Episode 5: 1 Cor 16:13-14
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Get In the Fight podcast. My name's Nate Whitson, and I'm the founder of Get In The Fight Ministries in our exclusive online fight club for Christian Men. Everything we do here is dedicated to helping Christian men become the men that God meant for them to be. So if you're looking for helpful content and conversations that can help you to grow and become the man that God made you to be, then you're in the right place.
But before we get started, please do me a huge favor and be sure to s. Click the like button and then leave us a five star review. Doing that helps us to reach more men who are looking for content just like this. Also, if you'd like to learn more about our mission and how to get involved or how to join the Fight Club, then head on over to get in the fight.club.
That's Get in the fight.club and learn more today. But without further ado, it's time to get in the fight. So let's go. Today we are carrying on our conversation about [00:01:00] becoming men of honor. Men of discipline min of strength. And men of joy. Those are the four key principles of getting the fight ministry. And today I want to walk you through the verse. That really is the centerpiece, the primary verse that we use. That points us back to what God really thinks about being a godly man, because we don't want this to turn into something that is just our opinion. We want to know.
Studio 26c & FaceTime HD Camera: That we are following in the tradition of what God has in mind. And becoming the men that he meant for us to be.
I was listening to a podcast with a guy named Steve Weatherford.
nate: and as I started to pursue my standards.
It became something that motivated me and started to give me power. To change things in my life that I was struggling to change things like my physical health, my mental health, my spiritual growth. Things like that. So embracing this daily, download this daily [00:02:00] conversation this daily prayers, really what it's turned into between God and I.
Has been really life. Giving in life. Changing for me. It is the centerpiece of what I think can be most helpful for you. If you are. A man who is struggling. To become the man that you wish you were. If you're struggling to be the man that you want to be. And you feel like, you know, you've gone to church your whole life.
You've done all the right things that you can think to do, but you're still struggling in those areas of your physical health, your spiritual health, your mental health relationships, things like that. Then I want to encourage you. To start here. Obviously I don't think you can fight and win on your own.
That's why we have a community called get in the fight. It's why we have something called the fight club. That you can learn more about at our website. But this is a good starting point to understand your standards, understand what God thinks about what it takes to be a godly [00:03:00] man. And to just download this into your life and to start to pray this into your life every single day.
So that's where we're going today. I want to give you this verse here it is. First Corinthians chapter 16. Verse 13 and 14. And here's what it says. Be on alert. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong, do everything in love. One more time. Be on alert. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men.
Be strong. Do everything in love. That's an amazing verse in one of the things I liked so much about it is. The Bible can be. Challenging sometimes. Right. Sometimes it can be very deep and complex. And hard to understand. But this is not one of those verses this is very direct, very straightforward.
And very powerful. One of the things that you find out quickly in the pursuit of [00:04:00] living the life that God has called us to live is that a lot of the concepts are actually very easy. Love. God love people. Pretty easy to understand. Very hard. To live out. This is in line with that. Very easy to understand.
Very difficult. To live out. But today I want to walk us through this. Really quickly here. This verse. From first Corinthians chapter 16. And I want. Just to tell you before we do that, that you can download this. Document for free. If you go to the website, get in the fight.club and you scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page, you will see.
A link there. There's, it's a yellow document. It's a free PDF. You simply put your name and email in downloads immediately for you. And then you can have this printed off. Carry it with you. I have one here on my wall in front of me. I have one at my office. And we pray through this every day.
And encourage everybody to get in the fight to pray. [00:05:00] Through it and I encourage you the same. So let's break this down a little bit. The first part of being a godly man is to be on alert. I heard a guy not too long ago. Talk about living. I think he was out in the Northwest. He was talking about taking trails in the mountains and walking with his family.
And it made me think of. Family of mine that had lived out in Arizona for awhile and they, they talk the same way about when you're out. In those areas of the world, maybe the Appalachian trail as well. And you're walking along on the trail. You have to be very alert. Because there are things. That will creep and crawl a long.
The trail when you're out, trying to just enjoy your day and mind your own business. And then rattlesnakes will show up. And so they talk about, it's a very real thing. They don't worry much about it. If you've lived out there, they're, you know, familiar with. That are in the Southwest, maybe scorpions and things like that.
But they're very alert. And I think that's really what Paul was trying to get at here. In this verse was he was [00:06:00] telling men. While you're on the path of life. Understand that it's not safe. I understand that there are dangers. Along the way here that you have to be aware of. You have to keep your head up, keep your eyes forward.
And be alert because there's danger along the path. And. For so many of us, the conversations that I have, the conversations that I realized within myself, even. That I just think are true is that we are oftentimes waking up and we're so distracted and busy that we're not alert. We are like distracted drivers, which are more dangerous now than probably any other driver out there. Even impaired drivers in fact that idea reminds me that. I have child number two. Doing practice or doing driver's training now. And, you know, One of the things we're constantly telling her. Is that you have to be alert. You have to be a defensive driver. You have to always have your head up and look.
Around. And even when you're looking back to see what's going on behind you, or what's coming up on the side, you always have to [00:07:00] kind of glance in front of you as well. And be alert because driving is fun. It's a great privilege, but it comes with some dangers and you have to be alert. This is really what Paul was saying is if you want to be a godly man.
Then you've got to keep your head up. You've got to keep your eyes forward and you have to be alert because there are dangers along the way. The second thing that he tells us is to stand firm in the faith. Well, I had just recently heard again, another tragic story of a pastor who Fell away. Has a divorce.
Is leaving his family. For some younger woman. And we're hearing these stories a ton. It isn't always that story. Sometimes it's just burned out and checked out. But it often is stories of. Leaving and. Having fallen away. And, you know, you just think like, how does it get to that point?
You know, how does a guy go from just falling in [00:08:00] love with Jesus to leading a church? To falling away. Well, We know that something had happened along the way that he wasn't alert. And he didn't stand firm. We keep seeing this because we've lost our way somewhere along the way. And again, these two things have connected really well. The staying alert.
Part and then standing firm. When a man loses attention with the Lord and he starts to glance away. At lesser things, other things, his foundation. Starts to grumble. You know, it makes me think a little bit of I played football in high school. I love watching football. And around some really great football coaches in our area.
Who are good friends of mine. And just when you're around football, one of the things you learn early is how important your stances. And a good stance is one where you get a good base your shoulder with the part, your feet are parallel with your, with your hips. You're on the balls of your feet and you [00:09:00] are, you are actively.
In a stance where you can have power to move forward. What I think we need to have here in this conversation is we need to have a stronger stance. To help us to stand firm in the faith because, you know when those rattlesnakes come across the pathway, you've got to be on your toes and you've got to be able to move quick.
You've got to get out of the way. And, you know, storms of life, come, we talk, whatever analogy works best for you. When those things happen and they will happen. You need to be able to weather those storms in the way that you do that is by having a strong foundation in Christ. You need to have a strong foundation of accountability. You need to belong to a group of people, a group of men in particular.
Who are going to help you to stand firm in the faith? When everything around you starts to crumble. You've got to have people that you can call and say, Hey, this is what's going on. You know, you got to have your brothers. And so standing firm. Having a [00:10:00] good stance and being on alert. Are two of the foundational things that Paul tells us that we need.
In order to be godly men. The next one is he says to act like men. Now that comes from the NASB. Translation. Most of the time is what you're going to see is something that has to do with the word courage, be men of courage. And I like that translation. I like that word. Of course. But courage is when you have to face danger or trouble or trial or storm.
And it requires bravery and strength. You have to act like a man in the midst of the troubles that come, and we just mentioned it, but you know, troubles will come. Nothing in this life is going to be. Worry-free the, the road is dangerous. And in fact, as Christians. We are increasingly seeing how dangerous the road is. And I think in the future becomes even more.
More hazardous for those of us who are followers of [00:11:00] Jesus. And so acting like men was important in Paul's day, because again, as he's writing to the church in Corinth here, This was not a city or a culture. Where being a Christian was easy. And so to, to be a follower of Jesus required you to have courage, to act with a strength and bravery.
Because it was not going to be easy. In fact, So much of what we hear in the Christian culture in America. Is about wealth and prosperity and ease and comfort and the joy of the Lord. And so many of these things. And individually, if we broke those down, maybe not, all of those are bad per se.
But it certainly wasn't what the new Testament conversations were about. It was about suffering. It was about standing firm until the end. It was about endure it's. And. This is something that Paul is addressing here is it is going to take a ton of courage. To be a man. Of Christ. It's going to take a ton of strength. [00:12:00]
And we are going to have to pull ourselves up from our bootstraps. And do difficult things. Now we may not yet have to face A ton of the persecution that maybe they did in Paul's day when he's writing this. But think about some of the hard things that you're going to have to do that are going to take courage where you're going to have to act like a man.
That might just be difficult relationships. Maybe you're in a struggling situation with your spouse or with a child who's gone a way word. Maybe it's somebody at work. Somebody in your family, right? Difficult relationships are spaces where men have to have courage and do difficult things, have difficult conversations. Maybe there's a humility that needs to take place. And that's going to be a challenge. That's going to take courage.
Bravery and strength. You're going to have to act like a man and humble yourself in a situation where maybe you have to admit that you're wrong. Scary moments that you have to face. [00:13:00] Again, there's going to be times where it may be in your faith. You're the only one at work. That bows has had in praise. I remember as a young guy
Young Christian in. I was 15 or 16. So it was probably was. High school. But being in the lunch room and bowing my head to pray and really there's, there was like, you know, nobody around. I was so self-conscious and again, I don't know that my head was in the right space. But I did a manly thing. I was a man enough to Bob my head and say a quick prayer.
Over time. Of course, I got to a spot where I thought I don't care what they think. I love the Lord. He loves me, died for me. I could at least by my head and say a quick, thank you to him, right? But it was difficult. And that was one of those like standout moments of, are you going to do this hard thing?
And, I did, and you will too. And I'm sure you have tough situations. That are going to require you to fight for your faith fight for your family fight for your honor or [00:14:00] somebody else's is going to require you to act like a man. And so I, again, I love the NASB translation of this.
Be on alert, stand firm in the faith. And then act like men. So two quick thoughts for you here. How do you do this? How do you act more like a man? Well, one thing I would tell you is. Find other men. Who are living strong in areas where you feel like you need to grow. So maybe as a husband, you're struggling in this relationship.
And, you know, you want to, you feel this internal desire to be more like a man in this relationship. And. You're just struggling. How am I going to do this? Find a man. Who you look up to? Who is doing well in his marriage, maybe who's further along, has been married longer than you. And then ask him.
Can I meet? Can I talk to you about this? Can I get your opinion? Everybody loves giving opinions. Ask this guy, maybe not to mentor you. That might be too [00:15:00] challenging, upfront. But just simply say, Hey. This is what's going on. Would it be okay if we chatted sometime I would love to pick your brain and I guarantee you that person will help.
So find somebody who's doing great in the area that you need help. Maybe it's you're exercising. Maybe you've just fallen off the wagon with that. And your physical health sucks right now. And you're just thinking, man, I've totally given up. That was me. Over a year ago, that was totally me and went and met with a doctor buddy of mine and just said, like, I need some help. Like I have totally fallen off the wagon. I found somebody who was winning in that area.
And was able to get back on the path and that's kind of what you need to do. The other thing you can do is if you're struggling to figure out, like, how am I going to do this? One thing you can do is say to yourself, What would a godly man do? If he were me. In my situation. So what would a godly man do in this situation that I'm in?
You may not have that relationship offhand that you can go ask, but you can at least start to process that. What [00:16:00] would a godly person do? In this situation. What would a godly man do if he were me dealing with this situation? Sometimes, I think that might help you to kind of like break up the cobwebs a little bit.
And find your way forward. The next one is this The apostle Paul says be strong. So I'd get in the fight. One of the parts of that daily download again that you can get for free. And just start praying through this every single day. Is that God would help us to be men of strength. And so here's what we pray.
God helped me to be a man of strength, help me to be strong, physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and relationally. And help me to use my strength. To help serve others. This is kind of like good timing, I suppose. Today is.
Cold wintry day. We had a big snow storm yesterday. And I was driving to run some errands this morning. And. There's a ton of snow. They plowed our road. But what they did is it basically [00:17:00] like pushed all the snow into the ends of our driveway. And I'm driving down the road and there is a car.
That's all the way towards the road. They're backing out of their driveway, but this girl was talking on the phone. So I couldn't tell if she was. Needing help or if she was just on the phone and just waiting to pull out after I drove by. So I drove by. And was just kind of paying attention, looking back. And I see that.
She still had it moved. So I backed my truck up and stopped. And it's this young girl high school girl probably. And I just said, Hey, do you need some help? And she's like, oh, thank you so much for stopping. And I'm so grateful. And I basically helped her to figure out how to rock the car back and forth a little bit. And she, she pulled out easy.
So that was one of those moments though, where it really hit me this very prayer that I prayed this morning. God helped me to use my strength. To help serve somebody else. It was there's this girl in the car. Stuck at the end of her driveway, potentially instead of just driving by, because this was top, [00:18:00] top of mind for me.
I back up. Took two seconds to help her out to no effort, almost. But it made a huge impact on her day. You could just tell. And so that is what being a man of strength is about. In fact, that's what being a godly man is about. God doesn't make you physically strong for your vanity. He gives it to you so that you can use that strength.
For the benefit of other people around you. So for the benefit of your wife and your children, your church, your community, The girl that needs help getting pushed out in the middle of a snow storm. Right. God, doesn't just make you emotionally strong, just so that it's great for you. Yeah. He cares about you and he does that for you.
But he gives you that strength so you can help somebody who maybe isn't as strong. God, doesn't just make you mentally strong or relationally strong. All of these things just for yourself, he makes you strong in all of these areas of your life. So that you can help those who maybe need some of the strength that you have.
And so as we pray through this everyday, God make me strong. [00:19:00] In all of these areas of my life. We are asking him. To help fill in the gap for us, where we are weak. And here's a spoiler alert for you. You're not super strong. You don't have what it takes. But my very first memory versus a kid Philippians four 13 says.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. This is a battle for us to get out of the way enough that Christ strength.
Can show up and he can give us everything we need. In Christ, you have everything you need. To be strong in Christ. You have everything you need to win these battles in Christ. You have everything. You need to be alert to stand firm in the faith to act like a man where you need to, and to be strong.
But in your own strength, you don't and that's okay. Using your weakness and embracing that. Is what allows God to stand out. When you say. This simple prayer. God, I can't. [00:20:00] Whatever that thing is, God, I can't fix this marriage. I can't. Help myself to get out of bed, to fix my, my physical health, which is flailing and falling apart.
I'm struggling to do that. God, I can't stop looking at this stuff online that I shouldn't. I can't stop worrying about this or whatever your thing is. Right. I can't fill in the blank for whatever you're dealing with, but you can. That's an amazing prayer from a pastor in Atlanta that I heard once say that I can't, but you can, what a great prayer.
Because it acknowledges that we want to be strong. But it isn't in our strengths. We are asking God to come alongside and give us his strength. His strength is enough. His strength, his grace is sufficient for our weakness. And so we are simply acknowledging that being a godly man is being a humble man who understands.
Whose strength really counts. And we are just falling in line with him. And getting our strength from him so that we can serve others. With those [00:21:00] strengths. Last thing for today. The fifth thing that the apostle Paul talks about is to do everything in love. Now, when you talk about love in a men's podcast.
You're talking to guys who probably think in a lot of ways, the love is pretty wimpy and soft and. Feminine. But that's just like the furthest thing from the truth. It takes a real man. To be able to do everything in love. No, here's the, here's the point? We can do some things in love and some things will be really easy.
But to do everything in love takes a real man. For example. Let's just say that you're fighting with your wife, you're arguing about something and there's just hostility in the room and, you know, God is pressing you to say, I need to go say, I'm sorry. I wasn't acting in love and I need to go now.
Be the one that humbles himself and says. Hey, baby girl. I'm sorry. It's on me. I take the blame for this one, [00:22:00] whatever it is, right? Like you, you go own up to it. You do that and love that stuff, right. That takes a real man to do that. What about when you're at work? And you've got a boss who's just a total jerk. And you feel like you've tried everything.
Do you know what you do the next time you got problems? You do everything in love, even again, again and again, and again. You've got kids who are frustrated with you and they're grown. They think you're a total idiot right now. And they're just in that stage where they don't want to hear it. What do you need to do in response to them being.
Seemingly against everything you, you want them to be, you respond in love. That's tough, how about when Christ says you've got to take up a cross. And carry it. Put your own wishes and needs aside. And do what he says. That's tough. That's tough, but when you're motivated in love you all of a sudden find the strength to live the life that Christ has for us to live.
It takes a real man, a godly man. To do [00:23:00] everything in love. And again, think back to what we said in the very beginning. This is simple to understand super direct, super clear. But very, very difficult to live out. And so we pray for this every single day we say. Here at getting the fight. God helped me to be a man of honor helped me to be a man of discipline, helped me to be a man of strength.
Helped me to be a man of joy. And then we pray first Corinthians 16, verse 13 and 14. God helped me to be alert. Help me today to stand firm in my faith. Help me God to act like a man. God today, would you give me your strength helped me to be strong. And helped me to do everything in love. If you will start to download that every single day in those standards become your standards.
You will start to see visible things. Change in your life, you will start to see that you are becoming a man, a godly man, that God is proud of. That you're proud of [00:24:00] that people around, you will start to say, well, I don't know what's going on. But I see you doing hard things. I see you being a man of honor, who's meriting respect.
Earning respect of other people. You're going to start to change your physical health and people are gonna say, Hey, what's going on? You know, what's going on with you. You look strong. You look good. And you're going to say, yeah. I'm getting back in the fight in this area of my life. God's challenging me. And I'm stepping up to the challenge.
You're going to start to respond in love. You're going to start to find strength where you have been weak. And you're going to start to be able to help other men in your life who need so desperately. For you to come alongside with them and to fight with them and for them to. So that's our challenge for you today. I want you to go to the website. If you don't have this yet, go to the website, scroll all the way to the bottom. Again, get in the fight.club.
Is the website go to that scroll all the way to the bottom. If you haven't yet, or maybe you've already [00:25:00] done it once, but you forgot about it. Go back into your email. Look for the document, print, a few of them out, put them over your mirror is where I have one here. My, my house, my mirror. I have one here in my office.
I have one at my office at work. Download this and just start praying this every day. If nothing else, just start praying this every day. And God will start to meet you where you're at and transform and change you into the man. That he's proud of, and that you're proud of too.
Hey guys, thanks so much for being here today and listening to the show. Please be sure to head over to the website at Get in the fight.club. And before you go, if you haven't already, please subscribe, click the like button and leave us a positive five star review. It makes a huge difference. Whenever you do have a great day.
Go get in the fight.
