Manhood Series Episode 7: Series Recap

What does it actually mean to be a man of God?

After 7 episodes unpacking biblical manhood, this conversation brings it all together.

In this recap episode, we revisit the core truths that define real masculinity—not by culture, but by Scripture.

From arete (moral excellence) to chazaq (strength and courage), from identity in Christ to calling, perseverance, and brotherhood—this episode distills the foundation every man needs.  

We talk about:

• Why Jesus is the true model of manhood
• How identity in Christ shapes everything
• The difference between calling, roles, and work
• Why courage is obedience to God—even when it doesn’t make sense
• The power of perseverance when life gets hard
• Why no man is meant to walk this out alone

This is about becoming the man God created you to be.

If you’ve followed the series—or you’re just jumping in—this episode gives you the full picture.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

We have reached the end of our series on biblical manhood. What have we learned? What are the key takeaways? What does being a man in the eyes of God look like? Let's talk about it. I'm Duncan Brannon. Welcome to Three in the Fire. Well, welcome back, everybody. This is the wrap-up episode for our series that we have been doing on biblical manhood, and we we hope you guys have enjoyed it. I know that we have, and speaking of we, I am talking about mi compadres, mi amigos, Josh Davis and Max McWarter.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Welcome, guys. Hey everybody. Hey, good morning, Duncan. Good morning, Max. Good morning. Yeah. Well, are you guys as excited as I am about this episode? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I am I'm thrilled.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

I think we've covered a lot of ground in this series. Um, I think people are gonna find it very invigorating and very encouraging, and most of all, equipping um, because we have we've placed definitions on manhood. What does it mean to be a man of God? We've explored it in terms of character and obedience, and then dived into roles and calling and talent and courage and perseverance. All of these things, there's there's so many things. Um, and in this episode, what uh what I really wanted us to do was to kind of drill down now and kind of distill things really. And let's give guys, okay, if as we talked about this, this is the key takeaway. This is the key verse that we want you, you know, to really remember and to hone in on as we talk about this aspect of manhood. Um, as you know, we uh when we started, um I I got to to launch us out of the shooter, and we began with this very, very special word in Greek. That Greek word arete. Only appears five times in the New Testament. Uh 2 Peter chapter 1, it appears three times, then once in Philippians 4.8 and once in 1 Peter 2 9. But it was a very, very special word to every Greek speaking male in the first century world. These guys were were trained from their from their youth, from starting from age seven on up to age 15, they were memorizing Homer, specifically his epic poems, The Iliad and the Odyssey. And we talked about how the Iliad was about the Battle of Troy, and we were introduced to these great heroes of ancient Greece, Hector, Achilles, Odysseus, and so on, and their their great feats. And for them, Arete was this martial excellence on the battlefield. It was always associated with courage under fire, okay? Think of the uh the Spartans at Thermopylae, okay? Think of Hercules as he descends into Hades and he does his 12 labors, okay? These guys who were trained up in Homer from that time, um, from childhood onward, they were they were memorizing Homer. They could recite it. By the time they were 15, they could recite it to you by heart. And this was an impressive feat alone, okay? These guys, as they memorize this, I was just looking at this earlier, okay? You think about this. Homer was 24 books long, okay? That's 15,693 lines and 193,500 words. Okay, that's impressive. The Odyssey was a was a bit shorter. It was still 24 books, but 12,109 lines, 134,560 words. I was just, oh my gosh. And these guys memorize this stuff by heart. And then they went into deeper studies in their teens on all of this, so that by the time, you know, they were they were about to round out their education, this word arete was just huge in their vocabulary. So as Peter takes it up in 2 Peter 1, and specifically verse 3, where he says, His divine power, Jesus' divine power, has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who is called us to his own glory and arete. When he said that, everybody went, whoa, whoa, time out. Up until now, I understood that that my standard for arete, this manly excellence, this moral excellence, excellence on all of life. Up until now, I understood that my examples were Achilles. My examples were Hector and all of these these great people in our in our in our religion and our history. Um, but now you're saying that Jesus is that definition. And and and Peter, it's such a brilliant writing of this passage. It's so Holy Spirit-driven. He does. He quietly removes all of the Greek gods and all of the Greek figures out of the way and says, no, no. They were illusions at best. They were shadows and really kind of frauds. Jesus is the ultimate definition of masculinity, the ultimate definition of excellence in every sense of the word. And this was the pinnacle quality of the Greek world. And that's what he starts this big grocery list with. And so it's a big deal as he does this. And this would have been electrifying, it would have been galvanizing for these guys. And it was a really important call that Peter's issuing at this moment because persecution was breaking out under the Roman Empire. The great fire of Rome had taken place under Emperor Nero by this time. Peter was probably going to be crucified this next year. He was going to be gone. Martyrdom's beginning to happen. And now all of these guys have to be strengthened to stand firm in their faith. And they're going to face really horrendous battles, just like some of their great heroes did. And as they're going into that time, he says, Remember your ultimate hero. Jesus is the model for everything. He conquered death. And he rose in victory over it. But what I love the most is verse 4. He looks at them and he says, Now, not only did he do all of that stuff, but he makes you a partaker of that because you're reborn in him. It's not just something where Jesus is the standard. As he comes to life in you, this excellence, this manliness, this can come alive in you as well because you're born again in him. And that's what I think is such an important takeaway here. Any any thoughts there as we are pressing in.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

I think I mentioned whenever we were talking about this that this, you know, it only appears the five times, and so very easily we can overlook it. But it is so powerful. It is uh it changes everything. When you go back and you read those passages and you replace Arete with manliness, or if you replace moral excellence, I mean it causes that verse to come out, and it really it paints us into the corner uh of understanding that there really is no way around this, that it there's no way to shirk that. So that key right there, Duncan, I think it's huge.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Yeah, it's uh he's he's set the bar for us here in in 2 Peter, and then he fleshes it out in these other passages, and we we really begin to understand that manliness is connected with character. That's really our our big takeaway here. It's connected with not just character, but the character of Jesus himself. And we can see that in his his willingness to go to the cross for us, that heroic sacrifice and death. And he calls husbands, father, lay down your lives for your wives. He calls us as men to emulate that model in our daily life, and then says it's possible through the resurrection, through the the spiritual rebirth. And then he adds to that in verse five. He says, now, hey, the other important part of this is add this to your faith. You work on this, you need to practice it, you need to do it with other guys, you need to study it, and you need to drill down into it. It's not just something that jumps on you like the bat as soon as you slide down the pole and head to the bat cave. You you're gonna have to put some put some effort into this. And he uses this phrase, make every effort, which was really put your back into it. It was a military phrase, it was a gymnasium phrase that they would have been familiar with, also, all of these guys in their Greek rearing. And it so it's it it has all of these underpinnings of of heroism, of warfare. And then he says, and and now make every effort to add it, to supplement your faith with it. And that word there in the Greek there, um, it was it literally meant to outfit a warship. So he's saying, really go into this thing, go all in and build out an elaborate faith based in all of these qualities of character that he starts following up with. Add to this arete knowledge, add to this knowledge of patience and steadfastness, and finally agape, you know, all of these beautiful qualities that you see in Jesus Christ. That was a big takeaway for arete. The uh second word that we jumped in and explored there was chazak. Hazak is a big word in the Hebrew culture, and we trace that back into passages like 1 Samuel chapter 4, verse 9, where it first appears on the battlefield with a Philistine. A Philistine calls out his comrades who are cowering. They're afraid of the Hebrews across the battlefield because the Ark of the Covenant has just come into their camp. And the Philistines, who are these animistic type people, they believe that God's inhabited all these objects and stuff. You know, they see the Ark of the Covenant go in and they go, Oh my gosh, their gods are among them now. Now we're we're doomed. And they all start calling to mind. Yeah, their God is the God who wiped out Egypt. He brought ten plagues, he brought them through a wilderness and he made food appear out of nowhere. He parted the Red Sea, he did all this stuff, and they're really getting spooked. And then this one lone guy looks at the at his comrades around him and he says, he says, Be strong, chazak, you Philistines, so that you do not become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be strong. And and so we find this first connection with this this word chazak in the Hebrew, it's connected with our freedom as men. And it's the idea that as we begin to follow and trust God, there's going to be to be battle and and a courageous stand involved in this. And if we don't, the opposite lifestyle of that is going to be slavery, spiritual slavery. And we can see that in the different sins that we wrestle with as guys and that we get taken captive into and become strongholds in our lives. The other important part of this, though, is that we see it's important to really begin doing this with other guys. The Philistines band together to be strong, to Chazak. And then we followed that into passages like 1 Samuel 10, 12, where Joab and Abishai, David's top generals, they're talking about this to one another. They're on a battlefield, they're back to back, and Joab looks over his shoulder at his brother Abishai, and he says, Chazak, be strong, and let us be valiant today for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do whatever seems good to him. In other words, if we die today, so be it. But we're gonna be valiant and strong today, and we're gonna go down swinging. And the last passage that we looked at was 1 Kings 2 and verse 2 and 3. And that was really the most important because David, as he's given this deathbed commission to Solomon, he connects it with obedience to the word of God. And I think that's a great place to round out my portion of this teaching and series, because manhood has to be connected with obedience to the word of God. Jesus, again, he's that definition. He never disobeyed. He obeyed his father all the way to the cross, and then he was resurrected and glorified. He tells us to follow that model, be willing to die, be willing to lay down your lives, fight with a with a grit and a steal and a character about your life, and trust me in my word and the promises that it has. And so David tells Solomon, he says, obey the charge, keep the charge of the Lord your God, and and keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinance, and his testimonies as it's written in the law of Moses, so that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn. So he says, as you seek to live out this manliness with this character and obedience to the word of God, that's when you're going to find true success as men. Any thoughts before we kick it over here to Josh?

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Many words describe a man's journey. Easy is not one of them. The masculine journey is not a well-lit highway winding through majestic mountains or scenic woods. It's more of a Herculean Odyssey, a thousand-mile voyage shrouded in mystery, storm, and temptation, swarming with monsters, mammals, perils, and rewards. Most men embark on this voyage with no memory, mentor, or compass. Not even an accurate description of the destination. It's not a formula for success. It's a suicide, guaranteeing trouble. But you can always have something better in mind. From Genesis 1, we begin mapping out every moment of the manhood on the sea, breaking it down into distinct stages, setting the light posts, providing patterns and tools for success. What men need though is time to study the map with other men. Help to recalibrate their inner compass. And space to chart the journey's next leg. Welcome to Teleox. Teleonics is the New Testament word describing fully developed manhood. It means highly skilled, mature from going through the necessary stages, complete by fulfilling the essential promises of spiritual journey. Get away with the gun to the exploring. Get wisdom, healing, and the tools you need for the stage you win. Manhood is a thousand mile honesty. But together we can win and step into teleoncy. The fullness, God intended.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

I I just was gonna say I received, I was thinking about this last night. Uh I received some um text messages on a group that I'm involved with, and uh I was amazed at how many times the word kazak uh appeared in those group text messages. It were men that have gone through the same training that we've gone through, but it's been years, right? Some of those guys have been uh had heard your training uh maybe 10 years ago, uh, but still today in an encouragement and a form of letting them know, hey, I'm here and I care, or you need to man up in this regard, right? That versatility of the word um is is still prevalently used and at least in those relationship circles. Josh, I would guess you probably experienced the same thing that the kazak is a common term. It's almost like a it's almost like a one-dollar bill, right? Is you're you're handing them off to almost anybody who needed one.

SPEAKER_04 17:16

Yeah, and there's so much meaning behind just that single word, you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Amen. Well, all right. As we started our our next portion, our next leg of the journey, Josh, we kicked it over to you and you began to to go down, I think, what really is the core of this thing, talking about our identity in Christ as men. Take it away from there.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

Yeah, I mean, just understanding who we are because it it's so foundational to uh how we we walk out uh this life and and how we how we view ourselves and uh as men and and act and speak. And so um, you know, we talked about identity, uh, you know, the foundation of identity being our salvation through Christ. Um and uh and because that that you know determines everything in our life, our relationships that we build and and the things that we do. And um, and so we we started by asking the question, you know, who are you? And we joked around with that a bit. Um and just the fact that you know, guys, we tend to stay at the surface of who we are and and focus on on what we do for work and our hobbies and our different things. Um but you know, I think as as we look back on that, on that episode and what we talked about, you know, one of the verses, it didn't come up in the episode, but but I want to bring it up here and uh and I want that to kind of be the takeaway. And that's uh Genesis 127 when when it says God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. And that's all the way back in the beginning, Genesis chapter one, where God says that he created us in his image. And that's that's not our physical appearance, um, but it but it's all the characteristics and virtues and and things that uh of who God really is, is that he's given us the capacity um to uh to choose to cultivate those uh those virtues and those those characteristics and those things that of who God is, the the qualities, you know, his uh his grace and mercy and compassion and his agape love and the the warrior heart and humility, uh purity, uh peacemaking, righteousness, all of those qualities of who God is, those those are available to us. So if we if we change the question a little bit from who you know, who are you or or who am I to who is God and we ask that question, that's it because the the more that we know the more that we know our Creator, the more that we know Father God, yeah, the more we're gonna know ourselves because because it's because we're a reflection of who he is. And so if we're asking those questions, if we if we're walking with God in relationship, um that the the clearer we see him, the clearer we're gonna see ourselves. Because he's calling us, he's calling us to model, like you just talked about, Duncan, Jesus is the model. That's the model, and the more we know him, the more we know God, the more we're in tune with the Holy Spirit, um, then then we're gonna discover more things about ourselves. Um and we're gonna begin to walk in those things, and we're going to be in line with the calling that he's placed on our life. And so it really it's just it really is all about discovering who he is, because when we discover who he is, then we discover who we are. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

That yeah. Oh man, that is such a beautiful bow on that, Josh. You had said something here. Um, and I'm gonna shamelessly plug your book again real quick, change on the rise. Uh I marked it because in that chapter on identity, you said um right there, you said, before we can fully understand and walk in the truth of who we are, we need to begin with the foundation of it all, salvation. And then you said this. This is such a clincher. Without salvation, there is no restored identity.

SPEAKER_05 21:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Without salvation, we're left to define ourselves by the shifting standards of the world or the lies of the enemy. That is the opposite. If we choose this, we get everything. We get to know him and we get to know ourselves. We choose that, we get we don't not only do we not get him, we don't get ourselves. Right. It really is an either or there. And that I think that was such a defining step.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Yeah, I mean his Jesus Jesus came to reconcile us back to the Father. And so it is through Jesus that we can have that relationship with the Father. And so, you know, the salvation, choosing, choosing to uh to follow Christ, to accept Him as your Lord and Savior, is is the absolute foundation for your whole, your, your new life, your the life you were created for. And so, yeah, with without that, you're just going to be going from thing to thing, trying to figure out who you are, you know, why I'm here, why I'm at or you know, you're gonna listen to all the voices and you're gonna be so confused. Um, and so that's the deal. You know, Jesus is the deal to discovering all of it.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Amen. Amen. Well, Max, we uh shifting here from Josh's first teaching now, we had yours. Um, and you really begin to take us now into this place. You know, we've kind of touched on it as Josh was saying, okay, we we tend to think of ourselves guys as what we do and so forth. You kind of picked up that that tag there, you picked up the baton there, and you began talking about gifts and talents and roles and calling and how this factors into us as men.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Right. And and you know, that it's best learned by what it's not, and Josh mentioned that in that, you know, our identity is not based on what we do. However, many men would tell you if you ask them, hey, tell me about yourself. The first thing they're gonna tell you is what they do. And they try to define themselves with that. And there's an American author, has a really cool name. His name is Studs Turkle. I'd love, I would love to have the name stud, right? But he wrote, he wrote that jobs are too small for men. And that is exactly the case, is that the calling that we have from God is not what our vocation is. And it's not the roles that we play, even the role that is as essential as fatherhood or as a spouse. I mean, those are essential roles that he puts us in, but those are not our calling. And it in Ephesians 2.10, it nails this thing specifically because it says that we are God's masterpiece and that he created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we could do the good things that he planned long ago. So that being the case, is that God has created us as a part of his overall plan. And our calling is much larger, believe it or not, it's much larger than even the raising of children and bringing them into becoming mature adult Christians. That's a huge role, but our calling is bigger than that. And what we often miss is that we don't understand the magnitude of that and how it fits into God's overall plan. And so many times men are missionless and we're just wandering, right? And a lot of times we this we we we talked about a little bit in the book, but a lot of times we make our mate the mission, and that's not the mission either. And so the idea of becoming a man of mission and understanding that God has a call on my life, that calling begins to be identified and reveals itself. The closer I draw to God and the closer he comes to me, that mission begins to emerge out so that I can see what he's calling me to do.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

And so many, so many guys, Max, like they sit around and wait and they're like, Well, I'm just waiting for you know God to tell me what to do or what to do next. Right. Um when you know he says that he created the work in advance. Like the the the stuff for us to do was created long, was was there long before we were created. And so it's there, we got to step into it.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Um, and now I'm not saying that there's times where you're you actually, you know, you're waiting for God to tell you something that you know things. But I think a lot of times we we sit around waiting for the perfect moment, the right moment for God to speak, this loud voice to say, go and do this thing. Um when reality is we're missing, we we can miss things that that we're supposed to be doing, um that that's in front of us that was created, that was put uh put in place long before we were created.

SPEAKER_05 26:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

So so kind of tethering basically, you know, both of you guys, your teachings really tag, they they they really do. They tether together so well because Josh, you you lay it out for the salvation experience is essential to discovering your true identity. And then Max, you you you platform, you launch right from that into going, and now the more you get to know Jesus, the closer you walk with him. Everything he ordained for you before the foundation of the world, calling, gifts he places inside you by his spirit, your experiences, your talent, all the knowledge that you accumulate in this life, everything, it can come to full fruition, a full manliness, if you will. It can come to full fruition as you get to know him and press into relationship with him. Yes, I just I that is that is so it just amazes me so much because I think we can make it so hard as guys. And when we come to Jesus, there is such a simplicity, such a simplicity. The salvation experience, it is by grace through faith. He says, You can't earn this. I've done it, trust in me. And then the calling is get to know me. Okay, I can focus on that, I can do that. Yeah, okay. It's it's not the 12 labors of Hercules. Thank goodness. I don't have a uh, you know, a seven-headed hydra that I have to face. I don't have to worry about, you know, some, you know, all this other stuff. I can get to know Jesus and I can do that. And there are certainly disciplines in life, prayer and the word and fellowship that help me get to do all of that. But I just love, I love that fact that in Jesus, he brings it all home for us as men. And whereas we would make it complex, he says, no, no, no, guys. It from the beginning, goes back to that garden. That's what I want. That's what I want to have with you going forward. So, Max, is there anything you want to touch on before we press press on to the next thing here? I say, let's get on to Josh, man, because All right.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

The next one I think really builds on what we've already talked about.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Very much. Courage and perseverance, Josh, is is what you had. Take it away there, butter.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

Yeah. Um, you know, we talked we talked uh a lot about courage in that episode. And uh, and you you hit on it just a minute ago, Duncan, when you're talking about David's charge to Solomon. Um, and then we talked uh you talked about you know courage looking like the obedience to to God's word. Um and that, and then we talked about um about God's tar charge to Joshua um to be strong and courageous. And and that's where we landed in that episode is that courage, real courage, um, looks like obedience to words to God's word, um, even when you don't understand it, when it doesn't make sense. Uh and uh and so courage isn't just about bravery um in battle or whatever you're facing, but it really is um obedience to what God's calling you to do. Um and uh and so I wanted to look a little bit uh about uh perseverance or or or or touch on perseverance in this in this recap, um, because the two go go together so well. And so uh in in Hebrews uh chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, which is a very uh familiar uh passage of scripture, but it says, uh therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And um, you know, we've heard this this passage many times, and I've heard it many times, but um uh what what really um changed changed uh how I view that passage um was uh when when I heard uh Rick Renner teach um on that uh on that passage of scripture and what he what he identified, what he what he showed, was that um in in the Greek culture of the time, they had um they had a phrase um, you know, much like we have we have you know these common phrases today and stuff like that, but they had common phrases, and back in the ancient Greek times and the time that that was written, um they they uh they had a a phrase of called sitting in the clouds. Um and what that meant was is the same thing today. We would say we're sitting in the nosebleats. Like if we're going, we're gonna go to a cowboy game, where's your ticket? I'm sitting in the nosebleats. We all know what that means. That's all the way up very top. And so they had this similar phrase, and it was sitting in the clouds. Um and so when you would go to a sporting event, an amphitheater in those days, um uh they would say, you know, sitting in the clouds, sitting all the way up at the top. And so the the visual that that that that paints is if we we are in the arena, we're fighting the battles, we're running the race, and those that have gone before us, they fill up the amphitheater, they fill up the stadium all the way up to the clouds. Um and they're cheering us on, and and they're saying that you can do it. You know, they're they're a testimony and a witness, uh, because there's nothing new under the sun. There isn't a battle that hasn't been fought before, a challenge that hasn't been overcome before. And so whatever we're we're facing in life, um there are uh uh saints in the clouds um that are cheering us on, that are saying, you can do it. You have what it takes, you can finish that race. Um and so I love that that visual um uh of uh of being the player on the field and the stands just filled the max capacity with with all these people that have gone before us that are cheering us on. Um and you know, because because courage, courage says I will obey God's word, even when it's hard and challenging, and and perseverance says I won't quit. I won't give up no matter what. That's good. Um and so if we can attack the challenges in our life, the things that we're facing, the trials, with those two things, the the determination um and uh of uh and the steadfastness of uh I'm gonna obey what God's calling me to do, and I'm and I'm not gonna quit and I'm not gonna give up. And we can motivate ourselves with God's word um to to that, and um, that's gonna keep us going on days when it's really hard.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Um I think it's so important right there, Josh, because because it is we're we're we know we're gonna face failures, we know we're gonna face struggles, and we can really kick ourselves hard when we're down. No, I don't think anybody does it better than we do it ourselves. We kick ourselves hard when we fail. We feel like we fail as as a husband, we feel like we fail as a father, we feel like we fail morally or something like that, and then we can stay down. Um, but what I really hear you underscoring here is the importance of getting up and and not quitting because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right. Right. It's huge. Um, well, we got we got one more here, and Max, you rounded it out for us um because Jesus has been our definition and in his and what he did at Calvary and his re and in his resurrection, our demonstration. That can be pretty daunting for us as guys, but you went, okay, hang on just a second here. Let's let's really drill down on what that means. And you talked about you know really being Christ-like, and we we explored the difference between perfection and maturity, which I thought was really, really huge. Tell us, tell us about this.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Well, you know, a lot of times we get caught up and when we're we're we are motivated or we are encouraged to become like Jesus, then a picture shows up in our minds. And one of the things that we covered on that episode was that, you know, that picture sometimes can be a detriment to us and keep us from wanting to be like Jesus. We we have equated that if I am like Jesus, that I look like Jesus. And in most of the the um artwork that we see, the depictions of Jesus, it is not a masculine man that we're looking at. It is a holy man, and and it is uh a picture that is trying to show those traits that he possessed. But in our current culture, if we look at those pictures, we don't see a guy that we want to emulate. We we see a guy that we have pity on and we don't want pity from anybody, right? So that picture sometimes holds us back. But the challenge truly is, and God, in his infinite wisdom, making sure that there's no picture of Jesus because knowing that we would try to emulate the external qualities. Look at the number of guys that today will walk around with a team jersey on and somebody's number and somebody else's name on their back so that they can identify with that man. And they they have none of the qualities that that the athlete has, but they're identifying with him with just the way that they look. And that is kind of the way our society is, is that we want to identify with what we have on, the external, and really not have to worry about the internal. And that's the difference here in in what God is doing in asking us to be like Jesus is hey, I want you to see the internal qualities and be like that. And one of the suggestions that that we made in that episode was first and foremost, find a man that looks like Jesus. In other words, one that you can look at and say, that's what Jesus looks like to me. And emulate his qualities and hang out with that guy, probably somebody that's older than you, that has a little bit more wisdom, and find a Jesus that you can be like and be like that guy for starters. And then as your roots go into the ground, then this is not a this is not about being perfect. This is not about being sinless. This is about being mature, and every one of us can continue to develop maturity. We're not ever, ever going to be flawless, but the word of God says that we can be faultless, and that is the difference between the walk of the man of God and the guy who's trying to be more like Jesus. Understanding that this is a matter of becoming obedient and becoming complete. And in Hebrews 5, we see where even Jesus, even though he was a son, he learned obedience and he was developed, that was developed in him, and he was made perfect. And that again, not sinless in his case, yes, but in our case, he was made perfect in the sense that he was matured, he was fulfilled, and that is the call on our lives, and every one of us can do that. We can't do it by ourselves, but every one of us can do it without question.

SPEAKER_04 38:39

I think it's uh so so true, Max, and such and and good advice that we we find uh a guy that uh that puts on the arete of Christ. Yes that that we can um that we can learn from, that we can um uh that can that can be a mentor for us, a guide for us. Um and uh because we need we need that. We need that uh that Jesus in the flesh, you know, um type of guy. But then at the same time, I go you know back to what Duncan showed us earlier, is that we're called into God's own arete. Yes. So as much, as much as these guys that we that we uh look to to be our hero in the same way that they did in ancient in ancient Greece, they have the heroes, uh it's great to have those heroes, but at the same time, we need to be called into uh God's own arete as well, and not and not turn those guys into you know, put them on a pedestal and turn them into idols and turn them into uh into Jesus where Jesus should be uh placed in our lives. Um but but we do need those guys, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Amen. Amen. Guys, great uh great chasing here. We have we've we've really run the gamut. We have we've talked down, we've talked about character, we've talked about courageous obedience, we've talked about perseverance, we've talked about our identity in Christ, looked at roles and callings and gifts and how those really come to bloom as we get to know Christ more, and then really rounding out our journey by having some some brothers around us that can help model that and encourage us in that. Guys, we again we truly hope that you have enjoyed this series. We have enjoyed bringing it to you, and uh we hope that you'll stick around because greater things are yet to come. Um, we've got a lot more to talk about on this journey here at Three in the Fire. And this is we're just we're just scratching the surface. We have just touched the tip of the iceberg on where we're going. Uh, but stick around. We've got exciting things to share. Um, you're gonna be hearing about our first event very soon and a lot of other things that are gonna be happening. But until next time, I'm Duncan Brandon with Josh Davis and Maxima Werder. This has been Three in the Fire. Remember, when you hit your trial, remember stay close to Jesus. He will get you through, guys. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out there. Hey, before you go, if this blessed you, if this has spoken to you, please give us a like below. Click that little thumbs up right there, share, and subscribe. We need you guys to help us get the word out about what's going on here at Three in the Fire.