BROTHER 2 BROTHER 🙏🏿🏀

Sharing the pitfalls men in general deal with as they travel the roads of success, especially professional athletes. 

"IT IS FINISHED "

JOHN 19:30

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Praise the Lord on today, Minister Anthony Mounter of Truth Turnt Up Ministries. Another podcast of the gospel, the game, and the glory. We thank God for today. We thank God for another opportunity to have life, to have liberty, to have wisdom, to have understanding, to have divine knowledge and integrity to walk in those things. That by the grace of God, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, that we're able to be one man at all times, whether we're in public, whether we're in private. Hallelujah. Whether we're in church, whether we're in school, whether we're at work, on the court or off the court. Our inner man is displaying what our outer man is doing, walking in integrity. On today, this is a special podcast, being a former NBA basketball player and knowing the trials, the tribulations, and the trouble that that platform, that profession, not being saved, not having accepted the full salvation of Jesus Christ, not being anointed to resist the devil, that he would flee, how that can lead us into some serious, serious trouble, some serious places of darkness, some serious places of doubt, some serious places of defeat, and some serious places of destruction. All self-inflicted simply because we live in the illusion or live an illusion of being invincible, of being untouchable, of being on top, of being in control, all because God has given us a gift to play basketball, and because we're compensated more than well for it, we lose sight of the creator and what the responsibility truly is to walk in that gift and knowing that we're blessed to be a blessing. We're not blessed to be worshiped, we're not blessed to be idolized, we're not blessed for others to bow down and emulate us or imitate us or admire us or put us on a pedestal. Hallelujah in the name of Jesus. The name of this podcast, today and moving forward, for everything that will be made for current NBA basketball players as well as former NBA basketball players. And we can even expand that so that we don't limit the reach and what God wants to do in this hour. For all former professional athletes and current professional athletes, our podcast moving forward will simply be Brother to Brother. Hallelujah. Somebody say amen. About 15 years ago, when I first started in ministry, God gave me the Brother to Brother series that I would do with my brothers back in St. Louis. My two natural remaining brothers and all of my brothers that I play basketball with, whether high school, college, or in various leagues, throughout my career in St. Louis. God had put a burden on my spirit to go back and to reach back for these very same brothers whom many I had led astray or further led them into a deeper relationship with the enemy through taking them through strip clubs and bars and flying them all around the world and hanging out and doing all kinds of devious, deceitful things in darkness, walking with the devil like we had something in common, all because we did not yet know that we were created to be the sons of God, that we were sons of light, that we were created to rise and to win, that we were made to be our brothers' keepers and lead them to the highlands, not the low places that we continue to see as we ride through urban America, as we look back at many of our homeboys and our family members, still stuck, still trapped on drugs, on alcohol, on illicit sex outside of marriage, on profanity, on uh many of the other things that can take a brother out and uh make him feel minimized in this cruel, dark world, that he has no purpose. And that's not just applied to our homeboys or regular men who work nine to five, who are overwhelmed. That's the story of a professional athlete appearing to have it all, but yet really having nothing, feeling lonely, feeling misused and abused, like everybody wants something from you, like nobody can understand you and your plight. That's just being the pressure of an athlete trying to perform at a high level. It's widely known but rarely stated that if you don't produce at a high enough rate, you don't get the big deal. You don't maximize your earning. But yet, you walk a fine line of not trying to be selfish, not trying to go out appearing to get yours. In this day and age, it may be a little bit easier because the games play so much faster and there's so many more possessions, and people are uh so much uh uh more advanced and skilled in the game that uh it may not be as obvious. But in my generation, in the 90s, when the game was a lot slower and it was more defensive oriented, and there were a lot of uh centers in the game, and the game was really played from the inside out, and there weren't as many three-pointers uh attempted per game. You really played the game with a greater intentionality, and you functioned within your limited role, whatever that role was. Mine was to be a defensive stopper, a finisher on the break, and a ball mover and an energy guy. And I exceled in that role, and I accepted that role, and that role allowed me to play on a very good team that reached the NBA finals as well as some conference finals and uh left its mark in the history of New York as some of the best teams to ever uh wear that orange and blue, but yet we did not win a championship, which is the ultimate goal of any professional athlete in every sport. But we want to talk about being brothers of brothers. And today we're gonna look at a man that we can all maybe not relate to, but if you're gonna follow after Jesus Christ, you're gonna have to relate to. Because after Jesus Christ and what he's done for all men, regardless of their profession. But we're talking about professional athletes because we have to get a real healthy perspective on our true identity, not our identity as professional athletes. That's a false identity, that's a temporary identity. Because if you don't know, you will know. All you need to do is talk to some former professional athletes. If you were not a perennial all-star, an Olympian, or someone that they were really found of, there's not going to really be a place for you when your career is over with. And the normal career is over with by 30, 35, very few people have the LeBron, the Robert Paris, the Kevin Willis, the Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the Vince Carter, the John Stockton type experience, where you play 18 years plus or up until the 20 years. That's just rare and is truly a blessing from God, and they should enjoy it as long as they could because that's what the game is all about. But ultimately, we all have to transition into purpose. None of us were put here just to be professional basketball players. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is merely one of the gifts that God has given you, and it may be the gift that He used to catapult you to the level you are right now, to have influence, notoriety, fame, and the power to uplift, uh, encourage, empower, be a blessing to people type of platform. But there are greater platforms God has given you. Because you've been chosen, you've been singled out, you've been equipped to do something amazing. Now you must be spiritually equipped to figure it out and to be equipped to carry it out. Because God wants to anoint you to use that platform, that big voice you have, that great influence you have in urban America of kids that are struggling and suffering with their identity, of men around the world who wear your jerseys, who work nine to five, who live to bet on professional basketball games or NFL games or to um play in leagues or to sport your jerseys at picnics or in the summer. Uh they don't your name on the back of those jerseys because they don't know that there is a name greater than all names in the earth, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. They don't know that they don't have to vicariously live through you in your gift because God too has given them gifts. And they may not listen to a world-renowned preacher like a Joe Osteen, a T.D. Jakes, a Cueblo Dollar, or Tony Evans, or David Jeremiah, or many of the other men of God that God has exalted and elevated and given a great platform, but they'll listen to you. Why would they listen to you? Because they're in the flesh. They have not yet been pushed or catapulted or equipped to walk in the spirit and understand that God loves them, that he has need of them, that he has a great calling on their life just where they are. That they don't have to live off of your identity and admire your gifts in the manner where it crosses the line of idolatry. They don't know that you too have serious problems, that you too suffer in doubt, that you too may suffer in fear, that you too may not always have all of the answers. That you need guidance, that you need an ear to hear when you need to vent, that you need divine instructions to figure the next things out, even though you may have a six-figure bank account, you live in a mighty mansion, you have the finest cars in your garage, you wear the best time pieces, your closet is full of the best exquisite uh uh clothes. You have a shoe collection that people would die for. You have unlimited access to credit and loans, and you walk in circles that people would die to get in. But yet you have all of that and you have nothing. So we want to talk about purpose. We want to talk about it from a perspective of brother to brother, as a brother who's been there, as a brother who was on top of the world, as a brother who had made more than $10 million, as a brother who was just like you, finding my identity and sleeping with everything that moved from New York to California to Spain to Italy to Greece to Turkey to Russia to Puerto Rico to South America, Sacramento, every place that God took me, I enjoyed deeply of the pleasures of that particular place. Wine, women, and stone. Hallelujah. I looked good, I felt good, I played good, so I treated myself good. No good thing would I withheld from myself. I spent my money foolishly, I spent my money so that I could have pleasure, so that all my boys could have pleasure, so that my family could have pleasure, and I took no thought for the future. Hallelujah in the name of Jesus. The world calls that foolish, they call it unwise, they call it stupid, they call it all kinds of things when an athlete goes broke, not knowing that the common man goes broke as well, and that if you're ever gonna really find your true purpose and the reason why God created you, he's gonna touch your stuff. To the degree he's gonna touch your stuff, we don't know. But to whom much is given, much is required. That's what the word of God says. To whom much is given, much is required. The level of influence that God is gonna bestow upon you is going to depend on the level of stuff in your life that he's able to touch. We're gonna look at a man to show that that is true by the name of Job. In the book of Job. Job was an awesome, awesome servant of God. Even though he was not necessarily a worshiper of God, we know that he did fear God and we know that he eskewed evil. He lived in a land of Oz or Ooz, U Z. We know that to be a fact because it's within the first chapter. All you got to do is read it and sit down and allow the Holy Spirit to give you some revelation and some guidance because this man is very similar to every man. As a foundation, we will take as a scriptural reference out of the book of Job, we'll take chapter 3, Job chapter 3, verse 3 verse 26. I'm sorry, Job chapter 3, verse 26. This is Job himself saying, and I know this is going to resonate with a lot of you brothers, because it's coming from your brother, who God has resurrected and allowed to overcome great debt, great defeat, great doubt, great distress, great shame, after losing it all and having people in my own city and my own family look at me like I was nothing, because all of the riches, all of the toys, all of the glamour, all of the fame had now faded away. But there came a time through my walk with the Lord that I celebrated that it was all gone because I was free. I was free from pretending. I was free from the weight and the pressures of other people, from their faulty expectations of only using me, of me pretending like I had it all together, like I was Superman, like I could carry the weight of my entire family, that I could still be a husband and a father, though my heart and my purpose was distracted, having no clue to why God would bless me to be one of the 5,000 men that would ever play in the NBA and don that uniform and play at the highest level and have the privilege to play a game that I love since I was a little boy and never imagined that God would bless me to do it as a man for a living. I had to walk backwards. I had to go back in time and allow the Holy Spirit to erase many of the bad experiences and the memories and make it make sense. To allow God to identify why this happened, why that happened, why that didn't happen, why this person came, why this person had to be moved, why I had to lose this, why he gave me this, why I was able to leave the NBA and go to Europe for 10 years. How did I get out of Sacramento in a losing situation for three years to a championship atmosphere with the New York Knicks? Why didn't I get a new deal? God gave me revelation of all those things, my brother. And it all added up and it was scriptural, Romans 8 and 28, that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and who are the called according to his purpose. God had a purpose for my life, and that purpose was not to be an NBA all-star. It was not to be an NBA champion, it was not to be an NBA executive or an NBA coach or any of that. Even those some of those opportunities did present themselves for me because I did not burn any bridges. I kept my nose down, I stayed clean, I did my job. Yes, I partied, but I did not disrupt or disturb the locker room. I was a good teammate, or I tried to be. I knew my role and I knew my place. And I stayed in my lane. Hallelujah. This verse we're talking about, my brothers, in the book of Job, the third chapter, the 26th verse. Job says, I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet. Yet trouble came. I'm gonna read that one more time. Hallelujah in the name of Jesus. I know I'm talking to somebody. I know some of my brothers out there that this is hitting the bullseye in your heart and in your life because God has need of the in this hour. God has sent me forth to encourage you, to redirect you, to shed his light and his love upon you, and to remind you that God said that when you're in him and you have a real relationship with him, and you're attempting to walk in your spiritual integrity, which is nothing more than operating according to God's divine standard. He says, I am with you always. I'll never leave you or forsake you. You might feel alone. Others will leave you, but I'll never leave you, my son. You're the apple of my eye. I'm the one who made you 6'4, 6'8, 6'9, 7'4. I'm the one that gave you lightning reflexes. I knew you would have a 40-inch vertical. I knew you were gonna be left-handed or right-handed. I gave you that size 14, 17, 19, 22 uh shoe. I'm the one that made your eyes brown or black or blue. I ordained your mother and your father. I knew you came from a single-parent home. I knew all the circumstances and the challenges and the chaos that would allow you to grow up in Detroit, in St. Louis, in New York, in Argentina, hallelujah, in Germany, in uh uh uh Serbia. Come on, talk to me now. He said, I knew you. When you was in your mouth, your mother's belly or your mother's womb. I ordained your purpose before you came forth out of it. I ordained the bounds of your time. I know the days, the months, the weeks, the years, the seconds, the minutes, that breath is gonna flow through your body and your blood is gonna be warm running through your veins. I know the day that I'm gonna call you home. So if I know the beginning and the end because I'm the alpha and I'm the omega, don't you know I'm in control in the middle, that I'm with you? Even in the chaos, even in the trouble, even in the confusion, that you can rely on me, that I'm trustworthy, that my arms are always open to you, that I don't want to express myself to you merely in a religious manner. It's not about you going to church. It's not about you clinging to a pastor's word. It's about you humbling yourself and seeking my voice while I may be found. It's about you sitting down, disciplining yourself, reprioritizing your life, and allowing me to be with you through this NBA journey so that you can have peace, so that you can really enjoy it, so that you can put Satan on notice that you're not a whore, that you won't be a harlot, that you won't be a tramp, that you'll honor women in the manner in which I created them, that you won't neglect your body by absorbing crazy amounts of alcohol, that you won't smoke every blunt that's put in your sight because man has made marijuana legal. Yes, I made it, it comes from the earth, and it has a purpose. And I tell you in my word, there are many things you can enjoy in the earth because I created everything. But let everything be done, hallelujah, according to my order. Enjoy everything but in moderation. Don't overdo anything. I've given you divine laws, divine wisdom in the book of Proverbs. I put people in front of you that I've saved, who may not be pastors, who give you righteous instructions that you still ignore because your pride and the platform that you've ascended to allows you to think you're a God and that you're wise. My son, you're a basketball player. And I don't say that lightly. I'm saying that to tell you there's no wisdom in playing basketball. Not the wisdom that's going to affect poverty, not the wisdom that's going to affect uh sin, not the wisdom that needs to touch the darkness that you see in the earth. Hallelujah in the name of Jesus. Yes, you need wisdom to run a pick and roll. That's basketball wisdom. You need wisdom to block out, wisdom to train, wisdom how to shoot, wisdom how to be a good teammate, wisdom how to stay in the NBA. Not doubting that. But the wisdom God wants to give you is the wisdom to win after basketball, while you're in basketball, that you pass down to your kids, and they pass it down to their kids in the name of Jesus. That whether or not you retire from the game with $200 million or $2, you still know you're a king and a priest. You still know that God has need of you. You still know that there's a place prepared for you to share all of your experiences, good, bad, and ugly, but now through the lens of God's grace, his mercy, his favor, and his goodness. You don't go to people just telling them that if you work hard, you can be anything you want to be, and that everybody can make it, or that education is the way, or glorifying your struggle out the hood, how you had to sell dope or drugs, or how hard it was sleeping on the floor. Yes, some of that we share because it's part of our testimony and it's for a certain group of people. But what God has done for you, what God wants to do in you and through you, how he wants to touch you, how he wants to cleanse you, how he wants to lift you up, how he wants to redirect you, that's for everybody. That's the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the message God wants to share. Hallelujah. But we have to be equipped to do that through an intimate relationship with Him. The same way we spend time with our trainers to take our game to another level, the same time we spend time with the woman we love, we have to spend that time with the Word. We have to spend that time in the Word. We have to allow God to cleanse our hearts and take away the hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh so that our discernment, so that our judgment, so that our ability to resist the devil so he can flee. We know we shouldn't go over there, but we go anyway because we know when we go over there, what's gonna happen. We're gonna party like it's 1999, like Prince said. Yes. We're gonna be like uh, I forget this the song who made it, who says uh we don't have to take our clothes off to have a good time, but we know we're gonna take our clothes off. Hallelujah. Because that's where we are mentally. That's the state of mind we currently have, because we operate from a moral deficiency. We are spiritually depleted, because we are carnal natural creatures. Yes, we may visit the chapel, we may go into a couple chapel services, we may even go to church on Sundays. But the Bible tells us in the book of James, it says, be doers of the word, not only hearers. When you go out there because you've attempted all those thousands of jump shots, all of those crossovers, all of those uh creating space moves to get your shot off. You don't think about it, you just do it because you've established yourself in it, you practice it. It's nothing. It don't matter who guarding you. You're one of the best in the world. You already know you're in trouble, dude. I'm gonna put you on your heels, I'm gonna take you this way, I'm going that way, I'm gonna get you my spot. Boom, bucket. Or I'm gonna get you the rim, boom, I'm finishing. Whatever it is. Because that's the way you think. God wants your renewed mind. He says in the word of God, he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That's the mind that always wins. That's the mind that never settles. That's not a religious mind. That is the mind of God given to his son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for you and I, to come back that we can be reconciled, meaning reconnected to God, that we can be redeemed, meaning bought back out of the hand of sins and darkness, defeat, and the sinful behavior, and restored, meaning reassigned to our original state of being. Righteous sons of God. Job said it. He says, I was not in safety. Many of you know you're not in safety. Yeah, you got money, but you're not in safety. Yeah, you're worried about building your brand and building your barns with bigger money, more money. Yeah. But you also know you're not safe because you know that as much money as you have, as much credit as you have, as many things as you have, there's some areas of your life that none of that can solve the problem to. Your money can't touch your wife's heart, who's longing for a man of God to love her like God ordained her to be loved. Your children are longing for a man of God who's been touched by God, to spend time with them in the proper manner, to love them in the proper manner, to lead them in the proper manner. Your natural brothers and sisters are waiting on you to develop into the person God created you to be, that they can benefit from your spiritual portion that you can pour into them. Not only the houses, the cars, the clothes, the tricks that you take them on. Those things are fleeting, those things are perishing. The Bible says that heaven and earth shall pass away, but it's only the word of God that's gonna endure forever. We need to take our people on a spiritual trip. We need to take them down the narrow path. We need to walk with Jesus Christ, brother to brother. We need to lay a new standard up. We need to hold each other to a new accountability. That when I know you're married or you're my homeboy, or we're kicking it, that we're gonna say, now that we know better, we're gonna do better. Hallelujah. We're no longer gonna be the vessels of darkness because we know we're not in safety. We know we don't have rest. We're seeking rest. We're seeking purpose because we operate in fear, knowing that one day the ball's not gonna bounce. One day we're gonna we don't know what we're gonna do. Yeah, we can operate a business, but many of us have never been business owners before. So are you ready to spend 80 to 120 hours a week to being an entrepreneur or a business investor? Are you ready to spend every day on the golf course? Are you ready to spend time doing things that normal men do to build up their brand and their businesses when you have not done that your entire life? It is not for everybody. But yet you can operate in a place in which God has created you to operate, which has purpose, which has power, which has peace, which has love. Come on now, brother to brother. We need to keep it real, we need to keep it 100, to whom much is given, much is required. God gave Job much. You read in chapter 1 of Job, verse 1, it says, There was a man in the land of Ooz, whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eskewed evil. Job was perfect, meaning he was mature. He was without fault because of his dependency, his relationship, his desire to know and serve God. It said he feared God, which means he revered him. He was in awe of him. He made sure that all of his actions lined up with the standards of the God, that he worshiped, that he admired, that he served. And he said he askewed evil. He deliberately avoided foolishness. He abstained from strip clubs. Hey, I know what I'm talking about. I was in them every day, all day, all around the world, and did things with strippers I had no business doing while I was single and while I was married. And the Bible tells us, men of God, and I'm calling you a man of God because that's what you are. I'm speaking life into you. I'm calling those things not as though they were, because you're my little brothers. Hallelujah. You're my brothers in the natural, and you are my little brothers in the spirit realm that God is going to raise up to do some amazing things. He said, He eschewed evil. He deliberately made up his mind that I am a new creature. I'm not living in the old way anymore. I'm not walking that way. I'm not walking with people who walk that way. Psalms 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Look at how sin will allow you to progressively get worse. First you walk in the name of Jesus. Then you find yourself standing with them on the corner, standing with them in a strip club, standing with them in the club, standing with them in the casino, standing with them in the dope house, standing with them someplace you know you shouldn't be standing because you got too much to lose. Your career, your wife, your kids, your possessions, your health, your natural life, but more importantly, your eternal security in Christ Jesus. You could die and go to hell and never spend eternity with your loved ones or with the God who created you, who sent the vessel of rescue through Jesus Christ to make sure you could escape, be forgiven, overcome, walk uprightly like Job in righteousness, and live and reign forever with him in the kingdom of God. Come on, brothers. We're talking brother to brother right now. We beyond the surface, we out into the deep. See, I used to go to chapel, and chapels were nice, but they didn't prick my heart, they didn't go deep enough, they didn't convict me. Pastor Love did an amazing job. Many of the other chaplains I've been around did an amazing job. But it wasn't enough. I needed to be confronted, I needed to be called out. Because right after chapel, go to the game, I turned New York City upside down. Me and some of my teammates that I won't name because this is not about them. We painted the town red, blue, and green. We go home five, six, seven in the morning, it didn't matter, and we were right there up at practice, ready to go through a three and a half hour practice, get some rest, and do it all over again. Because sinners sin. And just like when I was a sinner and I did it 100%, 110%, now that I'm in Christ Jesus and I know my real identity and what I've been anointed and assigned to do, which is to go back and get my brothers, I do it at 100 and 110% unapologetically, because I'm a son of the Most High God. I don't operate in titles. I know who I am. I don't need to be addressed pastor or minister or prophet or apostle or evangelist. That's fine. God gave all those things for the equipping of the saints, ain't no doubt about it. And for the edifying of the word. But our job, more importantly, is to become what God has ordained us to be, which are sons of God, so that we in turn can point other people to their divine assignment to be a son of God. And out of that flows everything you need. In the book of Romans, it says that the whole world is waiting on the manifestation of the sons of God. The world's not waiting on another professional athlete. The world's not waiting on a new president. The world's not waiting on a move of the economy. The world's not waiting on new technology. Hallelujah. The world is waiting on men who will get in line with God, take their proper position, walk uprightly, fear God, eskew evil, and raise their sons up in the exact manner so that they can be men of God, who marry women of God and lead them in the ways of God, they'll rear children of God, and the earth will be occupied by the people of God. Therefore, the kingdom of God will advance, not just the church. There are churches everywhere. People have a vision of building more and more and more and more and more churches. Churches about buildings and bodies. Beautiful buildings full of bodies. But Jesus Christ is about making disciples. Men who live, move, and have their being in Christ Jesus. Men who are not fearful of doing the right thing when everyone is looking or no one is looking. Men who will stand in their spiritual integrity even when it costs them greatly to do so. When they're fired, when they're exiled, when they're ridiculed, it doesn't matter. You're going to do the right thing because of your righteous stance in your righteous God. Hallelujah. Even if it costs me something, I'm still going to do the right thing. Because the eyes of the Lord goes to and fro throughout the whole earth, showing themselves strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. The word of God says. God wants you to have peace. God wants you to have joy. God wants you to have long life. God wants you to have a forgiving spirit. God wants you to be full of kindness. Hallelujah. God wants you to be full of warmth. God wants you to be able to lay down at night and get rest, undisturbed rest. God wants you to be full of thankfulness. Job had all that. But yet God allowed Satan to touch Job. Because Satan said, Surely Job fears you and he's going to worship you. Look at all the great things you've given him. You got a hedge of protection around him, his seven sons, and his three daughters and his wife. But Satan said, Let me touch his possessions and see, don't he curse you to your face? God said, Bet. Bet. Touch it and see what happens. Job didn't flinch, my brothers and sisters. Job didn't move. The Bible says about Job, might a fact, after Satan had destroyed all his cattle, all his possessions, and even killed his children. The Bible says, and Job rose up and rent his mantle, meaning he tore his robe, his royal robe. And it says he shaved his head. And he fell down to the ground and worshiped. Come on now, somebody. Brother to brother, what are you gonna do if God touched your stuff? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna turn to alcohol? Are you gonna go gamble? Are you gonna go cheat on your wife or lay down with somebody who's not your wife? Or are you gonna bring children into the world who don't have a committed father, a godly father? Are you gonna go create more mayhem, more chaos, spread more darkness? Are you gonna be a greater disobedient son, not reflecting the love, the power, the might, the integrity of God? Do you just want to work in the NBA and do the things that the NBA do and represent the things that the NBA represent? Yes, God allows the NBA, but the NBA is not a great reflection of the problems or the answer that's needed in many of the communities in urban America within the United States and within the world. Yes, they have NBA cares and all that, and they take care packages, do basketball camps and clinics and all kinds of goodwill. And that's great motivation if you're just trying to deal with something on a natural level. But if you're trying to eliminate something and give somebody a new beginning, then we gotta go deeper than deep. We gotta get into the spiritual origins of the thing. Because the Bible tells us we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Hallelujah. It's not a natural fight. The Bible tells us the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God. We gotta have some spiritual weapons, which means we gotta have some spiritual indeptness, which means God gotta take us down through there and move a lot of the things that give us pleasure and uh and identity and comfort out of the way so that our flesh can be crucified and dealt with and our spirit man can be released. We have to be crucified in Christ, yet we're going to live. Hallelujah. And much of what I'm saying may be beyond your natural mind and understanding, but if you're still with me this long in the podcast, that means God wants to do something great in you because we're not giving out candy or cookies here, brother. We're giving out the mature meat of the word. We're challenging each other to stand up so that God can make us stand out even greater than you do right now as an NBA basketball player, as an NBA champion, as an NBA All-Star. God has a greater purpose for you. God touched Job's stuff, he allowed the enemy to do it, he used Satan to do it because God doesn't do anything but wonderful things, the Bible says. God only does good things. But he can't allow Satan to bring upon us the consequences of our bad decisions. We reap what we sow. The Bible says it be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. So if you're out here being foul and dirty on your wife, you're gonna get it back. It's coming back. If you're out here being foul as a man in any other way in your business, uh in handling people, it's coming back. Don't worry about it. It's like a frisbee or a boomerang. It has not made the turn yet, but it's coming back. You can count on that. But when you fear God and you walk with God, God will equip you to walk in righteousness. God will convict you before you do that crazy thing to remind you of who you are. And when you know who you are and whose you are, you stand right there in that position. And you allow God to mature you so that you know you're perfectly in God. And that even when you fall, because the Bible says the just man falls seven times and rises back up again. He gets back up because he knows he doesn't have to be perfect. His father is perfect, his elder brother Jesus is perfect. He sent back the Holy Spirit to perfect that man, to lead and guide him into all truth, to teach him how to be the man he was originally designed, formed, and created to be before the fall of Adam. That yes, you play in the NBA, but that's not who you are. That's something God allowed you to do. Who you are is the light of the world. Who you are is a city set on a hill. Who you are is the divine representation of the Most High God that created you perfectly from the top of your head to the soles of your feet in the name of Jesus. God allowed Satan to take everything Job had. Job said, after falling on the ground and worship, in the first chapter of Job in the 21st verse, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord have taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job, sin not, nor charge God foolishly. Can you function if God take away all the stuff, brothers? Will you still have identity and purpose, brothers? If the toys and the bling bling and all the stuff is moved, if God so desires to promote you and love you so by touching your stuff, that you'll know it's not a punishment, that it's actually a doorway and a channel to elevation. That many are called to, but few are chosen because they can't function in the world without the stuff. They can't function without the applause and the admiration and the cheers of people. They don't know who they are and whose they are without the NBA uniform, without the Porsche, without the Ferrari, without the Bentley, without the Rolex, without the Vasace, the Gucci. Huh? If they ain't got the Jordan Shoe contract, if they ain't got the big house, they feel like they nobody that they failed. But Job said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord have taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, my brothers. See, who we are in Christ Jesus supersedes who we become in the world, and only he has allowed that. Because in the book of John, in the ninth chapter, the 39th verse, it says, A man can receive nothing except it's given to him from the Lord. In the book of Proverbs, chapter 14 and chapter 16, it says twice, there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end there are, the end there are. Man, I'm chunked. Forgive me, brothers. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. So God, so profound, God so powerful, it can look like you're winning because your investments are growing. You got Thousands of followers, you got a new contract, everything seems to be in order. But when we're operating outside of Christ, outside of God's standards, outside of what he says, not what the world allows, but what God says, there's a day and a time that what Job said, you're gonna say. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet, yet trouble came. See, trouble's gonna come. Jesus says in John chapter 14, in this life you're gonna have trials and tribulations, but you can be of good cheer because I've overcome the world. That's if we're in Christ Jesus. The trouble is gonna come, guaranteed, 1,000%. It's coming. Satan comes to seal, kill, and destroy. He's an adversary, he's an enemy, he's a hater, he's jealous. You're winning, he's not winning. You can have a relationship with God, he can't. He's already received his eternal punishment. He was banished from he was banished from heaven, he was exiled, he was put out, he was fired from his position as the worship leader, as the chief musician of praise and worship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to God Himself. With all of that being known, then you must know that He no more wants you to be able to boldly go before the throne of God to obtain grace and mercy to help in your time of need. He doesn't want you worshiping God, he doesn't want you following God, he wants you to worship Him, He wants you to worship evil, He wants you to fall off into sin and darkness, to lose the very gifts that God has given you. Satan would like nothing more than your NBA career to end tragically, than your marriage to be busted up, for your finances to be destroyed and devoured, for your kids to go astray. Hallelujah. That's who he is. That's what he does. That's why he promotes his agenda. But see, God warns us, even though, brothers, we've had this great platform. God has given us these great gifts, he's entrusted us to have all these great possessions and toys. God still warns us in the book of Mark in the eighth chapter, in the 36th verse. He says, For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Next verse. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? See, these are questions we have to ask ourselves because again, it looks like we're winning. We're building these earthly empires. We're building, building, building, building. More money, more possessions, more doorways to walk through, more relationships, more of everything. But are we getting the more of the needed thing? The only thing that is needed is more of God, your relationship with Jesus Christ. Because that's how you win now and you win later, and that's how you lay the foundation for those you love to win, to win, and to all those God is going to send you onto the win, because now you have a divine word. You can give a divine plan. You see, you can really help people up out of the mud. We've all driven by a brother on the corner or a sister on the corner or in front of a building we're walking out of or something, and maybe we slid them five, ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty, or even a hundred. Maybe we bought them a meal. Maybe we've gave them an encouraging word to keep working, it's gonna turn around, blah, blah, blah. Those are all good deeds and uh good doings. Those are very good. There's a lot of that going on in the world, but there's a greater level. The greater level is for you to become fully who God has created you to be, to be full of the Holy Ghost. The Bible says, He that believes on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This living water impregnates people. When you walk into the atmosphere or into someone else's presence, something in them is ignited because you're so supernaturally charged with the divine presence and power of God that you can impart it into them. That's better than giving them a million dollars, believe it or not. That's better than them than taking them to the all-you-can-eat buffet, because you've given them something now to put them on the path toward Christ. And depending on your indebtness in God, you can not only activate them, you can start them on their way. You can remove the scales from their eyes, you can break the chains of oppression from their ankles, from their hands, more importantly, from their heart. You can point them to the word which begins to renew their mind. Hallelujah. And now they begin to thirst and hunger after righteousness, and God can do an amazing thing in them, a new thing, my brothers. I'm not here to chastise you, I'm here to love on you. And it may be tough love as a big brother, but nonetheless, it's brother to brother. And I just want you to know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. In Luke chapter 19 and 10, he gives you the purpose. He said, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus wants to save you from death, from destruction, from distress, from doubt. Hallelujah. From everything that's not good from you. You can throw divorce in there. He wants to save you from an eternal burning hell. He wants to save you from religious experiences in church. Yes, he does. God wants you to have a real relationship with him. So he says, He came to save and to seek that which was lost, which means you're being hunted. Hallelujah. If God marked your name down in the book of life before the world ever began, you're only going to prosper so far before stuff starts being turned upside down because God is seeking you. God is searching for you. God has a plan for you. God will move people out of your life, people in your life. He'll take stuff out of your life until it's time for him to begin to put the right stuff in your life. God is after your heart. That's why the Bible says, Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, with all thy strength. God wants your heart. The Bible tells you in the book of Proverbs to guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life. We have too much other stuff in our heart that is more about the natural carnal life and not about the divine life. We were created to be beings of life, beings of a relationship with God, to be able to hear his voice so that he can speak to us, so that we can not only do what he's telling us, but we can also tell other people who are not yet free enough to hear him what God is saying. Hallelujah. That when you talk to somebody who's really seeking him, when you talk to somebody who's hurting, when you talk to somebody who's longing for a move of God in their life, they will receive it and know it's from God. Hallelujah. Because again, it'll hit the bullseye, it'll hit them right where it's supposed to hit them. It'll soothe them in the way they need to be soothed. It will encourage them in the way they need to be encouraged. Because God says in Psalms 24 and 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. God can use anybody to do anything, to reach anybody anywhere. Let us not be deceived, my brothers. Yes, we are blessed to be current NBA players and former NBA players. God definitely chose you and to anoint and anointed you. Because men can make basketball players, but only God creates pros. That's why there's so few of them. You have to be anointed, appointed, chosen, and divinely equipped in your DNA to be an NBA basketball player. You don't pick it or choose it. God does. You don't determine if you're going to be healthy and not break bones or what level you perform at. You prepare. There's no doubt about it. Because you're entrusted with a gift, you're a steward over it. But God is the giver of those gifts. But you're also appointed and anointed to be or experience a greater blessing as a son returning back home to the Father. We won't get into the prodigal son in this episode because there are future brother-to-brother episodes coming. I pray that you will listen to these in your headphones, on the bus, on the airplane, in the locker room, in your car, in your den at home, because God is trying to activate you that post-career that you will be his servant. Yes, that you'll be his slave. Yes, that he'll be your master. Yes, that you will really accept him as your father. And that you will go out and allow the influence and the platform that he's given you to be one of passing out divine wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of bringing people back into the safety of the arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so that they too can know that though life has hit them hard, that though they have fallen very low, that though times have been extremely tough, that they may feel abandoned and have been abandoned, God still has need of them. That there's still a great purpose in their life. Because the Bible says, to whom much has been forgiven, he will love it much. But to whom who has been forgiven little, they love it little. People who have no scars and who've had no tough times cannot help the majority of the people in the world. Our motto at truth turn up and the gospel, the game, and the glory is, and my personal testimony is broken by life, restored by grace, created to help others rise. That is who we are. That's why we were saved. That's why God is seeking us out. That's why He restored us. That's why He created us. We are to be not only our brothers' keepers, but the keeper of people throughout the world. That is the great commission. Go ye into all the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. We are to go make others who follow Jesus Christ. We are to go make other brothers. We're not to go make other basketball players. We can go teach other people to play basketball, but we can't guarantee them they're gonna make it in the NBA. But if we go teach them about Christ, if we go show the love of Christ, if we go impart the love of Christ, because we ourselves have received it, we're giving them the best thing that they're ever gonna get because we're giving them an eternal meal. We're teaching them to fish and to live forever. We're teaching them to be able to survive no matter whether it's rain, sleet, snow, or the craziest storm, financial storm, relationship storm, somebody can die in transition, somebody can betray them. If you're in Christ Jesus, you're gonna survive. And I made a mistake earlier telling you that verse was in John chapter 14. It's actually John 16, 33. The Holy Spirit just corrected me and brought it to my remembrance. It says, In this world, you're gonna have tribulations, but you can be of good cheer. For I have overcome the world. That's Jesus telling you. If you rocking with me, you walking with me, when the static jump off, when they come for you, they coming for me. I got it. That's what Jesus is saying. Let them come. I got you. You sit back. In Exodus 14 and 14, the children of Israel have come out of Egypt, and Moses has led them out into the wilderness, and God says something very profound to them after Pharaoh is chasing them through the Red Sea, pursuing them, trying to get them to come back into Egypt into slavery after God has made Pharaoh let them go. He said, And you shall hold your peace and the Lord will fight for you. Man, ain't that powerful? You shall hold your peace and the Lord will fight for you. As men, we've been mistaught and misguided in this life we live, in the education we've received, in the mentoring we've received, in the way our fathers may have fathered us, that we have to be the protectors, we have to be the providers, we gotta be the strong ones. We shouldn't cry, we shouldn't show emotions, that we can't display weaknesses. That is a lie. And it leads to stress, it leads to high blood pressure, it leads to depression, it leads to defeat, it leads to isolation. God says, And you shall hold your peace, and the Lord will fight for you. God wants you to become converted as a little child, as He says in Matthew chapter 18. Except you be converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. God wants you to trust him, depend on him. You don't have to be the heavy. When you're dependent on God, God will fix everything else that has to do with you. God will fix your marriage, even though your wife won't understand. She's not supposed to understand. God's not talking to her, he's talking to you. Can I say that again? She's not supposed to understand. She might act a plum fool. She might wow out, she might cuss you out, she might even put you out. God said, And you shall hold your peace, and the Lord will fight for you. Your eyes are to keep your eyes on Jesus. It's kind of like when you see that they pressing in the NBA or they trapping. You don't panic. You just make the right play. You advance the ball. If you got to take a dribble to get a better angle, you do. If you got to back dribble, then attack them and go around them and make the next play. That's what you do. Because you're equipped to do it. Hallelujah. If it's three seconds on the clock and they draw the shot up for you, you know what to do. You're gonna get to your spot, bang, bang, knock down, let's go home. Next city, next game. That's the way that is. Now imagine being spiritually equipped to fight the good fight of faith on your behalf, on behalf of those you love, and on behalf of those God loves. Come on, bro. You really a big deal. Now, all of heaven is celebrating you. All of the world is waiting on you because you picked up the mantle, you've accepted the divine charge. You're working now for the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. You're spreading the good news of the gospel. You living, moving, and having your being in Christ Jesus. You're not only a basketball player, hallelujah, winning games for the NBA. Now you're winning souls for the kingdom of God, teaching them to submit, to surrender, to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Not just to go to a church, having a religious experience, sitting in the pews every Sunday like you got season tickets, but never operating in the power of God, never becoming bold, never accepting your authority, never resisting the devil so that he can flee. Never speaking those things as not as though they were. Never standing in the gap for your children telling Satan, this one you cannot have. Never operating in Psalms 91, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any play come nigh thy dwelling, because he will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Yeah, I'm hype. This the way I played the game, this the way I partied, this the way I served Jesus. I don't copy anybody, nor should you. I'm one of one. Let God make you one of one so you can fulfill your ministry, so you can go ignite light and restore men to the call God God has on their lives to be more than their normal occupations or professions, to be great in God, to be viewed greatly in heaven, in the name of Jesus. This is Minister Anthony Bonner of Truth Turn Up Ministries, the Gospel of the Game and the Glory series, with a specific episode of Brother to Brother, one former NBA player to another, one former sinner to another sinner, one son of God to a becoming son of God, one king to another king, one priest to another priest, trying to activate you and set you free from yourself and the wiles of the devil. Dear God, O Heavenly Father, I thank you right now in the name of Jesus for the one on the other side of this podcast, listening, oh Heavenly Father. Touch their heart right now, renew their minds. Allow them to empty all of their fears, all of the weight that goes with being a professional athlete or professional basketball player. Let them know they are more than the substance of the things you bless them with and the views people may have of them, oh Heavenly Father. Lighten their loads, O Lord Jesus. Give them a hunger and a thirst to seek after you. When they have free time, let them do a devotional. Let a scripture verse come across their heart, O Heavenly Father. Lead them to the Word, lead them to righteous mentors, mentors who want to see them advance in the kingdom of God, not just to write checks for their ministries or to promote their ministries, oh Heavenly Father, but to truly be saved, to be truly become men of righteousness, men like Job, who fear God and askew evil, who seen as perfect and upright, O Heavenly Father. That you will tell Satan, have you considered my servant, such and such? Insert their names in the blank. God allowed Satan to touch Job because he knew Job would come through. He knew what his heart was. He made his heart, he gave them that heart. He imparted that love in him. Bless these men. Keep them safe as they go to finish this current season. Bless those who will go on to the postseason. Bless those who will host the championship trophy. And I pray in Jesus' name, if one of those men are under the sound of my voice, that when that trophy is hosted, if one of them are MVP or have an opportunity to speak in front of the camera, that they will boldly say, I give all the honor, all the glory to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because he died for me, he loves me, and I love him, and I couldn't do this if he hadn't given me and entrusted me with this gift in Jesus' name. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Be blessed, brothers, because you are blessed. You're more than an NBA basketball player, you're an ambassador of Christ Jesus. Yes, you are. You're more than a conqueror through him who loved you. You are victorious in all things. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Hallelujah.