Latest / Millennial Mustard Seed / S5 128. Dr. Mike Davis – Ultimate Strength = Courage & Emotional Intelligence

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S5 128. Dr. Mike Davis – Ultimate Strength = Courage & Emotional Intelligence · Millennial Mustard Seed

• 0:01
  Hello folks. This is Princess.
• 0:03
  You are listening to the Millennial Mustard Seed Podcast.
• 0:06
  Thanks for listening. Don't forget to share with your
• 0:09
  friends. That's tough.
• 0:11
  We're in a very tough spot. I think that what we're doing
• 0:15
  right now is a great benefit and virtue because it's an end
• 0:19
  around between this whole corrupt informational system,
• 0:23
  media system. We claim to believe in a God who
• 0:27
  spoke the universe into existence and literally raised
• 0:30
  himself from the dead, and yet we're not going to believe that
• 0:34
  anything else exists in the spirit realm, even though His
• 0:37
  word tells us that they do. Their bodies weren't permitted
• 0:41
  to go to sleep like humans do, and they weren't permitted to go
• 0:45
  to heaven. So they wander the earth, You
• 0:49
  know, I've seen the eyes turn black to unknown tongues being
• 0:53
  spoken. These giants would love way up
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  in the island. The young Braves, The young men
• 0:59
  would hide up in the trees and wait for one of these 12 footers
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  to come walking down the path and they would jump on them and
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  kill them, drag them back to the village and the village would
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  feast on the body. Freedom.
• 1:15
  Then people start to get weapons, they start to get
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  armor, they start to build cities, they start to fortify
• 1:19
  their cities. Now God looks.
• 1:21
  Down and there's violence everywhere.
• 1:24
  The battle, this war that we are at is not against each other.
• 1:28
  It's against these principalities and these rulers
• 1:30
  and these archons in the high places.
• 1:32
  It's really worthwhile to read the Bible yourself.
• 1:35
  Fear is one of the primary drivers of mind control because
• 1:40
  we have to take every thought. Captive and resist fear.
• 1:47
  You're going to have a testimony that is a justice case against
• 1:52
  the Kingdom of Darkness. Welcome back to the Millennial
• 2:14
  Mustard Seed. I am your host, Rod, and thank
• 2:17
  you for being here with me for another awesome episode.
• 2:20
  And this one truly is awesome. I'm joined by Doctor Mike Davis
• 2:26
  and this conversation we have you do not want to miss.
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  This is so important. Topics like studying the Bible
• 2:33
  in its cultural context, emotional intelligence and the
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  importance of that, well, you'll find out.
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  We cover boldness and confidence.
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  Now what's interesting is in the word of God, we have God
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  commanding us. Do not fear, do not be afraid.
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  But there's some other verses in there about how we can apply
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  this and actually make that so. God always gives us the recipe.
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  He's not going to command us not to be afraid and to be bold and
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  courageous without telling us how.
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  And many of you may come to find that it's right here in the
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  word, literally a step by step. We should not allow the law that
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  God has given us to depart from our mouth.
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  Just going to drop that little gem here real quick, but stick
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  around because this is one of those episodes where you want a
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  pen and paper, where you can take some notes.
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  This is the kind of teaching that the body needs.
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  We need to be encouraged. We need to be able to find the
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  truth and to walk through this stuff, learning it together in
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  humility. And let's face it, this time
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  slot that we're living in, there's a lot of fear mongering,
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  fear tactics, a lot of information out there that's
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  causing anxiety, depression, suicides on the rise.
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  How do we combat that? Well, God tells us right in His
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  word and I love what I'm doing to be able to broadcast this
• 3:53
  stuff, to encourage you guys to read your Bible, to drop these
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  gems where we can learn this stuff in a way that it's
• 4:00
  personable. It's not just for entertainment
• 4:03
  purposes with this podcast. This is what I believe God is
• 4:06
  calling me to do and it's been an honor and it's been a battle
• 4:10
  to do it thus far. Let's take care of some
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  maintenance real quick. I need you guys to leave me a
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  five star rating and review on your favorite podcast catcher.
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  Just share it on your social media.
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  It doesn't matter. Help us get this thing out
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  there. Help us grow because we cannot
• 4:32
  do this without you. In the details in the show
• 4:35
  notes, you guys can find a link to purchase my newest book.
• 4:38
  The words are salt. We've got an excellent feedback
• 4:41
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  quite wide. Leave us a review on Amazon When
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  you pick yourself up a copy if you're in the southeastern
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  Pennsylvania area, or even if you just want me to ship you a
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  copy of the book, I can do that. While I can sign a personal
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  message, Whatever you'd like, you guys would just have to
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  reach out to me privately. You can find my e-mail address,
• 5:02
  the MMM Seed at proton dot ME in the details of the show notes.
• 5:08
  I do not believe that broadcasting is the only thing
• 5:11
  God is asking me to do. There's so much happening behind
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  the scenes. We continue to grow slow and
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  steady, just like a Mustard Seed should shout out to brother
• 5:22
  David Chavis. I play one of his songs at the
• 5:25
  end of this episode and it is fire.
• 5:28
  One of the big things I want to announce that if you guys are in
• 5:31
  the tri-state area, if you're in New York, New Jersey, Maryland,
• 5:34
  Delaware, June 27th through the 30th in Lebanon, PA, all things
• 5:40
  new is the name of this event we're going to have live.
• 5:44
  SP Marcus Rodgers, Klaus Chavis, and a bunch of other brothers
• 5:49
  and sisters in Christ will be there.
• 5:52
  I will be there myself. So if you guys would like to
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  meet me, meet the rest of the crew, come on out.
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  We're going to have food, music. It's literally love in the
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  streets. It's in the streets.
• 6:04
  This is going to be like a Christian block party.
• 6:06
  It's going to be wildly cool. So I hope you guys can make it.
• 6:10
  e-mail me if you have any questions.
• 6:12
  And I think it's about time to jump into this episode.
• 6:16
  I'm ready. Are you guys ready?
• 6:18
  Let's go. Let's go.
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  I'm Mike Davis. I am a pastor, corporate speaker
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  and trainer as well as a coach. I'm a father and a grandfather,
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  and what I have a passion for doing is helping people really
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  to get their emotions to work for them rather than against
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  them in terms of the the coaching and training that I do
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  and also to help people to understand the Bible in its
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  cultural context. So that's what I do and I'm glad
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  to be here and I welcome you all.
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  Mike, it is an honor to have you back here on the Mustard Seed
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  with me, man. Thank you for being here.
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  Thank you. Episode 48.
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  You know, we talked about Thoughts are Powerful and
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  renewing your mind. And you know, I just want to
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  comment before we jump into it and just say it from my
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  perspective, how important it is with diving through some of the
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  fringe information and trying to make sense of the days we live
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  in. Really to balance it out with,
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  you know what am I walking tight and narrow?
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  Do I understand taking thoughts captive Paul prays in Ephesians.
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  What is it? I I think 6 pray for me to have
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  boldness, right? A completion of speech and and
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  really it just tugs at my heart. So you're the perfect person to
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  have here to just take us on this journey, man.
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  It's. I'm excited.
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  Oh, I'm glad to be here, so I'll help in any way I can.
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  Well, let's do a real quick recap.
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  Let's spend a couple minutes just talking about renewing your
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  mind and and the power of thoughts and and just kind of
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  the premises of what you do. And then we'll dive into some of
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  these questions I have. OK, well the the primary thing
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  that I do really it it really is about renewing the the mind.
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  Though I tend to spend a lot of time focusing on the emotional
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  aspect of that because I feel like so much when people talk
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  about renewing the mind within the Christian context, the
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  emotional aspect of that gets left out when you look at what
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  the word mind in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the verse that
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  we're kind of referring to when Paul said don't be conformed to
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  this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
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  The word mind there includes and it encompasses the the
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  intellect, our thoughts as well as our will and our emotions.
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  So renewing of the mind really needs to take place in all three
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  of those elements. And those elements really are
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  intertwined and they overlap with each other.
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  There. As one of my teachers once said,
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  in all thought, there's emotion, and in all emotion there is
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  thought. And there's some nuances where
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  that's concerned. But for the most part, that's
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  really true. So when we're talking about
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  renewing the mind, we're really talking about getting our
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  emotions, getting our thoughts, our will, and our emotions into
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  alignment with God's truth. And Jesus told us it's the truth
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  that sets us free. So when we get our intellect,
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  our will and our emotions in alignment and conform to this
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  truth, then we experience freedom mentally as well as
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  emotionally. Yeah, A lot of times people are
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  just governed by letting emotions determine how they
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  treat people or decisions that they make.
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  And you know, it's really funny. I I released my book last month
• 9:33
  called The Words of Salt. And one of the little kind of
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  poem parables I talked about is if you allow emotions to
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  determine how you treat people, you someday you'll find out
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  there's a deep hole and you threw the shovel out.
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  You know, it's just not a good way to do things.
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  So the importance of emotional intelligence, I just can't
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  express that enough. Let's consider this boldness
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  right. Can you tell us about what that
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  means in in the Greek and just give us, you know, a premises of
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  what does it look like to be bold?
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  Because I feel like a lot of times people get confused with
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  arrogance versus boldness, right?
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  We there's a lot of people out there beating their chest and
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  saying listen to me and you're wrong and you're right.
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  And we see, I see a lot of that, at least some of the fields that
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  I peer into. But just lay a premises for us.
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  How does this really work? Well, you know, in in talking
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  about boldness, I'll I'll start here with this.
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  In the 1st century world and in the Greco Roman world, there
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  were four virtues that were really considered what they
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  called the cardinal virtues. These are like the most
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  important virtues. There are a lot of different
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  virtues, but there were four that were really considered
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  important. One of them was wisdom.
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  That was one of the virtues. Self-control was another one.
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  Wisdom so you had. So it was it was wisdom,
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  self-control, justice. Sometimes in the Bible it's
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  called the the New Testament, the Kyle Sunni which we call
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  righteousness. So justice, righteousness,
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  self-control and then wisdom. And the 4th one was courage.
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  Courage is one of the elements. And so there was a lot that was
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  written by different Greco Roman philosophers about the nature of
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  courage and what it looked like. And so when we're talking about
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  boldness, that would be seen as an aspect of.
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  Courage. So one of the things like one of
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  the and I and I took some time to look this up just to refresh
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  my mind where it was concerned. So one of the things when it
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  talks about courage, let me read to you for a second here.
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  This is one of the Greco Roman philosophers and the reason I
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  I'm quoting this rather than just starting with the Bible
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  first is because these #1 these guys wrote about it #2 it gives
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  us some insight into how the thinking was taking place during
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  that time. So Cicero who was a philosopher,
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  he said courage is the is the quality by which one undertakes
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  dangerous task and endures hardships is parts are high
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  mindedness, confidence, patience, perseverance.
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  High mindedness consists in the contemplation and the execution
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  of great and sublime projects with a certain grandeur,
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  magnificence of imagination. Confidence is the quality by
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  which an important and honorable undertaking, the Spirit, has
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  placed great trust in itself with a resolute hope of success.
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  Patience is a willing and sustained endurance of difficult
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  and arduous task for a noble and useful end.
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  And then perseverance is a firm and abiding persistence in a
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  well considered plan of action. So they saw courage slash
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  boldness as having different aspects to it.
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  So there was you would contemplate, you would execute
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  great things, you would have confidence that you would be
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  able to succeed, you would have patience and endurance, and then
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  you would have perseverance that you would be willing to persist
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  and to keep going. So in the 1st century world, you
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  know when they were talking about boldness, and I I
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  generally will say boldness slash confidence, and I believe
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  you. For us as believers, we can put
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  faith in confidence or trust in God.
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  Where that was concerned, it was the idea of all of these things
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  together. So a bird, a bold person, was
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  someone who would take action. A bold person was someone who
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  would move forward, forward, regardless of the dangers,
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  regardless of the situations that they might be facing.
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  Regardless, they would they would keep going.
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  They would persist even though there might be changing
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  circumstances and events. If they believed in what they
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  were doing, they believed it was important they would keep going.
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  As a matter of fact, and I'll say this one last thing here,
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  one of the definitions of courage at that time was the
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  idea that courage was also obedient to a higher law.
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  So I think that's really important as we talk about some
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  other things, yeah. So it was obedience.
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  So I I would say that one of the ways for us as Christians 'cause
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  if you look at this from a Christian perspective, that what
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  we're talking about is really doing, doing God's will
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  regardless of what's taking place outside of us, with the
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  with the confidence, the inner certainty that we will be able
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  to successfully achieve God's will.
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  Yeah, it reminds me. Hebrews 10, I think 35.
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  It talks about not throwing away your confidence.
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  There's this like rich and deep and great reward in it.
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  Yeah, and that. That's so encouraging.
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  Yeah, can I can I actually read something where that's
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  concerned? No, that's what it's one of the
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  passages that actually it does talk about exactly what you
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  said, confidence. It talks about courage in that
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  verse. So to to set up the people that
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  the book of Hebrews was was written to.
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  And actually Hebrews most scholars believe it is actually
• 14:41
  a homily or sermon that was not so much as read.
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  It was something that was preached to the people.
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  And in chapter 10, the, you know, so the people let me go
• 14:50
  back. The people were under great
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  persecution. They were under persecution to
• 14:53
  turn away from their faith in Christ.
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  So with that being said he writes to them the writer and
• 14:59
  says I'll start at verse 10. He's But recall the former days
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  in which, after you were illuminated.
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  And notice, he says, you endured a great struggle with with
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  suffering, partly while you were made a spectacle both by
• 15:11
  reproaches and tribulations, and partly you became companions of
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  those who were so treated you had compact.
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  This is chapter 10, verse 32. I was starting that, verse 34
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  says, For you had compassion on me in my chains.
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  You joyfully accepted the plundering of your good, so they
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  had all of their material things taken from them as a way of
• 15:29
  trying to shame them, to get them to turn away from their
• 15:32
  faith. So he says you had a you took
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  joyfully the plundering of your goods, knowing you had have a
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  better and enduring possession for yourself in heaven than the
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  verse you just quoted. Therefore do not castaway your
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  confidence which has great reward, for you have need of
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  endurance. Now notice this so that after
• 15:50
  you have done the will of God, you may see may receive the
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  promise. So within a 1st century context
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  with what the writer here was saying, notice there's these
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  themes here of endurance, taking things patiently and enduring
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  and doing the will of God. He was saying to them, you were
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  courageous in in the early years of your faith, you were being
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  courageous and he was and he was reminding them of the courage
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  that they demonstrated and he's encouraging them and exhorting
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  them to not castaway their confidence.
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  So when we get into the how to's, this is going to be
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  important when we come back to this because he's actually
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  telling them how to maintain and sustain their courage and their
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  confidence even in the face of difficulties, even in the face
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  of persecution. Yeah, that's superlative.
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  Wow. I mean, as I'm listening, I'm
• 16:40
  just, this is so necessary, what we're doing right now.
• 16:45
  But I believe the signs are there.
• 16:47
  God is gonna do what God is gonna do.
• 16:48
  It's every yacht and title will come to pass, right?
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  But the stuff that we're seeing right now, we're identifying.
• 16:54
  I believe most of us, even our own personal little bubbles are
• 16:57
  being affected in some way. It's very minute compared to
• 17:00
  what 1st century worldview, what they've really endured in the
• 17:04
  confident words there. So I think planting these seeds
• 17:06
  is is quite necessary. Yeah.
• 17:09
  And and I think it's good to know because what he's telling
• 17:12
  them to do, he's he's literally in these verses giving them a
• 17:16
  strategy for to maintain and sustain their courage in the
• 17:21
  face of this persecution. And I think that's.
• 17:23
  Important because it's really good.
• 17:25
  Yeah, because one of the things that I teach about a lot is
• 17:28
  emotions. That I talk about strategies for
• 17:30
  being able to get your emotions to work for you rather than
• 17:32
  against you. And too much of the times, we,
• 17:34
  we tend to think as Christians well, and I think we talked
• 17:37
  about this the last time. Well, you know, we're supposed
• 17:38
  to walk by faith, not by sight. And we have turned that to mean
• 17:42
  you're you're to trust God and ignore how you feel, when really
• 17:46
  what Scripture seeks to do is to bring our whole being into
• 17:50
  submission and conformity to the will of God, to the ways of God.
• 17:54
  So that includes our intellect, as I said before, our will and
• 17:57
  our emotions. And the Bible actually lays out,
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  and I've been studying this for over 30 years now, it lays out
• 18:03
  different strategies that we can employ so that we can get our
• 18:06
  emotions to, as I like to say, we can get our emotions to serve
• 18:09
  us in serving God. And the writer here, we're going
• 18:13
  to look at some other things as we move forward.
• 18:15
  There are specific strategies. I believe that they are embedded
• 18:18
  in the tax they that they are strategies that God has given to
• 18:21
  us so that we can align ourselves with our align our
• 18:26
  emotions as well as our intellect, our our thoughts with
• 18:29
  God's will. And the one thing I tell people
• 18:32
  all the time is that whatever you can do while feeling bad,
• 18:36
  you can do so much better while you're feeling good.
• 18:38
  Meaning that you have good, resourceful emotional States and
• 18:41
  one of those states is courage or confidence.
• 18:44
  You can do, it's easier. I I read a quote that someone
• 18:49
  had written that said our life contracts or it expands our life
• 18:54
  contracts or expands in proportion to our courage.
• 18:59
  And I thought that is so true. I believe it was a writer named
• 19:02
  a niece Nin and I don't believe she was a Christian, but she
• 19:05
  said our life contracts or it expands in proportion to our
• 19:10
  courage. So just an everyday living.
• 19:14
  And I and I taught on this not too long ago at our at our
• 19:16
  fellowship, just an everyday living.
• 19:18
  You need courage if you're going to go out there, if you're going
• 19:20
  to do things, if you're going to accomplish anything.
• 19:22
  And this is what the ancient Greco Roman writers and
• 19:24
  philosophers understood. You must be able to possess and
• 19:29
  exercise courage. And too much of the time, I'll
• 19:31
  say this one more thing. Too much of the time we people
• 19:34
  often will define courage as how do they put it?
• 19:39
  They, they, they. It's like that.
• 19:41
  It's taking action even if you feel afraid.
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  To which I say, yes, that can be a way of thinking about courage,
• 19:48
  that you take an action even though you may be afraid.
• 19:52
  Or some people like to say feel the fear and do it anyway and
• 19:55
  they go, that's courage. I go that's one way of looking
• 19:58
  at it. However, that can be extremely
• 20:00
  difficult. To to try to you know, I don't
• 20:03
  know if you've ever been afraid, Rod, but with you know, if
• 20:06
  you've got a lot of fear, it can be very difficult to take action
• 20:09
  the majority of the time. Why people don't take action on
• 20:12
  something. Why they don't move forward.
• 20:13
  Why they and and as we talked about before part of courage is
• 20:18
  acting in obedience to a higher will.
• 20:20
  For us as believer, that means God's will.
• 20:22
  What can stop us is fear, the feeling of fear.
• 20:26
  So I tell people, well, yeah, it's true.
• 20:29
  You can feel the fear and do it anyway.
• 20:31
  I think it's better, though, to get rid of the fear and do it
• 20:34
  even better. In other words, replace the fear
• 20:36
  with courage and do it even better.
• 20:40
  Now what would be like a one or two go to strategies for, you
• 20:45
  know, embracing this courage and reiterating this sound mind
• 20:49
  through this process? You know, I've talked with a lot
• 20:51
  of people off air and there's a lot of fear.
• 20:54
  You know what I've man, I've been seeing this happen where
• 20:57
  the non fringy people are now starting to inquire.
• 21:01
  You can see it in their eyes and like I feel it where they're not
• 21:04
  really apologizing but you can tell that they thought you were
• 21:06
  a kook, you know, 14 months ago and then they're kind of like,
• 21:09
  hey, you know, I just kind of wanted to ask what are your
• 21:12
  thoughts on that? And and it's like I really love
• 21:15
  that people are starting to slow down and and question things
• 21:18
  because we see stuff on the news because there's all these
• 21:21
  messages and signals out there. So it's an opportunity for me to
• 21:24
  actually show myself an example of someone who believes and and
• 21:27
  just kind of engage and and answer at that surface level
• 21:31
  where it's like, well, I know you've heard probably the same
• 21:34
  things I've heard, but my belief consists of acting like a mature
• 21:39
  man in Christ, right? Because in my my fleshly nature,
• 21:43
  I'm blowing in the wind. I don't know how to handle this
• 21:45
  stuff there. There's a a courage and
• 21:47
  confidence that I truly believe comes from the spirit, from the
• 21:50
  ruach, and it's hard to really explain that sometimes there's
• 21:54
  kind of a vocabulary breach, if you will.
• 21:57
  I know what what it kind of feels like.
• 21:58
  I know how God has showed up for me in my times of need, and I
• 22:01
  know that I've been bold. But it's a great thing that
• 22:04
  you're here because you get to help me cover these chasms and
• 22:08
  put intelligent language to it so I can even just understand
• 22:11
  the depth myself. Yeah.
• 22:13
  Well, I think one of the things, so let me say real quick, I
• 22:16
  think people tend to think that emotions are too flighty, that
• 22:20
  they really can't be relied upon.
• 22:22
  And I take the exact opposite view.
• 22:25
  Years ago I did a message and it came a signature message of
• 22:28
  mine, and it's kind of been transformed over the years.
• 22:30
  But originally it was called How to Train Your Emotions and
• 22:34
  people were like, what? And I go like, yeah, emotions
• 22:36
  can be trained. And I taught this years ago like
• 22:41
  I I, it was like almost 20 years ago, 'cause my my oldest
• 22:44
  daughter's around 10/11/12, thirteen years old and she's now
• 22:49
  in her 30s. She's, I think she's 30.
• 22:52
  So I taught this years ago and at the time people were like,
• 22:55
  Mike, are you, are you serious? You can train your emotions.
• 22:58
  But now you know. Here we Fast forward almost 20
• 23:00
  years later, 1520 years later. And this is what the scientific
• 23:05
  evidence is telling us. The scientific research is
• 23:07
  telling the psychological research, yet emotions can be
• 23:10
  trained. And when I was first studying
• 23:12
  and I got it from two sources, one, I was looking at the
• 23:14
  science, Two, I was looking at the biblical text.
• 23:18
  So when it comes to courage, courage does not have to be
• 23:21
  something that is we, we hope we're going to experience, or
• 23:26
  I'll put it to you like this. It doesn't have to be something
• 23:28
  you passively wait to happen or you passively hope that you know
• 23:34
  you're waiting for it to take place and you're going to feel
• 23:35
  courage so you can take action. This is why a lot of times
• 23:37
  people will say, and I understand it well, just take
• 23:39
  action anyway. Don't wait to feel courage
• 23:42
  courageous, Just act courageous, OK.
• 23:44
  And I To which I say, yes, that can work.
• 23:47
  And if you know how to do that correctly, you can actually get
• 23:50
  yourself to feel courageous by taking certain actions, I said.
• 23:54
  But another way is you can actually incline and direct your
• 23:57
  emotions towards courage. And people say, well, how do you
• 24:00
  do that? So first of all, let me say,
• 24:02
  Ron, like you're talking about the Spirit and the holy, you
• 24:04
  know, the Holy Spirit. We're told to walk in the Spirit
• 24:07
  right now, and you would agree with that right that we're as
• 24:12
  believers. Absolutely.
• 24:14
  OK, so now, technically speaking, there is no verse of
• 24:18
  Scripture that acts that. There is no verse of scripture
• 24:21
  that says that one of the fruit of the Spirit is courage, though
• 24:23
  I think courage is one of the fruit of the Spirit.
• 24:25
  It's just it doesn't mention it as a in Galatians chapter 5.
• 24:28
  But how do we walk in the Spirit?
• 24:30
  That's what I want to focus on. So the way we walk in the
• 24:33
  Spirit, Paul tells us this and we're told to keep in step with
• 24:35
  the Spirit. We're told how to do that in
• 24:39
  Romans chapter 8, where the apostle Paul says for they who
• 24:43
  are after the flesh, they mind the things or they're set.
• 24:47
  They set their minds on the things of the flesh, but they
• 24:50
  who are after the Spirit mind, or set their minds on the things
• 24:55
  of the Spirit. Now, we may have talked about
• 24:56
  this the last time I was here, but that word for mine or set
• 25:00
  the mind on, it's one word in Greek, and it means to incline
• 25:04
  or to direct the intellect, the will and the affections towards
• 25:09
  something, or to align the intellect, the will and the
• 25:13
  affections with something. And what's that something?
• 25:16
  Well, if you're walking in the flesh, you are inclining or
• 25:20
  directing or aligning your intellect, will, and emotions
• 25:23
  with what is of the flesh. If you're walking in the spirit,
• 25:27
  you're inclining your intellect, your will, your emotions, your
• 25:30
  desires with that which is of the spirit.
• 25:33
  So what? And and the way it's written in
• 25:35
  Greek, it's in the active voice meaning that the subject of the
• 25:39
  sentence, which would be you or me, you know that we are to
• 25:43
  perform that action so we can incline, we can direct, we can
• 25:47
  align our intellect, will and our emotions with the spirit.
• 25:51
  So this means that it doesn't have to be sometime that you
• 25:55
  experience courage or it doesn't have to be where you're just
• 25:58
  passively waiting to feel courage.
• 26:01
  You know, it's like when I teach on motivation, you know, people
• 26:04
  will say about motivation, you know, well, sometimes you got to
• 26:06
  take action and not just wait for a feeling of motivation.
• 26:09
  To which I go, yeah, don't wait for it, get yourself motivated.
• 26:12
  You never have to wait for motivation.
• 26:13
  You can motivate yourself if you know how.
• 26:16
  There's specific strategies. And it's the same way with
• 26:19
  courage. So somebody might be listening
• 26:20
  to us not say, OK, man, we'll get to the strategies.
• 26:22
  What is it? So number 11, strategy, if we
• 26:25
  find in Joshua chapter one. So I'm going to read from Joshua
• 26:29
  chapter one and verse 7. And this is where God is talking
• 26:34
  to Joshua after you know Moses has died.
• 26:37
  Joshua is now the leader of Israel and God says to Joshua in
• 26:42
  verse I'll read from verse five. He says no man shall be able to
• 26:45
  stand before you all the days of your life.
• 26:46
  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
• 26:49
  I will not leave you nor forsake you.
• 26:51
  So one of the things that becomes a foundational stone
• 26:55
  that we can build upon for courage is to know that the Lord
• 26:58
  is with us. That's one of the things to know
• 27:01
  that he is with us. And Hebrews chapter 13 actually
• 27:04
  says, you know, I will never, ever leave, you know, forsake
• 27:08
  you so that we may build the say the Lord is with me.
• 27:11
  Whom shall I fear? OK, now it's one thing to
• 27:15
  articulate that, OK, God is with me, but how do you move into a
• 27:18
  place of where you really do feel the courage and you're
• 27:22
  acting and and your emotions are aligned with that truth, that
• 27:26
  spiritual truth and reality that God is with me?
• 27:29
  Well, God tells Joshua I'm going to be with you as I was with
• 27:32
  Moses. I will not leave you nor forsake
• 27:34
  you. But then he says in verse 6, be
• 27:36
  strong and of good courage. So here he's telling him to be
• 27:39
  of good courage. For to this people you should
• 27:41
  divide as an inheritance the language I swore to their
• 27:44
  fathers to give them only be strong.
• 27:46
  So he says it again, be strong and very courageous.
• 27:48
  Now notice this that you may observe to do according to all
• 27:52
  the law which Moses my servant, commanded you.
• 27:54
  Do not turn from it, from the right hand or to the left, that
• 27:57
  you may prosper wherever you go. So notice here he tells him to
• 28:00
  be strong in courage, and then he says so that you may observe
• 28:03
  to do according to the law. So remember we said before that
• 28:06
  one of the definitions in the 1st century Greco Roman world
• 28:09
  was that courage was also seen as obedience to a higher law.
• 28:13
  We see this directly in the book of Joshua.
• 28:16
  God tells Joshua be strong and of good courage.
• 28:20
  Why So that you may observe to do according to all of the law,
• 28:23
  so that you can do my will. So he tells me to be courageous,
• 28:27
  so there is courage needed to do the will of God.
• 28:31
  Then he's so That's verse seven only be strong and very
• 28:33
  courageous that you may observe to do according to the law.
• 28:36
  Then in verse 8 he He says it again, except this time he
• 28:40
  changes it. He says, verse 8.
• 28:42
  This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you
• 28:44
  shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may observe
• 28:48
  to do according to all that is written in it.
• 28:50
  For then you will make your for then you will make your way
• 28:53
  prosperous, and then you have good success and rob.
• 28:55
  By the way, anytime you want to jump in there, just do so.
• 28:58
  He says, the first time. Have I not commanded you.
• 28:59
  Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be
• 29:03
  dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
• 29:06
  But he tells so In verse 7. Verse five he tells them to be
• 29:09
  strong and and have courage. Verse seven he tells them to be
• 29:13
  strong and very courageous, so that he could observe the law.
• 29:17
  In verse eight he tells them, Now this book of the law shall
• 29:21
  not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and
• 29:25
  night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is
• 29:28
  written in it. So you can do my will.
• 29:30
  So rather in verse 8, rather than saying be be of good
• 29:35
  courage, so you can do my will, be courageous, so you can do my
• 29:38
  will. Instead, he says, meditate day
• 29:40
  and night on my law, that you may do my will.
• 29:44
  So what's the point I'm making here?
• 29:46
  One of the ways that we develop and we nurture courage, and I
• 29:51
  believe it's in connection with the Holy Spirit.
• 29:53
  We're told in Philippians chapter 2, verse 13 that God
• 29:56
  works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
• 30:00
  So God's at work within us to do His will.
• 30:02
  Philippians 212 says we're to work out our own salvation with
• 30:05
  fear and tribbling verse 13 says because it's God who works in
• 30:08
  you both to will and to do with his good pleasure.
• 30:10
  So we cooperate with God. How do we work with God to
• 30:13
  develop and nurture courage? One of the ways we do that is by
• 30:17
  what we are meditating upon. What we meditate upon is going
• 30:22
  to Orient our mind, our will, and our emotion in a particular
• 30:26
  direction either, and depending on what you're meditating on, it
• 30:30
  will either Orient it towards fear or it can Orient it towards
• 30:34
  courage, again depending on what you're meditating on.
• 30:37
  By the way, this goes practically for any virtue.
• 30:40
  So in let me just ask, am I making sense so far?
• 30:44
  Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I got scriptures just
• 30:46
  jump into my mind and I'm taking a back seat and learning as you
• 30:51
  go through all those well. And so I I I always say that
• 30:55
  biblical meditation is one of the lost.
• 30:58
  Arts. It's it's something we tend not
• 31:00
  to do. We we read our Bibles, which is
• 31:02
  good. We've got to read our Bibles.
• 31:04
  But do we take time to really meditate upon what we're
• 31:08
  reading? And I always say that meditation
• 31:10
  is preparation for obedience. Meditation is how you assimilate
• 31:13
  truth and make it a part of you so that you can act on it and
• 31:16
  live by. So in Philippians chapter 4,
• 31:21
  verse eight, we're told whatsoever things are true.
• 31:24
  Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just and
• 31:27
  pure and lovely. Whatsoever things are of good
• 31:29
  report. If there be any virtue, courage
• 31:32
  is a virtue. And if there is any praise or if
• 31:35
  there's anything that's praiseworthy it, then it says
• 31:38
  think on these things and that word think on.
• 31:41
  In the Greek, you know, it can also mean to meditate, meditate
• 31:45
  on these things, meditate on these virtues.
• 31:48
  Thayer's Greek English lexicon, which is one of the more famous
• 31:52
  lexicons. It it it, it defines the word
• 31:55
  that's translated as think on, as to meditate upon something in
• 32:00
  order to obtain it. So one of the reasons that Paul
• 32:04
  in Philippians tells them to meditate on what is good and
• 32:07
  honest and just and pure and lovely, or whatever is virtuous
• 32:10
  or whatever is praiseworthy, You meditate upon that virtue so
• 32:14
  that you can make it your own. This is why I say meditation is
• 32:18
  preparation for action. Meditation is assimilation you.
• 32:22
  The way you assimilate something and you make it a part of you is
• 32:25
  by meditating upon it. And we can get into and a few
• 32:29
  minutes just how did we do that? But this is what God was telling
• 32:32
  Joshua to do. He says, I want you to meditate.
• 32:35
  And it's interesting you're talking about the tongue.
• 32:36
  The word for meditate here in Joshua chapter one, verse 8,
• 32:40
  comes from the Hebrew term haggah, which means to to mutter
• 32:44
  or to speak to oneself. So when God said yeah, This is
• 32:48
  why, This is why the verse is written.
• 32:50
  This book of the law shall not depart from out of your mouth.
• 32:54
  Exactly. So that you can meditate, you
• 32:57
  are to speak it to yourself day and night.
• 33:00
  So one of the ways you meditate is by what you are saying to
• 33:03
  yourself consistently, especially if you say it to
• 33:06
  yourself out loud. OK, so you and he said do it day
• 33:09
  and night. So this is a continual thing.
• 33:11
  Not that you have to do it every single moment, but that you need
• 33:13
  to make time to meditate upon what you want to be a part of
• 33:17
  your life, another person's. Go ahead.
• 33:20
  I'm sorry. It just made me think I was
• 33:23
  making myself even giggle at this thought.
• 33:25
  Where the apostle Paul, Somewhere in the New Testament,
• 33:27
  he says if I seem beside myself, it's for Christ.
• 33:30
  Do you think he was walking around just, like talking to
• 33:32
  himself, Like, you know, like meditating on Scripture?
• 33:36
  I mean, seriously, you know. That, that, that when he says
• 33:39
  beside myself, that was the idiot, Which means beside
• 33:41
  yourself was kind of like the way we use the days, like, oh
• 33:43
  what are you crazy? Yeah, exactly.
• 33:44
  Yeah. As an Orthodox Jew, he probably
• 33:47
  was taking time. I mean because he tells the
• 33:49
  Philippians to meditate all these things day and night and
• 33:53
  and I often say that this is something that I think believers
• 33:56
  we don't do enough of. At least we don't do it
• 33:59
  consciously and intentionally in order to reach specific goals
• 34:02
  for ourselves. Intentionally.
• 34:04
  That's powerful. That's.
• 34:05
  Because every you everyone meditates.
• 34:07
  You cannot not meditate. You're always thinking about
• 34:10
  something and you talk to yourself.
• 34:12
  We all for the most part. There are some people who don't,
• 34:14
  but for the most part, everyone has internal self talk.
• 34:18
  I've done studies on the the scientific research that has
• 34:21
  been done on self talk. So we talked to ourselves.
• 34:23
  So God here is having us make use of something that he built
• 34:26
  within us to do as a way of nurturing confidence.
• 34:30
  Because he tells Joshua be courageous to do my work.
• 34:32
  But then he tells him how to be courageous to do his work.
• 34:34
  He says meditate upon my word, day and night.
• 34:38
  So how does that work? Well, there's a couple of ways
• 34:40
  we can look at it. #1. Is that what we know that
• 34:44
  they're in? This gets into a little bit of
• 34:46
  neuroscience. So there's a part of your brain
• 34:47
  known as the thalamus. And according there's a book
• 34:51
  that is written called How God Changes Your Brain by Doctor
• 34:54
  Andrew Newberg. Doctor Andrew Newberg.
• 34:56
  I don't know if he's a believer. I don't.
• 34:58
  I I I can't really tell that from his writings.
• 35:00
  But he has developed a field known as neuro theology and he
• 35:05
  looks at the impact that religious beliefs of every kind,
• 35:10
  the impact that it has upon the brain, how it impacts the brain.
• 35:13
  So he looks at different faiths and what he is seen as, what you
• 35:16
  believe about God, how you perceive God, how you perceive
• 35:19
  what you can think of as a entity called God.
• 35:22
  Some people, I don't agree with this, but they call it the
• 35:24
  universe. But it's the idea of how you
• 35:27
  perceive the that which is greater than yourself.
• 35:30
  It impacts your brain and it changes your brain.
• 35:33
  So in the book he talks about something very interesting.
• 35:36
  He talks about the thalamus. And one of the statements he
• 35:38
  makes in the book is that the thalamus part of the the job of
• 35:42
  the thalamus is to make things real to you, to make something
• 35:46
  real to you, to take thoughts and to turn them into internal
• 35:50
  subjective reality. So the and I for years before I
• 35:55
  had learned about this, I taught a principle in teaching about
• 35:58
  renewing the mind and stuff that I call the Reality principle.
• 36:01
  And the reality principle, simply stated, is whatever is
• 36:04
  most real to you is what you will act upon and live by.
• 36:08
  That's the reality principle. So this is where we can see
• 36:11
  people espouse a belief in something, but then they do the
• 36:13
  exact opposite of what they believe.
• 36:16
  And that's what I look at. I go if you say you believe it,
• 36:18
  but you're doing something different, I there's something
• 36:21
  that you believe that's more real to you than the belief that
• 36:24
  you espouse. Because we are always acting on
• 36:27
  what is most real to us, OK? And that can be subjective.
• 36:31
  We may not in the moment be aware of what.
• 36:35
  So in other words, it's a belief, but it's at a deeper
• 36:37
  level, to use that metaphor. So at a deeper level, it's most
• 36:40
  real to us is what we're going to act on and live by.
• 36:42
  Well, what Doctor Andrew Newberg found out is that if you repeat
• 36:46
  a thought over and over again, eventually that thought becomes
• 36:51
  real to you. Your your brain no longer
• 36:55
  distinguishes between that thought as something internal or
• 37:00
  something or it never. It doesn't distinguish between
• 37:02
  something that's external, that is physically real, and
• 37:04
  something that's internal. Through repetition, a thought
• 37:08
  becomes an internal reality. So by so not so, what does God
• 37:12
  tell Joshua? He says.
• 37:13
  I want you to be courageous. I want you to be courageous.
• 37:16
  So you do my will. So then what he tells them to
• 37:18
  do. I want you to take my word, and
• 37:20
  I want you to meditate upon it day and night.
• 37:22
  Speak it to yourself day and night.
• 37:26
  Why? Because as you do that, my
• 37:29
  truth, my will, will become more real to you than anything around
• 37:33
  you. And again, the reality principle
• 37:35
  is what is most real to you is what you're going to act upon
• 37:39
  and live by. So if my truth, if my world
• 37:42
  view, if the way, if the if the way of life that God paints for
• 37:45
  us in His word, if that becomes the reality, the way of life, he
• 37:49
  says we are to live. If that's our internal reality.
• 37:52
  And let me say this as a side note, we all have every human
• 37:56
  being has an internal reality that they live out of every
• 37:59
  single one of us. That's neuroscientifically true,
• 38:02
  that's psychologically true. It's spiritually true.
• 38:05
  We all have an internal reality. Jesus says out of the heart
• 38:08
  proceeds fornication, adultery, murders, blasphemy, he said.
• 38:13
  Those things come out of the heart.
• 38:14
  Proverbs 4 tells us guard your heart.
• 38:17
  Why? Because out of it flows the
• 38:19
  issues of life. So we all live from the inside
• 38:22
  out. We all live from the internal
• 38:24
  realities that we've assimilated over the years.
• 38:27
  But what the Scripture tells us to do is we're to assimilate
• 38:30
  God's truth into our hearts. And by meditating upon it, it
• 38:35
  becomes more real to you, you know.
• 38:38
  You know in in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says don't be worried
• 38:42
  about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink or
• 38:46
  wherewith all show you be clothed, right?
• 38:49
  He says don't be worried about it now.
• 38:52
  I think all of us have at times, you know we struggled with our
• 38:56
  finances and it's like you know when you when money's low you
• 38:58
  get you got more month than you do money, you know and you're
• 39:02
  trying to he's like, OK, well how do I know?
• 39:04
  I was there. Yeah, he was like, God, how do I
• 39:06
  not be worried God. Jesus actually tells us.
• 39:10
  He tells us. He doesn't just say don't be
• 39:14
  worried and he doesn't just say trust in God.
• 39:18
  He actually gives a strategy. He says Behold the fowls of the
• 39:23
  air. Consider the lilies of the
• 39:27
  field. If you look up those terms in
• 39:28
  Greek, it has to do with sustained, focused attention.
• 39:33
  It's not just a casual glance, it's think about.
• 39:37
  Contemplate how your father feeds the birds of the air.
• 39:42
  Think about contemplate with focus and tension how your
• 39:45
  father clothes the lilies of the field.
• 39:48
  So we're to meditate upon the attributes of God, and we're to
• 39:53
  do this consistently. We're to do this continually so
• 39:57
  that becomes more real on the inside of us than the idea of we
• 40:02
  may not have enough Is is that making?
• 40:04
  Sense. Absolutely.
• 40:06
  So one of my thoughts was as you were saying, you know, you know
• 40:10
  this emotion that comes out or you know our thoughts that
• 40:13
  what's inside of us. I was thinking about the verse
• 40:16
  that says it's not what goes into the mouth of a man that
• 40:19
  defiles him, but that much comes out because they're, you know,
• 40:22
  you have these religious minded people that are arguing over did
• 40:24
  they wash their hands? What are they eating?
• 40:27
  And so quick question though, like I'm looking at Psalms 27,
• 40:32
  verse 14 specifically and it says wait for and confidently
• 40:36
  expect the Lord. Do you think that that wait for,
• 40:39
  does it fall in line with like that meditation Because I'm
• 40:42
  reading it and seeing it closer to what you're depicting.
• 40:45
  Like as you were talking, I'm going, yeah, waiting for the
• 40:48
  Lord and confidently to expect the Lord.
• 40:51
  Be strong. Let and let your heart take
• 40:54
  courage. Yes, wait for the Lord.
• 40:56
  Confidently expecting the Lord. And I'm thinking when I'm
• 40:59
  waiting and expecting for something, I'm thinking about
• 41:02
  what I'm anticipating. I'm dwelling on it.
• 41:04
  I'm recycling it back and forth, massaging it through.
• 41:07
  And it's just such such a beautiful connection.
• 41:09
  Yeah, it's it's, it's actually, yeah, it's a huge part of it
• 41:12
  because it's the idea waiting on the Lord.
• 41:15
  I remember it took me a while before I learned it.
• 41:16
  It's the idea of looking forward confidently.
• 41:20
  But again, it's like how do you do that?
• 41:22
  That's why it says wait on the Lord, be of good courage, you
• 41:24
  know look confidently towards the Lord, you're expecting good
• 41:27
  things from him, but that it it doesn't just happen.
• 41:31
  This is why Jesus says, and I'm going to paraphrase, but I think
• 41:34
  this would be accurate to say he says meditate on the lilies of
• 41:37
  the field. Meditate on the birds of the
• 41:39
  air, how your Heavenly Father takes care of them.
• 41:41
  Think about that. This is why over and over again
• 41:44
  you will see in the the book of Psalms, it'll say it'll it'll
• 41:51
  talk about the works of the Lord and and it encourages Israel to
• 41:53
  speak of his works from one generation to the next.
• 41:57
  The idea is talk about what God has done.
• 41:59
  This is another strategy, and by the way, to to to remember the
• 42:03
  works of the Lord, to speak of them.
• 42:04
  It's a way of meditating on it, because another word for
• 42:08
  meditate is siach, which means to speak.
• 42:10
  It can mean to pray. It can mean to speak to yourself
• 42:12
  also. So there's this thing of of
• 42:13
  speaking out loud and speaking to yourself as well as speaking
• 42:17
  internally and meditating internally.
• 42:19
  Many You rehearse something over and over again that it it can.
• 42:23
  If you're focusing on what God has done for you in the past it
• 42:26
  can build confidence. So meditating is one of the
• 42:30
  strategies and somebody said well well how would I meditate
• 42:34
  you you you can't. Well let me let me I need to
• 42:36
  back up for a second. So meditating on what God has
• 42:38
  done. Doctor Andrew Newbrook said, If
• 42:40
  you if you meditate on a thought over and over again, so if
• 42:43
  you're meditating like on the Lord is good, the Lord or you
• 42:47
  meditate upon what Jesus said that seek first the Kingdom of
• 42:51
  God and His righteousness and all these things will, will and
• 42:54
  all these things will be added to you.
• 42:56
  So you're meditating upon that you're meditating upon.
• 42:58
  Behold the the, the lilies of the field.
• 43:00
  How the Father takes care. You're meditating on that.
• 43:02
  If you rehearse that over and over, that will become more real
• 43:05
  to you. That God's care and provision
• 43:07
  will become more real to you. It's the way God has designed
• 43:11
  us. So when I when I talk about
• 43:12
  neuroscience, I'm looking at scientists discovering, not
• 43:17
  creating, discovering how God has made us.
• 43:20
  So it's like, whoa, this is amazing because like Doctor
• 43:23
  Andrew Newberg's book, How God Changes Us, It's all about
• 43:26
  neuroscience, but he's looking. But who created us?
• 43:29
  Who made us? It's God.
• 43:31
  He put these things within us, and this is how we can start
• 43:35
  directing them. So the scriptures always has
• 43:38
  already told us what to do. Way before neuroscience ever
• 43:42
  came into existence, it was already telling us what we
• 43:45
  needed to do, the practices we need to engage in on a regular
• 43:48
  basis in order to align intellect, will and emotions
• 43:51
  with what is of the Lord. Now what is also said by Doctor
• 43:55
  Newberg and also other neuroscientists is if you
• 43:58
  meditate upon something with a particular emotion that speeds
• 44:04
  up, it accelerates the process of making it more real.
• 44:08
  So did you did you catch what I was saying?
• 44:10
  If you meditate with an emotion. With an emotion, yes.
• 44:14
  So are you saying, you know, in a sense, when we have the
• 44:18
  emotional intelligence, we can gear that emotion to drive us
• 44:22
  into meditating on the word of God purposefully, intentionally,
• 44:26
  And that speeds up the process? Yeah, that's fantastic.
• 44:29
  So emotion is not just a byproduct of renewing your mind.
• 44:35
  Emotions are to be involved in the process of renewing the
• 44:40
  mind. So can I give you a quick
• 44:41
  illustration? Please, yeah.
• 44:43
  I'm going to show you this from Scripture.
• 44:44
  I'm not making this stuff up. So in Deuteronomy Chapter 7, and
• 44:50
  I have my Bible right here, so it'll take me a moment to find
• 44:52
  it. But in Deuteronomy chapter
• 44:53
  seven, we have a great illustration of God telling
• 44:57
  Israel how to deal with fear and how to be courageous.
• 45:01
  OK, so Deuteronomy Chapter 7, If you look at verse, it's verse
• 45:08
  16. Well, we we, Yeah, we'll start
• 45:12
  at verse 16. OK.
• 45:14
  So let me give you a little bit of background.
• 45:16
  You know that there was a time when Israel, God had brought
• 45:21
  them, when he first brought them out of Egypt.
• 45:23
  He brought them to the to the, to the cusp of the land of
• 45:26
  promise. Right.
• 45:27
  And he tells Moses to send 12 spies to spy out the land. 12
• 45:32
  spies go. They come back, they begin to
• 45:34
  give their report. Caleb says Let's go up at once
• 45:38
  and possess it. We're well able to overcome it.
• 45:41
  This is Numbers chapter 13 and numbers 14.
• 45:43
  Caleb and Joshua says, don't fear the people of the land.
• 45:46
  They are as bread for us. The Lord is with us.
• 45:48
  Fear them not. So they're calling the people to
• 45:50
  courage. Joshua and Caleb are acting in
• 45:52
  courage. The 10 spies.
• 45:53
  The other 10 spies say we are not able to go up against the
• 45:58
  people of the land. This land is too big.
• 46:01
  And then they say we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers.
• 46:05
  And so we were in their sight. And then in chapter 14, starting
• 46:09
  at verse one, all the people freak out and they go, why is
• 46:12
  the Lord brought us out here to die?
• 46:13
  Why he has he brought us out here in our for our our wives
• 46:17
  and our little ones to become a prey?
• 46:18
  So everyone becomes afraid. And then they say let's make a
• 46:21
  captain and go back into Egypt, right?
• 46:23
  This is all because of fear. Remember before the quote where
• 46:28
  I was quoting the writer who said your life contracts or your
• 46:32
  life contracts or expands in proportion to your fear?
• 46:35
  I mean, I'm sorry in proportion to your confidence or your
• 46:37
  courage in proportion to your courage.
• 46:39
  They were contracting, they were drawing back, and rather than
• 46:43
  moving forward, they were wanting to go backwards because
• 46:46
  of fear, because of the the emotion of fear.
• 46:49
  But Joshua and Caleb had No Fear.
• 46:51
  Joshua and Caleb said, let's go up and once impossess it, we're
• 46:54
  well able to overcome it. They said don't fear the people
• 46:57
  of the land. The Lord is with us.
• 46:58
  Fear them not. But the 10 spies and all the
• 47:00
  people were afraid so. And of course this is where how
• 47:03
  they end up wandering 40 years in the wilderness.
• 47:06
  It was part of the judgment of God.
• 47:07
  So in Deuteronomy Chapter 7, God is getting ready to bring them
• 47:10
  back into the land. This time Moses is going to be
• 47:13
  their leader. And God does not want to repeat
• 47:16
  of Numbers chapter 13. So this is what he tells them in
• 47:18
  verse 16, Deuteronomy Chapter 7. Also, you should destroy all the
• 47:22
  people whom the Lord God delivers over to you.
• 47:24
  Your eyes shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their
• 47:26
  gods, for that will be a snare to you.
• 47:29
  If you should say in your heart these natures are greater than
• 47:32
  I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them.
• 47:37
  Now notice that God says you shall not be afraid of them.
• 47:42
  Now I've I've heard ministers take this and say, well, you
• 47:44
  know sometimes what what this is saying is sometimes you've got
• 47:47
  to take action even though you feel afraid.
• 47:50
  But actually what the verse says is you shall not be afraid of
• 47:52
  them. Matter of fact, the Septuagint
• 47:55
  of this passage says be courageous.
• 48:00
  And it is. It uses the same words.
• 48:02
  And the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
• 48:05
  It utilizes the same words that Jesus used in John chapter 16
• 48:09
  when he says in his words you shall have tribulation but be of
• 48:12
  good cheer. It's the same word that's used
• 48:15
  in the Septuagint or the Greek version of this Hebrew Bible.
• 48:18
  Be of good cheer, which means to be confident, to be certain, to
• 48:21
  be courageous. So God is actually telling them
• 48:23
  I want you to be courageous, but he tells them how to be, how to
• 48:28
  actually move from fear into courage.
• 48:30
  He says you shall not be afraid of them, but but you shall
• 48:35
  remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all
• 48:39
  Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw the signs and the
• 48:42
  wonders, the mighty hand in the outstretched arm by which the
• 48:45
  Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God, due
• 48:48
  to all the people of whom you are afraid.
• 48:52
  So God's strategy for Israel, he says, When you see the people of
• 48:55
  the land, if you start to experience fear, what I want you
• 48:58
  to do is I want you to remember. Zakar is the Hebrew term I want
• 49:02
  you to call to mine, and and to remember can be a form of
• 49:06
  meditation. I want you to call to mine.
• 49:08
  Notice this all of the great trials which your eyes saw, the
• 49:13
  signs and the wonders, the mighty hand, the outstretched
• 49:16
  arm by which the Lord brought you out of Egypt.
• 49:19
  So they were to remember. They were to rehearse.
• 49:22
  They were to relive in their minds through their memory all
• 49:26
  of the great things they saw take place in Egypt.
• 49:29
  The signs, the miracles, the tin plays, the crossing of the Red
• 49:32
  Sea. They were to remember all of
• 49:34
  that. Now think about this.
• 49:36
  If they're remembering all of the great things that they saw
• 49:39
  God do, what would that create within them?
• 49:43
  It would create within them confidence.
• 49:46
  It would create within them courage.
• 49:48
  So here, God is not only just saying, remember, He's tapping
• 49:51
  into the memory. He's tapping into a memory of
• 49:54
  the past, the great things He's done for them in order to
• 49:57
  stimulate the emotion of courage.
• 50:00
  And as they're rehearsing this over and over, it's going to
• 50:02
  create more and more confidence, more and more courage.
• 50:05
  And so that he's using the past in order to encourage them and
• 50:09
  strengthen their heart with courage in the present, so that
• 50:13
  they can move forward and do what?
• 50:15
  God. So they can move forward and do
• 50:17
  the will of God. Because the will of God was for
• 50:19
  them to go into the land. What kept them from going into
• 50:22
  the land before fear? God did not want a repeat of
• 50:25
  this. So he tells them, what I want
• 50:27
  you to do is to call to mind the great things, all of the great
• 50:30
  things I have done for you as you go back to the past, that
• 50:34
  will stimulate courage in you in the present so that you can obey
• 50:38
  my will. Which is part of what courage
• 50:40
  is, obedience to a higher will. So he gave them a strategy.
• 50:45
  You know who else used this strategy, David?
• 50:49
  David did. Yes, he did.
• 50:51
  If if you if you're in First Samuel chapter 17, when Goliath
• 50:56
  comes out and he challenges the Israelites, everybody runs
• 51:01
  right? And it's like, you know, Saul's
• 51:03
  like who's going to fight him? Who's going to be my champion?
• 51:06
  David, this young shepherd boy, says I'll fight him.
• 51:09
  And Saul says you are not able to fight him.
• 51:12
  He's been a man of war since his youth and you're but a youth,
• 51:16
  meaning he's very experienced. David, you don't have any
• 51:19
  experience at all. And what does David do?
• 51:23
  He starts to remember. Yes, the.
• 51:25
  Lion and the. Bear, the lion and the bear.
• 51:28
  Let's go. He begins to remember what God
• 51:31
  has done to him, the victory that God has given him.
• 51:34
  And what does David say? It is very similar in structure
• 51:37
  to what says here. God's told the people of Israel,
• 51:40
  You saw what I did it to Egypt. That's what I'm going to do to
• 51:43
  these people, David said. I overcame the lion and the
• 51:45
  bear, and this Philistine will be as the lion and the bear.
• 51:48
  Remember, we said that part of courage is the confidence that
• 51:51
  you will succeed all of this. God is telling his people you
• 51:56
  can trust in me. But he tells them how to not
• 51:59
  just intellectualize it, like, well, you know, we should trust
• 52:02
  God. He tells them, for lack of a
• 52:04
  better way put in it, how to emotionalize it so that they're
• 52:07
  bringing in feelings, they're bringing in emotions through
• 52:09
  memory. They're remembering the great
• 52:11
  things that they have done through the power of God.
• 52:14
  They're remembering there's great things God has done on
• 52:17
  their behalf. You know, one other group of
• 52:18
  people that that did this, the people we read about in Hebrews
• 52:22
  chapter 10. If you go back over to Hebrews
• 52:25
  chapter 10, we actually see the strategy being employed again.
• 52:30
  So back over in Hebrews chapter 10.
• 52:33
  Now what was the situation? These people are undergoing
• 52:36
  persecution. I just taught him this recently.
• 52:39
  And I and I asked, I said, if you knew somebody who was
• 52:41
  undergoing persecution or they're really going through a
• 52:43
  difficult time, what would you tell them to do?
• 52:47
  What? What practices would you
• 52:48
  encourage them to engage in? And we get things like, well, I
• 52:51
  would tell them to pray and that's good.
• 52:52
  I would tell them to read their Bible.
• 52:54
  That's good. I would tell them to maybe call
• 52:57
  someone and that's good. But this is what the writer to
• 53:01
  the people of the book, that the writer of the book of Hebrews,
• 53:04
  this is what he tells these people who are undergoing
• 53:06
  persecution to do. And we read this earlier, but
• 53:08
  now we see it, he says. Verse 32.
• 53:11
  Recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you
• 53:16
  endured a great struggle with suffering, partly while you were
• 53:20
  made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations,
• 53:23
  partly while you became companions of those who were so
• 53:25
  treated. You had compassion on me.
• 53:27
  Now he's talking about the past. You had compassion on me in my
• 53:30
  chains. You joyfully accepted the
• 53:32
  plundering of your goods, knowing that you had a better
• 53:35
  and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
• 53:38
  Therefore, or because of this, do not castaway your confidence,
• 53:42
  which has great reward for you have need of endurance, so that
• 53:46
  after you've done the will of God, you may receive the
• 53:48
  promise. So what does he tell them to do
• 53:50
  now? I'm going to say something that
• 53:51
  may sound a little bit controversial, but it's not.
• 53:54
  Because again, this is, these are other strategies that God
• 53:59
  has given to us as his people. But they're not told.
• 54:02
  Pray. They're not told fast.
• 54:04
  They're not told. Read your Bible.
• 54:05
  More they're told. Recall the former days.
• 54:09
  In other words, this word recall is the equivalent to the Hebrew
• 54:12
  Zakar. He said, I want you to remember
• 54:15
  how you were in the beginning. I want you to remember how you
• 54:18
  stood strong. I want you to remember how you
• 54:20
  stood by me. I want you to remember that even
• 54:23
  though you went through difficult times, you endured,
• 54:26
  they took away everything from you and you endured that gently,
• 54:29
  joyfully call that back to mine. Why, It's the same principle.
• 54:34
  What they remember, what they rehearsed, it was to stir up
• 54:37
  within them the confidence. This is how they don't castaway
• 54:40
  their confidence. This was actually a strategy
• 54:43
  that was used in the ancient world.
• 54:45
  Generals would do this with their soldiers if they were
• 54:48
  getting ready to go into a battle.
• 54:50
  One of the ways And and Doctor David Desilva in his book
• 54:53
  Perseverance and Gratitude, which is a book that deals with
• 54:56
  the book of Hebrews, he talks about this and he says how
• 54:59
  generals would remind their soldiers of great battles that
• 55:04
  they won and it was the purpose of stirring up within them
• 55:08
  courage and confidence in order to face the present battle.
• 55:11
  So what the writer of Hebrew does is remind them of the
• 55:15
  earlier days. And as and as Doctor David
• 55:18
  Desilva says, when it comes to persevering and moving and
• 55:21
  keeping to move forward, this is a great strategy.
• 55:23
  This is a great technique. So one of the ways that we can
• 55:26
  encourage ourselves in the Lord, to borrow from First Samuel 30,
• 55:31
  is by remembering times in our life when we've made it through.
• 55:34
  And we had difficult times, but we stood.
• 55:37
  We were enabled by God. He was there for us.
• 55:39
  Or we can remember great things that God did for us in the past
• 55:43
  when it looked like we were not going to make it when it or we
• 55:46
  felt like we couldn't stand. And yet God empowered us.
• 55:49
  God held us up and we kept going and we saw it through.
• 55:53
  We were faithful and we were obedient.
• 55:55
  We have to like David. We have to like the people of
• 55:57
  Israel. We have to like the people here
• 55:59
  in the book of Hebrews. We have to remember the great
• 56:02
  things God has done. And as you do that, as people do
• 56:04
  that you start to remember what God has done.
• 56:07
  It helps to build the feeling of courage and confidence.
• 56:10
  And so you're meditating on that.
• 56:12
  You're you're feeling that. You rehearse it over and over.
• 56:15
  I have a saying that whatever you give your mind and emotions
• 56:17
  to, you would develop a mind and emotion for.
• 56:21
  So whatever you consistently give your mind to, whatever you
• 56:23
  consider, this is how you direct your mind towards the things of
• 56:26
  God, how you direct your emotions.
• 56:28
  You can call to mind great things God has done for you and
• 56:32
  it helps you to be confident so you and courageous so you can
• 56:35
  move forward and continue to do as well.
• 56:39
  Yeah, that is so powerful. And hearing you say that, I'm,
• 56:42
  I'm just thinking there's times recently where I literally had
• 56:48
  the nudge to remember how God showed up for me in past
• 56:51
  chapters of my life. And as you're saying, it is kind
• 56:54
  of surreal. It's not like deja vu.
• 56:56
  But I'm having a moment where I'm just like, man, of course
• 56:59
  this is the episode I needed just as much as somebody else
• 57:02
  out there who's gonna be listening to this.
• 57:04
  They need it just as much it it it's so relevant right now.
• 57:07
  And I love the fact that in this space on the Mustard Seed here,
• 57:13
  you know we do cover diversity of different things.
• 57:15
  It's not really a a narrow we only strict to you know some
• 57:19
  strict sense to see things one way.
• 57:23
  We we kind of dive into everything and I've been feeling
• 57:26
  for a while you know we messaged each other back and forth a
• 57:28
  couple times. I was trying to get you on
• 57:30
  sooner than later, you know, the last couple months because I
• 57:33
  felt it, you know, just the oppression out there in the
• 57:36
  world and just trying to minister to people that, you
• 57:39
  know, I I have to walk away and just look up and go, God, OK,
• 57:43
  yes, you were there with me. I I remember and it's like
• 57:47
  drawing. It's I love when you say call
• 57:49
  those things back to mind, 'cause literally I'm thinking in
• 57:52
  my head like, hey, confident scenario.
• 57:55
  That happened back in 2019, right?
• 57:56
  It's like a little bit of humor. But seriously, you really do
• 58:00
  have to call these things back. And I love the way that you're
• 58:03
  laying it out because there's more of a biblical premises for
• 58:08
  it then I think many people know.
• 58:11
  And then the actual implications of, you know what, When fear,
• 58:16
  fear arises, it it's like this shocked state where you can't
• 58:20
  actually make an intelligent decision, right?
• 58:23
  So it's like you you, the whole thing with fear is the absence,
• 58:28
  momentary absence of actually comforting yourself with that
• 58:32
  confidence of look at the track record.
• 58:35
  God, what? You know, I had a guy, he passed
• 58:38
  away. His name is Carrie Williams.
• 58:39
  I worked with him years and years ago.
• 58:41
  But he would say Rod, think a one time when it didn't work
• 58:45
  out, when God didn't actually bring it together for you.
• 58:48
  He would say that to me, you know, 'cause I'm like really
• 58:50
  early in the faith is like 8-9 years ago.
• 58:52
  And I would, you know, kind of be borderline frantic and he
• 58:55
  would just say simple things like that.
• 58:56
  And I'd kind of be like yeah, you're right.
• 58:59
  You know you're right. And now to just be maturing in
• 59:02
  Christ and to to be learning this stuff and this this is the
• 59:06
  foundation that we build on like a Berean.
• 59:10
  We are studying and we're we're diving in daily with a readiness
• 59:14
  of mind to prove and to believe that which is being set forth in
• 59:19
  front of us that's in the word of God.
• 59:20
  So I think that what you're doing is phenomenal.
• 59:23
  It it's it's absolutely necessary.
• 59:26
  And you know, I I don't want to switch gears with a little bit
• 59:30
  of time that we have left, but I kind of want to maybe plant a
• 59:33
  seed and leave a bit of a cliffhanger for a Part 2 that
• 59:37
  we're going to be doing down the road.
• 59:39
  And I know all of it fits together, but let's just kind of
• 59:43
  do a little cliffhanger on. You know Doctor Michael Hyzer
• 59:46
  used to talk a lot about understanding the Bible through
• 59:50
  the ancient context. Right.
• 59:52
  The narrative of of how it was written, who it was written to.
• 59:55
  So just clean that up. It sounds messy when I say it,
• 59:58
  but just give us an overview of what we have to look forward to
• 1:00:01
  with understanding the Bible. Well, it's kind of like the
• 1:00:03
  things we're talking about, like to remember and stuff.
• 1:00:05
  I I learned that because my my area of study and focus and I
• 1:00:09
  would say expertise is seeking to read the Bible in its
• 1:00:14
  original historical and cultural context and even words are
• 1:00:19
  conditioned by culture And so it is so important because what and
• 1:00:23
  I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few days as
• 1:00:25
  I've been hearing people say certain things about the Bible
• 1:00:28
  and what people are called to do and husbands and wives are
• 1:00:30
  called to do. And I'm going you know if you
• 1:00:32
  don't read the Bible in its context in its original context
• 1:00:36
  and understand it in its original context.
• 1:00:38
  It's for the Old Testament. We're talking about the ancient
• 1:00:41
  Near Eastern cultural context. For the New Testament, we're
• 1:00:44
  talking about the Jewish context and the Greco ROM the 1st
• 1:00:47
  century Greco Roman world context.
• 1:00:49
  If you don't do that, you could end up missing what's actually
• 1:00:53
  being communicated. So to give you a a quick point,
• 1:00:56
  Jesus says if your I be single. Well actually let me say this
• 1:01:00
  first. Well, I used to teach this in a
• 1:01:03
  Bible school and I would talk about idioms and the need for
• 1:01:06
  understanding culture. So one of the things I would do
• 1:01:09
  is I would say, OK I'm going to say to you a phrase and you tell
• 1:01:11
  me what it means and I would say you don't believe fat meats
• 1:01:14
  greasy people who look at me and go what I go you don't believe
• 1:01:19
  fat meat's greasy. They're like what does that
• 1:01:22
  mean? I go, will you tell me what do
• 1:01:23
  you think it means you don't believe fat meat's greasy and
• 1:01:27
  and unless you now that is of idiom from African American
• 1:01:31
  culture. From the black culture
• 1:01:33
  specifically, really, if you were raised in the South or you
• 1:01:36
  had family who was raised in the South, which I I have my
• 1:01:39
  family's from Mississippi. For the most part.
• 1:01:42
  If you don't, if, if you didn't hear that growing up and you
• 1:01:44
  weren't part of that culture, you would have no idea what that
• 1:01:47
  means. Now I know what it means because
• 1:01:49
  of having grown up within black culture.
• 1:01:51
  My grandmother would say it all the time.
• 1:01:53
  She would say it to me and she never explained to me what it
• 1:01:57
  meant. But by what she said the
• 1:02:00
  situation in which she said it in the tone of voice, which she
• 1:02:04
  said said it to me in I knew what it meant.
• 1:02:07
  And so the phrase you don't believe fat meat is greasy is a
• 1:02:13
  is an idiom that means you don't believe the truth when it's
• 1:02:17
  staring you in the face. The reason why is because fat
• 1:02:21
  meat, or meat that's fat has grease.
• 1:02:25
  And so when you say you don't believe fat meat's greasy, it's
• 1:02:27
  like you're not believing something that's true and
• 1:02:29
  evident. OK, now when I explained to
• 1:02:31
  people, they go, oh, I said, But if I had not told you that, you
• 1:02:34
  never would have gotten it. You never, I said, you could
• 1:02:36
  have looked at each of those words in the dictionary and it
• 1:02:39
  never would have given you the meaning of the idiom because
• 1:02:43
  it's not determined by each single word.
• 1:02:45
  It's all of the words together that convey a meaning.
• 1:02:49
  So in the same way, when we're looking at the Bible, there are
• 1:02:52
  idioms, there are figures of speech, there are practices that
• 1:02:55
  are going on that are part of the culture and the people in
• 1:02:58
  the culture of that time period, they understood it readily.
• 1:03:02
  Doctor John Walton, who's an expert in the Old Testament, he
• 1:03:06
  often says the Bible. He often will say the Bible,
• 1:03:09
  while being for us, was not originally written to us.
• 1:03:15
  And I think that is so important.
• 1:03:16
  The Bible was not originally written to us.
• 1:03:18
  It was not originally written in English.
• 1:03:21
  It was not originally written to 21st century Western Christians.
• 1:03:25
  It is for us but it was not originally written to us.
• 1:03:28
  So we have to go back and try to understand the culture.
• 1:03:31
  So as I was getting ready to say earlier, Jesus said one time if
• 1:03:37
  your eye be evil your whole body should be full of darkness.
• 1:03:40
  But if your eye is good, your whole body should be full of
• 1:03:42
  light. If you look up the word good,
• 1:03:45
  like if your whole body, if your if your eye is good, your whole
• 1:03:47
  body should be full of light. You look up the word good, it'll
• 1:03:49
  say sound or healthy, OK. Or if your eye is sound or
• 1:03:52
  healthy, your whole body should be full of light.
• 1:03:54
  That still doesn't tell me what does it mean?
• 1:03:57
  And I would. Growing up, I heard people teach
• 1:03:59
  on that, and they I was taught that it meant you got to be
• 1:04:01
  focused on your goals. A good eye means to be focused
• 1:04:03
  on your goals. If you're going to set goals,
• 1:04:05
  you got to be focused. Oh, OK.
• 1:04:07
  But as I begin to learn history and culture, come to find out, a
• 1:04:10
  good eye is actually an idiom. It is a Jewish idiom.
• 1:04:15
  And it's an idiom actually, that's used in the Old
• 1:04:16
  Testament, and it means to be generous.
• 1:04:21
  An evil eye, depending on context, means to be stingy.
• 1:04:26
  And if you go back and you read the context in Matthew chapter 6
• 1:04:29
  of what Jesus is talking about, it fits the context because he
• 1:04:32
  talks about giving, He talks about your treasure in heaven,
• 1:04:35
  where's your treasure being stored?
• 1:04:36
  And so Jesus saying, listen, if you are generous you should be
• 1:04:39
  full of light, really shows your spirituality.
• 1:04:41
  But if you are greedy and you hoard, you're filled with
• 1:04:45
  darkness. Now if you look up those words
• 1:04:48
  again in Greek or even in Hebrew, you won't get the
• 1:04:52
  meaning of that from the Greek and the Hebrew.
• 1:04:53
  You have to know the culture and how the culture utilizes those
• 1:04:58
  terms. And it's that way with so many
• 1:05:01
  things within scripture. Again, when we when we tend to
• 1:05:04
  read the Bible, we tend to read it as if it was written directly
• 1:05:08
  to us and our 21st century settings.
• 1:05:11
  And it wasn't. It was originally written to
• 1:05:13
  people in an ancient or Eastern setting, the Old Testament.
• 1:05:16
  It was originally written to people in a 1st century Greco,
• 1:05:19
  Roman and Jewish setting, the New Testament.
• 1:05:21
  So we have to be able to understand that culture and
• 1:05:24
  immerse ourselves, and that takes time.
• 1:05:26
  It takes study. We have to really study.
• 1:05:29
  But then when you start to understand more of the culture,
• 1:05:31
  the things that you read that those people would have taken
• 1:05:34
  for granted because they they were part of the culture, it
• 1:05:37
  starts to make much more sense. You know, like so for me,
• 1:05:41
  growing up hearing you don't believe fat me's greasy, I
• 1:05:43
  understood immediately. Now when I said to you first,
• 1:05:47
  you know Rod, you don't believe fat me's greasy.
• 1:05:49
  Your your mind probably went huh?
• 1:05:52
  I thought it was like a like a version of an honest Abe, like a
• 1:05:56
  guy who's always right. And it's like, you don't believe
• 1:05:58
  that meets Greasy. Like his name was like, that's
• 1:06:01
  me greasy. Seriously.
• 1:06:03
  That was my first. Thought I'm like, I really have
• 1:06:06
  no other idea what's going on here.
• 1:06:08
  My imagination led to that, so. So it's so little things like
• 1:06:13
  that, but but you know what? What you just said, that's what
• 1:06:15
  we do when we're reading the biblical text.
• 1:06:17
  We will read it and we will kept our meaning onto this if we
• 1:06:22
  don't know the culture and so then we will derive out of the
• 1:06:24
  text something that the text never said.
• 1:06:27
  Yes. And that's why we're to study to
• 1:06:30
  show ourselves well approved, right, with gearing trembling
• 1:06:34
  and you know, there's a lot of study it does.
• 1:06:37
  But that means being a disciple, being a Berean as you said
• 1:06:39
  earlier. Yes, and and it's lifestyle
• 1:06:42
  then. So you know, there's a lot of
• 1:06:43
  people that are playing well. It's kind of like, in a weird
• 1:06:46
  way from what I see now, this isn't across the board.
• 1:06:50
  This isn't subjected to everybody's perspective.
• 1:06:52
  But from what I see in the millennial generation, it's
• 1:06:55
  becoming kind of trendy or cool to be a Christian because it's
• 1:06:58
  like the new bad boy, right? It's like, oh, kind of going
• 1:07:01
  against the grain. And it's like, you know, you
• 1:07:02
  have all these kind of borderline bold and some of them
• 1:07:06
  really genuine and honest whistleblowers who are out there
• 1:07:08
  calling it like they see it, right?
• 1:07:10
  Because right now our culture is saying what is good is wrong and
• 1:07:13
  what is wrong is good, right? We're seeing the flip flop.
• 1:07:16
  We're seeing this kind of stuff, so people really have a lot of
• 1:07:19
  the times, a good mode of a good heart.
• 1:07:22
  They want to honor and serve God.
• 1:07:23
  But I think what we're doing here tonight, this is for all of
• 1:07:27
  us and and this is a lifestyle. This is not just, oh, it's kind
• 1:07:30
  of cute and cool now to become a Christian rapper because
• 1:07:33
  Christian rap is actually becoming something that the
• 1:07:36
  world is taking notice to when five years ago, nobody wanted to
• 1:07:39
  be a Christian rapper. I use that as the idea that, you
• 1:07:43
  know, what really makes the difference is when we hear the
• 1:07:46
  voice. You know, when when Jesus is our
• 1:07:48
  shepherd and we're the flock, we don't hear another's voice.
• 1:07:52
  And I think that the way that I've been living, you know,
• 1:07:56
  Mike, I really look at it and I go, I have not knowingly but
• 1:08:02
  intentionally at the same time ignored things that I knew
• 1:08:06
  didn't settle and resonate with the deepest part of me.
• 1:08:10
  I would observe and I'd go that's not there's something off
• 1:08:14
  and it wasn't like that guy's a Sinner.
• 1:08:16
  I don't believe his preaching. No, it was just it was like this
• 1:08:18
  caution of like something's off. I I can't.
• 1:08:22
  I can't go there. Something's not right.
• 1:08:24
  I don't get the green light. I don't care if 150 of you stand
• 1:08:27
  up and say the light's green. Go if I don't get that like if
• 1:08:31
  it doesn't stir up deep and become something that the the
• 1:08:34
  river of living water can can surfboard on, right.
• 1:08:38
  These ideas can't actually boogie board on what's flowing.
• 1:08:41
  I didn't really want to participate, so I spent a lot of
• 1:08:43
  time biting my tongue, sitting back and watching.
• 1:08:45
  And now I'm starting to understand that God has me in
• 1:08:48
  this peculiar situation, you know, with people that are
• 1:08:51
  literally taking this journey with me.
• 1:08:53
  That's the premises of the show. Mike is in this day and age with
• 1:08:56
  a million messages and signals causing confusion and chaos.
• 1:08:58
  Let's take a journey together. Let's talk about this ultimate
• 1:09:01
  truth. So what you have already laid
• 1:09:03
  down tonight for this Part one, I am super excited to have you
• 1:09:07
  back in the near future for a Part 2 and to to learn this
• 1:09:11
  together. Like, it's not about who's
• 1:09:13
  right. And it's not about arguing.
• 1:09:15
  It's it's about we love the word of God and we want to put on the
• 1:09:21
  mind of Christ. We want to lay aside
• 1:09:23
  denominational preferences. I'm not saying, you know,
• 1:09:27
  exalting A denomination or or saying don't be a part of one.
• 1:09:29
  I'm not. I don't want to beat up on the
• 1:09:31
  church, man. I'm a we're the bride.
• 1:09:33
  I'm a part of the bride and I think that this is the perfect
• 1:09:38
  opportunity for us to show ourselves, you know, stewards of
• 1:09:42
  of of our time, of your talent, of your passion and we by diving
• 1:09:48
  in this together. Not only are you helping me by
• 1:09:50
  doing this tonight, but but you're helping tons of people
• 1:09:53
  out there listening. So just a lot of respect and
• 1:09:55
  just I appreciate your time. Well, I appreciate you giving me
• 1:09:59
  the, just giving me a platform to be able to share these things
• 1:10:02
  that I this is like I said earlier, is a passion of mine to
• 1:10:05
  share these things, this information, the tools with
• 1:10:08
  people. And like you said, there's a lot
• 1:10:09
  of anxiety out there. Now since the pandemic, it's
• 1:10:13
  been studies that have been done, anxiety and fear has
• 1:10:15
  risen. We're seeing more fear,
• 1:10:17
  especially in our younger generation, Gen.
• 1:10:20
  Z's, millennials. There is a lot of fear and
• 1:10:23
  anxiety and a lack of hope about the future.
• 1:10:25
  So I think as believers, if we can bring the truth of God and
• 1:10:29
  also bring the wisdom of how do you apply this, we can be a
• 1:10:33
  force for good to help people. Couldn't have said it any better
• 1:10:37
  and just plug in where you can be found real quick.
• 1:10:40
  One, they can actually e-mail me at MLD.
• 1:10:43
  Mike M as in Mike. L as in Lion D as in Dog MLD and
• 1:10:47
  the word training at msn.com. They can e-mail me.
• 1:10:50
  They can also find me on Facebook.
• 1:10:52
  Mike Davis. I think it's Mike Davis slash
• 1:10:56
  Facebook the coach. I think my wife set it up like
• 1:11:00
  that. We are, we do have a website.
• 1:11:02
  We're redoing it. So it's going to be a while
• 1:11:04
  before it's up. But if they if they find me on
• 1:11:06
  Facebook could you and I are friends on Facebook And so if
• 1:11:09
  they can't find me directly, yes, I'd say just go look under
• 1:11:12
  Rod's friends that you find Mike Davis and they can friend me.
• 1:11:16
  I friend people and then they can direct message me.
• 1:11:19
  I do respond to direct messages. That's one of the simplest ways
• 1:11:22
  that most people have found. Well, once again it was an honor
• 1:11:25
  and I am in high anticipation for a Part 2.
• 1:11:29
  Looking. Forward to it.
• 1:11:30
  That's it. That's the show you guys.
• 1:11:32
  I'm going to ask you to share this with your friends, family
• 1:11:34
  members, with your Co worker, share it with your doctor and
• 1:11:37
  share it with your pastor coming to you from Southeastern
• 1:11:41
  Pennsylvania. God bless and goodbye.
• 1:11:59
  Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man.
• 1:12:01
  I hide in this hand from the Reaper.
• 1:12:03
  Now I don't hide who I am from the people.
• 1:12:05
  Now. Ain't no slide in their hand.
• 1:12:07
  Ain't no secrets. Now I'm saved.
• 1:12:09
  Shooting me out the trap in the grave.
• 1:12:11
  And they took me back on the strain.
• 1:12:13
  Strain. Deeper now.
• 1:12:20
  I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this hand from the
• 1:12:23
  Reaper. Now I don't hide who I am from
• 1:12:25
  the people. Now.
• 1:12:26
  Ain't no slide in the hand. Ain't no secrets.
• 1:12:29
  Now I'm saying Get Me Out the trap.
• 1:12:31
  And the brave. They took me back when I
• 1:12:33
  strayed. Take me now.
• 1:12:40
  You can break me now. Let the move of your skin.
• 1:12:43
  If you would shake me now. You're the beep from the tails.
• 1:12:46
  Have to break me now from the streets and the stairs, trying
• 1:12:48
  to take my crown. Your bird and the stand on it.
• 1:12:51
  Put the tooth like my hand on it through the booth.
• 1:12:54
  Put my fans on it. Whatever I do, I put your hand
• 1:12:57
  on it without a flinch. He gave his life to the cause
• 1:13:03
  with the scars on his wrist. You died in yourself.
• 1:13:06
  Nothing harder than this. I got nothing left to give but
• 1:13:09
  my heart as it is. Revelation the truth.
• 1:13:19
  Ain't nothing vain on it. Deeper now.
• 1:13:21
  I ain't sleeping now, man. I hide in this handful.
• 1:13:24
  Deeper now. I don't hide who I am from the
• 1:13:27
  people now. Ain't no slide in their hand.
• 1:13:29
  Ain't no secrets now. I'm saved.
• 1:13:31
  Take me up the trap and the grave.
• 1:13:33
  They took me back from a strange train.
• 1:13:41
  Deeper now. I ain't sleeping now, man.
• 1:13:43
  I hide in this handful. Deeper now.