Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to the Men of Faith podcast where we’re dedicated to calling men up, not out, to live a life dedicated to our God.
This is more than just a podcast, it’s a community and a brotherhood. In each episode, we'll explore topics that touch the core of our spiritual and daily lives—from the sacred bonds of marriage and the joys and trials of parenthood, to practical advice on health, fitness, and managing our finances wisely.
Our journey begins now and we want you with us, so please subscribe on your favorite listening platform.
Resources:
Learn more about Project Church: https://projectchurch.com/
Connect with Project Church on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectchurchsac
Brandon Miller [00:00:00]:
We are in Christ. We are not our sin. Sin happens. Sin is what can be done, but we are not. We have been bought with a price. We are to honor God with our bodies. But as Paul said, I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live.
Brandon Miller [00:00:13]:
Christ lives in me. And so, you know, if you're hearing this today, brothers, a good early call up is that going to your pastor, going to a brother, going to a friend, going to a source and counteracting that shame with, you know, some source that's going to tell you the truth, that's going to give you honesty, feedback, lead you to a path of forgiveness, but also a path of freedom.
Caleb Cole [00:00:40]:
You're listening to men of faith, the podcast dedicated to calling men up and not out. Join me as we live a life dedicated to our goddess. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the men of Faith podcast. I'm your host, Caleb Cole, and I'm here with my co host, Brandon Miller, who has positive vibes, mind and life. Today I'm just reading your shirt. You always have a great shirt for me, Brandon.
Brandon Miller [00:01:09]:
Yeah, let's keep it positive in a very important topic today.
Caleb Cole [00:01:14]:
Yes, indeed. So, as you know, men of faith is a podcast where we are helping men become all that they were meant to be in God. Strengthening, growing each other, growing together. We've been hitting a variety of topics, Brandon. We've been all over, ranging from walking healthy in our marriages, connecting emotionally, to just being spiritually strong as men. But then today we're going to talk about a topic that often is avoided. I would say, in the podcast world, it's avoided in the church, and then it's avoided among men in terms of the conversations we have. And that is the topic of sex.
Caleb Cole [00:01:56]:
So we want to talk all things sex and marriage, purity, lust, everything that falls under this category. We're not going to touch everything, obviously, today in one episode, but I do think we can really dig into what a healthy man of God looks like as it relates to the sexual side of us.
Brandon Miller [00:02:15]:
Yeah, definitely a topic that when brothers are candid with one another, one to one, and they open up about areas where they have to stay on guard, be alert, or might be in struggle or in bondage or just stuck. This is an area that I think many people in your position probably hear about from brothers coming, saying, hey, pastor, I got to talk to you about a thing. And by the end of the conversation it's like, oh, yeah, and I got this other thing too, and it has to get slipped in there at some point, right?
Caleb Cole [00:02:45]:
Yeah. It's funny that it always comes at the very end of our time together.
Brandon Miller [00:02:49]:
Do you ever just go, hey, before we get started, in case you have to talk to me about this, we might want more than ten minutes. So we might want to, like, if there's anything in this realm, just know that you wouldn't be the first and won't be the last person to come talk to me about this.
Caleb Cole [00:03:03]:
Honestly. That's a great tip. And I'm going to start many more meetings by the beginning with that conversation because it's pretty normal that I'll talk with guys and we shoot the breeze for 50 minutes, and then it's like, hey, actually, the real reason I want to talk to you is because I'm struggling with lust and pornography and masturbation and, oh, I got seven minutes, so can you give me, like, your quick tips to get me right? So, yeah, I think I'm going to start leading in with that. Like, hey, if this is the issue, let's really start here at the beginning.
Brandon Miller [00:03:32]:
At the beginning, that's right. I think if we just level set something here, and that's taking away the shame. Taking away the shame, taking away the fact that if one finds themselves stuck in this sin for whatever way that they would describe that, not coming forward, not having some means of confession, repentance, sourcing, help, looking for support, that would be the goal of what the enemy always tries to do. Isolation and isolation. The shame. Can't believe I did it again. Can't believe it fell. Can't believe it went instead of the truth.
Brandon Miller [00:04:13]:
That is, if we are in Christ, we are not our sin. Sin happens. Sin is what can be done, but we are not. We have been bought with a price. We are to honor God with our bodies. But as Paul said, I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live. Christ lives in me.
Brandon Miller [00:04:28]:
And so, you know, if you're hearing this today, brothers, a good early call up, is that going to your pastor, going to a brother, going to a friend, going to a source and counteracting that shame with, you know, some source that's going to tell you the truth, that's going to give you honesty, feedback, lead you to a path of forgiveness, but also a path of freedom.
Caleb Cole [00:04:49]:
Yeah, the shame piece is why men don't talk about it. It's why we have a hard time in relationships and friendships. Even with brothers in the faith, we're so filled with guilt and shame that we avoid the conversation altogether. And then we stay in the cycle of like you said, we're isolated and so we can't break out of this cycles of sin. And so I think we have to recognize that there's truth in the Bible that talks about this, that like, hey, every other sin is outside of yourself, outside the body, but sexual sin is sinning against your own body. So there is a different soul impact when we have sexual sin. And I think that's why we're so shame filled and guilt ridden and why some of us can't break the cycle and can't talk to anyone about it because it does impact us in a deeper way, in a different way. So we do have to acknowledge that, hey, the reason you have that shame isn't because you're some weak mandarin.
Caleb Cole [00:05:46]:
Understand that God's grace is on you like you just told us, and we need to walk in that. But understanding that sexual sin does impact us in a deeper way and it's why we avoid it, because it's so deeply rooted to our identity, deeply connected to our identity, deeply connected to even our value and the value we even see in ourselves. It's a different type of sin and so it comes with different consequences. But that's why we need to talk about it and that's why we need to get victory in it. Because so many men I know are not living to the fullness as a man of faith, a man of God, because they're bound in this sexual sin. And this sin has greater impact on you mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. And so it is a serious thing that we need to talk about. But we do need to get like man, try to let God's grace flow over you in itheme so that you can get past the shame and have some real conversations with people.
Caleb Cole [00:06:45]:
Because if we don't have the conversations, we're not going to get victory, not.
Brandon Miller [00:06:48]:
On our own, no. And I think that's the key to today, brothers, if you're still with us and you know you're listening in, we got to give you hope that there's a way out, there's a healing, there's a restoration, there's a reversal that God is capable and able, and he will do it through you, he'll do it through others, he'll bring people along your path. But it's absolutely, positively, 100% an area where you can have victory. And I think we have to help level set that playing field that says, look. And what Caleb's talking about from the word is that because scripture does tell us that this one has an extra to it can't be surprised that even for some of us that have had victory for seasons at a time, that it's still something that won't come back around. Because this is an area that if I was your enemy and I knew there was a weak spot, I'm going to hit you where you're weak as many times as I can and as many seasons as I can. And that's just an area of understanding that we are in a spiritual battle. And this is real, and this is an area that I think when we put it on the table, see it for what it is, then we start to hear the testimony stack up and, you know, scriptures tell us we overcome the enemy through testimony.
Brandon Miller [00:08:01]:
And so being able to share not only the struggle side, but the victory side is a really important call up for men of God. Because, you know, sometimes we got to hear from other guys like, hey, been here, done this, had that experience, and you can get there. Here, take my hand. Let's walk together. Let's be brothers in arms.
Caleb Cole [00:08:20]:
Yeah. The scripture I was referencing was first corinthians 618 through 20. I was trying to remember. I'm like, where is it? So I just looked it up. But this idea. But it starts with saying, flee from sexual immorality. Like, all the other sins are outside the body, but sexual sin is against one's own body. And so this idea of fleeing is something that I think we want to talk about today.
Caleb Cole [00:08:40]:
And the reality is, Brandon, you just said it. I don't care how much victory you have, you still will be tempted. I still. And I have victory in this area of my life. But lust is still a real thing in my life every single day. Right. But certain places and certain times, I'm more susceptible. And so when it comes to, like, flee from sexual morality, that means I've had to put some things in place in my life to protect myself.
Caleb Cole [00:09:09]:
So that that's my way of fleeing. And so I think we have to define, like, flee for us. Cause I read that scripture. Flee from sexual morality, all other sins. Okay, cool. Yeah, I just. If I ever get tempted, I run. Well, what does that look like? I think for me, it's man.
Caleb Cole [00:09:24]:
Like, I had to change gym memberships one time because I was at one gym, and these ladies were being as much thirst traps as they could be, right? Like, they were wearing as little as they could wear and in all the spots where all the men were. And so it's like, man, I'm a. I gotta change my gym membership. I can't even be in this gym. Where's the gym? With all the old people? Right? Like, I'm gonna go to that gym. I'm just saying, practically speaking, like, for me, that was a I'm gonna flee. Another thing was, even when I went to that gym, because for a season, I kept that membership, I knew what time of day to go so that I would not be presented with the same temptation. Now I still gotta be a man that has some self control.
Caleb Cole [00:10:07]:
I'm not an animal. Even though it is natural for me to want to procreate, I got to learn self control. And that's developed over time, because sometimes you can't flee. Sometimes it's just thrown in your face and you're tempted in the moment. Like, what do you do in that moment? But for me, fleeing was making wise choices where I wasn't going to put myself, in positions where I could be tempted. Now, that could go to other examples of the Internet, social media usage. Like, all of these things that some of us have in our life that we know are temptations from us, and we fall into temptation over and over again. What does fleeing look like for you, practically? And you can fill in the blanks.
Caleb Cole [00:10:46]:
So, I don't know about for you.
Brandon Miller [00:10:47]:
Brandon, you know, you know, I grew up in an era where the Internet wasn't at my fingertips, you know, junior high school, even young adult, and yet found my way to some areas where I could be exposed to things and had to address that. I got married very young and had to address what the consequence was of all the things that, you know, all the above, from porn to masturbation to just lust in general. And then in learning what it was to not be in that for a very long season, to not have that issue. And something I learned back then, and this is, you know, for some of our, perhaps younger listeners, is learning to set your fence back. Back. Meaning if you set up your defense right at the edge, then one trip and you're over. But if you learn to set it back, meaning what kind of movies do you watch? What kind of programming do you watch? What magazines do you look at? Where do you find that? And so in that season, really attending to it now, later in life, you know, the Internet was there, and I went through a really dark period. And in that season, guess what found its way back in.
Brandon Miller [00:12:01]:
But now the accessibility was ridiculous. It was something where, okay, now I have to reset the whole frame with something that is so accessible, so easy to find. You almost have to not be finding it. To find it, to be very intentional about where the searches were, what was watched. And in that season, what I had to learn, Caleb, is the power of the band of brothers, the power of accountability measures and being one to be that source for others and then being that myself. And it was really important because it wasn't just a commission for, hey, I went and lingered the look too long, though, that's included. But hey, I watched this show or I saw this thing or I went down this path of thinking. And as a married man, as you and I both know, what Paul's addressing, especially toward those of us who have committed in covenant relationship to our wife, that she is the source.
Brandon Miller [00:13:00]:
That's to satisfy us. She's the source that we've been given that gift. Now we have that and to care for and cultivate and really think to that. And for me, Caleb, in this latest season where I am enjoying God's grace and favor, I am seeing his freedom. The biggest turn that happened in my forties was really thinking through and addressing the relationship with my wife and really being aware of and attentive to that. God's already provided for me in this area. I don't have to take bait. I can really go in.
Brandon Miller [00:13:33]:
And that became a huge part of where I think us as men of faith, that especially those of us that are married, really think about how the sex in marriage becomes an important part of why we wouldn't lust, why we don't go to those places.
Caleb Cole [00:13:46]:
Yeah, that's so good. The reality of who we're living for. And I think that's what I heard as you were talking about, you know, your spouse and what you get to enjoy in that covenant relationship. But it's also who are you living for? And that text I'm gonna go back to again, one corinthians 618 through 20, after he says, all other sins are outside the body, but when you sin sexually, you sin against your own body. Paul goes on and says, do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You are bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. And so it's like me remembering who bought and paid for my life and gave me salvation, right? If I'm thinking about even my purity, my sexual purity, as a way and a mode of me honoring God, the God that has given me life and life to the fullest, the God that has sanctified and forgiven me and given me salvation, I think that's always in the back of my mind, I want to honor him with every part of my life, including my purity.
Caleb Cole [00:14:48]:
Then the next layer is my spouse. So now as a married man, again, so the single guys out there, it's just you and God right now. But eventually for you, Brandon, it's now I'm in covenant relationship not just with God and I'm going to honor God with my body, but now I'm in covenant relationship with my spouse and I'm going to honor that covenant by being faithful to her. And so now there's a second layer of commitment and covenant that I think if we have the right mentality, I'm always thinking about every decision, every act, every step in light of that. Now, again, that doesn't mean, okay, if I keep those things in mind all the time, I'm never going to fall. No, you're still a man, you're still human. I still lust in my mind at times. You know, I'm not perfect and I, Jesus took it to the next level.
Caleb Cole [00:15:35]:
He's like, you heard it said that if you commit adultery that you sin, if you commit adultery, but I say if you even do it in your heart, even think about it, you've already committed the sin. And so Jesus takes everything to another level. And that call to a higher level is I think, what God wants for us. But some of us need to go back to the baseline of like identity covenant and forming our life around the idea of I'm in covenant with God, I want to honor him with my body, I'm in covenant with my spouse, I wanna honor her with my body and I've been given her to even enjoy her body and my body together. And that is the healthiest way to fulfill what is natural for us, which are sexual urges like the flesh wanting to gratify itself. But God gave us a mode to fulfill that and it's within a covenant of marriage. So I know this is maybe, it seems maybe too basic even Brandon, as I'm even saying it, but I'm like that foundation of I want to live in covenant and I want to live in a way that honors both covenants with my body.
Brandon Miller [00:16:39]:
Yeah. And what you're describing is that we have to shift desire. You know, the desire for sexual satisfaction, as you said earlier, that's biological. You know, we come from polytheistic ancestors, people who had multiple gods and polyamorous relationships. They had polygamy was normal, was normal, see it, want it, take it, was normal. And so today we live, we are monotheistic and we are monogamous. And we live in a culture that throws at us every, probably if we just thought about the historical reality, not that lust is new, sexual morality is not new. Pornia, which is the root word of sexual morality, that's not new.
Brandon Miller [00:17:25]:
That's not a new phenomenon. But the advent of proliferation of information that we live in today with social media, the Internet, it's unprecedented what we're assaulted with. And so I would say on everything Caleb just said, if our desires are not fundamentally aiming at what it is and shaping toward that which we're going to say, no, this is the desire of my heart to please the Lord, to serve God, to walk in the covenant I committed in Christ and as a married person, to walk in the relationship and the desire I have for my wife. But as you know, Caleb, being a married man for your, what, 1516 years, married now. Yeah, at this point of marriage. And I'm. I just celebrated 31 years. If you're not stoking, that flame can go out.
Brandon Miller [00:18:13]:
If you are not careful to keep putting effort and energy into that relationship, that keeps desire hot, certainly for the service and the commitment and the partnership and all of the aspects that come with a healthy, strong marriage, but desire sexually for each other, to want each other, to look forward to each other, to bask in it, enjoy it, flourish in it, that's a goal for men of God in godly marriages, is that the strength of our intimate life with our wife would be so strong that it would overcome the temptation to look for counterfeit sources, to look for places that are never, ever going to satisfy, they're never going to fill. It's always momentary followed with a cascade of guilt. Never ever leads to satisfaction that exceeds that momentary pleasure where the marriage covenant that gets to flow and go on and on.
Caleb Cole [00:19:10]:
I just think about the story. I know it's Tamar, right, is one of David's daughters, but who's the son that, you know, rapes her?
Brandon Miller [00:19:20]:
I can't think of Absalom. It's Absalom's sister.
Caleb Cole [00:19:23]:
Yeah, it's Absalom. Sister that.
Brandon Miller [00:19:25]:
Because Absalom comes and kills, but I can't remember the dude.
Caleb Cole [00:19:28]:
I need to google it. Anyways.
Brandon Miller [00:19:30]:
David's brother or David?
Caleb Cole [00:19:32]:
David's son.
Brandon Miller [00:19:32]:
David's sons.
Caleb Cole [00:19:33]:
Right, one of his sons. So ultimately he rapes his sister because he's lusting after her. And so he convinces.
Brandon Miller [00:19:40]:
Isn't that the guy that said, I'm sick, you have to come take care of me.
Caleb Cole [00:19:43]:
So he convinces his dad, David, to send his sister in, and she's his half sister, right? To come in and to care for him because he's sick in bed. He's faking that he's sick. She comes in, he locks the door, and then he says, lie with me. And she's like, don't do this. If you just ask David for me to be your wife.
Brandon Miller [00:20:01]:
Amnon.
Caleb Cole [00:20:01]:
Amnon. Thank you. So, Amnon, if you just ask for my dad, David, he'll let me be your wife, but don't defile me. And he's like, no. And he physically takes her and rapes her. And then it says the second that it's over, that he despises her. And as I've read that story so many times, but it was just recently that it struck me that I think this is what most men are experiencing. Like, we desire pornography, and so we.
Caleb Cole [00:20:32]:
We look at pornography and then we masturbate. And what do we feel afterwards? We feel nothing but shame and guilt. We despise ourselves. We despise what we've done, what we looked at. And it's because this is this sexual sin. Just like Amnon with his sister Tamar. It's like you violated what was right before God. And so, of course, there's this core feeling of man.
Caleb Cole [00:20:59]:
I despise everything that just took place. And yet the urge is so strong, we can't resist that we go back to it. So what I want to say about that is I think there's something powerful about what we feed. And I've talked to our church about this, that whatever we feed gets stronger. And so we're human. We're going to fall short at times, man, you're going to fall into lust, all right? You're going to mess up from time to time. But if you feed the spirit man, he's going to get stronger. If you feed the flesh, man, he gets.
Caleb Cole [00:21:27]:
He's going to get stronger. If you starve the flesh, man, he's going to be weaker. If you feed the lust of pornography by going to it over and over, it's going to get stronger and it's going to overtake you. But if you starve it and do everything you can to flee from it, then over time, you're actually rewiring your brain. Chemically, those synapses are firing differently to even what arouses you. And before you know it, you desire it less than you did. Doesn't mean you still won't, but much less. And so that's my challenge, I think, today to the men is like, what are you feeding? And what are you doing to resist the urge to feed that sexual nature of yourself with anyone other than your spouse? And that means online, that means some of you that have cheated on your wife.
Caleb Cole [00:22:13]:
Like, I don't know who it is or what your situation is, but what are you feeding? Because if you keep feeding it, it's gonna get stronger. You keep going to that gym at that same time, because, you know, all the girls are there where you can just feast with your eyes. That urge is gonna get stronger. You keep going to those same websites, Instagram, whatever, it's gonna get stronger. But if you begin to starve it and you flee from it, and I. And you put the practical things in place, like you said, you build that fence further from the ledge, then the spirit man's gonna get stronger to where you're gonna be able to resist more and more until you get to the point where you're like, man, I think I got victory. Now. You may not ever have full victory.
Caleb Cole [00:22:49]:
Cause let's be real. We're human, we're fleshly, we're gonna give in. But you can have mostly victory in your life. And that's what I wanna see for men. Brandon.
Brandon Miller [00:22:59]:
Yeah. Amen. You think about what you're describing. And if we just talk about this, the physicality of this, the reality that no other time in history has the term erectile dysfunction become a part of the public vernacular. Like, it is so common that there are commercials regularly for this. And the reason why, and it's not said publicly, is that when a person indulges and exposes themselves to overstimulation of dopamine receptors in their brain, they actually create a situation where they no longer can have healthy relations. They actually begin to experience dysfunction. And what Caleb's describing, that all the research out there that solves this, has everything to do with resetting what you find pleasure in, resetting what you look at, think about, and focus on, and everything from physical exercise and exertion in a healthy way, or finding other things, such as the scriptures and prayer and worship, or in friendship and in places that are healthy, because it is a reversal of.
Brandon Miller [00:24:08]:
Exactly. Not just spiritually, but actual brain function can be completely reversed to a healthy place, no matter how far one has gone. And I just wanted to underscore the desire piece. Psalm 119, verse nine is a scripture I memorized early on in my walk and one that with my teenage sons. How can a young man keep his boy pure? By living according to your word. And when we're having these conversations and we're pulling scripture up. And we're thinking about what the word of God says. Therein is something that we're desiring.
Brandon Miller [00:24:41]:
We're looking, what does God say on this? Where's his heart of the matter? And shifting desire to the things that he put in us already to want. And it can actually move and replace those things that are unhealthy, leading to nowhere profitable or good.
Caleb Cole [00:24:55]:
As you say that about young men. I just, my heart breaks for this next generation. I'm not just talking to the men who are our age or in their thirties or even twenties. Like, I'm thinking about teenagers right now. I'm thinking about my son, who's twelve, you know, and what he could potentially be exposed to. And so us ingraining in their hearts that it's the word of that will keep their way pure. And then the word should lead us to put boundaries in our life that protect us from those things that would actually lead us away from purity. And not only that, but then bring dysfunction into our life.
Caleb Cole [00:25:32]:
Like the amount of teenagers that have erectile dysfunction. It's crazy right now. Well, why? Because they're overstimulated with pornography. And until they get that out of their life, they're not going to be able to have healthy relations with a woman and some, hopefully a wife, you know, someday. And so I think for us, as men and the men that are listening, we want you to have healthy function in your life, all areas of your life. Healthy marriages. And we know that if there's sexual impurity in our lives in any way, I don't care if it's pornography, if it's Instagram, you're looking at soft pornhood. I don't care if you're cheating, like, whatever it is, you will have a level of dysfunction.
Caleb Cole [00:26:13]:
And not just erectile dysfunction, but you'll have a relational dysfunction, you'll have a spiritual dysfunction. Because we know that if there's this dragon in our life, we do not feel close to the Lord, to the lamb, if there's this dragon of sin that's trying to consume every part of our heart all the time. And so I think the call up today, Brandon, is that men, we would flee from sexual morality, that we would put whatever we need to in place to flee from it. And that may mean taking some extreme measures. We have a guy in our church, I talked about it one time on a Sunday, and he showed me his flip phone and I was like, bro, what's that? Like, he's got that old school, like, early two thousands motor roll up, and he's like, bro, this is the only way that I can stay pure. If I have a smartphone, I cannot resist. I just can't say no. And so he put that extreme measure in place, and I was like, bro, props to you.
Caleb Cole [00:27:10]:
Can we tell your story? Because that is what fleeing looks like now. I want to challenge us, that we would do whatever it takes to flee, and that's going to be different for all of us. I know. For me, like, my wife, she's logged into my instagram, too, and she can see every search I make. She sees my DM's, she has notifications. She sees everything. I have men in my life that I talk to every other week that I meet with. And we always have a point in the conversation where we talk about sexual purity.
Caleb Cole [00:27:40]:
How are you doing? How are you doing with what you're looking at, your eyes, the Internet, like, all the things. Why? Because I need accountability. And as a man of God that's leading men, a pastor of men, I've made a commitment that I'm going to have purity in my life, and I want my life to be above reproach. And so I have men in my life that I have those conversations with. I know it's hard, and there's a lot of shame attached, but it's finding those people that can hold us accountable, that we will then also hold accountable, and then doing whatever it takes to flee so that we can have healthy function in our lives, marriage, relationally, sexually, all of it.
Brandon Miller [00:28:17]:
Yeah, I'm with you. And I would say this to our friends that call up to flee sexual morality. If one of those calls is to go and talk to somebody, that will just repeat what we said at the start. If you go to meet with pastor, lead with it. If that's what you're there for, lead with it. Put it on the table. You know that you're not going to find judgment from him. This is, you know, someone I've come to when I've had questions, comments, concerns, confession.
Brandon Miller [00:28:42]:
And I found Caleb to be a man of integrity when it comes to these things and exactly the kind of leader that I think men need in terms of. Well, then let's talk about how you stop it, how we don't go there anymore. Because that's. There are times where someone in our life just has to say, hey, you need to stop and echo what's probably going on in your own heart from the Holy Spirit. But that call up today, not a call out, the call up that you can be free. And it can start with your own confession to the Lord, but bring it in. Perhaps what Caleb described, that circle, it might just start with one, someone you can trust that is further down the path has victory is a great place to go.
Caleb Cole [00:29:20]:
Yeah. And I think letting men know that, too, Brandon, that you can have victory, because I can stand there as a testimony. Like, when I was a younger man, single, like, I looked at pornography, I struggled with masturbation, like, all the things that young men deal with. But now in my marriage and for over a decade now, like, pornography has never been an issue in my life. Even on Instagram, I'm very careful with what I'm witnessing and looking at. I stay away from the search bar, and then I have people in my life that I'm accountable to. And so I just want to let you know, like, there is victory. I have victory in my life.
Caleb Cole [00:29:59]:
Am I perfect? Absolutely not. But I walk in the victory of that. And I think that for men to hear, like, you may be feeling like you're in a space of defeat, but victory is still possible. And it's something that God has for everyone. And it may start with a conversation, first of all, with you and God, but then secondly, with you and another man. And I know, Brandon, you encourage them. Like, talk to a pastor, maybe, not me. I can't do that for everyone but a brother.
Caleb Cole [00:30:23]:
We just need brothers in Christ that we walked this out with. And I've seen it where there are men in our church who have struggled with this for years, decades, that have gotten victory. It took some hard steps, it took some strong changes, some maybe extreme measures to be put in place, but they gained victory in this area and are now walking in the freedom of that. And that's ultimately what we want. Right. We want God giving us freedom. And he's a God of freedom and victory. And I think that's what he's going to give to us today.
Caleb Cole [00:30:54]:
So, a challenging topic, but this is a call up for all of us. And I think, Brandon, you know, you and I are two men that are doing our best to set the example for the men under us, our young men, you know, our children, and then the men around us, too. And so thank you for your vulnerability, even with me through, you know, these last few years, and then being willing to be honest about your own journey on this.
Brandon Miller [00:31:23]:
Yeah. And, man, I just say this, you know, from, on behalf of one of the brothers here, you know, that doesn't sit in a pastoral role, that there are men that are happy to, brothers that are happy to pray with you, encourage you, walk with you through a journey like this. And there are resources within the church, there's resources outside of the church to get help because if you are stuck, want to encourage you, and I am praying for you that you would find freedom in Christ because it is out there for you.
Caleb Cole [00:31:51]:
Absolutely. So, hey guys, thanks for being with us. We appreciate everyone that's been listening. Once again, we're on our podcast is on iTunes as well as Spotify and you can now watch all of these and listen on YouTube. So go to project church Sacramento and then there's a podcast tab on there so you can now watch these as well. So thanks for being a part. Thanks for being a part of the mofs, the men of faith, we can't wait to be back with you here in a few weeks, but have an amazing day year. Keep walking with the Lord in the strength of the purity and I think the freedom that he has for you.
Caleb Cole [00:32:26]:
So men of faith, we love you. Grace and peace. Thanks for listening to men of faith. If you've got questions you'd like us to talk about on the show, we'd love to hear from you. Join the conversation by reaching out in the Facebook group and we will definitely add it to our list. Also, if you want to engage with us at any of our quarterly men's events, you can check out projectchurch.com for more information. Until next time, grace and peace.