Steve Cruz: The importance of being physically fit, eating healthy, & knowing your weapon! DMW#222

Dead Men Walking

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Exploring theology, doctrine, and all of the fascinating subjects in between, broadcasting from an undisclosed location,

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Dead Men Walking starts now. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Dead Men Walking Podcast.

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I'm your host Greg Moore. You can find us at dmwpodcast .com. Find out more about the show.

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You can even check out our merch, which does help support the show. We've got a couple of popular t -shirts selling right now.

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Wynum, Dynum, Romans, Nynum. That's always a popular seller. And we just put up the Job 13 .5.

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How about you shut up and let that be your knowledge? People seem to like that one. But like I say, you got to quote scripture to the pagans, even if they don't like it.

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But guys, first of all, before we start the show, got to tell you about our three sponsors we have right now. Jacob's Supply, you heard me talk about them before.

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They're in Midwest United States, Temperance, Michigan. 40, 50, 60 % off building supplies, flooring, appliances, metal roofing, barn projects.

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I mean, these guys have it all. I've got guys coming from 8, 10, 12 hours away just to get their punch list done.

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You got to check them out. Jacobsupply .com. He's a Reformed brother in the Lord. Runs a spectacular, fantastic, phenomenal, in all those adjectives, business.

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He's got some decking deals right now, some vinyl flooring deals. I mean, I can't even say the price.

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We actually got a cease and desist. I know that sounds gimmicky, but they came to us and said, the competitor said, can you stop saying the price?

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We can't get it that cheap. He's about 60 % cheaper than we are because he buys wholesale, buys it all out, gives it to you guys at a discounted price.

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Jacobsupply .com or call me at 734 -224 -0978. Couple conferences I want you guys to know about coming up in the next 60 days.

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Thank God for Bitcoin 2024. Jordan Bush and those brothers. Absolutely love them. They've been on the podcast before.

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Had a conference last year in Miami. It was unbelievable. This year, they're in Rockettown, Nashville, July 24th and 25th.

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Get your tickets in the description below this episode. They got guys like Michael Foster, C .R.

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Wiley, Dr. Ben Merkel, Dr. Glenn Sunshine, Nate Fisher, and of course, Jordan Bush and many, many more speakers talking about the economy of money within the

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Christian worldview, how you can use digital currency, investing, all those things. That's going to be a great conference.

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Check it out. And then one more is WORX slash BASE. They call it WORX BASE. I do like that play on words there.

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Kyle Hessler, who's been on the podcast before too, he organized this. It's in June 28th, 29th.

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It's in the Hilton downtown Fort Worth, Texas. They're going to be talking about what it means to be a man and what it means to work and build things.

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It's also a very good networking event. If you're a business owner or influencer at the place you work, go to this conference.

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You guys are going to meet some crazy, crazy good entrepreneurs that are also believers.

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Guys like David Bonson. I mean, he manages like, I don't know, $2 billion worth of portfolio. C .R.

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Wiley, Pastor Steve Jeffries, who's also a physicist. We've had him on the podcast before. That was fun. David Reese, Armor 500, talking about guns and Second Amendment.

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Andrew Krapischatz, Red Balloon. I mean, the list goes on and on. Once again, you can find the link in the description of this episode.

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That's coming up in June 28th and 29th, so not too much time left for that. But now that we got the business out of the way,

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I want to introduce our guest today. I'm not going to belabor me talking and ranting anymore because we want to get to the guest.

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Steve Cruz is a Christian husband and father of three. He spent six years in the USAF before returning home to Oregon.

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Did I say that right? Oregon? Oregon? I don't know. It's always Oregon. It's never gone.

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Okay, well, you know, my Midwest wanted to say Oregon. Unless you leave your Oregon. Gone. Steve has been in law enforcement for two decades and graduated summa cum laude from Liberty University with a

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Bachelor's of Science in Religion and Theology. He's the host of the Regular Man podcast, which we're going to talk about for a little bit today, where he discusses real -world issues like faith, family, finance, fitness, and everything else that the regular man deals with in the light of biblical masculinity.

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It's Steve Cruz. Steve, thanks for coming on the podcast today. Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.

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I really appreciate being on the Dead Men Walking podcast. I love it.

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Absolutely. Ephesians 2, dead in our sins, but now high in priestly places with Christ because of his righteousness. We love it.

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Amen. And if you guys are watching this on YouTube or any of the other socials and not just listening, I absolutely love

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Steve's backdrop. He's got this thing on his podcast where you sign the wall, and he even does it remotely too.

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So if you're on his podcast and then you can send him a signature, he puts it up there. And I saw it on Twitter about a week ago, and I was telling him before we started recording,

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I said, I knew it was a good idea when I instantly got jealous and thought, why didn't I think of that? What a cool idea.

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Just something kind of small but neat. And you can see everyone's signature on the wall behind him and his backdrop and his video.

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So cool idea, man. Yeah, I appreciate that. I got a couple of names that are familiar to our

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Reformed Circle. I really enjoy having all the guests who are, you're included, right?

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Me being on your podcast is the same. I'm a guest, you're my guest. Having the opportunity to sign the regular man -in -the -wall.

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And I also have, I don't like, everything I do is for free. Everything, I don't like people hustling with, they charge some money for a podcast, this episode or that episode.

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But I do recognize that some people really, really want to be bigger, like a bigger part of a podcast.

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So I thought, hey, why don't you open that up to everybody else who listens to it?

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So they can go to Patreon and subscribe for five bucks and I'll put their name on the wall too.

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And it's just super cool, something that everybody's like, hey, that's my name right there. Yeah, no, it's a cool idea.

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I mean, it engages the guests and the listeners and I really do like it. But we didn't want to talk about your wall all hour.

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I do want to talk about the podcast a little bit because it intrigues me. We have quite a movement within Christianity, especially within Reformed Christianity with biblical masculinity and things like that.

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And I see a lot of the theological side of it, but I don't see too much of like the everyday stuff that guys have to do, want to do, or created to do, their interests.

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And that's kind of where, I mean, you're theological, don't get me wrong. And, you know what I mean, talk about doctrine and theology and all that.

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But also too, it sounds like you're doing a little bit more of like the everyday guy stuff and like how we apply scripture to, you know, when we go to the gun range, when we go hunting, when we're building something, when we're doing home repairs, when we're meeting with a colleague, like these types of things where, you know,

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God created us to be builders and providers and protectors and all these things.

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I find it very interesting that you're kind of cornering that market on that. Can you talk a little bit about how the podcast got started, the

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Regular Man Podcast and what it is that you actually do focus on? Yeah, of course.

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You hit it right on the head. You have a lot of people who, some amazing, some okay, some horrible that talk about all things theology, right?

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I love the guys in Ogden. I love Michael Foster. I love the guys in Moscow.

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And they're really good at their niche, right? What they do. And some of it is more heady than others.

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Some of it's more application. But most guys just don't want to talk about transubstantiation and consubstantiation and memorialization and hypostatic union and all these theological terms that are meaningful.

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They're important. They're super, super important. But man, I've got a job. I work construction.

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I'm a mechanic. I'm a plumber. I'm a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

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I don't have time to sit here and investigate what all that means to me. And it's not like they don't care.

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It's that I don't have time in my day to be a pastor or to be a theologian. I need to know what that means to me.

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I have real world stuff I got to deal with. I got a wife. I got a family. I got kids. I got a dog.

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I got a mortgage. I got a business. I got all these things that take up my time. And it's the so what, right?

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How then do we live now, right? And so I thought, man,

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I don't do well with someone who presents themselves in an ivory tower, talking about high theology from...

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I would much, much rather someone just spell it out to me. Write it in crayon. I don't care.

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I'm super simple. I love it. I would keep it simple, stupid, right? Kiss it. I need somebody to...

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So what does that mean to me? Great. You can preach a sermon on whatever it is and dig into two verses and talk about the

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Koine Greek and the ancient Hebrew context and all those things. Write a book. Wonderful.

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Amazing. I support you. But so what, man? What does that mean to me? I got a mortgage to pay. What does that mean to me?

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And I think that we have this kind of a gap between what

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Scripture says and what people, theologians, for literally 2 ,000 years have gone through and dissected and the regular guy today, what does that mean to me?

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Like there's no bridging the gap. So I think that it's important that we have people in that space who say, okay, well, this is the actual raw application, right?

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The biggest component that's missing. Michael Foster says all the time, the biggest component that's missing from the church today is application.

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And if pastors just preach application, your church would change overnight.

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And I 100 % believe that. I think if you just tell your church what that means to me, how

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I can apply that, that'll change my life. And that's really what I'm trying to do.

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I'm just trying to give basic principles, kitchen table issues, things that you deal with on a regular day, everyday basis that matters to the regular guy.

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So that's what the podcast is about, man. No, I love it. Now that that's so good because about a year, maybe year and a half ago,

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I listened to the audio book of Michael Foster's. It's good to be a man and listen to it.

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My wife said, I'm not allowed to say I read the book. I listened to it. You can't say you read it if it's an audio book.

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It's an ongoing joke. Yeah. Good for her. Right. But, but I, I listened all the way through it.

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I went, okay, this was really good stuff. It's stuff that I already kind of knew, which I should know. I'm in my early forties. I understand that.

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And I thought this book's really great maybe for a young guy that doesn't understand what men were created for dominion, you know, working all those things.

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But my very next thought was, boy, there needs to be a book that then follows it up and goes, okay, what's the real world application of being a man?

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How do I create an LLC? Where do I find an accountant? How do I build this?

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How, you know, how do I network? How do I, if I'm an influencer at work, how do I grow my sales to where I, you know,

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I can increase my earning revenues and like all these things, you know, or yes,

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I'm a protector. So what does that mean for self defense? What type of weapon should I carry?

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If I do carry one, what should I be proficient in health? You know, we're going to talk about that a little bit. What should I be putting in my body and what's a good, you know, a physical regimen and all these things.

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And I went, yeah, the, the, the theological part of it is great. And I'm not dissing his book at all. I really appreciated that book and it's very popular.

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But at the same time, I don't see too many guys with the application part of it and going, okay, here are the 10 areas in life that most affect men and hear how you apply biblical principles to them every day.

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And I like that your podcast is doing that because we try to do that a little bit. I mean, we're kind of,

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I'm kind of a broad spectrum here. I've always said I'm very, it's very, well, thank you.

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And I like yours, but I'm, I'm selfish. I just go, oh, that seems interesting.

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Let me call that guy up and have him on. And he's much smarter than me, but we'll talk about it for an hour, 45 minutes.

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And, and it's, you know what I mean? It's almost like someone who's a curious person is very self -satisfying. So we've had anywhere from congressmen to comedians to theologians and scholars and everything in between, because it kind of what strikes me or what's going on in the zeitgeist at that time.

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So we touch on that a little bit of like the practical things guys can do, but I'm glad you're really cornering the market on that in the podcast and the regular man podcast, because I think it's, it's much needed even like I said, well, let's just get into it because we were talking about this before we started recording.

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One thing I've really been thinking about and tell me what you think about this too, is just like the, the control and discipline of being physically fit, eating healthy and, and you know, working out or being physical.

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I just find that a lot of guys are very smart in very many areas. They know how to provide and they'll go to work and they know the theology of, of what a guy does and protect.

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But, but we let that lack. I see so many out of shape, you know, reformed non -reformed

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Christian. I'll just say Christian in general brothers. And we just kind of let that go to the wayside and go, well, you know, don't really judge me there.

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Don't really call me to repentance in that area. You know, all these other things I'm working on, but you know,

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I need my 1130 midnight snack and I need to, you know, lay lay around when

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I should be getting up early and maybe running three miles. And, and I'm talking to myself here too. I could use the lose 20 to 25 pounds.

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And it's, it's strictly because I don't have the discipline or self -control to do it. I know I can do it.

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I have done it three years ago. I was a different weight and I was healthier and I was eating different. So I'm, I'm putting this on me too.

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It's not like I'm preaching down to people, but I really do see it as a self -control issue and a discipline issue.

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Why don't we let that kind of go to the wayside and not talk about, what are your thoughts on that?

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Well, I mean, frankly, man, it's we're, we're fat and lazy. It's easier to, it's easier than taking responsibility for ourselves.

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Right. We put, I'm, I'm by far not the most physically fit person, but I can,

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I can definitely handle what I need to for my responsibilities.

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I can protect my family. I can, I can deal with whatever comes my way. I'm a sheep dog, right?

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There's, there's wolves, they're sheep and they're sheep dogs. And then there's whatever else, purple haired, green haired, whatever's in a

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Christian man is supposed to be sheep dog. They're supposed to, that's what meekness is, right? The ability, the power, the, the power, the ability to destroy someone.

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That's what Jesus was. He could destroy someone like that, but he had it under control. Meekness literally means power under control.

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Uh, so I firmly believe every single man must have the capability under their own control.

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And if, if you don't, and that means everything that, right. That means your physical abilities.

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That means your emotional, your spiritual, your mental, you have to be able to control yourself. And if you have that, that ability under control, then you are meek and that is exactly what we're called to be.

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I mean, we need to take ownership. Um, most guys just don't take ownership. We want the privileges of being a man, but the responsibility of being a boy, like we're just, we don't, we don't mean what we say.

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We say we want to be the man of the house. We're in charge. Okay, great. Do it.

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Mean it. Take, take ownership of your body and your, your mental state and your spiritual state.

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Like be a man. Own it. I don't, I don't care what you say.

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I want to see what you do. So it's easier to take responsibility. It's easier, uh, to make excuses than to take responsibility.

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You know, you have the, the fat pastor in the pulpit, right? I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it's just true.

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Especially the great big evangelical garbage nonsense. You got a fat pastor in the pulpit, uh, that shoves another slice of pizza and Mountain Dew in their mouth, but they condemned men in the church for lust and for greed, but they never talk about gluttony.

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They never talk about self -control. They never talk about all those things. And that's exactly what the women,

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I mean, the majority, uh, I I'm going to get you banned. I'm going to get you to lose, lose people because people hate me.

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Uh, liberal women, uh, hate me. Um, uh, the construction guys love me. Uh, cause just tell the truth.

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Uh, and if, and if you want me to dial it back, man, let me know, because, um,

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I'm, I'm usually pretty fiery. Uh, that's what you're here for. I've been suspended from YouTube like three times.

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So I've got like 12 followers now on YouTube because I got to, I got to start a new one every, every single time.

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But the most of the church, right. It's full of middle -aged liberal women. Uh, and that's exactly what the pastors, the big fat pastors,

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That's who they, that's who they preach to, to loosen their purse strings. They never address a woman's sin.

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They address a man's sin. Uh, and the whole time they're this big fat effeminate.

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You know, skinny jean wearing Subaru driving dude in the, in the pulpit.

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And I'm like, I got, I got no respect for you. I don't even, I'd rather watch football, man. I don't rather than getting angry and being in resent.

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I just would rather just not go to your church. You know what I mean? Does that answer your question? Yeah, it does.

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You know, I have, I have some thoughts about it too. I was sitting back and thinking about it and I said, well, it's not that we don't have the means in, in the

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United States to be healthy or to be active or to eat.

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Right. We definitely have the means. Okay. If you make over $36 ,000 in the United States as a single person, you are in the global 1%.

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You're a one percenter. So whether you think you're struggling or not globally, we are very financially secure in this country.

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So we have the means. So what does that mean that I look back and I look at over everything and I go, well, it means that the majority of Christian men don't have enough self control to say no to the most plentiful temptation that we have, which is either food or lack of physical activity because we don't need to do it.

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Right. In some other countries you have to walk five miles to get from point A to point B or to your job or to your church or, or whatever, or you might have to run or jog.

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Right. So we have these options to not do certain things because we have such a plentiful country we live in.

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And I had this realization that when every single person that I've ever met and actually talked to that hat that struggles with, with their health and their weight and with physical activities has other self control issues in their life, whether it be, you know, whether it be work ethic, whether it be porn, whether it be temper, like the, the, the, the, the beginning of the gate, the start of it is the very first thing, the most plentiful thing we have is food and time in the

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United States. We have more time and more food than any other country leisure time. I mean, so if we can't get those two things under control, that tells me that most

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Christian men don't have a whole host of things not under control. Right. And I'm not saying,

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Oh, if you're overweight, you know, you're a sexual deviant. I'm not, I'm not saying that that'd be generalizing. I'm saying every single person that I've talked to that struggles with those things have also struggled with other things because it's not a food issue.

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It's not a taste issue. It's not a lack of time issue. It is a discipline and self control issue.

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And that will leak over into every single part of your lives. Right? So just like you were saying, when you have the, the big fat slobby pastor up there condemning someone for gossiping, but he can't stop shoving food in his mouth or doesn't have enough discipline to get up that morning and, and at least walk a mile.

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Well, now we have an issue. And I think some of that, and tell me what you think of this.

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I think some of that in the Christian church, we've picked that up from the secular world of don't judge.

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It's like the one thing we can't touch, right? You can, you can literally make fun like in comedy, it's still cool to make, not cool, but you know, in secular comedy, you can make fun of trans, you can make fun of gay, you can make fun of all these things.

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But I was saying like, cool, like, you know, you know what I mean? But, but a lot of comics still stay away from fat phobia.

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You can't talk about people being fat. And it's like this one thing in the secular world where they said, well, no, it's not their fault.

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It's you know, they're, they're overweight and they're obese and they're a victim and all these things.

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And I think the church has taken on some of that, like, Hey, let's talk about all these other sins, but the most visible one right in front of me that I can see and obesity and lack of physical activity, that's the most visible sin that you can look at.

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I know there's people with medical issues and thyroid and stuff like that. Right? We're not making a generalization. I'm saying the majority.

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That's the most visible one. And yet we don't talk about it, especially for men. And it just blows my mind.

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And it feels like we've kind of taken on the secular world a little bit and went, well, don't talk about that one. Let's focus on these other particular sins.

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But the root of those sins are all self -control and discipline, right? Proverbs says no self -control.

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You're like a city without walls. You will be overran. And I'm dealing with that in my life as well.

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So like I said, not preaching down to people, but I'm saying, we really need to get this in check. If we want to talk about biblical masculinity and we want to talk about real world things and protecting our family and going to work and having a hard job, boy, we have to be physically fit and we have to be active.

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I don't know many 275 or 350 pound roofers, right?

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You're not getting up on that pick if you physically can't or, you know, construction workers and things like this big, like we got to get in line.

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And I think it all starts with biblical self -control and discipline. You know, maybe I'm rehashing what you said a little bit, but I really see it as, you know,

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I see a guy that can't do that. I go, wow, there's a lot of other issues in your life, probably going on where that lack of self -control and discipline is affecting you.

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Yeah, you're a hundred percent right, man. Like this, this there, there are fruits of the tree, right?

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You got to get to the root of why all of these problems happen. And if a man has a problem with self -control in this area or that area, he's going to have a problem in self -control in all, all of the areas.

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If, if you got a fat dude, he's probably not.

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I don't care. I'll generalize. I don't care if you, if you're fat, you got no self -control over anything in your life, period, full stop.

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I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're a pastor, I don't care, whatever. I'm never going to try to be nice, man. If you're, if you're too fat to control what goes in your mouth, you're too, you're too, you don't have the ability to, to control what's on your phone, who's in your home, who your influences are, what you listen to, what time to go to bed, what time to wake up, what your physical activity, nothing is controlled.

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If you don't have physical control. And that's the one thing that the secular world absolutely gets right at the church.

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A hundred percent, not a hundred percent. That's not fair. 95 % they just get wrong because you're, there is nothing else you can do that'll impact the, the majority of your life and all the things that contribute to your life.

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Circumstances other than physical activity, right? I had Anthony deal on last week and amazing interview.

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Love the dude. Awesome reform guy. Definitely check him out.

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But he's a prime example of somebody who has been in both worlds who can literally tell you what the most crucial thing of your life is.

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Your, your relationship with Christ is crucial, right? But what contributes to that? Everything, everything contributes to that.

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What's the biggest component of this world that people forget that they neglect the physical aspect of this world?

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And we'll get, we'll get into that later. I'm sure. Uh, but your body matters. God made your body.

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God made Adam in a physical form. God himself came to this earth in a physical form.

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He took on flesh. He felt what we felt. He said it was good.

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He died, resurrected in a physical body. He ascended in a physical body.

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Physical matters. Okay. If you're undisciplined in order, if you're so undisciplined that you can't control what matters to God, your body matters, your spirit matters.

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All of those things matter. Your money matters. All those things matter. But if you can't control what matters in your physical world, nothing else is going to be regulated by you either.

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You're like a man's, a man's fitness is one of the most crucial things that, that that's important to everything is physical, mental, emotional, spiritual fitness.

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It's crucial to leading his family near. We talk about, um, uh, first Timothy five, eight, right?

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Uh, uh, says that anyone who doesn't provide for his own and especially for his household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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And we, we use that to imply a financial provision, excuse me.

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And that's true. That's absolutely true. But the word for, for provide or provision, it doesn't explicitly only mean financial.

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It means everything. It means complete provision. It means everything. That includes your physical body. It means your protection.

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It means your emotional state. It means, um, being a good father,

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I mean, being a, have a, reflecting a good marriage with your wife for your kids to look up to.

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And, and it means all of those things. So that, that provision includes not just physical, but everything you're your ability to protect your family.

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And the Bible says that that's, if you're unable to do that, you're worse than a pagan. You're worse than a piece of crap that's trying to train your kids and murder unborn babies.

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Like, yeah. So to say you're, you're now there are some people who are physically disadvantaged, right?

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The elderly, they're, they're in, they're injured. I've had three back surgeries, so I can completely understand your you're unable to physically take somebody on or, or whatever.

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But there is a great equalizer too, right? In, in physical ability to protect your family, you have firearms and, and you need to at two o 'clock in the morning, someone breaks into your home while your kids are asleep and your wife is laying next to you and you don't have a firearm and you don't have to use it and you're not physically able to protect your home.

28:23

What are you going to do? Call the cops. Good luck, bro. Good luck. We saw how that worked out, right?

28:30

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm kind of wondering too, let let's shift to protection because that's another one of my pet peeves.

28:36

Maybe, maybe this will just be a whole episode of me ranting and you agreeing with me, but the protection aspect too is, you know,

28:44

I talked to these guys that are, you know, they want to be man's men kind of in and have no idea about basic self -defense.

28:54

Most of them won't carry a weapon or don't, or if they do, they're not proficient in it.

29:01

My daily carry concealed carries a Glock 42. I put at least 1500 to 2000 rounds a year through that at my gun club.

29:08

You know, me and my son were just shooting at 40 and 50 yards on his compound bow and mine getting ready for deer season this fall in Michigan, like proficient with I say proficient.

29:21

I'm not an expert in knives and things like, like there's basic things to where if you're going to claim to be a protector and claim to, you know, protect your family,

29:32

I think there should be some, some basic things that you need to understand. Like I said, about weapons, self -defense, you know, even strategic points of entry and exit and things like that.

29:42

And look, I'm not saying be paranoid about it, right? We don't go in and, you know, case every case, the diner when we're going to Sunday brunch.

29:49

Although, you know, I do like to sit facing the, facing the door. I don't know why that is.

29:56

I like to look at the entrance. Right. But my point being is

30:02

I find that woefully lacking. Now, you know, believe me, I know some good, good brothers.

30:08

I was just down in Tullahoma with Jeffrey Rice and some of those guys from open air theology for that conference.

30:15

And out of the 10 of us that went to the cigar bar that night, I think eight of us had something on us. Right. So, so I know some brothers and I know that they're proficient in it.

30:24

And we send videos back and forth and I know a lot of those guys. I'm just saying in the broader sense, sometimes we can get an echo chamber of kind of our friends and kind of our brothers in the

30:32

Lord that we kind of associate with. And we go, oh yeah, we all, we're all kind of think the same and do the same man. You start looking out, you take the average, evangelical

30:39

Christian man and I don't know what they could protect. And I'm not saying you have to be a black belt.

30:44

I'm not saying you got to win a UFC championship. I'm not saying you got to be, you know, a marksman world -class marksman.

30:51

I'm saying some basic, some basic knowledge of these things. And it really bothers me that there's a real lack of that.

30:58

And what the pushback I get from the Christian church, all you're paranoid. You're just a gun nut. You're a second amendment guy.

31:04

You're just a, you know, a crazy hunter that, that likes to field dress wild animals.

31:10

I say, yeah, those are all true, but I'm also a regular guy. Yeah. Quit, quit, quit complimenting me.

31:17

You know, they think they're insulted. I love it, but I'm already following this guy. You don't need to convince me.

31:23

Right, right. Yeah. You don't, don't convince me. But my whole point is that I want to get your, your take on it too, is, is there a need for a little bit more knowledge and intellect in that world of protection in the average man, the guy you're talking to on your show too.

31:39

That's like, Hey man, what are you talking about? I'm a journeyman electrician. I put in my 40 hours. Like I don't have time to go out there to the, you know, what, how do

31:46

I apply protection to that? What are some basic things that I, that I could learn? You know, that's the way my mind thinks about what your podcast is about too.

31:54

Is that an issue? Do you think a hundred percent, man, anybody just look, look, look around, look.

32:03

And I think we're going to get into this later about where we are in this world, in the secular world.

32:11

But look, if you're a Christian man and you look around and you don't see the need to protect yourself and your family, you're, you're on DMT, bro.

32:23

You're smoking something. You are out of this world because there are more dangers right now.

32:32

I mean, I would talk about public schools, man. I could go on. We could, we could have a half a dozen podcasts about my opinions about public schools.

32:39

Sure. And, and that's so many people are sending their kids to just get surrounded by predators in, in public schools.

32:49

And not just that everywhere, you're going to work. Your wife is going to a grocery store. There are predators everywhere, everywhere.

32:57

What are you doing to protect? This is part of provision. What are you doing to protect your family, man? What are you going to do to protect your wife, your kids?

33:05

You're even going to church. How many churches were shot up in the last five, six years? Lots, lots.

33:11

Most of them weren't even covered by the news. Why don't, why aren't those men strapped, bro?

33:17

Like, what are you doing? You're a Christian husband. You're a father and you can't, you're cowering in a pew and you're not, you're ripping that person apart.

33:27

Who's murdering people in your church. What's wrong with you? No, every single man needs to be able to protect himself and the things are under his protection.

33:37

And if you're not able to protect the things under your protection, you better repent, bro, because you are screwing up bad.

33:45

Now I think whether you, whether you're, whether you're carrying a buck knife, whether you're carrying a

33:50

Glock 20, I love a 40 caliber. I just like it. I'm comfortable with it. It's something I've been issued.

33:56

It's something I carry. I love a 40 caliber Glock because it, it it's effective.

34:04

Yeah. But if it may be, maybe you're not comfortable with pistols or firearms yet.

34:09

I think you, I think the majority of people in America who don't carry or because they're they're scared of big loud sounds, right?

34:22

So get familiar with it. Understand what it is. It's a tool. It's just like money. It's just like a pickaxe.

34:29

It's a tool to be used. It would depend. What matters is it's completely dependent on the person who's using it, whether it's for good or evil.

34:39

And if you're using your sidearm, if you're carrying, you now have an ability, regardless of your, if you're a 250 pounds, you're jacked, you're the biggest, you know, strong arm winner, uh, or you're 120 pounds and you're five foot five and you can't lift a 50 pound bag of rice.

34:58

But if you have a firearm, dude, you have now equal the playing field for everybody and you have the ability to protect the things that are under your protection.

35:07

Yeah. And I would, yeah, I would add to that to be proficient in it, practice and use it.

35:13

You know, some, some guys get a firearm and think, Oh, well when

35:18

I need it, I'll just pull it out and start pulling the trigger. And you and I both know, especially with your background, it takes work to be proficient and accurate and understand when to brandish and when not.

35:29

And like they say, the best gunfight is the one that doesn't happen. So get very good at deescalation.

35:35

Um, you know, all those things I think, I don't think I just want to go around handing guns out to guys that, you know, have all this bravado.

35:44

It's like, well, no, there has to be. One thing too, if I can interrupt real quick, you hit on something that I think is really, really important too.

35:52

Uh, especially for the Christian man, you said deescalation. That's not just, I am in law enforcement and that's not just something that law enforcement do.

36:02

That's something that every single man should be able to do. You have to have the ability to deescalate a situation.

36:11

If that's what meekness is, right? We talked about that. Your power under control, you have the power to rip this person apart.

36:18

Maybe you have the power to convince them or manipulate or whatever, but you have to control that and use it.

36:26

Um, wisely. If, if you have a conflict or if you, whatever it is, right?

36:32

The answer is literally always a hundred percent of the time deescalate, whatever you can, whenever you can, however you can, deescalate the situation in the, the, the biggest,

36:45

I know, I know some army Rangers, I know Navy seals. I know I had, uh, Asa Miller on here, uh, who is a bad

36:52

Navy seal. Like I, yeah, there are some, the baddest dudes you'll ever meet in your life or the most humble dudes you'll ever meet in your life too.

37:02

They can kill you with an eraser, but they'll never let you know ever.

37:08

And you can disrespect them. And they'll just smile at you because they know they can destroy you, but they won't act unless they have to.

37:17

That is meekness. And that is what you have to have as, um, a part of your toolbox.

37:23

You have to be able to, to use the tool of deescalation whenever possible and only break out the, the physical abilities, the firearm, the whatever you need to, when you have to, to preserve your, your life, someone else's life.

37:39

Um, uh, it's, it's super important to regulate yourself.

37:45

Yeah. Yeah. I, man, I'll tell you what, I was in my early twenties and, uh, uh, right before the

37:52

Lord saved me and, uh, I was at a bar and my buddy had come back. Uh, I was with a, with a buddy who was a sniper, uh, in the army and, uh, a buddy had come back as an

38:04

MP and he's there and he's, he's got some girls and friends around and he's talking about, Oh, I got this kill and that kill and this and that.

38:11

Right. And he's, and my buddy, who's a sniper, who's always very, just even keel, very quiet goes about his business looks in and goes, yeah, he didn't, he didn't kill anyone, not one person.

38:23

And, and, and he had taken many lives. Okay. Uh, and it was just one of those things of, yeah, that's not something you go around and brag about.

38:30

He, he had a job to do and he did it. And he was probably dealing with some things of doing it. Uh, but you don't go, you know, most guys anyway, wouldn't go around.

38:38

It's that kind of meekness of power under control of, I had a duty, I did it, you know, and it's not something that I'm, I'm going to brag about or try to get, you know, try to pick up girls with or which

38:50

I don't know what girl would want to go home with a guy who's bragging about murder, you know, killing other people, not murdering, but killing other people.

38:57

Uh, they don't. Right. Um, but to go back to what you were saying too, about even the, of the lack of protection with men too, is, is theology matters, right?

39:10

For 50, 60 years, we've had, we've been hearing from the pulpit, this pacifist Jesus that just kinda, you know, lets anything fly and he doesn't want to pick a fight and he doesn't want to call anyone fat and he doesn't want to be mean.

39:22

And he certainly wouldn't, wouldn't defend himself or others and shoot someone or, or, or, you know, wrestle him to the ground or no, that's not

39:32

Jesus. He just loved, loved, loved, loved, loved. And we've really maligned the, what love is.

39:37

And, and you know, especially Christ love and all that. And I think that's trickled down into the church or trickled down into the general population of the church as well too, to where, you know, you talk to the average

39:50

Christian brother and you start bringing up, Hey, you know, if someone walks into this church, they're not going to get very far because I have something on that.

40:02

Yeah. I was trying to, I was trying to be a little, I love it because I'm always trying to bring it down. You're like, no, look at, look at, you don't take joy in taking a life, but if someone's taking an innocent life there, there is a righteous justice about that person facing their, their maker.

40:21

You know I saw a sign once outside of a buddy's house and it said, my, my house is protected by God and guns.

40:29

And if you trespass illegally, you will meet both. Love it. And I thought that was, it was a little snarky, but it kind of got the point across.

40:37

But yeah, so these are all, these are all guy things that we have to deal with, like real world stuff. Like what you're talking about on your podcast, not just like,

40:44

Oh, we have this theological view, but like, how does protection, how does work, how does physical fitness, you know, transfer into the real world for guys?

40:56

I don't know. I think, I think it's much needed. Like I said, we had a few more points here

41:01

I wanted to go over. I know we're, man, we're, we're just cruising right along because you're so fun to talk to. But so we talked about, right.

41:10

We talked about health. Should we be active in the secular world as well, too?

41:16

Something I want to talk about. How does a guy deal with being in the world, but not of the world? I feel like there's a lot of things put on men that we don't want to talk about.

41:24

We have to be out in the world, uh, in dealing with other men and other women and bosses and contractors and project managers.

41:32

And you know, all these things like, what's the practicality of being in the world and not of it as an everyday guy who's also a believer and a disciple of Christ.

41:43

That's a great question, man. And, and it's something so important, so important.

41:49

Uh, I think it's something that the church has generally either they don't understand or they ignore.

41:54

Right. I mean, we hear people, um, usually those fat pastors or who are, who are sucking down pizza in Mountain Dew, they say, be of the world, but not of it.

42:03

And don't store up treasure in earth, but up in heaven. And they think that those texts mean that you're not supposed to care about God's creation or be productive.

42:13

What, what, with what he's given us, but dude, nothing can be further from the truth.

42:19

Um, John, you know, they've referenced, um, some of those, some of those texts that they references is

42:25

John 15, uh, I think it's 18, 18 through 19. Jesus is explaining that you'll be hated because you're no longer trapped by the, as members of the kingdom of this earth, right?

42:37

Bound by sin. But if you're redeemed by Christ, you're part of his kingdom. Uh, and he says,

42:43

I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you.

42:49

And then, uh, Matthew six, it's still the, uh, sermon on the Mount. Jesus is explaining that where your treasure is, your heart is right.

42:58

You can't, you can't serve two masters. Yeah. And regardless of how they try to spin it, it means the, the there's it's a warning of the power of loving and idolizing money, but you can make that money serve

43:16

God money. Money is a terrible master, but an amazing servant. Jesus specifically teaches that Christians must use the money that, that God gives us wisely in order to further the kingdom, right there.

43:30

It's not that you don't care about anything. The kingdom of God is only in heaven. No, the kingdom of God, Jesus, at his death burial and resurrection brought the key is bringing the kingdom here.

43:42

The first thing Jesus did was say, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand. That means his ministry is bringing forth the kingdom of God.

43:51

So whether your listeners are post mill or on mill or primo, the fact is scripturally speaking, the kingdom of God is what we are in now.

44:01

That's what Jesus said. And, and that's, uh, in, in Matthew 25, I think it's 14 and 15 through,

44:08

I don't know, like probably 30. That's the parable of the servants, the three servants, right?

44:13

The master gave his servants money and the word for talents. Uh, the word that they, that scripture uses is talents and it's not, uh, it literally means money, right?

44:24

It's, it's a lot of money. It's not some Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, feel good, self -help kind of crap.

44:30

That teaches you about your skills and your attributes and your charisma and things, your talent. No, Jesus is literally teaching how we're supposed to use our money that he gives us.

44:41

Jesus taught more about money than anything else in all of, in all of the Bible money is the thing that he taught the most about.

44:50

And when he came back, when the master came back, he called them to give an account for what they use their money on, how they utilized what he gave them.

45:01

And he chastised the servant who wasn't productive, who didn't invest it, who buried it.

45:07

Uh, and he didn't, he knew him as a wicked man and he called, the master called him wicked. He threw him out, man.

45:13

You're, you're good for nothing in verse 29 clarifies everything that, uh, to those who use well, what they're given, even more will be given and they'll have an abundance.

45:26

But those who do nothing with what they've been given, even when they have little, it'll be taken away.

45:33

And, and I think that the majority of, of, of churches don't preach on that. Cause they don't, frankly, they don't understand the text.

45:42

The text is about money, man. It's about money, bro. It's not about your talent. It's about money.

45:48

The teaching is that we're supposed to turn a profit on what God gives us to be productive, to invest it and build the kingdom.

45:56

Right? So then we ask, well, okay, what are we supposed to do? Right? This is where, where like my kind of at the ground level.

46:05

So what, what does that mean to me? Right? What are we supposed to do then? How do we invest in the kingdom? Right. What we give it to the church.

46:11

Well, I mean, I think tithing is important, right? We talked about that a little bit. Um, faithful pastors deserve their wages, but that's not what the text is actually teaching, man.

46:21

It's, it teaches that servants are supposed to go out and work, man. They do what they're supposed to do there, what their, what their livelihood is.

46:29

They found a way to build for their master to, to, to invest and make more for the master.

46:36

They built the kingdom, bro. And we know, we know this because of the dominion mandate, uh, Genesis one 28, uh,

46:45

God says, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, everything that lives on this land, everything on the ground, you're supposed to rule over it.

46:56

So God gave us the world, like the master gave the servants money. And it's our job to go out into the world, uh, to start a family, to take dominion, to, to, to own everything, everything that we touch to invest wisely and to be productive with what we have, whether it's $50 or $50 million, we're in a situation right now where the alphabet army and the sickos chopping off kids, genitals and mutilating and murdering unborn babies because the churches has sat on their hands and let

47:31

God's creation go to hell. We've refused to take dominion. So the pagans have, and that's, and that's why we're supposed to be active in this world, man.

47:40

We're supposed to actually take ownership of the things that God gave us, the talents, the money, the, the resources that God's given us.

47:49

And utilize it wisely for him, for his kingdom. Uh, so I don't know if that that's a kind of a long way of answering your question.

47:57

No, that's good. I would, I would just tag that with, you know, in my twenties, I would read that.

48:03

And when I looked at the gentleman that buried the talent, I went, wow, he, he,

48:09

I guess you gotta be a risk taker. Uh, you know, he played it safe and he got condemned for that.

48:15

And that's what you would normally think out of someone in their twenties, because that's kind of when we are taking our risks and things like that.

48:21

And then as I got older, I went, no, that guy was actually just prideful and selfish. He went, I'm just, I was commanded to do something, but I'm just going to go bury it.

48:29

And then I'm going to go do what I want to do. What's interesting about that is he knew the master to be cruel and to, to reap what he didn't sow that nothing can be further from the truth.

48:41

All of that is the master's money. So he didn't even know, he didn't even have a proper understanding of who he was serving.

48:47

Like, yeah, I mean, we could go down the road of all the different theological applications for that. Uh, and that's,

48:53

I'm not a, uh, I'm not trying to be a heady kind of, kind of guy. Um, maybe, maybe

48:59

James White. But no, I was just going to say too, what you were saying on the parable though too, is it can have multiple meanings, right?

49:09

But I think what happens is, you know, we can have a spiritual meeting, we can have a physical practical meeting. I think what happens, like what you were saying is sometimes a lot of evangelicals just get focused on that spiritual and they kind of twist it and go,

49:21

Oh, it's up here. It's it's, it's in the ether. It's, it's heady. It's, it's not really practical when in fact the parable itself is very, very practical.

49:29

Here's the talent, go do something with it. I'm a cruel master. I will reward or punish based on, you know, the results.

49:36

And, and it couldn't be more in your face kind of what the results were. And I feel sometimes like you were saying, the broader evangelical church doesn't want to practically apply that.

49:47

They want to make it more about, Oh, it's, it's kinda, it's ambiguous. No, it's not, but it's not.

49:54

It's really not. Let's put bookends on this. Uh, what else, what else you got on your mind?

50:01

Give me a couple more minutes if you want on anything else that you wanted to go over. I know we didn't hit all of our points, but we'll start wrapping this thing up.

50:10

Um, you got any, any subjects coming up on the podcast or any guests coming up that you're excited about or what are you guys going to be talking about here in the future?

50:17

Oh man. Um, I'm always looking for new, uh, new, uh, people to interview.

50:24

Um, I really liked the interview part. Um, rather than just me talking, I think it's more entertaining and I think it's,

50:31

I, I think the listeners get more out of it when there's just a conversation rather than someone talking.

50:37

Um, I've got, uh, um, I got Anthony deal coming back on.

50:44

I got Ben Garrett coming back on. I got, uh, uh, Mike, um, pen and tie pants, pantalene, pantalene from, uh, um, masculine revival.

50:58

Uh, I got a lot coming up. Um, I also have a, uh, store.

51:03

I just opened, I guess I shouldn't say I haven't technically opened it yet. Um, regular man stuff .com

51:09

regular man stuff .com. I've got super offensive stuff on there for t -shirts and mugs and whatever.

51:15

You want to, you want to really off a liberal woman who hates, who hates Christians. Uh, check out regular man stuff .com.

51:23

You're going to love it. Cool. Um, it'll probably be live by the time this, uh, uh, gets aired.

51:30

Cause I think we're about 10 days behind right now. So, um, I'll double check that with you two guys. If you're listening to this right now, uh, go into link description.

51:37

We'll have it linked up, um, our stuff there. Uh, Steve's stuff there, uh, throughout the socials.

51:43

We'll link the socials too, but where can everyone follow you at? Yeah, I'm a pretty active on Twitter X or whatever we call it nowadays.

51:49

Uh, at reg man ministry on Twitter, or you can just type in the regular man podcast.

51:56

It'll pop up to, um, uh, uh, YouTube constantly suspends me and, and, and takes me down.

52:03

So I've, I think I've only last time I checked, I think I've had a 10 or 12 people on the regular man podcast, but Twitter's their

52:12

Twitter rumble. Um, and all everywhere you get your podcasts, it's the real man podcasts.

52:18

Um, and I'm always looking for great subject matters, uh, and patron every

52:25

I'm also on patron. Everything's free there. I don't like, I don't, I can't stand when people charge people for an episode or a chat or an email or something.

52:33

Everything's always going to be for free, but if you want, you can be on the wall for five bucks a month.

52:39

So check it out. Yeah. It's, uh, it's funny because it's kind of a litmus test with my friends now.

52:45

It's like, have you been suspended or shadow banned? And if they say yes, I go, okay, I think we might be able to get along. All right.

52:50

Now we're cool. Now we're cool. All right. I'm tracking where you're coming from. All right. So final word,

52:55

Steve, if, if a guy's listening right now and he's going to go, uh, subscribe to the regular man podcast, but if he's listening right now, uh, what's, what's something you could sum up in a paragraph to him that would be important for him to hear or something that you're trying to get across to these, uh, to these guys?

53:14

Uh, I'll give you a sentence, you know, you don't need a paragraph. Okay. It's okay to be hated.

53:22

Jesus was hated by the world. He's still hated by the world. And if you're a man and you're a follower of Jesus, I guarantee you, if you're living according to scripture, you will be hated.

53:35

Uh, I had an interview with a Ben's ice loft not too long ago and right wing watch, and it was about abortion.

53:42

And, um, uh, we had a great conversation about, uh, pro -life versus abolition and all the things.

53:50

And right wing watch, uh, clipped about a, like a minute or 30 seconds, or whatever it was. And they, uh, sent it out to everybody my response and it went viral.

54:00

It was crazy. Um, and they thought they were dunking on me because I said, yep, dig a hole, put them down.

54:07

And I had, I won't, I won't, I won't say the name Jen Ellis, but somebody, uh, named

54:13

Jenna Ellis, uh, copied it and said, I was terrible and such a terrible person and deplorable or whatever she said.

54:20

Um, but the fact is God says, if you murder, you should be killed.

54:27

Capital punishment. That's that scripture. Um, and I a hundred percent believe it.

54:33

And if you're, if you're forcing someone to get an abortion, if you're willingly a woman who's going to get an abortion, if you're an abortion provider, you deserve capital punishment, a hundred percent across the board.

54:45

Uh, and the men and women who stand up against murdering babies, the dismembering, the decapitation, the torture, the mutilation of babies who are made in God's image.

55:01

If you stand up against that and say, that's murder, you deserve accountability.

55:07

And part of that accountability is the death penalty. It's capital punishment. You deserve,

55:12

I'll dig a hole and put them, I'll dig a hole all day long. If we can do that, if we'll do that, people are going to hate you, hate you.

55:21

And that's okay, man. So, uh, if there's one thing, I don't care if you, if you support me or not,

55:29

I don't care if you sign up or not. What I do care about is that you own up, you man up, do your job as a man and protect the most vulnerable.

55:38

And that is unborn babies. And whether you agree with me or banner or anybody else, uh, pro -life or abolition or anything in between, what matters is that you actually grow a pair and say something about it.

55:55

Sure. Yeah, no, that's good stuff. All right, Steve, thanks so much for being on the podcast. And I forgot to mention this, but I think you're going to be at the fight left feast conference, uh, for the first time this fall.

56:06

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to meeting you in person, hanging out, um, guys, if you're listening to this, you can go to fight left feast, uh, .com

56:14

and check that out for that conference as well. That's the one I attend every year. I've been there for five years now and it's going to be a great time.

56:21

Boy, do we have fun at that. And Steve, I'm glad you're coming down to that because I think you're going to fit right in.

56:26

So Steve, thanks for being here. Yeah. I'm excited too. Thanks for being here and taking time with us. Thank you, brother.

56:32

I appreciate it. God bless you. Yeah. Guys, uh, check the description, go check out his podcast. It'll be linked up the regular man podcast.

56:39

As always, you can find this at dmwpodcast .com everywhere on social media at dead men walking podcasts, except for Twitter, which it's real dmwpodcast .com.

56:49

Oh, I almost said .com real dmw podcast. Check us out there. Uh, support the show. Tell your friends, we really appreciate you guys like retweeting stuff and resharing stuff.

56:58

That's kind of how we grow and bring glory to God is just by word of mouth. We've never spent money on advertising.

57:03

We've grown by the grace of God, just by you guys sharing with a friend and retweeting and, you know, reposting and all that stuff.

57:09

So I do appreciate it. As always, remember the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

57:15

God bless. Be sure to check us out at dmwpodcast .com where you can purchase the best and snarkiest merch on the internet, support the show and leave us a review or message.

57:21

Dead men walking can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at dead men walking podcast and on Twitter at real dmwpodcast. The dead men walking podcast is part of the fight lab piece network for exclusive show content.

57:29

Be sure to download the pub TV app and become a member. If you're a business that needs to reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers in your demographic podcast, advertising might be for you.