Doing Things God's Way Part 2

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMM, 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 back, Man Talk listeners. Now, I want to ask you all a question, and you all are out there, and we got Roy on the line. Hey, Roy.

Hello, Will. So today, we want to ask our listeners a question. Now, I know that everybody out there who listen to us on a regular basis, when you go through something and all of a sudden you find out, when you go through, that you have just failed, you dropped the ball, you don't know what to do when you don't know what to do, you've looked here, you've looked there, you've had people counsel you on this or that, and then all of a sudden you find out that you're sort of feeling like, Lord, am I a loser or what? So we want to talk about that today on Man Talk Radio, because Roy, if I counted up all my failures, we will be here until the millennium happens. So yeah, we'll be here during the millennium and through the millennium if I think about all of the things that I failed on. And just because we fail in something, it doesn't mean that you're a failure, that you continuously fail.

What it means is that you just didn't succeed in that particular thing that you were going for. But now, having an understanding that if you know where you sit and stand in the Lord, Roy, if you know where you sit and stand, a failure could be turned around into an accomplishment. So how does one know where they sit and stand with the Lord? See, and that I think the person has to know, am I consistent in doing the things that the Lord asked me to do? And if I am consistent in doing the things that the Lord called me to do, then that means I am standing because I'm being obedient to His will. And as a result of that, the Lord will manifest Himself to the obedient ones. I'm reminded over in the early part of Psalms 84 and verse number 11, the early part of that verse, it talks about that the Lord will not withhold anything from those who walk uprightly.

So He'll manifest and show Himself to a person who is walking upright. So in answer to your question, Roy, I think if we're consistent in doing the will of the Lord, then the Lord will show Himself real to us. Well that's good as far as if we are consistent in our walk and following God's will in our life and His guidelines for our life. And that means what?

Daily time with Him, daily study of the Word, living it out so that people see we're followers of Christ without having to say that we're followers of Christ. Yeah, see, and it doesn't, like we said, it doesn't mean that if you failed in something, you know, I was watching a program today that I recorded and it was showing all of the things that George Washington Carver did from the peanut. And I was, I mean, there was 300 things that he derived from the peanut and from the sweet potato. And then of course, later on the soybean. I was blown away.

I was absolutely blown away. But my point being is this, is that some of the things that he tried in his experiments didn't succeed. You know, it's just like, it's just like Ford, you know, when he started designing the Ford A, B, C, D, E, he went all the way to T until he was successful.

Right. You know, so, and the thing about it is, is he didn't look at the first five or even 10 failures as, well, I'm just going to throw my hat in the ring and call it quits. And I think, Roy, for the most part, that's what we do as believers when we don't see things that we might pray for or believe God for right away. We just kind of throw that towel in there and we call it quits. Well, like we talked about several weeks ago, sometimes no is the answer, right? Sometimes the answer to prayer is no. That's exactly right. That's right. And don't be misled that he doesn't love you or doesn't care about you.

He's got something else in mind or you may not be at a point in your life and time for him to bestow that upon you. And I guess that goes back to the faith piece and just walking it out daily as you and I were talking about with our friend's wife is just having to just know that God's got her undergirded and her son undergirded and the family undergirded and just that complete joy and faith in the midst of all the trials like we talked about in the last show. Yeah, so if we fail in doing something or accomplishing something or something we're trying to achieve, again, it doesn't mean that number one, we should give up and number two, we still are going to benefit from the future blessings and which God bestow upon us. So even though I failed, I am not a failure. It just says right. It just says that I just failed in this particular task or project or whatever the case may be, but I'm not a failure because God says that his children are overcomers. And that does not, and to that point does not mean that God loves you any less because you failed. That's exactly right.

That's a very good point. He loves you. His love is consistent. He doesn't, he didn't love Moses any more than he loved you and I today. You know, he just used Moses in a more blessed way to be a leader of a multitude of people in leading them out of Egypt. But I mean, what a, what a great man, you know, God used in that, in that sense. So I think that's, that's the thing when we are faced with problems and we're faced with temptations and we're faced with all of these things on a daily basis and some things we're going to succeed in and some things we're not. Now, as an overcomer, however, God says that if you are walking steadfast, meaning that if you are in step with him, you will always be successful because of our obedience to him.

If we choose to not obey, then of course we're going to suffer the consequences of that disobedience. So when we look back at some of those verses that we were talking about, you know, James, he says, let him ask in faith, like you were talking about on the last show. Don't waver in whatever it is you're asking God for. So when I, if I waver, part of that verse going down says, don't think that this man shall receive anything from the Lord because you know, we're, we're here in the world. We're not of the world, but if a person look at your life, can they tell the difference if you're in the world or of the world? See, so if I'm looking, if I'm a person who is not born again and I'm looking at your life, what does your life say to me if I'm attempting to draw close to the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a great question, Will, and we talk about that, you know, quite frequently, and that should be your, your question is that does, and we, we've said this many times, does my Monday through Saturday face look the same as the one that shows up at church on Sunday? And if the answer is no, then that means to Will's point, you know, you're not living it out. You're not, you're not reflecting God in your day-to-day life, and that's where the people that are looking at you, they may never ask a word about the, about your relationship because they heard you say it.

They're sitting there watching to see what that relationship says. You know, and seeing all this is, is a result of us being tempted, and of course on, you know, when you read the verse last, on the last show, you know, every man is tempted when he is drawn away. So see, what that tells me is Satan knows what we desire, and because we were out there in the world, see, we weren't always saved. When we were born into the world, we were enemies of God. So all of a sudden, we had to come to know God. So all of the things that we were engaged in in our life, Satan was observing us, and he says, okay, I know this person like this, this person like this, this person like this, and so what he does is when he comes and he brings these things, knowing that your heart desired them, you may not desire them now, but at one time you desired them. So what happens? He comes, repackage that temptation, and then he presents it in another box.

Instead of a blue bow, he's got a red bow on it this time. See, so and it's the same, same temptation inside, and so he says here, you know, what are you going to do with this? And so because he doesn't know the future, all he does is present that temptation to us, and then, of course, it's our choice whether or not we choose to engage in that temptation or not. So I think in answer to our second question, Roy, where does temptation originate, your answer would be? It's not from God, it's from the enemy.

That's right. From Satan. From Satan.

And how does it happen? When we are drawn away by our own lust and enticed. Exactly.

Our own evil desires. Absolutely, and see, that comes back to that wavering and being an unstable individual. You know, if you don't have any stability, you have no footing because you're standing on something that is sinking, and you're allowing yourself to sink as you continue to engage in the temptation because that temptation, you know, it's going to plant that sin seed, and once that sin seed gets in there, that bad boy is going to germinate and it's going to- And grow quick.

Yes. I'm glad you said quick too, Roy, because you're absolutely right. It doesn't take long for it to sprout roots and all of a sudden the root of bitterness is out, you know, amongst us. We're coming up on a break right now, but we will be back talking about this thing called temptation.

I have a hard start at seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock. First time visitors eat for free. Join your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Will, before we get started back in our topic, folks, if you're listening and you're in the Triad area, that would be in the Kernsville-Greensboro area, we would like to invite you to a man-talk dinner on Thursday night, March 10th. It will be held at First Christian Church at 6 p.m., and it will be held in the Fellowship Hall in the lower part of the church.

Easy entrance. The meal is free. We'd love for our men listeners to come visit with us. Again, March 10th at 6 p.m. Free meal for our men.

Come join us. Amen, and I tell you, if you come, you will not be disappointed because that is, we have a high time in the Lord. Praise the Lord. Amen.

So who out there listening has never been tempted? Oh, I don't see any hands. That's good. I don't see any hands at all, Roy.

So that means... It's a good thing we can't see anything. Charles keeps telling me I've got a great face for radio. Roy, look. Yeah, we can. We can see. No hands have gone up on that one, Roy.

If anybody knows anything about anything, we don't have to see it to know that no hands went up on that one. So it is a blessing, however, to know that when temptation comes, we have to be able to identify that it is temptation because temptation presents itself as your friend. It's like, here I am.

I'm really not here to hurt you or anybody else. I'm just presenting you with this. See, that's deception. So even though it's presented to you in this nice rapper and it's like, how can something not be good wrapped up in this pretty box with a pretty bowl with all of these, the paper around it and everything like that?

And see, that's the eye-catching thing. I think that brings us to that point of being drawn away by our own lusts. I'm reminded in Philippians chapter two and verse 14, it says, do all things without murmurings and disputings. In other words, don't complain about it. That you might be blameless and harmless children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. So listener, this is what you're dealing with. Every time you get up, you're dealing with perversion, you're dealing with crookedness, crooked people, crooked ideals, you're dealing with crooked politicians. I mean, we can go on and on and on with the crookedness, but it's up to us, Roy, I believe as children of God to be able to know when God is speaking and when temptation is presenting itself, what is it that we're supposed to be doing? It's a powerful thing.

It is. And the first thing we should be doing is taking all thoughts captive, right? That's right. And turn them over to Jesus and let him help us through the temptation. And that's when we get into most troubles when we sit there and we start focusing or allowing it to percolate, if you will, in our mind about whatever the temptation is, whether it's sexual temptation, whether it's glutton, purchasing things, those sorts of things without reaching to the Father for guidance first.

That's when, back to our earlier show, earlier portion of the show, when we were talking about that very thing, is that we make decisions without talking to the Father. The same holds true for temptation. If we sit there and try to endure temptation without talking to him, we're not going to win. If we turn it over to him, we will win because nothing is more powerful than God. And as it says, if I am for you, who can be against you?

Amen. And see that, I think, Roy, that goes back to us trying to negotiate with sin. So we're sitting there, well, you know, I don't want sin to either hurt me too bad if I indulge or engage in it. But see, that's sin's purpose. Sin's purpose is to hurt. Sin's purpose is to make you feel bad. Sin's purpose is to cause you to hurt others as a result of hurting yourself. You know, again, I'm reminded over there in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 11 and 12, it says, No man know the things of another man, except the spirit of that man which is in him. Neither can no man know the things of the Spirit of God, except the Spirit of God is in him. So if we have the Spirit of God, we have more than enough to conquer in any avenue in which temptation wants to take us down. It's, you know, we, I think, are the ones that govern and determine what is it in the end that people will remember us for? What did you do?

What did you say? What did you accomplish in your life for Jesus Christ where others could say that man, that woman, that boy or girl was truly a man of God because, Roy, it's these things that's going to carry us all the way to glory. You know, things that we are inspired by looking at other people and how they've overcome sin, they've overcome temptation, they overcome the cares of this life and of this world.

All of these things encompassed us about. But see, we have that hedge of protection, just like Job. We have the hedge of protection. And listener, you are protected if you're born again. If you're listening right now at the sound of my voice, you are protected. You have a hedge of protection.

Satan knows that you have a hedge. But what he wants you to do is to relinquish your authority that God has given you over him. You have authority over Satan. When he submits that temptation or that tempting or testing, when he does that, you have authority over this.

Take authority that God has given you over these situations in your life and see victory come in as a result of your obedience. Praise God, Roy. I'm going to start preaching in here, Roy, in a minute. You're getting close now, Will.

Go ahead and keep it up. Amen. You know, a lot of people who we come in contact with, Roy, we don't know if they're born again or not until we start talking with them and, you know, we find out where they are, if they're experiencing problems, difficulties in their life and things like that. And we want to be that listening saint, you know, to just give an ear because that might be all they want us to do is just sit there and listen. And sometimes listening is better than giving bad advice. See, because bad advice is like no advice at all.

You know, you get in there and you say, well, I'm going to help them and you end up hindering them even more so. So that's why I think it's good for us to wait on the Lord, you know, and let him give us the words that we're going to say, because all of the people that we come in contact with, we want to be able to give them an encouraging and share the word of God with them. Oh, it's so good, Will. Amen.

We got about four minutes, Roy. So how is it you want to end this broadcast? Well, I think for our listeners and one of the things that Will and I shared on the last show as we dedicated the last show to our friend, Roger, you know, and this is outside the context of temptation, but I just want to encourage each of you that are listening to take a pause and reach across to tell your friend that you haven't talked to him sometime. Pick up the phone, call them, tell them how much they mean to you. If it's a relative that you haven't spoken to in quite some time or that you need to restore a relationship with, I just ask you to pray about that and God give you an opportunity to restore it. You know, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, folks. And I just want to tell you that with our brother, Roger, even with him, we knew he was sick and we knew that the time would come.

But even we didn't know when that time came, it came quicker than most of us expected it. And what I would just share with each of you is just reach out and let that person know that you love them. And if they don't know the Lord, don't think tomorrow will come and you can always tell them about Jesus tomorrow. Tell them about Jesus today because there's nothing worse than to lose a friend and then not know Jesus. But our friend knew Jesus and we have that to hold on to and know that we'll see him again someday.

His family will be able to see him again someday. Well, that was just on my heart. I just wanted to share that with our listeners.

Amen. Hebrews 9, 27 and 28. And it is appointed for men to die once and after this, the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many to those who eagerly wait for him. He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation.

We all have that appointed time, listener. All of us will have to depart this fleshy life because the scripture tell us flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So we got to shed this body.

But know that you will get, if you're born again, you will get that glorious body one day. So Father, as we come to you right now, ending this broadcast, we just want to pray for those who don't know you. Father, we know that you are able to do so many things for us and we just ask in your son Jesus' name that the ones who are hearing this broadcast and they really don't know what to do.

They're still struggling within their inward spirit. I pray that you just give them wisdom, that you draw them. And as you're drawing them, that they would let go of themselves, lose their life, and follow you.

Amen. Keep them, Father, from the temptations of this world. Let them see that they can't do anything apart from you, but with you, all things are possible. We want them to know that they can live a free life and that life can be free in Jesus Christ because apart from Him, we are bound. Satan has us. So God, we just pray for that listener right now who is listening and don't know what to do and they're struggling right now. God, we just ask that you come in and break every chain, break every hole that's on their body right now, Lord.

Any affliction that they may have, God, we just ask in Jesus' name by His stripes. We are healed and we claim victory over it as we leave this broadcast because we know, God, that all of what we do belongs to you. And so we love you and we thank you in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

Amen, Roy. You know, God bless you, sir, until we see your smiling face again and we're just going to ask God to continuously bless as you give remarks during the service on tomorrow if we live to see it. So we're just going to continue to pray for you.

Be open to the Spirit of God and let His will be done. God bless your listeners. We love you. We love you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the Truth Network.