Season 1 - Ep 1 | Jesus is a Healthy Man | A Healthy Man Podcast

In the very first episode of the Healthy Man Podcast, Shane sits down with Pastor Brad Lawson and Austin Will for an honest conversation about what it really means to be a healthy man in today’s world.

From spiritual leadership and emotional health to discipline, humility, and identity, the conversation centers around Jesus as the ultimate example of manhood — and explores why sonship and knowing who you are in God is the foundation for everything else.

The guys dive into practical ways men can begin examining their hearts through prayer, Scripture, accountability, and authentic community, while also challenging the cultural version of masculinity that so many men have settled for.

But while the topics run deep, there are plenty of raw, off-the-cuff conversations, lots of unexpected laughs, and the kind of honest friendship that makes you feel like you’re sitting in the room with the guys.

If you’re looking to grow as a husband, father, leader, or follower of Christ, this episode is a powerful and a genuinely fun starting point.

Be sure to subscribe, leave a comment, and stay connected for future episodes and upcoming men’s summits.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey guys, the wait is over. It's finally here, a healthy man podcast. We had a lot of fun on this first episode. We couldn't exactly agree on whether to call it a pilot or an intro, but we had some fun. My co-host Brad, as well as our guest, Austin Will, we got in a great discussion on what it looks like to be a healthy man and just kind of like leading the path of what we hope to discuss and be helpful with on this podcast. Jesus is the goal. He is the prime example. So we got it some good convo. We hope you enjoy it. And we can't wait to see what God does with this thing from here. Hope you enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I don't know if we're ready yet. I don't know if Matt's ready. We've been recording.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

I'm ready. I'm just double checking everything.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

All right, tell Matt. Matt's gotta do, we gotta do one, two, three, and then we gotta clap.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

The clap's important. Matt. You want us to clap, Matt? The clap's important. Okay. Do you want us to clap? Yes, we have to clap. One thing. Two, three. I just broke the mic. You broke it? No, I'm almost dead. Listen, it all stays. Give me one more words you clap. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Jack Sparrow. Got it? Just kidding. One, two, three. This is the Healthy Man podcast. I have been putting this off. We have been putting this off for a year. The reason why I say I is because Brad has come up multiple weeks when we start and when we start and when we start. And because of the conviction in my soul of knowing that I'm probably not healthy as I want to be in a lot of these areas, I realized it's a progressive thing. So this is.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

You have to be so in control. I get to be unbridled. I get to have no filter and you get to do damage control. I feel so free right now.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

A lot of pressure on you.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

I love it. Well, you I I love this. The saying is if you can't handle the heat, then you stay out of the kitchen. I obviously love the kitchen. This is a judge-free show.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

So if you're like, you know, no, no, there could be some judgment from this side of the couch. That's fine. There could be a lot of things. There could be some judgment here. That's fine.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

Judge away. Let the Lord convict you the way it seems. So we're going to dive in to this podcast, and it there's I was thinking about what we're going to talk about, and there's so many different opinions on what a healthy man can be. We're probably going to have different opinions. There's a plethora. We're going to lose plethora. We're going to use a lot of big words on this episode. Listen, it doesn't matter. ChatGPT. If you want to know what the word plethora means. Okay. Plethra. We're going to we're going to talk about the different, we're going to talk about the general idea that we have, right? We're going to be convicted about the things that we know that are true. And we're not going to be dogmatic about the things that people could differ on opinions. We want to talk about the general idea today, about what a healthy man is, and how can you become a healthy man. And the goal is, is every time we have this podcast, is we can rip band-aids off, we can crush spirits, we can judge people if you need to, or put people in the hot seat and just kind of tear away all the fluff and excuses and justifications, and really hopefully this becomes a resource to help men get healthy. So right out of the gate, I'm going to pass it off. So the fire that's in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Can we just say pass it off?

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Thank you. Thank you very much. Despite what anybody may think, this is the first time of me hosting any podcast whatsoever. So buckle up.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Can I ask a question? Yeah, go ahead. Because we're only ascending the mountain. Why is the fire off on the fireplace?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, I was so mad about that. You guys should have heard us right before we started. I'm like, so we get this dirty glass behind us, and we could have a crackly fire. Like, I mean, it could have been beautiful. It could have been glorious.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

The backdrop could have been absolutely just there's a few train, there's a few trains of thought that came to my mind. Is one, we haven't earned it yet. Okay. You don't just start out right out the game.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I respect that. I was gonna say in that, but I respect that.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

You got you, there's a little bit of like you gotta earn having the fire in the background. And then there's the two of like, did I really want to come out and make a statement to where we look like a TV commercial where a man should have a glass of whiskey and a pipe or in a row telling a story. Telling a story, breaking the fourth wall. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

So, anyways, we did you ever seen what are those like I don't drink, but those whiskey commercials where they're like sitting there and they're like got you.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Exactly. So I didn't want to they say that you don't get a second shot at a first impression. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

That's what I'm saying. That's why we should have had the fire.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

We're just gathering the Kindle right now. Yeah, right. More episodes to come. That's right. We want to leave you. We may have a fire by the end.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

This may be early to call it, but I see him. You're a really good prospect for the podcast already. Like the way that he's even like steering us back together. I feel the chemistry is strong in this episode.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

I really love it.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

And we're 10 minutes in.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

Yeah, so we do have vision, just so anybody that that's watching this, Brad's all, there's gonna be 50 people watching this. I'm gonna be like, There's gonna be millions. No, no, no, no. So all you millions out there.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

I said 50 people first episode, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:30

So I'm talking to the 50 people right now that we do have a plan and a space to build out for our podcast studio, and you guys will get a look at that. But there is a fireplace in that room. So the vision of having a podcast with a fire behind us is a reality.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

It is in that room. Um gosh, I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Something about men just coming together with other men around a fire. There's something special about that, you know what I mean? And I think there's just uh something something to be said.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

When you see the fire, it almost draws the truth out of you. Like I wanna I wanna get some things off my chest.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Yeah. 100%. Like you're set, you're setting the stage for something serious.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

No, in all seriousness, I think for me, is it okay if we steer towards the state? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

I was going that way. If you weren't, and I took it that way, but I love it. Okay, so like I love it.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

I do a lot of ministry stuff, like in my ministry professional life and you know, on evangelism and other things. Like, we do a lot of disciple making, we do a lot of like kingdom building, we do a lot of leadership development and church planting. But for me, part of why I was pushing for this podcast was because the greatest accomplishment in my life is like being a dad and being a husband. Like above everything else, above standing on stages, above preaching, above trying to fill stadiums or change cities or any of that. Like my most peaceful moments in my life, like where my sanctuary is, it's at home, it's next to my Traeger, it's watching a UFC fight, it's hanging with my girls. Like it's going shopping with them on a Saturday, it's going to Disneyland with them, hanging out, like just being a dad and being a husband. You know, my time with Shanna, it's like this is the fullness of the promised land. You know, this is the abundant life. And so for me, it was really important. I feel like this right here, it's not just that it's like we're gonna get into subject matter. This is breaking out from who we've become. You know, and knowing your story, it was really important for me to see you here because I think I I mean you are a healthy man and we're becoming healthier men, you know, and somewhere along the way we're gonna get honest about, you know, just whether it's our spiritual life, our new our diets, our our fitness life, our exercise life, our mental health. We're gonna talk about um we're gonna share struggles, I don't know. Um, and we're gonna be activated in the mission as men. So like it's just important to me. Like being a dad and being a husband, it's the number one accomplishment in my personal life, you know. And so thank you for doing this. Thank you for pioneering it. Thank you to all these guys who are helping put it on. Um, but this is the first episode of what I hope to be the best man's podcast in the whole world ever.

SPEAKER_04 9:23

Yeah. And to be a constant resource. So just to kind of continue on that conversation is is uh somebody who leads the minute or church. I know it's a collective effort, but it's a passion that the Lord's given me, right? To where it's you know, there is um, man, I'm so I'm so excited about the guys that we do have going to our church. It just again reminds me, Dylan. We had shared the story with me the other day. We had uh somebody come into our church that had come before. They had they uh they had not come before to church, and they gave Dylan to what for me was a great compliment. They said, we've never seen so many men worshiping the Lord in a church building. And they said that it's such a refreshing thing to see, and it is a mark of a healthy church to see men worshiping. So that it tends to, and again, we know women they have stuff in their own realm, and we're gonna speak primarily to the men in this podcast, but I see it as a resource to where, you know, the church that we grew up in, for the most part, we saw uh the man that was our pastor show us the real raw side that we could, man, you can resonate with his failures, you can resonate with like, you know, the way that he's working through his faith, all of those things. And I think men really need to not only have clear direction of what it looks like to be a healthy man, but also have the ability to know like where they are is like not them on an island by themselves, and that they're the only one struggling with this, or the only one that doesn't know all the answers to this, that this podcast can hopefully give that resource to them to where it's like you're not by yourself in this, and then this is applicable spiritual biblical truths on how to progress forward. Yeah, so this is what I'm really happy about.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

I think there's ages and stages to it, you know. I think there's um I think people are in are on different paths and in their spiritual maturities and their journeys, like I think Two Trees is uh, you know, the church that we all attend and serve and pour our lives into. I think it's interesting to go in there and find different men at different ages and stages that you can relate to and that can pull you in and you know, you can get counsel from and walk life with. I think that's been very important across the board. So just speaking to the men's ministry in general, just uh having men that you know that you can relate to that's the same age or maybe a different age, but the same stage. Yeah. And so I think it's something good to call out.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Yeah, and speaking to that, like here at the summit, we have all ages from 16 to like 75. They're across the spectrum as far as the age groups here, and I could not be like more excited because the goal is even when we have this podcast, you know, because I can hear some of the critics out there, and you're never gonna get rid of all of them, but it's like, oh, it's just another podcast with some young bucks on there. The goal is to get some people that are wise, wiser than I don't think anybody says young bucks anymore than.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yep. I do.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

I've never I don't know if I've ever said that in my life. Young Buck? Young Bucks.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

Oh, okay. Bring it back. We need to bring a lot of things back. Like we're not gonna we're gonna let young Buck Dylan knows whippersnapper?

unknown 12:41

I got the old man phrases.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Come on, come on. Hey, yeah, but on it on a serious note. When I could I I was so broken as a young man, and then going into ministry trying to figure out how do I become this man, it was very, very difficult for me. And I didn't I couldn't find any one man that had everything that was giving me the answers I needed. But in the early years, God brought four men into my life. Four men into my life, and they were older men. And uh all of them were good men. Uh some carried more weight, more influence in my life than others, but he brought um four different guys that were two of them were pastors, one was an elder, and one was my father-in-law, where I saw this well-rounded, like, oh, that's what it could look like because I didn't have a dad. So my dad was obviously not in my life. And so I didn't need to go and have these guys sit with me every Monday at 9 a.m. and give me a bullet point for how to do this. I watched their life. They demonstrated what it looked like to be a healthy man in family, a healthy man in ministry, a healthy man in relationships, a healthy man in discipleship, you know, all the things. And so um having men that you can look at their life and you can go, I I'll I'll grab 20% of that. That's 20% more than you had before you begin. You know, and there's a lot, I believe this is I believe personally, it's one of the most fatherless generations. And Malachi, it says that uh in the last days before Jesus comes, it says God will draw the hearts of the fathers back to the children. And I believe that's what's happening, and that's part of this. Now it's like we are hopefully becoming fathers and sons. You know, and Jesus, the first thing that God spoke over Jesus before he ever did a miracle, before he came out publicly as Messiah, before he stood and fed the multitudes, uh he was baptized and he was raised to the raised to a new life. And the father spoke. He said, This is my beloved son. This is the identity that he's gonna walk in. Everything that's gonna be done through his life will be done through sonship. You know, so becoming a son is how you begin to become a father, you know, and these two relations, this is how you, and you can't even really become a good father until you know how to be loved as a son. That's good, you know. And and I think the majority of us have been. I I'll speak for myself. There's some good dads out of there, some great dads out of there. I'll I'll speak for myself. I won't speak for you or you.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

I'll just say that like a fantastic dad.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

I I am a fantastic dad, but but what I know is like all I knew was how to abandon my family. Yeah, I was discipled into how to how to blow up my life and and pursue drugs rather than peace and pursue uh domestic violence rather than self-sacrifice and laying your life down to pursue cheating on my mom rather than than uh patience and purity and understanding and cultivating relationship at home, which is hard sometimes. You know, like I had no framework and no foundation for any of this.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

You know, so it took me seeing these men and being able to go, oh, that's what it looks like. And that would be my hope for like some of where this goes.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Yeah. I think I was gonna say too, like being a son is not easy, you know. I just want to call that out. Like it's in in I think theory is, but I think there's a journey in a sanctification process that you go through to understand what that looks like. And being around other men um is an extremely valuable piece to that process, like you know, being able to go to men to seek counsel, being able to be around men who are, you know, are good parents and our good fathers and our good brothers, I think is a vital piece to that entire puzzle. And you know, walking in sonship isn't is not something that I think is a is a clear um indicator for people that's like what's missing in their lives a lot of times.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

And so, do you think too, because as you guys are talking, we're talking about being a healthy man, and to become a healthy man, you have to know how to be a healthy son. Knowing where we're all now, we're pretty close in age. Um you know we're we're are we middle age.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Some are closer than others.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Are we middle age at 41? Is that middle of the road? 31. 31 for the rest of the road. He's not that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

This guy, he's like a newborn baby. That's fine.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Like he's got what I come to realize because we we're we're in men's ministry, and then obviously as you get older, you realize that you're you're kind of pushed into manhood really fast, regardless if you grew up in a home with a dad or you didn't. All three of us grew up in a home with no death. We got our ideas of what a father was from other people. I got mine from my grandpa, you got yours a little bit from grandpa, and then the people that you mentioned, and you have people in your life. It's like you're rushed into being a man so quick, the being a good son, it's hard because once you're a man, you're making decisions on your own, you're prioritizing, you're if you work towards like getting a career, you have a family, then you have kids, maybe you're not even on that path, but yet you still have to take care of yourself. Most of the time, when you're, you know, get past 18 years old, you're pushed into manhood.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Yeah, when when when you know, when I turned 17 and a half, I moved out. You know, I've lived on my own since I was 17. And I think that decision to your point, you know, to double down on what you're saying is like that was what I thought I had to do. You know, I didn't know what it looked like to be a son at 17. I thought I was a man at 17. And I think that journey that I took is what steered me in a lot of different directions, right? But I think just going back to that was just like I didn't know how to operate as a son in my earlier days, and then as soon as I hit adulthood, which was 18, it was like, let me make this decision that to go live on my own and be my own person and my own version of who I thought I should be, um, which took a long time to realize that was not the case.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

Right. And then you you kind of develop this mindset of like I have to have all of the answers, I have to have all of the, you know, like everything handled and asking other people for help is just like.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Or you don't, or you develop uh codependency.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

There are those out there as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Or you start to develop like manipulation strategies. You start to go ask people for money, you start to uh compromise your values to get things or whatever. It's like you what you do develop you you have a cut, it's like a fork in the road. You can, I mean, most of us have survival instinct. So when you're saying figure it out, like we figured it out, it took a minute, it was like off stumbling out of the starting blocks.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

Yeah, we wrecked some things.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, we wrecked some things, but then I could have very easily, without a foundation of Jesus in the gospel, like if the gospel would have never come, I would have been a manipulator for sure. I would have somehow like slithered my way through life and landed maybe at a dive bar playing cover band songs at 55 years old, um, somewhere bartending, uh trying to hook up with women. Yeah. That's that's what I would have become. Yeah. You know what I mean? So you don't, it's not just inevitable that we all figure it out. You have to make choices.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Yeah. Well, and that's the thing is like I don't remember ever questioning until you know I've gotten into be my late 30s and now into my 40s of like even the asking myself the question, am I healthy? That doesn't happen because you're thrust into manhood and you're just whatever route you're taking, manipulation, codependency, I'm independent, taking all these routes. We're just like, I'm a man now. I'm I'm gonna do whatever, you know, that I'm gonna do whatever path we go down, instead of like, you know, really getting to a place where asking yourself the question, am I healthy in some areas? That's a good thing until you're broken and then there's catastrophe. And even then you don't sit back and reflect a lot because we made a lot of mistakes, at least I'll speak for myself. I made a ton of mistakes. Made a ton of mistakes, broke a lot of things, broke a lot of trust, destroyed a lot of relationships, trust, and all these things. And I never really looked like, well, maybe I'm not healthy. I just moved on to the next one, moved on to the next one. And as men, we often don't think of like, oh, maybe I need to become a son again, or there's something broken in the past. Like it takes going to therapy or coming to know Jesus that says, like, hey, to realize how I need to be healthy, I need to go back to your point, becoming a healthy son again, right? Which is sonship. And then, two, like the thing that I wanted to say was when I was thinking about what is a healthy man, it's for me changing the perspective that health is somewhere that I arrive, as opposed to health is something that's progressive. So just as quickly or not quickly that I can become healthy, if I don't tend to those things maturely, I can quickly become unhealthy. So therefore, health is something spiritual, emotional, physical, that you are constantly pouring discipline, love, attention into. It's a progressive thing. So it's like, but as men, we often think, oh, We're man. Boom. I'm as healthy as I'm gonna be mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and this is just who I am. We see these old guys all the time, and I'm hopefully not gonna end up being that way where I'm we call them they're set in their ways. And they're just that old grumpy guy on the porch that says, get off my lawn.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah. Well sonship is not about what you're doing, it's about who you're becoming. You know, so all this, the whole journey of becoming a healthy man, it's not about achievements. It's not for me, the only actions really, and I haven't fully thought through this. I mean, because it does matter, actions matter, but really what we're talking about is like actions that help contribute to my wholeness as a man. Because you can just go and take action and become a man of influence or take action and become someone of responsibility. You can go take action and have kids, you can take action, but it's really like do you take action upon your own heart? Do you take action upon your own mind? Do you take action upon your own reactions? Where you go and you say, Hey, I'm sorry. I really screwed up that conversation. Can we talk about that again?

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Yeah, it's like accountability, you know. You know what I mean? It's like you might take an accountability for these things. Yeah, 100%. You might take the time to self-reflect in those moments and take action to bring something to the table that's better than what I did before.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

And it's hard to do that without, you know, the reality is like none of it's possible without Jesus, like plain and simple. You know, it's like as much as you want to say the outside world pours motivation or um, you know, whatever it might be, there's so much influence around us, but the truth of it is you don't get there without accepting Jesus into your heart, you know, as your Lord and Savior and surrendering everything to him. And I think that is what true transformation is. And until that happens, right, it's really hard to look in the mirror and actually tell yourself who you are.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

Yeah. So I think that's kind of what we're all hitting on to is it's not that the actions aren't important, is that there's something to that every man has to discover first. And the Bible directly says that when it comes to our words or our actions or anything, it all begins in what you said, it's the heart. So it says, out of the heart, your mouth speaks. You're either producing fruit from your flesh or you're producing fruit from the spirit. So it's like evaluation of going like, what's the condition here? And I can do all of these things so we can have you know a podcast and have great conversations with all of the smartest people of the world on nutrition, all the smartest people in the world on biblical theology, all the smartest people on dot dot dot down the line. But unless we deal with this first, and I that's just circling on this topic of sonship and Jesus, right? This here, this is this will always be rotten.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Yeah, we talked about this the other day. Unless we deal with it, right? In our Bible study, you know, we were I was sharing how you know sometimes if I slip up and start cussing, you know, I'm human, I know that my heart parts isn't right. So it's one of the first indicators that I know that something isn't right with my heart. And if I'm maybe slipping an F bomb here there or saying something that I shouldn't say, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Just confess that.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

I I listen, then I'm being This is what it's honest and transparent here, but no one can totally judge you.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I'm just kidding. Listen, judge, judge judge, judge me.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

But the truth is when that happens, I know it's an indicator for me that my heart isn't right, that there's something going on behind the scenes, and it took a long time to get to that point, right? But to your point, it's like what comes from the heart.

unknown 25:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

No, I think an honesty is important. Like, all kidding aside, it's like you have to be like none of us are gonna be perfect. Wholeness doesn't mean perfect. Perfect, I I'm gonna mess this up, but there's um the difference between the Greek and Hebrew uh root words and perfect, somebody had said one time and it's just coming to my mind. So if this is wrong, uh we'll delete this later. But um perfect as far as or it's the English phrase. The English phrase for perfect means without blemish. So it's perfect without blemish. But when you root this in the original meanings, perfect means wholeness. And so it doesn't mean without blemish, it means living according living according to your design. It doesn't mean that you're not gonna stumble and make mistakes. Like I was thinking, um, and I may share a little bit about this in one or two of the sessions, but um there's a difference between sin, transgression, and iniquity. So sin is stumbling and missing the mark. We all do that. Like you have a reaction you can't control and things happen, right? Transgression is rebellion. That's like I'm choosing rebellion. Uh, iniquity is actually a warped worldview that's been handed down to you. So, like, that's what we're breaking off. When you're coming into like what we want to do, especially with this podcast, it's like we want to break off these like generational strongholds and these this worldview that we had that we inherited, and we want to give birth to a new kind of man and a new kind of life and a new demonstration of what it looks like.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

That's what David said in his prayer, right? Yeah, break the inequities off my heart. Like, yeah, you know, those are things that he you know came to the Lord with.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

He said that well, that's where it comes from is Psalm 51, 10. I think it's no 51, 5 or 10, it's Psalm 51, I believe. But he said, uh, it was iniquity that my mother conceived me. I was brought forth in iniquity. And so what that meant was, uh, in my opinion, that wasn't a statement of doctrine, that was a statement of fact and an honest moment in David's life. I believe it's possible David could have been born uh outside of uh marriage, it could have been an illegitimate um birth. And David, I believe, he would there's a reason he was out in the fields, yeah, in my opinion. Right. And so his dad may not have been proud of him, and then he came into the faith and he was anointed. God took him as an outsider and brought him and anointed him, and then he goes into the faith, and a spiritual father tries to kill him with paranoia. You know, and then David has to go back out into the wilderness, but really that's where he was developed. Right, you know, but that whole David had to strengthen himself in the world and break that iniquity and that warped worldview.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

Yeah, if you think about even talking about David, if you take a look at the majority of the patriarchs in the Bible, Moses didn't have a dad.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. I think we're gonna hit on Jacob.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

Yeah, Jacob's dad was a little bit of a, you know, or I'm sorry. Jacob and Esau, right? That whole situation, that whole dad thing. The mom you could say more was more his mom, but it's like nobody's we don't have a we don't have people that we look to that had perfect lives. We have people that we look to that have gone through similar, if not whatever level of degree of dysfunction and being brought up. And so that's the hope is that we're gonna speak to people on all platforms, and no matter what your your life looked like growing up, that becoming a man is again just to make the point, it's a progressive thing.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah, I think we're gonna get into a lot of David and these Bible guys because there's so much we can draw from those.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

So let me ask you this question, and I don't know how long we've been doing this so far, so we could keep going all night. Um, a lot of guys, if we're talking about the first thing that we need to examine is our heart. Because there could be guys that are listening that don't even believe in Jesus. There's guys out there that when you say you need to examine yourself, they do nothing but evaluate themselves, but their view of themselves is twisted.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Right? Then there's guys out there that go, like, I don't even know how to really examine myself. What do I do? What does that look like? Is that prayer? Is it that psychiatry? Is that going to a church and confessing? Is that a pastor? Like, what do you guys do that could be an example? Like, if we're in their shoes, which we are in their shoes, how do I start to look at myself and go, like, what are the areas of my life that are unhealthy and what do I do about that? Just to give them an example, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_03 30:17

Didn't go. Um, I asked the question again.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

So I want I want to paint a picture for you.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

How do you examine your own heart?

SPEAKER_04 30:23

How do you examine your own heart in a healthy way? Like, if the starting point is this, how do you do this in a healthy way? What does that look like? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 30:32

I I think for me, uh growing up, you know, for some reason I just wanted I didn't want to close all the doors to the other options out in the world. I I I just I If it took me a long time to really decide whether or not I believed in Christianity and I believed in Jesus. And you know what I mean? I I I always was like, well, I know the figure is real, but I don't know if everything that comes with it is. And so it took me a long time to land at that spot. So first I would I needed to determine whether or not I thought God was real. And when I figured that piece out and I found out that that was the case, that there is a God, there is purpose, there's too much order in this world, there's all these things. Then I when I started to go through scripture, I realized what scripture was telling me was what was the opposite of what the world told me in my whole life. And so when I have to, when I examine myself or I'm looking at myself through a certain lens, I go back to scripture and I say, what does scripture say? That's good. What does scripture tell me? Because scripture is the truth, the life, and the way. Um, and I think at the end of the day, it's that's something that I do quite often is when I start to get into my head about certain things um or scenarios. I I really try to find a scripture that I can replace that lie with. Um and that's a way that I I it's something very practical that I I've you know do now. But I would say getting to that point wasn't was a journey for me. And I would say I would start to ask, you know, I think the what it starts with is curiosity. I think any man needs to start getting curious about things and asking questions and going to people and getting counsel from a variety of people and determining what they think is real and what is not. And I think when they start that process, I think they'll find the truth on the other side.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

I think I think uh yes on all that 100%. Just for me personally, you need someone to pop the bubble. And sometimes God will pop the bubble circumstantially because you'll fail, you'll do something that you're not proud of, or you'll have to go hold yourself accountable, and that's a really humiliating process. Um, sometimes you'll have a friend in your life who can pop the bubble for you, and like, hey, there's a problem, we got to call a timeout here. Sometimes just you give your life to God, and like Austin's saying, in a spirit of repentance, you read the word and you're like, oh man, I cannot believe I've been living this way. It's been wrong all along, you know, and God pops the bubble through scripture, um, whatever it is. You need someone because we all live in this bubble. And so, how do you examine your own heart? Well, it's very difficult. You need to actually, uh, James says that the word's like a mirror. And if you walk away from it, you forget what kind of man you are. You know, so like you have to look at the word and you have to continually put it before you. And it says the man who looks intently at the word, yeah, uh, it says that that man is going to be an effectual doer in all that he does, and he's gonna be successful and prosperous in the things he does.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Yeah, that's good. Humility was the word that came to my mind. Yeah. So what's step one? And the the actual story that came to my mind that I can relate with, I won't say the most because I might say that a lot, and you guys will be like, I thought you like this was the most. Um, the prodigal son. Prodigal son. We've all been prodigal sons, right? Remember that guy, right? Many times. Even after I gave my life to Jesus, I've become a prodigal son, where it's like, I'm going to do things my way, leave the father, go do the things, be a man. But there came a point where the son was in with the pigs, and he thought to himself, came to his mind and self-examined his situation and said, My father's house is there's they're gonna treat me better than this. And I gotta make a decision right now that's gonna take me to be humble and to drag myself back to my father. Whether that's gonna be, you know, whatever that situation looks like, he doesn't know. We see it in hindsight that the father runs to him. I put myself in this kid's shoes that says, I just took half the inheritance from my father, and I said, see you later, and I squandered it, and now I'm going to tuck the tail and walk back to him. It's humility. He doesn't know that the father's gonna run back at him. We do. But we see the story and humility, he comes back, and we know the rest of it is that the father runs and he restores all the things.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

So good.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

And so humility, like in self-examination, like you said, someone's gotta pop the bubble. I think what you mean by that is like you gotta come to terms in reality and real be honest with yourself. And that takes humility to go, like whether you're an angry person.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

It says the prodigal son at his lowest point came to his senses.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

Yeah. That's what I'm saying, right? Yeah. So, like, for maybe you're, and I'm getting chills right now, so maybe you're an angry person.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

It's because it's cold.

unknown 35:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

There's no fire, there's no fire. We're gonna circle back around here, dude. We're about to smack a home run and this guy's this dude. Friggin' guy. So no, but seriously, maybe there's someone that's angry and you're constantly blowing up, but you're justifying yourself because it's other people's fault that you're angry. Yet you're you constantly leave a trail of dead bodies, and you have, and if you came to terms and the bubble was popped, and maybe you grabbed onto some humility, you might find a wife that's very strong but holding on just because she loves Jesus. And so your bubble popping is going like, maybe it's not other people that are the reason why you're angry, it might be something that's deeper than that. And it's the humility of going, like, maybe I need to examine what that is, and maybe it's a lust problem, maybe it's something like that. I've justified this in my life, even as a Christian, of going like, well, and we'll just get real episode one, my wife's not sleeping with me. So I'm gonna have to find it somewhere else. Or I have this situation or this scenario, and so it's okay. What does God want me to do? What does God expect me to do? And it's like humility is going like maybe coming to the place where you go, There's something, it's not other people's responsibility, it's mine. And then you could take that same scenario across, you know, whatever it is that it is that's your bubble that needs to be popped. And so hopefully we can get underneath that stuff when we talk on all these podcasts.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

You know, I think, you know, I guess I would ask the question is like, how do the how do the men out there um come to that realization? Right? I feel like it took me a long time to get to that point. I think everyone will have a breaking point, or maybe everyone will have something that you know indicates to them that they're at this point in stage where it's like, well, you know, to the men out there, it's like, how do you know?

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Yeah, well that's the that's what I think what to allude to what Brad was talking to is like God will sometimes pop your bottle, bubble, but your bubble because of like something horrific happens. Like for me and my testimony, something happened to where it my whole life was destroyed and my bubble was popped. And I woke up and I said, Okay, God, I choose you, and I humble myself and I'll eat my humble pie. And this is a me thing, it's a nobody else thing. Or it's somebody that loves you enough that's in your life that's gonna pop your bubble for you, or it's stumbling across a resource like this, or I'm sure there's other great resources out there as well, and you hear something like this, and the Holy Spirit convicts you, and it's like that little tinge, that little nudge, and you go, like, that person's speaking to me. This is me, and I can I don't want to ignore this anymore. Like, this is like the the epitome of the hammer hitting the nail on the head. Absolutely. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 38:08

So I see those scenarios taking place just to reiterate what Brad was saying for different people, and then I think if you're a man out there and listen to this, I think those are things some of the indicators that you should look for, you know, and and take record of.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Can I can I read this list of what a healthy man is and then you can close?

SPEAKER_04 38:27

Yeah, yeah. I I don't know why you asked because you were gonna do it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Well, no, I was gonna say I was kind of teeing up your clothes, actually. Oh, sweet, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? Because timing and everything, trying to figure out the flow. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 38:39

So there's no there's no method to the madness here.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Yeah, no, I get it.

SPEAKER_04 38:43

We're just Can you imagine if like Broton's in the back and he's like, it's time to close, and that's when we knew that. No, what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

No, no, we you're the host. You really get to decide.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Listen, don't give me PTSD from telling me.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

I have a strong, I have a strong influence in like where it goes, but you're the host. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

Like, that's fine. So you've heard it here.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Okay, so here we go. So a healthy man is a healthy son. A healthy man guards his heart, a healthy man shows up faithfully, a healthy man prays regularly, a healthy man serves consistently. I'm just gonna read what a healthy man does. A healthy man is strong enough to be weak, he is vulnerable, he takes ownership of his life, he takes ownership of his words, his thoughts, his decisions, his the perception of who people perceive him to be, the quality of his relationships, his emotional security. He doesn't have to win every argument. He's secure, he's able to give away authority, which I've demonstrated.

SPEAKER_04 39:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

There you go. Live on air.

SPEAKER_04 39:50

Humility, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Yeah, humility, 100%. A healthy man has self-control, a healthy man knows the promises of God, a healthy man listens, a healthy man defends the weak. A healthy man doesn't abuse his authority or manipulate people to get what he wants. A healthy man takes sexual sin very seriously. He has friends, he makes church a priority, he's generous, he works hard, and he understands that is worship too. He leads, he's safe, and most of all, a healthy man is loved by God.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

That's just there's much more.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

That's a long list, but there's much, much, much more. And we're constantly in discovery of what that looks like in season and out of season.

SPEAKER_04 40:37

Yeah, I so similar. It's like I wrote down all of the qualities of Jesus. Oh, so and really that's what that is. It's like when we talk about what a healthy man is, is Jesus. Jesus is a healthy man. Jesus is a healthy man.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

That's exactly that's what I had written down.

SPEAKER_04 40:52

Jesus is a healthy man. So it's like, yeah, it's almost as if the pastors across the world have been trying to tell people this of like, just read your word.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

No, pastors across the world haven't. The healthy man's podcast.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

Jesus pastors, just kidding. Geez, geez, Louise. We're gonna have a softball league and we're gonna take on other pastors from other podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Uh just kidding.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

We will. Um, yeah, I had Jesus, all the all the characteristics of Jesus, which it encompasses. No, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

That that was it.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

You know what I mean? And uh so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Yeah, I think if I if I can say one last thing, I think it's also just what it boils down to for me, I think it's just being secure in Christ, you know, is when you're secure in Christ, a lot of those insecurities that I think a lot of men carry will fall off, you know, and your world, your eyes will open up to a new world, a new creation, you know. And so security in Christ is everything.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

Yeah, that's good. All right. That was pretty great for the first pilot. I felt like that was really strong. You know, it wasn't even a pilot.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

That felt like we were seasoned.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

That was straight out. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Hey, we were veterans. I feel like that was like a veteran podcast.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

You know what I mean? I will say, before we have anybody that was not a pilot episode.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Don't put that as a pilot. This is the veteran episode.

SPEAKER_04 42:09

The pilot's the first episode. That's all that means, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Okay, let's title it real quick.

SPEAKER_04 42:12

You're launching it. Hey, what's the thumbnail?

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Jesus is a healthy man.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

Jesus is a healthy man. Jesus is a healthy man. Let's let's workshop that a little bit. Do you yes, peanut gallery? Uh help people subscribe to the kitten channel and comment your questions for we make it communicable with people. I like that. Okay. Great. He's he's putting us together. He's got a lot of things. We have we have a uh, I don't know if it's self-um promoted. He's hired, whatever it is. I'm not opposed to it. He's hired manager in the back. So this is this is I've seen this, I've watched many YouTube videos where they say this. And so I didn't make this up. And I'm gonna say it's a little cringy when I say it.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Just say follow us to every episode.

SPEAKER_04 42:57

Please do everything that you know that you need to. Follow, share, subscribe, and then also to I wanna, we'd love to see the comments. And then if you have something negative to say, there's other videos that you can comment on that aren't us. Leave those there. Or we'll drop an email where you can send all those things and nobody will ever read.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

No, because we're working on becoming healthy men. We're just not fully over the thin skin thing.

SPEAKER_04 43:20

No, no, I got thick skin.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Okay, he's I don't know if I'm fully there, so like definitely leave the negative stuff somewhere else. We get it.

SPEAKER_04 43:27

Like, I go I can hear them all now. Um, we won't go over it and keep this in the longer, but I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I'm just kidding. No, you can leave them here. We'll just delete your negative comment.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Yeah, and you know, I'll say this. Shout out to the Men Summit. We got a great Men Summit. Oh, yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 43:40

We we honestly have the first session tonight in T minus how long? Two hours.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:45

Two hours?

unknown 43:46

No, no, no, no, we uh 32 minutes. No.

SPEAKER_04 43:50

32 minutes?

SPEAKER_01 43:51

No, first session's at seven.

SPEAKER_04 43:53

Well, I was just asking when we're starting the summit, but that's fine. There's a there's a thing called healthy healthy margin. That'll be a podcast later on down the road when we actually get the card.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

I didn't actually let's tell Jesus didn't have no, he did have healthy margins.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

If you're listening to this podcast next year, Ben Summit, be here. Yeah. Plain and simple. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Big bear. Let's go. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

God bless you.

SPEAKER_04 44:15

Amen. Thank you for tuning in. This was the very first episode of the Healthy Man podcast. We hope that you enjoyed it. Please do all the things that you know you need to do. Subscribe, follow. Please leave any questions that you have. We'll talk about them maybe on the next coming episodes. Other than that, we look forward to uh yeah, more and more of this. So, see you later.