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Transcript

The Power of a Good Word · Men's Morning Devotional

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Gentlemen, every day is a battle.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: They prepare before it begins.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the men's morning devotional.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into God's word.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to man up.
• 0:26
  Chris Alessi: It's Friday, the final episode of this week of the Men's Morning Devotional Podcast, where we continue to talk about Proverbs chapter 12.
• 0:35
  Chris Alessi: My name is Chris Alesian.
• 0:36
  Chris Alessi: I want to thank you for being a part of this week with us.
• 0:40
  Chris Alessi: Uh we only get kind of a week with you at a time, but I know my brother-in-laws are coming up next and they're going to do a great job in the coming weeks.
• 0:47
  Chris Alessi: Again, this is a great opportunity to close out the week by sharing this with somebody.
• 0:51
  Chris Alessi: Maybe you've heard me say this a few times already this week and you haven't done it.
• 0:54
  Chris Alessi: Hey, now's a great time.
• 0:55
  Chris Alessi: Just go ahead, quickly pause it, and do it.
• 0:58
  Chris Alessi: And I think this is going to be a good one to share because I want to close out the week looking at Proverbs 12, 25.
• 1:06
  Chris Alessi: And we'll close out the week with the man up moment.
• 1:09
  Chris Alessi: Somewhere in your world right now, a man is weighed down and waiting for a word you haven't said to him yet.
• 1:17
  Chris Alessi: Now, before we get all emotional, look at Proverbs 12, 25.
• 1:21
  Chris Alessi: Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
• 1:28
  Chris Alessi: I was talking to some friends the other day about that word anxiety and how I think we should just completely eradicate it from our vocabulary, from our vernacular, from the dictionary.
• 1:37
  Chris Alessi: We got to get rid of it.
• 1:38
  Chris Alessi: Because the more we talk about it, the more we seem to feel it.
• 1:42
  Chris Alessi: And Solomon seems to already know that.
• 1:44
  Chris Alessi: He opens this verse with a picture that we all know from the inside, being weighed down.
• 1:51
  Chris Alessi: In the original Hebrew, the word used to describe it meant to kind of be pressed low or to be bent under something heavy.
• 2:00
  Chris Alessi: We've all been there on the inside, where we've had to kind of fake it until we make it, you know, where we're feeling pressed down or to be bent under something heavy.
• 2:11
  Chris Alessi: And we just call that, you know, anxiety or depression or whatever it is.
• 2:16
  Chris Alessi: We've all felt shrunken, like a shrunken version of ourselves.
• 2:23
  Chris Alessi: But then this verse says that a good word can make that same man glad.
• 2:29
  Chris Alessi: Not some big counseling session, although there's value to that.
• 2:32
  Chris Alessi: Not having a solution to every problem, although that's what us men were made for, but a good word.
• 2:39
  Chris Alessi: One intentional, well-placed, genuinely meant word from another man, and it just begins to lift what anxiety has been pressing down.
• 2:49
  Chris Alessi: Isn't it interesting how Solomon is telling you that you have more power over another man's inner life than you think?
• 2:57
  Chris Alessi: And we're massively underusing that power.
• 3:01
  Chris Alessi: If you could speak a good word to another man and lift the inside of him, if you knew you had that power, how would you use it?
• 3:12
  Chris Alessi: Because here's what I've seen at our church, here's what I've seen in life.
• 3:16
  Chris Alessi: Men are often carrying a lot more than we like to show.
• 3:20
  Chris Alessi: You know, my dad likes to call it a certain I'm fine lie.
• 3:24
  Chris Alessi: We joke that women have never been honest when they've said, I'm fine, but the truth is what makes it a joke is that it's not just women.
• 3:32
  Chris Alessi: No man has ever been telling the truth when he says, I'm fine.
• 3:37
  Chris Alessi: The funniest guy in the group can be the guy lying awake at 2 a.m.
• 3:42
  Chris Alessi: The guy who's killing it at work could be the guy who's avoiding going home because his marriage is struggling.
• 3:50
  Chris Alessi: We can all be pressed down or bent under the weight of something.
• 3:56
  Chris Alessi: We do our best really to not show it.
• 4:00
  Chris Alessi: All men can have a lot of strength on the outside and yet be feeling like on the inside they're being pressed down.
• 4:10
  Chris Alessi: So I think our man-up challenge for today is to actually speak a good word over somebody, a well-intentioned, true word, words that bring healing.
• 4:21
  Chris Alessi: We're planning peace in the life of a man.
• 4:24
  Chris Alessi: We've become rooted in our own life, and now we can bring peace through our words to others.
• 4:31
  Chris Alessi: But before we close out, I actually want to lead by example and speak a good word over you.
• 4:39
  Chris Alessi: Men, you showed up at least today to listen to this podcast, or maybe all week.
• 4:45
  Chris Alessi: Maybe you've been listening for a month.
• 4:48
  Chris Alessi: That's not nothing.
• 4:50
  Chris Alessi: If you've listened today or all month, you're serious about growing as a man.
• 4:55
  Chris Alessi: So I want you to know the root work you're doing, even when no one sees it, is seen by heaven.
• 5:02
  Chris Alessi: And even if the surface of your life doesn't reflect it yet, it will.
• 5:07
  Chris Alessi: It matters.
• 5:08
  Chris Alessi: God sees the work you're doing, and it's producing something that will hold you when your life gets hard.
• 5:14
  Chris Alessi: Man, listen to me.
• 5:16
  Chris Alessi: You are not behind, you are not too late, you are not too far gone.
• 5:20
  Chris Alessi: You're a man that God is building, a man that God has forgiven and redeemed.
• 5:26
  Chris Alessi: And the fact that you're here, listening, leaning in, tells me everything I need to know about where you're headed.
• 5:33
  Chris Alessi: You are going in the direction the Lord has called you to go.
• 5:37
  Chris Alessi: Now go and share a word like this with another man.
• 5:41
  Chris Alessi: Let's pray.
• 5:42
  Chris Alessi: Father, open our eyes to the men around us that need a good word from us.
• 5:47
  Chris Alessi: Give us a spiritual awareness to speak a good word into them.
• 5:53
  Chris Alessi: Maybe it's our dad, our best friend, our sons, our wives.
• 5:58
  Chris Alessi: Let us be men that know how to speak a good word to lift the heart of the people around us.
• 6:05
  Chris Alessi: In Jesus' name, amen.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now go live it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Share this devotional with another brother.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, every day is another opportunity.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a man up.