SPEAKER_00 0:00

Men welcome to the most important podcast that you'll hear in a long time. It's the Men's Leadership Community Podcast, and it starts now.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Well, we've been going through our 12 best practices. This is a series that the first time that we're doing them consecutively. And when you're part of the MLC, at one point or another, you know, as you begin to grow in your faith and grow in your relationship and being a part of this, this is something that you're going to run into, that you're going to hear what we're about, what we do. And we thought it was a good idea to go through the whole thing. And so this is where we're where we've been the past few weeks. We're already, man, halfway there. It's hard to believe, halfway there. So we're going to focus again this week, um this week, this two weeks, really on the whole life wellness, what that means, because that's a really huge part of what the MLC does. Whole life wellness. God didn't just call us, you know, just to sit on the pew and just to exercise just our spiritual well-being, but also physical well-being, emotional, spiritual, all of those aspects of it. Christ is at the center, and we'll get more to that about that. But, you know, we've talked about our the MLC story, you know, how it came to be, you know, our central paradigm shift with Christ being at the center, right? And then through that, it leads us to discovering our own personal vision, vision, mission, and values. Uh, and then we had we talk about joining the hero's journey and sharing our story. When we got to listen uh to CJ share his extraordinary story, and hopefully it encourages all of us to and compels us to be able to share our stories. And we hear something all the time that's that people are like, well, I grew up in a Christian home, you know, I don't have an exciting story. And I will tell you this that what when Christ is in your life, when Christ is part of your story, um, that is an important story. That is a an extraordinary story that you should share. And and we'll walk with you. You know, if you're want to do that, if you've never done that, we'll be more than happy to walk with you through that to help you discover what your vision, your mission, and your values are, because it helps us find out who we are, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Yeah. And, you know, the the whole point of Jesus at the center, and we would begin to recognize that when you talk about Christ-centered discipleship, uh, executive and entrepreneurial leadership at home, at work, and in the world, and authentic manhood in the 21st century, Obi, when you begin to recognize this aspect of Christ at the center, uh, that you do have a radical story of redemption, even though you may have at one point thought it wasn't so radical, we come to a deeper understanding that it's ongoing transformation in Christ every day. And one of the key things that that does is it gives us a different viewpoint and a different way of looking at then what is healthy, uh, what does a healthy lifestyle look at? And how does Jesus affect what we talk about when it comes to whole life wellness? And this is kind of a series with a mini series within the series, right, Obi. So we got these 12 best practices, but the next three weeks, beginning with today, are all about whole life wellness, your spiritual and physical, your mental, emotional, your relational, and your vocational. And we're going to marry some things together in order to see how they connect with one another instead of the way that we try to, just with everything else, Obi, we try to compartmentalize aspects of our whole life, health, and wellness, right? So that this part of my health and wellness happens over here, but it never touches this aspect over here, and actually have that Jesus at the center of the very idea of what it means to be healthy and well. So we're going to invite you guys this morning for the next three weeks to get on the bus because this is something that God created it for us to do in community with one another. Yeah, there's a personal aspect of all these things that we talk about, Obi. But when we start talking about whole life health and wellness, this really brings up brings us back to where we started with. We were created for community, and we should not be trying to live out whole life health and wellness by ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

And you know, Andy, what's funny is that a lot of people and a lot of men are very eager to surrender their spiritual life to Christ. Right. But let's not talk about the spiritual. I mean, about the physical or the mental or the emotional part of it. You know, we can talk about the vocational, we can talk about the relational, even. A little. Right. But but but don't, don't, don't, let's not get into the physical or the emotional or the mental.

unknown 4:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

And how why why should men encourage one another that are growing in this relationship and with Christ and in a community? Why should we encourage and advance, advocate for one another to grow in every aspect of our health and not just our spiritual? Because we seem to have compartmentalized as long as you're growing in your spiritual health, nothing else really matters. And we're gonna see that's actually not true for what it means to be a human being.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Well, Andy, why don't we start with some defining moments? So, what is health? Let's talk about what health is. Um, Merriam Webster. Well, I'm just kidding. Uh this is just an overall definition that we I just it just makes me sound smarter when I start thinking about it. What does it mean to be healthy?

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Like, do you do you do you really know what it means to be healthy and and the way that that is discussed, especially in different fields of wellness?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah. So what is health? Health is the overall condition of a person's state of being. It's this how are you doing? It's the state of being free from illness or injury. Okay. I'm not.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Many of you may not be free from illness and injury. I'm not right now. So you got to own up to it when you're not. Yeah. Aches and pains and hurts and sorrows, sure. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Uh, the condition of being sound in body, mind, and spirit. And that's one that really it's gets overlooked a lot.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Yeah, and the connectivity of those three. Being sound in body, mind, and spirit together. So uh, you know, that that's that really leads then into the idea of wellness and living a life that is moving forward in its growing health.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yep. So wellness is a state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.

SPEAKER_04 6:24

You know, it's such a big, big aspect of when you're talking about health and wellness. Intentionality is such a huge aspect of all of our conversations here in the MLC. We want men to grow in their intentionality. So when you get to the idea of wellness, it begins with an intentionality of actively pursuing good health. And then we have to check one another up on that along with ourselves and say, are we actively pursuing becoming healthier and living a life of more wellness? Interesting question.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Uh by the way, an hour on Sunday morning doesn't even cover your spiritual health and wellness.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Just don't just so you know, it does a throw out what you're talking about, you know. If if that's if that's the if that's the extent of it, guys, you're um you're pretty much eating rich crackers, yeah, you know, spiritually.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Well, you're already jumping to the bottom, you're surviving, you're surviving, but that's not what we were meant for.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah. So wellness is a daily lifestyle aimed at a growth orientation rather than a static orientation.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Another aspect that we talk about all the time is a growth mindset versus a static mindset. Well, a growth orientation is central and key to living out a life of wellness. Then are we growing in our health and wellness in a regular, you know, intentional way?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yep. And then um, it's a life that is thriving and not just surviving. We talk about this all the time. That is a phrase that you'll hear here at the MLC. Thriving and not God didn't just call us to survive, to barely eek by. He called us to thrive, right? We remember that reference to brothers in Babylon, right? Where we're talking about Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel. He didn't call us just to survive, he called us to thrive.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Yeah, and I think sometimes we we go for the lowest common denominator of just surviving, like I got through the day. And that, you know, that is true in life. Sometimes getting through the day is a pretty big deal. Uh, but that's not what God has in store for us when Jesus is at the center of every aspect of our health and wellness, because then the desire, you know, from Revelation 21, as we said, behold, I make all things new, right? So that is not surviving, that's now thriving. Uh, look at the newness of your spirituality, your physicality, your intellectual abilities, your emotional state, relational and vocational. So we want to bring that Jesus at the center of bringing newness to our health and wellness on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

That's awesome, right? Because we see this, you know, we talk about compartmentalizing the other aspects of our life, you know, our work, um, our play, uh, you know, our our home, all of these. But this also applies to being Jesus at the center of our emotional and our health well-being, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:13

Quick real accountability check. Yes, oh, I want Jesus at the center of my spiritual health and wellness. And uh, of course, I need Jesus in order to help that grow, but I don't want him telling me what to do with my body. I don't want him telling me that I'm out of shape, you know, or, you know, I don't want him really touching in over here on my vocational aspect. You know, I'm really just supposed to work hard at my job and make good money. What does Christ have to do with my vocations? Parent, father, you know, husband, but also the workplace. So what does he have to do with that? So one of the things that we want to remind everybody of in Jeremiah 29, 7 is actually the Hebrew word shalom is the word for whole life, health, and wellness in Hebrew. Usually, unfortunately, Obi, what we do is we minimize that word and we we we say the word peace.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

So we'll say, oh, here, you know, shalom means peace. But peace actually is God now providing you, instilling you, and calling you to grow in whole life, health, and wellness. So the Hebrew understanding of peace is a life well lived in relationship with God and others. That's peace.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

Well, that's a little bit bigger than I had a quiet moment at the end of the day with a bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yes, because that's what I always, you know, that's what always I always thought about peace. And it wasn't until here this last decade that really the you know the Lord began to reveal to me that shalom is a lot more than just sitting quietly and you know, putting praise and worship in the in the background and you know, meditating on Psalm, you know, 23.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

That can be part of it, but that's not all of it. Yeah. So when we look at these different verses real real quick, then you might ask, well, what does Jesus have to do with my whole life, health, and wellness? Well, Jesus actually words the uses the word shalom, whole life health and wellness, several times in regard to why he came and what he is bringing to us. So I'll be if you want to run through a couple of these real quick with, you know, go back to that one real fast. You know, instead of shalom, what you can read is whole life, health and wellness I I leave with you, my whole life, health and wellness I give to you. How many times have you heard that from John 14, 27? Because usually we read in English, peace I leave with you, and my peace I give you. And you get some kind of 70s hippie flower child thought in your mind, versus actually Jesus is saying, Brand new whole life health and wellness I leave with you, my whole life, health and wellness.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

And it's a lot more than that, it encompasses so much more than just peace part of it, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Absolutely. So now all of a sudden you're you're he's promising us his whole life health and wellness alive and at work in us. Well, check out what Roman says. Yeah. So we're no longer struggling to have whole life health and wellness, but it's now been gifted to us through Jesus. Go ahead with this one, Obi. Yeah, oop.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

All right. That's all right. Quick on the gun. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we now have shalom with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, whole life wellness with God. How great is this?

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Yeah, and we I think I think we undersell then the the the gift of faith. Oh, faith is belief in God. Yes, but look at what comes through faith, and look at what comes through that gift. Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we now have whole life health and wellness with God because Jesus has given it to us.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah. And um check out what uh f yeah and the peace of God, the shalom of God, the whole life wellness of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. See, it's talking about hearts and minds. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

So now in spiritual, physical, and we're getting into the mental and the emotional aspect of health and wellness.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yep. Uh you want some old testament? We got old testament too here, numbers. How about that? May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn your his smile towards you and give you shalom.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

His whole life health and wellness. So now it's a blessing and a prayer. So this is actually something that men should pray over one another, bless one another with, and that's why we're talking about it in community with each other. This is something that we should be encouraging one another to grow in. Yeah. Let's take a look at the first part. Today we're marrying what? Spiritual and physical health and wellness. So we're gonna start with a spiritual, good starting point, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. So, spiritual health and wellness. A couple of things here. A couple of key questions to ask yourself. Am I spiritual? How do I know? What does it mean to be a spiritual man? And how will we define spiritual health and wellness?

SPEAKER_04 14:14

These are actually some pretty big questions that maybe you're in the back of your mind. You think through them, or somebody else has asked you these, but you've never really sat down and processed a response to them that comes from scripture uh and comes from talking with other brothers in Christ. So, I mean, these are really good questions. How do you know they're spiritual? Let's find out.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

All right. I well, let's look at the opposite side first. This is the way of the world. How do you know who you are or what you are? Oh, be look at these. You know, the way of the world begins with, I am what I do. This is not the way of Christ, this is not the way of scripture, but the way of the world is how do I know who I am? Well, I am what I do.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

You know, and I always remember Stuart, the character from In You know, In Living Color. Look at what I can do. Look at what I can do, you know, awkwardly touching people that he shouldn't be touching. Look what I can do. But that's the way of the world. How do I know who I am? Look what I did.

unknown 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

You know, what's the next one, Obi? This is one that we fall into far too often and even more now with the rise of social media.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Oh, yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. I am what others say about me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

So you know, Jamie, Just be very careful about this one. Jay, I heard JB talk. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, that yeah, this is what I was gonna say. I heard JB talking about that earlier, you know, talking about the negativity of the critics saying stuff about you. Yeah, you know, so yeah, social media has done a really good job of you know doing that.

SPEAKER_04 15:42

And finally, the number one marker of who I am in the world today. What is it? I am, I am what I have. Look at all my stuff. Oh, yeah. Touch my stuff. Okay, uh, yeah, and then this leads into a deeper understanding, guys. This is a big one, the lie of the world. Who are you? How do you know who you are? Well, it falls into this. I'm then loved because of what I do. If I do the right things, then the ROI, the return on investment, is I will receive love because of what I do.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Right? Yeah, or I am love because or I am loved because what others say about me.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Do you know how many followers I have, Obi? Man, man, I got a lot of followers. Yeah. And I'm up to three, I think. So this is a dangerous way to decide who you are if you take a look and it's your wife and your son are following your Instagram page, and that's it. Not very popular, yeah. What about I am loved because of what I have, Andy?

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:49

So you can see the way that the way of the world turns into the lie of the world, and then all of a sudden, these are the things that we chase. And the truth about it, Obi, is here's a reality. Look at this, these two things, guys.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

These three things cannot sustain personal identity nor relational community.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

I mean, that's a Friday morning mic drop right there. The way of the world cannot sustain your personal identity or keep you relational in community with others.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah. Uh, and with these three, life is about surviving and anxiously holding on rather than thriving and living in true freedom and joy.

SPEAKER_04 17:28

You know, and that anxiously holding on. How many of us are feeling that that's now become the norm in the world today? How many of us are suffering with normalized anxiety because of the way of the world, right? And that's not that that is not even surviving, to be honest. But God wants us set free for thriving in freedom and joy in Christ versus holding on anxiously every day to what I do, what others say about me, or what stuff I've got.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah. Well, you knew, and you you know what happens, Andy, when one of those when one or all of those three are taken away, right? I mean, it it rocks people's world.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Yeah, what did I do to deserve this? Why is God angry at me? You know, now all of a sudden we're getting these other questions of I must have done something to lose this or to lose that. And now what do I have to do to regain it?

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

Especially God's love and mercy and grace. Well, what do I have to do to regain God's love, mercy, and grace? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

So let's see what Dr. Mont Luther King has to say about that, Andy. There you go. There's nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life devoid of breadth.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Yeah, so really huge to understand that people get bogged down in the length of life and its trudging journey versus the breadth of the joy and the freedom that God wants to breathe into us.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah, so let's see what the Jesus has to say about that. What the transformational truth about all of this is in in contrast to what the world says, right?

SPEAKER_04 19:01

This is huge. We're going from a defining moment. If you if you guys look at the titles, or for those of you that are on your phones and can't see, we've gone from defining moment of the way of the world now to a transforming movement in Christ. Yeah. Because Christ is going to transform us and move us in a different way than the world does. So now a transform transforming movement, look at these three things in comparison to the way of the world, Obi, and how powerful they actually are, and why we should be saying this to one another over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah. So where the way of the world says, I am what I do, Jesus says, You are loved because of what God does for you. Very different. Very different. The world says, I am what others say about me. Jesus says, You are loved because of what God says about you. And the world says, I am what I have. And Jesus says, You are loved because of the good things God gives you.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Right. Instead of, you know, look at the difference now. What God has done, right, that is completed and actually still at work for you. What God says about you, and we're going to find the beautiful thing, whatever God says about his son Jesus, he now says about you, if Christ is at the center and you are in Christ. And then no longer my stuff and anxiously having to hold on to it. But according to Matthew chapter six, Jesus tells us that God gives us good gifts all the time. You know, so we don't have to anxiously hold on. We actually can move into a transforming movement of actually being more gracious and generous with the gifts that we've been given.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

Beloved beyond surviving into thriving, very much more healthy.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Yeah. Yeah. Beloved, being God's beloved. This is out of Ephesians 3:16 through 19, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

It says how many guys would expect that on the call this morning, what does it mean to be spiritual? Am I spiritual? What does it mean to be a spiritual man? And how do I know that the very first aspect of being a spiritual man is to know that you are beloved by God? That actually our dis our definition and our description of this transforming movement begins with love. Because most men would think, well, to be spiritual, it's got to begin with something that I'm supposed to do to be spiritual.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, me doing something, right?

SPEAKER_04 21:23

Right. But instead, it begins with being loved. And a man that knows that he's loved becomes a loving man.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

Think about that for just a second.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and how long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that. This love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

Oh my gosh, that is that is not not surviving to the measure of all the fullness of God. That's a thriving statement. But out of Ephesians 3, 16 through 19, three simple verses, Obi, we actually get the transforming movement of Christ that it begins with the Holy Spirit in your inner being, Christ alive in you, and God's love now pouring into you so that it might flow through you to others. Oh man, that is it should be transformative, right? This is a this is a biblical scriptural definition of what it means to be a spiritual person.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Pretty cool. Yeah. So what does it mean to be spiritual, Andy?

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Well, first and more foremost, you better have a spirit in you.

SPEAKER_04 22:50

But isn't it funny? Once again, it does normally for men, it doesn't start there. To be spiritual begins with what I'm supposed to do. I better go to church, I better follow the commandments, I better pray the Lord's Prayer. I better do this. I better do this. I better. Did you ever stop for just a second and start with what does it mean to be spiritual? Well, maybe I should be filled with the Holy Spirit. Maybe that's where spiritual begins.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah. You know, this is the equivalent of having the mattress tag, you know, lower to the thing that says don't stick your hand in here in the blade, you know, or yeah. First and foremost, it means to be spirit-filled, to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit, to be impregnated with the Holy Spirit Himself. Yeah. Who creates faith in Jesus Christ in you through the gospel message and thus connects you intimately with the Heavenly Father through the person and work of His Son. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 23:45

That's where it begins. That's where being a spiritual person begins. It begins with God's work in you through his Holy Spirit to have faith in his son Jesus Christ, which brings about righteousness. Now, do you guys know what righteousness is? Righteousness is a right relationship, something that was broken that has now been made right once again. Righteousness, and we don't share this enough, Obi, is a right relationship with God, which you can only have if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, who creates faith in you to believe in his son Jesus Christ, who now gives you a righteous relationship with his father once again, because now you're connected to the Father through Jesus' relationship with him. Yeah. So right relationship with God, there you go. Not anything you did, not anything you bought, not anything you said.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

And and this should be freeing, right, Andy? Because we get so caught up on like I was like I was sharing with with you guys at the open mic, we scurry around like rats trying to do so much, right? Trying to maybe earn a little bit more of God's grace and God's God's mercy and God's love. Um listen, check out what a Henry Jam now says uh for a leadership bomb. When we listen to the spirit, we hear a deeper sound, a different beat. Living in a spiritually mature life requires listening to God's voice within and among us.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Yeah, so it's not just personal, it's communal, but it's that deeper voice of God through his Holy Spirit that speaks scripture to us, specifically the gospel message of his son Jesus Christ, which leads us into living a spiritually mature life that is thriving and moving forward. And Henry Jane Allen, he this guy was amazing. He was one of the guys that in the 80s really connected physical and spiritual health and wellness along with mental and emotional, really a groundbreaker on um, we'd gone through 50 years in in the church, worldwide Christian church, of compartmentalizing spirituality, physicality, mental and emotional, relational and vocational as different aspects. And he's one that said, no, they're all completely integrated with one another as a human being, as God's creature, God's creation. So pretty powerful statement from him.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So, Andy, let me continue talking about what it means to be spiritual. Um, as God's filled us with his Holy Spirit, he transforms us through the justifying work of his son Jesus and thus constitute us as the bodily word of the gospel in the world.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

That's kind of pretty cool. What are we doing here on a Friday morning? Well, we're the bodily word of the gospel of Jesus Christ with one another. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

God's living, creative, active, and powerful Holy Spirit thus disrupts, confronts, creates, renews, and reorients our lives through the lens of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

Wait a minute. There's a couple of words there about being spiritual. I don't really care for. You mean when the Holy Spirit is alive in me, he's gonna disrupt my life, he's going to confront me with things, and he's going to create new things and renew me and transform my life and reorient me on a different path than the one that I may want to go on.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Absolutely, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Yes. Oh, oh, I thought everything was gonna be, you know, church bells and choir.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

No, okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

But you mean the Holy Spirit does what he wants with me? That's a part of being a spiritual person. Okay, all right. Just just making sure we we should probably put a disclaimer there, you know. Hey, by the way, if you if you're going down this road, here's what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

He's gonna pursue you and he's gonna collide with you. Correct. Yes, he's gonna invade you, yeah. Uh, to be united with all of those who by faith are in Christ.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

You know, and this is such a big one in our American cultural Christianity, uh, that that we bring up time and again on the MLC, you know, this American cultural Christianity is as long as me and Jesus are okay, everything else is fine. I don't need the church, I don't need you, I just have this personal relationship with Jesus, which is completely unbiblical, unscriptional, unscriptural, and not true. Because the minute you are connected with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are now connected to Christ's body and you are now an active member in that community. Yeah, that's the scriptural truth about being a spiritual person. But if you listen to what does it mean to be spiritual, and and you hear it in our culture today, oh, I'm on this path of spirituality by myself over here, you know, or I'm on this path of spirituality by myself over here. And very rarely do you hear people, when they're they're asked, what does it mean to be spiritual, do they talk about the community they've now been intimately connected to because of their spirituality? Very rarely. It's usually this personalized, you know, journey of the individual. So we want to be very strong about that with you guys. That if you're talking about what does it mean to be spiritual as so far as being spirit-filled with the Holy Spirit, faith in Jesus Christ, renewed righteous relationship with the Father, you are now actively then a part of the body on earth, which is for the brotherhood.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yeah, which is exactly what we're doing here today.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

So, can you actually practice whole life health and wellness by yourself according to the scriptures?

SPEAKER_01 29:19

No, no, no, no, not at all. So, Andy, where do we get this from? Right? So, well, there's gotta be kind of like a source that we have on what spiritual authority is, because I will tell you that for somebody that mismatches socks, I definitely don't want to be that definitely don't want to be the sources of our what we call our spiritual authority.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

There's a book out there called the Bible. This is the source, this is the source. We didn't make this stuff up. It's God's word. The Bible is the ultimate source of authority regarding the spiritual life and what it means to be spiritual and what it means to live a spiritual life in this world. So, but here's the big deal right here: God's word. What's the source of spiritual authority? God's word. Now, this is challenging, especially in the world that we live in in our culture today, because we are told that we are the ultimate authority over our spiritual lives. I'm the ultimate authority over my spiritual life. And then when I engage God's word, when I when I pick up the Bible and I read God's word, guess who's the authority in the moment? Well, I am. And then when it comes to what it means for me to be spiritual, I can pick and choose what parts of God's word I think are making me a more spiritual person and which ones I don't think apply anymore. Anyone see or hear that going on in the world? And then all of a sudden, God's word is not the authority you are. But the reality is God's word is the authority. And when you pick up this word, when you pick up this Bible and you open it up, you're not in control and you're not the one reading it, but God is reading you through his word. Think about that for a second. Yeah, that's one of the pick up the Bible and open it up. This is God's way of reading our lives and writing us into his story. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Yeah, that's that's something that we say here at the MLC. You know, when you're reading God's word, it's reading you.

SPEAKER_04 31:17

Absolutely. So look at number two. So to be spiritual is to be one who daily lives within the reality of God's word. And if you're looking for a description of what is real, how do you define reality? God's word defines, describes, and gives us true reality in the way that He created it and the way He wants us to live in it, thriving along with Him.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

So we're talking about, you know, what is spiritual? What does it mean to be spiritual? And we talked about what the sources for spiritual authority, Andy, and that's good, right? But what is what is the purpose of that? So, what is the purpose of the spiritual life?

SPEAKER_04 32:00

There you go. The part that people love, you know, how many of us love being changed? How many of us love going through change? Well, guess what the first role of the Holy Spirit is, Obi?

SPEAKER_01 32:10

It's for the Holy Spirit to continue to transform us and produce the righteousness of Christ in us as individuals and as a community of brothers towards bravely serving God and serving others daily.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

Yeah, so there's ongoing transformation as the immediate result of what it means to be spiritual, is to recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work daily transforming us into the image and likeness of Jesus more and more. We're not going to get there until he returns, or we, you know, as Obi says, he kills us or he returns, you know, until we die or he comes back, we're not fully going to get there. You know, even Paul, probably the most mature post-resurrection disciple of Jesus Christ, said, at his the end of his life, I've only yet begun to walk. But what a blessing to actually get up from crawling on our hands and knees and the Holy Spirit transforming us into walking more and more like Christ on a daily basis. So this is the ongoing transformation of the spiritual life.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

And you can see in the image of Jesus more and more every day. And you can see that it's not just about us because you know it quickly says uh serving God and serving others daily. And that is something that that is perpetuity, right? That's ongoing, continuing.

SPEAKER_04 33:29

Um, so when we are constantly, and think of this for just a minute, when we are constantly filled with gratitude for what God does for us, the natural response Jesus says in John 15 is we're gonna naturally be more generous with it with others. A good tree produces good fruit. So as God is transforming us through the Holy Spirit and faith in Christ more and more into a good tree, the natural outcome, the natural fruit of that is everything we're thankful for and filled with gratitude for that God's doing in us naturally becomes more generous in the way that we pour it out in serving others and sharing it with one another. It's not even work anymore. This is what blows people away. It just becomes what a good tree does.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

A good tree just starts fruiting naturally. There's no effort on the on the part of the tree to produce lemons or peaches. It just comes naturally. That is the output when the Holy Spirit abides in you, when you've been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Ephesians, yep, and Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 says, For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no man can boast, then no one can boast, for we are God's, for we are God's artwork, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works which God prepared in advance, that we should walk in them.

SPEAKER_04 34:57

You know, and there you get right, you get a perfect connection with John 15, right? A good tree producing good fruit, while the good tree is created in Christ Jesus to produce good works for others that are like Christ. You know, and C.S. Lewis said, We are but little Christ walking around daily. You know, I think he got that from this verse. Yeah. Yeah. Well, a couple of things just to remember then about our beloved reality. I love that little phrase. You know, why are we telling you, get on the bus? Well, get on the bus of number one, being loved, gentlemen. Be okay with being loved, and that your spirituality begins with the love that God has for you. And then what is that, you know, what is the basis of that beloved reality that comes from the source, the the foundation of scripture? Well, God has inspired your spiritual life through the breath of his Holy Spirit, which begins in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, and he breathed his spirit into them. Oh he. Right? So the spiritual life is being inspired, which the Latin inspiro means to be Holy Spirited in you. Inspirited, right? Uh, and then remembering from David, Psalm 139, that you are God's beloved, uh, because he created you. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I mean, God created you with tender love, creative compassion. Uh, these are things that we usually don't talk about as men with one another that we need to do more. How do I know I'm spiritual? I'm loved by God. So it begins with love. And then whatever God says about Jesus, he now says about you. And in Matthew 3:17, at Jesus' baptism, when he comes up out of the water, the Father says to the Son, You're my beloved son on whom my favor rests. Guys, when God now looks at you through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the empty grave, who is alive in you because of the Holy Spirit, guess what the Father says about you now? You're my beloved son on whom my favor rests. And this is the foundation then of what it means to be a spiritual man.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Man, that's transformative, Andy, to know that what God says about Jesus, He says about you. Man, simple.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

I know what he would say about me if I wasn't in Christ. You know, if I didn't have that lens of Christ in between me and the Father, boy, there'd be some other things he'd be saying to me.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

You know, and that's where our identity lies, right? This per this right here is where identity lies. That whatever God says about Jesus, he now says about us.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

And that's that your identity is at the core of who you are. This is kind of what God says about you, right? Goes back to what we said a few minutes ago: the way of the world, the lie of the world versus the transforming movement in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Or the way of the beloved, the way of the beloved, right? That God's God's true love pulls us away from looking at our hearts, our ability, our circumstances, and leads us rather to where God's outpoured gifts create life, love, community.

SPEAKER_04 38:04

These are pretty big deals. So they are. Yeah. I love that. The way of the beloved. The way of the beloved. And here it is. We're gonna we're gonna get through these four. I know we are OB at least today. So the way of the beloved has four key aspects to it. And some of this is taken from Henry now and who we already saw. So check this out when you think about what does it mean to be spiritual? What does it mean to be a spiritual man? Well, it means to be living the way of the beloved on a regular basis. And there's four key aspects to this that we're gonna go through of who you are. Uh so Obi, if you want to read these and then you can see them all kind of connected in with what God says about his son, he says about you.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

One, I am chosen, I am blessed, I am broken, and I am given.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Now, that I don't want to give this away. You guys got to show up at the retreat in October, but these are four key aspects of we're gonna teach sessions on uh Christian meditation. And these are gonna be four key aspects of that meditation that you repeat this uh to yourself over and over again and again about your identity in Christ every day.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

It's a reminder, yeah. Daily reminder. So there's this rhythm of spiritual life, right? As the heart is our own heartbeat that says, I'm chosen, I'm blessed, I'm broken, I'm given. So, what does it mean to be chosen, Andy?

SPEAKER_04 39:32

All right, hashtag chosen, whatever God says about you, Jesus is now said of you. And look at Isaiah 43:1. I love this. What does it mean to be spiritual? It means to recognize that this is the word that God speaks to you this morning and each and every day. Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have bought you back at a price, I have called you by your name, and you are mine. I'm chosen by God, specifically by him. And whatever he says about me now is who I am. These are pretty big words from Isaiah 43.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Yeah, I mean when it's saying that I called you my name, you know, that's not this is a personal, this is a personal, there's a personal relationship about that. Right?

SPEAKER_04 40:17

There's it's not just there's there actually, you know what, when you look at Isaiah 43, it goes on to say, uh, Israel and Jacob. So there's a personal aspect that immediately connects you to what? The greater community that he's called.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Yeah, and it's so beautiful because it's intimate. It's not just you addressing a crowd of, you know, however many, you know, he's he's he's talking to you.

SPEAKER_04 40:39

Yeah, so get on the bus of of being chosen versus choosing God. You know, our American cultural Christianity is oh, yeah, I gotta choose God, I gotta choose God, I gotta choose. No, the rhythm of the spiritual life is being reminded every day, God has chosen you through his son, Jesus, and his Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Isaiah 43, one says, God has chosen you and called you by name. You are precious and unique to God, and he has called you to a unique role to play in his story. Through this, we begin to recognize the chosenness and uniqueness of others and the role they have been called to play.

SPEAKER_04 41:12

Yeah. Pretty cool start being chosen.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

What about blessed?

SPEAKER_04 41:15

Hashtag blessed. Here we go. Get on the bus of hashtag blessed, Matthew 5.3. The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount begins with Jesus saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So with Jesus at the center every day, life is a blessing. And what does it mean when he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit? Blessed are the ones who have come to understand how desperately they are in need of me. Think about that for a second. That's what he means. Blessed are those who have come to a moment in life, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are blessed are those who recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt with nothing to be able to purchase or earn with apart from me. And that's what we're encouraging one another with this morning is what does it mean to be spiritual? Well, we're blessed are we that we're poor in spirit, and we're a group of men that are gathering on a Friday morning to recognize the desperate need we have of Jesus in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

God blesses us abundantly through his gifts, Andy, which come through us, which come to us through his word and the community to which he has called us together as brothers in Christ. We are blessed to be a blessing to others by sharing his good gifts all the time, everywhere, um, and with everyone we meet.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

You know, and if you take a longer look at Matthew 5, 1 through 16, and you definitely take a look at the beatitudes, and depending on who you read, there's eight or nine, doesn't matter. I like, I like the eight, it keeps it a little more organized. But the first four beatitudes, Jesus is preaching all about himself and our desperate need of him. The second four beatitudes, then Jesus is preaching about what we will manifest in the world filled by him. So the first four beatitudes are our desperate need of him, and then the second four beatitudes are this is what a thriving life will look like in me in the world. And this is the way that you will bless others. And that's how he goes into then that whole great salt and light thing, you know, be salt, be light to the world. Because once he fills us out of our desperate need for him, then he promises us that we will manifest that giftedness, that blessedness, then for the benefit of others in the world. So blessed to be a blessing. Yeah, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Yep. Hashtag broken, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Yeah, so this, of course, is very simple with Jesus at the center. Every day is filled with grace. Psalm 32, one says, Blessed is the one. See how we're kind of building on these beloved, blessed, blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered, and we are daily reminded of our brokenness, of our sinfulness, and yet God's great forgiveness. Day in and day out. So every day is a day to recognize our brokenness and celebrate God's forgiveness.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:08

And so that keeps us pretty humble, by the way. It should, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Yeah. So we talk about how as believers we should never be walking with a swagger like we had something to do with it. Right. Which we go into pride right here, right? Here we go. Um, the greatest curse of the spiritual life is conceit, which causes, which causes spiritual blindness, which leads to a prideful denial that the whole of the spiritual life flows from God's love. This is what it means to be unspiritual or spiritually ill. Here, God has blessed us with the awareness, recognition, and confession of the brokenness in our hearts, thoughts, emotions, relationships, and deeds.

SPEAKER_04 44:49

Yeah, so it's really good. You want to talk about what it means to be spiritually ill, it begins with spiritual conceit. I'm doing this, or I'm the one chasing after God, or look at, you know, I'm living out this Christian life and this and that, instead of recognizing that the spiritual life flows from God's love to us. And Martin Luther, uh, you know, in the 1500s, not Martin Luther King Jr., but Martin Luther the reformer said that, you know, pride is the core of being spiritually ill. It began in the garden with the serpent and all that, right? But he said then that the true health, spiritual health, is that every day is a day of repentance. So really the whole of the Christian life begins with daily repentance. And this is actually then what makes us spiritually healthy once again: recognition, awareness, confession of our brokenness, and then receiving God's forgiveness, his love flowing back to us over and over again. So if you get a KF, take a look at Psalm 51, it's really beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

So, two things to do with our brokenness, guys. Yep. Courage. God has given us the courage to embrace the reality of our brokenness and not deny it. Part of the MLC, part of what we do.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

Such a weird thing is like to believe that confession is a gift from God. Like, did you know, for those of us that may not know that, we would not know that we were sinful and broken apart from God's word. Everybody has an inkling and a sniff in their nose that something doesn't smell right in the world, but we wouldn't know what it is apart from God's word, saying that it's sin and brokenness inside of us.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:29

Because the natural broken human reaction to understanding that the world just doesn't smell quite right and doesn't look quite right is to point at others and say, this is why it doesn't look right, or this is why it doesn't smell right. But God's word is gifts us with the courage to look into our own hearts and go, oh, I'm the problem.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Yeah. And then once we once we accept that, once we uh acknowledge our brokenness, you know, then God called us to dare to put our brokenness under the blessings of his forgiveness in Christ Jesus. And how he now sees us speaks to us as his man. Yeah, pretty huge.

SPEAKER_04 47:09

Yeah, so courage and to dare. You want to talk about the spiritual life. God gives us the courage, courage to recognize our sin and brokenness, and to dare to actually believe him when he says he forgives us.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Yeah. And this is what it means to be spiritually healthy, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 47:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

But now, you know, we're we're broken. Um, now we are hashtag blessed and chosen. Um now we get hashtag given because you know, this there's a lot more than happens with all of this that we have.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

You know, and this is where that whole me and Jesus stuff stops way too short. Because if this whole cultural American cultural Christianity of as long as me and Jesus are okay, that's all that matters. You're missing out then on the reality of the givenness. So chosen, blessed, broken, but now given with Jesus at the center, we are now his hands and feet in the world. And this is where we get that whole beginning of whole life wellness from Jeremiah 29:7. Also seek, advocate for, go after, be a part of giving the whole life wealth, health, and wellness and prosperity of the city to which I've called you into exile. For if it prospers, you too will prosper. You know, so this is God's call for his people, you and me, all of us, to now be given to the world.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Which means that God has now given us the world where spiritual health and wellness includes the new reality that God has called us to give up our rights to ourselves to Jesus Christ, and now identify ourselves entirely with God's interest in the brothers outwardly. Yep. To be servant-hearted and other-centered at home, at work, in the world. He has blessed us with a new purpose that we are given for others. And it simply means to grow more and more into the image of Jesus or being spiritually healthy.

SPEAKER_04 49:08

Yeah. So now a huge aspect of our spiritual health and wellness is our givenness, our givenness to our wives, our givenness to our children, our givenness to the brothers on the call, our givenness to the people at work, our givenness to our neighbors.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

That's living and leading as the beloved, right? So the great challenge and adventure here in all this is to listen to the voice that calls us, his beloved day in and day out, rather than the lies of the world. We are called to listen with great attention, excitement, and expectation to what God has to say to us and exercising the gifts that he continues to give to us, to share with one another and with others.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

Yeah, and there's a cool aspect then. We're not going to be able to get into it today, Obi, because of time. So we're going to have to figure out how to do this next Friday a little bit better. It's a ton of phenomenal content, but then look at what happens then with the spiritual life. So the spiritual life, go ahead and go to the next slide, Obi, should be completely compartmentalized from every other aspect of life, right? No. No.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

So it immediately connects us to a community.

SPEAKER_04 50:18

Go ahead, Obi.

SPEAKER_01 50:19

Yeah, we're called to be a community of brothers that is born out of being the beloved of God together, a brotherhood and relationship based on God's fullness rather than for our lonely emptiness, forming hope together.

SPEAKER_04 50:33

Hope together. What a great phrase. You want to know what the MLP is all about and what we're doing on Friday mornings? We're forming hope together. Think of that. That's a pretty cool line.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

It is a really cool line. Um, forming hope together as we recognize that each of us are God's beloved with room to grow, setting us free to advance God's peace in the midst of a broken world and sinful world. And this is what it means to live and lead as his beloved.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

Yeah, and and this next phrase, I think it's Henry Nowan, really beautiful for the way it connects us into our physical health and wellness. Check this out.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

Spiritual health and wellness does not lead us out of engagement with the world. Rather, it leads us deeper into it.

SPEAKER_04 51:18

Immediately into our physicality and the way that we're present in the world physically. So go to that great verse from Jesus, John chapter 17.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

Yep. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

SPEAKER_04 51:48

But Jesus says the deeper reality of spiritual health and wellness is a stronger engagement in the physical world.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:55

Isn't that pretty awesome? Yeah, we're supposed to be talking about those together this morning, but it's already eight o'clock. It's already eight o'clock. So we'll figure that out a little bit better for next Friday. But we're going to jump then from spiritual health and wellness and its intimate and integrated connectedness to our physical health and wellness. Uh, next Friday, we'll start with that. And, you know, thinking about what in the world does my body have to do with my faith? Uh, and what does the Bible have to say about my body? And actually, you're gonna be hopefully wonderfully surprised at how much the Bible uh actually says about our bodies and how important they are and how much God loves them and and the beauty of them and the way he created them and the way that he wants us to take care of them with one another.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

Mm-hmm. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_04 52:43

Yeah. So Obi, you want to pray us out for this morning, and then we'll we'll leave guys on the cliffhanger for that one for next Friday.

SPEAKER_01 52:49

Um, Lord, we thank you so much for loving us despite us. Thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ that transforms us and calls us to, man, just not go to church, not just be um people that sit on the sidelines and and read, and and that's all we do. But you call us into action to be part of a community, to part, to be part of brotherhood, that we spur each other towards holiness, that we encourage one another, that we confess daily with one another and grow in our affection towards you and towards each other. Help us be men of action. Let your words transform our hearts, let the gospel of Jesus Christ actually take root in our hearts and compel us to go out into the world. I thank you for each person that's here. I ask you that you allow us to not just be hearers and readers of your word, but men that put it to action in our daily lives, in every aspect of our life, with you at the center. We pray all of these things in the precious name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 53:52

Thanks for joining and listening. We hope that you were truly blessed. Now you can join the live call every Friday morning at 7 a.m. Central Standard Time, and please bring a friend. And to learn more about the MLC, visit our website at the mlc.life. That's the mlc.life. Have a great day.