TFM 04: What Morals Are We To Live By? Who Decides Right From Wrong? Is There Really A Place To Find Ultimate Truth? And Much, Much More…(Transcript)

You can listen to the audio version here as well!!!

Welcome to the “True Family Men Podcast” and I’m your host Dave Johnson. Thanks for joining us today on our fourth episode of the “True Family Men Podcast”. I am so excited to have you guys and if this is your first time tuning in, welcome and if this is your 4th episode then I appreciate you guys sticking with me and I’m close to being considered not a statistic. They say that most podcast only make it 7 episodes in and that is roughly 70% to 80% and then they fail after that so four more to go we’re halfway there and we’re going to do it. I got some good stuff lined up and I’m excited and I am very, very appreciative for all the feedback you guys gave me from Todd’s episode.

The interview that’s a “True Family Men Podcast” episode number three and if you guys weren’t able to listen to that you can find that on iTunes under “The True Family Men” show or you can check it out at http://truthreconstructed.com/episode3 and I got so much amazing feedback just from his testimony and just the talk we had the interview it went so amazing. Just so many people telling me how much respect they have and how powerful his story was on his life and Todd is getting friend request on Facebook and email from people he’s never heard about and it was just remarkable. I had people come into me at my church during a friend’s reception. the pastor of my church his son actually just got married and there was people there that I’ve never met before and I never seen and they were coming to me and saying oh I love the show man, I love the show so much and it just really warm my heart you know it’s not about me and it’s not about my wisdom or knowledge but you know I want to give the glory to God and this is the platform that he show me to reach family men and just the amount of feedback I got in person especially was just remarkable.

It’s just weird not…I don’t really…I’m not getting a lot of feedback on the web but in person I’m just looking at somebody and they’re just telling me how proud they are of me. I don’t really know how to respond to that I just smile and give them a hug. I’m not really good at receiving good compliments. I don’t know if it’s because I’m so rough on myself but once again thanks a lot and thanks to Todd for really pouring his heart out you know and sharing that with us and if you guys, I would appreciate any feedback that you’re willing to give through Facebook, you can message me on Facebook, you can reach me on my email, my contact or my website which is truefamilymen@gmail.com. Once again leaving a review on iTunes is so powerful just in the growth of the website and easiest way to do that if you guys are accessing this or your iPhone app you can just click the little podcast icon that you’re listening through and just go to the little search bar and just type my showing in, you know it’ll come up and you just click the show and it’ll say reviews and ratings and just leave one there where you can actually go to your iTunes Store and just type my show in there and leave review there but any feedback really, really is just so encouraging you know I’m going to keep pressing forth regardless as long as it reaches one person that’s all that matters to me but I’m not going to lie sometimes I get a little discouraged.

The feedback is definitely encouraging and I don’t want to start this show off the wrong way, so let’s start it the way we usually do and this is by reading the scripture and I’m going to read 1 Timothy 1:5 and it says “but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” and lately I’ve been really digging into the word and this talk here tonight, I’m going to try and keep it around 30 minutes and we’re going to really get into the line of morality and just striving for perfection  and [unclear 04:30] here is going to apply in a way of the conscience part.

I hope I’m saying that right if I’m not please bear with me I’m going to do my best but I have made like a little play with my wife and this is new found love I’ve had for the Word of God it’s remarkable on what I’m learning and we’ve made it a challenge to our self to study just the first book of 1 Timothy not 2 Timothy for 30 days and really dive in  and just read the context, the background, who is writing the letter to Timothy, who Timothy and in this first here Timothy it’s a letter from Paul and if you don’t know who Paul is, he’s like the most famous apostle in the Bible, he’s written the most you know over 1/3 of the new testament, but he’s writing a letter to Timothy which is like his prodigy kind of like you know Paul was his mentor and in this letter he’s basically giving him instruction on what it means to be a pastor or a church leader and in this verse that I just read 1:5 he’s giving him instruction on how to correct false teaching that is being done in the Church of Ephesus and these are…this is amongst like deacons or overseers that you’d be called in our modern day church and he showing him how to correct and correcting with a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith and I’ve been stuck on this verse here for about 4 days and I just been digging in what a pure heart means and what it means to have a good conscience and a sincere faith and that’s really what has stir my heart for this conversation and I just really been digging into the word and praying and like what should I talk about in the next show and I believe this is it but before we dig into this and just get really deep this is June 27th of 2015 and I’m living in Northwest Ohio area and we have had the most craziest storm I have ever been a part of just in awhile that I can just remember in the past 10 years I mean it rained and it rained and most of you know and if this is your first time tuning in I’m a mailman and let me tell you at the beginning of this crazy storm started around 7 a.m. and I work that day and I have an all walking route.

So I mean I’m out there and I’m enduring this ready to quit, highly caffeinated, just to make it through the six and a half hours that I have to do out on the street you know walking deliver the mail and I have like the best rain coat that money can buy thanks to the post office which is $400 Gore-Tex and within four hours which is great, I’m not complaining but it lasted four hours and it was so drenched I mean I’ve never been so soaked in my life and I just put my hood up and just looked down and just walked to the house and just deliver the mail and the whole time I’m like Lord please just help, me give me the mind that I need to have to get through this crazy weather. Tons of people the basements were flooded, streets were closed down unfortunately my mom tried the drive through a puddle that looked a lot smaller than what it was, flooded her whole car into the seats and into her engine compartment and it was just been a mess here in Northwest Ohio it’s been a nightmare. I don’t know if its gods of wrath after I the day before same sex marriage law being passed in all states I’m not going to really dive into that topic if you know what the show’s about, you already know my stance in that area, but it is just been crazy and just my mind-set lately every morning I start off you know and  doing my daily routine, you know I’m starting off the morning with a long drive to work and I really just try to focus on talking to God and setting my day up walking in his will and it’s just weird how your mind can almost ruined your day if you let it and many of you out there probably understand exactly what I mean and as I’m driving to work it’s pouring already and I’m just thinking to myself oh my gosh it’s going to be a terrible day today, I’m probably going to have overtime, I just don’t want to do this, this day is going to be terrible, it’s going to be…it’s already windy and cold and it’s raining.

I just don’t feel like doing this you know and I’m just already setting myself up in a negative way and I come across this intersection and I’m standing at the light and I see you lady probably in her 50’s and she’s running across the street to get to the bus stop. She literally has a black garbage bag wrapped around her body like a raincoat and you know like when you go to Walmart and get groceries they give you a little grocery bag, she has that on top of your head and I…you want to talk about being convicted to the heart the Lord just convicted…I mean and I just said Lord it’s going to be a great day today. I got a $400 raincoat, rain pants, sweatshirt, hat, I have all the things I need to get through it and this lady has a garbage bag. Let me talk about a new perspective, a new mind shift and that’s what I hope to do…with you guys out there today is to shift your mind-set when it comes to moral standards and perfection and I recently had a…I’ve been talking to my friend Shane a lot, Shane Hawkins and hopefully I’m going to get him on the next interview, next show, next Thursday and talk to him. I mean this guy’s an amazing father, husband and just such a man of God, just seeking after the things of God for his life and for other’s life. He’s a real…he reaches out and he really likes to help people and that’s why he’s been talking to me, he’s been helping me so much but we were at a reception.

My pastor at my church his son got married and tons of people there but  me and Shane were just talking about some amazing stuff and I was talking to him about just moral standard in the world that you know is going on right now and just throughout I mean even history and we got into a big discussion, it was awesome, it’s always so productive and I was like, I got to talk about this in the podcast, you know I got to share this, this has really been under my heart and so basically the moral standard that I’m talking about is there’s a standard. God…the Bible talks about that God has written the law on our heart, it’s like we’re created with this conscience that we know right from wrong, that when you commit, something that’s not right or something that’s wrong, you have like these warning signs that go off an I like that because I was reading, when I’m studying the word I have this really cool study Bible and it’s a John McCartha and there’s always these little side notes down at the bottom and it kind of dissects the verse and helps you out, helps you get a better understanding and it says down here applying to that verse it says “Man knows the basic standard of right and wrong when he violates that standard his conscience produces guilt which acts as the mind’s security system that protects… (oh sorry) that produces guilt which acts as the minds security system that produces fear, guilt, shame and doubt as warnings of threats to the souls wellbeing” and that’s just…that’s powerful and if you continue on it says “On the other hand when a believer does God’s will, he enjoys the affirmation, assurance, peace and joy of a good conscience” and that right there when I was reading that I was just thinking well how…if I look to people in my life, if I look to people around me that do things that I may not necessarily agree with, how are we able to even…we can’t even begin to judge them first off but the bible says that God has written a law on our hearts and you just look at them and you wonder, you cannot even wonder but you can tell where their heart is, where their conscience is and what I mean by this is that you have this standard and as I was getting into the word more and kind of cross referencing these verses.

I was realizing that you can become desensitized in a way and what I mean by that is that the further you get away from the Word of God the further you get away from doing right. you become desensitized it’s like your security system, your moral standard doesn’t work and the more you go to the left side or the side of delusion or doing wrong and not recognizing that you’re doing wrong you become desensitized to the good and how do you get back to this side, how do you get back to the original way of thinking and I always like to say that the Bible is the ultimate measuring tool okay and there’s a moral standard. If you look to the world, if you look to see what the world says a man is, what a father is, what a husband and I know I rant about this all the time but this is what the show is all about. It’s about revealing truth, showing men what a real father and husband looks like and if you look to our culture, if you look to media and you see or the moral standard is and what they say about a man and what a man does. You know a man is and you know a cool guys this guy that sleeps around with other women you know, he’s a party guy you see that all the time, he’s an idiot that may not be a moral standard it’s just a line of thought, they’re idiots, they’re not capable of anything and I just like why does this happen you know that we come home and we fall into some sort of alcoholism and worship of a false God which may be your sports teams I don’t know if that’s pushing any buttons there but it probably does but that’s what we’re talking about here, is the drunkenness, the idle worship of these sports teams, these things that we think that we need to do to be a man, you know not being tied down to one woman and having basically this…these trophies of how many women we slept with.

You see this so many times but this moral standard is so low compared to what the Bible says a real man is and this is what we have to do. We cannot compare ourselves to this moral line because it is ever-changing; it is always changing what it means to be a good man. throughout history things have been so different, I mean if you go back a hundred years ago and you look at the morality and the way a man was 100 years ago, how many men would open a door for a woman on a car, you know even going into a restaurant it’s just common courtesy. Not even in the first year of marriage or the first week of dating, they did this all the time. Sorry honey I will start doing this more, she’s probably listening like you don’t do that for me but yeah this is some…and just the language of men, the way we talk, the way we speak, the vulgarity of our conversation, like on construction sites and just amongst these different communities of men. The moral standard has seemed to completely drop off from 100 years ago and a lot of men were tied to one wife and just the level of respect. These Abraham Lincolns and these George Washington’s, these great men of God that had this high moral standard and it seems as if it is dropping off dramatically over the past hundred years.

I could be wrong, I could be right, it could just be me but I believe you know with just the culture, the media we have so much coming against us that I believe it is so much easier for this moral standard to drop and how do we get back to this? How do we get back to this this moral line of perfection? and I all…I believe truly that it comes back to using the Bible as the ultimate measuring tool and why is this so important? Well number one is that the Bible is never changing, it never contradicts itself, it always is the same. God’s Word will…is always the same, it stays the same and like I was mentioning earlier the standards, the moral standards, the beliefs with this new law coming in you know of equality that has…the laws are always changing, the standards are always changing you know 50 years ago biracial people black man and a white woman couldn’t marry and these things are always changing but the Word of God is always staying the same, it is the ultimate measuring tool for our lives as human beings and as fathers and as husbands and when you get into the Word of God you study the Word of God and what it means to you, what it means to be a good father, a good husband, what godliness  looks like, what the fruits of a godly man look like you know, a man that doesn’t have an outburst of wrath, a man that is entitled to one woman, a man that you know walks in righteousness and is not ashamed to proclaim the name of Christ. These qualities are always the same in the Word of God and when you take the Word of God and you wash your mind with this you read the Word of God, you study the Word of God, you realign yourself with the moral standards of the Bible, you weren’t sensitized any more, you become almost to the original state of where your heart and mind or intended to be when God created us and this is, I mean this may not be doctrine there is so much script that supports this but this is the way God has been speaking to me lately.

[unclear 18:08] say David there’s so much around you, so much negative influence that you have to be in that word every day, you have to know inside and outside of what the law says, what God expects of me as a Christian is a Christ follower because I call myself a Christian okay and want people know me as a Christian and when I’m out, at my job I’m out with my family, I’m representing Christ in a way and it just depends on me, in a way I act people are going to think that that’s what a Christian is, people are going to think that that’s what you  know I call my Christian walk is and it’s so important for me to be in line with the word and acting like a Godly man to represent Christ in a right way and even with like this equality issue you see in Facebook, you see it in the media the way people portray Christians and the way Christians wreck this issue and what the word of God says sometimes don’t line up.

You know angry Christians and they’re just getting so upset and almost fighting and it’s not doing anything, it’s not helping other people come to Christ, it’s almost pushing people away and saying if a Christian acts like that why would I want to be a Christian and you know I digress sorry but yeah coming back to the Word of God and allowing that to wash your mind, allow that restore you and to cleanse you and to purify your mind and heart. To take you back to that original moral standard that God intended for you to be at is just so important and that has helped me so, so much just being in the word and studying the word that, I mentioned earlier the way me and my wife are, it’s not as overwhelming and when I feel like I can get into the bible and not just pick up scripture here and there or feel like where the spirits leading me, it’s like I know I’m going to be into the word and I know I’m going to read 1 Timothy for 30 days and I know what I’m going to be studying and I can get focused instantly and I can say, God how is this speaking to me? What is the scripture saying? How does this apply to my life? And I have these questions written out in a notebook and as I read I’m saying what does the Bible say? What is it saying? How can this apply to me? Who is it talking to? What is the background? and these are the questions I’m asking and as I’m doing this the word is getting into my heart and I’m remembering these scriptures and when things get stuff for me I can fall back on them. When I come against adversity or I have a tough decision to make, I know right from wrong according to the Word of God because the word is in my heart.

I am washing my conscience with this word; The Bible and here’s the thing this is what…I’m just striving to become better every day, to become a better father and husband and in the past I’ve been caught in the monotony of life working so hard the nine to five coming home and the sitting down and feeling entitled to do as I please because I work so hard and instead of not trying to become better and it’s just like I got caught in this, the rhythm or the monotony of life and I almost gave up on my walk with God, on my relationship with my wife and kids and thank God you know through His grace that He restored all that, my relationship with my wife and kids and just gave me a new mind-set and I really believe that once I started getting into the word and washing my mind and not being desensitized because as I was stuck in this rut of life I wasn’t in the Word, I was…my morale line was dropped, it was low you know I was…I had tons of anxiety, I had tons of fear and depression and I felt like I was hopeless. The moral standard in which I live by, the conditions of my heart, I was upset so easy, it was the lower than what it used to be but when I got back in the Word and I start seeking God he restored me, he took that word and he wash my mind and cleansed me he brought my sensitivity back to realize that when there’s an “iffy” conversation with these sexual innuendoes at work or somewhere else, it’s cool my security system goes off, my security warning, my conscience goes off and it says hey you don’t need to participate in that conversation, hey this is not the time or the place to talk negatively about your wife like the other people are doing, stay away from that and I believe that, I cannot stress that enough to be so important to be in that word every day.

Even on audio Bible, listen to the Bible, read the Bible, whatever way you can get the word into your mind and then to your heart is so important and university on wheels I mean this is…if you’re in your car. I hear so many people telling me that they’re consuming the show, through audio through the car, on their commute to work. Maybe cycle that, listen to some podcasts and then the other time on the way to work or on the way home listen to the Bible and stick with this one section of the Bible just 1 book, do the one book for 30 days. Pray about it say God, what is your spirit in moving me to do? How is this scripture apply to my life? Who’s the scripture speaking to? What is the context behind it? What is the background? And really dissect and get in to that word and understand the verse and let me tell you the power of God will move upon you through just that one verse and give you that new understanding and you will have a newfound love for the Bible. Don’t believe the lies people saying that is so boring to read the Bible, there’s nothing in it, it’s so dry. Let me tell you if you start getting into the Bible there is so much good insight and knowledge for your life it’s the only book you need  I mean I read other books, supplemental books that go along the Bible I read that stuff. The Bible is once again the ultimate measuring tool for your life and before we close out, like I said I’m going to try and keep these talks between 30 minutes but I want to talk about striving for perfection not settling to close this out, not settling for ordinary but for extraordinary and let me be a little honest with you guys I had an episode recorded before this and I really just didn’t feel like I was speaking from one guy wanted me to speak from. I felt like maybe I was using a little bit of my own knowledge and I spoke a little in my previous show that I’m not even going to release but about ordinary to extraordinary and I believe I could just sum it up in this, is that us as Christians, us as men we need to strive each and every day to become better, to become extraordinary men and not to be ordinary and what I mean by ordinary is just be this dad that’s okay.

To be this dad’s that’s an okay Christian, an okay man but I believe we live in such a great time right now, such a great place that we can become so much better just by aligning ourselves with awesome godly men and that are in the same vision, the same mind-set to be an extraordinary man that can influence our wife and kids to a point where our kids grow up and say oh remember that one time dad did…just to give our kids the most amazing story and here’s what God is really laying on my heart in this…in this fact that just what an extraordinary father and husband, how important this is and what it looks like is that one day I know my sons my two boys Elijah and Ezekiel will grow up to be the man that I was to them. That they’ll be the dad that I was to them, that they’ll be the husbands to their wives almost to the T of the husband that I am to my wife and same with my daughter. She’s going to the most likely marry a man that is a lot like me and if you don’t believe that look at so many relationships so many marriages that end because of abuse when…what do you see? You see a lot of these women that were abused by their husbands, who unfortunately were abused by their dad. It happens it’s so terrible and same with men that grow up to be alcoholics or this nature you know whatever abusive most likely their fathers were alcoholics and abusive you can’t deny that and you can’t see how important it is to be extraordinary to take your relationship with your kids to another level and once again to use the word of God to be your moral standard for what this looks like. I can’t tell you what extraordinary is to you, but I can tell you where to go, I can tell you what the measuring tool is and I hope that you guys can step away or take the earbuds out and realize the importance of this and in closing I want to speak on perfection striving to be perfect we will never be perfect you know this, I’m never going to be the best dad, I’m never going to be the best husband and I will let you down, I will say something stupid, I will post something dumb on social media, I am human, I’m a sinner, I am not perfect, I just hope you guys realize that now, I won’t answer some of your emails, I mean I am just…I’m full of flaw but here’s the thing, you know speaking with one of my friends about this and he said I love that you mention this and he kind of took it another way and this is the approach I’m going to take and I’m going to put it this way and it’s so powerful the way he explained is that we will never be perfect but through the grace of God and the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ that one day we will be made perfect in Him and we are each and every day is that when God looks down on you he sees His Son Jesus Christ through you and you are perfected through Christ.

So it’s so important everyday knowing that I…the Bible says that we are, our righteousness, our good deeds, our good acts, are as filthy rags and if you get into that verse the filthy rags is actually translated into menstrual rags that women used when they’re on their periods I mean come on that describes my righteousness how good I am and that just makes me realize that each and every day I need the grace of God more and more and more. So realize that we will never be perfect but when you take every day and you realize that we cannot do anything without the grace, the mercy and the blood of Jesus Christ washing over our lives it will be…we wouldn’t be made perfect in Him and that the Word of God is the ultimate measuring tool for our moral standards.

You are on your way to being an extraordinary man. Thanks so much for coming by and just checking this episode out I really, really, really appreciate it. If you guys want to find out more about what True Family Men is all about you can find this at Facebook at True Family Men. You can also check us out at http://truthreconstructed.com/ and if you guys once again really, really appreciate the show just give me any type of feedback and also check us out on iTunes and the reviews really, really help us out so much. Alright guys and look forward to my interview with Shane Hawkins coming out next Thursday. That guy once again is just amazing, amazing Godly man and he has such a heart for God and for his family and I believe truly that it’s going to shine forth through the showing and through the interview. I appreciate you guys coming by and you have an amazing week

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