Sharp Podcast
We’re Jay & Frank—two friends who have known each other for over six years. Now in our 30s, we started this Christian podcast to have real, unfiltered conversations about faith, life, and everything in between.
From the Bible to personal experiences, health, finances, relationships, and the ups and downs of life—we cover it all through a biblical and Christian lens. We love to talk, joke, and share what we’ve learned along the way, and we want to bring you along for the ride.
Join us as we keep it real, keep it biblical, and most importantly, keep God at the center. Hit that subscribe button and let’s grow together!
Sharp Podcast
This ONE Principle UNLOCKS God's Will For YOU!
In this episode of The Sharp Podcast, Jay and Frank dive into the importance of Christian responsibility and why believers must take ownership of their choices. Too often, Christians fall into the mindset that God will do everything for them—but Scripture makes it clear that we must walk in obedience and accountability. Using Genesis 4:7, we explore how God calls us to “do what is right,” resist sin, and live with intentional faith.
We talk about the need for a hunger for God’s Word, making wise and responsible choices, and not blaming God for the consequences of poor decisions. As followers of Christ, we must develop discipline, accountability, and a daily desire to study Scripture, grow spiritually, and live out our faith with purpose.
If you’re ready to be challenged, encouraged, and reminded that faith requires both trust in God and responsibility in action, this episode is for you!
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more faith-filled conversations that sharpen your walk with Christ.
#SharpPodcast #ChristianResponsibility #BibleStudy #ChristianPodcast #FaithTalks #Accountability #Obedience #HungerForTheWord #SpiritualGrowth
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You gotta call any man who be my disciple. Let him pick up his cross, deny himself and follow me. Look at all the look at that formula, bro.
Speaker 2:There's a yoke of godly discipline, and then there's a yoke of sin we can pray to have your mind renewed, but then you still hang around with those friends who just gossip and talk bad. It's like how long is to last.
Speaker 1:I am a firm believer that if you are in a cycle of something that has been detrimental to you, I don't believe it's God trying to teach you a lesson. I think it's a lack of responsibility.
Speaker 2:Reading your word, your relationship with God has to be the priority. Like your screen time should not be eight hours and your word is 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:Taking in the word puts a border between you and sin.
Speaker 2:I need to read. My word needs to be the voice and the heartbeat of the church today. I literally think people are going to die spiritually because they are not taking what they need. When you're sick, it's rare that you have an appetite and say like I want to eat, but it gets to a point where it's like, no, you need to eat, you need to drink to survive. Your attitude, your heart needs to be. I need the word.
Speaker 1:When the Bible says in Hosea 4 that my people perish for a lack of knowledge, it's because you don't know what you need. You think you know what you need, but you don't. Welcome to Sharp Podcast. I am your co-host, jay, and I'm Frank, and we're back. Yes, we are Getting right into it because, yo, this is a topic I'm passionate about. If I'm honest, you really are. I'm really passionate about people taking responsibility for their lives. Yes, me too, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know why it's a common trend for people on the internet to be venting. Anybody ever heard of people venting on Facebook, venting on TikTok? This is happening to me. This is happening to me. I don't know why. Why am I suffering? Woo, woo, woo. But some of the things I be hearing is just like I think it's your fault, yo. I read a perfect example on instagram. I read this girl. She made a post and it went viral. That's how I saw it and it said my life has been so hard with all these kids. I wish we could choose our baby daddies. That's what she said. I wish we could choose our baby dad. And there was people commenting saying uh, you know, you do choose your baby dad he's like what wow?
Speaker 1:that anyways, but that's a perfect example of the stuff that be. Yeah, just hitting pinching a nerve in me. Yeah, for you to be blaming life for stuff.
Speaker 2:That's like we've run your grasp we lack, we definitely lack responsibility as a people. And this isn't all. That's a perfect example of the world. We definitely see it in the church world. My thing is like when we're in church and we see someone with horrible health, but their eating's not right, they're not active, they're not, and then they're just like it's in god's hands it's in god's hands.
Speaker 1:My diabetes is in god's hands.
Speaker 2:There's a lot we got responsibilities that we do have to own up to. I'm not saying that when it comes to your health there is. There is like, uh, some things that are are tough to work through, but a lot of it is almost 99 of it is how you're taking care of yourself, precisely so responsibility we can't run from it. We gotta own up to it as people, as leaders, as children of god. Right, we have to be responsible for what decisions we make and what we do, because God holds us accountable.
Speaker 1:God surely does hold us accountable. God's accountability is so strict and so serious that he actually put a tutor within us. The Bible says he's your accountability partner. For those of y'all following these apps and joining these ministries, that's supposed to give you an accountability partner. You have one for free, more intellectual, more wise than anybody you could possibly imagine. That person's called the holy spirit, yeah, and he's there to help you in all things. Yep, you know. And so I think that is a great way to start this video. Uh-huh, because the Bible has plenty to say about responsibility. Yep, you know, and it even speaks on two people who were held responsible for bringing an offering to God. You remember those two people we talked about two weeks ago? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Cain and Abel, cain and Abel. So I have this scripture here, and I think this is a good place to start our conversation today regarding responsibility, because I think this also comes from the heart of people thinking that they don't have responsibility.
Speaker 1:and then God does it all for us, right, god does everything God's going to bring me my husband, but I stay in the house and have door. Dad bring me my lunch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also those Christians that you know. Everything is the devil. The devil made me do this.
Speaker 1:The devil made me eat a thousand calories today.
Speaker 2:So let's just go to, uh, genesis 4. Okay, verse 7 and this is so important for us to look at. God tells him you will be accepted if you respond in the right way. So you have a way to respond. Do it in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out, sin is waiting to attack and destroy you and you must subdue it. Why do we like that? Because it is showing that god is telling him that you have a response and you have a way to handle yourself. You have a way, you have a responsibility to carry yourself. You have have choices, you got to make decisions. But he's saying do it right. If you don't, something is waiting to devour you, and that's so important. Like in our life, man, every decision we make right, it's your responsibility to do it correct. And also you have to do things in life 's not like god said hold on, hold on, um, I saw what you did to your brother. Let me take care of everything for you let me take care of everything for you.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't that be Now. Everything is taken care of? No, he said. Now those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. No, not. Everything is taken care of. You got to call. You have to pursue Any man who be my disciple, let him pick up his cross, deny himself and follow me. Look at all the the. Look at that formula, bro. Look at those steps. If I were to write a joel olstein self-help book, look at the steps jesus gave deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me.
Speaker 2:Yeah what part of that are we missing bro none of it was I carry you through it. None of it was I do it for you I'll do it for you. No, jesus did his part. I jump on my back, I'll hold the cross and you and we'll go to the promised land.
Speaker 1:Listen, it's not that no, it's not that simple. If it was that simple, why did the people of god suffer? Yeah, if it was that simple, why did paul have to get beat and beat and suffer and get tormented and shipwrecked? And why did he have to do that? For the sake of the gospel? Why did all the apostles get persecuted and killed while preaching? Why, till this day, are they still killing christians in other parts of the world?
Speaker 1:yeah if it is that sweet, it's not that sweet. And if we ever there's a scripture in 2 Peter that says you should not be surprised at all these fiery kinds of trials coming to you. In other words, when we have problems that God has given us a responsibility to carry ourselves a certain way through, we shouldn't be surprised at how difficult things are. Like we have decisions to make in this life that are crucial. Yo, I read, tell us I was reading. You know I read the proverb of each day. It says 31 proverbs, so I read it for one day every month. And in Proverbs 7, because today's the 7th August, 7th when we're filming it said, and it shook me, shook me to my core. It was talking about lust. It was talking about like this adulterous woman, and the adulterous woman is like out there on the street corner calling out to young men, that's literally what it says.
Speaker 1:and then the last verse. And it says with much seductive speech, does she persuade him with her smooth talk? She compels him and all at once he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a bird is caught in a trap. As a bird rushes into the trap, this young man it says young man, yeah, does not know that that will cost him his life. Now, that's just speaking about one responsibility we have in our life, which is sexual discipline, and the Bible says that that young man does not know that it will cost him his life.
Speaker 1:Now there's another verse in Lamentations, verse 3. And it says that all young men should carry the yoke in their youth of godly discipline. What does that mean? That means that there's got to be another yoke, because he said you should carry yeah. So that an implication, meaning there's another yoke you could carry. There's a yoke of godly discipline, and then there's a yoke of sin. Which one are you going to choose, baby? Yeah, which one are you going to choose? I heard this pastor on Instagram, bro. I know I keep talking about baby daddy but I can't help it.
Speaker 1:There's a pastor on Instagram. He's going viral, I'll show you after the pod. He said the pastor's like when you come to church, we can pray for you, yeah, to have peace, and you'll have peace for about a week. And then he said or you can stop letting your baby daddy hit and you'll have peace for a lifetime. Bro, like we can pray for you to have peace. Can you imagine how many scenarios you could use? We can pray for you to be for god to heal you, but guess what? If god heals you and you still continue those unhealthy habits, you're still gonna fall back into that trap. Exactly. We can pray for your mind to be renewed, but guess what? If you keep watching movies and consuming all this pornography and staying on social media worried about your popularity, you're still gonna fall into that insecurity. Yeah, listen, you got anything to say?
Speaker 2:yeah, no I mean, no, that you can keep going. But it brings me to what. What we were talking about is your responsibility, right, your responsibility as a person. What you were saying just now, too, I think of. Like friendships. Right, we can pray to have your mind renewed, but then you still hang around with those friends who just gossip and talk bad. It's like how long is it gonna last? Yeah, and it's so important, like we have to. There's decisions we have to make we have to make and I think we, we don't realize that.
Speaker 2:We think that you know, you see someone who's got a renewed mind and in their word and and has this relationship with jesus and lives a lifestyle that you desire, right, that you're like man, I want that. I see that person and that, but it's like we think it's, it's impossible for us, but it's just those responsibilities and those decisions they make daily. Right, and you can do it.
Speaker 1:You can absolutely do it.
Speaker 2:There is nothing in your life that is taking you away from living that way. Right, like. You can turn so many things around. I'm not saying we're all on a level playing field, but what I'm saying is that you have a playing field that you can start to make the right decisions and trend upward, right, right?
Speaker 1:The right decisions can start to be made right now. Now listen, this is probably going to go way off topic, but I am a firm believer that if you are in a cycle of something that has been detrimental to you, whether it's sin, whether it's financial irresponsibility, whether it's bad relationship cycle, if this has been going on for years and years and years, I don't believe it's God trying to teach you a lesson. I think it's a lack of responsibility.
Speaker 2:Like some people now.
Speaker 1:I'm just speaking for myself. There are things that I used to struggle with and sometimes it's still a temptation, but that I used to really struggle with that. I was literally one relationship away, one friendship away, one godly friendship, from breaking through that thing. There's something sometimes God used to tell me well, the Holy Spirit should speak to me and be like you know, if you just read your Bible for one hour every day, you would overcome that. Wow, there was. Sometimes. It was like I read a book from an author about the Holy Spirit and I would overcome something. There was. Sometimes I would take a financial course on tithing and how to invest and I would overcome, all of a sudden, some poverty I was going through. Here's what I'm trying to say. Some of y'all are literally like one book that god has been telling you to read.
Speaker 1:Away, yeah, from changing those habits, but we're not responsible enough to stay the course. You know you can't work out three days and expect to be slow. Exactly, you got to work out every single day for the next 365 days. Commit five days a week to doing that and then God will bring about the results that you need. But, man, we can't stay the course. No, we can't. We can't stay the course, and I think God is calling us to stay the course. I think God is calling us to improve our consistency, because there is nothing that I've ever gained in this life Number one without God, but number two without God reminding me that it's my responsibility to remain consistent. Yeah, he's not going to force my hand. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's a good verse. Give it Proverbs 12, verse 24. It proverbs 12, verse 24, and it says it says that the diligent hand will rule. Now watch this. The second part of that verse is it says the man who's put to forced labor will quickly run into poverty. In other words, the diligent man, that means willing and disciplined. Yeah, willing and disciplined, that means not only does does he want to do it, but he does it even when he doesn't want to do it. Okay, that man, the bible says, is going to rule. Yes, rule over what rule? Rule over anything. He's going to rule over his own body, his mind, his finances, his relationships, whatever he's ruling over he's going to rule over. But the man who's put the forced labor, that means he don't want to do it. He's going to be forced to do it eventually because life is going to force him to do it.
Speaker 1:He's going to be enslaved yeah, that, bro, that's so good you know, that's just one example of how god is constantly placing it into our hands. I literally have this picture every day when I wake up and it's a picture of god telling me that's you know that scripture where joshua tells the people of israel he says choose this day, whom you will serve. And I have a picture of just god telling me every day when I woke up whose will do you want? You want your will or you want my will? And I got to make my mind up every day.
Speaker 1:This Christianity is not just a one-week thing. I made my decision for the week. No, every day, crucifying flesh is every day. So I think responsibility for what we choose to believe, I think we should get specific though.
Speaker 1:I think we should get specific. All right, if we get specific. We have a responsibility not to consume more media, more entertainment or more knowledge than what we consume. That has to do with god. Yeah, 100, that's a responsibility it is. That's a conviction I've had lately, like, like george, you have to make sure that I haven't. I took issue myself with my screen time being longer than my word and prayer time.
Speaker 2:Me too, I do the same way. Same way, I feel the same way because even you know, even we go to social media and sometimes we think, okay, I need to go to this because it's my new source, it keeps me updated, it keeps me relevant, it's my new source, it keeps me updated, it keeps me relevant. But, bro, when you read your bible, like god knows, from start to finish, everything that's going to happen, and so when we're in this word, you can read what is happening and what's going to happen. You know, and you, you're so relevant. You know like the times that we live in.
Speaker 2:It's not like just because you haven't been watching the news, you don't know what time we're in. If you're in your word, bro, it just reveals to you what's going on. This is like your best news source, believe it or not, I know people don't believe it, but it really is. Think of, like, if you look at even leaders, right, leaders in the workplace. They read books on leadership, they go to seminars, they watch videos, but all the leadership principles come from where? Come from right here, come from that Bible.
Speaker 1:I kid you not.
Speaker 2:So, yes, if you read your Bible and you follow its instructions, man, you're so far ahead Right, and we don't realize that we have no clue. So it goes to what you say. This needs to be like this reading your word, your relationship with god has to be the priority. Like your screen time should not be eight hours and your word was 30 minutes. There's a disconnect, Something's wrong there and that happens to me and it's like a conviction man. What I don't know. I feel convicted Even if we talk about a tithe. The tithe is 10%. We have 24 hours in a day. I look at it like did I give God at least those two hours in my day?
Speaker 2:Two and a half maybe, and a lot of times no, we didn't right, we fall short. And it's sad, and that's the minimum.
Speaker 1:Right, completely agreed. Now, just so y'all know, I'm personally not telling you to read your Bible two hours a day straight. That's not what I'm saying. I'm personally not telling you to read your Bible two hours a day straight. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that we can have as many promises from God that we are willing to sacrifice for.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not perfect, I mean, I know that. But I know that every day I try to make a conscious decision. Am I going to improve and be consistent, or am I going to decline and grow faint and dim? Because I already know, bro, this is, this is a real life example. Ok, I noticed the difference in my conscious sin level when I start the day in the word and when I don't start the day in the word. Yeah, you ever notice that I? I do you ever like, recall, like dang? Yeah, I, just, I just gave this buddy a piece of my mind because I know I did not start my day in the word. Now, this is a real thing, like I read it in the bible, like it's actually true, because David said I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you yeah in other words, taking in the word puts a border between you and sin, and the less words you have in you, that border just gets closer and closer between you and sin.
Speaker 1:You want to extend that border as far as possible, but it's not up to God, it's up to me exactly. I have to make these smart choices. I have to do my research. You know you have to be when I think, when you become a christian, you have to really become intentional with how you spend your time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do you know you have to be really intentional with how you spend your time, who you spend your your time with. All these things all of a sudden are major decisions because you have no idea how it's going to affect you personally.
Speaker 2:The Bible is clear on it, so clear on it.
Speaker 2:It brings me even to the Psalms that we had a video about, where it talked about the progression of you in the presence of sinners. Right, right, it said psalms one, exactly. And so like it's a conscious decision and when you make the right decision it pays off, and when you make the wrong decision, it's just like it keeps getting what keeps getting worse and worse and worse, like you keep digging yourself into the ground and it's like there it's so hard you can come out, but it makes it hard. I think every bad decision just takes you back and back and back.
Speaker 1:Right, so I think that's all we got for today?
Speaker 2:No, I think that was. I think there's a lot you can take away. The first and most important thing is take account of your life and what are you? Where are you lacking responsibility and how can you do better and be more responsible? Right, that's so important. There's a lot of practical things that we can take away to make ourselves better.
Speaker 1:Right, and so you can make, so you can like give that more life, like bring these concepts to life. I think a great thing you could do is, when you're done reading your bible and I've done this sit down with a pen and a paper and ask the holy spirit tell me things. I need to be more consistent and just start journaling. Yeah, just start journaling. I think that is a healthy way to allow god to try to rewire the way we think and try to rewire rewire the way that we believe in the concept that he's called us to believe in. You know, because the to believe in the things that god is not easy, like when god says give and it'll be given unto you. Who else does that that? Who else says I'm going to give more so I can get more? That makes no sense.
Speaker 1:They usually say save more so that you can get more, not give more so that you can get more.
Speaker 1:That makes no sense. So for you to believe these things that God is calling you to be more responsible in, you're going to need him to speak to you about it, and I promise you, you sitting down with a Bible and a journal and asking him to reveal it to you, and then start writing. Just start writing your thoughts, start writing your prayers, start writing your concerns, and I think God can speak to you through that manner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of want to. I don't know why I'm feeling this, but I want to go back to Genesis 4 and I want to send you off with this. I want to go back to Genesis 4 and I want to send you off with this.
Speaker 2:I want to read that verse right away, verse 7,. I don't know why, but I feel this way Maybe there's someone watching this right now that they keep making the wrong decision and they're not taking responsibility. And, just like this verse says, I think that this is a word for you that watch out, because there's going to be a point where that that hidden thing that you keep, that you keep struggling in when you keep making the wrong decision, and eventually there can be a point where that thing's going to destroy you, right, and so I don't know, maybe you've gone, maybe you've gone so long, no one noticing, right, it being hidden. But there can become a time and a point, man, where that thing that you're lacking to take responsibility over could end up destroying you, and don't let it don't let it.
Speaker 1:Don't let it, no. I mean, I think this is a great phrase I love to hear, and it's a phrase that says we should always be practicing our potential. When you get saved, when you decide to follow jesus none of the things we're talking about today. You are not incapable of doing them. It's within your ability to become a person of prayer. It's within your ability to become a person who journals and reads their word. This is not far off from the person you are and who you want to become. God has put it in you, in your potential, to accomplish all that you want to do for him and to become the man and woman of God God wants you to be. We just have to take responsibility. Yeah, we have to take responsibility. That potential that's in you. You got to practice it every day. Every day. It's got to be cyclical. I like what you put on Instagram today oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It was just on my heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I woke up today saying, man, I need to read my word. I I've been I mean, I, bro, I've been reading my word every day, like hour. I've been proud of myself because, like, I just have that passion in me. But I woke up today just feeling some type of way and I said, man, I need to read my word.
Speaker 2:And there is a voice inside my head, which I know wasn't the spirit and it was trying to condemn me, saying I remember a preacher once telling me like, or telling the church right, like, you got to get away from saying I need to read my word to saying I want to read my word, you know, and I get it. It's preachy and I get the idea behind it. But that voice came in and I was just like no, like yeah, I take that thought captive and I was just reflecting on that. I need to read my word. It needs to be the voice and the heartbeat of the church today, because we live in a world where there's so much chaos going on and I literally think people are going to die spiritually because they are not taking what they need.
Speaker 2:When you're sick, it's rare that you have an appetite and say I want to eat, but it gets to a point where it's like, no, you need to eat, you need to drink to survive, and I don't know. I just feel like the heartbeat of the church today is your attitude. Your heart needs to be I need the word. I can't go on. It's a necessity, it's not a want, it's need the word I can't go on. It's a necessity, it's not a want, it's not a craving, it's not a temporary thing, it's not a trend like you need it it's. It's, it's like what you need to start your day right. And I think that that goes with what we're talking about the responsibility, the decisions like you need. There's decisions you have to make, like you need to make to survive.
Speaker 1:Right. That goes in line with one of the scariest verses in the Bible, which relates to Samson, and it says that Samson knew not when the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. You don't know what you need until what you need is gone. All of a sudden, samson lost his strength, god's Spirit left him and all of a sudden you find them in confusion and chaos and without strength, wondering what just happened. What in God's green earth has taken place Because you don't know what you need. When the Bible says in Hosea 4 that my people perish for a lack of knowledge is because you don't know what you need. You think you know what you need, but you don't. You don't. You need God's presence to survive, you need God's word to survive, you need God's approval to make it. Every day. You do. You know, and here's a perfect example of that.
Speaker 1:This is the last thing I'm going to say, because if not, we'll keep talking. The last thing I'm going to say, because if not, we'll keep talking. The last thing I'm going to say is that everything that God created, god called it forth from its source. So when God created the sea, he called fish from the sea. So when God created plants, he called plants from the ground. So when God created the birds of the air, he created the sky and he called the birds of the air to come forth from the sky. He called them all, each from their source that they could not survive from. So fish can't survive without water, plants can't survive without the ground, birds can't survive without the air. But when he called to create us, he said let us make man out of our image, so we can't survive without him.
Speaker 1:We can't survive without him we can't we can't survive without our source, and that's what I'm gonna leave y'all with today man, I hope this video blessed you.
Speaker 2:Like comment, subscribe. We'll see you next week. Next week.