Tools For Men Common Living Part 1

This is the Truth 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, welcome to Man Talk Radio. I'm Will Hardy, the black guy.

And I'm Roy Jones Jr., the white guy. And you know, Roy, you know, we were talking earlier today and it is absolutely amazing, you know, that when it comes to the church and it comes to men and particularly within the church, how we need to ensure that we are solid in our walk and solid in our talk. Yeah, exactly, Will. And that's being solid means many things, right? But you can't be solid without a good foundation. Absolutely.

And you and I have talked many times and today being one of those times that it's a big void in the church and with men is they're not solid. And part of that's because they're standing on the sidelines. But I think the other piece is that they're not equipped. Right. And even if they are equipped, sometimes they're not using what they have been taught.

Right. You know, because I think a lot of times, you know, we look and we say internally, well, you know, it could be the pastor's not doing this, that or the other. But I think we have to start looking at ourselves first and say, are we, are our ears inclined to hear the truth? Well, that's exactly right, Will. If you're not willing to listen, or if you just feel like you've got it figured out and mediocre is okay, then there's not much you are going to say to that man that's going to change their positioning and their approach to their walk with Christ. Exactly. But if they're seeking Christ, and they've got that burning desire to get to know Him better and get to know our Heavenly Father better, then they will step forward and start doing the things that they need to do, which we're going to talk a little bit about today, and how to give them some of the tools to do that, then they will be blessed and God will be able to pour out his full blessing to them, but not only to them, to their families, into their communities, into the church. Yeah, because it's all about that overflow, you know, men living after life, that God has given them to live.

And if they are truly obedient to the scripture, then they're going to do that. But yeah, it was like you saying, you need tools. You do. You know, and so we're going to talk about five areas that men need to concentrate on when it comes to their daily walk. And they need to be doing this every single day in some form or fashion. Right. And every man that's listening has either been a part of a ball team or part of some military organization or work team or something. So you know that you can't do anything without practice.

That's right. You can do it, but you'll never be able to do it to your fullest capability, nor to the full blessing of the Father if you're not doing it with a regular discipline, right? Well, you know, you played football, so I don't know of anyone, any coach who will let you play if you don't practice. No, we had a few guys in college that would try to stay out of practice with, well, we'll call them injuries, I won't call them fake or not, but the injuries, and they were certainly better by the time it came to Shorts Day on Thursday and ready to play on Saturday. But you're exactly right.

You have got to put in the time to grow and to be better. Same thing holds true in our daily walk, does it not? It does. You know, and so the first component that men need to do on a daily basis is prayer. Wow.

That is, that's a great start, Will, prayer, because we've talked about this before. Did Jesus ever do anything without going to the Father first? No. Not anywhere in Scripture does it ever show that he just went off and did something. He did everything.

He was led by his Father. Exactly. So if the one that we're following modeled it for us, then how important is prayer to us as men and to our families each day? It is very important because the Word of God tells us in Philippians chapter 4 and verse number 6, it says, be careful or anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God.

So this is telling us that we should do this on a daily basis. So a man, you might be listening and you might say, well, God already knows, you know, what I need, but he wants you to convey that on what you need. He wants you to speak it out.

Well, exactly. If you don't speak it out, then you're not acknowledging him as the Almighty, the one who controls everything, who gives you everything, who blesses you with everything, who pulls you through the seasons. So he may know, but if you don't acknowledge it, then he's sitting there waiting on you to just say, okay, Will, I need you to step in and talk to me. That's right. You know, your parents may know you need something when you're growing up, but if you didn't ask, they didn't always come along.

They were waiting on you to realize that you needed it to come talk to them about it. And the model prayer that Jesus gave, I think it, you know, it's sort of like sums up exactly the components that you need when you start to pray, you know, our father, which art in heaven, recognizing the father as who he is and where he is located. Yep. Reigning over all. Hallowed be thy name, hollow, holy is your name. Again, it's sharing what you as God's person here on earth is acknowledging who God is in heaven and how holy is he is. And see, when we start looking at God like that, then we will see how much we need him or how unholy we can be when we approach a holy God. Right.

And then that's the key. He is holy. We are not holy. And then that moment of reverence, we're acknowledging that and we're reaching to him because he is the almighty. He will provide everything. Yes. And then it says thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Where? In heaven and on as it is on earth. So on earth as it is in heaven. Now, you know, when I when I look at that, that basically says that things are already settled in heaven. Yeah.

It's not like there's an unknown there. Yeah. So if it's already settled in heaven, then all we need to do as his children is live it out and receive it.

Mm hmm. Part of that's just receiving it, right? Exactly. Living out, receive it first, then live it out.

Because you when you when you live it out, what you're doing is you're saying, I understand what God is telling me to do. Right. While I'm hearing this natural. But if you're not talking to him.

That's right. Not seeking him, then how can you ever hear him? And you can't, because what happens is you start hearing all the other noise, right? You start hearing society, you start hearing things that divide, you know, the church rather than bring the church together.

And if it's happening in the church, how much more is it happening outside the church? Exactly. And, you know, influence is it's a great part, I think, of what the world attempts to do when it comes to, you know, Christianity and God's people in particular, you know, because if that's how the enemy works, he comes in and he divides us so that he can conquer us. Well, exactly.

We talked about that many times. And we were just talking about that today in enemies out for one purpose. That's the steal, kill and destroy. And that if he steals your time, then he destroys your fellowship with God in which it could be in prayer or reading the word, which is another component we're going to talk about. Right.

And then if he steals and kills it, then he's destroyed it. Then you've you know, it's so therefore there's no dialogue. Right. So he's got you distracted with all the other the noise, as we always call it. And men, you need to listen. And ladies, if you're listening as well, the noise can be many different things.

That's right. It can be the for men. It could be the gaming. It could be the pornography.

It could be the sports, you know, overly indulging in sports, watching time up time, which means you're not with the father. You're not with your children. You're not with your wife. And you're not doing the things that God needs to be doing. That's right, because what happens is if he start ignoring his wife, then someone else may take interest in his wife. And who's at the root of that. And Satan says, hey, your husband's not paying attention to you.

Here's someone who is. And then the wife starts getting distracted. And and then when he sees her distractions, then he uses that as an excuse to say, OK, if you doing this, then I'm going to go out and do it, too. Right. And this goes back to the start of the conversation. If you're praying to the father, acknowledging your need of him and what he's done for in terms of blessing, then you're starting to build the foundation.

Absolutely. And if you're praying with God, then you turn around and you pray with your wife to the father. That's right. And you take your wife to the foot of the cross to share with the father and to be transparent together, which is nothing.

I don't think there's anything more touching, more rewarding than a man and a wife praying to the father together and for each other. That's right. And taking turns doing that. Not one does it all the time.

The other never does it. Mm hmm. Because in in John 14 and verse number six, Jesus said, you know, that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly. So Jesus came that we might have the abundant life, but we have to understand what this life is and then what are the keys that Jesus have for us to unlock this life. And see, these are some of the tools we're talking about today. And of course, the first one we mentioned was prayer.

Right. And so my question to the listener, do you have an abundant life? Are you living an abundant life? Is there something missing? Do you feel there's a void there? Even if you're in the church, is there a void?

Or is your heart just really aching because something's just not right? And I would question you how much time you spend talking to the father, how much time are you spent praying? And then the other piece of that, which we'll talk about later as well, is listening.

Mm hmm. But if you're not praying to the father and you're not turning it all over him, dying to self, then you're missing the full blessing of the father. And God wants to give you, his children, everything that you deserve as a member of the kingdom of God, just like we have rights and privileges as citizens of the United States. We have rights and privileges in the kingdom of God because we are kingdom citizens. And so God wants us to have the abundance of all that the kingdom has to offer to us. Amen, amen. You know, and when I think about, you know, the many, many years that I was out there in the world and how the enemy was just buffeting me and distracting me, you know, it makes me mad, Roy, to think about all those years.

You could have been doing something different. Exactly. Yeah. For God. Yes. And, you know, not just something different, but something for God because anyone could do anything, you know, that they choose to do.

But who are you doing it for? Right. Well, I think most men have got that regret, you know, especially if they weren't raised with a heavenly influence, you know, from their earthly father.

And it was a hard, hard lesson to find that way. But, you know, like we've talked about many times, it's never too late. That's right. You know, you can always look back, but that's why we've talked about before the rear view mirror is only so small. That's just so you know where you came from. The bigger view is through the front window, which should be the same for us today. So if you're listening, it's not too late.

That's right. To change that course. Start praying. Start praying with your spouse.

Start spending time with the Father in prayer. And, hey, a lot of your truck drivers, there may be some people out there that's behind the wheel. Father, it doesn't matter if you're closing your eyes or not, you're talking to him. So he's good with you driving. Please don't close your eyes while you're driving.

That's why you're driving. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're coming back here right after the break. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

And we're back with Man Talk Radio. And, Roy, when we left after the break, we were talking about the first component or tool that men need to be exercising in their Christian walk, and that was prayer. So now we're moving to that second component, which is Bible study. What is Bible study, Will? You know, when you talk about Bible study, God tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15 to study to show yourself approved unto God.

Amen. Now, how can we be approved if we don't know what the word of God says? And then it says, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So a person who is wrongly dividing the word, then they're doing that specifically to advance their own agenda. In other words, getting off what God's intent was. They're doing the man intent.

And we've talked about that some, have we not? While there's a church on every corner, you have to wonder how much of that was a man dividing the word and trailing down to what he thought God meant rather than what God really meant. And a lot of the churches, since you brought that up, a lot of the churches on every corner, a lot of that has to do with individuals who simply believe that they want to go off and start their own church or because they have outgrown wherever they were. And many times it's not God leading them at all.

No, not at all. But when you're working for God, you're working because you're working out of love. Right. And you study out of love. So if you really love God, the way he's going to talk to us is through his word and through our prayer to him. And then sometimes the Holy Spirit's going to nudge our hearts about something. But also through the word, when you're looking at the word, that's when he's going to say, Will, Roy, this is what I need you to do. This is how I need you to apply this.

This is where you're at in your life. These are the things that I need you to focus on at this moment in time. And Bible study, Roy, you're right.

It needs to be comprehensive, not superficial. And what we mean by that is you need to take a deep dive in the word of God. Get a small group. I am big on the small groups.

Get a small group, five, six people together. You come together. And what this does is it does exactly what you talked about earlier when we were talking about prayer. It starts to build a foundation. Yes. And this group of people will now hold you accountable to the word that you're speaking and you in turn holding them accountable for the words.

Exactly. And we've got an excellent tool on our website living the D life by Dr. Bill Wilkes. We've been through that course in the boot camps and it's an excellent tool, man.

And even for the ladies, if you're listening. It is. It's designed for that very thing. It's a discipleship program. You read a chapter a day and then you recap what you've read. And then you have a discussion at the end of the week with your counterparts, the four, five, six people that you're meeting with. And it helps you to get in that deeper dive of the word because not only what you're seeing, what God's speaking to you about, then he may have spoke something different to the other four or five people in there as well. So all of a sudden you're extracting multiple things from the word to your point.

You're in a deep dive as a group. But that group also holds you accountable. Did you do your reading this week?

If not, why? You know, and then encourage you to keep doing that till you get in that daily discipline like we were talking about before about the athletes and practice, you know, prayer being the first foundation, second studying the word. And you know, there's nothing like having the word of God in the inside of us. You know, that's, that's what we call appropriating the word. Appropriating the word is when you're taking it in, it becomes part of who you are. It's not just head knowledge. It becomes heart knowledge.

Right. So you allow that heart felt word of God to now speak to you internally. And it's like Jesus said when he talked about it being that spring of living water just bursting up in you.

And what is the scripture? Tell us about the heart. The heart is deceitfully is desperate upon all things and it is deceitful. But the heart, the heart also is drawn by sin. James 1, 14, 15, when it talks about a man is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.

See the lust, the lust of man is to get that man off alone. Right. See, cause if he's, if he's around men or if he's around a group of men or he's in that small group study now it's like, well, you know, I can't do such and such and such because I'm held accountable. Exactly. Right. And so, but when he's off by himself and again, we've always said integrity, your integrity or character is how others view you. The quality of your life is how you view yourself when you're alone. Right. When you're alone, that's the key.

Right. You know, because when you, when you're alone and nobody's around. That's who you are.

That's exactly who you are. So it's like, now I have the freedom and I'm not around the brothers to do X, Y, and Z, but we forget to look up. Right. Cause God is watching. And scripture tells us not to just be readers of the word, but to be what? Doers.

Doers of the word. So if you're loading the word in your heart and that's going to naturally flow out as God's actions. Absolutely. And love for others.

Absolutely. Because you know, his word, his word will not return unto him void. You know, he, he talked about the word of God in Numbers 23 and 19 and Isaiah 55, 11, that when the word of God goes out, it's going to accomplish that which it sets out to do.

Right, right. You know, God, if he said it, he's going to do it. So men, if you're listening to the question is, you know, how are you acting this out?

How are you playing this out? If your actions are speaking different than your Sunday life, and we've talked about this before, if you're not looking the same way Monday through Saturday, in other words, if nobody knows that you're a Christian by the way you look Monday through Saturday, and I like the word father of Christ better than Christian just because we've taken such a beating on the Christian piece, but a true father of Christ, then you need to challenge yourself. Why do I look different Monday through Saturday than I do on Sunday? Is it because you're not loading the word into your soul, into your heart, into your spirit so that you're living it out Monday through Saturday? Are you just depending on what you're getting on Sunday morning to be your feed for the rest of the week? If you only ate one meal, that's right, on Sunday, would you be able to sustain Monday through Saturday? Of course not. That's right.

You would have to have some other intake. So if that's the case for our physical body, what should it be for our spiritual body? And when our physical body is hungry, we feed it.

When it's tired, we lay it down. Yep. You know, if we're thirsty, we drink water. So it is no different from the spirit.

We need spiritual food, the spiritual food, and this is why Bible study is so important that we understand that the basis of what we should be living by is already laid out for us. It is the whole plan. It's the road map. It is the road map. It's the blueprint is there for your taking.

Hey, and men and ladies as well, don't get intimidated by the fact, well, I've never done it. It's okay. Just sit down, start in the book of John. That's always been the most recommended place to start reading because it all starts right there. The whole story's there about Jesus and that's where it all begins, right?

And then go to 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. Yep. After that.

Yep. And then flip on over to Romans in that order. There you go.

And repeat that again, Will. John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and then Romans.

Then the Romans. There you go. Then you got your first five books. That's a great start.

Call us back and ask us where to go next after those five. So you've got the foundation. But don't be intimidated by this.

Hey, we all struggle with getting into work and getting into daily routines. But once you get started, then God bursts that desire. And I think it even feeds the fuel, if you will, to chase him down and just to get to know him deeper and deeper and deeper. And he'll wake you up at 4 o'clock in the morning or 3 o'clock in the morning and say, Roy, come spend time with me.

Will, come spend time with me. And that's happened for me over the last week or so. Get woke up 4 o'clock in the morning, 3.30, ahead of my normal get-up time, which is ironic. And on the weekends, too, of all time for it to happen. I'm not a late sleeper. But on weekends, I do at least get till 5.

But he's woke me up at 4 the last two mornings on the weekends. So those are the kind of things, folks, that will start to develop. Be excited about it. Absolutely. The creator of the heaven and earth has given you the blueprint, the roadmap right here in one book. And if you don't ever read it, you're never going to get the blessing.

Absolutely. And you're going to squander these years. And believe me, they fly by. You know, I'm still much younger than Will, but they do fly by. Just a few years earlier. But they do fly by.

They do. And one day you'll wake up and you're going to say, where did all the years go? Or worse yet, what if tomorrow never comes and today's the last day? And man, what type of biblical legacy do you want to relieve your children? You know, I mean, you know, if you're not studying the word, if you're not putting time in the scriptures and talking with God and wanting to know more about him, then you're looking elsewhere and anywhere else other than the word of God, we allowing our mind and our heart to be corrupted.

Yeah. And be distracted, which goes back to Satan's end objective, right? His end game is get you distracted. And if he's got you distracted, it's all over. You know, you've lost time.

You've really lost time. You know, but distraction is one thing. But deception is that that's the that's that's a great that's his big way. He'll convince you that it's okay not to do it.

Absolutely. That that self justification that, hey, it's okay not to study. It's okay. You're so you're grounded enough.

It's good. But what if it's not about you? That's right. What if God's trying to prepare you to do bigger things? And that's what he's called all of us to do bigger things. That's right. That's right. You know, we we should not be thinking small when it comes to our God who is big. No, you know, like our brother Ken Klein said a few weeks ago. Don't pray small.

That's right. Pray big folks. Pray big. Pray big. Expect big because God is a big God. And, you know, your spouse, man, if you're married or if you're a significant other, they want you to lead them.

Oh, boy, do they. Be that man that's praying daily and studying the word of God. And we're going to pick this up on next week talking about the the last three elements, Roy. But just tell them right now, Roy, if they're thinking about wanting to be born again, how can you do that? Folks, if you're listening, just admit being a sinner. Recognize that Jesus died for you and rose on the third day so that you could have eternal life.

Ask him to come into your life and gain in on fellowship and find a local body of worshipers. If you can't find one, give Will and I a call or drop us an email. We'll be glad to help you. So we're excited to be a part of this conversation with you. And we just thank you for listening to us. And we just ask you to subscribe to our channel. If you haven't done that on our YouTube and also on our podcast, which is available on Google Podcasts and a couple of other things.

So you have a great, great week. Talking and walking Christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a 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.tawcm.com. Men walking the talk.