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_04 0:16

Well, uh, we are more than halfway into our summer series, the 12 Best Practices, first time that we've done them consecutively. You'll hear them throughout our conversations. Uh, and you may see us do one or two throughout the, you know, peppered through the year, but we run through them all at once so that you can see kind of a roadmap that we have on what it means to be a part of the MLC and why we exist and why we do what we do. Right.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

You know, oh yeah, I'm so excited about these because we're right at the heart of the 12 best practices, which is all about whole life wellness. And and today and next Friday are two of the biggest ones. I love how we started, you know, with spiritual health and wellness, physical health and wellness, and really want to encourage men to grow in that, what the Bible has to say about your bodies. We talked about that last week, but this week and next week, talking about mental and emotional health and wellness. I these these are concepts that men, for whatever reason, the stigma that comes with it, men shy away from these more than than any of the other conversations that we have.

SPEAKER_04 1:19

Yeah. And we want to we want to grow you into that. We want to grow you into that uh and help you understand and help you embrace a healthy way to view uh mental health.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah, talk about, you know, it began it began two weeks ago with the spiritual health and wellness with the way of the beloved, right? You see these on the screen, I am chosen, I am blessed, I am broken, I am given. Uh, and and these beautiful words that share with us, but that's not the end of the story. But so often when you when you go to church or you're with a friend that believes in Jesus, it seems like we almost compartmentalize our spiritual health and wellness out from everything else in our lives as the only thing that matters. And there's no other aspect of your life that really matters to Jesus, which is utterly not true. And that was this key statement here from Henry Henry uh J. M. Nowin, uh, that you know, our spiritual health and wellness doesn't lead us out of engagement with the world, but rather deeper into it. So the healthier that we are spiritually, the more we're gonna dive into, which we did last Friday, Obi, our physical health and wellness, right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Even Jesus said that, these great words from John 17 when he's talking to his disciples right before he's about to leave.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

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_02 2:51

And do you think Jesus wants to send us into further engagement with the world as weak men or as strong men? And a part of that strength is how he's sending us into the world physically, and that was such a big one. I think we had a great conversation last Friday for those of you that were with us. And those of you that weren't, don't forget we have our podcast. You can go back. This is one of those things, Obi, you can listen to the whole 12 best practices in a row when we're done, or you can go in and say, Hey, I really want to hear that section that we did over several weeks on whole whole life health and wellness.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Yeah. And, you know, again, we we talk about physical wellness, we're aware of it. We know that uh there are benefits to it, right? But so many times we don't associate it with it being part of what Jesus called us to be.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Part of our worship, part of our intimate relationship with the Father through the Son. And why did Jesus come and be incarnate as a man? How come, you know, how come our forgiveness and our eternal life just didn't come through the Thanosnap? Oh, we you know, how come Jesus had to become a human being? Well, he actually cares about our humanity. There was another one, JB. So they live, and now Marvel. That's we're getting all the movie references.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

Andy's on fire today, you guys. Well, you know, and you know, it's it's crazy to think that now, like, you know, that all these people are coming up with all this research that says, hey, you know, rest, taking care of that, it's good for you and all that. And, you know, we're like, I know, we know, right? Jesus, Jesus, you know, God designed this from the beginning. Um, and so we have this thing, this holistic benefit of physical health and wellness. And we kind of laid it out on on a slide here, uh, that begins with rest that is built on healthy nutrition, that is strengthened through regular exercise, that is to be shared by living in a healthy community. How about that one?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

How about talking about this with each other, exemplifying it to one another, challenging one another in a brotherly way to get more healthy with each other?

SPEAKER_04 4:54

Yep. Which of course culminates and leads to thriving with less anxiety, which the world right now is telling us that is the norm.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

These are so huge. And you know, Obi, you just said something really important that we're gonna touch on today when we get to our mental health and wellness. I know, I know. Guys like to say I know, but then they don't do. And there's a huge difference between knowledge and wisdom. And we're gonna talk about that with our mental health and wellness that'll come back around, and all of these things are integrated and intimately connected to one another. But yeah, so you know, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't do it.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

Yeah. You know, and we saw this beautiful quote by uh Jacko Wilnick, uh, to calm the mind exhausts the body.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Man, this is ancient, like this is ancient kind of you know, philosophy that comes all the way down from the great thinkers from Christ and others before him, even from different backgrounds, you know. Uh, and and if you want to calm your mind, and we live in a world now of here's the phrase, we live in a world of normalized anxiety. Normalized anxiety, guys, we mean you go, I know, I know, but well, what are we doing about that then? What are we doing to live more healthy lives as men in Christ, Obi, in a world of normalized anxiety? And a part of that is our physical health and wellness to calm the mind in order that we might get better rest, actually thrive instead of survive, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:17

Yeah, and how many times in the Old Testament, in the Bible, it talks about resting, it talks about not being anxious, it talks about meditating, it talks about being still, um, something that God, you know, expects us to do, right? There's a reason for that. Um, I love this scripture by on in Matthew, this is in the New Testament, that says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather barms, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can at a single hour do his span in life?

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Yeah, really beautiful, and I love that. Are you not of more value to our heavenly father than these other things that he takes care of without them even asking him to do it? And we're of greater value to him. So we are men of great value who are receiving God's great love. And the desire is that as we grow in that love in Christ, we will also grow in our competence to live whole life, wellness lives, Obi, that have less anxiety. And it is true, the healthier that we get with one another as a group of men in Christ, the less anxious we will be. Because a huge part of anxiety is isolation. So we're we're challenging that just by being together the way that we are on Fridays, the way that we are at happy hours, the way that we gather at the retreat. We're challenging that life of isolation that leads to anxiety just by being a group of brothers in Christ and sharing with one another the way that we do.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Yeah. And it starts with Jesus at the center. Andy, that's a that you know, that's a big part of it. And what we what we talk about when we talk about all the aspects of our lives, spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, vocational, we always talk about Jesus being at the center of it. And again, we don't compartmentalize these aspects of our life, just like we don't compartmentalize who we are at church, who we are at work, who we are at home. Jesus is always at the center, and he is what the driving force be that that shapes all these aspects in our life.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Absolutely. So today we're gonna talk about our mental or our intellectual health and wellness. Next Friday, we're gonna hit our emotional. They go together. We just don't have the time to cover them all in one Friday, and we don't want to skimp short. Obi and I have talked about this a couple of different times. Uh, you know, at first we wanted to try and uh, you know, see if we could get these in three Fridays, but it's turning into six because it's just I Obi, I think it's way too important of a content and a conversation that guys just don't get to hear or have with one another regularly or enough.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

Yeah, I agree. And this is we're very passionate about this. Andy and I are very passionate about this. We see that there is a huge need. Um, and ever in an ever increasing number of men that are lonely, that are doing life alone, and that are suffering silently. And it's not God did not call us to to just survive, to just make it through by the grit of our teeth every day. He called us to thrive and to thrive in a community of believers.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

So and every every one of us, Obi, has a danger when we live that isolated life in our own echo chamber with only our voice.

unknown 9:37

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

So we've got to get out of our echo chamber, talk to one another, hear from one another so that somebody can ask these kind of serious questions, like, when is the last time, Obi, somebody asked you out loud, how's your thinking going?

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Like, think just for a second, guys. How is your thinking today? How's your thinking been going? So that's a pretty huge one right there. That we just don't sit down and ask, Well, what do you mean by that? What do you mean, how's my thinking going? We're gonna dive into that today.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Yeah. What about what does the Bible say about my thinking?

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Oh, you mean God actually cares about how I think, not just how I pray?

SPEAKER_04 10:12

Yeah. And how will we define intellectual health and wellness?

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Which is a pretty important thing to do is we start with defining, then we get into the transforming aspect of Jesus. We've got a nice little pattern that we're running here over these weeks together, Obi, of defining things first, seeing how the world looks at them, seeing how scripture looks at them, and then seeing what it means to live in this transformational, uh, new way of life in Christ when we're in the subject matter of our intellectual health and wellness today.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

Well, I'm glad you mentioned defining because we're going to start by uh defining what mental health is. All right. So, mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to interact with and make a contribution to his or her community. It includes our psychological, intellectual, emotional, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act, and it also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

I think we underestimate that simple question, man. How is your thinking? And look at what our thinking engages our psychological aspect and makeup, our intellectual, our emotional, our social well-being, how we think, feel, and act. But then look at this. How we handle stress, how's your thinking going? Also, is then how how are you handling stress right now, guys? What's your thought process as you work through stress? Do you have one? Or do you just or do you just respond to the stress that comes to you? You know, how are you relating to others? Look at the way that the world today has fallen into camps, Obi, that are divergently opposite of one another, can no longer actually work through disagreement because their thinking no longer allows it. If you're in that camp, I hate you. And if they're in that camp, they hate me. And you can't actually think through disagreements. Right? So we're not relating to one another. And then how do we make our choices, which are usually much more driven by our gut than they are by our brain? Oof.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Big, big deal. Well, um, you know, mental health involves, but is not limited to uh emotional well-being. Again, we talked about managing feelings and coping with daily stress and experience positive moods.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

And that's a pretty big one, managing your feelings. We are we we are not talking about emotional well-being next Friday, insofar as how do you how do I stop feeling? No, God gave us our emotions. The problem is they've now been broken and splintered and fractured by sin. And now we have bad emotions and good emotions. And we have to be able to think through, hey, what am I going through today? Am I allowing bad emotions? Am I allowing sinful, corrupted emotions to run my life? Or am I living on the good new man in Christ emotions? So it's about discerning those feelings, not getting rid of those feelings, but discerning those feelings, Obi.

SPEAKER_04 13:21

Yeah, I got another one for you. Psychological functioning, thinking clearly, making sound decisions and recognizing personal potential. Pretty big.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Yeah. Clarity, man, and I'll tell you what, clarity is such a huge one for a man's life. Are you thinking clearly through things?

SPEAKER_04 13:41

Are you are you making sound decisions, not governed by you know feelings? Right. Right, by unmanaged feelings. Um, uh social connection, building healthy relationships, interacting with others, and contributing to a community.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Isn't that great though? That with the MLC, we can we can actually say we are intentionally striving after the third one just by gathering together. You know, that we're actively living that one out right now. And there's nothing better than to be able to say, hey, oh, I'm I'm a part of that. I'm working towards that.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Well, and as believers in Christ, you notice how it always it always continues outward, you know, it always pours outward. It's not just about you. God calls us to do a lot more than that, than interacting with others and building healthy relationships, contributing, pouring out. Yeah. So it involves, but it's also not limited to um a desire and energy to learn, immersion in literature, philosophy, mathematics, composition, music, arts and science. Andy, this is crazy talk.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

This is like being a renaissance man, guys, you know, and engaging in different aspects of the world that God gives to us for us to engage and appreciate. And are we appreciating different aspects of the world, or are we getting compartmentalized into, you know, just one area that we enjoy and not actually becoming well-rounded? But when you ask the question, Obi, how's your thinking? One of the things we can ask just by this first one is is it well-rounded thinking? Or is it very limited, restricted, redu, reductive, uh compartmentalized thinking? Are you a well-rounded thinker? Well, that's a a renaissance man kind of question.

SPEAKER_04 15:27

Yeah. I'm talking about continued growth and critical thinking, reasoning, reasoning and speaking skills. Reasoning and speaking skills, reasoning and speaking skills. Hey, listen to speaking skills. That's why I have to have my tea in the board again. Growth. Oh growth and wisdom through practical life experience, uh, keeping informed about political and social issues, and being able to speak to them intelligently and with those who disagree.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

This is pretty huge. But one of them recently, Obi, that you and I have talked through, just as fathers, this you know, growth in wisdom through practical life experience. This is one of the key things that the MLC offers is we've got some guys that are a little further along the road than some others when it comes to marriage or parenting. And Obi, you and I had r lunch recently, and you were like, Man, I, you know, I heard you share that you and and Jen and Sam all went through some stuff this past year where you grew with one another. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Because I want to know, maybe in the way that that Kim and I are handling O2 as he's coming into young adult manhood. Can you share with me a little bit of your experience? And might that be able to help us a little?

SPEAKER_04 16:49

Why wouldn't you want to take care of what like why wouldn't you want to take advantage of somebody that's already bled, that's already gone through the ringer, right? So so to learn. My dad always used to tell me, learn from my blood.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yeah, yeah. Uh, which, you know, one of the things that you find out is, you know, one of the great, great things is to help help our younger ones, our our children, learn from our experiences and share that things, you know, the the the world now says, well, you know, has a definition of failure, Obi. Which means you failed, you're not good enough, you didn't live up to the standard. You know, Jen and I redefine failure for Sam as first opportunity to learn. You know, so there's a a biblical scriptural way to discuss failure as sinful and broken human beings who also receive God's grace and mercy through Jesus and say, you know what, your failure is simply your first opportunity to learn and to learn where to turn when you failed, and then how to walk out of that in a different way.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

Yeah. Well, which kind of leads us into this last mentorship.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

You know, mentoring and continuing education to the next generation. Again, God didn't just call us to hoard all of this knowledge to keep all this to ourselves. Uh, it always extends outwardly, it always pours out outwardly. God didn't just give that so you could just sit on that information and then ride the wave until he calls you home.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Oh, JB's gonna love this. I'm gonna throw out another movie. Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers and Return of the King. Do you remember when we talked about storytelling and that J.R.R. Tolkien actually put a character into the Lord of the Rings who knew the story, loved the story, but kept it to himself. It was Dinethor, the steward of Gondor. He knew that there was to be the return of the king, but he loved the power of ruling the city of Gondor and the people. So he didn't let the story get out there that the king was returning. But we do that as brothers in Christ sometimes. We know the gospel, we appreciate the gospel, we love that it's working in our lives, but I really don't want to have to share that with other people. And we hoard it to ourselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Well, here's a defining moment. You know, our intellectual health and wellness is recognizing one's intellectual capabilities and the intentionality to continue seeking ways to expand both knowledge and wisdom through critical and creative thinking skills.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

These are huge concepts, guys, that I just I don't think we get to hear enough. I don't think we get to discuss enough with one another on a regular basis. So knowledge and wisdom are different things uh that we are uh we are called to grow and expand in through critical and creative thinking. Now, the really beautiful thing about we're gonna get just a little bit into critical thinking, but Obi and I are gonna do an eight-week series with you guys after the retreat on the eight aspects of critical thinking. So you Obi, it might even look like we've set all this up to go somewhere the rest of the fall.

SPEAKER_04 19:51

Like almost intentional, Andy. My goodness. Well, let's talk first about what the difference is between knowledge and wisdom, right? There is a key difference. So we're gonna talk about knowledge. Knowledge is what we know, the state of perception of a fact or truth through clear and certain mental apprehension.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Information gathering, right? Knowledge is information gathering, data dumping, downloading, and all that. But knowledge is not wisdom. There are a lot of us out there that are phenomenal at going and finding information. Uh, the internet and all the different browsers now have made it very possible, especially now with Chat GPT and AI. You can type in a question to something and it'll spit out the answer and even some advice. But that's not wisdom. Yes, it's knowledge, and we need to grow in our knowledge, but it's not wisdom.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

Well good is knowledge without wisdom. And wisdom is the understanding, cognitive ability, and intentionality of using and putting that knowledge into practice in purposeful and meaningful ways.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

So I am not anti-AI, but I'm also not pro-AI. I'm understanding that AI is a reality. And the question is: when it comes to knowledge and wisdom, how are we going to approach and deal with AI? Mm-hmm. You can utilize AI really well for knowledge, but I'd be very, very careful about utilizing AI for your wisdom because that comes to your experience of actually putting your cognitive ability intentionally to work and into practice in purposeful and meaningful ways. That's different.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Oh, Andy, my heart, my heart hurts so much because I know so many people that hold the phone up to them and they're like, Hey, what should I do about and you know they just let's just ask.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

This is what happens when we take something that can be a gift and a useful tool in our lives, and all of a sudden we let it take our place. And that's what we want to be careful of. We want to utilize it as a powerful tool, but we don't want it to take the place of our own thinking. Go ahead, Gunner.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Uh, so I saw a video the other day and it really hit. Me, it was so simple and so crazy that it but it was very poignant to me. Uh it was uh a machine that goes out and lays asphalt, you know, and there was a couple really hard stones in the asphalt, and the machine can't detect that there's a problem in the asphalt, so there's the human aspect of it that has to follow behind and fix these little divots and little pots and little holes, right? And so it's it's kind of like the same way with this AI or anything that goes along with what you do as far as researching something. You can research it and find all the information, but it's how you utilize that information is where the wisdom come from. And it just kind of hit me as like wow, that it wasn't the the machine, you know, the guy was chasing the fact that the steamroller was coming up behind, and he had to figure out how to get all these holes fixed before the steamroller came and flattened everything. So, you know, it just kind of those types of small messages that pop into your life that can help you answer some of your spots of wisdom or knowledge.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Oh, yeah, yeah. And AI is not the only one. Look, I have on my desk right now, look what I'm rereading, guys. I'm rereading 1984, right? So this is when, and and if you don't know 1984 very well, uh, it's how propaganda begins to actually do mind control or thought control over an entire culture and a group of people because they no longer think for themselves, but they allow the propaganda machines that are spewing into them to think for them. And are we are we mentally healthy enough and aware, Obi, to move beyond knowledge into wisdom, to actually have our own thoughts, to take in information and to make wise decisions based on our worldview, which is a particular worldview, which is a different worldview than the propaganda machines of the earth, whatever they may be. And I'm not not one side or the other, but the minute you start talking about sides, you're immediately in the conversation of a propaganda that wants you to believe a certain way. And immediately the first thing they want you to do is believe the way they believe and not the way that God wants you to believe, to think the way they think, not the way that God wants you to think.

SPEAKER_04 24:33

Well, Andy, you know, I'm glad you mentioned that because everything that we do always points back towards scripture, because we require a constant, something that is truth, that doesn't change, that is eternal, uh, that is unshakable and uncorruptible. So let's let's see what uh let's see what the Bible says about knowledge and wisdom.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Yeah. This is this is your one of your favorite ones, Obi. And the difference between knowledge and wisdom is the difference between having the information and actually doing something intentional and purposeful with it.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

Yeah, and you will always hear me pray this. This is always part of my prayer. Um, James 1, 22, 25 says, Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says, it's like someone who looks at the face, at his face in the mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they'll be blessed in what they do.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Now let's put this in context with our intellectual health and wellness and how's your thinking. Uh, right here, this says, James specifically says, the word of God has been given to you as a worldview to be lived out in practice in the world. But if it's just information or if it's just a data dump, but it's not actually the way that you live in the world and engage it with wisdom, you're gonna forget what you look like, right? You're gonna walk away from the mirror and forget what you look like, which means you're gonna walk away from God's word. You know it, but you're gonna walk away from God's word, and immediately propaganda machines and other things are going to engage you, and you're gonna forget who you are in Christ, and you're gonna be lured away, tossed on the sea back and forth. So, not only how you know, asking a question, how's your thinking insofar as where do you get your knowledge from? Are you utilizing it for wisdom? But do you know who you are and whose you are, and are you living that out in the world with your worldview? And ours is a biblical scriptural worldview in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. And it's by the way, shocker, it's supposed to be practical and healthy.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

No way, yeah. So let's uh let's have a we have another defining moment here, Andy. Yeah, we're gonna talk about awareness and cognitive fitness. So I love that.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

JB ought to be all excited about this. We get our guys that are awesome, awesome about physical, but JD, we're connecting fitness to our cognitive thinking. Isn't that awesome? What's your cognitive fitness like right now? What if we started asking that instead of what's your weight? What's your body mass index? You know, some of these other things that are very important with our physicality, but what if we started asking, what's your cognitive fitness like today, Obi?

SPEAKER_04 27:23

Yep. Yeah. So awareness of one's world perception of reality and understanding of different yet necessary types of thinking. And then cognitive fitness, mental preparedness, and execution.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Yeah, I love that. You know, JB, this can get into all kinds of connections with physical fitness and how we measure it or how we look at it. We can even bring in crazy things, JB, like ego lifting. We can bring in ego cognitive fitness. Like, are you learning things just to be the smartest guy in the room? Or are you learning more so that you can become more wise in serving others? You know, so are we ego lifting or are we lifting for actual health and and wellness in our mentality and our intellectual functionality to be able to serve others better with the way that our thinking is going?

SPEAKER_04 28:11

You know, Jeff Presler shared something with me one time. He was talking about, uh, I think he was talking with, telling me that he was talking with his wife, and he mentioned he said something that really stuck with me. He says, I don't want to be right, I want to be righteous. I thought that was pretty. And I was thinking about that just as you were talking about this, not just knowing for for the sake of knowing to being right, but to know the heart of God.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Knowledge. That that lesson came from a kick in the teeth, by the way, just so you know. That was a that was not like, oh, just me being like figuring something out on my own. That that came from God saying you have two options and you pick the wrong one enough times, at least three times.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

See, so Jeff, you did that's a great example of moving from knowledge to wisdom. In my marriage, I'm gonna aim for righteousness not being right. Yeah. I'm still learning that one, by the way. So I because I do a lot of ego lifting when it comes to mental and cognitive fitness, JB, just so you know. It's unfortunate, but I'm I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm trying to find that mature manhood.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Uh well, it's it's kind of the the argument that I would make of out outside of like the you have the you have the argument of the ego lifting of are you just trying to learn to be the smartest person in the room? But then there's also the you know, like what good does it memori have what good does it benefit anyone if you memorize the map of a minefield and then just watch your friends walk through it? Or you just or you just go, nah, I I'm gonna skip today.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Phenomenal. Yeah, great. That's it's exactly what it is. And it's for the purpose of serving others, which begins with our spouses, right, Jeff, and the righteousness that we want going on in our families. Righteousness, by the way, simply means right relationships. Relationships that were broken are made right once again. This is the righteousness in Christ, our our relationship with our Father in heaven that was broken, that Jesus came to restore and redeem and give us his righteousness. Um, but we have a we have a big problem, Obi, with our thinking that a lot of people don't even bring into the middle of their awareness or their perception of why could my thinking possibly be off? Mm-hmm.

unknown 30:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Well, what do you what do you think that is, Obi? Well, go ahead, Andy. Sorry. Scripture brings us to Genesis 3 in the fall.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

And I think we forget that in the fall, when Adam and Eve listened to uh the serpent to Satan, and they no longer listen to Christ, but then they listen or to themselves or fought, not follow God's word, and they eat from the tree. Now all of a sudden their eyes are opened to their own knowledge and now closed to God's. So now, all of a sudden, from the fall moving forward, guess what's happened to the human intellect? It is upside down from the way God created it. Good and evil now are upside down because now we see with our own wisdom, which is sinful and broken, instead of depending on God's wisdom. And that's where Adam and Eve were before the fall. They were depending on God's wisdom. Jeff, they were depending on God's righteousness. And now in the fall, they've lost that. We've lost our way of thinking in God. So this is why Christ comes. This is what Christ comes to redeem. This is what Christ comes to restore is our thinking and to turn it now right side back up because it is broken and upside down. And Jesus knows that all too well. Obi, look at this set of verses from Jesus. He's gonna, he's, he hits this right on the head in Mark chapter 10, Obi.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

Yeah, as Jesus started on his way, a rich young ruler ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

And what Jesus is is also inferring there is no one is good except God alone, because only God thinks and knows good. So if you're gonna call me good teacher, it must mean that you're now thinking through scriptural, godly eyes, and that you actually see me as the Son of God, which unfortunately in the moment he does not.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

Do you recognize who I am, right? Do you do you recognize, do I recognize who I am?

SPEAKER_02 32:30

But that has to do with our thinking, that has to do with our intellect and our wisdom being restored and redeemed in Jesus, uh, to be turned back right side up. So, in that one big problem of the fall and the sin that we are caught up in now, Obi-No, in our thinking, not just in our physicality, not just our spirituality, not just in our relationships, but in our thinking, guys, our thinking is broken. There are four actual pretty big ways that our thinking is broken today that we need to know about that are at work when we walk out of the door, or actually when we're watching TV or a movie or we're taking in any kind of media that are actually at work in the world today, spewing their message to us regularly, and do we recognize it?

SPEAKER_04 33:14

Here we go. Number one, relativism that says that we that we each have our own truth.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Yeah, we live in an age, everybody proclaims, hey, you have your own truth, your truth is your truth, and my truth is my truth. You go live yours, and I'll go live mine. And it's purely subjective truth. And it's the loss of objective truth, which is actually God is the creator of the world, He's the one that designed it, He created us to live in it, He designed us to function in a certain way, which means there is objective truth to how we should live our lives in a thriving way, and God is the one that speaks that truth in His Word.

unknown 33:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

So subjectivism versus objective truth in our subjective uh, you know, engagement with reality. Have anybody heard that by the way? You have your truth, I have my truth, you just go live yours and I'll go live mine. Well, that used to be the case. Actually, it's pushed so far now that you're so everybody's supposed to have their own truth, but actually, if you don't like my truth, then there's something wrong with you. Right? Now it's intolerance. Relativism has actually led to intolerance. They say they're tolerant, but actually they're intolerant because you don't agree with their truth. Pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

Well, um, next we have secularism that proclaims that we know good and evil on our own apart from God.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

And I simply say, How's that going? How is knowing good and evil on our own apart from God? How's that going? How you know how's that treating you? Not very well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:50

Uh progressive humanism is where we um people proclaim that we are capable of doing whatever we put our minds to.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Which unfortunately is not true, gentlemen. We're here to tell you the truth, and we cannot do whatever we put our minds up to. God has put restrictive boundaries and beautiful places for human beings to live under him as our creator. This is real, but we're now we're now now we're getting in a danger of speaking truth and reality of do you even know that you're a human being and God is the creator, you're a human. So, no, you can't actually do whatever you put your mind to because you're not God. But people love to believe in progressive humanism, OBY. Because now all of a sudden you're God. I can do whatever I put my mind to.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

Yeah. Um, here's a good one. Technologism, right? This is where people believe in the power of technology to shape and improve humanity. That knowledge is obtained by opening an internet search engine or depending on our technological devices, AI, for their opinions and advice.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

And this is where it gets dangerous. Look at the words that are in here. We live in an age where people believe in the power of technology to shave and shape and improve our humanity. So we have to be very dangerous, though, that things like AI don't actually shape us and form us and mold us. Guess whose job that is? That's God's job in Christ, right? To shape, form, and mold us into the image of Jesus. So we have to be very careful of things that were actually created by human beings now coming back around and shaping and forming us, and then also giving their opinions and advice instead of just information. Now all of a sudden, AI is moving into the realm of opinion and advice and not just information. And we're seeing the dangers of that in different ways.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Yeah. But what does Jesus say about that, Andy? Look, let's take a look at the transformational truth in Christ Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

And once again, Jeff Pressler, you know, Jeff Pressler likes to give the sermon away before we get to it. So yeah, he hit it on the chat once again, Jeff. We were headed there. Thank you for waiting for us.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Second Corinthians 10, 3 to 5 says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Now we've just said that. We've just said that in the last four or five slides and the things that we've been discussing here actively today, we're demolishing arguments and pretension that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. And in this conversation right now, what does it mean to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ? That's what we're doing. Jeff, what do you, since you put that in the chat, do you not actively think that we're intentionally doing that right now in this conversation about our mental and intellectual health and wellness?

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Yeah, I think right now what we're what we're doing in this exercise, whether we realize it or not, is building the fences. We're putting, we're putting into place methods and means of actually capturing and keeping these thoughts or taking these thoughts and making them obedient because the fact that we're addressing it means that we're building it, means that we're we're we're actually putting thought into it, we're being intentional about it. Um there and there's a big difference in just living with and accepting that I have these thoughts and actually taking them captive and saying, no, this is we're we're gonna have we're gonna intentionally make this and turn this thought around. Well, I hate that guy. Well, okay, what what is it about that guy who's also made in the image of Christ that you do not appreciate? You know, actually go through that exercise. The fact that we're talking about and addressing it, this is what we're yes, this is what we're doing. This is what growth looks like.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Two cool things. Number one, this turns our thinking right side up in Christ, what we just talked about after the fall. And then number two, when we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, guess what the return on investment of that is in this moment, Jeff? We're actually being formed and shaped into the image of Christ in our thinking, instead of these arguments, pretensions, and these other things that are wanting to form and shape us uh in their fashion, in their way.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

So yeah, that's that's that's the heart of Romans 12, too. Like that's you know, be not conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed. I might I'm gonna end up screwing something up later down the timeline again. But that, but that that is the essence of it is, you know, how do I there there's a there's a connection, and I apologize for taking us down this tangent real quick, but there is a huge connection between Romans 12.2 and I always mix up if it's 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians, I think it's 2 Corinthians 3.18, where the the word metamorphous or to change and to evolve um comes in. And Paul talks about in Romans 12.2 is you know, don't be conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that then you will know and be able to know and test God's will, God's good and perfect will. Well, how do we get how do we get his mind transformed? Well, you kick over to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians 3.18 and says, by with as we with unveiled faces focus upon or meditate upon heavenly things, uh, then we are renewed. Our mind is renewed, we are transformed. And so the simple one-two step is let's talk about these things, let's address the way that God wants us to handle it, let's get into the word. And through that, through a mechanism that um only works because we were designed this way, our mind is flipped back around to where Jesus, to the way that Jesus and the way that God looks at people. And so, yeah, this is this is the exercise. This is what meditating on heavenly things is.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

And we're gonna get to one of those key aspects of our intellectual health and wellness in Christ as being transformed thinkers in just a minute, uh, and and uh actually be one of five ways of thinking through the day. But this particular verse here also just sets it up perfectly, Obi, of what it means now to take our upside down thinking in the fallen brokenness and turn it right side up in Christ. And then now this is a great verse, guys, to ask one another, how is your thinking? And ask that of yourself later today and think about 2 Corinthians 10 through through three through five. How's my thinking? Is my thinking working through this? And if your thinking is working through this, then your thinking's going pretty well, OB.

SPEAKER_04 41:20

Yep. And of course, all of this is connected, right, Andy? So we always go, we always go back to what whole life wellness. Uh, and then we tie back here with Romans uh 8, 6. It says the mind is governed by the by the flesh is death. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life, and what what word is that?

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Shalom. Yeah, shalom wellness. Yeah, so here now, all of a sudden, Obi, we have our spiritual health and wellness intimately connected to our mental health and wellness in Christ. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:54

Which pretty coolly drives us, which hopefully drives us to be mature thinkers.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah, so here are going to be some of those aspects of how is your thinking and answer these questions. Are is are you a mature thinker? And what does it mean to be a mature thinker? How's your thinking? Am I a mature thinker, Obi? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_04 42:12

Yeah. Proverbs 3:5 says, Do not be wise in your own eyes, but trust in the Lord's wisdom. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean out on your own understanding.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

So all of a sudden, a mature thinker is somebody that's depending on God's thinking instead of our own apart from him, which is the way that Adam and Eve began before the fall.

SPEAKER_04 42:33

Yes, sir. Well, here we go. We talked about these, we were just talking about this, kind of giving you a little preview when Jeff was talking about it. So man, man, we call it manly mindfulness. Mindfulness. Uh, do you know that God desires and the world desperately needs mature-minded men?

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Just turn on the TV or turn on your radio to any talk show, you know, or any pod. I mean, the world is desperately in need of mature-minded men in Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 43:06

Desperately. Uh and again, th we always back it up with crypto scripture. First Corinthians 13, 11 through 12 says, When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in the mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

And now this is really beautiful. Now, going back to Jeff Pressler talking about righteousness, now all of a sudden our our mental health and wellness and a mature mindfulness as a man is intimately connected to our relationships. Then I shall know fully as I am fully known. It begins with our relationship with Christ, but then it flows outward to our relationship with our spouses, our children, our coworkers, our neighbors, our people in our Churches. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Yeah. And then check out y'all check out this leadership bomb by Alex Karas, act athlete actor and author. Uh he says it takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more manhood to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

Yeah, so really beautiful way to talk about open, honest, and vulnerable with one another as a key aspect of being mature-minded thinkers.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

Yeah. But what does Jesus say about that? Well, uh, John 5 3 says, By myself, I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself, but Him who sent me.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Oh my goodness, and what a leadership bomb from Jesus. He's saying, I depend on my Father and His Word, which is Jesus' word. I depend on the Holy Spirit, because I'm here not seeking to please myself, but him who sent me. A mature-minded thinker is wanting to please God in the way that we think, and not ourselves or others, as insofar as people pleasing. Right? Paul shares this in another way in Galatians. He says, If I if I were not a servant of Christ, if I was just here to please men, then I wouldn't be a servant of Christ, but I'm here to be a servant of Christ. So guess what? Sometimes you're not going to be happy with the way I think and the way I speak.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

Yeah. So God's calling us to be kingdom thinkers, right? Where every thought is to be processed through the cross and the empty tomb. John's thinking lens, our thinking lens in the empty tomb. So John 6 33 says, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. It really changes the that the way that scriptures when we're thinking about in light of the cross and the empty tomb, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:59

Dependent on God as mature thinkers, right? And now as we're engaging the world, ambassadors of Christ that are going out as kingdom thinkers.

SPEAKER_04 46:08

Yeah. Well, did you know that God desires and the world desperately needs kingdom-minded men?

SPEAKER_03 46:17

Yeah. Pretty huge.

SPEAKER_04 46:19

Yeah. Uh Romans 8, 5 through 7 says, Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. Shalom. The mind is governed by the flesh. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Yeah, so and we've been taken from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and our mind comes along that journey.

SPEAKER_04 46:56

Yeah. Since you have been raised with Christ, this is Paul speaking to the church in Colossae with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

So you've died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. How can your thinking not be hidden with Christ and God?

SPEAKER_04 47:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

So now our thinking is hidden with Christ and God, and our mind is set on heavenly things above. And now all of a sudden you have intimate connection between our spiritual health and wellness, our mental health and wellness, and our emotional health and wellness. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Well, as transformed thinkers, our view and understanding of reality are to be reframed in Christ. And again, ties back to Romans 12, 2 that says, do not conform to the pattern of this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Yeah. So not just our spirit, it's not just our soul that's supposed to be renewed. It's not just our soul that's redeemed to live in eternity, but our mind is renewed, restored, and redeemed to live in return eternity.

SPEAKER_04 48:05

Amen. Well, God desires in the the world desperately needs obedient-minded men.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Wow, that's a big one. Obedient-minded men.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

Yeah. Romans 12, 1 through 3 says, Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve that God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

And I love that. You know, Jeff brought that up. And then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. Well, it your thinking's now aligned with God's will. And you'll be able to test that out in the world in practical everyday living. Yeah. Which is pretty huge. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:55

And Second Corinthians 10, 3 through 5 says, For we, for though we live in the world, we do not weigh, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

So you start saying things like this, like, How's your thinking going? Is it mature-minded thinking? Is it king-minded thinking? Is it obedient-minded thinking?

SPEAKER_04 49:29

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

Now there's actually things that you can attach to that simple question, right? How's your thinking? Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

So here's another transforming movement. Jesus speaking out of John 8, 18, 36. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. Critically thinking, you think? Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

So we're we're called to practice the art of disciplined thinking and godly discernment regarding the world around us. Colossians 2.8 says, See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Yeah, so this gets back to this book right here. You want to see the scriptural connection to 1984 by George Orwell? Here it is. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy propaganda, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the world, to get you to act like the world and to not act like a kingdom thinker, to not act like an obedient thinker, to not act like a mature thinker, because the last thing that the world wants us to do is be critical thinkers.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Ew. So what is critical thinking? Well, um, it's the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, andor evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication as a guide to belief or action.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Yeah, so it's a little bit more in-depth than we normally think. Critical thinking is a skill and an art that we are supposed to be not only disciplined in, but practicing all the time.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

It requires a lot of intentionality, Andy.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Yeah. And it requires that whole not just knowledge, but wisdom.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

Yeah. Uh, because God desires again, we go back to that, and the world desperately needs critical thinking men.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Yeah. Well boy. You're absent of critical thinking men in the world today.

SPEAKER_04 51:54

First Peter 5, 6 through 10 says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

I love this. So, how do you resist him and stand firm in the faith? Well, critical thinking as a follower of Jesus Christ with a sober mind. I don't think we think of it that way uh enough. You know, yes, prayer is involved, yes, worship is involved, yes, devotion is involved, but those three things are actually supposed to form and shape your thinking. Amen. Prayer, worship, and devotion. Those are supposed to actually form and shape you in the way that you think and go out in the world and do your daily stuff. So that you have a sober mind when you walk out into a broken and sinful world filled with broken and sinful people just like you.

SPEAKER_04 52:55

And the best part is that if you don't have that, well, James, James 1, 5 through 8 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault. And it will be no, he knows we're stupid and incapable.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

This is the beautiful thing about God's love, grace, and mercy. He knows how stupid and incapable we are without him. So what does it say? Who gives generously to all without finding fault? Because he knows we're sinful and broken.

SPEAKER_04 53:25

But when you asked, you must not believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. The person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

SPEAKER_02 53:38

And here's a Keith phrase right there: double-minded and unstable in what? In their knowledge? No, in all they do. So they're double-minded and unstable, not only in the information that they have, not only in the knowledge that they seek and have taken in, but in how they live it out with wisdom or lack thereof.

SPEAKER_04 54:00

You see, wisdom or the the desire for wisdom peppered throughout the scripture. Um, and again, Paul talking to the church in Corinth, we do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wrong way.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

All these things are starting to connect with one another all of a sudden. Obe wisdom and maturity.

SPEAKER_04 54:19

Yeah. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden, and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

So, how is your thinking? Well, here's another great aspect of it. Our thinking is wrapped up in declaring God's wisdom. And that's what we're doing. Once again, we're intentionally and actively living that out right now in this conversation. We're declaring God's wisdom to one another in the way that it should form and shape us. Mm-hmm. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 55:05

Well, we've been called to think through things from a fresh, godly perspective to come up with innovative, unique, and original solutions. And I know this is one of your favorite scriptures, Andy, um, out of Ephesians, for we are God's artwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Yeah, so very creative message right there, and what God has done with us in Christ. We are his artwork, and now we're supposed to live that artful, skillful, creative thinking out in the world.

SPEAKER_04 55:39

Yeah. If you guys just hang with us, we got like three more slides.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Yeah, we're almost done.

SPEAKER_04 55:44

Uh we're almost done. Um, God desires and the world desperately needs noble-minded men. That's not a word you hear very often nowadays. Noble. Uh Philippians 4, 8 through 9 says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put in practice, and the God of peace will be with you.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

Here's some big things. Go back to that real fast, Obi, and then we'll get ready to wrap it up. But look at this right here. Think about such things. How's your thinking? Are you thinking about what is true, what is noble, what is right, what is pure, what is lovely, what is admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy? So when we ask, how's your thinking going? Well, these are the things that we should be thinking about, right? And think about such things. And then when we've thought about and unlearned them, don't just take that in as knowledge, but do what, Obi? Go put those things into practice in the world as wisdom. And the God of Shalom, whole life wellness, will be with you. So this kind of wraps up and connects everything together today on our mental intellectual health and wellness.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

Yeah, Colossians 1, 15 through 16, 17, 17 says, The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

And that verse right there, that set of verses, this is in go ahead and you know, if you have the chance, read Colossians 1:15 through 20. That's a hymn that Paul wrote. So Paul, Paul actually put into in practice everything that we've talked about today as far as thinking, and wrote it down as a hymn for the people in Colossae to sing about who Jesus is, so that they would have these high, noble, excellent, praiseworthy thoughts that they're actually now singing in creative ways with one another in community.

SPEAKER_04 57:53

Amen. Yeah, pretty huge. Well, we're gonna close out with first Peter 113. Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Christ Jesus is revealed at his coming. How about that, guys?

SPEAKER_02 58:12

That's a good one to end on Obi. You want to pray us out?

SPEAKER_04 58:15

I would love to. Lord, we thank you so much for loving us despite us. Thank you so much for your word. Um, that is a constant. We need something that is immovable, something that is true and that withstands all times, that it that withstands through times, that withstands through uh any that that would that just is true um and that guides us in truth. And so we ask you that and plead with you that you not only allow us to be people who hear your word and who and who read your word, but are transformed by those very words, by the gospel of Jesus Christ, into action. We love you and we thank you for each person that's here. And we just ask you that you open up our minds and allow us to be critical thinkers, capable of being men that are noble, men that are capable, men that are wise and sound in their thinking in everything that we do. And it's in your name we pray.

SPEAKER_00 59:10

Amen. 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. Have a great day.