, when those thoughts come, the question isn't this thought came, I must be bad, or this thought came, I, I must, I don't know what to do. It's how do I respond?

And I respond by stewarding wealth. And so, uh, you know, before I go into that, what do you think about that? What are your thoughts on that? So, you know, because I, because there is a process I do share with men.  Yeah, there's a process, right? Absolutely. And, and, and we want to get to that process. We want to hear the application about how we start building those disciplines in our life.

But, you know, when it comes to a new believer that's, that's struggling with this. Yeah. Um, because, you know, it could be a new believer in open, I mean, here's the thing. When we start talking about the discipleship process, you can jump into discipleship whether or not you got saved yesterday or you've been saved for 10 years.

Sometimes you have guys that just. Decided to live where they're at with the same thought process, with the same, uh, really what they're not doing. Uh, Christian is Romans 12, two, right? They're not renewing their eyes. And that's the key. You know, if I can get a guy to realize, Hey, I can renew my mind so that I can have a more fulfilling life.

I can build more fruit. And one of the things I teach the men that I mentor them and that I coach, you know, for my ministry,  as I tell them, your mind is like a wheat field. And this comes right out of scripture, right? Jesus taught this  when you get saved, you have fields and fields and fields and fields of, of, of wheat in your mind that have been growing and they've been harvested, or they have been just sitting there.

But amongst them. Are bad things good things things that probably are not god honoring for the most part because you didn't have the holy spirit And so we need to start from square one and realize that you're not going to change your thought life overnight, and that's okay Let's set the expectation here.

Let's help you understand that all of a sudden  Things are, I mean, you're going to be more sensitive to it because when the Holy Spirit comes in, he begins to make you much more sensitive to your thought life. And that messes up a new believer, especially as a man, sometimes because they think, Oh my gosh, I'm thinking all these bad thoughts.

Well, you were thinking for the past, however many years you've been alive, right? You're just more sensitive to it now. Don't see that as a negative. So I try to start with that foundation of hey, let's start now planting good seed Because god can take care of all the old fields. He can take care of all the old fields He'll start tearing those bat the weeds out.

He'll start tearing the bad seed out He'll start getting ridding all that all that All that bad stuff in your life, but we need to just be focused right now on planting good seed  Good thought habits, you know, and I think of the other scripture where it talks about taking every thought captive and yes You're gonna start seeing that as a man, right when you receive the Holy Spirit And I've seen too many men get discouraged by this and so that's where I oftentimes start Christian with men I just say listen, it's not gonna start overnight I said you now are in the process of renewing your mind you have new spiritual eyes Your brain is going to think thoughts that the Holy Spirit brings to your attention and says whoa You're not supposed to think that  And that's when you take the thought captive.

You don't let the enemy get in there and start guilting you about these thoughts. Don't let them do that.  You just take it captive. You make it obedient to Christ and you say, Nope, I am not supposed to be thinking that I am not supposed to be to whatever it might be feeling greedy about money or lusting after a woman or, you know, being angry, whatever that looks like.

And so that's where I like to start. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm going to add something to that because you use two of the three verses that I share as well. So one of the things I share with men, I know we're on the same track. It's almost, it's almost like we were meant to do a podcast together. It's almost like, it's almost like men are the same everywhere. 

That's right. But so is God. God is, God is calling men to something beautiful everywhere as well. So I always start with that verse in, in Corinthians, take, take captive every thought. And what I, what I share with men is that's a command. So it's not a suggestion, it's not an idea, it's not a, eh, if you feel like it.

First off, it's a command. So if we can start with the command, then we know the next step to take. So God calls us, take thought and recap it. But here's the thing, practically, right, I can't go to Walmart and buy a pair of thought handcuffs. And, and, and, and arrest my thoughts, right? That's right. So, so how do you That would be great though, wouldn't it?

Oh, it'd be so much easier. Right? I'd have, I'd have months of Let's lock that one away. Let's lock that one away. I'd have months of product in my, in my, in my office. That's right.  So, I can't go to Walmart and just get a pair of handcuffs and arrest my thoughts. But I start with the command, God calls me to take captive my thoughts.

So now I know how I, what I am to do. Now, if I know what I'm to do now, the question is, how do I do it? So that drives me back to Romans renew your mind. But again, I can't just go to Walmart and buy a new thought. I can't just buy a new brain and I can't just buy a new mind. So the command is to take captive.

The process is to renew my mind, but how do I renew my mind that now drives me over to Philippians. Whatever is good, whatever is holy, whatever is right, whatever is, uh, whatever is trustworthy, whatever is worthy of praise, think on these things. I have the command to take it captive. I have the process by renewing my mind.

Now I have the final step. What do I think on? If I'm lusting, if I'm sinfully lusting, I need to know what else to think about. What I love about 8, I believe the reference is, is that it's not just one thing. God doesn't just say, think on this. God gives you a plethora of basket full of things to think on.

Whatever's good, according to my word. Whatever is right, according to my word. Whatever is holy, according to my word. Whatever is, is, uh, is, is, is worthy of praise. Think on these things. And there's a few more, uh, words in there beside what I've just shared. So I try to take men like you do through that process.

You have the command, you have the process, and now you have the application.  But again, it's not, it's not just good and right according to my standard, right? Because my standard can be pretty, you know, low, but it's a good and right according to God's word, God's way, and God's will. So if it's good according to God's way, think on that.

If it's, if it's worthy of praise, think on that. God tells you, this is what you are to think on. And so I think when it comes to thoughts,  yeah, you, you know, I got a lot of men. They're like, well, my thoughts didn't change overnight. And I'm like, well,  who said that they would? It's a continual choice, right?

Every day. There's no, there's no pinnacle of male nirvana. Where, you know, there's going to be a man that's like, you've achieved it. But  discipleship, yeah. Discipleship is not a, discipleship is not a one day process. It's a lifelong commitment. And so it's taking captive and renewing your mind. It's a lifelong commitment to responding well and stewarding faithfully. 

And those three references in the Bible lay out a clear path for our listeners to apply it clearly,  consistently, and faithfully. Yeah, you know, and I'll add a couple things to that because I think men, we're visual, right? And so the clear application to this, right? So the verse you used from, um, from Timothy is actually on my boys.

Wall. So we have that one on the wall, and then we have Joshua 1 wall, because I want it ever before their face, right? And in my daughter's room, we got Proverbs 31. So I want scripture before their face.  And what I've seen to be very successful for a lot of the men that I work with, is they put it in front of their face.

They stick it on their mirror. So if you're listening to this right now, and you're like, man, I need to look at those three scriptures every day. And  Print them out. Yeah, do it. Do it. Whatever you need to do to keep them in front of your face. And, uh, you know, it reminds me and I'm pretty sure this comes from the gospel of Mark, but this is the concept that Jesus talks about in totality.

What you just described  is the concept that he talks about with the, uh, the parable of the replacement principle, right? So that's the story about how the man is. He's got seven demons and he's got one demon in his house. He cleans up his entire house, the demon goes away, and then the man doesn't replace it with anything.

And so what comes back seven more, right? And so here's that idea that Jesus spoke about so prevalently all throughout scripture is we've got to replace what we used to what the sinful nature that we used to have with God's nature. And how do we do that? We do that by what you just talked about. What is true, what is good, what is holy, what is worthy of praise.

All of those things that are going to make really us fulfilled. And the last thing I'll say to this is, guys, this doesn't come, we don't do these things without reward.  And I know some people are like, well, what are you talking about? There is a movement in my opinion, and maybe it's just in America, I don't know, you can talk to this Christian, where  men are shamed for chasing reward. 

And it's absolutely asinine, but it's a genius, uh, genius tactic of the enemy. If I can just make a man feel like there is zero reward for him  for following christ Then why would he do it because the enemy knows just as much as god knows that we are wired By reward and so when I go speak to men and I go speak at you know at different events It's it's amazing to me when I when I raise my hand.

I say do you think god is interested in you chasing reward? There's often maybe one or two men that that raise their hand and say yeah, and then I throw up the scripture  From genesis where god command he actually is talking to abram Not even abraham yet. And what does he tell them? He tells abram he says I am your shield and your great reward. 

God knew that he had to motivate Abram  with reward to become Abraham to eventually lead the entirety of what we know today.  The entire movement of Christianity, of Judaism, whatever you want to consider. God's plan of salvation, his plan for his people.  Was based on that there would be a reward for following him And I know that that that may seem elementary to us But I think that's important for men to hear because you've seen it in your life You've seen the great reward of following him.

I've seen the great reward of following him and you know What is is unbelievably clear to me is that there is absolutely zero reward. There's only destruction. There's only Getting things stolen from you. There is only just despair when you decide not You to follow God. When you decide not to follow Jesus and you decide to go your own way, it always ends in destruction. 

And so I know that's a pretty, it's maybe a little intense for the first one, but that kind of sounds like episode two or three coming down the road. Cause I think we can go into that a little bit more. Cause I liked, I liked that reward. You know, one of the things that I share with men is, I, I say that there's great blessing.

There's a great blessing in following God. And so I think we're thinking about the same thing. So I'd love to unpack that with you a little bit more because, you know, some people might resonate with reward. Some people might resonate with blessing, but the truth is the same. There is no emptiness in following God. 

God is not an empty giver. He is, uh, he's a faithful and overflowing giver. So yeah. So when we pursue him, yeah, there is a reward. There is a blessing to it. So. I love it, but I think that might have to be another episode. I think we now have our topic for number two. That's right.  How does reward and blessing fit into your walk as a man of God? 

Yeah, right. I think we're stuck to it now, brother. We better make sure we write that one down because we don't want listeners sitting there going, Dude, you said you would do this in episode two and we got nothing. Well, hold on, let's clarify. Somewhere between episode two and episode two thousand, we'll cover that.

That's right. So we'll cover somewhere between two and two thousand. We got to give ourselves a little leeway just in case there's a, um, uh, another question that might come up a little more important one. So somewhere between two and two thousand. Give some grace. Okay. That sounds, that sounds really misleading, but we're going to go with it.

No, I'm just messing with you. Sorry, so let's get focused again. So we're talking about life. We've given some really good practical application. We've given some scripture What do you say to the man who has maybe been following christ  who's just frustrated? Um, maybe he's really in discipleship, but he's just really still struggling With one maybe one area of his thought life and let's let's take lust, right?

So what are some other tips that you can give maybe even pastors out there that are listening to this man? You I am just, it's just so, it's discouraging to me because I thought I'd be having more victory over this in my life right now. Okay. Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. And again, I think it comes down to what I share with men is there's two kinds of temptation and we'll use. All right. So if there's sinful lust and those thoughts, there's, it's a temptation, right? You're thinking of the sinful thought and now you're having to learn how to respond to that.

And you're like, man, you know, I just, how do I do that? So there's two kinds of temptation that I believe there's temptation that you confront and there's temptation that you invite. So the temptation I confront you, you, you can't control that, right? That that's, let's say I go out to picking up a happy meal at McDonald's and there's an individual that walks by scantily clad and just the purpose is visual stimulation, right?

Well, I didn't, I didn't know that individual was going to be there. Okay. I didn't plan it. You know, it just, boom, surprised me. Now I'm confronted with how I respond.  But then there's also temptation that you invite. And I think this is the one where I find a lot of men. I don't know if I want to use this word, but I'm going to use it.

Go for it. Men are, men are lazy.  Ooh, they're, they're, they're lazy because you see, it's easy to come to the place where you're like, okay, as long as it stays here, I can somewhat be in control and I don't. necessarily walk in purity, I want to walk in, in, you know, kind of half, half in, half out. But the truth of the matter is, yeah, so, and I know some men will say we have to discipline ourselves, but I'm going to use another word and I'm going to use self control because discipline can be done without emotion or connection. 

Self control is done with a connection in relationship and a love for someone greater than sin. So when that thought comes in, I want to operate in self control because self control is rooted in submission to God, but motivated by love for God and for others. And so That's the fuel. In that thought, I'm not going to say that that thought is bad if it keeps coming back.

It might keep coming back. So if there, there was a man that was to come to me with that, with that, with that question, I would say two things. One is if you're inviting that, that sinful thought and that temptation, then where do we need to cut off that, that invitation? Is it because you're continuing to go to this website or you're continuing to watch this TV show or continuing to, to, to see a scene in a movie?

If you're inviting it, you have a responsibility to cut it off. If it's confronting you, then you just need to ask if there's a different McDonald's that you can go to for your happy meal. Okay, but regardless of whether you can, we do have McDonald's and that, that's probably, that's probably another episode between two and two thousand we can talk about.

What do you, what do you serve in Thailand versus the United States? I'm sorry, dude.  Uh,  next episode, buddy, next episode. But what I would say is, whether you confront it or whether you invite it, how do you respond to it? And don't be frustrated. Don't be frustrated by the sin. Be faithful in the response. 

Be faithful in the response. Because look, Jesus died on the cross. Praise God. He died on the cross for the sins of man. He rose again the third day, which we just celebrated recently. Praise God. And through that act, through that obedience, the power of sin was defeated. Amen. But the present, the presence of sin is still here. 

Jesus didn't take away the presence of sin. He defeated the power of sin. He defeated the thing that we couldn't defeat on our own at all in any way, one iota. He did what only he could do. But because of the presence of sin, whether in my thought life, whether with what I see or with wherever I go, how do I respond?

So my encouragement to that, to that brother or to that man is to say, look, you might be frustrated.  Be faithful. It might come again and again, but be faithful in how you respond. God doesn't promise that he'll take away every issue that we deal with, but he does promise that he'll never leave us to deal with whatever issue we face.

He'll never leave us to deal with whatever issue we face. His Holy Spirit is in us. Giving us the strength that we need to overcome, giving us the truth that we need to meditate on, giving us the guidance we need when we want to walk into the weeds instead of the path. He is with us. Don't be frustrated.

Be faithful. Dude, that's so good. I feel like we could end right now.  Share it, brother. Share what you've got so we can give you the truth.  Yeah, two things real quick. you know for the seasoned christian what I oftentimes find a seasoned christian male who really is like gosh I've been dealing with this for 10 years I always have a couple questions for that for that person And some of it goes down the line of what you're saying, you know, are we thinking about this, right?

Are we understanding theologically that this is something that you can struggle with or you will at some level? Have to deal with for the rest of your life. Um, but I oftentimes ask a couple things. I I ask You  Do you have a mentor? Do you have somebody that's further along down the road from you that can, that you can have accountability and mentorship with, and then I'll ask them, you know, lead, yeah, correct. 

Absolutely. So that's number one I ask. And what I oftentimes find is the answer is no. And it's not for lack of having options out there. It's for lack of them taking that step, right? Lack of being vulnerable. And, and, you know, I always sit there and I go, well, you're being vulnerable with me right now.

Like, go find somebody that you can be vulnerable with, and it's okay. And the second thing is, I ask them, do you have a, what is your group of, uh, of friends like? Do you have a solid group of men that you can get around with that are going to encourage you? That are not going to lead you astray? That you're not going to the bar with?

That you're not going, you know, talking, you know, with cursed language with? Like, you have to be careful with who you surround yourself with. And the third thing I always say is I always go back to reward. Um, and because the reward of self control, uh, whether you look at that as a little bit of self discipline in your life to, to, to make, you know, to take those thoughts captive or to really work on your self control.

I look at these guys and I said, you know, you're motivated to do good at your job. Great. You're motivated to be a good husband. Great. You're motivated to be a good father. Great. You're motivated to get your thought life together. Great. You realize when you develop better ability, more discipline to be self controlled, your whole life's going to get better. 

There is reward in going down this path to, to work on your thought life, to go ahead and get that, that self control. Because what you're going to find is that you're going to be better and more acute and more sharp. In your business meetings in your working with your kids and your family, you're going to be more acute and sharp when dealing with an issue that your wife might be struggling with.

All of a sudden, this self control is going to bear this fruit in your life where you're going to, you're going to be much more effective for the kingdom. And so, you know, those are the, on top of what you're saying, those are the things that really impart, uh, to men, because I want them to understand that every piece of God's goodness that they put into their life is going to bear fruit in every area of their life.

And all of a sudden they're like, Oh, wow. So I get tertiary benefits from all. Yes, you do. You get all kinds of benefits from this,  you know, and I love, I love your example of eight them, you know? Yeah. I love your example of bear fruit because you can bear good fruit or rocking fruit. And so that's a good thing.

I love it. Bear fruit, right? Every investment pays off. It does good stuff does that's good listen, dude I think we have packed enough into the first episode of q a with tnc and Again, it's question and answers with tim and christian. It is not question and answers with terms and conditions. This is not a legal podcast  And uh, if you're listening to this, we're grateful  Again, christian is sitting right now in thailand.

I am sitting in the united states And, uh, we're blessed to be able to bring you this information and, uh, we wish you the best guys go get them We believe in you and we will be back with more of these episodes to encourage you to empower you  And help you grow as a man of god so that you can enjoy this fruit so you can bear this good friend So you can you can have the reward that he has for you But really most importantly guys so you can grow his kingdom for his glory.

So christian any final thoughts  I think, Tim, you wrapped it up great. My only thing is, we've got about 1, 999 more episodes to go, so I'd encourage our audience to subscribe, uh, to listen, and, you know, we're going to continue to tweak this, I think, as we, as we meet and as we put out these episodes consistently, but I think what men are going to find is they're going to find us to be honest, they're going to find us to be biblical, they're going to find us to be authentic, and they're going to find us to be inspiring, because we're not sharing with you knowledge, we're sharing you with you experience that not only we teach, but that we ourselves are committed to walking out, living out.

and doing it faithfully and consistently. And, and I think, Tim, it's time for there to be a renewed men's movement that impacts on not only marriages and families, but societies and the world. And that time is now. Dude, you hit it. So let's do it. Absolutely. So tell us, Christian, where can men find you outside of this podcast? 

Right, uh, yeah. You know, you can find us@themstproject.com, the MST project. Uh, you can find me on Facebook, YouTube, uh, you can type in my name.  Christian Lenti on any really social media platform, and you'll be able to find me. And Tim, let me put that question back to you so that you can give a chance for people to connect with you as well.

Absolutely. So I'm at Prodigal Man, all the different handles out there. Um, with the exception of TikTok, uh, my wife was like, no, you're not going on TikTok. Yes. One less, one less social media outlet I need to deal with. You mean we're not going to do, we're not going to do like a dance on TikTok? Yeah, I don't think so.

Unless, you know, I don't really know how all that works. But anyway,  Prodigalman. com you can find everything there. Uh, you can find my socials there You can find some of the uh, you know, some of the message that i've given some of the speaking engagements i've done um and shortly Depending on how god works all of these things Uh, we will be looking at a book launch probably in the next year  And so be praying for that be praying for a book called identity assignment and we'll be hitting that later on In some of these episodes of what does our identity look like?

and um Yeah, so that's where you can find me prodigalman. com is the easiest way to do it and uh,  that's it man We're we're done. This is it and this is the first another episode. So appreciate you christian and uh, we'll talk to you in the future Pun, pun intended in the future's future, is that how that works? 

Well, I'm always in the future for you, buddy. I'm always in the future for you. I know, it's unbelievable. So, uh, so next time in the future, we'll get to another question or two, because I think that's really our hope, right? Every episode, get to a question or two that man has shared with us and that we've spoken on and therefore can inspire, impact and, uh, help others around the world.

Yep. And if you enjoyed this today, share it with somebody who needs it.  Till next time guys till next time.