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Faith and masculinity meet kingdom living to help Christian husbands rebuild their confidence and masculine strength, so they can enjoy attraction-filled and passionate marriages.
You want to live a life on fire and on mission.
You want to be filled with such conviction and drive that you stop caring about what ANYone thinks.
You want to face each day alive, authentic, and fully present in every moment: with your wife, kids, on the street, at the gym, at work.
You want to bring yourSELF to the table, and to stop bringing the watered-down, nice, what everyone wants version of you.
You want that self to be a man who is burning in passion for Jesus, unafraid to bring his kingdom to anyone in your path, no matter the cost.
You want to love the one in front of you without fear, without needing love back, and without reserve.
You want to experience God for real, to not just believe, but to KNOW that he’s got you and that he’ll show up on your behalf. That he’ll show up THROUGH you.
You want to get to the end of your race and say, “Yep…I gave it everything. Jesus, you know I’m all in.”
...And you want to know just how to get there.
Welcome to Man Warrior King. Congratulations. You are among the violent taking the kingdom by force. You are among the chosen, answering the call to rise above your self. You are in the forge being stripped down and strengthened—and you WILL rise stronger, solid, unshakeable.
You are a man. You are a warrior. You are a king.
Matt (00:02)
Good afternoon. Welcome to another episode of the Man Warrior King podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hallock. I'm the author of The DNA of a Man and the founder of the Man Warrior King movement where we create all kinds of courses, products, trainings, coaching offers to help men learn how to become the best version of themselves in God's kingdom to teach them how to rise above the
muck of life ⁓ rise above the disillusionment that maybe they've had after years of even following Jesus, but still feeling like things aren't connecting. And so it is an honor to have you listening here with us this afternoon. A couple of, a couple of things to announce. There's going to be coming another round of the frustrated to desired webinar.
towards the end of April. So be on the lookout. And if you are on the email list and your email inbox is for that next round coming, ⁓ and I highly encourage you to come because it's very difficult to thrive as a man. If your marriage is really hurting and causing a lot of pain, especially if you're ⁓ working on being a good husband, working on trying to fix it and you just don't feel like it's getting anywhere. So I want to encourage you to be ready for that.
Um, watch the email and love to have you there. In the meantime, today we have Chris miser with us again. We are in the middle of a series of episodes with Chris that where we are covering all kinds of important, powerful topics related to family, related to marriages. Uh, today we're talking about some stuff related to being a father and how to, how to cover, protect, and
and also propel our kids in the middle of a world that is also sending a lot of enemy attacks at them ⁓ almost constantly. So Chris, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here again today, my friend.
Christopher Miser (02:13)
Hi, glad to be back.
Matt (02:14)
⁓
Yeah, so today we're basically the the topic the title of our of our talk here is is that truth is the oxygen that kids need so ⁓ Chris I want you to just set you loose to jump into that I know that we've got some some lies that are prominent out there right now but but go ahead and just take us into the topic here however however you see fit
Christopher Miser (02:39)
Yeah, well, well, first, first off, you know, this is something that you and I have been talking about for a while and kind of going back and forth on a couple things. And one, I mean, when we're talking about speaking truth or fighting back at the lies that are being told to our children from the world, I, I, just frankly don't feel very qualified. I have.
I have been guilty in allowing some of those things, some of those lies to enter our house. I have over the years as a father not been great at speaking truth into my children. Hopefully, know we're going to talk about that later, but I mean, I've struggled with that. And not that I'm telling my kids, like I'm not lying to my kids, but I'm at the same time, I've always been a pretty critical person. I think I'm.
⁓ Maybe naturally or unnaturally. don't know where it all It's it's bad. I know that much but I tend to be fairly critical So it's easy when you're a critical person to speak critically And sometimes that can be Those words can be hurtful rather than building somebody up and there's a way to speak truth ⁓ into your kids by building them up into
Matt (03:51)
Yeah, yeah.
Christopher Miser (04:08)
the adult that God is calling them and wants them to be. So as parents, and we're speaking maybe mostly, you know, primarily to fathers, I'm not sitting here saying that this is easy by any stretch or that I fully have it all figured out. But it's a topic that Matt, think is so, so important right now because
Matt (04:14)
Right.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (04:37)
I'm seeing it like it's just it's like a full fire hose of lies. And I want to be open today about some of the lies I've allowed into my own house. And I think we as Christians, need to build each other up and help each other. That's what God has called us to do, help each other battle this. We are we're in a battle. So ⁓ God has really been pushing me to speak out.
Matt (04:44)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (05:08)
which is something else I'm always very good at, but God has been pushing me to speak out on these things and encourage men that I know to fight back against these lies, to fight back against the evil lies. So ⁓ yeah, we can launch into those. I just wrote down four lies that I hear quite a bit ⁓ told to our children and I can launch into those if you want, or we can.
Matt (05:12)
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (05:37)
talk a little bit about what I just said.
Matt (05:40)
Well, I think what you just said was really powerful in that, the vulnerability is also powerful too, because nobody, I mean, a lot of guys listening into this already are quite aware of ways where they've fallen short in their life. And so it can, it can be a misconception when you are driving in your car on the receiving end of a podcast, you can be under this illusion that the people talking into the microphone are complete.
Christopher Miser (06:08)
for
Matt (06:10)
They have finished their process and
Christopher Miser (06:10)
sure Matt, yeah.
Matt (06:14)
it's you suck because you haven't yet. That can be kind of the misconception and it is very not true. We are not complete at all. so, ⁓ nor am I. Corey and I were just recording a lesson for our marriage course and ⁓ we put one of the exercises in this lesson, one of the action plans. ⁓
Christopher Miser (06:18)
Yeah.
Matt (06:38)
It was, it's a really powerful one that I, that I teach guys all the time, but in the recording I was like, now don't be under any illusions. I did not come up with this. Corey actually told me that she needed me to do this thing for her and it would really help her. So I try to be honest about, about the stuff too. So we're just, we're all we're doing, we're in our process and we're working on getting better and there's grace for us when we fail. That's.
Christopher Miser (06:53)
Yeah.
Matt (07:07)
That's my thoughts on that, so...
Christopher Miser (07:09)
Right.
Well, it's best probably Matt is probably best that we're honest in a podcast episode about not telling lies to our children. So we should we should probably go into this being honest. But yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. mean, we're we're we're all we're all in this together. That is the thing. We are all in this together. That's why, you know, we were just talking about this at church the other day, just about
Matt (07:17)
I think you're right.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (07:38)
judgment a lot of a lot of people and even Christians sometimes get caught up in this and this is another lie actually is that the Bible is full of judgment and there is examples of judgment in the Bible but actually the Bible is over and over and over again a warning warning upon warning of walk with me walk with me obey me obey me
Matt (07:50)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (08:07)
Here's what happens if you don't. And then it happens and then they're restored. And then he says, walk with me. You know, follow me, obey me. And they don't. And then there's judgment, but then there's restoration. And it's over and over and over again. And the Bible is full of warning. And we are all in that together. We are walking together as Christians. We should be building each other up and helping each other ⁓ walk with God and listen to God's warnings. Listen to the warnings and then help each other.
Matt (08:34)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (08:36)
and say, hey, we're not gonna go there. We're not gonna go there together. And so one of the things that we really cannot go there is we cannot allow our children to be attacked anymore by the lies that are being told to them. And they're affecting our kids in different ways. mean, our girls are being affected different than our boys. They're all under attack, but sometimes I...
Matt (08:39)
Yeah, right.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (09:06)
Sometimes I'm like, my goodness, because I don't have girls. so sometimes I think about you, Matt, and I'm like, my goodness, how do you fight back against that? And then there's the attacks on the boys, and you're like, my goodness, how do you fight? So ⁓ if you want, Matt, I'll launch into the first one. The first lie that I wrote down that I hear, and I heard it even from my my youngest son who said, dad,
Matt (09:21)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, let's do it.
Christopher Miser (09:35)
I need to have Instagram or TikTok or any of those. He needs to have those. The lie is without social media, I have no life. Or you could add without Instagram, I have no life or without, know, like how am I going to, how am I going to get a girlfriend? They all want to like for Snapchat. think it's Snapchat, right? That you, you, ⁓ I don't have Snapchat, but I guess if you get a number now, you're actually getting a snap. You're getting somebody's snap. So.
Matt (10:04)
Okay.
Christopher Miser (10:05)
If you want to date, you're going to need that number. You're going to need that snap from. So without that, Matt, I have no life. that is a lie. we can. Do you even know what I'm talking about when I said snap? You look at me like you don't know.
Matt (10:12)
Yeah.
I do. I know
what Snapchat is. I've never used it. In my opinion, it's always sounded kind of dumb because I feel like it, I remember the stuff just disappears like right after you watch it. It's just a way of like communicating, but your communication goes away. So I don't know the point.
Christopher Miser (10:29)
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know. That sounds a little shady that you want an after, everything goes away quickly.
Matt (10:50)
Yeah.
Yeah, I know. I know exactly. So I know what you're talking about there. And and I I can think of. Yeah, man, this this episode is just going to make it sound like two old guys talking, but I can remember back in the day. I know, but when I talk like this, it sounds that way. ⁓ But like back back in my day. ⁓ What?
Christopher Miser (11:09)
Well, you're not old, Matt.
Yeah, tell us about
back in your day.
Matt (11:21)
Yeah, yeah, OK. You wouldn't understand. You weren't around yet. Just kidding, but. But there was like back in our day when you'd hang out with friends and stuff as a teenager, when before people had all these cell phones like you'd actually do stuff, right? You'd actually like look at each other in the face. You'd actually like, you know, have real conversation. You'd maybe goof around.
Christopher Miser (11:26)
I think I had been, yeah. Go ahead.
Matt (11:50)
maybe get into some trouble like water ballooning cars as they drove by is what I would do. But now I'm like, I'm Marvel when I'm in an, in an environment where there's like a group of teenagers or whatever, they're all hanging out, sitting there on a bench, looking at every, that their own phones, like this is now hanging out. Right. And it, it, in my opinion,
from observing the reality is that you've actually lost life because of this social media obsession. You're not living life to the fullest by any means. In fact, hanging out with friends is not even really hanging out anymore. You're just scrolling your phones in the company of other people. And I think it's really tragic. That's what it, that's what comes to my mind when I hear that is just how, how different the
the energy is among young people today than it used to be, I think.
I don't know, what do you think?
Christopher Miser (12:55)
No, no,
you're absolutely right. ⁓ and, and so
So with that said, I I've heard that lie and my son and I talked about that because, okay, I understand that technology changes. I understand that if I was in his shoes, I would also want to be able to meet a girl and give her that snap, right? And have that, because, you know, like,
Matt (13:09)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (13:31)
If I was his age, I'd also want to do that. I understand that. I understand the desire to meet a girl and hang out or start dating or whatever the case may be. That all makes sense, okay? But ⁓ the problem is really when it is all consuming and when it becomes the thing that, when we say, will have, when,
Matt (13:34)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (13:58)
Our society teaches us that we will have no life without that, or that we need that more than anything else. That's when it just leads you right, and we talked about John 11, 25, I am the resurrection and the life, and then John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and so ⁓ it all starts there, where our worth comes from, where our life, who...
Matt (14:02)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (14:25)
who gives us the life to start with. So then, what are we worshiping? Who do we praise? And who do we walk with? Well, that's God. So, and if we're doing that, then that is going to be, God is, the Holy Spirit inside of us is gonna give us the discernment that we need, even give children discernment if they're worshiping God and praising him. They may still have that social media account, but.
Matt (14:36)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (14:54)
they're able to, ⁓ that's not their life. God is life. God is, and then teaching them that and teaching them what that looks like, then they'll probably, they may actually have a thought before they're just looking in their phone and not paying attention to anybody, not saying hi to an adult that walks by or something to that effect. They may,
Matt (14:59)
Yeah. Yeah.
Christopher Miser (15:22)
think outside of that phone because they understand the foundation of what is right and wrong. Because if you just listen to the lies and that is life, social media is life, all that is life, well then you're gonna be focused on that and nothing else. And so this is where I really encourage fathers and parents to be bold in controlling that because it's not
Matt (15:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Christopher Miser (15:52)
because you're a controlling parent. It's because you're teaching them.
self-control. You're teaching them first, teaching them what is life. That's not that. It's not what the world is telling you. And then two, to manage that. so we have, you know, if parents think it's mean, well, I guess, I don't know, but we control that pretty heavily here. And there are limitations to how much time you're gonna spend on there and how much time you're gonna spend on the...
Matt (16:03)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Miser (16:25)
phone or any device or anything for that matter. So I encourage parents to be able to do that, to do that. And then at the same time, teach your children what, where life comes from ⁓ and where their self-worth comes from. Because that's, we're getting a little ahead, I think, to some of the other lies.
Matt (16:29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right, right.
Sure, yeah. But yeah, I agree. think we need to teach them that, well.
Maybe that was the wrong way to start. I think when a kid is addicted to social media, another ⁓ harm from that is the lack of critical thinking. If you're spending all your time scrolling, it's meant to...
Christopher Miser (17:21)
and
Matt (17:26)
and we'll get to this too, but keep you addicted. It's meant to keep your brain satiated, not really like active. And so you also get a, you also get a general lifestyle that's getting conditioned to, to not think and therefore not be creative and therefore not dream and not build and not create real value.
Christopher Miser (17:48)
and
Matt (17:54)
because you're just in this state of constant numbing from the input. And so I think that lie is really, it's very damaging in that sense too, because it wants to an entire generation up to be mindless. And talking about just the system, I think the system, the corrupt system,
Not that everybody out there is this way, but there is a corrupt system that is attacking humanity that would like us to be mindless and drugged as a population. So we just kind of go along and do the thing that's expected of us, but nobody ever has to shake things up and nobody thinks for themselves and come alive. I mean, it's kind of reminiscent of all of the different like dystopian novels that have been written like 1984 and other things like that where.
where I guess also like Fahrenheit 451 where thinking is discouraged, books are burned and stuff like that. It feels like a very, a very sneaky way of, of, ⁓ of kind of creating a society like that. And I was just, I forget who I was talking to somebody. It's the way that Satan works. He, he always offers you something before he,
Christopher Miser (18:56)
and
Matt (19:23)
Like demands his cost So he's gonna offer it and I'm not saying that social media is evil and it's just a tool of Satan and it's actually like a portal to hell but It can become such right and and so if he's behind getting you addicted to stuff It's like here. This is good. This is what you want. This is like I'm offering this to you and later on there's this cost of your your
Christopher Miser (19:43)
Yeah.
Matt (19:53)
And in my opinion, your God image that was put inside of you is getting doused by not thinking critically by your creative, your creative force being damp and all that stuff. So I think it's a really important one. And again, I don't also, I also don't think you have to like completely not have it, but I think there's actually a lot of value to like, what's the age that everybody else is getting it.
And then now we as a family, we're going to wait five extra years and then you can maybe have it. Cause I think there's that actually is pretty effective in. Yeah. And just like tempering already starting it off with temperance, right?
Christopher Miser (20:24)
Yeah, yeah. Take that world.
No, that's a smart move, Matt. You you talked about what the devil wants. You know, the devil will use it. He will use it. You're right. It may not be, you know, he maybe didn't invent it, but he's definitely going to use it. And then when you are, when that addiction has led you to depression or other addictions or ⁓
Matt (20:40)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (21:06)
You name it, right? When it's led you to that and you're at your end, guess who's not there with you? Satan. He's left you. He's like, you're on your own, And so he'll destroy you and then leave you, just leave you to die in your loneliness. And God offers you something totally different. so, ⁓ in fact, it's the complete opposite. And what God offers you is perfection.
Matt (21:11)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, sucker.
You're right.
Yep.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (21:36)
That's the key is not worshiping these things, worshiping God.
Matt (21:42)
Yeah, absolutely.
Yep. A hundred percent. ⁓ and it's a good one. What's, what's lie number two for us here?
Christopher Miser (21:51)
⁓
All right, lie two. ⁓ what I see, it kind of goes along with, what I see or watch does not affect.
Matt (22:00)
Yeah, definitely goes along with it, so take us in.
Christopher Miser (22:07)
All right, well here's one where I've messed up. All right, so I have always been just not a big movie ratings guy. I've never really cared. ⁓ And I've been like, well, yeah, but I mean, I can overlook that. It's not gonna affect me, okay. And maybe for adults, maybe it doesn't affect adults.
Matt (22:10)
Okay.
Christopher Miser (22:37)
Oh, maybe not as much, but I think you can make the argument that it does. But it definitely affects children. what you see, what you see with your eyes is very, very, very important. That's why, know, Proverbs 27 20, hell and destruction are never full. So the eyes of man are never satisfied. And so we as sinful people want more. We want to see more sin. We just do.
Matt (22:41)
Sure. Yeah.
Christopher Miser (23:06)
whether we wanna see, we even enjoy watching other people sin. mean, that's why some sitcoms are so popular is because we're a broken family and yet we sit here at night and we watch another broken family that's even worse than us. And we just laugh because it's so funny to watch another family be even more broken than us. And it makes us feel, we're like, well, we don't have that problem at least. So that makes us feel better.
Matt (23:25)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (23:36)
I mean, that's just one sitcoms is just one thing. ⁓ know, whether it's ⁓ I mean, the there's all kinds of other stuff that we allow to be processed. It comes into our eyes and we process it process it with our brain. And then the next time it's much easier to process the next thing. And Matthew 18 nine, we all know that one. If your eye causes you to sin, it would be better to
Matt (23:40)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Miser (24:05)
pluck that puppy out.
Matt (24:06)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (24:10)
We've got to get, we've got to break past the lie that what we see or watch does not affect me. It absolutely does. It affects you. And it will probably, ⁓ or it does numb you. And it numbs you to the next thing that you're going to allow to enter your eyes. And I have not always,
Matt (24:19)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Christopher Miser (24:40)
I'm just I'm guilty of doing that. I'm guilty of allowing things not only in through my eyes that should never have been allowed, but also through my children's And then not having restrictions on those phones or devices, you cannot monitor that monitor that 24 7. And there are active attacks coming coming at your children and through their eyes.
Matt (24:51)
Yeah, sure. I dip.
That's true.
yeah.
Absolutely.
Christopher Miser (25:11)
And the devil, Satan, and many, many evil people working for him are literally assaulting, and this is not dramatic, they are assaulting our children through their eyes.
Matt (25:21)
Yeah.
Absolutely. Like even to the point where.
that the, the algorithms of different social media platforms looking for who is likely to be a child on that platform and randomly at odd times pushing a certain image or video to come next as a suggested thing in the algorithm, even if the kid is, has no history of looking for that or, you know, at all.
They have a completely innocent history. know personally of these things happening to people I know. And so you're 100 % correct that there is an assault and that it is more insidious than some might even expect. Because some may think that while you kind of have to go looking for it, you don't. And they know how to tell, this is a kid. I'm going to throw this in front of them. ⁓
But yeah, like I think when you talk about the things that you see are going to affect you. Absolutely. I, I mean, this is, this isn't such a big deal for me anymore, but I, there is this legendary time of my life when I was like four, three or four, ⁓ some, for some reason, my dad let me watch Terminator as a three or four year old. And I, I remember like,
I had nightmares straight for weeks after that.
Christopher Miser (27:06)
Man, yeah, Terminator
is a three or four year old. That'll get you.
Matt (27:14)
Yeah, that's no joke, man. And then I even remember like, gosh, I remember things like at his house, you know, the shining and stuff like who I don't know. Anyway, we don't need to get in all that. But I was working with a guy recently who had this weird like this weird issue where the details aren't super important, but basically like in the middle of the night when he wasn't fully lucid, he would kind of
Christopher Miser (27:27)
It's shiny.
Matt (27:42)
behave meanly to whoever was around him. and it wasn't like ⁓ a deep character flaw. He didn't even know he was doing it, but it was still like irritating. And, you know, people would tell him, Hey man, what's going on? Right. And he's like, I have no idea. You know, I'm not awake, but so we were actually working on having a conversation with the Holy spirit together where I, where I was like kind of leading him through some questions and just saying, Hey, listen for whatever, you know,
whatever comes up, want to, we want to trust that the Holy Spirit is talking. And, so we were asking about this and we were like, I was, I just let him ask like, Lord, please bring up any memories that are, that are like linked to this behavior. And what came to his mind was really surprising. He is like, this does not make any sense, but I'm remembering these two movies that I watched as a kid that, that really
⁓ created a lot of fear in me. And I didn't even really think of it much like since, but, ⁓ that seems to what the Lord's telling me. One of them was jaws. ⁓ but it was just interesting. mean, it's kind of an anecdotal case, but that's one of the things like, I did this very recently with a guy that comes to mind. Like these things do have an effect on us. And it's not, it's not even to mention just,
Christopher Miser (28:45)
Hmm.
Matt (29:10)
Like what you were talking about, you want that, that, that carnal or fleshly appetite. It never reaches a satisfaction point, right? It's always like, okay, what's the next level that can give me the same amount of satisfaction? Because the same level is not as good anymore. And the obvious topic there is porn. Like that's always.
that always is trying to draw people deeper and deeper and deeper into to the point where they now have these appetites that are like disgusting that people who are literally in their right mind, not getting poisoned by this stuff could be like, how in the world do you even have these desires? So yeah, that's a huge lie in my opinion.
Christopher Miser (30:04)
Right, right.
Well, there's a whole, I mean, there is a whole study that you can do and I am not an expert on it, but it is that the ways that pornography and other things that we view changes us chemically in that moment so that our brain is not thinking the way it was thinking before and it is changing.
Matt (30:23)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (30:33)
It is literally changing our insides to be OK with things we wouldn't have been OK with before. And that is a very, very dark road that that that leads to like what you're saying, where somebody else who does is not involved in that would say, well, how could you how could you do that or be into that or think that or whatever? Well, that is because you opened that portal. You open that door.
Matt (30:43)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (31:03)
And that is a very dark place to go. the truth is, is what you see does affect you. And that's why the Bible talks over and over again about that and gives us that warning, the warning of being careful what we view and what we see with our eyes.
Matt (31:22)
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a, somewhere in the gospels, Jesus says, if your eye is single, then your whole body is full of light. ⁓ I don't remember where it is exactly, but the, the idea there, at least in my mind is like, if your eye is, is fixed on the, the one thing, right? The source, like the good on the kingdom, then
Christopher Miser (31:54)
Yeah.
Matt (31:57)
that what you're beholding, it allows your body to be flooded with light. your eye apparently is double, right? Double-minded. If you're kind of in and out and you're entertaining some other things over here, it's gonna, the implication also then is that it's gonna allow some darkness to be in there. So absolutely. Yeah. ⁓
Christopher Miser (32:19)
And that's a great point, Matt. mean, that's
that's that separation we've talked about before, where you think you can separate. can you can do this on this day and this on this day or this on Sunday and this on another day. I can I'll use this eye for this good stuff. I'll use this eye for that. But I can balance the two. I can keep the two separate. You cannot.
Matt (32:25)
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right. Right. I don't think, yeah, I don't think you can at all. And you know, the other thing that comes to mind with this is just, also listening, right? Like I've heard plenty of people talk about, you know, the music I listened to. don't, I don't really listen to the lyrics. I just like the, you know, the beat or whatever. And, and I have actually done some digging on things like I enjoy a good rap song. So don't get me wrong, but I've done some digging on, on
the CIA connections with rap music and rap culture in general. just evident. And I never talk about this stuff on this podcast. So forgive me for going rabbit hole here, everybody. But what I found was some interesting, interesting like research to show that the CIA has had a pretty big in part in the, in the like,
propagation of rap music and culture in our society because of what it can do, because of the violence that it wants to induce, the hatred that it wants to induce through the lyrics and things like that. I mean, a rap song with good lyrics, I'm all in favor of, so I don't think the rap music itself is that, but that's a huge testament to...
no, this has an effect. mean, you, you have to really do is look at rap music culture and you can see, yeah, there's a lot of violence there. And I don't think that's coincidence. So it's, it's if even if there's even any shred of truth to that, right. And there's a lot of more evidence about CIA stuff being involved in Hollywood and everything, because they know how important.
media is in shaping a culture and shaping how people think and shaping their behavior and shaping just their character. So if, the very influential powers that be, you know this, then I think we need to probably, probably take a page out of their book and be like, yeah, you know what? And that's probably silly for me to think it's not affecting me because it absolutely is a hundred percent. And Jesus himself said, you're either for me or against me.
Like he doesn't, I don't think Jesus believes in neutral ground anyway.
Christopher Miser (35:07)
Hmm.
Matt (35:09)
So if you're looking at everything you're taking in is either as either for him or against him, that that probably would shed a bit of a different light on that, you know, on that topic for some.
Christopher Miser (35:26)
Well, you definitely got me curious, man. Maybe we need to have another podcast where we can go down that rabbit hole because that would be fun.
Matt (35:26)
interesting.
It would be fun. Yeah, I'd have to, I'd have to go back and dig that up because I think that'd be a lot of fun. I like rabbit holes.
Christopher Miser (35:37)
Yeah Yeah Be careful though.
I don't want the men in black showing up at my doorstep
Matt (35:45)
Right. I know. Seriously. Which they might. ⁓ So so yeah, we were saying the truth is that no, does affect you. The truth is that we need to we need to be we need to be honoring the Lord with with what we are feeding on and.
100 % agree. mean, honestly, let's go. Let's go on a different rabbit hole here, which I do talk about sometimes. If I could spend my time watching something that's going to lead me towards like being more okay with sin, but for the sake of entertainment or feeding on something that's going to maybe draw me into.
wanting to explore the gifts of the spirit, right? Or like, or, you know, watching, like for me watching this interview with a guy who could see in the spirit and like, wow, okay. Which one might benefit me more in the future? think there's just, there's just so much out there that's available for us to grow into that we don't know. Probably largely because we're getting just, we're just feeding on other things that aren't actually pushing us into.
the upper reaches of what's possible for us in the kingdom.
Christopher Miser (37:13)
Mm.
Matt (37:14)
It's just a thought. It's just my own speculation. ⁓
So what, well what's line number three?
Christopher Miser (37:25)
Okay, this one might be a little controversial, Matt.
Matt (37:30)
Well, we've already crossed some controversial lines here already.
Christopher Miser (37:34)
We already called out the CIA, so we might as well keep going. No, this next one, I think, is pretty insidious. you see it a lot. You'll see it on bumper stickers. You'll see it in the schools. You see it on backpacks. And that is love is love.
Matt (37:37)
You
Christopher Miser (37:58)
Okay, first of all, Matt, could you explain that to me? What does that mean?
Matt (38:05)
That love is love that well
Christopher Miser (38:06)
Yeah, do you?
I'm trying to figure it out.
Matt (38:12)
Okay. I think what it means is that any, no matter who I choose to love or what I choose to love in some cases, it's all just love. So it's good, whether it's a person or a animal or a ⁓ person, animal or, you know, all of that. Do you think, do you think I might be on the right meaning there?
Christopher Miser (38:27)
Mmm.
Okay. ⁓
Well, it definitely is encompassed in that statement. mean, there is no limit to that statement, right? And it's defined. I think the biggest lie about that statement is that it's defined by us. So we define in that lie what love is. It's a terrible definition since the definition is of itself.
Matt (38:51)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Christopher Miser (39:12)
That's hard to understand. I think the problem is we cannot define love. it's the, you know, one of the more famous quoted verses of the Bible, first John four, eight, God is love. So it starts there. God is love. And so if that's your foundation and you're going to love another person like God would love them, then that's great.
Matt (39:21)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Christopher Miser (39:42)
That's awesome. And you should do that. So you should love somebody because they are God's creation. That does not mean that we accept any and everybody's ⁓ sin or choices, especially when they go against what God has said. And that is not love anyways. It's not love ⁓ to support something that is going against
Matt (39:42)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (40:13)
obedience to God.
Matt (40:16)
Right.
Christopher Miser (40:18)
that's a, that's a tough one. And I know it's a tough one right now because it's a very popular statement. It's a tough one to talk about, but it's something that I, it's a lie that's come into our families and even into Christian families. And it needs to, it needs to stop. ⁓ and we need to get back to encouraging each other to, to focus on what love truly is and that is God. then sharing that, sharing the love of God.
Matt (40:33)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Miser (40:48)
with others.
Matt (40:48)
Yeah,
yeah. And I think it also, this lie that love is love, it makes an idol out of loving whoever I want. ⁓ And it makes that kind of the ultimate goal, the ultimate reality. And it...
Christopher Miser (41:03)
Holy
Matt (41:18)
It does. It carries this like flavor of, I don't need, I don't need you. I don't need God. I don't need to be, I don't need guy guard rails. Um, I'm to do this my way. I'm going to do it how I want. And it is such a lie. It's so, it's so just, it's so devastating. You know, you have all kinds of people who have, who have
experienced so much depression and suicide and stuff who've gone down that road of like, you know, everything that that can lead to.
So then for that one, I think for that one, the, obviously the truth is really important for all of these, but for this one, I feel like the truth is really important for us as dads to embody and to promote to our kids because of a very, like it's a different reason than the others because the two are presenting paths to fulfillment. And I think
Christopher Miser (42:17)
Hmm.
Matt (42:34)
much of Christian culture.
doesn't know how to give its people something real that is truly like, my gosh, the love of God is incredible. It can often be, well, the world's way is wrong and this way is right, so believe this way and do the right thing.
Christopher Miser (42:50)
Mm.
Matt (43:01)
and
That doesn't often work. you, I think, I think you also could probably think about plenty of, you know, kids from, from your younger years who grew up and walked away from church. know, I know I can, I know Corey can like, I mean, they have all kinds of people who are like, yeah, this is church is lame. Like this is, there's nothing here for me. So, and I think that I know I grew up in that culture of
that out there is wrong. This way is right. And I watched it not work. Right? The, the, the truth it's true. That way is wrong. This way is right. But something was missing that actually gripped the people that actually gripped these kids to make them want that way. is, am I making sense? Do you feel like you
saw similar things, people walking away and stuff.
Christopher Miser (44:03)
well, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I can think of two right off the bat, but there's a few in my head that I can think of, yeah, that walked away from it all. Yes.
Matt (44:13)
Yeah. And so this is my, my, my issue is like, well, you know, 90s era church wasn't preaching, you know, evil, wrong things in that regard. They were saying the right things, but what is it that was missing that made people be like, no, this is dumb. I'm, I am still going to go out and do it that way.
Christopher Miser (44:33)
Mm.
Matt (44:42)
Do you have any thoughts on that? mean, I think I have some, but...
Christopher Miser (44:44)
Well, I
think sometimes here's a little bit of an unpopular thing to talk about, when we, let's say we're in a leadership position in the church or, and we believe in Jesus Christ, but yet we are a terrible example of that. That is a huge,
problem because that will push people away and we are we we must if if you are someone that's doing that you own that and and there will be judgment for that. that's a very very scary thing. So I'll have that throughout my life. I've seen those who who believed said they believed but they acted completely
Matt (45:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (45:43)
another or they acted a totally different way or they ⁓ said one thing and and and that was not the way they were in their family or they ⁓ or even or even had a really really bad. ⁓ prayed on you know there are people that pray on others in the church and I mean like they assault them those kinds of things and that is driving them they're like how could this be true if this person.
says that it's true and then does this to me or does this to that person and they witness that, that destroys that faith for them. That destroys their faith in that leader that represented and was a reflection, supposed to be a reflection of who God is. That's a really ⁓ horrible thing. ⁓ In other cases, we have to understand that we all are sinful. We all desire to walk
Matt (46:17)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Miser (46:39)
⁓ in sin, that's our that's our fleshly desire, right? So people are gonna walk away from it because they their desire is to do that and and that's why You know We need to encourage each other. That's why I want to encourage fathers, you know more than ever to to lead Their families the right way in their house so that that's not happening. So they so their children don't
Matt (47:07)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (47:08)
walk from that or and and sometimes sometimes though, Matt, I think they're gonna they're gonna walk away from it. I mean, I I don't you know, it's it's not always that's that's free will. So, we do have that will and they they're there are instances that I can think of of people who were raised in that family that believes in Jesus Christ and taught that and and and lived that.
Matt (47:16)
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
Christopher Miser (47:38)
and walked with God and yet later in life they went another way because they grew up, they're an adult, they have free will and they made that choice. So ⁓ it's all over the place but I don't know if that was an answer but.
Matt (47:46)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is. think it's those are, that's you're right. Like there's been a lot that has happened that is, has kind of muddied the name of Jesus. It's, it's, it's there's yeah, plenty.
Christopher Miser (48:11)
yeah,
I've witnessed it firsthand. It's not good.
Matt (48:15)
I know I'm thinking of a specific instance in particular for that that that your family's very familiar with like but I ⁓
I also have wondered, like...
Think at times and now this is this is a this is a tricky little road to walk here, but If we are telling that's wrong love is love is wrong God's love is right and Then we're not actually doing the loving of the person Even before they make their own change, right? That's gonna really
Christopher Miser (49:00)
Hmm. Yeah.
Matt (49:08)
push them away probably more than draw them in. And I think of Jesus embodying truth, plainly speaking truth, and willingly spending his time with sinners, prostitutes, right? And he wasn't always making them his mission, hey, you've gotta be saved right now.
Christopher Miser (49:25)
Absolutely. Yes.
Matt (49:37)
He was... He was... Being a friend.
And that's uncomfortable and scandalous for a lot of religious Christianity.
Christopher Miser (49:51)
And that's the thing, Matt, is these lies, there's sometimes a little bit of truth to them. And that's how the devil lies. that's why people can jump on a statement like love is love, because it does sound good. And we do want to love others. That's what we're called to do. it sounds great on the outside. And if you don't have a background, you know,
Matt (49:58)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (50:22)
as a Christian or you have not accepted accepted the Lord as your savior, you're not necessarily building your foundation on God is love but for for Christians who build their foundation on that God is love, that's very very important. Do not fall prey to the world's lies of this is love or that is love or this or you gotta you gotta stick with what the foundation is and that is that God is love and so is his law.
Matt (50:49)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (50:52)
applies and his way is the way. So, ⁓ but you're absolutely correct, Matt, is we are responsible for how we treat others. And we are, yeah.
Matt (50:54)
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so like for our kids,
if I'm, if I'm like saying, Hey, no, don't go that route. And they don't feel like I'm actually loving them. They're probably not going to listen to me. They're going to feel like I'm just judging them. I'm coming down on them, which like, yes, sometimes as a parent, you kind of have to come down on them, but they were going to, but if they're like, but you don't even, you don't even really make me feel loved.
Christopher Miser (51:39)
Hmm.
Matt (51:39)
Why
would I listen to you? Right? Like that, that could be a thing. Or, or I think of an obvious, like I used to, I used to, do a lot of like street evangelism stuff back in college and, ⁓
It was the conversations where I sat with the person and I listened to their pain and I loved them where they were, that they were like really willing to hear what I had to say because I wasn't just coming at them. I was trying to come under them and support them. ⁓ yeah. And I think similarly, like if
Christopher Miser (52:21)
Yeah, that's really powerful, Matt. Yeah.
Matt (52:28)
You know, I think about when I pray for people to be healed, maybe who don't necessarily know Jesus. Like I really make it a point to do that in a way where I'm like, Hey, I think of this one woman that I met when I was walking out of Stanford treatment center, getting an IV myself and she was like all tatted up. She looked really rough around the edges. She was,
She was like this center was in Palo Alto, like East Palo Alto, which is a pretty, pretty rough area of the Bay area. And, ⁓ you could tell she was rough and, but she was with crutches. She was walking towards the elevator that I was headed to with crutches and a big like thing on her leg. actually, no, she didn't have a big thing on her. No, because no, it was.
Christopher Miser (53:07)
Okay, yeah.
Matt (53:26)
That's right. It was not a big thing on her leg, but I learned that when I talked with her, okay, so she didn't have a thing on her leg. I caught up to her in the elevator and I asked her, Hey, what's, what's going on? What's, what are you here for? And she had been hit by a car as a pedestrian and her femur had broken. And she told me that she was there for like rehab and stuff. And, um, it was still like pretty, pretty new, but not new enough to where she needed to have a thing on it. Cause she was like,
I remember because I could see her knee and I could see like scar and stuff. And I said to her, hey, I don't know what you believe or anything, and that's OK. Like that's not what this is about right now. But I know that Jesus really loves you and he doesn't want you to have this lingering injury and this pain.
So would it be okay if I prayed for you? And so I was kind of approaching her from, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to tell you, you've got to change. I'm trying to love you and take care of some of your problems. Right. And so she was like, yeah, okay. So we got out of the elevator down to the lobby and, and I, I went off to the side and I prayed for, I put my hand towards her leg and I did it.
touch her leg at all. And, ⁓ I prayed for healing there and I said, okay, ⁓ do you feel anything? And she said, that was really weird. Like it felt like somebody was grabbing my, my knee. And I said, you know, I wasn't right. And she's like, no, I was watching the whole time. He didn't touch me, but it felt like there was a hand grabbing my knee. And I said, yeah, that's, that's cause Jesus is wanting to heal you and he just loves you. And I left it at that. said, I didn't like say, Hey, so now
because you let me, you know, I did this for you and now I need you to pray a prayer and become Christian and change all your ways. I just said, thank you so much for letting me pray for you and, and Jesus loves you so much. And I started walking away and she, ⁓ as I was walking towards the doors to leave, she, she called out, she was like, my gosh. And she was kind of yelling it. And I was like, ⁓ what happened? I turned around.
And I heard her say, she's like, I swear I had pain a few minutes ago.
And I walked back over to her and she was like, starting to cry and she was like, what did you do? What you, you, you're, are, you are a blessed man. You're so blessed. What did you do? And I said, listen, I'm, I'm not, I'm not blessed here. You are. Jesus just touched you and healed your leg. He loves you. And she was like, she started weeping, you know, and she was like, man, I, I,
I am going to have such a story to tell when I get home. so I, I don't mean to go into the whole story. guess I did, but I think of.
Christopher Miser (56:32)
You
Matt (56:42)
we can sometimes fight that the lies that people are under in the world by loving them on offense and not loving them with like a basket over it. Right. But we don't always have to come right out and say, Hey, you're doing that wrong. Right from the start. I think we need to lay a foundation of, Hey, you matter and I'll see you and I love you. And we can,
Christopher Miser (56:51)
Man, that's, yes. Yeah.
Mm.
Matt (57:11)
we can build up this like, what really? So like, this is weird. This person actually cares about me in a way that nobody else does. And it makes me want to hear what he has to say. Yeah.
Christopher Miser (57:25)
Matt, that is so powerful
because you're talking about the truth. That is speaking truth to somebody. And it's not you. You are the one that God sent in that moment to speak truth to her. But you spoke his truth, his healing. He's the one that's gonna heal. He's the one and he is the truth. that is so powerful and such a cool story.
Matt (57:33)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (57:55)
man, that's crazy. ⁓ man.
Matt (57:59)
It was a fun one. But yeah, it just makes me think of, OK, if God is love and that's the truth, we're wanting our kids to embrace, then we need to show them how incredible his love is rather than just tell them it's the right way, you know. And that's what this woman experienced. my gosh. God's love is incredible because God's want he wants to draw people to himself. He doesn't want to.
Christopher Miser (58:13)
⁓ Yeah, you're right.
Matt (58:27)
Browbeat them to himself. I think a lot of times Christians end up browbeating people on accident with good intentions ⁓ So yeah, sometimes sometimes So then it's not to say we can't tell the harsh truth when it's needed. It just has to be done like the scriptures say in love
Christopher Miser (58:34)
Sometimes with good intentions, yeah.
Right.
Wow, Matt.
Matt (58:50)
So anyway, yeah.
Christopher Miser (58:50)
That's cool.
Well, that's something that leads to my I got the fourth one and that last one I wrote down. I mean, that kind of leads to it, because who do we believe in? Who do we believe can heal? Who do we believe is love? And the fourth lie that and we've been told this lie for a long time. This is not a new one. And that is believe in yourself. There's a very popular podcast right now.
Matt (58:57)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (59:21)
⁓ called I choose me and and it's all about it's all about finding hope and healing by choosing yourself. ⁓ I'm gonna focus on me. You know, I'm done like I have spent too much time worrying about everybody else or whatever the cable however you wanna but I'm gonna choose me. I choose me and and that is that's a dangerous lie that our kids are being told is to believe in yourself and
Matt (59:24)
Hmm. Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Christopher Miser (59:50)
And really,
it again, there's like this little bit of truth to it, Matt. And that is and that is that it's great to have confidence. That is a great thing. And we need to build kids with confidence. Well, there needs to be the foundation of what of of who gave them those gifts and who gave them those abilities and who gave them that. And that was breathed into you by God. Your DNA was built by God. ⁓
Matt (59:56)
Sure.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:00:19)
And you know this as the author of DNA of a Man, that God made you with that huge long DNA strand to be the person you are and those strengths he gave to you. And so you can believe in that. First and foremost, you believe in that and you know that he gave you that strength to do it. And so
Matt (1:00:31)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:00:48)
If you believe in yourself, like that you did it, that you're, that you just are thinking of yourself as that God, you're thinking of yourself as a God, you're believing the same lie the devil told in the, in the garden, which is do this and you'll know good and evil. That was a lie that you could be a little God. And if you're the God, then, and it turns out that if you believe in yourself and you are a God, you're going to find real quickly that you actually can't fix yourself. If you're a God, you should be able to heal yourself.
You should be able to get rid of it. And you know what? If you're a God, why don't you heal this guy over here? We are not gods. So believing yourself is a dangerous lie. ⁓ that one's been going around for a long time.
Matt (1:01:18)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's it. ⁓
It has, it has. And you're right, that's ⁓ such a nuanced one because like you said, there is elements of truth in it. And I would say you even have like a church lie that's the opposite, which is you kind of are just wretched and you kind of suck.
Christopher Miser (1:01:43)
Mm-hmm.
Man, that's a good point. That's right. Like there are two there are two different lies going on, right? Which is not at all true. You are not like you are not garbage. You are not like Why that doesn't make any sense? What God does not make garbage. He made you like super cool all kinds of
Matt (1:01:57)
Yeah, yeah. And so we get the kids.
Right.
Yeah, and that's the one
that I got a lot growing up and not like my mom told me that or like you suck man. Like it wasn't that, but it was from just being raised in the church. That I picked it up by the general. This is what got taught Sunday after Sunday. This is this is just how you're supposed to think. And so you've got both lies here, so. We want to pull kids out of the world's way.
Christopher Miser (1:02:23)
Right.
Matt (1:02:42)
But sometimes we bring them into this church line. That's like, golly, this is not actually going to solve any problems here. So we've got to find that. Like you said, you're incredible. You're awesome. You're, you're really cool. And it's because God gave you that value. That's the, that's the key that I think we need to have there. And I,
Christopher Miser (1:03:03)
Yeah.
Matt (1:03:13)
I think that that actually like, it's kind of hand in hand with the previous one, right? Like you're, we can have so much influence if we are saying to some, like, cause I think a lot of people out there are told to believe in themselves, right? Everybody is. And a lot of people don't, they think that they suck anyway. But like, I don't know, supposed to believe in myself, but I kind of, bad at it, right? So if you come along,
Christopher Miser (1:03:34)
Mm-hmm.
Matt (1:03:41)
And you mean it with sincerity and you're bringing God's love to them and you're, and you're looking them in the eye. Corey and I sometimes do this with our waiters. We'll, we'll ask the Lord for like something to say to them. And you look them in the eye and you're like, God says this about you. You are this, that, and all these other things. And he thinks he's proud of you. That,
That's, I think that's like getting me out of the self-hatred that Satan loves. But it's also putting me under this love and this jurisdiction of, of the father rather than I'm off over here becoming my own.
Christopher Miser (1:04:16)
you
Matt (1:04:29)
You know, that's what it makes me think of. ⁓
And I've seen our girls, like...
really respond to that a lot. ⁓ we've really tried to instill that in them, which then, which then helps those times when we're like, ⁓ what are you doing? You're being kind of dumb. It helps those not go like to like identity wounds, right? Because
Christopher Miser (1:04:44)
Mmm.
That's true.
Matt (1:05:11)
we're trying to, when they're not in trouble, we're trying to build them into this, ⁓ this healthy idea that, gosh, in my mind, what just came to mind, rather than believe in yourself, yes, we get, okay, believe in God, but also God believes in you. That's an interesting counter, counter statement to the believe in yourself.
I don't know, what do you think of that statement? God believes in you.
Christopher Miser (1:05:46)
⁓
Matt (1:05:48)
that sound weird or?
Christopher Miser (1:05:51)
I don't know.
don't
I don't know that we have, so when it comes to. ⁓
God does have plans for us, Matt. And ⁓ so I don't know if God believes.
Matt (1:06:08)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:06:15)
don't know, that's a really, really good question.
Matt (1:06:20)
There's a verse that comes.
Christopher Miser (1:06:20)
I think that that's what
brings, it does bring God so much joy to see us ⁓ obey him and then pursue those things that he has called us to do. And when we do that, when we walk with him, when we follow after or like go after with gusto the plans that he has for us, the things he wants us to do. And a lot of those are spelled out for us. ⁓
Matt (1:06:30)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:06:50)
you know, being a father, being a loving father, being a husband that is ⁓ faithful and all those things. Those are all things that God wants us to be. And when we do that, I think that he's he's super that brings him joy and that is one way of worshiping God. I don't I don't know, though, that he I don't know that he believes in us. I think he he
Matt (1:06:52)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:07:20)
loves it when we obey though. so, but that's something that maybe we should do some more research on and see and look in scripture and see what we can find.
Matt (1:07:23)
Yeah, I think you're right.
Like, I think of it like...
Yeah, well, there's two that come to mind. One. Proverbs 31 everybody, you know, knows the Proverbs 31 is like the the the ideal woman chapter of Proverbs, right? Like this this wife who can find a wife like this. And if so, Corey actually has been studying that chapter quite a bit, not from a woman's perspective, but what if if if a husband and wife?
Christopher Miser (1:07:38)
Okay.
Yeah.
Matt (1:08:04)
are also a picture of Jesus in the church, then that chapter could be about the church of Jesus too. And it starts by saying, the heart of her husband trusts in her.
Christopher Miser (1:08:14)
Hmm.
Matt (1:08:22)
which I find very interesting if the Lord wants to have a bride who is somebody who he's like, yeah, I really like, I trust her. I depend on her. I, I highly like believe that she's capable. Right. And it goes on to describe how she's out there doing business and making things for her family and buying a field and
like all these things that she's a very capable woman, but it starts by saying that his, the heart of her has been trusting her. I just find that very interesting and like, wow, it's a, it's an interesting thought if, you know, if there's anything to that, like if I guess, or as like a coach, right? Like, Hey, get out there. I know you struck out last time, but you've got this. Like I believe in you. Like you can go do this, you know, that's kind of where I'm, where I'm
Christopher Miser (1:09:19)
Hmm.
Matt (1:09:20)
getting with that. Not so much, you know, in the same way that we believe in God, but in a sense like that.
Christopher Miser (1:09:29)
Yeah, that's a good point, Matt. And who is the perfect father, right? Who is the perfect father? And that is God. And so we are to emulate that. And so we should believe in our children, believe in what they can do, believe in what they're capable of, what God has called them to do. We believe in our wife. We believe in what she can do and what God has...
Matt (1:09:35)
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:09:58)
has said she could do so. you're onto something, I think. think it's.
Matt (1:10:05)
Yeah. And yeah, it's definitely not intended to be like elevating us to God-like status at all, but just that, yeah, just that sense of, yeah, like you got this. I've given you everything you need. I've given you this ability, like you said, the giftings and the, I know what I've called you to. Of course you can do this.
Christopher Miser (1:10:11)
Sure, sure.
Yeah.
Matt (1:10:30)
I think that.
I don't know that I got a lot of that sense from church culture growing up. I don't know that a lot of people around me got that sense either. And so I just wonder like, you know, if somebody is hungry, let's just say that this lie is out there, believe in yourself. Somebody's hungry that somebody would believe in them. I mean, I think we all have that desire. Like I want to know that somebody thinks I'm capable.
Christopher Miser (1:10:40)
Hmm.
Matt (1:11:06)
⁓ John Eldridge writes, wrote in wild at heart that the, of the central questions in a man is, I have what it takes? And so.
If you're hungry to know that, it would make sense if you can get that question answered from God. Yeah, you do have what it takes. ⁓
Christopher Miser (1:11:35)
Well, think, I mean, scripture answers it for you. It really does. I mean, if you if you read scripture and you and you emulate the man and father and husband God wants you to be, you have what it takes because he gave you the he gave you the the word. And so that's why I always encourage I encourage all all men to go and and just man, just read that like crazy.
Matt (1:11:39)
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:12:05)
And, you know, we've talked about these lies, Matt. These lies are there. We talked about truth being the oxygen that kids need. The lies are the carbon monoxide. And those things, when men believe that they don't have what it takes or children believe that they aren't good enough or whatever the case may be, that is death.
Matt (1:12:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Christopher Miser (1:12:35)
That is carbon monoxide. sometimes you can't smell it, you can't see it, and it is killing your family. It's killing you. It's killing your family. ⁓ we're going to get, because you and I have been talking about this next episode we want to do, and so this leads us to that, to as far as, because we're going to talk about dopamine and all that, right?
That's a whole other thing. That's all part of this big lie is the dopamine fix. And when we talk about the lies being like carbon monoxide, there are specific mental disorders that have been associated with abnormal dopamine levels. And some of those, I'll just read some of the ones that have been ⁓ shown to have a correlation. Tourette's, psychosis.
Matt (1:13:04)
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
Really?
Christopher Miser (1:13:34)
schizophrenia, ADHD, addiction, bipolar disease, anorexia, and depression. And those are all, those are just to name a few of the mental disorders that they believe could be associated with abnormal dopamine levels. So the lie is very, very deep. When we say this is what we need, this is what our, this is, and we allow the world to just feed our kids with what they think they need.
Matt (1:14:04)
Hmm.
Christopher Miser (1:14:04)
They're going
to need more and more. And it's just an addiction of the same lie. It's an addiction to the same lie over and over again. when you say, Matt, when you're talking about speaking truth and speaking truth to that lady in the elevator, you spoke truth to her. You gave her the oxygen. For the first time there, she was given the oxygen that she actually truly needs. And her life is probably full of just death for life.
Matt (1:14:11)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:14:34)
So it's so powerful. And I'm not the expert at this. I'm learning right now with you on how we need to go forward. And so this has been encouraging.
Matt (1:14:37)
Wow.
Hmm.
That's yeah, it has been, it's been fun.
It's been, it's been fun to like workshop some of these things together here on the, on the episode. like it. ⁓ what you just said, like the, the, that just hit me like the notion that the truth is like oxygen. If you haven't been able to breathe and then you hear this truth and it's like, that's really like a huge, that's a great metaphor.
Christopher Miser (1:15:16)
Yeah.
Matt (1:15:22)
Because I can think of like, kind of that, that like, what? Like when someone hears you really speak this kind of truth to them, they're like, why would you, why would you say something, why would you do this? Like it's, it is refreshing to them. It's like they've been, it's literally like they've been dying. That's really, that was a really powerful metaphor. ⁓
Christopher Miser (1:15:38)
Yeah.
Well, and it's really powerful
when it's in when it's in the setting that you're talking about, Matt, that's so much more powerful than from a think about like from a from a pulpit or from it's so much more powerful when there's no when we when we show that kind of love or speak that truth and there is nothing and there's no expectation in return. There's no like we're not like. I didn't tell you that because.
Matt (1:15:53)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:16:10)
That's what I prepared for my Sunday morning. I told you that because I saw you and I saw your pain and I'm showing you God's love right now. that's a, that's, that is just pure oxygen. It's, it's cool.
Matt (1:16:16)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and then as you're saying
that, that just makes me think of like, okay, so now we do that to our kids. Like you just said, right? I saw you, I saw your pain, I, whatever, like I'm bringing this love to you in that place.
Christopher Miser (1:16:46)
Yeah, we need to do that. I'm terrible at it.
Matt (1:16:48)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:16:51)
I'm so tired.
I'm terrible at doing that.
Matt (1:16:55)
Yeah, there's times where I'm where I'm better at it and times where I'm not as good at it so We've got Yeah
Christopher Miser (1:17:03)
That's why this
is a great episode, because it's convicting.
Matt (1:17:07)
Yeah, well those those are sometimes the best ones I say a lot when I'm doing my own solo episodes like I'm preaching this one to myself today Yeah, Man well, yeah this this was good so guys out there listening ⁓
Christopher Miser (1:17:17)
Right, absolutely.
Matt (1:17:32)
Take this to heart. What is the truth that your kids need from you? And we can get passive because we're afraid to stand up against cultural lies like, okay, I better just let them have social media, whatever. We can also get passive in other ways where we're, I don't know, we're just afraid to speak to whatever it is that they're needing to hear. And so take this stuff to heart. ⁓
Also, as we have had for the last several episodes, Chris will put your podcast link into the show notes. ⁓ It's the Heat and Light podcast. Go find him on Spotify. Subscribe, listen, leave him reviews, all of that. Anything else you want to, you want to... Good reviews, sorry. I almost led to a disaster.
Christopher Miser (1:18:25)
Good reviews.
I do.
Just kidding,
you leave whatever you want. I mean, it could be terrible.
Matt (1:18:33)
If you leave a bad review, I'll know
who it is. No. But yeah, go leave reviews. And ⁓ is there anything else, Chris, that you want to say about finding you or anything like that?
Christopher Miser (1:18:48)
No, mean, the Heat and Light podcast is a great place to start. I have not posted something ⁓ recent in the last couple of weeks because I bit off more than I could chew ⁓ with an episode that I've been working on and it's turned out to probably be a four-part episode and it is taking up a lot of time. So I hope that everybody likes it. It's gonna be Know Before Whom You Stand. That's the title of it and it's gonna be all about... ⁓
Matt (1:19:12)
Yeah.
Christopher Miser (1:19:15)
Just kind of trying to grasp. I think it's super cool sometimes even though it's probably impossible to fully grasp but it is impossible to fully grasp who God is because But it's super cool sometimes to just try to think about that because it'll blow your mind and ⁓ and so that's what i'm attempting to do is kind of ⁓ Is is to study him?
Matt (1:19:26)
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
Christopher Miser (1:19:41)
to the point where we are left to go, okay, this is crazy. This is just so crazy. And so I'm using the whole Bible to do it, and so it's taking forever. But I'm really excited about that one. I hope people come and check it out and listen to it. And yeah, Heat and Light is a great place where they can find me. And then ⁓ probably on the next episode, I'll talk about a couple of the things that I'm doing and some plans there. And that'll be stuff that folks can follow too, if they want to.
Matt (1:19:55)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, cool. Cool. All right. Sounds good. Well, Chris, thanks for the fantastic conversation today. Yeah, it's been great. And with that, we'll sign off. We'll see you next time. Listeners, thank you. And we'll talk to you on the next episode.
Christopher Miser (1:20:18)
Yeah, this has been awesome.
See ya.