Afraid? Part 2

Hi, I'm Matthew. My co-hosts, Brianna, Michael, Paul, and I have found life beyond Mormonism to be brighter than we were told it would be.

Join us for discussions about our journeys from Mormon to Jesus. I'm Brianna from the Outer Brightness Podcast. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination and challenging men to take their God-assigned role.

Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome to Man Talk Radio, and we are back, Roy, again. It just seems like the weeks just fly by.

They do fly by. Yeah, literally and figuratively. But it's good because, you know, last week we were talking about fear, we were talking about being bold, you know, how do we be bold, and earlier in the talk we were saying how there is a healthy fear of God. And God, there are benefits to fearing God, but not in the sense of the way Satan wants you to be afraid. A healthy fear of God, Roy, is reverencing who God is. That's why I never liked the term when someone would say Reverend Hardy. I never liked that term because I think that reverend should be reserved for God, that he's the only one that we should reverence, you know, in all of our daily tasks because of who he is. He's the one that should be put on the pedestal, and we should glorify him and magnify his name. Well, it's interesting, in today's time we do exactly the opposite, speaking worldwide, right?

We take his name in vain, it's allowed to be portrayed on TV in vain, and it's good that you speak to that, Will, because sometimes I think we fail to really discuss and recognize the holiness of the Father, the true holiness, and to your point, the reverence of the Father. You know, and a healthy fear is good. We talked about, you know, when we're children, a healthy fear of your parents, it helps set up the right morals in your life, and I think that's part of what we're seeing as a problem today. There are no moral standards by any measure, right?

If it feels good, do it. If it's other than killing somebody, it seems to be anything goes. And we've talked in the past, authority's put in place for what? To manage to govern the immoral, to govern the unrighteous, not to govern the moral, to govern the righteous.

So we have no longer, we don't do either one, we're not doing either one. And so a healthy fear is good, Will. Let's talk what that looks like in a person's life. As a believer, what does a healthy fear of God look like in terms of their habits, what their walk looks like, a person's got a healthy fear of God, what does that walk look like, Will? Well, let me give you the word of God, Roy, because we can't ever go wrong with the word of God. So in Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 7, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So see, in Proverbs, there's always the positive and negative or what someone would say the yin and the yang, you know, stepping outside the box.

But there's always a contrast when you read many verses that's in Proverbs. So if you have a healthy fear of the Lord, according to Proverbs 1 and 7, then that's the beginning of you understanding who God is. But an individual who is a fool, he's going to despise who God is. So therefore, he's going to wander. He's going to work outside of God's will because he don't know God.

He's going to continue to do those things that he think is right. And remember, again, in Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 12, you know, God said that there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. So everybody got their own version of what seemed right.

Well, I never killed anybody, so why should I go ahead? And see, bad is relative to how you think bad is, you see. And Scripture tells us there's not even one righteous.

No, not one. And of course, that's Romans chapter 3 verses 10 through 18. He goes down the list.

There's none that do good. We all become unprofitable. See, so when we don't know God, that's who we are before we came to know him. So that goes back to the healthy fear. In order to have a healthy fear, one of two things has to happen, right? You either need to have knowledge by studying or you'll have knowledge from discipline. Exactly.

So which do you prefer? Obviously, it's better to learn and have a healthy fear and understanding of God by your reading and your meditation and the Holy Spirit speaking in your life, as opposed to, as we talked about last week, not dying to self and having discipline be your fear creator or your fear educator, if you will, right? Absolutely. And see, in the Word of God, Roy, it will add years to your life. And that being because peace resides in your life, right?

And then you learn how to manage through life. Well, no, I think that because the verse is Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 27, where it says, The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are shortened. So if I continue in sin, then that verse, the Word of God is saying that you're going to cut your life short than what it would have normally been if you would be serving the Lord. So if we serve God, God is going to add years to your life. He's going to give you more time. And the thing about it is, Roy, is we don't know God is adding more time to our life because we don't know when we're going to depart this life. He knows when we're going to depart.

Well, that's what I'm saying. So if we live a long and healthy life, then we'll know, praise God, that there must be something that I did along the way to recognize that because I was faithful to God, He gave me more years than I really deserved. Well, verse 28, right behind the one you just shared, Will, The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.

Amen. So now back to the last week's discussion about finding joy, right, in the midst of perseverance and persecution. You know, you finding joy in James 1, 2 through 5, we talked about. So here, joy is one of the outputs, right? The prospect of the righteous is joy.

Mm-hmm. So, I mean, and not happiness, but joy. And joy is what carries you through when those emotions swing up and down. Joy is everlasting. Everlasting.

You know, everlasting where happiness is temporary. And then in verse 30, Will, the righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land. Well, and, of course, if a person understands truly where they are in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of discernment will always let you know when you are not centered in Jesus.

If you're walking the road of despair, you know, and you're crossing over the line like a man who is intoxicated behind the wheel of an automobile, you know, you're just kind of wavering to the right or to the left, and you have no stability. Folks, if you haven't opened up Proverbs lately, get into chapter 10, because I'm going back up through some of the scriptures as we're sitting here talking today. And verse 21, the lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense. Indeed. That's kind of self-explanatory.

It is. And then back up to 31, from the mouth of the righteous comes the fruit of wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be silenced, and the lips of the righteous know what finds flavor, but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse. And, you know, I think that kind of ties into Proverbs 16 and 2, Roy, that says, you know, all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but God weighs your motive. He weighs the spirit of man. So, see, we can't look at the spirit in a man. I can't see your spirit.

You can't see my spirit. We see the results of what the spiritual realm is doing to a person, like we talked about if they go into depression because they're not centering their life on Jesus Christ, or, you know, they have all this conflict that's going on in their life, and they don't really know what to do. They don't know where to turn. So what do they do? They start turning to the world. Oh, I guess I got to go to the psychiatrist.

I got to go to the sociologist, you know, because I just feel like they can help me. Or I got to go to the bottle or to the medicine cabinet or whatever it may be. Or go to the corner and buy the drugs. That's right. You know, to try and help or suppress something that only God can get rid of.

Well, I always like to build around your reference. So then 16.3 says, commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. And then on four, the Lord works out everything to its proper end, even the wicked for a day of disaster. Exactly. So folks, it means we need to be righteous, and we need to have a healthy fear and respect for our Father.

Amen. Because without God, we become wandering waves. We become individuals who really have no sense of direction except, you know, that which we have gained from the world, which is only temporary.

Right. And then let's talk about if our goal or end game is that we're making disciples and building the kingdom right, essentially. If we're wavering and we're not living it out, and we use this saying, but if people aren't seeing it in our life, the words we say really mean nothing. And then therefore we're impacting the kingdom in a negative sense in that we're not walking the walk, and we're not walking the talk. So therefore look at the negative impact and the collateral damage we're creating around us, Will. That's the other thing.

Back to self. If we take our eyes off of self, if we get back to doing the things about others and walking it out, we're building the kingdom, and we're truly making an impact. And I think that's the thing people don't recognize is my failure to do the right thing, or my failure to respect my Father and live it out properly impacts a lot of people that I may never even see that are watching to see if I really am real in this journey. Amen, Roy, because our lives have, everything that God has for us, He's already given us. And all we got to do is just live it out.

That's all we got to do, Roy, is just live it out. Because thy kingdom come where? On earth, as it already has been happening in heaven, or has already happened. Did He not say, and I know we're coming up on a break, but did He not say that He knew us before the foundation of the world and over in Ephesians 1?

We start reading that, that we are righteous in His sight because of what Jesus Christ did. That's good, Roy. But He knew us before the foundation of the world. I know. Before we were knitted in our mother's womb. Exactly. We'll be right back.

Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Affordable chiropractic in High Point. As you might tell from their name, affordable chiropractic, even for the cash patient. Dr. Jeff Fricke has been caring for patients in High Point for 34 years. Physical therapy such as ultrasound and spinal decompression for disc conditions such as herniation. Comprehensive care for auto accident injury patients with no out-of-pocket expense. Remember, affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in High Point.

Call 336-885-1987. Welcome back to ManTalk Radio. Will, before the break, we had a really nice discussion about Scripture and just basically how we're walking this thing out on a regular basis. And if we're not walking it out, that we're impacting people around us, we're creating collateral damage that we may never know until we're before the Father.

And he says, let me show you what you could have done here versus what you did. Amen, Roy. And, you know, all of those who are listening, you know what you're not doing for Jesus. You know. We don't have to sit here and tell you.

We don't have to force feed you. You know exactly where you are in Jesus Christ. You know the things, some of the things that you might be doing that you should stop doing. And the only way you could stop doing this is let God replace all of those thoughts that are given to you from the spiritual realm, replace those with the word of God. Replace those with the thoughts that the Holy Spirit gives you on going out and speaking to someone about who Jesus is.

Going out and ministering the gospel. Just brighten someone's day. Just today, Roy, I was in Food Line and I was shopping. And the lady behind the counter, she said, you know, now I'm going to scan your rolls and I'm going to put them in your bag.

Now make sure they don't get smashed. And I said, okay, you know, and so I got them. And she said, because, you know, now you can go home and blame it on me if you want to. I said, now why would I do that? I said, why would I blame it on you? She said, well, you know, the person who you might speak to, they're not going to know me anyway. I said, well, they know where you work so they can come up here. But I said, that wouldn't be the right thing to do. And she said, you know, not too many people will do that. And I said, well, there's a difference in me. And see that, open up the door, Roy, right there.

Open up the door for the conversation. So I talked to her a little bit about Jesus. Of course, there was people who were coming behind me.

That's why I talk fast, you know. But I said, you know, if you're not feeling well, and I could just, God had sensed that she was, because she was working and sort of hunched over the cash register, you know. And he just sensed that she was having a bad day. And when the Holy Spirit spoke, gave me the words, and when she left, she said, well, thank you. Thank you for that. Spoke in to her.

I really appreciate it. And I said, God, to you be the glory, because all I was there is to plant the seed. You know, it's interesting when we have those opportunities. It doesn't take much to lift somebody up out of the gutter or out of the ditch. They're so far down, and you never know what's going on. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of that when we're having a tough interaction with a clerk at a store or a server at a restaurant or even our bosses, right. Sometimes everybody has a day or those moments. And I don't think I ever see you have one of those days, Will, but I guess that day's coming. Oh, no, I've had them.

You do a good job keeping them masked. I've had them in more ways than one. Yeah, I think we all have.

And, folks, that's it. The great part about being a follower of Christ, he understands all of our shortcomings and all of our failures. He loves us. And I guess that's the thing that we need to remind our listeners is that if you're with us today, pause for just a moment and just imagine. Close your eyes and just imagine God's wrapped his arms around you in this moment and telling you it's all going to be okay. There is a greater plan for you.

There is a greater reward for you. And know how much he loves you. And if you can't understand it through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and what he did for us, just close your eyes for a moment and just imagine him wrapping his arms around you and telling you how much he loves you and how proud he is of you. No matter what you've done, no matter where you've failed, he still loves you.

And it's never too late if you haven't made a commitment and you're listening to our show today. God's calling you home. Yes, Roy, he is. He's calling you to him is what he's doing. He's speaking to you right now and saying to you, why are you putting this off? How many opportunities did the Lord save you from natural death? I put that to our congregation, Roy. And God said, there are times that all of us in here probably should have passed away physically. But God did something behind the scenes that we will never know about because instead of us turning right, we turn left.

Or we turn left instead of right. And he prevented that thing from happening that was waiting on the other end. So when you consider all of the things you cannot see, and a lot of these things are going to be made known once we leave here, Roy.

Amen. Yeah, you and I have talked about that in just even each of our lives. We've talked off the air and even I think we've shared one or two on the air about we're God. We knew God's hand or the angels, whoever he had protecting us, took us out of harm's way or saved us when we were in harm's way that we knew. And those are the things that are marked on our memory and marked in our hearts.

Those that we never know about, to your point, when he reveals them to us someday, it's going to be quite amazing. And you know, Roy, I just want to share a little bit of that. The time that I should not have been sitting here talking with you today, I was on my way from work. I was coming up on where Interstate 85 and 40 merged together.

Death Valley. Yes, and it had just started to rain. And all of a sudden, merging on to the 85 and 40 merging together, right there at that merge, a car came over. It actually was an SUV. Came over and the truck that was in front of me was a pickup truck, and I had to turn my wheel really sharp to avoid hitting this individual. And it seems like, well, it didn't seem like it was. The Lord just protecting me because my vehicle, it was pushed, Roy.

That's the only way I can describe it. It was pushed to the side to where I did not hit this truck, and I just ended up on the curb right there where you exit to go to Randall Monroe. Right there. I went right up on the curb, and I just sat there with my hands clutched on the steering wheel, just thanking God, thanking God, thanking God, thanking God. And in fact, no one had an accident, and there should have been one.

That's amazing, Will. Should have been one. I think I shared before a similar situation happened over on I-40 there, where you come up on the, coming off 68 up on the 40. And there, by physics standards, I should have been out in the middle of all the traffic. And it was 8 o'clock in the morning, bumper to bumper, tractor trailers. There was five lanes across there. And if I had come out, folks, I broke traction, and the physics behind it, I literally should have just, gravity should have pulled me right out into the middle of traffic. And I broke traction in this older pickup truck I was driving. I spun, did a 180, and God just pushed me back inside the ramp.

There was just no, there was no physical explanation for it other than God had his hand on it. Wow. And the same thing. I started, I mean, I don't mind sharing with you. I started the truck back up, turned around, headed to East on 40, and started crying when I realized what God had just done. Amen.

And, you know, folks. It's real. Our Father is real. His coverage is real. His protection is real. And if you're listening today and you're just in the middle of a storm, just know that he's right there with you. And if you haven't asked him into your heart, ask him into your heart, because he will just wash over you with a peace that is just unimaginable.

It's just unimaginable. And each one of you that's listening, you have a story just like Roy and I share. Yes, you do. And if you don't have one, you will get one.

Or you know of someone who have had one. A story just like that. And you think about, you should not be sitting here today. You should not be eating or driving or doing anything, but you should be six feet under, just like Roy and I should have been, but because of the protection of God, his love toward us.

And this is how much God loves you, because you are not going to leave this life until you have finished the work that God has for you to do. This is why when Paul got shipwrecked, and he reached his hand down and a viper attached onto his hand. And the men who were around him were looking at him like, this man's supposed to die. And all he did, the word of God says, he shook it off into the fire. And they kept looking at him like, he's supposed to fall dead right now. But see, his mission was not complete, Roy.

It wasn't complete. And so, just like Paul, we're not going to check out of this life until we have done all in which God had called for us to do. And that is, if you're following Christ, you can bank on that. Absolutely. Absolutely. We talk about that quite often with our men, because we have them at all ages.

We do. We say, listen, if you're still here, the journey's not done. God is not finished with you. There's still work to be done, no matter if you're 80 years old or 15 years old or 20 years old. And be mindful of that, folks. If you're listening today and you're following Christ, he's not finished.

He's got more for you to do, and we know what that is, right? We know we're supposed to be building the kingdom and making disciples of the nation and loving everybody. Amen, Roy, because again, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, God blesses through the apostle Paul to the Corinthians to say, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

This is what you're at war with. But see, God can cast these things. He can cast these thoughts away, thoughts that you have and that you don't want to have. God can cast these things away.

He can pull them down because only by his word you're able to do that. Amen. One scripture I want to leave you with is Psalm 27, 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? We have nothing to be afraid, Roy, and the only fear we need to have is reverential fear in God, knowing who he is, what he's capable of doing. That's that healthy fear we've been talking about. So don't be afraid.

Don't be fearful. Respect the Father. Start chasing him with all your heart and mind and just challenge yourself as we're closing out today.

How much time do I spend in the word versus how much time I'm spending on my cell phone or watching TV or gaming or doing things we shouldn't be doing? Chase his purity. Chase his wholeness and allow him to wash over you and bless your life. It's in your son's precious name, Father. Thank you for our time together.

Amen. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches, and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the Truth Network.