Latest / Men's Morning Devotional / A Man of Peace
Transcript
- 0:01SPEAKER_00: Gentlemen, every day is a battle.
- 0:04SPEAKER_00: A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose.
- 0:08SPEAKER_00: The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives.
- 0:12SPEAKER_00: They prepare before it begins.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the men's morning devotional.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: Let's get into God's word.
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: It's time to man up.
- 0:26Chris Alessi: Good morning, men, and welcome to another day of the Men's Morning Devotional.
- 0:31Chris Alessi: My name is Chris Alesi, and I'm glad to be with you again today and for the rest of this week.
- 0:35Chris Alessi: Again, today's a really good opportunity to share this with somebody.
- 0:39Chris Alessi: I think our podcast yesterday was really intentional, really good.
- 0:42Chris Alessi: And so if you haven't heard that one, maybe you should pause this one and go listen to that one because we hit two verses and put them together about the mouth.
- 0:50Chris Alessi: It's a great one to send to some people, to some other men that want to see a better harvest in the relationships around them.
- 0:58Chris Alessi: Today, we're going to talk even more in that theme of integrity, but we're going to move to a different dimension of it, looking at Proverbs chapter 12, verse 20.
- 1:08Chris Alessi: We're going to talk about the difference between a man whose heart is genuine and a man whose heart is divided.
- 1:15Chris Alessi: So here's your man-up moment.
- 1:17Chris Alessi: The man who promotes peace isn't soft.
- 1:20Chris Alessi: He's the strongest man in the room.
- 1:23Chris Alessi: Look at Proverbs 12, 20.
- 1:25Chris Alessi: Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.
- 1:55Chris Alessi: We are so obsessed with conflict in this culture.
- 1:59Chris Alessi: We love the idea of being the man that can step up and address something and confront things.
- 2:06Chris Alessi: And look, there are moments where the most righteous thing you can do is confront what's wrong.
- 2:13Chris Alessi: But I definitely think we get an extra kick out of it a little bit too much.
- 2:18Chris Alessi: I think one of the most beautiful things in the world is how often Scripture encourages us as men to be men that bring peace.
- 2:26Chris Alessi: And I want to stop on the word that even talks about planning peace, because peace here isn't passive.
- 2:32Chris Alessi: It's not just the man who's avoiding conflict or keeps his head down to keep the peace.
- 2:39Chris Alessi: Planning peace is actually active.
- 2:41Chris Alessi: It's the man who walks into a room and thinks, how do I make this room more peaceful?
- 2:47Chris Alessi: How do I make it better?
- 2:49Chris Alessi: How do I build a bridge here?
- 2:51Chris Alessi: Or was it resolve what's broken?
- 2:54Chris Alessi: How do I bring people together?
- 2:56Chris Alessi: See, that type of man is engineering something constructive with his presence.
- 3:01Chris Alessi: And maybe that requires a confrontation.
- 3:05Chris Alessi: Maybe that requires conflict resolution.
- 3:08Chris Alessi: But the purpose isn't to say, look at what I did.
- 3:12Chris Alessi: The purpose is to say, look at the peace we've brought to this room.
- 3:16Chris Alessi: Solomon says that man has joy, not applause or recognition, something better.
- 3:23Chris Alessi: Soul-level internal satisfaction that comes from living in alignment with who you actually are.
- 3:30Chris Alessi: We've just brought joy.
- 3:32Chris Alessi: I can't plan peace if I don't have it in my own heart.
- 3:38Chris Alessi: And sometimes we don't have that peace because we're constantly having to perform in every room, and our insides don't match our outside.
- 3:47Chris Alessi: But if we can just get this thing right, if we can actually live out the first three days of this week so far, and really everything my dad and my brother-in-laws have been sharing through this podcast, if we can just get it right, we can become men that plan for peace and we can have joy.
- 4:08Chris Alessi: Here's a good integrity test for you today.
- 4:11Chris Alessi: Are you performing in the room you're in?
- 4:14Chris Alessi: Or are you the same man in every room because you have peace within yourself?
- 4:20Chris Alessi: See, the man who plans for peace is not a pushover.
- 4:24Chris Alessi: He's the most secure and strong man present.
- 4:29Chris Alessi: Because he's not worried about how he looks or what may come out.
- 4:33Chris Alessi: He's the same man on the inside as he is on the outside.
- 4:37Chris Alessi: He doesn't need to manipulate.
- 4:39Chris Alessi: He doesn't need to strong arm.
- 4:42Chris Alessi: He actually gets to be exactly who he is, with influence, with ability, with character.
- 4:49Chris Alessi: Because he's a man that plans for peace.
- 4:52Chris Alessi: It's not weakness.
- 4:53Chris Alessi: It's the fruit of a deeply rooted man.
- 4:57Chris Alessi: The kind of man who is manned up to this man-up challenge.
- 5:02Chris Alessi: Ask yourself this hard question today.
- 5:04Chris Alessi: Is there an area of your life where you need to plan for peace, where you need to bring peace into the room?
- 5:12Chris Alessi: Maybe you'll have to go back to yesterday and listen to how our words can bring healing.
- 5:17Chris Alessi: Maybe you need to plan for peace in a room you're walking into using your words so they can bring some healing.
- 5:26Chris Alessi: Let's pray.
- 5:28Chris Alessi: Father, we want to be men who have an undivided heart, men of integrity, men at peace, so we can bring peace and even plan for peace in every room we walk into.
- 5:39Chris Alessi: In Jesus' name, amen.
- 5:43SPEAKER_00: All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word.
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: Now go live it.
- 5:48SPEAKER_00: Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do.
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: Share this devotional with another brother.
- 5:56SPEAKER_00: Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.