Welcome to Man Talk, a ministry sponsored by TAWCMM, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where we're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and to point men to their God-assigned roles. Now here's your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr. Will, as always, it's great to see you, brother. I miss seeing you every day at work and when we get to see each other on occasion, based on your work schedule and my work schedule, but it's so good to have some time with you. Folks, we apologize for the delay it's taken us to get back on air.
We've had some technical difficulties, believe it or not. Over the last few months, we've had to reboot several shows and reissue several shows for you, but we thank you for being back. We're excited to be back on deck with you. We hope to have several back-to-back shows for you to follow up on in the next several weeks with us. Will, you and I had set up to talk about the four pillars of a man's heart with Stu Weber, who we were blessed to have in 2015.
I think him and General Boykin was at our men's conference over in High Point. What an amazing man that Stu is. He knows what it means to be a warrior, to be a friend, to be a mentor and a leader, which are some of the things we're going to talk about in our discussion over the book. What did you think of the breakout of the book, Will?
I know you had a summary, Doc. Well, you know, I think Stu, of course, being a great man of God and how God just inspired him to put these things down on paper, which men need. The four pillars that he talked about I think was interesting because the first one is king. And when I read the synopsis and I thought about kingship, what a king does, and of course, men, you know or you should know that you are the established leader of your home, and God has placed you as such. Now, as king, you're not a dictator. We want to make sure we get that across. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Great call out, Will. So when you talk about kingship or being a king, a king makes decrees. And when God talked to Job, that's what he said. He said, you can decree a thing and it shall come to pass. Now, don't get it sideways, man, because what he meant by that was when you decree a thing, you're making a decree based on what God has said, not what you think God is saying. God has established the words and put these things in our heart.
If we as men understand what the role of a king is, we won't let this go to our head and start thinking like the world that I'm demanding and if you need to do this or else. So you must establish yourself based on what the word of God says. So you go into the word of God and you look into the word and see what a king should be doing. And as that king who is placed over nations, over people, or family, you have an obligation to the ones whom God has placed within your service.
And if you understand the word, then it'll be much easier for you than you make it up as you go along. Because what you're doing there is you're not establishing God and his word inside your heart. You're merely taking what God said, rearranging the words to fit your own agenda. And that's not what a king should do.
Darrell Bock Will, when you think about decree, what's the first example that comes to mind? Maybe for a father and a husband in the decree in his household, from the word, what would you think comes to mind right off the top? Well, what I would think is if a father within that household, first of all, he must understand what God's word says.
So we have to establish that. We're not talking about men who don't know God. We're talking about men who know God. And if you are and you are subject to the Holy Spirit, which has been placed inside of you, then when you think about men and decreeing, you're decreeing what God says. So let's go back and look at what God said. God said that a father or a man placed in that household should allow his word to be ministered through him to his flock. In this case, it's his family. So we can go into the word and we can take things that Jesus said, things the apostles said, when making a decree.
One thing is do not allow yourself to be compromised. So when a father makes a decree and you say, I'm making a decree here that you are not to compromise, regardless of what your friends are doing at school, you are not to compromise yourself based on what the crowd is doing. Of course, we talked about this a lot when we saw the riots taking place and the mob mentality, people who are coming outside of the city, coming in, making trouble and then leaving, and they don't even live there. So all these things, that's just one example. But I would ask you, Roy, what would you think?
No, great question. What comes to mind when you say it's from the word of God as a man makes a decree, it's just like I've told my boys and my sons that are now young men, is that they are to love their wives unconditionally as Christ loved the church. One's married, the other one's yet to be married, but they understand that. And that was also, I didn't call it a decree, but they knew what it was. And so that's why I was curious what your thoughts were, because that was the very first thing that came to mind when you gave your definition, was that that was probably the number one decree, because all of my children would tell you today that their mom was number two in the house, not from me being number one. She was number two to me in terms of God was one, my wife was number two, my children fell in behind that. And I always made it clear to my children, their mom was the most important thing in the household next to God, and so they knew that. But they also had to realize and watch as I tried to love unconditionally, as a part of that, what would have been an unspoken decree, but it was an action-oriented decree, if you will, because of the narrative that we tried to illustrate in our conversations with them.
And I think that's two good examples that we just gave you, because it's easy for someone who is in the household, whether if they're still going to school or if they're working or they're in contact with someone during the day, that they're always going to see and hear things. And those are the most two important senses, as we had illustrated on another program, that be careful, Jesus said, be careful of what you see and what you hear. And because those two things are the gateways into the soul, which cause the soul to be compromised. And we know man is a trinity based on 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, that he's body, soul, and spirit. And you need to be careful, man, for your soul.
Yeah, it's great, Will. Your soul is the seat of emotion. So when you see things on TV, when you hear people talking about things, you know, in reference to all of the noise that's been going on within our society, we as born-again believers, we need to be praying for the establishment.
And what I mean by that, the establishment is government. Regardless of who in there, we need to pray. Yeah, amen. We need to pray for that individual and say, Lord, bless their mind and heart. Give them what needs to be done in order for your name to be glorified and the country to prosper. Amen. And it needs to be in that order.
Yes. God be glorified and then the country prosper. And men and women that are listening, but men, importantly, as Will was talking about, the four pillars of a man's heart being the king is that person. Exactly. That means you talk to your family about what's important.
It's not whether it's blue or red. It's about whether it's biblically based in terms of what you're doing and what you're supporting. And that's where Will's point, we need to pray that our administration and all officials that are in leadership positions honor Father and we get the U.S. turned back to God. That's right, because we can do that. The church can do that. We can.
We can. And you as the listener can do that. And if the believer doesn't believe that, then who are you believing? Yeah, exactly.
If you don't think the creator of the heavens and earth can bring it back and put it right, then who? Absolutely. Then you owe ye of little faith. Absolutely. You owe ye of little faith.
Absolutely. And Will, the second pillar that Stu talks about is being the warrior. And I guess we know that Jesus was a warrior, even though most people think of Jesus as kind of meek. But he was a warrior. He was strong. He stood fast on his principles and on God's word. And he never did anything without going and talking to the Father first, right? So he knew. But he knew where his direction came from. So he was modeling that for us, which if we would do more of that, we wouldn't have some of the issues that we have if we would talk to God before we go off and say something or do something or make a decision without him present.
And then we ask him to come back and correct our mistake. But that warrior piece, as you know, that's kind of my hard wire. I guess everybody's got their own particular pillar that stands up a little bit stronger and a little bit more prevalent. But mine seems to be that warrior piece because I'm all about protecting and covering and making sure everybody's all right, even the underdog or whatever. But what does warrior mean to you, Will?
And you've known me a long time now. What do you think the warrior element looks like? Well, I go back to the question that you asked earlier in reference to what's the important thing. And to me, I think it's compromise because when a natural man thinks about a warrior, he thinks about somebody who's fighting and arguing and doing all this internal debating. That's the first thing that comes to the mind of an individual who don't know Christ. And it's easy for the Christian to fall into that category when they are not walking in the Spirit because if you walk in the Spirit, the Word of God says you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And I'm not just talking about the flesh and bone. When that scripture was pointed out, it tells you that your flesh is a lifestyle. So it's the makeup of the whole man so that you won't fulfill not only lustful desires but anger desires, divisional desires, lying desires, any and all characteristics that the enemy possesses. If you lean toward that way, you're so easy to become engulfed in those things.
So when we talk about warrior, we're not talking about somebody going out, taking an Uzi or a semi-automatic rifle and shooting up everybody. What we're saying is you need to stand firm against the wiles of the devil because remember Ephesians 6-12, we're wrestling not against flesh and blood. And when you're not wrestling against flesh and blood, it's easier to see somebody in the flesh and then to say you need to stop doing that when it's always a spirit behind that that's causing that person to respond, even the very elect. Even the very elect can be caught up in this. And when we see someone going off and not reeling themselves back in because one of the fruits of the spirit, Galatians 5, 22 and 23, one of the fruits of the spirit is long suffering.
And I put emphasis on long because that's what it takes. So that's what it means to me, Roy, on being a warrior. Someone who is not going out necessarily and battling someone physically, but someone who's standing firm on God's word, using the sword of the spirit. So we're using the sword of the spirit, which is our weapon. And when you look at all of the armor that God talks about in Ephesians 6, the only offensive weapon is the sword of the spirit. You've got a helmet, you've got a breastplate, you've got shoes, you've got a belt. You've got all these things, but the sword is the only offensive weapon we possess. And if you don't have that, you have nothing, absolutely nothing. Lew Whitworth, who summarized the book, which was some of the recaps you and I were looking at together, he says the warrior and a godly man doesn't love war, but because he is a man of high moral standards and principles, he is willing to live by those principles and moral standards, spend himself for them, and if necessary, die for them.
So you're exactly right. It's about where you stand and what you stand on. And a former boss of mine used to always say, stand on your standards, stand on your standards. In our walk, it's standing on biblical standards. And not be afraid to do that. And you and I have had some recent events that we've had to stand on, what we consider our standards, to make a stand for a particular narrative that needed to be shared. And we're prayerful that that will continue to move forward and we'll get the answer that we've been praying for. But I think one of the things that comes to mind, for me at least, that I think about often is, am I being that balanced follower of Christ?
Am I keeping balance? And these four pillars, which we're going to do the two on this show and we'll catch the next two on the next show with the listening audience, is how do I balance all these elements? And then, of course, the bigger question is, if we've never been modeled, how do you come to know these four elements? And how do you polish and sharpen and create a higher intensity of each of these four pillars in your life? And that's one of the things we probably should talk about, is that a lot of men, and you and I have talked about this, and me being one of them, didn't have it modeled by our fathers because he didn't have it modeled for him and no one ever came along to mentor him.
So it was kind of a trial and error thing and there was a lot of errors, obviously, and a lot of trials. But that's one of the things we need to talk to our audience about and you and I need to share is, how do you men, as men of God, go to the next level? Then, see, they have to understand, first of all, once you understand what the pillars are and how they are defined, then you need to be making a plan to work toward becoming what the pillar stands for.
So you understand from the biblical perspective what the pillars are, what they mean biblically, and then make a plan. So the plan, everybody's plan that you make is not going to fit the brother next to you or opposite you. So you have to understand what you need to do because all of us know what our weaknesses are. I don't have any, by the way. Oh, okay.
I've got so many I feel weak. But if we understand what our weaknesses are, then I think that's half the battle. Because what it does is it shows us that all of us, regardless of our level of maturity in Christ, we're vulnerable. And the vulnerability within each of us, because it is there, every man has the potential to be vulnerable just as every man has the potential to be not vulnerable. So it's just the opposite of that. And so the question is, is one, maybe allowing God to work within him a little bit more than the man beside him or across the table from him. That's all about that personal relationship.
Absolutely. And so what you're doing is, when you do that, you're actually building your pillar. So you're strengthening your pillar from the standpoint of the kingship in which God has set you as and also setting you aside and setting you apart from the things that you used to do because it's so easy for us to fall back into that mindset of the world. And it just shocks me when I see born-again believers just straying and following the world's standards, and God is nowhere in it.
He's nowhere in it. Yeah, and I guess, folks, that's one thing I want to call attention to right now is to Will's comment earlier about being that warrior standing on your standards. We've got a real problem, especially in the U.S., in the church of today because of just what you said, Will.
People are willing to not say anything. People are willing to accept that everything's okay, that we've gotten into this whole mindset that the things that God told us are wrong. People are saying, ah, maybe that wasn't what God meant, and maybe it's okay to do that, and maybe, you know, Will, he loves everybody.
Sounds like Genesis 3 to me. Yeah, so, and I think that's one of the things, which is a great point. I get so, what's the right word, bothered, upset, by right and wrong, knowing what is right, and it's people are doing the wrong and calling it right, and what's wrong, they're calling right, and vice versa. It's so frustrating because, you know, when we grew up, things were pretty clear, cut and dry. Now, there was always challenges. There has been since we broke the fellowship in the Garden of Eden, right? There's always something going on, but it's been magnified, like we had our meeting today, and that was one of the things I commented on was this deal with the phones that we've got Satan's greatest gateway in everybody's hands. Now, granted, it can be used for good things, but we know without a doubt it has got more bad going on on those phones and preoccupying people and distracting them so that they're not spending time on the Word, and we've talked about that goes back to being the proper king in your home and being the warrior, being the king in your home that, you know, when you walk in the house and family time is family time, it doesn't mean phones are on and being distracted from your family because if Satan's got you distracted and you as the king, the leader of your family, are not paying attention, he's got them doing stuff they shouldn't be doing or he's got them just preoccupied so they're not having time with their father and their mother and their siblings.
So those are the kind of things that are just, I'm with you, 100%, very, very frustrating. Well, so let us recap real quick what the four pillars are, and we'll cover the next two on our next show, Will, but the four pillars of a man's heart based on the book by Stu Weber, which is Tender Warrior, Four Pillars of a Man's Heart, Tender Warrior, and we encourage you to get it, is an absolutely phenomenal book. It's king, warrior, mentor, and friend, and friend also, in parentheses, has lover, so you're a friend to your wife, but you're a lover to your wife, that sort of thing. So we'll talk on our next show about the mentor and friend components of the Tender Warrior, Four Pillars of a Man's Heart. Will, would you like to close us out in prayer and then certainly give the invitation if someone that's listening today hasn't made a decision to follow Christ.
It's a very simple process, and if you'd like to close us and let them know how to do that. Lord, we just thank you for the opportunity that you've given us here on today. Oh, to share your Word and to share those things that men who God have placed as the leaders in their home that they should be aware of, and we're just vessels, God, sharing information and sharing revelation to some and information to others.
That they may need in order to be that pillar for the home. That they may be that king and they may be that warrior to not allow things to come inside and be the protector that they need to be and to decree those things that you have spoken in your Word. So we pray, God, that each and every man listening to this podcast, if their heart would be softened and not hardened, to the truth, and that they would just listen with an attentive ear and be that vessel that God has called them to be. Lord, we thank you for all that you are doing.
We thank you for what you have done, what you are doing, and what you will do. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. And if you haven't or don't understand what it means to be born again if you're listening, all you have to do is just recognize that, number one, you can't save yourself.
You can't do it. You have to recognize that you are a sinner and you have broken fellowship with God because you don't know Him. And the next thing you need to do is after you have recognized that you are a sinner, you ask God for help. Father, help me. Help me to become that man that I need to become in order to be that king and in order to be that warrior in my home. Help me, Lord.
Just say the words. Help me, Lord. And then after you have prayed and after you have confessed that you are a sinner and you need and want Jesus Christ to come into your heart, because this is what He did for you. He went to the cross and He shed His blood. He died just for you.
He was beaten beyond recognition for you. So when you realize what the King of Kings did, came down from His heavenly kingdom, and when He came down, He took on a body, and that body was beaten and broken just for you. When you realize that, man, and you say, Father, I need help, and I want your son to come into my heart because you and I were his enemy, and now we want to become your son. Lord, come into my heart. I receive you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I receive your son. And believe that, man. Trust God. And when you raise your head up from prayer, you are part of God's kingdom. Amen. And God looks at you now as a son instead of a sinner man, because there is something now that's inside of you, the blessed Holy Spirit, that He sees now.
He sees the Son. And, man, if you've done that, then welcome to the body of Christ. Amen.
And allow God to bless you to get into a Bible-teaching, believing church. Yes. And if you don't have one, you can reach Roy or myself through the website. There's an open email. Just send us an email.
Yes. And we'll check that out, look at you. We'll get back with you.
Someone will get back with you because we want you to be as much part of this ministry as God has called Roy and I to be. Amen. Amen. And so we thank you, and we want to hear from you. In Jesus' name, thank you. Amen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-08 10:22:29 / 2024-10-08 10:32:26 / 10