Fundamentals of Becoming a Champion

00:04 - Speaker 1 Hi, this is Paul Louis Cole. You're listening to the Brave Men Podcast, fired up about having you along. Today we are going back to the basics. That's where championships are won. Fundamentals becoming a champion. What does that mean? Building a life that overcomes adversity, following Christ with reckless abandon. That's what it's about. 00:27 I'm excited about talking about it, going through some things. I'm holding in my hand Maximized Manhood, a book written by my father, dr Ed Cole, 40 years ago, 42 years ago, and God has used it. It's in over 30, the hands of 30 million men have read this book in over 50 languages and now in over 100 nations where the Christian Men's Network works. It is amazing, as I talked to some men in Lima, peru and in Indonesia over the last few weeks, being there on the ground with them, talking about how God is using all of the tools and resources of Christian Men's Network and majoring in men the Maximize Manhood series and my father has been gone 23 years, 23 years, and today there are more men reading his books than when he was alive. I mean that's unusual and it speaks of legacy, but it also speaks of efficacy how effective this is in helping leaders and pastors disciple men. I want to go back to some basics, I want to hit a couple things. It's just you and me today. So, whether you're working out, wherever you are, driving your car to the Firestone store in Flagstaff, wherever you are today, thanks for coming along. I really do believe that as we talk over the next few moments, there'll be some things that click in your mind and you go. You know what. I've kind of let this slide or I've let this go. 02:14 It's 1961 and Dave Marantzis wrote this in his book about Vince Lombardi In 61, summer of 61, they had lost the previous year, they had lost the championship. They had lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, squandered a lead in the late and fourth quarter. And now the Packers Green Bay Packers, vince Lombardi coach, walk into their locker room and it says this here's what David Moranis wrote he took nothing for granted. Talking about Vince Lombardi, he took nothing for granted. He began a tradition of starting from scratch, assuming that the players were blank slates who carried over no knowledge from the year before. He began with the most elemental statement of all, gentlemen. He said holding a football in his right hand, this is a football. And he became famous for blocking and tackling and the fundamentals and going through each thing. I think about John Wooden. John Wooden even had a lesson, a teaching, a training session in which he taught his players. This is a coach that won multiple NCAA championships and some of the greatest players of all time played for Coach. John Wooden became a legend, and John Wooden had a session in which he taught the players how to put on their socks and tie their shoes. Took nothing for granted how to put on your socks and tie your shoes. 03:54 The fact is, everything you and I are trying to do or become is under attack. We think of the chaos in the world, all the things that are happening and swirling around us. Got off a plane the other day, but when I got on the plane, one of the things they did was they made an announcement In the case of an emergency. You know the one In the case of an emergency, there'll be air mask that drops from the ceiling. There'll be masks all the seats. Boom, these masks drop down and says put yours on first before trying to help somebody else. If you're not healthy, you can't help somebody else become healthy. 04:40 My father, Dr Cole, when he wrote Maximize Manhood, the cut line, was a guide to family survival, and as he wrote this, he started this ministry, Christian Men's Network, in the summer of 1977, pastoring a local church. I was in business, working at a job in media, and he called me and said hey, something happened, come over. So I went over and over the course of the next month, sitting at the kitchen table of my mom and dad's house, our family began a ministry called Christian Men's Network and 47 years later it's still cranking. Not only that, we're over 100 nations now and as he wrote this book, it was a guide to family survival. Because we're under attack. We're under attack, chaos in the world, but we're under attack. 05:35 Jesus even said it. He said John 10, 10,. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I mean, I told you I'm going to some basics, hit some fundamentals, walk with me in this, take some notes, write some things down. 05:51 I remember Coach McCartney telling me he's the man who won a national championship at Colorado, great football coach and a great friend. And then he said every year I would have to go back and do the same things over again, but if we didn't, we wouldn't have a good year. He said my players got, they would get kind of glazed over. You know, it's like, oh man, we're going to do this again and he'd have to pull them up short in practice. Remember Tom Brady talking about it. He said I in practice. Remember Tom Brady talking about it. He said I love practice. And he said I practiced as hard in practice as I did in a game and he said it was that important. 06:36 See, there's no shortcuts if you want to be a champion. There are no shortcuts. It's not an easy life. I think of Chuck Norris, our great friend who my father became a mentor to him the last five or six years of my father's life, and Chuck has written a number of times since then. He said I was a great MMA fighter, a champion of the world, all these things, but I really didn't know what it was to be a man until I began to be discipled through Maximized Manhood. When a man is discipled in Christ, it changes everything. There's no shortcuts. 07:21 You think of Paul the Apostle. He did not live an easy life. This was not easy, but it was historic, effective, it was epic, it was sacred. Daniel didn't live an easy life, but he lived to be one of the greatest men in the history of the world. Listen, here's the thing. There's no shortcuts. It's going to take integrity, purpose, determination and discipline. 07:51 When Jesus said the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, the caveat of that, if you will, the force behind this statement, was not that it wasn't oh, look out for the thief. It was I have come. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come, jesus, to give you life, and life to the fullest. Other translations abundant life. 2 Timothy 2.2 was the fundamental scripture that my father started this ministry on, and it was Paul talking to his young protege, timothy, and he's helping him understand how to grow larger as a man and how to shepherd the church that Paul had put him in charge of. In Ephesus. 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, he said the words that I've given you, the things I've taught you, timothy, commit them to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 08:55 Faithfulness always precedes ability. The issue for most of us is we're looking for the ability, working on the talent, but not working on the character. Come back to I've used the illustration a lot Roy Tarpley, who was one of the greatest basketball players that really ever came up out of college and into the pros and he flamed out because the character wasn't there to go with his talent. I know you can probably think of some other illustrations of that, but the fact is we've got to focus on our heart, because everything comes out of that Integrity, purpose, determination, discipline. So I'm speaking to your heart today and I want to go through some of the ideas in Maximize Manhood that I think are fundamentally key, key to becoming a champion. 09:51 How we become the man who not only influences others but influences context, influences culture, changes the world around him. It's like a seed A seed when you put it in the ground you't see it anymore. It's covered up. But what you do know by faith and experience, is that seed doesn't become dirt. You put the seed in the ground. You don't expect it to become dirt. Now, within the seed is the character of the plant. If you're planting a bush, you know it's in that seed. If you're planting a tree, the character of that tree is in the seed. It's always in the seed. 10:46 When Daniel I talked about Daniel a moment ago when he got placed into Babylon, he didn't become like the culture he was planted in. It was because of his character. When a man's character is Christ-like, he doesn't become like the world around him, he becomes like what he's supposed to be, so that seed doesn't become dirt. In fact, when that seed let's talk about you and me planted into the culture in which we live, a true seed, authentically impregnated with the life and the DNA of the plant we desire to be, which is Ephesians 2.10. God's placed dreams and desires in us. We're here on purpose. We all know that the culture we're placed in, the culture we don't become like the culture. Just as the seed doesn't become dirt, the seed bears fruit, and a discipled man has fruit. Guys can tell you all sorts of stuff oh yeah, I've done this, I've done that, been here, been there but what's the fruit of his life? In other words, what does it look like when he touches something? The seed always bears fruit. A discipled man always bears fruit. The Bible says you'll know them by their what? By their fruit. So let me hit a couple other things and get right into the. There's five fundamental areas that stop us from becoming the man we desire to be, the man God designed us to be and the man our family needs us to be, and these are the fundamentals of maximized manhood. 12:24 I asked eddie leo in jakarta. I said what do you want me to teach on. Coming up to this conference we had men from 700 men from 19 Asian nations. These are remarkable men. Half of them have been in prison at some point for preaching the gospel or gathering and maybe just interrogated, but that's enough. But some of them in overnight, some of them beaten, stout men, stalwart men, over half the men that were at our Lions Roar Asia and we've got a Lions Roar USA, north America, coming up November 6th through the 8th in Dallas at Create Church. But I asked them, I said what do you want me to teach on with these men? He said teach on the hole in the door, chapter 5 in Maximize Manhood. I said, man, haven't they gone through this? Probably before? And he said yeah, and they're going to go through it again because, over and over and over, we need to, we need to hit the same things so that, uh, there's a whole indoors lesson four in the workbook. And he said because, because repetition will produce instant recall, bam, you know what to do in this situation. Go back to football and athletics, right, same thing. 14:00 Give you a quote from Daring that I think will help us as we walk into this. Write this down. I'm not defined as a man by the things I struggle with. I am defined as a man by the fact I am a passionate pursuer of the power of his presence. I am not defined as a man by the things I struggle with. I'm defined as a man by the fact I'm a passionate pursuer of the power of his presence. I think I could actually just say I'm a passionate pursuer of his presence, not even the power of his presence. I'm not defined as a man by the things I struggle with. I'm defined as a man by the fact I'm a passionate pursuer of his presence. 14:45 Here's the deal. Was David a man after God's own heart? Think about this. Was King David a man after God's own heart? Think about this. Was King David a man after God's own heart? Yeah, God even said that about him when he was nine years old. I found a man after my own heart, but over and over in the book of Psalms we see him repenting. He was repenting. Did he mess up? Yeah, totally. I asked a man. I've done this, you may have seen it. I've done this in events different times. 15:14 I'll ask a man talking about repentance and David. I'll ask some guys and go hey, uh, how many of you would like to be a friend of King David's. How many of you want to be a good friend of King David's? Everybody raise their hand. So I'll point out one man and I go you want to be a good friend of King David's? How would you like to be a good friend of King David's and have a really hot looking wife? The other guys start yelling. Tell him no, because David killed his best friend to get the man's wife. I mean, think about this. This is crazy. And yet he repented Over and over. He messed up and had to repent. I had one guy one time I asked that question and I turned to him and I said would you want to be a good friend of King David's and have a really hot-looking wife? And he paused for a moment, looked at me and he said he said well, how long would I be married to her before David huffs me? So this guy's willing to trade some years with a hot-looking wife. 16:21 Oh man, you know the thing is, God delivers us to righteousness by delivering us from sin, and he's more focused on where we're going than where we've been. That's the key, looking forward. The beauty of Eucharist, you know, when we take communion, is that we first take the broken body, and it speaks of the broken body, of Christ, his body, but it also speaks of our brokenness and our broken past. Then we take the blood, the cup, that wine, and when we take that, it actually speaks of future. So you are not defined by your past, brother, you are defined by your future. You're defined by that's who you are. You know, winners look at what they're going to. Losers, whiners look at what they're going through. You know, get your head up, man. 17:15 John 16, verses 31 through 33. In the message, jesus answered them and said the Father is with me. I've told you all these things so that, trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace In this godless world. You will continue to experience difficulties, but take heart, I've conquered the world. That's John 16, 31 through 33. You know, see, here's the deal. 17:43 God's purposes and plans for you are personal and your personal circumstance does not dictate his response to you when you pray. Your circumstance doesn't constrain God in his ability to respond. He's got a plan, he's got a strategy wisdom, proverbs 8. Jesus was never left without an answer. It wasn't. Anybody came up and said, hey, what about this? And he goes. Oh, you know I'm going to go pray about this. I really don't know. God's never been surprised, it's never been. Oh, what do we do now? Here's what I love 1 John, 4, 4,. 18:25 Then we'll get into the five reasons Israel didn't get into the promise, which are the same reasons men don't reach their potential in life. Remember, you can go to cmnmen cmnmen for tools and resources to disciple men. And I want to say thank you to all of our partners and friends who make this possible this broadcast, the Monday Night Men, the YouTube specials, the programs that we just did in Brazil, costa Rica, uganda, other places around the world, over 100 nations in which we're reaching men. We are CMN. We rescue men by the power of God. A champion is not a man who never fails. A champion is a man who never quits, and that's just what we do. We just don't quit. 19:18 1 John 4.4. Followers of Christ, you belong to God and have already defeated and overcome the enemy. Samplified Followers of Christ, you belong to God and have already defeated and overcome the enemy. It's amplified. Followers of Christ, you belong to God and have already defeated and overcome the enemy, because he who lives in you is greater, mightier than he who is in the world. Man, I love that. 19:44 You know God's bringing us to a place of maturity, and that's one of the basics of maximized manhood is maturity doesn't come with age, it comes with the acceptance of responsibility. I can't get over these fundamentals. The fundamentals, man. This is where we win the fight, and that's why you and I are talking this time together, because, bottom line, let me just put it this way there's an old adage that says if you speak to the fool in a man's heart, a fool will rise up, but if you speak to the king in a man's heart, a king will rise up. So I'm speaking to the king, I'm speaking to the warrior in your heart. You are not made for mediocrity. It's easy to be a fool, but it's going to take some work for us to become the strong men that our culture needs us to be. That's what we're doing right now. We're doing work. 20:49 Maturity doesn't come with age, it comes with the acceptance of responsibility. You can be mature at 18 or still immature at 38. What's maturity? Maturity see, that's the goal to go from childish to manhood, from immaturity to maturity. Maturity check this out. Maturity is the attribute to make the right choice, even when the context or the emotions of the moment would cause you to do something else. Maturity is the personal attribute, that inner character to make the right choice even when the context or the emotions of the moment would cause you to do something else. 21:36 There's five reasons Israelites didn't get into the land of promise or place of destiny. Same reasons men don't reach their potential in life. First, corinthians 10, six through nine these things happen as a warning to us so that we would not crave evil things as they did. This is from New King James and this 1 Corinthians 10, 6-9 are the basics that put together, the fundamentals, that put together maximized manhood. And what we do is we train and teach men around the world. These things happened as a warning to us so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols, as some of them did, as the scripture says. They celebrated with feasting and drinking and they indulged in pagan revelry. And three we must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did, died from snake bites. And five don't grumble as some of them did and then were destroyed by the angel of death. 22:50 That's murmuring, or negative confession, being another one, just negative talk. And it's not just negative talk, it's, it's a negative heart. These are all heart issues. These are all inner issues, because it's from the heart. In romans 10 uh, matthew 10, it was matth 10,. Jesus said from the heart the mouth speaks. Proverbs 4 says guard your heart, because out of your heart comes your life. We know that the actions of our hands are determined by the decisions in our heart. So it starts inside, goes outside. Religion tries to change this from the outside. Government tries to change this from the outside. Government tries to change this from the outside, but the true change in a man's life is on the inside. 23:38 All right, let's go back through this list. Number one craving evil things. Let's write the word down lust. It's not necessarily sexual. So, number one lust. What is lust? Lust is the desire to benefit myself, even at the expense of somebody else. Lust, selfishness, that's a great one, selfishness. And it's our own desire, which we, which we, deem more important than anyone else. You know, kind of like the person who changes lanes in front of you and says you know, or or goes, you know, just basically, their time is more valuable than yours. They're just Lust, the difference between love and lust. 24:31 This is fascinating to me. Love is the desire to benefit others, because love always desires to give. God so loved the world that he gave. The thought is father to the deed. Actions follow thinking. All behavior follows belief. What you determine in your heart becomes the decisions in your hand Love and lust. So this inner part of you will be exhibited, in other words, this will be the fruit of your life. This will show where you're at. 25:06 Well, I'm not getting my needs met. Well, what are you doing to bless those around you? Well, I just don't know who I can talk to. Well, who have you talked to? Who have you gone out and met with? Who have you sat? Sit down with your pastor and say, hey, I need a couple guys I can just hang with, and pastor goes okay, got him, here we go, let's do this thing. We have to step out of our cave. I'm not saying this is easy, but you weren't called to an easy life. You were called to an effective life. You were called to the life of a hero. You were called to the life of a warrior. It's not easy. It's why we train. It's why we train our minds, it's why we get into the Word of God. There are some basics, the Word prayer gird up your loins. 25:55 The Bible says lust, man. We just so easily jump into that. James 1, chapter 1 of St James a half-brother of Jesus, verse 14, temptation comes from our own desires which entice us and drag us away. 15, verse 15, these desires give birth to sinful actions and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. You just got to cut it off, man. Number two number one was lust. Number two is idolatry, a value system in which we esteem something to be more worthy than our devotion to God. So I can be prestige. Think about this. Your ego, popularity, money, business, your hobbies More important, a value system. This is more important for me to do this than it is to really spend time following Jesus Christ. In other words, we're willing to be distracted, and distraction is the devil's hammer. 27:04 Ministry can be an idol. You can be more connected to your ministry than you are to your family, and I've talked to people this week who had that happen in their lives. Her dad was. She's a wife of a really well-known pastor. We were in a room, all of us together and I just asked her where she came from and this and that, and I happened to know some of her situations and I said, oh, what happened with this? She goes well, my dad was just more involved with ministry than he was with our family and it really affected she said it affected most my brother. Her brother was a couple years older, and so your ministry can be an idol. Pornography is an idol. That's an easy hit. Pornography, porn is an idol value system and we'll talk about it in a moment when I talk about immorality. 28:03 Your doctrine can be an idol. Your doctrine can be more important than people. Your doctrine can be more important than people Because you can just beat people up with your doctrine without wanting to know. Well, you know where's this guy coming from, what's happened in his life, what's the trauma? Why is he the way he is? Where's the compassion? I mean Jesus, think about Jerusalem. Jerusalem's a mess, but Jesus still stopped on the road into Jerusalem, stopped and just cried. He said how often would I have just gathered you to me, just held you in my arms. You just reject me. There you go. Those were Sadducees. Phariseesisees would go. Yeah, those are bad guys. Yeah, well, that's us at times, our holy attitude. Yeah, we got it, we got, we got our deal. Rather than leading people to Christ, we just put up barriers. 29:03 Uh, number three, fornication. Number three immorality, fornication. Number three, immorality, fornication, sex sin. Think of Samson and Delilah, david and Bathsheba. Think of I could go right. You could think of all sorts of contemporary, whether it's Epstein or whatever. You could think of all sorts of contemporary or not so contemporary. You can go back to Hugh Hefner. Immorality and fornication. That got celebrated. People call the bad things good. 29:37 It's a problem in the church today, man, you know all the stats tell us Porn big issue, man, lust of the flesh. I remember a pastor in Mississippi, a great friend, who said my men don't have as big a problem with porn as they do with a porn queen. It lives on their street. Issue of pornography here's the issue with pornography Shame and guilt. Shame and guilt Waste your time, takes your energy, destroys your confidence and your hope. It fogs your focus. You're not, can't see clearly. Think about this. Porn isn't just that moment that you're watching something immoral, illicit, watching somebody being victimized, watching something that isn't real. It's not real, it's not your reality either. Do you know it breeds a gap with your wife. Do you know? Women are more apt to have an affair if their husband's hooked on porn? The women, the wife. It's crazy. 30:47 It's a crack for the brain, man, and I think if you've got an issue with that, you need to get help. You could do the Conquer series for most men. That gives them enough tools to be where they need to be in a clean space, sober. Conquer series is great. Conquer series is great. We've had men on here that are helpers Sam Sathia, james Craft and others. You can go back and look on the podcast and there's other places to go. If you really have a deep problem, you need to talk to your pastor and then get a local therapist and counselor and get honest, be real, get a track and counselor and get honest, be real, get a track, get something to run on. You know, because what else happens is when you're really despondent and get down about these things. You're angry, you're tired. Esau is a combination of those things Hungry, angry, tired and that's when you make your worst decisions. 31:52 Number four tempting Christ. That's basically asking God to do what's contrary to his will and then asking him to bless something that you do, rather than something that you asked him. Should I be doing this? You know? Is this in your will? No, well, I'm going to do it anyway, but I need you to bless it. It's the old. I'm going to go do this. Oh God help. It's telling God how he's supposed to act, rather than us being defined by how we're supposed to act based on the Word of God. That's a false image man Tempting Christ, ananias and Sapphira these people in Acts 5, husband and wife, and they sold some property brought the money to the apostles. They said, ah, it's the full amount. I mean, they didn't have to. They could have said, hey, here's half of it. But they lied. They lied to God, lied to the apostles. Both of them had heart attacks and died when they were confronted with the truth. 33:00 Number five grumbling, murmuring, negative confession, complaining, criticizing, fault finding. I mean seriously. I watched my grandchildren, uh, play games and do different things. And uh, I mean football, baseball, basketball. I mean, come on, you got an eight-year-old out there playing basketball and you're yelling at the ref that the other team traveled. And you're yelling at the ref that the other team traveled Seriously. You know the ref's just trying to make his $35 or whatever it is. You know doing five games to try to make a living for his family and you're yelling at him like he's supposed to be a professional ref. Come on, back it up a little bit. Negative confession you know what. You do that and I'll just tell you right now. You got a negative spirit going, man. 33:59 I know there's times to question things, so I think there's a way to do that. But particularly if you're a parent, you know you sign that child up in that team. The time to yell at the coach is not in front of everybody. It's go talk separately. Go, hey, what does my son need to do? What does my daughter need to be in order to move into the starting lineup? What do we got to do? And then go do that. Anyway, I don't know how I got on that, but you know, and I'm the first one to yell, you know, at a professional game particularly, or maybe in college, yeah, man, it's a bad call, and sometimes they are, and that's baseball or that's basketball or that's soccer, whatever the thing is. 34:50 But when it becomes a part of your life, man, well you know what? Nobody's going to want to hang out with you after a while. It's just negative. It's like a little force field Pushes everybody away. Selfish words, sedition, rebellion. Well, I really like our pastor, but I'm not sure we're really getting fed. 35:13 2 Corinthians 5.17,. Here's the beauty of all of this. 2 Corinthians 5.17,. We are a new creation in Christ. Old things have passed away, all things have become new, no longer defined by our past but defined by our future. And let me leave you with this. 35:30 This is from the Amplified, it's Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6 and 8. And it's my wife's favorite scripture. Judy loves this scripture, I do too. Hebrews 13. For he, God himself, has said I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support. I will not. I will not, I will not. That's a term of covenant. I will not three times, not in any degree, leave you helpless, nor forsake, nor let you down. Relax my hold on you, assuredly not. Verse 6, chapter 13,. Hebrews. So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say the Lord is my helper. I will not be seized with alarm, I will not fear or dread or be terrified. What can man do to me? Verse 8,. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. 36:38 Fundamentals how you build a championship life. Back to basics. Having a championship season it's not about the hands, it's about the heart. From the inside comes the outside. Man, I love spending time with you. Look forward to talking to you again soon. We have great guests coming up on Brave Men. Tell somebody about it. Subscribe, hit the little button wherever it is. Subscribe because the algorithm we don't know how it works. We just know if more people subscribe it puts us in front of more people. So do that. See me on Monday night, men, every Monday Night on Christian Men's Network YouTube. Look forward to seeing you there. Look forward to seeing you at events across the country. Go to cmn.men to order materials and resources and find out where the events are and go with me somewhere around the world. We've got teams going to Uganda, Vietnam, Latin America, Brazil, Nigeria where else? All over Amazing times, God's raising an army. You're part of it, I'm part of it. We're in this together, my friend. Never forget this. Hope is alive. Hope has a name. Hope's name is Jesus. 38:02 - Speaker 2 Brave Men is a production of Christian Men's Network, a global movement of men committed to passionately following Jesus on the ground in over a hundred nations worldwide. You can receive the Brave Men motivational email, find books and resources for discipleship and parenting at cmn.men. That's cmn.men. Your host has been Paul Louis Cole, president of Christian Men's Network, and if you haven't yet, please make sure you subscribe to the Brave Men podcast wherever your fine podcasts are downloaded. Thanks for hanging with us today. We'll see you next time on Brave Men.