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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

The Progression Of Influence

Jesus Influences Without Being Influenced

Three Self Checks For Your Life

Cut Out What Blocks God’s Blessing

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All right, welcome back. As we deep dive Psalm 1, I'm just going to read it every day so you guys can get into it. Blessed is the man who walks in the way, who walks not in the council of the wicked, who s or stand in the way of the sinner or sit in the seat of the scopper. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of running water that yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. All right, we're back to Matt Carriers again. I know we talk about it ad nauseum, but I don't know. You talk about things and you repeat things that are important. And so of all the things to start all the Psalms off with, it starts this way: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, or stands in the way of the sinner, or sits in the seat of the scoffer. Notice the progression of influence. There are some people you walk with, there are some people you stand with, and then there's some people you get really comfortable with. And so not only do you need to add mat carriers to your life, and a Mat carrier based on Mark chapter 2 is there were four men, and there was a friend of theirs who was paralyzed, and they picked up this paralyzed man, Matt, and carried him to Jesus. You need at least four men, Foxhole Brothers, King's Table, Mat carriers, whatever you want to call them, that will carry you to Jesus. But a part of your sanctification process is there are some people that you need to cut out of your life. The wicked, the sinful, and the scoffer. And now you may say, yeah, but the Bible says that Jesus was a friend to sinners. Okay, I'll give you that. But every single time Jesus was the influencer and not the influence. So of course you need your one more. But like my football coach used to always tell me, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. This is true for not only your kids, this is true for you too. So ask this, okay? What influences are you allowing into your lives? Sometimes it's not people, sometimes it's what you're watching online, the kind of podcast that you are listening to. You're listening to lies, you're listening to stuff that's wicked, sinful, and scoffing the one true God. This is this is true as a parent. You need to make sure that you are in control of what your kids are listening to. You make sure that you control the influences, the voices that are allowed into your home, especially through the devices they have, but it's also true about you. I want to I want to ask you a couple questions. I want you to be very honest about yourself. Are you taking counsel from the wicked? I mean, like the news that you watch, the podcast that you ingest, the financial advice that you take, are you taking advice that's good and godly counsel, or is it worldly counsel? Are you in the way of sinners? In other words, as you walk along the way, are you on the same path that this world is on? Like, are you doing money the way the world says do money? Are you scheduling time the way the world says schedule time? Are you obsessed with hobbies like the world says you should be obsessed with hobbies? Are you giving your affections to the ways of this world? If so, you need to stop. The last one is do not sit in the seat of scoffers. You see, when you sit down and you take a seat among the scoffers, I think what the psalmist is saying is so many of us have gotten comfortable in this culture that scoffs against God. That we have no problem just sitting in a cult, like being entertained by movies that just mock the one true God, being entertained by news and podcasts that scoff, that mock the one true God. It is not a good thing. Blessed is the man who does not do these things. So many men ask me, they're like, why is my relationship with the Lord so stagnant? And yet, what I see over and over and over is that the majority of the counsel that they get in their life is wicked. Instead of being discipled by the word, they're being discipled by the world over and over and over. That they are just going along with the way the world says, do everything money, power, sex, everything else. That they have sat their seat down, they are just comfortable with wickedness, with people that actually mock God. So blessed are you if you do not walk, if you do not stand, and if you do not get comfortable with the puppets of the enemy. You see, God is not trying to take something from you. What he wants to take from you is death and destruction and sin and shame and corruption. That's what he wants to take from you. And instead, what he wants to give you is blessing. But if your life is filled up with walking in the council of the wicked or standing in the way of the sinner or sitting in the seat of the scoffer, then you have no room to receive the blessing of God. I pray that you would pray seriously and ask God to show you the areas that you need to cut out in your life so that you could be a blessed man by God. Amen.

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