You Don't Have What It Takes cover art

You Don't Have What It Takes

You Don't Have What It Takes

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Leave me a voicemail message to use in a future podcast episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/timschmoyerComment on the full post here: https://read.timschmoyer.com/p/you-dont-have-what-it-takesA podcast listener named Christopher sent me a voice message and asked a very critical question about how we, as God-fearing men, actually gain the ability to live out a vision of fathering our homes, eldering our cities, and preparing for rulership in the Kingdom to come.“On this path of biblical eldership and male community leadership—in our homes and in our communities, with our families and those around us—where does the power come from to carry that out? I’m wondering if you could talk more about the Holy Spirit and inviting the Spirit into your life.”I love this! Christopher is asking the question that exposes whether Elder My City is actually biblical or just another self-improvement program with Scripture verses attached.Where does the power come from to live out this vision for men?Unfortunately, most Christian men approach leadership the same way we’ve been taught to approach sin: through self-management. Try harder. Get educated. Find accountability. Develop a strategy. Build better habits.I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that it doesn’t work. I tried it for decades.When I read about the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 as someone who is temperate, self-controlled, respectable, able to teach, able to manage his household well, etc. I know it’s easy to treat them like a checklist of Boy Scout merit badges, but I don’t think these qualifications are merely accomplishments. They’re describing fruit. And fruit isn’t manufactured. It’s produced.I Spent One Full Year Focused on Galatians 5There was a season of my life where I took this very seriously.For an entire year, I read Galatians 5 every morning before my feet touched the floor. Before I got out of bed. Before I went to the bathroom. Before I did anything. I wanted to embed this into my belief system. I intellectually agreed with the passage, but if my belief in it was low. Maybe at a two or a three. I wanted to believe it at an eight or a nine and experience the transformation I knew would come with it.Consider what Paul says:“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16-18)Paul then lists the works of the flesh—sexual immorality, fits of rage, rivalries, envy, all of it—and says those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Let that sink in. We can talk about the Kingdom, but if we miss this thing, we miss it.The way I read the passage is that the issue isn’t the specific sins. Like, “Don’t do these things.” Rather, it seems to me that the issue is that you’re not being led by the Spirit.From there, Paul leads into the fruit of the Spirit.“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)We lose something in English here: “fruit” is singular, not plural. We don’t divide this up like, “Okay, I’ve got love, joy, and peace down, but I really need to work on patience.” That’s not how it works. You have the singular fruit—the love-joy-peace-patience-kindness-goodness-faithfulness-gentleness-self-control fruit. It’s all one package. You get the whole thing when you’re living by the power of the Holy Spirit.This list as well as the character that qualifies a man for eldership are not something you manufacture through effort. It’s something the Spirit produces through dependence. Which means the path from father to elder to ruler isn’t primarily about trying harder to reduce sin and increase righteousness. It’s about deepening dependence on the Holy Spirit.My Risky PrayerSo this became my prayer every morning:“Lord, teach me how to walk by your Spirit and not gratify the desires of my flesh. Teach me how to hear your Spirit’s voice. I don’t want to try harder to force more peace into my life. I want it to be the byproduct of having the Spirit active and alive and leading.”I’ll tell you—if you pray that prayer and ask Him to teach you, be ready for what comes next.Here’s what happened.I Failed My First TestI was walking through an airport terminal, on my way to catch a flight to speak at an event. And I look down ahead of me. I see some saltine crackers crushed up and ground into the carpet. And I had this little voice in my head. Not audible, but this strong feeling: “Clean those up.”What? No. I’ve got to get to my gate. I’m that guy who likes to arrive right when boarding starts. ...
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.