Consumerism can relate to an unhealthy value of money. Money can lead to an unwise submission to temptation. Temptation can lead to justification, which can lead to perpetual sin.

“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (ESV Bible, 2001, 1 Timothy 6:3-10).

Considering that for most of us, money is essential, we must grapple with the way we value money. We must place value in service prior to compensation. For what sort of compensation comes without service?

We pray that our message today has encouraged you and that you will seek the Bible more fervently than ever. Blessing to you our brothers and sisters.

Stress is not the goal, be well.

— Daniel Miller, Ed.S., C.S.C.S.

AraratPhysiology.com

hello@araratphysiology.com

prayer@araratphysiology.com

Discipleship Conditioning

March 6, 2023

Transcript

Welcome.

Thank you for joining discipleship conditioning brought to you by errett Physiology.

We like to open the show with prayer requests.

You can e-mail us anytime at prayer at error at physiology.com family, and I would like to pray for you if.

You have them.

Today, we're going to talk about.

We're going to talk about evil.

We're going to talk about consumerism all under the scope of 1 Timothy 6, three through 10.

I'd like to share some exciting stuff.

With you that.

We have coming on in air at Physiology.

Our mission as well.

But before that, honestly, what would your reaction be if I told you that we are now generating $27,000?

Per month.

That would be 324,000.

Dollars a year.

What would your reaction be if we told you that the podcast itself alone is producing 4000?

Dollars per month.

If programs are selling $8000 per month.

Off our website.

If the courses we offer 5000.

Per month.

And our coaching is just lighting up like wildfire at $10,000 per month.

Now, beyond the Why would I tell you that?

Assess quickly if you will what you're feeling.

And if you're anything like me, I don't know that this is a a man only relation.

Perhaps more so with men.

But if you're anything like me.

It's very easily to get caught up in the snare of income.

It's very easy to get caught up in comparison.

Talk a little bit later about social media, a huge area of comparison.

Now, I don't promote lying, but I did just lie to you.

None of that's true in terms of of income.

They're not even numbers related to our goals.

They're just random numbers that I came up with about 5 minutes ago.

But the reason why I state them is if we're honest with ourselves, when we mention numbers like that.

A lot of us have a visceral response, a visceral response to almost fill a need.

Like I need to make that much money or envy, jealousy, all sorts of things that we need to avoid.

So today we're going to dive deeper into the.

The topic of money and how we can easily get out of whack with it.

Our mission.

To serve men who have ever felt persecuted for their God-given qualities, men were men were meant to work.

Men were meant to labor.

God gave them the ability to toil the earth, to do all sorts of things.

We oftentimes.

Establish a quantitation with that, whether it be hours per week, in terms of production.

Or if it be a monetary gain, as in compensation per week, per day, whatever the case may be.

We can be persecuted over those God-given qualities. They can be held against us. I've mentioned before that oftentimes men are looked at as the breadwinners, and oftentimes they are thought of as being valuable for for merely that. And they are.

Labeled as shouldn't say they, we are labeled.

As not being able to be nurturing, not being able to take care of our children and be good, responsible fathers.

So the men.

Who have ever felt persecuted over their God-given qualities as they were used against them in a scenario or in?

Our own pitfalls and how we look at.

Quantifying our production or quantifying our income.

Through our anecdotal experiences in this class, the truth of the Bible we teach how God's word impacts every facet of our lives right now.

Wife and I are doing separate Bible studies. She's going through Romans, and I'm going through Hebrews, I joked last podcast about reading 3.4 verses.

Per per day as opposed to 3.4 chapters.

And I was giving my wife a hard time and tell her that she.

She reads at a graduate level and she can read a book in like an hour, and I read it a fourth grade level where I have to sound everything out and while those are both exaggerations, last night, as I focused on Bible study, I read the beginning of Hebrews and I literally read 5.

Versus that was it.

I went into.

I have a study Bible, ESV, study Bible and I read all the notes related to one through 5 which.

Was much more than just verses.

One through five, they expand on all of that and then we bought this 13 volume set called the Expositors Bible Commentary and the 13th volume begins with Hebrew.

Open that up and it's like 3 pages on verses one through 5.

So there's a lot of material to get through, but that fits me.

I'm a deep thinker and I want to sort of marinate in it, and if I go too quickly through it, I I won't retain a lot of what has come across through through the verses that I've assigned myself.

We do this because we believe we are faced with a problem of societal influence outweighing biblical influence, which leads to our succumbing of evil tactics intended to destroy us.

Money is a clever one.

I've talked about this before.

You can't really live without money.

You can.

But it's it's fairly difficult in our day and age, you can't live without.

Food, no matter where.

Where you are, you can't live without water, no matter where you are.

So those are three possible snares that can catch us and.

Keep us.

Snared into temptation over and over and over again because we justify and we have to have them.

They're different from alcohol and things that we can remove ourselves from.

Now, I'm not saying the addiction to alcohol or anything else is less difficult to overcome.

I'm saying that.

Have the option to completely remove alcohol where it is with food, with money to a certain degree in water we don't have that ability now.

Does anybody look at water in an evil way?

Probably for the most part, no.

But what if we had a water shortage and all of a sudden everybody is hoarding their supply of water and not sharing with everyone?

Then it becomes an issue.

Same thing with food.

In addition to food, there could be a food addiction.

And the more you consume food, the more you perpetuate the addiction and the more you perpetuate the addiction, the more you are snared into temptation.

Money, like we'll talk about today, same sort of thing.

So our answer is that we aim to serve brothers and sisters with authenticity in the midst of change, through Our Calling and ministry.

As teachers, I've added in the midst of change today because I really want to get across each week or each three days that we.

We're in the midst of change ourselves.

You know, I oftentimes listen to podcasts and this would be a good opportunity to recommend a few to you.

I listen to all it takes is a goal by John Acuff and I listen to unashamed by the Robinsons, the family from Duck Dynasty.

And others as well.

I'll use those as an example.

And oftentimes when I listen to them.

I feel like.

I am being taught by someone who is on the other side of it by someone who has got their entire life figured out.

And certainly that's not the case.

John Acaf is talking about goals, and he himself has goals that he's working on, but he's had success with a lot of goals previous in life.

The Robinsons are talking about the Bible.

And nobody can understand the Bible fully.

In the days.

That they have on this earth.

And so they're working through it just like the rest of us are.

But I don't.

Want to come across in that way?

I want to serve you in past experiences that I've had or my wife has had in how to get you through where you're currently stuck.

So in that way, we are on the other side of it.

However, I want to be authentic and I want to be vulnerable and I want to show that we are in the midst of change because we want you to know that we are human.

You, we want you to know that we are just like you in many regards.

I don't want to talk down in any anyone.

I want to share my experience.

I want to share how we can help.

But I want it to be evident that we are sinful humans as well.

And what we teach on, we could very well be struggling with at the moment.

Money is a good example of that, and what we teach on.

We may have figured out a way to get past.

And hopefully help you in that regard.

But never do we want you to feel like we are the professionals that are on the other side of this, that are sort of talking down at you like why don't you have this figured out sort of thing we're self sponsored website is error.

Physiology.com.

We have blog style articles.

We've decided to not incorporate vlogs.

There's just so much going on with this podcast and so much going on with courses and programs and whatnot that we've decided to go without vlogs.

Now this this reminds me of last night, speaking with Amanda on, I told her if I could rewind even just three months and give myself some advice, or someone that had an entrepreneurial spirit and was constantly.

Pressing the brake pedal and putting it on hold.

If I could provide one piece of advice, I would say to just take that first step because you don't know what the second step looks like until you take the.

First step and it is amazing how much we've learned since the beginning of 2023, just over two months.

And it all started with building a website and buying the domain, and from there it has just gone to one thing after the other.

And what I have been researching over the weekend in terms of a learning management system.

Has just blown my mind.

It's definitely something I wouldn't even have thought of even just three months ago over the Christmas break.

So with that, I'm excited to share that I mentioned last time that our courses are going to blow up.

We are going to invest a lot of time into our courses.

The two that I'm going to start with are sort of a play on words.

They're going to be an introduction to anatomy and an introduction to Physiology.

Fitting as I've taught that for the last six years.

But as a play on words, I'm going to call them bare bone anatomy and bare bone Physiology, and I'm not sure the extent and length of the course, but we're going to start producing those and I'm I'm looking to finish those as soon as possible.

In addition to that, I'm adding transcripts to each of these podcasts.

I mentioned maybe a week ago that that was a 15 to 30 day process getting closer to that.

We were adding a couple strength and conditioning programs based on request.

Lacrosse and soccer will be on the list short.

We write nonfiction books we're writing a year without television, sort of in the background of all this.

We write this podcast.

We record this podcast.

We publish the show notes online.

We offer coaching, which we call discipleship, conditioning, and this summer we are running a summer camp, a speed, agility and strength camp.

And we are marketing for that.

And we are.

Preparing for that.

And this is all again in conjunction with full time jobs that we both have and.

A baby on the way and a daughter that is 5 1/2 emphasis on the half. If you're interested in any of that, we'll conclude this self sponsorship now, but please reach out at hello at error at physiology.com or go to our website error@physiology.com.

Let's get into what matters one Timothy 6, verses three through 10.

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels.

About words which produce envy, distinction, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich.

Fall into temptation into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

That's one Timothy 6.

Three through 10, I realized as I'm reading through that I've added an S where.

It shouldn't have gone.

Let's see, where did I say?

Oh, teachings that accords.

It's written as teaching, not teachings.

And then a little later on.

What did I say?

Money is the root is the root of all kinds of evil.

It's written is money is a root of all kinds of evil.

So if you mistakes in there.

Pretend that those were edited out, since we don't edit.

The point of all?

This to mention this is that I can never state things better than the Bible can in in what I've just said is evidence of that.

I had at least two errors in reading that to you, so please go read one Timothy 6 three through 10 yourself in whatever version you prefer.

And this would be a great time to pause.

The podcast and to do that.

Now, as I've been doing the last few podcasts, sort of mimicking what you've seen it in commentary in commentary, you'll see them go through a verse and they will highlight usually in bold, the section of the verse.

And then they'll talk about it and then another section.

Of the verse.

And they'll talk about it.

Is, so that's kind of the way that I've been going through things because I really want to be focused on keeping things to what the Bible says and not get off on a tangent.

I by nature am a storyteller.

I do it in class.

All the time.

You get me talking about the Philadelphia Eagles and go off on, you know, the season of 1998 when we went three and 13, the season of 1999, Donovan Mcnabb's first year, we went five and 11, and then the five NFC championships.

And we went to in eight years and and I say we because I'm that big of a Philadelphia Eagles fan, which is ridiculous.

They have no idea who I even am, but the point is that I by nature, I'm a storyteller, and I can get off on these.

Agents and I need a script.

I need to stay focused and I need to keep things focal on the Bible and So what I've done similar to commentary that you may read.

Is take a section talk about it, another section, talk about it and I always want to talk about it.

From a vulnerable, vulnerable.

Perspective and I always want to.

Talk about it in.

Relation to experience.

Again, we are not biblical scholars.

We are not counselors.

We're not therapists.

We're not lawyers.

We're not accountants.

We're not doctors.

We're not any of that.

We want to speak to it from our experience because our experience is valuable regardless of our credentials.

Our experience is valuable and for you, regardless of your credentials, your experience.

Is valuable.

There's too often that I've been told what I can't do in life.

Strength and conditioning is a good job of that, and I realize even as I'm talking here, I go on a tangent, but I think this is worth it for just a moment.

I was told I couldn't be a strength and conditioning coach.

Because I didn't play collegiate football.

I wrote an entire treatise, an entire essay on why that was.

In a sense, ridiculous, we're often told we can't do things because of a specific license we lack or training we don't have or experience we don't have.

Then I understand this doesn't go completely across the board.

I think there's instances where that is relevant, even the further away I get from collegiate football, the more I understand the perspective.

But at the same time, we do enough limiting of each other.

Let's not also do limiting of ourselves if we limited ourselves based on people saying that what you're doing is wrong, you're not a therapist.

You're not a counselor.

You shouldn't be sharing your personal experience.

Those sorts of things.

Then this podcast wouldn't exist.

Not in defiance of the recommendations that people are saying and that people have provided, but because we know that our experience has value.

And we.

Believe we're called to share that experience.

And that is more.

More important than anyone that tells us otherwise, if we listen to what others are telling us, we are then not listening to Our Calling.

We're not listening to God.

Lots of people get in trouble for listening to God.

There's actually our head pastor at Heritage Bible Church in Boise where we attend.

Sends out an e-mail every morning and generally asks in the beginning for prayer request for people that are going through things, and one of the prayer requests that's been on the e-mail the last few days is.

I believe the country is Mali in Africa.

And there was a elder that was beheaded.

In southern Mali, due to preaching the gospel.

And simply being a Christian.

So there's going to be consequences for doing what we do and we understand that, but we will be comfortable in defining man, but not comfortable in defying God.

Now there I go.

I told you I wasn't going to get on a tangent or I told you why I do things.

And then I went off on a tangent.

Well, welcome to the podcast.

I suppose that's just who I am and.

What I do?

Let's look at our application of 1 Timothy 6, three through 10, puffed up with conceit, and understands nothing.

This reminds me of of we we as men.

We are prideful creatures I mentioned to this earlier.

We get caught up.

In the production.

We get caught up in the salary.

I see this all the time where someone is making a certain amount of money and that becomes what they value themselves at, and then they decide to slow things down, take a different position, take a pay cut and they are left feeling like they need to fill this void.

Because they make $20,000 a year less or more.

Obviously that's incorrect.

Obviously we have got caught up in that salary amount.

I'm doing that right now with my current position and in looking to do what I want to do and what I feel called to do.

There is an immediate and significant decrease in salary.

And I get caught up in looking at the podcast and how many views did we get today.

I get caught up in looking at our website and how many sales did we get today.

And then that's a yoyo effect that can either make me feel good or it can make me feel bad, depending on what the numbers state.

Because I'm placing my value in the response that people have to us with views of the podcast with sales.

Value our value comes from our creator.

We wouldn't be here if we weren't created.

And I don't say that in a way of.

Speaking down to you and that's what you have to realize in a sense.

I'm speaking to myself.

That's what I have to realize.

In this world is as I absorb everything that this world has to offer.

I think about the guy next to me.

Heck, my neighbor across the street, I don't think that guy ever goes inside.

He is always working, working, working, working.

And if I get too caught up in that, I feel like I'm not a man because I'm not out repairing fence like he is.

I'm not out building an extension on my house like he is.

Even my neighbor directly next door to me, who is probably 2025 years older than me.

Spins way more time out cultivating his land and out working on his property.

I get if I get caught up in that there's really nothing good that can come from that.

You could say, well, you could get out and you could do more and you could fix fence and you could cultivate your property and you could do this.

If I do that and I feel good about it, is that not pride?

Pride in my own work, I think it is.

I think it is.

And a lot of times what I've realized over my years on this earth is we we can do the same thing, but do it differently.

We talked about this with money.

You can still use money.

Money is not the root of all evil.

It can be a route.

To all sorts of evils, but it is not the root of all evil.

And perhaps that's why I stumbled over that sentence earlier, because we've heard that all our lives, money is the root of all evil.

If I have a serious addiction to money, well, maybe it is a good idea that I go move off the grid and live off the land and have 0 affiliation with money.

But most of us, if we think about it properly, can handle life with money.

But instead of doing something to get a certain.

We should be aiming to serve those people, to serve who were called to serve and God will provide thee financial means a great example of this is in December of last year.

I'd never tithed in my life.

And I started tithing in December. 10% of our pay.

Because that's what we felt like we were.

Called to do.

We went through the Bible, we we saw arguments on both sides as to why we're called the tithe, why we're no longer called to tithe.

For us, as we prayed on it.

We felt called the tithe.

Because it's a hard issue, because that however many dollars per paycheck, however, many dollars per month would be gone on things that don't matter on things that we're valuing in our humanness.

But if we turn that money over to what God would like to see done with it, it's amazing how much we've received in return.

Just because our heart was in the right direction.

It's amazing to see how much.

Get the same thing that we were after in the very beginning.

And we get it as sort of a gift in return for our submission.

I'm struggling right now with with our business and getting things going, and I realize that it's because of my idolization of money that I'm so focused on the numbers, how many hours a week did I spend on this?

How many sales did we get, how many this, how many that?

I genuinely believe that the moment I stop that and the moment I genuinely switch to a service mindset 100%, I have good spurts here and there. But 100% everything that I'm looking for in a compensation standpoint.

Is going to be provided.

It's it's funny how often that is the case on.

As soon as we let go, we get.

Unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, distinction, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction.

This one irritates me so much.

I've written a note to myself of social media.

You know, last fall right before I started recording this podcast, I told my wife I'm not going to do social media.

It's just it's.

For me, it's just an evil.

It's just a area where I can compare myself to others in a non healthy way.

It's an area where.

There is a filter.

To where you can say whatever you want and you don't receive a punch in the face.

Our society is like that.

Our society has learned that you can't touch anybody.

You know, growing up where I grew up in the age when I grew up, you didn't say certain things on the playground, but because they were disrespectful and if you ever lost track on whether they were disrespectful or not, you get a punch in the face and you'd quickly be reminded that it probably shouldn't have said that.

No, I'm not promoting violence as an answer for everything, but I am saying that without that fear of consequence, people run wild and people say whatever they want because there's no standard.

There's nothing they have to report to.

We as Christians hold ourselves to a higher standard and.

We have to report to God.

But there are people that say that they're Christians that don't understand that fully, and there's people that say that they're atheists that don't understand that fully and don't want to understand it fully because they don't want to believe that there is a God.

So did I listen to myself last fall?

No, I listened to everyone else who said, oh, you're crazy.

You have to have social media.

You can't have a successful business without social media.

So I listened and I opened social media accounts.

You might be listening to this podcast because of a social media post that I made.

But I invite you to come over and look.

At the numbers.

All the hours that I'm spending in social media is not producing fruit.

For one, it's not providing the numbers that I think we should have.

For two.

I'm not just hopping on social media to produce benefit for others and benefit for the business.

I'm getting caught up in arguments.

I joined I think.

4 Christian leadership Christian entrepreneur groups.

I was just talking to a guy on social media the other day and this is sort of the straw straw.

That broke the.

Camel's back and I was talking about in response to his post about the fear, and I have a difficult time asking people for money.

Turns out that's not such a good thing when you're trying to run a business.

And I thought I was replying to.

His post in relating to his post and he comes back and says you shouldn't feel guilty if your business is.

Good or inherently good in providing the service, which I agreed with.

And but then he tried to sell me something.

Then he said, would you like to take a look at what we've done to?

Identify whether what you're doing is good or not.

And so I replied.

I believe what we are doing is good.

Would you like to take a look at what we have to which he replied?

I have no desire, no interest to look at anything that you have to provide.

And that was the fuse that lit things.

And I'm.

Happy to report.

That what I mentioned in reply was very professional on hey, if you'd like to reach out and message to figure out where we.

Misunderstood each other.

Maybe I didn't understand what you were talking about in your main post.

I'm open to that.

Otherwise peace be with you, but it could have been the Tinder needed to.

To let things just shoot off and just one comment after the other, right and we can each of us can say whatever we want to.

Say even if.

We're within this Christian group and we should behave a certain certain way.

Probably both of us in that instance are not being good representations of what it means to be.

A Christian man and.

It could have just gone on and gone on and gone on, and there was at least an hour at least an hour dedicated to that conversation in my replies back, and there was more time than that, just dwelling on it, just being irritated for the entire day on what was said.

Like how dare this person?

I have no desire, no need.

Like how rude is that?

All of this could have been eliminated if I would have just listened to myself last fall.

Why am I even on social media?

It's doing far more evil than it is good, so there's there's reflection on that, and I need to make a decision on on how to proceed with social media if.

At all.

For we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of this world.

My grandfather and grandmother, we call them Grammy and Papa.

Are the most generous people.

I've ever met and mainly general generous from a financial perspective.

They're not super generous with their time.

They're not the type of people that will tell you that.

They love you all the time.

My Grammy will give us hugs these days, but when my Papa was still around you, you didn't get much affection much.

Hugging going on, but from a financial perspective, they made some correct decisions and they always lived below their means.

And so at the end of their lives they are left with this pile of money.

I used to wonder why my grandfather was giving so much away.

Not because I was hoping to get some of that an inheritance, not not at all.

In fact, I've mentioned to my Grammy if probably a year ago that I hope all the money is gone by the time you pass away.

Because I don't, I don't want.

I see that all the time.

Come into families and wreck relationships and families because they're fighting over the estate.

They're fighting over what was left over, all of that stuff.

That's all evil.

I don't want any of that, but I often used to ask my Papa.

Why he was so generous financially and why he gave to so many causes.

And he used to say one it's easy.

It's it's not difficult to do.

And two, we can't take it with.

And so when I read this.

Last night and this morning.

And I read that section for we brought nothing into the world.

We're born with nothing.

And if we're lucky, we had parents that take good care of us and we cannot take anything out of this world.

On your deathbed, it doesn't matter how much money you have in your bank account, you don't get to transfer that to a heaven bank account.

And those those things are so impactful, yet we still get lost from point A to point B in our lifespan of idolizing money, even though it's something that does not go with us afterwards, it doesn't really make sense.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into temptation.

This leads to ruin destruction.

For me, it's mainly through production.

I don't get caught up too much in income.

I do, but not as much as I get caught up in production.

Production is a cancer in my brain almost every week of my life.

I'm reflecting on the week previous.

On how many hours I dedicated to this and that, and I'm forecasting for the next week on how I'm going to do better and.

The way it currently is, it's it's not healthy.

It's in sort of a derogatory, self, derogatory fashion and so that's something that I need to reflect on and if it's something that you're struggling with, you're not alone.

I'm right there with you.

I'm right there with you.

And as men, this is common for us to fall into this pitfall.

Of idolizing money through production and idolizing money through income.

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

The money is not the root of all evil.

As we've heard before.

You don't.

Get a paycheck and then because you have money, commit murder.

Right, it's not the root of all evil.

Money is and can be evil.

I shouldn't say is evil.

Money can be evil.

Perhaps stated better money is not evil.

The love of money is.

Wandered away from the faith.

You see, people wander away from the faith in what the Bible teaches through their temptation, their temptation leads to justification.

We've all done this well.

If I just do a little bit here.

Well, I don't have to tithe this month because I need to.

Pay the credit card.

I don't need to tithe this month because I have a birthday coming up and presents that I need to purchase.

Well, it's it's OK if I look at a video that I shouldn't be looking at because my.

Wife's out of town.

All sorts of things we can be tempted by, and then we can justify it.

And that's a dangerous place to be, because as soon as we've justified it in our minds, we've made it not sinful or less sinful.

Which opens the gateway to repeat the sin over and over and over and then next thing you know you are entrapped by the sin.

There's a book called Pure Desire.

I believe the author is Ted Roberts.

He is affiliated and and I believe runs Pure Desire ministries.

They teach classes all over the country, one of which I went through a couple of years ago, three years ago now.

I think it was and.

In his book, he talks about a story in which a.

Young Prince of this family sneaks out of the castle every night and rides this dragon well when he rides this dragon, the scales give him some sort of.

Scaly infection on his legs and he's not supposed to ride the dragon.

So what does he do in the next morning when he's out with his family?

He always makes sure he's wearing a long robe or something to to cover.

That up and then the next night he goes out and does the same thing and the next morning he covers up and so on and so forth.

Sin is like that for us.

Where we, we we justify it in the moment.

We can we do it and then we figure out a robe or something to cover up the sin.

Or we try to.

You know, when our wife gets back, we mentioned the things that we did while she was gone.

But of course, we don't mention the video.

And we figure out a way.

To describe what we did during that time, that's not truthful, so on and so forth.

Temptation leads to justification oftentimes, and justification leads to perpetuating sin.

If you're struggling with any of this, brother, if you're struggling with any of this, sister, please reach out.

But before you reach out, you have a decision to be made, and so I recommend that you pray on it.

That you read Scripture affiliated with it, and that you seek wise counsel.

Prayer is easy.

Yes, Jesus tells us how to pray, but I don't believe there's a right or wrong way to pray and so begin however you feel.

There are lots of tools with Scripture.

Hopefully you have a Bible.

If you don't get one and there are tools like concordant concordance that you can get where you can literally and you might not even need to purchase a separate concordance.

And many of the study Bibles.

Have a concordance in the back and it's not an exhaustive concordance, but it's one that works and you can look up.

You can look up sin.

You can look up all sorts of things and it'll tell you the verses that you can go directly to.

And I think that's a wise form of Bible study.

I think a lot of people get lost in the length of the Bible.

They don't know where to start.

They may be flipped to a random page, et cetera, et cetera.

In addition to what I've just recommended, Scripture wise, there's a lot of these resources available for free through apps.

And on websites and you can search, you can do a simple Google search for something that you're looking for in the Bible, and you're going to get plenty of results from reputable websites that tell you exactly where to go.

So in a way, it's acting sort of as a concordance. Why is Council, if you don't have a women's group, if you don't have a men's group, I suggest that you get one and that you lean on them as your tertiary pillar. Prayer would be your first pillar. Scripture would be your second pillar.

The wise counsel would be your third pillar. Let's conclude with the Lord's Prayer.

Pray, then, like this.

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day Our Daily Bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation.

But deliver us from evil.

Audio file

Transcript

Welcome.

Thank you for joining discipleship conditioning brought to you by errett Physiology.

We like to open the show with prayer requests.

You can e-mail us anytime at prayer at error at physiology.com family, and I would like to pray for you if.

You have them.

Today, we're going to talk about.

We're going to talk about evil.

We're going to talk about consumerism all under the scope of 1 Timothy 6, three through 10.

I'd like to share some exciting stuff.

With you that.

We have coming on in air at Physiology.

Our mission as well.

But before that, honestly, what would your reaction be if I told you that we are now generating $27,000?

Per month.

That would be 324,000.

Dollars a year.

What would your reaction be if we told you that the podcast itself alone is producing 4000?

Dollars per month.

If programs are selling $8000 per month.

Off our website.

If the courses we offer 5000.

Per month.

And our coaching is just lighting up like wildfire at $10,000 per month.

Now, beyond the Why would I tell you that?

Assess quickly if you will what you're feeling.

And if you're anything like me, I don't know that this is a a man only relation.

Perhaps more so with men.

But if you're anything like me.

It's very easily to get caught up in the snare of income.

It's very easy to get caught up in comparison.

Talk a little bit later about social media, a huge area of comparison.

Now, I don't promote lying, but I did just lie to you.

None of that's true in terms of of income.

They're not even numbers related to our goals.

They're just random numbers that I came up with about 5 minutes ago.

But the reason why I state them is if we're honest with ourselves, when we mention numbers like that.

A lot of us have a visceral response, a visceral response to almost fill a need.

Like I need to make that much money or envy, jealousy, all sorts of things that we need to avoid.

So today we're going to dive deeper into the.

The topic of money and how we can easily get out of whack with it.

Our mission.

To serve men who have ever felt persecuted for their God-given qualities, men were men were meant to work.

Men were meant to labor.

God gave them the ability to toil the earth, to do all sorts of things.

We oftentimes.

Establish a quantitation with that, whether it be hours per week, in terms of production.

Or if it be a monetary gain, as in compensation per week, per day, whatever the case may be.

We can be persecuted over those God-given qualities. They can be held against us. I've mentioned before that oftentimes men are looked at as the breadwinners, and oftentimes they are thought of as being valuable for for merely that. And they are.

Labeled as shouldn't say they, we are labeled.

As not being able to be nurturing, not being able to take care of our children and be good, responsible fathers.

So the men.

Who have ever felt persecuted over their God-given qualities as they were used against them in a scenario or in?

Our own pitfalls and how we look at.

Quantifying our production or quantifying our income.

Through our anecdotal experiences in this class, the truth of the Bible we teach how God's word impacts every facet of our lives right now.

Wife and I are doing separate Bible studies. She's going through Romans, and I'm going through Hebrews, I joked last podcast about reading 3.4 verses.

Per per day as opposed to 3.4 chapters.

And I was giving my wife a hard time and tell her that she.

She reads at a graduate level and she can read a book in like an hour, and I read it a fourth grade level where I have to sound everything out and while those are both exaggerations, last night, as I focused on Bible study, I read the beginning of Hebrews and I literally read 5.

Versus that was it.

I went into.

I have a study Bible, ESV, study Bible and I read all the notes related to one through 5 which.

Was much more than just verses.

One through five, they expand on all of that and then we bought this 13 volume set called the Expositors Bible Commentary and the 13th volume begins with Hebrew.

Open that up and it's like 3 pages on verses one through 5.

So there's a lot of material to get through, but that fits me.

I'm a deep thinker and I want to sort of marinate in it, and if I go too quickly through it, I I won't retain a lot of what has come across through through the verses that I've assigned myself.

We do this because we believe we are faced with a problem of societal influence outweighing biblical influence, which leads to our succumbing of evil tactics intended to destroy us.

Money is a clever one.

I've talked about this before.

You can't really live without money.

You can.

But it's it's fairly difficult in our day and age, you can't live without.

Food, no matter where.

Where you are, you can't live without water, no matter where you are.

So those are three possible snares that can catch us and.

Keep us.

Snared into temptation over and over and over again because we justify and we have to have them.

They're different from alcohol and things that we can remove ourselves from.

Now, I'm not saying the addiction to alcohol or anything else is less difficult to overcome.

I'm saying that.

Have the option to completely remove alcohol where it is with food, with money to a certain degree in water we don't have that ability now.

Does anybody look at water in an evil way?

Probably for the most part, no.

But what if we had a water shortage and all of a sudden everybody is hoarding their supply of water and not sharing with everyone?

Then it becomes an issue.

Same thing with food.

In addition to food, there could be a food addiction.

And the more you consume food, the more you perpetuate the addiction and the more you perpetuate the addiction, the more you are snared into temptation.

Money, like we'll talk about today, same sort of thing.

So our answer is that we aim to serve brothers and sisters with authenticity in the midst of change, through Our Calling and ministry.

As teachers, I've added in the midst of change today because I really want to get across each week or each three days that we.

We're in the midst of change ourselves.

You know, I oftentimes listen to podcasts and this would be a good opportunity to recommend a few to you.

I listen to all it takes is a goal by John Acuff and I listen to unashamed by the Robinsons, the family from Duck Dynasty.

And others as well.

I'll use those as an example.

And oftentimes when I listen to them.

I feel like.

I am being taught by someone who is on the other side of it by someone who has got their entire life figured out.

And certainly that's not the case.

John Acaf is talking about goals, and he himself has goals that he's working on, but he's had success with a lot of goals previous in life.

The Robinsons are talking about the Bible.

And nobody can understand the Bible fully.

In the days.

That they have on this earth.

And so they're working through it just like the rest of us are.

But I don't.

Want to come across in that way?

I want to serve you in past experiences that I've had or my wife has had in how to get you through where you're currently stuck.

So in that way, we are on the other side of it.

However, I want to be authentic and I want to be vulnerable and I want to show that we are in the midst of change because we want you to know that we are human.

You, we want you to know that we are just like you in many regards.

I don't want to talk down in any anyone.

I want to share my experience.

I want to share how we can help.

But I want it to be evident that we are sinful humans as well.

And what we teach on, we could very well be struggling with at the moment.

Money is a good example of that, and what we teach on.

We may have figured out a way to get past.

And hopefully help you in that regard.

But never do we want you to feel like we are the professionals that are on the other side of this, that are sort of talking down at you like why don't you have this figured out sort of thing we're self sponsored website is error.

Physiology.com.

We have blog style articles.

We've decided to not incorporate vlogs.

There's just so much going on with this podcast and so much going on with courses and programs and whatnot that we've decided to go without vlogs.

Now this this reminds me of last night, speaking with Amanda on, I told her if I could rewind even just three months and give myself some advice, or someone that had an entrepreneurial spirit and was constantly.

Pressing the brake pedal and putting it on hold.

If I could provide one piece of advice, I would say to just take that first step because you don't know what the second step looks like until you take the.

First step and it is amazing how much we've learned since the beginning of 2023, just over two months.

And it all started with building a website and buying the domain, and from there it has just gone to one thing after the other.

And what I have been researching over the weekend in terms of a learning management system.

Has just blown my mind.

It's definitely something I wouldn't even have thought of even just three months ago over the Christmas break.

So with that, I'm excited to share that I mentioned last time that our courses are going to blow up.

We are going to invest a lot of time into our courses.

The two that I'm going to start with are sort of a play on words.

They're going to be an introduction to anatomy and an introduction to Physiology.

Fitting as I've taught that for the last six years.

But as a play on words, I'm going to call them bare bone anatomy and bare bone Physiology, and I'm not sure the extent and length of the course, but we're going to start producing those and I'm I'm looking to finish those as soon as possible.

In addition to that, I'm adding transcripts to each of these podcasts.

I mentioned maybe a week ago that that was a 15 to 30 day process getting closer to that.

We were adding a couple strength and conditioning programs based on request.

Lacrosse and soccer will be on the list short.

We write nonfiction books we're writing a year without television, sort of in the background of all this.

We write this podcast.

We record this podcast.

We publish the show notes online.

We offer coaching, which we call discipleship, conditioning, and this summer we are running a summer camp, a speed, agility and strength camp.

And we are marketing for that.

And we are.

Preparing for that.

And this is all again in conjunction with full time jobs that we both have and.

A baby on the way and a daughter that is 5 1/2 emphasis on the half. If you're interested in any of that, we'll conclude this self sponsorship now, but please reach out at hello at error at physiology.com or go to our website error@physiology.com.

Let's get into what matters one Timothy 6, verses three through 10.

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels.

About words which produce envy, distinction, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich.

Fall into temptation into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

That's one Timothy 6.

Three through 10, I realized as I'm reading through that I've added an S where.

It shouldn't have gone.

Let's see, where did I say?

Oh, teachings that accords.

It's written as teaching, not teachings.

And then a little later on.

What did I say?

Money is the root is the root of all kinds of evil.

It's written is money is a root of all kinds of evil.

So if you mistakes in there.

Pretend that those were edited out, since we don't edit.

The point of all?

This to mention this is that I can never state things better than the Bible can in in what I've just said is evidence of that.

I had at least two errors in reading that to you, so please go read one Timothy 6 three through 10 yourself in whatever version you prefer.

And this would be a great time to pause.

The podcast and to do that.

Now, as I've been doing the last few podcasts, sort of mimicking what you've seen it in commentary in commentary, you'll see them go through a verse and they will highlight usually in bold, the section of the verse.

And then they'll talk about it and then another section.

Of the verse.

And they'll talk about it.

Is, so that's kind of the way that I've been going through things because I really want to be focused on keeping things to what the Bible says and not get off on a tangent.

I by nature am a storyteller.

I do it in class.

All the time.

You get me talking about the Philadelphia Eagles and go off on, you know, the season of 1998 when we went three and 13, the season of 1999, Donovan Mcnabb's first year, we went five and 11, and then the five NFC championships.

And we went to in eight years and and I say we because I'm that big of a Philadelphia Eagles fan, which is ridiculous.

They have no idea who I even am, but the point is that I by nature, I'm a storyteller, and I can get off on these.

Agents and I need a script.

I need to stay focused and I need to keep things focal on the Bible and So what I've done similar to commentary that you may read.

Is take a section talk about it, another section, talk about it and I always want to talk about it.

From a vulnerable, vulnerable.

Perspective and I always want to.

Talk about it in.

Relation to experience.

Again, we are not biblical scholars.

We are not counselors.

We're not therapists.

We're not lawyers.

We're not accountants.

We're not doctors.

We're not any of that.

We want to speak to it from our experience because our experience is valuable regardless of our credentials.

Our experience is valuable and for you, regardless of your credentials, your experience.

Is valuable.

There's too often that I've been told what I can't do in life.

Strength and conditioning is a good job of that, and I realize even as I'm talking here, I go on a tangent, but I think this is worth it for just a moment.

I was told I couldn't be a strength and conditioning coach.

Because I didn't play collegiate football.

I wrote an entire treatise, an entire essay on why that was.

In a sense, ridiculous, we're often told we can't do things because of a specific license we lack or training we don't have or experience we don't have.

Then I understand this doesn't go completely across the board.

I think there's instances where that is relevant, even the further away I get from collegiate football, the more I understand the perspective.

But at the same time, we do enough limiting of each other.

Let's not also do limiting of ourselves if we limited ourselves based on people saying that what you're doing is wrong, you're not a therapist.

You're not a counselor.

You shouldn't be sharing your personal experience.

Those sorts of things.

Then this podcast wouldn't exist.

Not in defiance of the recommendations that people are saying and that people have provided, but because we know that our experience has value.

And we.

Believe we're called to share that experience.

And that is more.

More important than anyone that tells us otherwise, if we listen to what others are telling us, we are then not listening to Our Calling.

We're not listening to God.

Lots of people get in trouble for listening to God.

There's actually our head pastor at Heritage Bible Church in Boise where we attend.

Sends out an e-mail every morning and generally asks in the beginning for prayer request for people that are going through things, and one of the prayer requests that's been on the e-mail the last few days is.

I believe the country is Mali in Africa.

And there was a elder that was beheaded.

In southern Mali, due to preaching the gospel.

And simply being a Christian.

So there's going to be consequences for doing what we do and we understand that, but we will be comfortable in defining man, but not comfortable in defying God.

Now there I go.

I told you I wasn't going to get on a tangent or I told you why I do things.

And then I went off on a tangent.

Well, welcome to the podcast.

I suppose that's just who I am and.

What I do?

Let's look at our application of 1 Timothy 6, three through 10, puffed up with conceit, and understands nothing.

This reminds me of of we we as men.

We are prideful creatures I mentioned to this earlier.

We get caught up.

In the production.

We get caught up in the salary.

I see this all the time where someone is making a certain amount of money and that becomes what they value themselves at, and then they decide to slow things down, take a different position, take a pay cut and they are left feeling like they need to fill this void.

Because they make $20,000 a year less or more.

Obviously that's incorrect.

Obviously we have got caught up in that salary amount.

I'm doing that right now with my current position and in looking to do what I want to do and what I feel called to do.

There is an immediate and significant decrease in salary.

And I get caught up in looking at the podcast and how many views did we get today.

I get caught up in looking at our website and how many sales did we get today.

And then that's a yoyo effect that can either make me feel good or it can make me feel bad, depending on what the numbers state.

Because I'm placing my value in the response that people have to us with views of the podcast with sales.

Value our value comes from our creator.

We wouldn't be here if we weren't created.

And I don't say that in a way of.

Speaking down to you and that's what you have to realize in a sense.

I'm speaking to myself.

That's what I have to realize.

In this world is as I absorb everything that this world has to offer.

I think about the guy next to me.

Heck, my neighbor across the street, I don't think that guy ever goes inside.

He is always working, working, working, working.

And if I get too caught up in that, I feel like I'm not a man because I'm not out repairing fence like he is.

I'm not out building an extension on my house like he is.

Even my neighbor directly next door to me, who is probably 2025 years older than me.

Spins way more time out cultivating his land and out working on his property.

I get if I get caught up in that there's really nothing good that can come from that.

You could say, well, you could get out and you could do more and you could fix fence and you could cultivate your property and you could do this.

If I do that and I feel good about it, is that not pride?

Pride in my own work, I think it is.

I think it is.

And a lot of times what I've realized over my years on this earth is we we can do the same thing, but do it differently.

We talked about this with money.

You can still use money.

Money is not the root of all evil.

It can be a route.

To all sorts of evils, but it is not the root of all evil.

And perhaps that's why I stumbled over that sentence earlier, because we've heard that all our lives, money is the root of all evil.

If I have a serious addiction to money, well, maybe it is a good idea that I go move off the grid and live off the land and have 0 affiliation with money.

But most of us, if we think about it properly, can handle life with money.

But instead of doing something to get a certain.

We should be aiming to serve those people, to serve who were called to serve and God will provide thee financial means a great example of this is in December of last year.

I'd never tithed in my life.

And I started tithing in December. 10% of our pay.

Because that's what we felt like we were.

Called to do.

We went through the Bible, we we saw arguments on both sides as to why we're called the tithe, why we're no longer called to tithe.

For us, as we prayed on it.

We felt called the tithe.

Because it's a hard issue, because that however many dollars per paycheck, however, many dollars per month would be gone on things that don't matter on things that we're valuing in our humanness.

But if we turn that money over to what God would like to see done with it, it's amazing how much we've received in return.

Just because our heart was in the right direction.

It's amazing to see how much.

Get the same thing that we were after in the very beginning.

And we get it as sort of a gift in return for our submission.

I'm struggling right now with with our business and getting things going, and I realize that it's because of my idolization of money that I'm so focused on the numbers, how many hours a week did I spend on this?

How many sales did we get, how many this, how many that?

I genuinely believe that the moment I stop that and the moment I genuinely switch to a service mindset 100%, I have good spurts here and there. But 100% everything that I'm looking for in a compensation standpoint.

Is going to be provided.

It's it's funny how often that is the case on.

As soon as we let go, we get.

Unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, distinction, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction.

This one irritates me so much.

I've written a note to myself of social media.

You know, last fall right before I started recording this podcast, I told my wife I'm not going to do social media.

It's just it's.

For me, it's just an evil.

It's just a area where I can compare myself to others in a non healthy way.

It's an area where.

There is a filter.

To where you can say whatever you want and you don't receive a punch in the face.

Our society is like that.

Our society has learned that you can't touch anybody.

You know, growing up where I grew up in the age when I grew up, you didn't say certain things on the playground, but because they were disrespectful and if you ever lost track on whether they were disrespectful or not, you get a punch in the face and you'd quickly be reminded that it probably shouldn't have said that.

No, I'm not promoting violence as an answer for everything, but I am saying that without that fear of consequence, people run wild and people say whatever they want because there's no standard.

There's nothing they have to report to.

We as Christians hold ourselves to a higher standard and.

We have to report to God.

But there are people that say that they're Christians that don't understand that fully, and there's people that say that they're atheists that don't understand that fully and don't want to understand it fully because they don't want to believe that there is a God.

So did I listen to myself last fall?

No, I listened to everyone else who said, oh, you're crazy.

You have to have social media.

You can't have a successful business without social media.

So I listened and I opened social media accounts.

You might be listening to this podcast because of a social media post that I made.

But I invite you to come over and look.

At the numbers.

All the hours that I'm spending in social media is not producing fruit.

For one, it's not providing the numbers that I think we should have.

For two.

I'm not just hopping on social media to produce benefit for others and benefit for the business.

I'm getting caught up in arguments.

I joined I think.

4 Christian leadership Christian entrepreneur groups.

I was just talking to a guy on social media the other day and this is sort of the straw straw.

That broke the.

Camel's back and I was talking about in response to his post about the fear, and I have a difficult time asking people for money.

Turns out that's not such a good thing when you're trying to run a business.

And I thought I was replying to.

His post in relating to his post and he comes back and says you shouldn't feel guilty if your business is.

Good or inherently good in providing the service, which I agreed with.

And but then he tried to sell me something.

Then he said, would you like to take a look at what we've done to?

Identify whether what you're doing is good or not.

And so I replied.

I believe what we are doing is good.

Would you like to take a look at what we have to which he replied?

I have no desire, no interest to look at anything that you have to provide.

And that was the fuse that lit things.

And I'm.

Happy to report.

That what I mentioned in reply was very professional on hey, if you'd like to reach out and message to figure out where we.

Misunderstood each other.

Maybe I didn't understand what you were talking about in your main post.

I'm open to that.

Otherwise peace be with you, but it could have been the Tinder needed to.

To let things just shoot off and just one comment after the other, right and we can each of us can say whatever we want to.

Say even if.

We're within this Christian group and we should behave a certain certain way.

Probably both of us in that instance are not being good representations of what it means to be.

A Christian man and.

It could have just gone on and gone on and gone on, and there was at least an hour at least an hour dedicated to that conversation in my replies back, and there was more time than that, just dwelling on it, just being irritated for the entire day on what was said.

Like how dare this person?

I have no desire, no need.

Like how rude is that?

All of this could have been eliminated if I would have just listened to myself last fall.

Why am I even on social media?

It's doing far more evil than it is good, so there's there's reflection on that, and I need to make a decision on on how to proceed with social media if.

At all.

For we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of this world.

My grandfather and grandmother, we call them Grammy and Papa.

Are the most generous people.

I've ever met and mainly general generous from a financial perspective.

They're not super generous with their time.

They're not the type of people that will tell you that.

They love you all the time.

My Grammy will give us hugs these days, but when my Papa was still around you, you didn't get much affection much.

Hugging going on, but from a financial perspective, they made some correct decisions and they always lived below their means.

And so at the end of their lives they are left with this pile of money.

I used to wonder why my grandfather was giving so much away.

Not because I was hoping to get some of that an inheritance, not not at all.

In fact, I've mentioned to my Grammy if probably a year ago that I hope all the money is gone by the time you pass away.

Because I don't, I don't want.

I see that all the time.

Come into families and wreck relationships and families because they're fighting over the estate.

They're fighting over what was left over, all of that stuff.

That's all evil.

I don't want any of that, but I often used to ask my Papa.

Why he was so generous financially and why he gave to so many causes.

And he used to say one it's easy.

It's it's not difficult to do.

And two, we can't take it with.

And so when I read this.

Last night and this morning.

And I read that section for we brought nothing into the world.

We're born with nothing.

And if we're lucky, we had parents that take good care of us and we cannot take anything out of this world.

On your deathbed, it doesn't matter how much money you have in your bank account, you don't get to transfer that to a heaven bank account.

And those those things are so impactful, yet we still get lost from point A to point B in our lifespan of idolizing money, even though it's something that does not go with us afterwards, it doesn't really make sense.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into temptation.

This leads to ruin destruction.

For me, it's mainly through production.

I don't get caught up too much in income.

I do, but not as much as I get caught up in production.

Production is a cancer in my brain almost every week of my life.

I'm reflecting on the week previous.

On how many hours I dedicated to this and that, and I'm forecasting for the next week on how I'm going to do better and.

The way it currently is, it's it's not healthy.

It's in sort of a derogatory, self, derogatory fashion and so that's something that I need to reflect on and if it's something that you're struggling with, you're not alone.

I'm right there with you.

I'm right there with you.

And as men, this is common for us to fall into this pitfall.

Of idolizing money through production and idolizing money through income.

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

The money is not the root of all evil.

As we've heard before.

You don't.

Get a paycheck and then because you have money, commit murder.

Right, it's not the root of all evil.

Money is and can be evil.

I shouldn't say is evil.

Money can be evil.

Perhaps stated better money is not evil.

The love of money is.

Wandered away from the faith.

You see, people wander away from the faith in what the Bible teaches through their temptation, their temptation leads to justification.

We've all done this well.

If I just do a little bit here.

Well, I don't have to tithe this month because I need to.

Pay the credit card.

I don't need to tithe this month because I have a birthday coming up and presents that I need to purchase.

Well, it's it's OK if I look at a video that I shouldn't be looking at because my.

Wife's out of town.

All sorts of things we can be tempted by, and then we can justify it.

And that's a dangerous place to be, because as soon as we've justified it in our minds, we've made it not sinful or less sinful.

Which opens the gateway to repeat the sin over and over and over and then next thing you know you are entrapped by the sin.

There's a book called Pure Desire.

I believe the author is Ted Roberts.

He is affiliated and and I believe runs Pure Desire ministries.

They teach classes all over the country, one of which I went through a couple of years ago, three years ago now.

I think it was and.

In his book, he talks about a story in which a.

Young Prince of this family sneaks out of the castle every night and rides this dragon well when he rides this dragon, the scales give him some sort of.

Scaly infection on his legs and he's not supposed to ride the dragon.

So what does he do in the next morning when he's out with his family?

He always makes sure he's wearing a long robe or something to to cover.

That up and then the next night he goes out and does the same thing and the next morning he covers up and so on and so forth.

Sin is like that for us.

Where we, we we justify it in the moment.

We can we do it and then we figure out a robe or something to cover up the sin.

Or we try to.

You know, when our wife gets back, we mentioned the things that we did while she was gone.

But of course, we don't mention the video.

And we figure out a way.

To describe what we did during that time, that's not truthful, so on and so forth.

Temptation leads to justification oftentimes, and justification leads to perpetuating sin.

If you're struggling with any of this, brother, if you're struggling with any of this, sister, please reach out.

But before you reach out, you have a decision to be made, and so I recommend that you pray on it.

That you read Scripture affiliated with it, and that you seek wise counsel.

Prayer is easy.

Yes, Jesus tells us how to pray, but I don't believe there's a right or wrong way to pray and so begin however you feel.

There are lots of tools with Scripture.

Hopefully you have a Bible.

If you don't get one and there are tools like concordant concordance that you can get where you can literally and you might not even need to purchase a separate concordance.

And many of the study Bibles.

Have a concordance in the back and it's not an exhaustive concordance, but it's one that works and you can look up.

You can look up sin.

You can look up all sorts of things and it'll tell you the verses that you can go directly to.

And I think that's a wise form of Bible study.

I think a lot of people get lost in the length of the Bible.

They don't know where to start.

They may be flipped to a random page, et cetera, et cetera.

In addition to what I've just recommended, Scripture wise, there's a lot of these resources available for free through apps.

And on websites and you can search, you can do a simple Google search for something that you're looking for in the Bible, and you're going to get plenty of results from reputable websites that tell you exactly where to go.

So in a way, it's acting sort of as a concordance. Why is Council, if you don't have a women's group, if you don't have a men's group, I suggest that you get one and that you lean on them as your tertiary pillar. Prayer would be your first pillar. Scripture would be your second pillar.

The wise counsel would be your third pillar. Let's conclude with the Lord's Prayer.

Pray, then, like this.

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day Our Daily Bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation.

But deliver us from evil. Amen.