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Man Up and Remain · Men's Morning Devotional

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Gentlemen, every day is a battle.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: They prepare before it begins.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the men's morning devotional.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into God's word.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to man up.
• 0:24
  Chris Alessi: Alright, everybody, it's Friday.
• 0:27
  Chris Alessi: Welcome to day five of week seven of the men's morning devotional.
• 0:31
  Chris Alessi: My name is Chris Selesi, and today we're going to look at manning up and remaining.
• 0:37
  Chris Alessi: Man up and remain.
• 0:39
  Chris Alessi: We're looking at Proverbs 2.21, and we're just ending at where the principled man who takes the long road finally gets you.
• 0:49
  Chris Alessi: Here's your man up moment for today.
• 0:52
  Chris Alessi: The principled man doesn't just avoid the wrong road, he inherits the right one.
• 0:59
  Chris Alessi: Here's the scripture verse.
• 1:01
  Chris Alessi: For the upright will live in the land, Proverbs 221, and the blameless will remain in it.
• 1:09
  Chris Alessi: That's just incredible.
• 1:11
  Chris Alessi: After talking all week about principles, and we've been building this portrait of a principled man, what he pursues, and where he gets his wisdom from, and the roads he won't walk on, the shortcuts he won't take.
• 1:25
  Chris Alessi: And now Solomon lands this chapter with a promise.
• 1:29
  Chris Alessi: Not a warning, but a promise that the upright man will get to live in the land.
• 1:34
  Chris Alessi: The blameless will remain in it.
• 1:38
  Chris Alessi: That word remain is one I really want to sit in for a little bit.
• 1:41
  Chris Alessi: In the original language, it carries this sense of enduring, of being left standing, of being the thing that is still there after everything else has been stripped away.
• 1:53
  Chris Alessi: Not just survival, but permanence, lasting.
• 1:58
  Chris Alessi: It's the man whose marriage is still standing at the end of his life.
• 2:02
  Chris Alessi: It's he's still present in his children's lives.
• 2:06
  Chris Alessi: His children are grown and they still want dad around.
• 2:09
  Chris Alessi: He's still trusted at work when others have fallen off.
• 2:13
  Chris Alessi: He's still rooted in his faith when others have fallen off.
• 2:18
  Chris Alessi: The blameless man remains, and blameless does not mean perfect.
• 2:23
  Chris Alessi: It's a rich word, one of the most rich words used in the entire Old Testament.
• 2:29
  Chris Alessi: It doesn't mean perfect or sinless.
• 2:32
  Chris Alessi: It means whole, complete, and undivided.
• 2:36
  Chris Alessi: It was the same word used to describe Job after everything he went through.
• 2:40
  Chris Alessi: He was blameless, not because he never struggled.
• 2:43
  Chris Alessi: If you read that book, man, he's struggling, but he was wholly committed.
• 2:49
  Chris Alessi: His inside matched his outside.
• 2:51
  Chris Alessi: His private life matched his public life.
• 2:54
  Chris Alessi: His heart was undivided before God.
• 2:57
  Chris Alessi: That's the blameless man.
• 3:00
  Chris Alessi: And he gets to remain, he gets to inherit.
• 3:06
  Chris Alessi: You see, other men are taking the crooked paths.
• 3:09
  Chris Alessi: Their ways are devious, they're taking shortcuts.
• 3:12
  Chris Alessi: But verse 21 reminds us the principled man isn't defined primarily by what he says no to or what he refuses.
• 3:20
  Chris Alessi: He's defined by what he says yes to and what he receives.
• 3:25
  Chris Alessi: He receives the land.
• 3:27
  Chris Alessi: You will receive the land.
• 3:30
  Chris Alessi: You will remain.
• 3:32
  Chris Alessi: When others are falling off, if you are a principled man, if you man up, you will receive that life, the full rooted, flourishing life, the life that the shortcut man was chasing this whole time and never actually got.
• 3:50
  Chris Alessi: That's the great irony of the principled life, the life of someone who mans up.
• 3:54
  Chris Alessi: The man who takes the shortcut is trying to get there faster, but he never gets it.
• 3:59
  Chris Alessi: The one who walks on the straight road, who builds on wisdom and stays blameless and upright for the long haul, he ends up with more, not just more stuff, but more life, which is what that shortcut man was actually going after all along.
• 4:15
  Chris Alessi: The principled man gets to remain, to dwell.
• 4:19
  Chris Alessi: He's the man who's still standing.
• 4:21
  Chris Alessi: You'll be the man who's still standing when all the shortcuts have run out.
• 4:26
  Chris Alessi: So I want to close this week by bringing it all the way back to Monday, to day one.
• 4:31
  Chris Alessi: The if you then God will structure.
• 4:35
  Chris Alessi: All those conditions, all those decisions, if you accept, if you turn your ear, if you call out, if you search like a man hunting for treasure, all of them were pointing here to this, to a man who finds the knowledge of God, who walks in wisdom, who stays on the right road long enough to inherit something that lasts.
• 4:57
  Chris Alessi: That's the payoff.
• 4:58
  Chris Alessi: That's the promise.
• 5:00
  Chris Alessi: That's the principled man, the man who has manned up.
• 5:04
  Chris Alessi: So today, man up, take the long road, stay blameless, not perfect, but undivided and remain.
• 5:12
  Chris Alessi: Here's your man up challenge for the day.
• 5:15
  Chris Alessi: To close out this week, write down your answer to this question.
• 5:18
  Chris Alessi: What does it look like for me to remain in my marriage, my family, my faith, and my integrity?
• 5:25
  Chris Alessi: Five years from now, if I stay on the road I'm building today, what does it mean to remain?
• 5:32
  Chris Alessi: Let that picture pull you forward into your future.
• 5:36
  Chris Alessi: Now let's pray.
• 5:38
  Chris Alessi: Father, we thank you for this week.
• 5:40
  Chris Alessi: We thank you for the real truth that Solomon lays out for us in Proverbs chapter 2 that tells this whole story of the principled man.
• 5:50
  Chris Alessi: Holy Spirit, help us not to be perfect, but undivided, not to be flawless, but faithful.
• 5:57
  Chris Alessi: Keep us on the right road.
• 5:59
  Chris Alessi: Let us be standing in the land you promised when it matters most.
• 6:03
  Chris Alessi: In Jesus' name.
• 6:04
  Chris Alessi: Amen.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now go live it.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Share this devotional with another brother.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.