BraveMen S4E144: Brandon Cole - Look Up - Defeat the Fear

Bible says in Isaiah 41, it says fear not for I am with you, but we just so easily move into fear. With me right now, Brandon Cole, Pastor C3, Fort Worth, you did a message on fear, just rocked me, and you had a couple quotes that especially went from Rolling Stone. The Rolling Stone, I'm sure, which is why I call it magazine. Everyone's favorite magazine subscription. Yeah, no, I mean, it was pretty clear. It says, from as media insurance companies, big pharma advocacy groups, lawyers, politicians, and so many more, your fear is worth billions. And fortunately for them, your fear is also very easy to manipulate. We are wired to respond to it above everything else. If you miss an opportunity for abundance, life will go on. If you miss an opportunity or an important fear queue, it won't. Wow. Pretty strong quote. Yeah. In other words, if we, if we dismiss a little appointment or something, this life goes on, but if we miss this fear moment, yeah, that the news cycle, whoever, whatever culture, yeah, the atmosphere of fear. If we miss that queue, we're done. You don't stop. We're toast. Right. Yeah. And which is why it's easy to manipulate. Fear will always be present. It's just whether or not you are listening the right way or hearing the right thing or discerning what it is. That is so strong. Today, we're going to talk on brave men about overcoming fear, about defeating what is a natural emotion, right? Right. Right. Fear. It's not like Jesus looked at the guys in the boat and go, Hey, why did you fear? You guys idiots or what? Right. And they looked at him go, I don't know. You made us. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like, no, he didn't put him down for having fear of natural human emotion. But it's how you, it's what you just said, how you process it. Right. And our culture has actually developed a system, a way of living in which fear is worth a lot of money to a lot of people. It's stunning to me. So today, I'm brave, man, we're going to hit that. Remember for all your discipling needs, discipling men, sons, go to cmn.men, cmn.men, christian men's network.men, today, Brandon Cole going through how to defeat fear and what that means, how we actually process that out today on brave men. It's brave, man, with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. I mean, this whole thing on fear that you were teaching, Brandon, that I heard at C34 worth. And what's the website again? C34 worth.com easy. Okay. Easy. So this came out of teachings you did on look up. Yeah, talking about the life of Abram at the time would have been Abram Genesis 15, get out of the tent, look up, count the stars, get out of the tent right there is a big thing today. People don't get out of the house. Right. I mean, still we're in this PTSD thing. Look, looking up is scientifically known. If you could just find a horizon at least once a day, it's going to make your life better. That's something they studied in New York City and places like that. Big cities, right? Yeah. People being surrounded by buildings if you just can be so overwhelmed by what is around you. Just look up the street, find the sun, and just the makeup of your body will begin to change. You know how I think we end up sometimes. You know how we've gone on horseback rides, you know, like years ago, little trail rides and your horse just follows the butt of the horse in front of it. Oh, it's so true. It's like, and we just end up like that. And it's as if this culture has actually designed itself, if you will, the negative culture, culture apart from Christ, to sort of put us in those little lines. It just follow that guy, do that. Because if you get off, you know, reminds me of 1984, the Big Brother Apple commercial, with a guy through the hammer, it's free, it's in hammer, the screen. Yeah. Because we so easily fall into fear. Well, it's it, you know, like the quote said, from Rolling Stone, fear is easy to manipulate. And to be real honest, the church has done this well too, right? We all are really good at using fear to make people do things. And there are times where that's a necessary thing. Hey, you touched the, you touched the iron wall top. Yeah, you have to know the consequences. Yeah. And fear has has served us well as people as a culture in general to not do certain things because certain things will happen. Yeah. If you come home and you left the front door closed and now it's slightly a jar, that's a light on in the back. You should maybe step back or might help you. That's a helpful thing, right? We are, you know, we are living in what Paul tells Timothy, we are living in a spirit of fear. We're living in what we could maybe go back to the Genesis story of God breathing into Adam life. There's this spirit of fear, this kind of breathing in and out of fear every day that keeps us paralyzed. And if the breath of God brings animation in life, then, then the breath of fear, right? The opposite of that is going to bring, um, yeah, brings a nurse stuck paralysis, paralysis shut you down. Yeah, we become a rock. We're just not a living rock. We move back to just being a form of a man not actually like, wow, that's so good. You know, yeah, in Abram, you use the the illustration of Abram because Abram had to actually trust God. I mean, he had to overcome this fear. I mean, here's a guy who worship the moon. And all of a sudden, he's like talking to God and he's got to move into something that took faith and he becomes, even though he didn't live a perfect life, right? He's, he's the father of faith. No, and even when, you know, we were using the Genesis 15 moment, which would have been three chapters, which who knows exactly how long that is, but that would have been after he'd given Sarah as it called her his sister, right? It would have been after he had just gone and killed a bunch of kings to save a lot. So he's afraid there. And he had already had a promise. And then he'd already had these problems. You're going to be multiplied. You're going to be a great name. You're going to bless many nations. And then, and then God shows up to him in the tent and says, do not be afraid, which if you think about it, when you think about Mary, when you think about Joseph, when you think about Joshua, when you think about Paul, right, wrote a Damascus, when you think about all these people, fear was always something that God had to shut down. Hey, don't be afraid. Yeah. Don't be afraid. When he shows up to the disciples in the boat, he goes, hey, don't be afraid. Well, or when he showed up in the middle of a house where the door was locked, right? Yeah. Fear not. Fear not. Don't be afraid. And he said that phrase is reference, let fear not, do you not be afraid? Some 300 times throughout the Bible. And it's everywhere. It's always. Yeah. So when he shows up to Abram after these things had happened, he, he tried to do it his own way, which didn't work. And he, he went and saved a lot, which makes him afraid of the three or four or five kings. They're going to come after him. And then God says, do not be afraid. Yeah. Wow. And he says, I am your shield. I am your great reward. Wow. So do not fear because fear will always be present. Yeah. Fear is ubiquitous. It's part of our lives. Again, like we talked about, it could actually protect us from something, right? You know, sometimes fear ought to be present when we say, here, watch this or here, hold my beer, watch this. Right. Right. Yeah. It would save you from a lot of hurt a lot of viral videos and from viral being on the viral. Yeah. Being the subject of that Instagram. Yeah. So fear is normal life in a sense that it's part of the fallen world. Whereas the new creation, when we become a follower of Christ, the Bible says, Paul said to the church at Corinth, we become a new creation. Right. So a new creation is about living in faith and trusting him. Right. And that's what Abram did. Yeah. So, uh, fear is, but sometimes fear can just get overwhelming, Brian. Yeah. Well, I think you're in a, I think you're in a day and age when it's it's really easy to find it. It's easy to find things to be afraid of. And it's, and it's always being told to you, fear has a really interesting way. Well, let's say it better. The enemy has a really interesting way of always pointing out the things you should be afraid of while fear will always be present. So it must always be addressed. Any career opportunity, any calling moment, any relationship situation, any step you have to take any growth moment is always, you're always going to have to address the fear that is naturally present. It has to be addressed. And otherwise, it sits and just eats away at you and eventually it's going to come out. And faith is the way we do that. You know, fear and faith are both contagious. They both seem to kind of like spread like wildfire. Yeah. Um, you see one person look up and duck. A bunch of people are going to look up and duck even if they don't know what's coming. They don't see anything. But faith is the same way. You see one person stand up in the middle of a difficult situation. All of a sudden other people start to stand up. Wow. They're both contagious. And like grandpa used to say, right, fear and faith are the same thing. They both believe that what has not happened is going to happen. Yeah. Same definition. Two different kingdoms. Yeah. Exactly. Well, the secret sauce of faith is that every time God says fear not, he then addresses where he is in relation to that. So he always says fear not for I am. Wow. He never says fear not because you should be bigger, stronger, better. He always says fear not. Wow. Because I'm present. That is so good. That that's hot. Um, say that again, when he tells us to fear not, he always, he always then addresses his, his presence where he is, his relationship to it. Yeah. Which is what fear is. Fear ultimately is you're on your own. And there's no way you're going to accomplish this and God's not there. And God, there's no way God's going to rescue you because he doesn't give a room. So you should be very, very afraid. Yeah. You should be very, so faith is to say no, no, no, he is here. He's always here. He's going to be here. And I can move forward. So out of that comes courage, right, boldness, uh, strength, the ability to make decisions. Right. I mean, because when, when you're operating in fear, you're indecisive. Right. Right. And indecision is, is that paralysis thing? It's that subsonic sound of the, of the lion when it roars and then these small animals are just stock. You know, so the fact is, is don't get paralyzed by the roar. Right. And there's a lot of that going on, isn't there? Yeah. You know, that makes me, I know this is such an aside. But I remember the, the snake in our ranch house, not our ranch house. I lived in a house with a couple buddies and it was like the one last remaining ranch house in this whole area. Yeah. And, uh, and had its cracks. And so we came home hearing what sounded to be a rattlesnake coming from our bathroom. Um, and we, I mean, it was a two day, two day ordeal. The city we were in didn't have animal control. Oh, no, wait a minute. He just closed the door and started calling. We called, well, we called animal control because we didn't know what to do. And, uh, my friend had found it. He had opened the drawer and put his hand in there and heard the rattle felt something move. And he shut it and was like, oh, I'm out. I mean, we use shovels. We used our commissioning sword. Uh, we used, uh, we used some, we tried to poison the thing. Um, I mean, the thing was six feet long, a legitimately scary thing. And, uh, played pranks with it. It was fun. But then we found out that it was a corn snake. And it's, and it's a defense mechanism. It's the sound of a rattlesnake. Yeah. And I think there's so much of that, right? Wow. What, I mean, and again, over the last couple of years, um, you would have to say that, that, uh, we've had a lot of corn snakes that sounded like rattlesnakes. Dude, that's, uh, the enemy like a roaring lion. Yeah. It's not a roaring lion. It sure does sound like it. Yeah. And I think we can, um, allow things to just get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And if we're not around people who speak faith into our life, yeah. Then, then it's going to, it's just going to get to grow un, um, unhindered. Yeah. Because the unregenerable mind will move right with you to fear, right? And it'll amplify. Right. And usually it's, it's when you put it out there, like on the gram or, you know, social media somewhere and, you know, like this and this. And then a hundred people will jump on and go, yeah, I had an uncle who did that. Yeah. It's terrible. And pretty soon, you're just down this path of your parallel. It's, it's talking with Brandon Cole as the pastor of C-3, Fort Worth, and also, my son. Yeah. You're an awesome pastor. And it is a great church near Southside, Fort Worth. Yeah. Historic Southside. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Historic Southside. Just bought a new building. Yeah. Right there about two blocks from a Juneteenth Museum. We're the new National Museums going in. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, just a great area. You're involved in the community doing some stuff with different people. Yeah. It's fantastic. And you and your wife Meredith and two awesome little boys. Yeah. Jason Grayson. Jason Grayson, who were both very athletic took after their papa. Yeah. Oh, you laughed. Yeah. Great. You know, anyway, so, but, but this message on fear just resonated with me because it is something that all of us deal with. And, uh, how do you, how do you defeat that? How do you combat that? I mean, we know we have it. How do we go after this thing? Well, I think, I mean, you know, one, I would say I don't know that I've ever fully defeated it. I think we all have moments and times where fear pops up. And I don't, I think that might be the number one thing is to understand that in our natural understanding of life and, and like we said, even in the good moments of fear, the reality is that fear will be present. There will be, we hold within every opportunity in every circumstance and situation, every decision moment. We hold within it the potential for fear and faith. Wow. We get to, in many ways, choose that. We get to choose that it's all going to go bad. It's going to go poorly. And, and it will, we can prophesy into our future. Wow. You want to say that way. Yeah. Right. There is, we hold that within us. That doesn't mean everything is going to be perfect. I don't think that when Jesus, I mean, because Jesus later on says, do not fear for I've overcome the world. And the reason he's saying that is because life's about to get difficult. And I want you to understand that when it looks like the world is overcoming you, I have overcome the world. And so number one is knowing that fear is always going to be knocking at our door. That's always true. I think the natural or the, the normal way we typically answer this question is to say that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And what I want to tell people is there is just no other answer. Wow. There's just no other, we could try to go, here's your seven step process for dealing with right this. But you will bear the fruit of the seeds you're planting and sewing. And that includes your own into your own life, into your own heart and your own mind. And so if there is an abundance of negative news that you're listening to, because I think even over time over the last couple of years, there's been moments where the church has reacted in fear. Oh, things are changing, things are shifting. This isn't. And we lose our ability. The moment we begin operating in fear, we lose our ability to speak to the moment because it, we have now just become like everything else. Yeah. We are no longer the settled people. We've lost our salt. We've lost the, yeah, we've lost our firm footing. And ultimately, and this is what, this is why God addresses it when he says, do not be afraid. He says, I am your, I am your, your shield and your great reward. And one commentary says this, it addresses the two things that most of us struggle with. It addresses our security and our satisfaction. Well, that I am your great reward, even though your dream hasn't come true yet, even though I'm showing you more stars. I'm not giving you a baby yet. I'm showing you more stars. You've had a couple of mess ups. You're going to have a mess up. I am your shield and I am your great reward. I am the thing that will secure you where you want to be insecure. I am the thing that will satisfy you where you feel unfulfilled. I am. And it will never ever change. And that's when we can curate and cultivate a life where we are dependent upon God. And ultimately, that is what, what this life of faith is, isn't it? I mean, if we are really comfortable right now, yeah, there's a chance, right, that maybe we've kind of settled. Yeah, we're just kind of, it's kind of comfortable. I told you, I really always, you know, you got your stuff here, you got your thing, you got the little room. I don't know why I need a Holy Spirit, the Comforter, if I'm never going to be uncomfortable, you know, I mean, I remember saying this early in the series that that's for some of us, our, our great enemy of us taking this step of faith is not our past failures, but our past successes. Wow. For some of us, we're not living that next step of faith, that next thing because we have gotten, we've done so well. They were not dreaming anymore. We don't need to count the stars. I got 400 tents, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. I don't need to think as big as God's thinking. Yeah. And for some of us, we got to, we got to get out of our tent. Now, there's times that God reminds us, right, over and over. Jesus will say, didn't I do this? God will say, didn't I take you through the Red Sea? Didn't I? And he'll remind us, but his reminder is not about getting fixated on the past's reminder about our past is being able to pivot and move forward. Yeah. And that is so strong. It's our, with the other, the other verse you would read is Hebrews 12, fix your eyes on Jesus, which fix your eyes doesn't mean repair them. It means to attach them. Wow. It means to put them on a lot where you, when Jesus moves, when God moves, you move. When you, when he's doing something different than you expected, you go with him not with what you expected that you are, your eyes are always on Jesus that you would see Jesus. That would be your north star. You wouldn't move off of that. And he will be the author and perfector of your faith. And later on, it says, then when you grow weary, if you keep your eyes on Christ, if you read the gospel of John every day, if you, if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you will not grow tired because you were remember what he did and what he's done. Yeah. You know, when you, when you sail a boat, sail ship, or fly an airplane, you fix your course. And that's that same piece then, fix your eyes on, on Christ. And really comes back to this brand. It's, it's about Jesus. All comes back to Jesus. In fact, the whole Bible, it's not like Jesus showed up at Christmas. Yeah. Right? Right. It's not like, oh, thank God. You know, Jesus was finally born and all this stuff. No, he was there for he's the beginning of the end. They're, they're through all creation. Right. And so all of this is about Christ. Now, the thing that struck me, you pointed out, was in the first verse of Genesis 15, it says, some time later, I'm reading from the new living translation. Of course, you use the, what are you using? Christian standard, Christian standard. Yeah. And so it's the standard for Christian. Well, yeah, you're a better Christian than I am. So I understand that. So, but it's as some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram. Yeah. The sometime later is where we easily get into fear. Yeah. After, yeah, I think minds as after all these things, after all these things, after all these things, yeah, the God came back to our mind. It's probably, it's probably at least 15 years after the initial promise, if not 20 years. Right. Right. So now, here he is, like, after, funny, he shows up. And this, that whole verse is, I mean, you could just talking about Jesus being in all of this is after all these things, after all your screw ups, after all your successes, after all the things you may have done well or not done well, after all the things that you think disqualify you or qualify you for the hand of God in your life, for the call of God in your life, after all these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, which I think is interesting that the word came in a vision, which maybe you could point to that possibly being Jesus, because he is the right, the word he is the living word and says, do not be afraid Abram. And he preamps any fear Abram could speak of with the statement, do not be afraid. And so in other words, God almost knew what Abram's already feeling. God knew that Abram's feeling fear. He's feeling the fear of, maybe, retribution from kings he's just defeated. He's fearing his failures catching up with him, the mistakes he's made. He's fearing unfulfilled promise. I move my whole family. I was doing just fine. What am I doing out here in a tent, wondering the wilderness, when I've got all this stuff, I've made all my wealth, there's a lot of fears that could be dealt with there. But that goes back to even Paul's admonition to Timothy, right? We have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, right? That we are people who live with strength, live with power. We are been given a certain grace to do a particular thing. We live with love, right? We're sacrificial and unconditional in our love and we've been given a sound mind. We don't go crazy when the world goes crazy. And those would address the fears Abram would have had in that moment, right? Can I do what you called me to do? Can I live this thing out the way I need to live this thing out? Can I think rightly about what you put me in front of? Because I've messed up a few times, am I going to mess up again? You had a couple other quotes. You know what was wild? I think that particular Sunday may have been the one Sunday you didn't have an N.T. right quote. I did. I got a few of them out there. One of our favorites. You're like one of your core guys, but it didn't have a Leonard Sweet quote or an N.T. right quote. Okay, so I would say I'll read a couple and I think they tie in together. The Atlantic wrote an article about where did the where did childhood go? Yeah. No, it was a great article. Really fast. You haven't read it as long. I think it's called where where where's childhood gone? Where's childhood gone? And they said this imagine imagine for a moment that the future is going to be even more stressful than the present. And maybe you don't need to imagine this. You've probably already believe it. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center last year, 60% of American adults think that three decades from now the US will be less powerful than it is today. Six out of 10. Yeah, almost two-thirds say it will be even more divided politically. Wow. 59% think the environment will be degraded nearly three-quarters say that the gap between the haves and the have-nots will be wider. A plurality expect the average family standard of living to have declined. Most of us presumably have recently become acually aware of the danger of global pandemics. So that's all happening around us, right? And then you're raising children in a very, very, very, very safety conscious world. Oh, man. Everything's got to be safety. And I fully understand that. But to the point now where we are not- Your kids can't walk to school, even if you're down the block. And so we've lost the ability to that's where kids in a healthy way gain resilience. And so if God is our good father, there will be times as men and as people where everything won't be laid out perfectly for you. Well, not all be answered for you. And our faith is that God is there. And that when he lets us go ride our bike for the first time without training wheels, even if we fall, he's not leaving. Yeah. But he's going to let us try. He's going to let us give it a go. And I think that's important. And when we lose that ability to of resilience, and we don't learn resilience, then we also don't know how to react. Yeah. Which leads into that Mark Sarah's quote, which is any system, be it a nation, family, or workplace that is swamped by chronic anxiety or fear, will be marked by reactivity. Those within the system no longer act rationally. Instead, high emotion becomes the dominant form of interaction. Yeah, no question. I would say that's kind of where we where we're living right now. Yeah, it's where we're at. And you know, with, you know, for a number of years, we've talked about helicopter moms, you know, the kid falls down, mom comes in, picks them up. Yeah. And we've got this crazy phenomenon now. I would say helicopter parents, men and women, it's moms and dads. And one of the big things that they're dealing with in universities and colleges and higher education is when somebody doesn't get a good grade or they didn't get into class, the parents are calling. They're dealing with hundreds of these institutions of higher learning, regardless of, you know, how you and Charlie Kirk might think of them. The fact is is that there's hundreds of parents calling. And now the big thing at HR departments and corporations is a kid comes out of college. So now he's in his 20s. Doesn't get something or some doesn't happen. And the parents call again. Yeah, it was a Wall Street Journal had an article about parents calling. And really that comes back to, it does come back to fear. Because the parents are like, you know, there's a lot of different levels on that. What are we going to look like? What kind of kid do we raise? You know, what's going to happen to them? But if we don't allow kids to fall in skin or knee, they're never going to learn resilience. Right. They're not going to learn how to live with grit. Right. It's going to be everything's just taken care of for them. It's all it's sanitized. Yeah. And in fact, speaking of sanitized, talking with a psychologist recently, who said a lot of the things they're dealing with psychosomatic illnesses and all these things. And also a lot of the allergies we're dealing with come from the fact that we have made the world too clean. Mm hmm. Crazy. It's true. So now we have to take probiotics in order to grow our gut bacteria in order to be healthier because we've sanitized everything else. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's it's it's it's again, okay. So we come back to the root. Well, fear. Yeah. But I think yeah, I think that's a big a big topic. And I've had to I've had to pull myself back a little bit on my boys and let them kind of go after because the reality is is that they live a reactive life. They'll be exhausted. They'll never feel like they've made it. They'll never feel accomplished because everything good or bad is is reacted to in a in a way that is lacks any real discernment or understanding of the situation because it's so tough and so bad and everything's difficult and everything's hard. William Barclay said most of us live a cautious life on the principle of safety first. But to live the Christian life, there is there is necessarily a certain reckless willingness to adventure. Come on. If faith can see every step of the way, it is not really faith. It is sometimes necessary for the Christian to take the way to which the voice of God is calling him without knowing what the consequence will be like Abraham. He has to go out not knowing where he is going. And I think your kids need to see that, right? I think there needs to be kids or people around you need to see a church need to see a people of God who are not reactive. That we've established this counter-formation way of life when we take a Sabbath because you know what? I trust God that the business is still going to be there. Work's still going to be there. I'm still going to be successful. I'm going to take a day or I'm going to wake up in the morning and pray and know my to do this too long. We are living reactive lifestyle. And that when we are fueled by fear, we will burn out. And we react. We just keep reacting. Everything is going to be reacted. So we're spinning. We're throwing. And that's at a surface level. Yeah. And we do that. I think it was Jim McMay and I put it in a book called Daring, which is part of our Monday Night, one of our Monday Night Men series going through Daring. But it was Jim McMay and the quarterback, Chicago Bears. And he said, basically every pass that I throw is risky. He says people tell me I'm a risky quarterback. He said they're all risky. He said otherwise it wouldn't be called risky. It would be called a sure thing pass. Yeah. Right. It's like, right? Okay. We're on that play because every time you're going to catch it, every time I'm going to throw it right. But life has risk. It was Jim Hunter, along that same vein who was the champion downhill champion of Canada. And I don't forget standing with him up there in Calgary on his watching him his practice runs. And these guys are going 70 and you're a good skier. And these guys are going and these guys are going 75 miles an hour on icy snow, right? It's ice through these downhill courses. I said, Jim, how do you do that? He said, I practice. I get myself ready mentally, physically. But then when I when I push off the top, I just ski with reckless abandon. Yeah. And I think that's how we have to live. Yeah. I think there's a going after Jesus. In a moment like this, Alan Hersh talks about this apocalyptic times, apocalyptic meaning that it was a revealing time that something was being revealed in that season and in that time. And and what we just went through or maybe what we see as writing on the wall is that we're entering into or going through an apocalyptic time, a time of revealing. But for the settled people of faith, for the people who of faith who citizenship resides in Christ, yeah, for those people, this is not a time that reveals we don't have it. It's a time that reveals we do have it. And if we don't live by faith, which is we are meant to go by faith, we are meant to walk by faith. Successful or not successful, great days, bad days, we are meant to walk by faith. Trusting the sovereign Lord is working. Even behind the scenes. And if we if we live the way the world is, we'll have that spirit of fear. We will live with the same anxiety, same worry. And this is not to say that you'll never experience that or that people are dealing with that or somehow wrong or it's just simply to say that overall, we should be people who stand up in the trusting of God. Come on. Do not be afraid. I am your shield. I am your great reward. And we we want to be revealed when all things are shaken. We are not shaken. When all things are moved, we are not moved. When all things fall, we remain standing. Come on. Because not because of our own strengths, not because we have somehow figured out the seven step system to successful standing in bad times. It's because we trust in the Lord. Well, that is it. And that is it. Because here's the thing. You can have that seven step system. And I was just thinking of John Wooden with his seven creeds of life that he learned from his dad. And the fact is is that you could have those seven steps and not do them. Right. You can have them seven steps and eventually you're afraid of like you realize you need eight steps. You know, I mean, every system we create is not going to work forever. Yeah. And lesson number one is trust God. Yeah, that's a one step. That's a one step. Trust God. And you got the eight others. And each one of those says, yeah, yeah. And that can feel almost I get it. Sometimes that can feel a bit of a cop out. Oh, that's an easy answer. That's what people say. But that's that is it. Where are you going to go? If you're, you know, if the plane starts going weird when you're traveling on it, you become a prayer warrior. You know, I mean, it is it is this. And if we can do everybody prays, that is everybody prays. It's that is if we can build a life that is proactive, not reactive. Yeah. Then there's a great quote that I really I don't know who this person is. Oh, hopefully he's a great guy. There's got him Clarence London. He's a was at the ologian. He said continued communion gives constant comfort. Hmm. This fellowship with God brings simplicity and rest of heart. One is not afraid of sudden fear. The soul turns to occupation with heavenly things. And right Paul's talking to Timothy and he says, Hey, you know, your grandmother had amazing faith. Your mom had incredible faith. Stir up that gift. Stir up that gift. Rekindle that gift. And many of us, when we wake up, we kindle a different thing. We kindle fear by scrolling. We kindle fear by looking at our to do list. We kindle fear by checking our bank account. We kindle fear. We can we we burn a different fire. And what the Lord's trying to get us to do what Paul is trying to get Timothy to do is wake up and kindle a fire that when the fear tries to creep in, the fire burns it up. If we can if we can rekindle, we can set up patterns and rhythms and have relationships that stoke the flame of faith through the word, through prayer, through just simply being together with other people. It will it will consume all the fear. Well, I'll tell you that being with other people right there, brotherhood, that's that's key right there. You've got to be in relationship. And that's why for me and I like zoom and I like all the technical stuff. And we do that YouTube teaching with Monday night men and we do all these things. And see three four worth calm. You've got your messages on, you know, on there and you've got podcasts and blog and cool stuff. Bottom line is if if you're not coming out of the cave, right? If you and I don't mean just the cave staying in your house, I'm talking about that cave, that personal thing, you just kind of shield everybody off. If you don't come out of that and get with some people, it's going to get darker and darker and darker and that cave. You've got to get with people. And you've got to come out and know. So whatever that means, whether it doesn't mean that it always has to be a Bible study or that it has to be a you need to sit across the table from somebody and see that there's life going on that things are happening. Jesus said this. I've told you all these things. This is John 1633, 1633. I've told you all these things so that you may have peace. This is a new living translation here on earth. You'll have many trials and sorrows, which is a beautiful promise. So here on earth, you'll have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world, take heart because I've overcome the world. Bottom line is this is that we talk about this a lot is that God has a plan for mankind, a plan for the redemption of the earth and a purpose for your life within that plan. And too often we got taught, particularly I did in my upbringing, that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. And I kept thinking I screwed the plan up. Yeah. I kept thinking too. I'm off course. I will never find it again. Yeah. So now it's not only fear. It's fear of failure. Fear that I won't get back there. And then we just kind of go into resignation. Yeah. Right. So fear produces, if you will, sort of a resignation like, well, whatever. Yeah. You know, hey, you know, it's I guess I guess I'm just a bad guy. I guess this is the way it is. But God has an amazing purpose for every single man and woman on the face of the earth. Ephesians 2 10, right? Right. You're my masterpiece. I created you for good works from before you were ever born, every person born on purpose with a purpose within the plan of God. Yeah. You know, I think that that probably goes back a little bit to I wouldn't call it a bad reading. I think we've all done it. But of Genesis where we tend to think the garden was dependent on our perfection. Yeah. And it was perfect to begin with. And it wasn't God. The garden was a gift. Yeah. Garden was this and this initiative of God to establish the kingdom on earth. But it was a gift. It was like Plato in the hands of a child. Hey, go create, go name these animals, right? Go go make sure these things are growing. Like, hey, let's let's go enjoy, you know, one of the earliest creeds of all time was that we would enjoy God and glorify him. Right. It was it. That was it. It was all let's enjoy him. Let's go back there. And so like, right. And I think that's where we get it wrong. We feel like if we've missed it somehow, we've messed up the plan. God can't recover. There's no way. And we're disqualified. That we're disqualified. We're out of the plan. Yeah. Yeah. And part of one of the greatest things, I mean, times of people said, I'm off the rails. What does that mean? That means we thought there was a rail. Right. The amount of times I've introduced myself as a pastor and people didn't proceed to tell me where well, I stopped going because I failed it down. I did. And I'm like, man, I didn't even I'm I'm just asking who you are. Yeah. I think we just we get into this place where religion is a reminder sometimes of where we've missed it. And I think I think these kind of moments where hope it. Oh, it's it. And even this he was 11 6 without faith. It's impossible. Yeah. Please God. Yeah. But if you think about a set a different way with fear, it's impossible. Please God. Because God wants you to live this life of expansive views of faith that believes that trust God that can walk out of your tent. Look up at the stars and count because there's a funny thing about that statement. Hey, count the stars. Well, do you think like three weeks later, God came knocking and said, Hey, have you finished that homework? I think that was the goal. The goal was not. Hey, Abraham, I'm really struggling with how many stars there are. I need you to let me know. Yeah. The whole point of that exercise was to remind Abraham that God was bigger. Yeah. And that his plans for you and him were bigger. And you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be able to somehow simplify, put borders on, put limits on, simplify even the great calling God has for humanity. And our job is to enjoy it and glorify him in it. Yeah. Reflect his presence. And be that. And that requires us to trust him that requires us to step out to speak out to be people of faith. And we really do have to inventory if the thing we're posting on social media or the people we're following on social media or the dinner table conversations we're having or at the way we're treating our neighbor or the signs we're putting in our yard or whatever it is. Wow. Are we doing that because we're afraid of something that's coming or because we have faith that the kingdom is on its way. Yeah. Because we are citizens of the kingdom and we're people of hope. Paul says it, right? You you have been you have been brought into new life with Christ. You now live with him. It's my definition. It doesn't it's not even like you now live in a certain place. You live in Christ. That is now your kingdom. So that is now your residing place. And it so we have to take inventory of our own life is like are we daily reacting to all the things we're getting or we a as some would say a a non-anxious presence in the world or are we adding to the anxiety. Wow. With all of the rhetoric and all of the things we're saying or we are we that non-anxious firmly planted settled people of faith and unsettled world. What do you say about Shalom? How do you define it? Holiness peace taking time to to let God's wholeness right? It's to really take it in. All things as they should be. Yeah. It is. It's a it is a yeah and that's where peace comes in right? I mean that's communion with God brings that the peace that surpasses understanding the wholeness the the coming together of mind, body and will. Yeah it's such an important. If you live in the Fort Worth area you should be going to this church. I mean we'd love to have a good church. Yeah I like land and all the guys see three four worth dot com. And for your tools and resources Brandon my son who's seen here with me and sharing these incredible things I sat down with him when he was 10 years old and his younger brother Bryce at nine years old nine and 10 and we went through strong men and tough times and at the kitchen table apparently nine a.m. was too early at that point in your life. There was a lot of like yeah anyway but nine and 10 and started going through that and and part of the undergirding of his life and so that's why we have the tools and resources. We're not just about selling books what we're trying to do is basically have the resources to build strong men because strong men make strong families and strong families make strong churches and christian men's network is a church resource to build strong churches because we believe the church is the hope of the world and it's been great Brandon we could talk for another 20 minutes easy yeah but you can but you can also don't you have this on a podcast or something yeah easiest is probably our YouTube channel but we are getting the stuff that's going on our podcast channel yeah okay say three four worth it's the letter C letter C yeah yeah don't spot the number three it's the number three four yeah it's like I tell people when I say cmn dot man go to cmn dot man I say not CNN no don't yeah yeah because you're not well that'd be weird cmn dot man probably wouldn't well not only that it's gonna be full of fear yeah so 24 and so christian men's network cmn dot man also on YouTube is our Monday night men it premieres every Monday night at 9 p.m. Eastern right now we're going through the book Daring we've gone through strong men of tough times going through real man some great teachings and things there and then every year at the first weekend of November we meet in Dallas in a leadership meeting called the lion's roar global summit for christian and biblical masculinity with christian men's network men coming from around the world so you're invited to be there cmn summit dot com cmn summit dot com and then there's the others a lot going on we've got new translations coming up in India we've got a live broadcast going into Iran and and farce speaking pastors which means everybody from really from Los Angeles to Turkey to London Uzbekistan all over the world so that that one's coming up we've got broadcasts every single month to the dangerous nations of the world and so those of you who are partners and friends thank you for supporting this our goal is to see men come to jesus christ and become disciples of christ and move into a place of faith yeah just like brand and has bought a new building yeah yeah new building for your church yeah and the church bought a building and man that's a step of faith yeah right big stretch yeah yeah yeah it's we do not you know we're right yeah it's a do not be afraid braided yeah do not be afraid for I will protect you here's the other translation and your reward will be great yeah he will be satisfied and you will be secure it's right yeah how many times do you have to repeat that to yourself every day again I mean this goes back to the very beginning right I mean that is it fear will be there daily so you might as well put faith in the mix you might as well move into christ you're always going to have an opportunity to be afraid so don't yeah so stand up get out of the cave move get some stuff done enjoy life what was the thing satisfied yet to enjoy God and glorify him yeah there we go yeah that should be a tattoo or something well it's a creed you can yeah I mean it's a creed it's pretty popular it's been around for a minute what if we could simplify all things to that wouldn't that be great yeah it would be but you know on the other hand you'd have to have something new every week yeah well if listen if you can enjoy God you will have faith yeah there you go if you will enjoy him you'll have faith hey thanks for being with me grand well thanks for great and so there you go that's brave men today and make sure you tell somebody about this click on there there's a place on there where you can like it there's also a place where you can subscribe so subscribe to brave men tell somebody about it share share it and Bob and Flagstaff and Steve and Berlin a rod in London Alex and Uganda and other places in between that we hear from and that are friends of ours we love you thank God for you remember hope is alive hope has a name hope's name is Jesus you just experienced brave man with Paul Lewis Cole Paul is president of the Christian men's network connect with Paul at cmd.man or write to him at Paul at cmd.man