Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they are 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 back to Man Talk Radio. I'm Will Hardy, the black guy. And I'm Roy Jones, the big white guy. And you know, Roy, we were we were talking on last show on about grace and forgiveness.
And this is sort of like, I guess you can call it a hot topic, if you will, that ex, I guess we can call him that, rapper Kanye West. He has given his life, he says, to the Lord. And, you know, let me state and start by opening up saying, we are not God and we do not sit in judgment of God, neither do we speak for God when it comes to this man's heart.
Of course not. We can't, because God, like we said at the end, only God knows. But we got to put it out there.
We got to put it out there. Like King country saying only God knows. Exactly.
Exactly. But so and, you know, he, there's an event coming up to where, you know, he's going to be joining Joel Osteen. And one thing we were saying is, you know, individual, if he truly has given his life to the Lord, and we pray to God that he has that, that he can be a tremendous influence and particularly to the young people.
Oh yeah. You know, because we need, the young people are the ones who are going to make up the church body. You know, when all of us who are up here in age are, have gone on to meet the Lord.
Yeah, exactly right. Well, what's interesting about all this is that with the younger generation, we know that the church is missing a lot of this millennial generation because they've chosen to not be in the four walls, if you will, as a whole. It seems like every church in America struggling with that age group 18 to 29, over the last several years, it's been a problem.
So it's just continued to perpetuate itself. In fact, I was talking to some today at, after lunch, we were talking about that very thing that he could potentially make the largest impact of, of, for a lot of anything that we've seen and probably are next to Billy Graham in our lifetime. If he truly lets God use him and lead him through this journey because of the reach he's got with the secular population.
And that would be an amazing thing to watch. Absolutely. An amazing thing to watch, you know, and, and that's why I think, um, we can pray and, and add continuously, just pray for him and say, if, uh, God has led you down this path and he says he is, then longevity is the key because he who endured to the end shall be saved. So we have to continue to just lift him up, I think in prayer, because again, we're not sitting in judgment and I truly hope that, uh, God has called him and that he's going to let God use him with all of the talents and resources that he have available at his disposal.
Yeah. I mean, he could just make such an impact for the kingdom, such an impact for the people in his circle, outside of a circle. I mean, like we were talking earlier, you know, the folks that are in need that are just in, in close proximity of all these people that are so successful. And you know, we're not talking about charity, we're talking about making an impact for the community and an impact. Now think about this gentleman having an opportunity with Kanye to make an impact for the kingdom.
Wow. In the same respect and even beyond and how God could, I mean, God could take him to a level he never thought possible, but Hey, it could be that God takes him the other way and says, Hey, I'm going to show you what it means to trust me. But yet he's going to reach many, many, many people potentially and God may say, okay, now it's time for you to give it all the way. And we pray that he be open to the spirit and not let individuals use him because of his talent and resources because see, you have a lot of individuals out there who would do that. Yeah, exactly. You know, and, and we have to just be truthful and, and saying that it shouldn't exist, but it does.
Yeah. And we're talking about prosperity gospel folks. We don't, we don't think that that's what God intends for Kanye to do by going down the path of chasing the dollars and getting people to donate money into just making people more well off. It's about the soul. It's about the souls and building the kingdom and those funds should be directed to those purposes.
And hopefully Kanye's got to give Kanye discernment who's, if anybody does attempt to do that with him, to use him for the wrong purpose that, um, that indeed he'll, he'll see through that. And that's where I think the prayers of the saints, that's right. We'll come in and just keep, keep the young man covered in prayer because you know, my desire is, is that he wears the label in which God has given him in reference to his servant and, and give God the glory and go out and let God use him, uh, in a great and magnificent way because there are so many young people, you know, I read a statistic the other day and it says 68% of all young people who graduate from high school and go to college by the end of their sophomore year, they have allowed, uh, you know, the academia world to basically, uh, uh, dilute to reshape their thinking. Yeah. Their, their thinking and their, their faith, you know, so when they, when they come back home from the university, you know, it's, it's all about doing my thing now instead of, well, it makes me feel good. Yeah.
It's all about me instead of doing what God called you to do before you left. That explains some of what we were talking about before they 18 to 29, such the hard age to reach, right? It's hard to keep that group in church or get them re-engaged once they go away. And that explains a lot of that because they're getting, uh, we're, we're spending all this money as parents, basically to paraphrase what you're saying, if I'm gonna put it in a more practical term, I'm spending a bunch of money, send them off to college so that they can try to destroy my child's faith. Right.
That's exactly right. And, uh, and the, unfortunately it happens in schools that you wouldn't expect that to be the case based on their background and what their, their storefront says about their, their theology or what they, what they believe in. You wouldn't expect it, but I've heard it from all, all levels of higher education that they're challenged. And some of that I think is probably healthy to challenge them, but not to beat them down or make them doubt, but more to help them learn how to, to share their story and how to convince people that what they believe is true in their heart and real. And it basically strengthens their witness if you will, but not to tear them down to where they come home and they've lost the moral direction that they had before they left for college. And I think that's, we have to cover them in prayer too, because you know, the whole ideal of the university and, and there's some universities, even with the name Christian in it to where you have to be careful as well. That was my point earlier. Because the, the bulk of what's coming out of the university is not biblical based. Right. And so, you know, we are apt to believe something if it sounds good and we may not have a full understanding on even what the person is talking about, but we'll grasp a hold of that because it sounds good. And I think that is the, that could be the beginning of the end for that individual's faith if they are not aligning themselves with someone who can hold them accountability when they get out of the will of God.
Right. So we mentioned earlier that we need to be praying for Kanye. We need to be praying for our children. But as back to the man point, are you praying regularly? And you know, there's no excuse for, I don't have time to pray.
There's no, no, no, there's none of those types of things should even be applicable here. You're always behind the wheel of a car. You're always sitting at your desk.
You're always on the job. Something's going on that you've got some time that you can spend with the Lord while you're available. And you know, God's listening. He just needs you to come and talk to him. And the most ideal time is when you are quiet and you've got some time, but if you're so hectic, you're raising children, there's so many things going on, you don't feel like you have time to slow down or stop. He's listening.
Talk to him while you're driving. Lift somebody else up. We need to do the supplication piece, right? We need to thank him for what we've got and what he's done for us and how blessed we all are, no matter what your circumstance.
He knows what all the needs are. But when you're lifting up others, I don't think there's a greater blessing than when you're praying for someone else because it's not about you. And if we think about modeling our life after Christ, it wasn't about him.
It was about everybody else. Everywhere he went, you know, he looked on people with compassion. You know, he asked them when they cried out to him, Rabbi, Rabbi or master, master or teacher, teacher. And then he would, he would ask them, you know, what can I do for you? And then I have a sick servant or my daughter is sick or I have a sick son, you know, or I'm blind and I know that you were coming by.
And of course we know the one account that Jesus spit on the ground, made clay, you know, and put it on his eyes and he came seeing. And, you know, when I think about all these things, I'm going, these were miraculous events, but sometimes where I think we, we chase after miracles and when miracles don't happen the way we think they should happen, then what we do is we say, well, the power of God is not here because I don't see somebody being raised from the dead or the blind getting their sight back. We shouldn't do, we shouldn't chase after miracles. And so it goes back to what we're talking about with Kanye.
Don't chase after the dollars, you know, don't chase after the things that you believe that people would be interested in. Look at the individuals as lost souls, those who don't know Jesus Christ and, or those who are coming who might be born again, just curious to see, Hey, is this man for real? Yeah.
Is Kanye really genuine and sincere what he's doing? That would be the question they could be asking themselves. And that's a great, great, um, lead into will that we, we know that as believers that we're, we're basically doubting Thomas's at time.
That's right. We, I think that's one of those things that unfortunately because of our society, we've hardwired that PC and well, I believe it, but I really don't believe it. I believe he can do it, but I don't believe we'll do it kind of thing. And that's, so we come out of the gates with half faith, if you will, just kind of, we're mediocre in our faith and trusting that God's going to be able to do the things we asked him to do to your point, the miracle may not be the thing we've asked for. It might be something totally unrelated that, but because you were diligent in your prayers, God says, I hear you will, but there's something else that it's related to this that you may or may not see that I need to take care of for you.
And see, and that's the thing. We may not be able to see God working in our behalf because we are looking for the thing that we asked, you see? And so God is saying, Hey, you can't get this right now because you're not at a point to receive it because I know that if I give it to you now, then you won't be blessed by it. So he gives it to us in his time. So we continue to pray. We can continue to ask God, but we're coming up on another break here, Roy. And so we'll be back once again, ManTalk Radio, and we thank you for listening.
We'll be right back. Okay, welcome back to ManTalk Radio. And we're talking about celebrities and particularly one celebrity. And you know, it's all been in the news here recently with Kanye West. I was reading here about something, Roy, online, and he visited Joel Osteen's local assembly. And he made a commitment to serve God through his music and to bring some of today's hottest singers, dancers, and artists to the Christian music industry. So that's the commitment that he made to bring them in. Now, I mean, what a blessing that would be if God can use him, his testimony, use the music that he's making for the kingdom now, and then bring other artists from the worldly stage to the stage where they're now ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right, right.
Wow. I mean, that'll be a tremendous movement. It would be huge. You know, it'd be huge if you think about the impact, like we talked about, and we hadn't said that earlier about the influence within his own performance arena, I have dancers, other artists, but just the impact to society, to that young group that's are the groups that fall on him, of people that are following him, combine the two.
And then the reciprocal multiplication factor of that out. If people got turned on to following Christ and accepted the Lord and really started using all that energy and efforts, God could use this whole thing to really truly work a revival in our country. Oh, absolutely. And we don't normally talk much politics here, but personally, as a white guy, my hope was when Obama was president, that he would have indeed crystallized and brought unity in the nation that we've been looking for for so many years.
And I think that's part of what we've got. And I don't think he was successful in that arena like we would have hoped for him to be. Here, Kanye is sitting as a secular artist now who's accepted Christ, not in a political platform at all, which may be the very safest platform, because he's not chasing left, right, you know, top, bottom, somebody's personal agenda for all intents and purposes. He's now got the opportunity to maybe make that difference that didn't get made. You know, because we've always talked about if the 12 hadn't gotten active or soon to become 11 disciples of Christ, what would have happened to Christianity? Well, we know God would have worked it out another way somehow, but here's the case.
Maybe we missed it in one opportunity. And now we got Kanye to help come from a secular perspective gotten converted. Maybe he's the an opportunity for this unity to come together. And, you know, you know, don't don't listener, don't write him off, because some of you might be saying, you know, all this is just a show and all this. Don't write him off. Pray for the young man covering him.
Yes. Because, you know, we we we as the the stand in faith believers, we have an obligation to cover him in prayer because, you know, he has openly gave his life to Christ and wanting to do something right. Good for the the kingdom of God.
Look at the look at the thief on the cross beside Christ. In that moment, he said, Please remember when you get to having with your father, when you remember me. Will you remember me? What did Jesus tell him? Today you will be with me in paradise.
Yes. So do not judge. Again, as Will said, pray for Kanye, pray for his family because he's got children. He got a very well known wife for not necessarily the right reasons. The way she started and some of the things are going, but she is now a mother and a wife. And we're not sure where she's at on this because I think we read that she was raised in a Catholic school and maybe in a Catholic church.
So we're not sure where she resides in this realm, but she needs prayers and they need prayers as a family. Because hey, folks, no matter what your level of popularity or fame, famous knowledge is, or people know you across the world, you're still going to be faced with adversity. You're still gonna be faced with persecution. So, and like Will said, people will be sitting out there doubting it. They're going to be a lot of the professionals that are going to doubt it. There'll be a lot of the commentators are going to doubt it. There'll be a lot of the music industry in itself is going to say, look, you've killed your career.
You know, you've declared, you know, you've just lost all this audience. And see, God can bring him back stronger and greater than ever, you know, to show the naysayers and doubters that it's not him, it's God working in and through him to make him bigger and better. I mean, again, you know, we can use the suffering of Job and at the end of his suffering, look what God did. He gave him not only what he lost, but he gave him more of what he lost. So we know God is able to do this. So listener, get on board with us and pray that a movement be made because if we go back and look at history, Roy, he's not the only one who started out singing secular and have come to the, you know, give his life to Christ and then singing for the Lord. He's not the only one.
You can go out there. There's a list probably as long as both of our honors of people who were out there and have now made a tremendous impact on the Lord. Well, I mean, you think just from older singers, Johnny Cash before he died, Elvis Presley was certainly, I think, loved the Lord and some of his music was very soulful, you know, wasn't necessarily living the life we needed him to live. But, you know, you could tell his heart with the songs he sang and at least the appearance was. So there's quite a few that have been out there worshiping God that have come off the secular side, made gospel albums and which tells you that there's a place in their heart for the Lord.
I think that would be the furthest thing that a musical artist would do is to go out and make a gospel soundtrack or gospel album and that not be somewhere deep rooted in their heart. Exactly. Because that's your point.
It could be like we had said, it could be career jeopardy and a lot of respects. And you had mentioned earlier about some of the things that Obama wasn't successful in. We want you to know listener that we're not a political show.
Not at all. But what we want to do, and I had shared this with Roy sometime back when we had a conversation. Stop listen, listen very carefully listener. Stop going and taking sides for Democrat, Republican, independent, liberal. Stop it. Start looking at things the way God looks at them. This is how you should be listening and looking at everyone.
It doesn't matter if they're a politician, if they're a singer or whatever. You look at them through the eyes of God. How do we do that? Through the scripture. Right. Do they line up with what scripture says? Absolutely. If what they say, how they behave, what they say they believe in, does it line up with the word of God? If it doesn't, then you have to make a decision.
That's right. This is a person I can support or not. And I had this conversation a couple of years ago with an individual that wanted to get into a debate and we'll touch a little sensitive point here about abortion. And my question to him was, where does it all begin? And it all begins with life. So if you say that you support candidates that support abortion, then you're not saying that you support life and Christ is about life.
So we had this conversation. So the challenge to him was either life starts with life or it doesn't start at all. So you can't say that it's okay to end life because a political matter is bigger than life. And that was the comment made to me.
What's bigger than one issue? Well, if you don't have life, you have nothing. So if you're never born, it never begins, right? So that was my point. So to Will's point, so we know that abortion doesn't line up with the word of God.
That was my point to him. It's not lining up with the word of God. And see, and there are so many other issues too, not only abortion, but there are other issues too that line, that don't line up with the word of God that a lot of these politicians are pushing. So if you look at things through the word of God and through the eyes of God, which is the word of God, you will put aside your differences and stop taking these unnecessary sides because all it does is create contention.
That's all it does. It's unhealthy for the body of Christ when you walk into a service and you're supposed to be preparing yourself to worship the Lord and spirit and the truth. And you've got four or five individuals in various groups around the church talking about political matters. Right, right. And you know, this goes back to another thing and you know what I'm getting ready to say.
The enemy's out, still kill and destroy. And one of his key tools is distraction. So if I can get a group of believers distracted with the mess that's going on in the political arena through the week and then I get them started in on Sunday, well, to your point, it's got my emotions out of whack, it's got some thinking about things I shouldn't be thinking about. It's supposed to be preparing my heart and mind for worship with God. That's right. Now I'm worried about John Smith that's, you know, a Democrat that's, you know, he's let me down or I'm worried about George Jones, no relation by the way, that's sitting on the Republican side that's let me down or this is happening. So all of a sudden Satan's got control.
That's right. He doesn't, he knows you're headed to heaven because you love the Lord. But all he's got to do is get you distracted. If he gets you distracted, then that means you're not following the great commission. That means you're not out winning people for the kingdom, either sharing your story and the gospel or second, you're not living it out because your behavior is going to be impacted by what you're going through.
And when was the last time, listening audience, when was the last time you witnessed to someone? Oh boy. I mean, really? Oh, come on, Will. That's not important. It's all about me. I don't need to be sharing the gospel. See, the thing about it is if we're not sharing the gospel, we're not fulfilling the great commission.
We're not spreading it. And so just to be clear folks, I'm being very facetious because we were just having this conversation earlier. You've got to be out there doing what Christ has commanded us to do. Absolutely. And you have to equip yourself accordingly because when you come to the house of God, before you go through the door, listener, before you go through the door, you should be ready and on fire for God. So when you sit down there and the praise and worship team come on, you are ready to just get into the spirit of God and listen to the praise, sing along and just leave all of these things that we bring in the church, out the church. So don't be listening to ACDC or Marvin Gaye sexual healing on the way to church.
Absolutely. Be listening to praise and worship music or quiet time, praying ahead of your entry into the kingdom. And you know Roy, and you know Roy, I'm a big, I'm a big, I'm big on meditating on the scriptures and just letting the scripture soak within me, you know, and, and just marinade in me.
And I challenge you audience, just do that. Take a scripture or two a day. This is not anything new we're telling you about, but just, just take a scripture or two a day, meditate on it and see how you can apply that scripture to someone else's life if, if not your own, you know, and, and let that word become part of you. So when you go out to deliver that word, it's already deposited in your inward spirit and all God needs to do is take what you have already deposited, withdraw that and, and release it to someone else. Folks, we're out of time again today.
It's amazing how quick the time goes. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope that you're gaining something and insight into what it means to be a man of God and to be a follower of Christ. We appreciate you being part of our audience. Thanks and have a God bless day.
Bless you and God be with you. 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.
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