Man Up to The Source

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Gentlemen, every day is a battle. A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose. The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives. They prepare before it begins. Welcome to the men's morning devotional. Let's get into God's word. It's time to man up.

Chris Alessi 0:24

Hello and welcome to day two of week seven of our men's morning devotional where we continue to man up. My name is Chris Telese, and it's a privilege to be hosting this devotional today. We're going to look at Proverbs chapter 2, verse 6 today, but here's our man up moment for the day. You can't separate morality from God because morality doesn't exist without him. Yesterday we unpacked this if you then God will framework. It really just speaks of the principles in a man's life. We talked about actually pursuing wisdom the way that someone would pursue hidden treasure. But I want to look at the very next verse today, Proverbs 2, verse 6. It says, For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Think about that right now. The Lord gives wisdom. Solomon doesn't say wisdom comes from experience alone or from education, the right mentor, or from enough time in the school of hard knocks, though God does use all of those things. He says wisdom comes from the Lord, full stop. It originates in him, it flows from his mouth. Knowledge and understanding are not things that the world generates and then God endorses. We don't create morality after years of being human, discovering what's right and wrong, and then God gets on the moral side of it. That's not how it works. All of these things are things God produces, and the world does its best to reflect it. And that raises a really good question for us as we continue to build on this whole week. Culture's pushing very hard in the opposite direction of this truth right now. A lot of people are really questioning whether or not God plays a role in morality. Can God be separated from morality? Many of us see posts on a day-to-day basis of people trying to say they've stepped away from our faith because they believe that when you read the idea of scripture that God would even have to send his son to die, they look at that and say, that seems immoral. People are constantly going after scripture saying that there are things God endorses that are immoral. And the argument at the bottom of all of that is a separation of morality and God. But you can't separate morality from God because morality doesn't exist without him. God is not moral because he follows a standard that is somehow above him. God is the standard. Goodness isn't a rule that God obeys. Goodness is an expression of who God is. So when we say something is right or wrong, we are actually measuring it against the character of God. Think about it this way: people sometimes ask, can God do something immoral? No. But not because God is constrained by some external law. It's because whatever God does flows from his nature, and his very nature is the definition of good. It's like asking, can water be dry? The question is broken. It just doesn't work. God cannot be immoral in the same way water cannot be dry. Because what he is and what goodness is are inseparable. You see, he is the source. And this matters enormously for us as men today because we have to make moral decisions every day. In the boardroom and in the bedroom, and how we speak to our wives or those we lead, how we handle our children, how we handle our workplace, how we handle money and life when no one is watching. And the man who has become untethered to God's understanding of goodness and morality is a man who has no compass and no fixed north. His standard just shifts with culture. We become, like scripture says, a wave that's tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. But when we understand that a principled man, the Proverbs 2 is trying to build, he understands where wisdom, where morality, where goodness comes from. And it comes from God, which means we don't get to vote on what we think is right today or tomorrow or the next day. We know what's right because God is right. We go straight to the source. We don't match God to culture. We do our best to get culture to match God. And that culture starts with you and your life, your own individual culture today. So here's your man up challenge. Identify one area of your life where you've allowed culture, convenience, popular opinion, or how you were raised, or excuses, shape your moral decisions instead of going back to God as the source. Name it honestly, then take it to Scripture. What does God actually say about that area of your life? A principled man doesn't outsource his ethics, he goes to the source. Let's pray. Father, we know you are the source of all wisdom, all knowledge, all genuine understanding of right and wrong. Forgive us for the times that we've looked to culture or convenience instead of to you. We pray that you'd anchor our moral compass in your character, which never shifts, never bends, and never fails. Make us men who know where wisdom comes from and allow us to go there first. In Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word. Now go live it. Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do. Share this devotional with another brother. Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.