[00:00:00] Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast, Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] All right, so if this looks familiar, the men we need those of you who were at the men's retreat, this is the book that Brandon and Andrew taught the lessons from. And after the men's retreat, I had passed out a survey to see just get an idea of what men wanted to see with the men's ministry and just what they wanted to get out of stuff. And one of the things that came up was several of them said they'd like to see get a little bit more in depth into this book. So I let Mike Baker know about it. And of course at the Tuesday morning prayer breakfast one day he comes up like, hey, we're doing a men's class opposite the ladies class in the spring. Do you want to choose the teachers? Like, well, I've never done anything like that, but I'll give it a go. So I started thinking of guys and asking a few guys. And of course the more I asked, like, well, you know what, if I'm going to ask these guys to do it, I guess I better be willing to do it myself. So as a software guy that stands behind or sits behind a computer all the time, getting up in front of you guys scares the daylights out of me. So just being honest. So with that, I will try not to pace a whole lot and we'll see how this goes. So the men, we need God's purpose for the manly man, the avid endorsement, or any man willing to show up. So this book is by Brant Hanson.
[00:02:19] You may have seen it. I know we had several copies of it at the men's retreat. People got asked them to pass it around after they got done reading it. I do have two more copies up here if anybody wants to grab one. All I ask is read it and pass it on. It's a really good book. It's Not a hard book at all to read.
[00:02:41] So basically, this book is broken up. We've got the introduction, which was what I'm doing, and then six decisions that will set you apart. So our teachers this quarter are going to be Andrew Hitson. He's going to be teaching us or leading the discussion about forsake the fake and relish the real.
[00:02:59] Wes Alford is going to lead us in protect the vulnerable. Lynn Turner is going to do be ambitious about the right things. David Wade, make women and children feel safe, not threatened.
[00:03:14] Brother Norm Glock is going to choose today who you will become tomorrow. And then Brandon will lead us and take responsibility for your own spiritual life.
[00:03:26] Man up.
[00:03:28] Suck it up, boys. Don't cry.
[00:03:32] Be a man.
[00:03:34] Or better yet, be a real man in toxic masculinity.
[00:03:39] So what do you think of when you hear these phrases?
[00:03:42] Do it, coaches. Yeah, absolutely. Especially the suck it up, be a man.
[00:03:51] Except for the last one, my dad.
[00:03:56] So in general, they all have a kind of a negative connotation. I mean, they're telling you to suppress your emotions.
[00:04:04] Don't ask for help, don't cry.
[00:04:09] If we have this kind of mindset that leads us to. I mean, leads us to the question, if we're being told to do all these things all the time, why pray? I mean, you can handle it all on your own.
[00:04:23] Why pray? So we all know that really, that being masculine is not necessarily a bad thing.
[00:04:32] Masculinity has become complicated, or maybe it has always been complicated, actually, better yet, it has become difficult to be confident about what it means to be a man.
[00:04:50] To be a man as God has designed men to be.
[00:04:55] Our culture these days has plenty to say about masculinity that is toxic, but it has far less to say about masculinity that is good and honoring. I mean, honestly, we hear more about women becoming men than men simply being men.
[00:05:15] So that leads us to these questions. What are men meant to be? What are men supposed to do?
[00:05:22] And the tagline, one of the taglines from the book, have we gotten manhood all wrong?
[00:05:28] So, like I said, this is the book. And the book is about a big vision for manhood. Why we've all lacked that vision. And all of us, men, women and children are hurting because of it.
[00:05:45] And so this vision was or calling is not a new purpose for the 21st century man. This purpose goes all the way back to the beginning, to the first man.
[00:05:59] So you ask, what is the vision?
[00:06:02] We men are at our best when we are keepers of the garden and that comes from Genesis 2:15.
[00:06:13] Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
[00:06:20] Again, Genesis 2:15.
[00:06:23] So this means we are to be protectors, defenders, cultivators.
[00:06:31] I mean ultimately we are at our best when we champion the weak and vulnerable. And we are at our best when we use our God given strengths to safeguard the innocent and provide a place for people to thrive.
[00:06:44] This was the job that was given to Adam.
[00:06:47] So I don't know about you, but my wife, she generally knows what I'm supposed to be doing.
[00:06:57] So women like my wife sense who we are supposed to be and honestly, they're attracted to us when they see us living that out.
[00:07:08] They also sense when we are fulfilling our purpose.
[00:07:11] But guess what, they also know when we're not.
[00:07:16] So I don't know.
[00:07:19] I'm sure each and every one of you have seen that happen in your lives, or at least those of you that are married, right?
[00:07:30] So what women want from us resonates entirely with the original work given the original man in Bible's account of the Garden of Eden.
[00:07:40] So again with whatever you're given, you can live out this purpose. If you do, the vulnerable people around you, and maybe those even far away will thrive and flourish because of it. So like I said, ultimately women are looking for men who make them feel secure.
[00:08:00] That's one of the things I found funny in the book. It's like, you know, he goes on to say, this is why women often consider confidence, a fit body, wealth, a deep voice or a manly beard sexy. Not saying that I'm sexy by any means, but wise women know that these are mere surface indicators and can be misleading. It also doesn't go, I mean, doesn't mean that a man.
[00:08:29] Let me try that again. So a man who is a confident provider and protector can be less than wealthy. He can have a high pitched voice, he can struggle to grow a beard, and he can be less than physically fit and still be attractive to women.
[00:08:43] So we get back to Adam and I'm sorry to say, Adam, you're about to be thrown under the bus.
[00:08:51] Adam was made to protect, but as we most of us know, he became passive. God went looking for him. Where are you? He asked.
[00:09:01] So Adam left his post and the world has been suffering ever since.
[00:09:07] So instead of thinking of man up being a bad thing, think of it as show up. I mean that's part, the first part of the battle, just being there. Be there for your family, be there for your community, be there for your Church the world is yearning for men who show up, men who don't go AWOL from real life when the going gets tough.
[00:09:32] Going back to Genesis 2:15, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
[00:09:42] So the Hebrew word translated keep here is shamar, which means to guard, to protect, to watch over.
[00:09:52] So God gave Adam the job of looking after the garden and the things within it.
[00:09:58] Think about what the garden of Eden was. It was a place that God and man inhabited together.
[00:10:05] They were walking through it together. A place of peace, a place that was wildly beautiful and where things were made to thrive and grow. But it wasn't a finished product.
[00:10:16] There was wonderful life giving work to do it needed to be shaped and enhanced. God created man and woman in his image. That means we were created. We were made to be creative and actually do things that matter. Adam, he was to guard it, he was to tend it and help it flourish.
[00:10:40] He was supposed to be, he was responsible for it.
[00:10:44] So again, looking after our gardens remains our masculine purpose.
[00:10:50] Masculinity is about taking responsibility.
[00:10:54] So I guess to you, what are some ways that we should be taking responsibility?
[00:11:03] Well, I'm going to tell you one of the greatest things that I know is that man teaching that class in the auditorium in there, Ben Thompson, he's gonna have his children in church one way or another. If he can't be here. Yeah. Who has not seen a Facebook post from him. It's like, hey, is there anybody can take my kids, bring them up here? Absolutely. One way or another.
[00:11:28] Man I love respect there any others.
[00:11:33] I think blazing the path when it comes to spiritual disciplines, I think it's easy to not do that. But when you do that, I think it's easy to both kind of fall behind.
[00:11:46] So we, I mean we're supposed to take responsibility for helping it flourish. Well what does that mean? I mean how often I've done it myself, I'll be the first to admit, let my wife, hey, we got to go to church.
[00:12:06] Can we not sleep in today? Or better yet, making the kids do their lads leader's work when actually I should be the one standing up there. It's like, hey, come on, time to go practice. Practice your speech, get ready for Bible ball, whatever. So masculinity is about taking responsibility in our homes, our places of work, of course here in our church, but also our communities.
[00:12:35] Yeah, for me too. I can tell them all the Bible verses and I can take them to church all the time. But if I'm not showing them by example. It can do the opposite, you know? So at home, behind closed doors, I'm living a different way. I'm not taking responsibility that way. So I gotta. I got three daughters. I gotta show them what a man is like. By showing how to treat their mom? Absolutely. Because you want them to find. They want them to find a future husband that is a godly man. And so you're not raising a son, but you're telling your daughters what they need to look for in a future spouse.
[00:13:13] I can have Bible studies with them daily. That's great. But if I don't actually live it by example, because they learn more by just watching, not by what I'm saying.
[00:13:23] I think teaching them it's okay to be odd. To be what? Odd. Different. Yeah, from the rest of the world.
[00:13:30] So again, we are masculine. Not to the extent that we are bodybuilders, fixers, good beard growers, but to the extent that we are faithful to. The job of being humble consists of being humble, consistent, dedicated keepers of the garden.
[00:13:50] So again, when we don't fulfill this job, just as Adam's failure was devastating, our failures to fill this role have been equally devastating.
[00:14:02] But when we do fill our purpose, we become a refreshing source of life wherever we are. I mean, how often, if you're living this out in your workplace, do people know? Hey, I might need to tone down the language because Kern, he's a Christian. He's living it out.
[00:14:27] So when we do this, like I said before, the vulnerable will be allowed to grow and bloom.
[00:14:34] People will sense that they are safe around us.
[00:14:38] We're called to be keepers and protectors in our spheres of influence, whatever and wherever they are.
[00:14:45] So imagine if we approach life like this. Adam didn't do the job, but with whatever I have, I'm going to do it. I have a mission and I accept it. I don't know about you. I keep hearing the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible thing when I hear that. So again, imagine men like you and me taking whatever strengths we are given to defend and expand the kingdom.
[00:15:11] So instead of looking at Adam, look at how Jesus. I mean, the way Jesus explains the kingdom of God, it works very differently from the rest of the world.
[00:15:23] The weak are made strong, the last are first. The humble are exalted. The proud are brought low. The widow, the alien and the orphan are all valued highly.
[00:15:35] The unfairly treated. The unfairly treated are defended.
[00:15:40] The seemingly insignificant go to the head of the class. The lost are found and the broken are healed.
[00:15:49] So can I get five guys to Somebody grab each one of these verses starting with 1st Samuel 2:8. He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the lord's, and he has set the world upon them.
[00:16:17] All right. Psalm 9:18 for the knee shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish through all right. Psalm 72:4 he shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the needy, and shall bring the peace of the oppressor.
[00:16:41] Okay, next one 823 give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. And then the last one. Proverbs 3.
[00:17:01] So what do these verses show us that we should be doing versus what we saw Adam do?
[00:17:13] We definitely need to be following Jesus example instead of Adam's.
[00:17:21] If we were to be more like Jesus, we need to be doing these things. Raise the poor from the dust and not forget them Defend the afflicted, save the children of the needy, defend the weak, favor the humble.
[00:17:39] Jesus told us to seek his kingdom first. And when we take our cues from him, it's not just good news for us, it's good news for everyone around us.
[00:17:49] So what does Adam do when the garden is threatened? He makes excuses. Made an excuse. Made an excuse.
[00:17:58] Somebody read Genesis 3:1:6 and listen. See what it says.
[00:18:05] How the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
[00:18:59] So all we hear about Adam right there was he was with her, and he ate it. So we don't know for certain, but it sure does look like he did absolutely nothing.
[00:19:09] So Adam Knew his assignment, protect the garden, tend the garden, and not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
[00:19:22] Pretty straightforward. Pretty simple.
[00:19:25] So after God gives Adam his assignment, God creates Eve, a suitable helper for Adam.
[00:19:33] The word helper here is Ezur ez Ezer, Ezur.
[00:19:39] And Ezur shouldn't be read as an assistant or an underling.
[00:19:44] And God described himself as Ezra in Psalms because he is our helper, because he has the ability to aid us, aid us in our need. He rescues us because we need rescuing. In Genesis 1, God creates mankind in his own image, male and female, and then blesses them and tells them to be fruitful, increase in number, and rule over the earth together.
[00:20:14] So later, as we just saw in Genesis 1 through 6, or Genesis 31 6, Eve has a conversation in the garden with an enemy of God. The enemy claims she's missing out by accepting the limits God has given to Adam. Adam was with her the entire time.
[00:20:33] He let her converse with an enemy of God, and he didn't intervene to protect her or the garden.
[00:20:39] Eve falls for the lie. She eats the fruit, and all the while, Adam doesn't do anything.
[00:20:47] Where was Adam?
[00:20:49] I mean, Adam was.
[00:20:52] Adam was so passive. He didn't even grab the fruit for himself. He didn't reach up to the tree and grab, says Eve, passed it to him. I mean, what was Adam doing? Was he just kind of laying around sitting down like, hey, here you go, have some.
[00:21:08] At no point in the story is Adam doing his job again. When the garden was faced with a threat, Adam did nothing.
[00:21:20] When Eve was under spiritual attack, Adam did nothing.
[00:21:27] When Eve offered him fruit, well, Adam did something there. He took the path of least resistance. When God came into the garden to speak to him.
[00:21:39] We'll see in a minute. Adam, hidden. When God confronted him with what he did, Adam made up excuses and blamed Eve.
[00:21:49] So this is ultimately a fundamental betrayal of who he is supposed to be.
[00:21:56] He's supposed to guard the garden and all the beautiful things in it.
[00:22:01] He was supposed to rule and reign with God. Instead, he just stands there, though a passive man, becomes useless to those around him.
[00:22:13] Yes, sir. You know, one of the things that he was supposed to guard and protect was Eve for something. Absolutely. And he failed to do that.
[00:22:22] You know, the instruction that Eve apparently had about the tree was incorrect.
[00:22:29] And that seemed to be abnormal because his job was to make sure that she was protected. And that included instruction on what they could not eat. Absolutely.
[00:22:43] And it wasn't because they'll die, but it's because God told them not to.
[00:22:54] Yeah, God gave the rule, do not eat it or you are going to die. And then eat. Eve says if we even touch it, we'll die. Well, then the serpent convinces her to grab it. She grabs it, does not die. And it's like, oh, maybe he's been telling me falsehood this whole time, doesn't believe. And it's like Adam somewhere did not communicate the right exact thing God had said. I'm too. Yeah, because I mean, we see there where God tells Adam not to eat it, but that's before Eve was around. So like you said, did he not tell her or communicate that correctly?
[00:23:43] Again, we don't. It's not explained there, but that's what we can assume.
[00:23:49] So, so when. Oh, I got a question that never really entered my mind until, I guess this conversation though. When did what Adam. All the actions Adam took, when did they become wrong or a sin said? I guess I've always heard it was when he bit the fruit, that it was sin. But if he had lied to eat, if he had not protected her, like yourself, those two, those to me seem like they would be sins.
[00:24:19] But I don't know of anywhere that it says yeah, at this point is when he actually. Yeah, when we become passive, we are useless to all those around us.
[00:24:36] We're useless to our family.
[00:24:38] And being passive, this, there's all kinds of different ways.
[00:24:45] One example I know they gave in the book was the guy who goes and plays video games. There's nothing wrong with video games. I know there's a lot of people in here that probably enjoy video games. What's the problem is the guy who forgoes all of his duties as being a husband or father or whatever and goes and plays video games for all night long and leaves everything to his wife to take care of.
[00:25:15] A passive man is useless to those around him. He's also a threat to the woman in his life. He was not created to be passive. We were not created to evade responsibility or hide from God or make up excuses or deflect blame.
[00:25:39] Our passivity makes women feel less secure. I mean, like I was saying, she will doubt he will be able to defend her or their home.
[00:25:49] I mean, he may not even be able to be up to the job of providing for her and their children.
[00:25:55] He may even drag down her own ambitions. She may feel like she's somewhat on her own and even if they're married, needs to frantically cover all of life's bases because he may not do it. And unfortunately, that's way too common today.
[00:26:12] Who, me? No way.
[00:26:14] So let's go to the next. So can somebody else read Genesis 3, 9, 12?
[00:26:22] But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the Father, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I did myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave me gave to be with me. She gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.
[00:26:44] So one thing that's kind of funny here is we always hear the story of Adam and Eve.
[00:26:51] So Eve, the woman, eats the fruit first, and she's been blamed for that for millennia.
[00:27:00] But notice God doesn't call out to her.
[00:27:06] No. He wants to know where the man is.
[00:27:10] Adam, where are you?
[00:27:13] Where's the keeper of the garden?
[00:27:15] Where's the one God specifically charged with being the protector?
[00:27:21] Where's the one he made to take responsibility?
[00:27:26] So when Adam fails to do his job, he deals with it like a lot of us tend to do, or tend to deal with things.
[00:27:37] He found someone else to blame.
[00:27:40] And since there's only one other person around, I guess the choice is easy.
[00:27:46] It's that woman. She did it. She made me eat it.
[00:27:52] I think it's interesting that what he does, he really. It's not even Eve he blames. He blames God. Yeah. I mean, it's not Eve that's the worst part. He's not even active enough to blame Eve. He goes right to the one you blame, Eve. So he passes the buck twice. Yes, absolutely. That's maybe the worst part. Exactly. The audacity of it. Right? Yeah. The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate. But it's also interesting that to get to this point, God had brought everything in front of him. And Adam said, nothing works, Nothing's worthy. And so God, to fix the problem, created Eve for him. And then he turns around and basically throws her under the bus and him too, in the process. Yeah, and that's the part that is kind of funny, because not only is she blaming God, or He is blaming God, he's blaming Eve.
[00:28:57] And not many verses before that. In Genesis 2:23, the man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of me, out of man. So, I mean, he's putting her like, hey, this. This is the greatest thing ever and then, yeah, not even five or six verses and he's throwing her, throwing her under the bus.
[00:29:33] So again, let's think about this. Here's what we know. Genesis was written thousands of years ago. It tells the story of the first man. The first time the first man does something wrong, he blames someone else. Sounds believable. That's how we roll today. Apparently. That's how we've been rolling for thousands of years.
[00:29:57] And like pointed out, not only does he blame Eve, but he also blames God. Way to shift the blame. Not once, but twice.
[00:30:06] So to be keepers of the garden, we can't be blame shifters.
[00:30:12] Masculinity is about taking responsibility. It means squarely owning up to our failures and the things we need to do.
[00:30:22] I mean, Adam's failure to protect the garden is on him, but he doesn't want to believe it. Who's he trying to fool exactly? God.
[00:30:31] Yeah, we know that's not right. He's only fooling himself.
[00:30:38] I think it's interesting too, because we think about another word being passive. It's Lucifer.
[00:30:46] If we open the Bible, someone making a lukewarm choice and the fall of man happens because we made a lukewarm choice. And then we go to Revelation 3:16 and says, Jesus says, because we'll see. So because you're lukewarm and either hot or cold, I'll spit you out of my mouth. So you got the opening sequence of the Bible where a lukewarm choice causes the fall and then the end of times.
[00:31:10] If we're lukewarm and we're passive, we can't make a choice. Also do as well. So interesting add on to that. I think one of the takeaways that I have from this section of Scripture is I think you have to be willing to be the bad guy. That's where the responsibility comes in. Where I'm not married yet, but your wife and kids wanted to do something, or you got people in your ear saying, we want to do this.
[00:31:40] You know, having the guts to say, this is where I want to leave my family. This is where we should go. And I think that's what happens in Genesis. Somehow Adam was convinced that whether Eve was. Either he was convinced Eve was right or she wore him down, Eve took fruit. And that's where sin comes about. And so if we can't do that in our lives or our jobs and our families. And that is the definition of passivity, where it's. Where it letting other people be the man instead of us being. You're right. I Mean.
[00:32:10] And since you're not a dad. That is absolutely correct. Sometimes we do have to be the bad guys.
[00:32:16] Unfortunately, sometimes our wives are telling us it's your turn to be the bad guy. I'm tired of always being the bad guy. I know that happens.
[00:32:27] That has happened in our household more than once.
[00:32:31] And guess what is. What's the root of it? This thing right here.
[00:32:37] We have a rule that you're supposed to be off the phone by 10:30. There's no reason you need to be talking on the phone at 11 or 11:30. That's time to be winding down, getting ready to go to bed and all like that. I mean, my daughter's a senior in high school, and I think this. Just two days ago, I had this like, chloe, why are you on the phone?
[00:33:01] I mean, so, I mean, yeah, we've got to be. We've got to be the bad guy. Step up. Don't make your wife. Don't let your wife do it all the time. Don't be the fun dad all the time. It's like, do what you do what you're supposed to do and be the bad guy for her when you need to. But is it really being the bad guy or is it sticking to what your values are and not allowing. Well, yeah, the pressures of other people out there to get in the way? It's easy to say it's being the bad guy, but you're absolutely right. I mean. I mean, we're. And when we. I know personally, when I have these conversations with Chloe, it's like, you know, I'm not trying to be the bad guy, but we put rules in place for a reason. In this case, trying to help you, or in this case, trying to help you learn when to turn things off. Because in six months, you're going to be at college and you're not going to be sitting in a room with mom and dad in the room right next to you that can hear she's on the phone. Somebody go take. Make sure she's off the phone. Or why is the phone not over on the charger in the. In the office?
[00:34:11] And so letting her know. It's not that we're mad at you for doing it. I mean, we're frustrated because you're doing it. Because we've told you more than once that these are the rules. Let's stick with them. But also trying to teach her proper time management. And it's like you've got to shut things off sometimes.
[00:34:40] You know, Peter, it goes back to being there. You Know, if you nature pours a vacuum and if we're not there, something's going to fill that vacuum, whether it's going to be, you know, their friends or, you know, what they see on the Internet or whatever, something's going to fill that vacuum that we should be filling. And I know that that's exactly what God is talking about here. You know, in the garden, there was a vacuum. Yep. For Eve, and Adam didn't fill it. When the serpent came by, he should have been right there between her and it. Yeah, I mean, he. I mean, he should. Yeah, she shouldn't have even been talking to. He should have been the one stepping forward. It's like, you know what? Let's move on. Let's go. Let's go somewhere else. Because especially when you read this and you see that it says he was with her. I mean, because a lot of people, when you were taught the story of Adam, of Eve, where did you think Adam was when Eve was talking to the serpent?
[00:35:55] Somewhere else? He was out tending the garden.
[00:35:59] He was on the wall protecting the garden. Yeah. Well, not really.
[00:36:03] So keepers of the garden are not AWOL during tough times.
[00:36:10] They're not passive.
[00:36:13] They're not blame shifters.
[00:36:16] Keepers of the garden got to be protectors, defenders, cultivators.
[00:36:24] Not necessarily being the bad guy, lifting them up. Oh, and by the way, just anybody know, I don't think Andrew's here tonight.
[00:36:34] I have to give Andrew applause. I met with him yesterday, just going over the slides because I had 45, 50, way too many slides. And we sat down and went through them and stuff. And he's like, man, you've got this. You're gonna be awesome. Like, I'm a computer guy. Don't get up in front of people like this. No, you're going to be awesome. So if you ever want to teach, go see Andrew. I'm surprised he's not over in the corner with pom poms shaking them out. He is a great motivator. So we need to motivate our families, just like Andrew motivated me.
[00:37:16] So again, keepers of the garden, man up, show up, be responsible.
[00:37:24] So one thing that I've done for a long time is I've got index cards all over the place. Normally I have a stack of them that I keep in my pocket.
[00:37:36] Years ago, somebody came through here, and somebody else may know who it was. And said every week, write down a verse on an index card and. And read it daily. Try to memorize it. By the end of the year, you'll have 52 verses that you'll memorize. So I keep a lot of verses on the cards but I also like to collect quotes. I don't know why, it's just something I've always done. I see a quote that strikes my fancy, I'll write it down.
[00:38:08] I found sometimes I'll write the same one down five or six times. When I go through my, my cards I'm like what? So one that I found while I was studying for this was by Marcus Aurelius. I'm sure a lot of you have heard who that was. He was, he was around I think in 180 BC.
[00:38:34] So the quote was waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be like and just be one.
[00:38:42] So I guess that's what I'm going to leave you with is let's waste no more time arguing what a good man should be and just be one. Show up, man up.
[00:38:55] That's it. So thank you guys.
