[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of the Jonathan Project podcast. Our goal here is ironing sharpened iron. We're men helping each other navigate the complex times that we live in. And we take the biblical example of Jonathan and his good friend and future Ken David as our example, inspiration for this podcast. If you would like Jason and me to come on out to your local church, your business men's event, you have something going on, you've enjoyed the show. Please reach out to
[email protected] Again, thejonathanprojectpodcastmail.com Jason Tyson, welcome to the show. We're lucky to have a guest today. Jason, why don't you go ahead and introduce for our audience who we have here visiting with us.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Hey, this is Tyson. Tyson and I grew up together, believe it or not, and although, you know, minus that little bitty white spot right there, looks a lot younger than me, but we grew up together and reconnected.
His father, believe it or not, was the guy who baptized me. We went to church together, spent a lot of those formative years together. So, Tyson, great to have you here today, and I'll kick it over to you for a little introduction and tell us about what you got going on.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks, Jason. I'm not only grateful, I'm blessed to be on the podcast today. It's such a. Such an amazing, you know, podcast in and of itself. You know, I try to share this with as many men as I can because, guys, we need it. We need accountability and we need encouragement, you know, and. But anyway, a little bit about myself. My name is Tyson Lee. I am married.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Got a.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Been married 20, almost 28 years now. And I've got four kids. I've got three boys and a girl. Oldest is 26, youngest is 18. So getting close to the empty nest and looking forward to the next chapter in life with my wife and just our journey in general. But I'm also executive director of a nonprofit called Friends of Nazareth, which we're going to talk a little bit about, but most of all, a follower of Jesus Christ. And that's what's most important to me.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: So I like that.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So, Tyson, tell us a little bit about the Friends of Nazareth. What. What is that about? And how can maybe the audience get involved and help out in some kind of ways?
[00:02:32] Speaker C: Yeah. So Friends of Nazareth is a nonprofit that was actually started back in the mid-2000s from an organization out of Illinois called Nazareth Educational Ministries Association. It was int to support a school in Nazareth in Israel. The school in Israel was established in 1938 and was done by the Southern Baptist Association. And you got to think about that, that's 10 years before Israel was even recognized as a country. They already had a school in place that had a biblical foundation. And our primary role for this school to date is basically to support the spiritual impact to the school itself. It's a K through 12 school. We've got about a thousand students.
And our responsibility is just kind of helping get the biblical curriculum within the school itself to maintain and spiritual growth and just to ensure that, you know, we're sharing Christ throughout Israel itself. But specifically through our school, our organization is responsible for holding summer camps in Israel. We hold two different summer camps. One each of those are three weeks. So a total of six weeks. We have anywhere between, I would say 600 to 800 students from our school and the community that basically attends these camps. And these camps are typically done on campus there at our school and also at a place called Baptist Village, which is near Tel Aviv. And we also, you know, take teams from around the US we partner with churches that are looking to take mission trips throughout the summer. And we partner with those churches and allow them to bring teams over to support our camp efforts. The first three weeks of camps are all focused on the smaller children. It's going to be K through third grade, and it's a VBS type style where we come in and for an entire week we bring a team in and we typically do some touring at the front of the mission trip and allow people to see the wonderful country of Israel and all the biblical places that you read about. And then we bring them in and let them serve for a week and help minister to these children. And, you know, to be honest with you, just try to bring as many of these kids as we can to Christ. So that's our purpose and our goal is really to help support this school. And the last year and a half, almost two years now, obviously we haven't been able to be there because of the conflict that's went on. It was really interesting. You know, we got back last year on September 30th with our last group that we took over to Israel. And then the next weekend is when the war hit. And it's like, okay, this is real. But it did cause us obviously not to be able to do summer camps this past year. But what it did cause is a campaign for us to be able to have to build safe rooms at the school. That's something the school did not have, if you can imagine, a K through 12 school that's on basically three quarters of an acre.
And it's built up. It's not obviously built out, but at the same time, the government came to us and said, hey, the school's gotta have safety shelters if they're gonna continue to meet. If they don't continue to meet, obviously, then we don't get to continue to share the gospel each day with these kids. So it's an awesome opportunity. We've been raising funds for the past year. I mean, you're talking about a million dollar project. It's a significant project to build these safe room in order to house a thousand students. And so, you know, we've raised about a half a million. We're still about a half a million short. And so we've got a Giving Tuesday event coming up this week. And I appreciate you allowing me to talk about that. Anybody that wants to can actually just go to our website, you know, friendsofnazareth.org and they can contribute directly from the website itself. We do have a $20,000 match that's been given to us by a generous donor forgiving Tuesday to be able to try to match. That'll all go towards the safe rooms. And so that, that's our purpose and our goal. And, you know, I was telling Jason when I got to talk to him not long ago that, you know, last year before last, you know, I got to spend, you know, about six weeks in Israel and as you guys well know, travel globally and have been, you know, places for a lot longer than six weeks. You know, you have a longing for home, but at the same time, when you're sharing Christ, it goes by so fast.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: I bet.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: How about that? You know, Tyson, when you were talking and Colby and I have talked about this before, about when people come over, you get to see the places that you read about in scripture. Yeah, it really does. Mail at home for you.
You know, he and I both were in Mosul, Iraq, and both saw the temple that was built by the Assyrians when Jonah was there. Right. Saw a couple of wells that were to Abraham and I can't remember, I think those were in Al Assad.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Maybe.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: It was one of my rotations when I was coming out, but spent a lot of time Moslem.
That's a big impact on your faith.
Yeah, yeah, that's.
[00:07:41] Speaker C: Well, it brings the Bible to color is what it does.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good way to put it.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So, Tyson, tell us a little bit of how did you get into that line of work? What led you to this particular organization. Kind. What was your professional journey there?
[00:07:56] Speaker C: Yeah, so my professional journey, I've been in, basically been in the cell phone industry for, well, since 1993, so quite a long time. And my journey took me to work eventually for a Korean company, LG Electronics. I worked for LG for about five years, was able to travel the globe with those guys, learned a lot about culture, learned a lot about business.
And through that journey, it led me to coming here to Bristol, Tennessee, which is where I live today. And through that I was able to grow basically into a corporate environment. And so from that corporate environment, I'm just shortchanging everything. You know, I was able to do a few things. And one of those things was I got into consulting work. And when I got into consulting work, it led me to Jamaica. And I know this is a roundabout story to get back to Israel, but it's all impactful. When I was in Jamaica, yeah, I was in Jamaica for about 10 months. And you guys have been there and I've experienced it. But it doesn't take long when you're in a third world country to realize this is not where I want to be. And so sitting in an apartment, you know, in the middle of Jamaica, not, not, not on the island, not, not near the water, I'm in the mountains in a, in an apartment in the middle of nowhere. And I'm reading the book of Jeremiah and obviously my life verse is Jeremiah 33:3.
And I would just, and I did, I just called out and I was like, you know, God, what do you got for me? Why am I here? Why am I doing this? This to me feels like a waste. You know, I've got this amazing prophet that's doing great things and here I am not utilizing my skills. And I said, what do you want me to do? And so I came home, opened up a nonprofit, started trying to use my skills to do that. The nonprofit did not work out, and I'm not going to go into those details, but it was just a difficult nonprof nonprofit to sell for people to get involved with. But what I didn't know was, is God was taking me through that non profit process years earlier because he had a bigger plan for me in the Future. And in 2018, I was blessed by my pastors to be invited to go with two pastors out of all everybody in my church. And we're a church of about 1200, I guess, and. But out of all the people in my church, I had two pastors come to me and say, hey man, Would you like to go to Israel with us? We've got an opening. You know, we'd love for you to go. I went.
That was with the organization I'm now over. And, you know, God just orchestrated that. And during one of those journeys, the current executive director was walking down the Via Dela Rosa, and she basically pulled me aside and said, hey, tell me a little bit about yourself. And I really, being honest, didn't know this woman a whole lot. I knew a little bit about the organization, but not much. And I began to tell her my story and my background, and, you know, grew up a pastor son. My dad was a pastor for many years, and, you know, been involved with church and missions my entire life. And so I told her my story, and she basically said, you know what? God is indicating to me that you need to take over this organization.
And I was just like, you know, I don't. I don't think I could do that. You know, you've got an amazing work. You're coming to Israel. You're bringing people all over the world. You're doing an amazing work to try to get folks in Israel saved that need it, because Israel is a very dark country. And so. So it's an amazing work. Long story short, God opened the door for me after some long prayer discussion with the wife, you know, I took the opportunity to take over the organization about three years ago, and that's how I got involved with the organization. I'm also a business owner. I have two other businesses that I own that support what we do here with my family. But God is blessed, and what a tremendous opportunity.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah. That is such an awesome story. And it just highlights, you know, at least for me. And I know Jason probably has some thoughts, too, but it highlights to me, like, there's nothing that we go through in our experiences that God is, you know, when you lean into him, that it's not shaping for that purpose. Right. And oftentimes I think. And again, I don't want to. It's a whole nother podcast episode. But those seasons that we go through, I think sometimes we're so quick to rush through them, and we miss the lessons that God is kind of the skills and attributes and the character that he's pulling out of us to prepare us for something that's going to really glorify him. And then. And I can only imagine the joy that you and your family have been associated with that association with that organization there, Friends and elders. So, yeah, awesome.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: I'm writing that down because you don't know this. Kobe and I talk generally about every morning and we're like, hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? And we'll finish this entire conversation riding in and it'll be, we should really do that for a podcast. Did you write any of that down? I'm in traffic. I don't, I can't. Yeah, so we do. But so keeping in conscience with the time and Tyson, you, as we've asked, you know, listeners in the past and things like that, hey, you got a topic you want us to talk about?
You brought up, you said, hey, why don't we talk about the topic of lust?
And I remember when you mentioned that, I was like, I talked to Colby, I said, man, I really wish he'd have said something simple like, let's talk about the possibility of time travel. Or perhaps we could discuss some of Einstein's theories.
It is, it is the topic that no one wants to get into, right? Because it affects all of our lives and, you know, so just kind of steering it towards that. And we talked earlier, lust. So I'll just kick this part off, if that's all right.
We associate lust with sex, right? So let's look at this in a whole approach. As we noted earlier, if we don't do this, there's just going to be a bunch of guys getting their fingers pointed at them all week.
It is, it's, you know, it's non gender specific, right? It's, it's an equal opportunity emotion. And it's, it is. Where's my little definition here? It's a strong passion, desire for something, not only sex, but includes food, drink or money.
Believe it or not, when I tried to do some research, I think I had 10 different words used for the, for our version of lust throughout the Bible.
And you know, it makes it a pretty tough topic, right?
So it does talk about. Even in Webster's, it says unrestrained sexual desire, overwhelming desire or craving.
But in both of those, if you look at the common, common ground, it's a, it can lead you away from God's plan.
And I think the big warning about lust is that when it turned, when it's something, you know, you seek out what it provides you, that release or whatever, that filling that hole, you become slave to it. It becomes your master.
And even in Psychology Today there was a lot of discussion about it and I. But yeah, over to you guys about that. Great topic.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Well, no, no, no. I mean, it's just a collection of thought like it is, it's a heavy thing. And I think it is very easy to just kind of put it into the one bend of, you know, we're talking about sexual relationships and how you shouldn't be lustful in that, but really you can make anything into a lustful object. And that's really kind of how I think about it. Am I lusting over a thing? Over something. Right. Over the pursuit of bettering my relationship with Jesus Christ. Right. And when we objectify things, you know, it could be your job, it could be a car, money, you name it. You can get into a situation where you're lusting, where you are abnormally putting emotions, energy and effort in pursuing that kind of object.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: So you use the word pursuing.
When I went back and, you know, I'm a King James guy and I feel it's safest. No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I do like King James.
But, you know, and I went back and I said, where's the earliest word mentioned? Lust? And what I found was when Moses was singing a song unto God in Exodus 15. But Tyson, you hit up. There's an earlier version of lust earlier, but I didn't see the exact word lust. But that doesn't mean it's not in there.
But he talks about. And he says in 15:9, he says the enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake you. I will overtake, overtake. I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them. He says, I'll draw my hand and. Or draw my sword and my hand shall destroy them. That is, and I think it's very telling of lust that Pharaoh had that lust to come after them and it wound up killing it. It was the end of the Egyptian army. The Egyptian army quit being a regional power at that time.
So I think you hit a good nail on the head on that.
Sorry, go ahead.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: The best definition I found and listen, this is just. This is me and AI and Google and everybody else right now as it comes out. But the best definition that I found was, is Luft's is defined as an immortal, is as immoral because it's an object of action or affection. And this is the key part. It is improbably ordered according to the natural law. And the appetite of that particular object is governing the person's will and intellect, rather than the will and the intellect governing the appetite for that object. You know, that that's truly what it comes down to is it's. It's not in the natural order. You know, obviously, you know, and Jason, you were talking about all these things. And I go back and I was listening and thinking this week to some other areas and one of the things that I was looking that is, you know what just even early examples of lust in the Bible, that really changed the dynamics of the cult, of course, the world. You know, you had the Garden of Eden. We talked about that. You got Nimrod who tried to build Babel. You know what he tried? He lusted after the power that God had wanted to get there, tried to build Babel. You've got Esau, who lusted over a little bitty bowl of soup, you know, to give up something that he wanted because he desired it. You got Potiphar's wife, you know, who lusted after Joseph, put him in a horrible situation that he didn't even create the circumstance for. And it changed the course of his life. You got Samson, you got David. We could go on and on, you know, and. But my point is, is it's been there from the beginning of the world. Why? Because it's Satan's number one tool.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: It is true. And you know, I think about. And if guys and you know, kind of. We know it encompasses a lot of things, but the Bible absolutely speaks of ton about that sexual desire, right? And if a man. You tell me that you're not subject to that, then I'd love to shake your hand because you have closer walk with God than Adam. You're more righteous than David, by the way, you're stronger than Samson. And the list could go on. Like you said, it is definitely something. It's an Achilles heel for everybody. When you look at the lust for possessions, it's today is we do this on Saturday, by the way, for those listening. And it is the day of the Alabama Auburn game. So I'm gonna give a shout out to the Auburn folks.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Oh, you're starting. You start in trouble.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: No, no, I gotta, I gotta. I'm wearing my Auburn T shirt today. I know some of my daughter's friends listen, so. But you know, yesterday was Black Friday, right? You're out there, as you. Colby, you put it. You were in Orlando and you went to a place with a thousand million of your closest friends. Yes, it was great, but we can't do. You know, so there's a. There's a series out on Netflix. I haven't seen it. I'm not advocating. I hadn't seen it yet, so I can't advocate. But it talks about the psychology of consumerism and it is that if anybody doesn't realize that there are psychologists Just, just like myself, who are highly paid to go, hey, how do I manipulate Colby and Tyson to buying this shirt?
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: And I picked up this one thing, it's article called Shopping Till we Drop.
And it talked about that. Right.
Basically, you know, about how psychologists are in there making sure people, their techniques are kind of baked in with advertising. And they find that people, we try to sell people that they need to feel safe, secure, they need to feel intelligent. And so we kind of leverage those, pull those levers to sell things. But despite all those promises, believe it or not, the majority of the people who pursue those, they feel less full inside. They feel very empty.
And we know this because that's what the Bible says. You know, the Bible talks about fulfillment in Christ.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
You know, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jason, finish your thought.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. I'm just going to shift gears towards Matthew.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: No, I was just gonna say, like, I think it's interesting that, you know, historically, or if you ask anybody on the street, right. If we did a poll, they would always kind of point back. Lust is something that just men, you know, struggle with. And we talked about you female audience, you know, which is a considerable number of folks out there listening to us, you know, to help the men in their lives. Right. Yeah, it's not only that. It's that pursuit now where we see in our society where increasingly the. The roles, right. We're asking the world is asking women to want to be men and want to pursue those things that God has really placed on the shoulders of men to do, to provide and protect in those kind of roles. And it's interesting to see how that's impacting what we see, like on the television and these music and these songs. Satan is twisting, you know, through that lustful kind of pursuit of power and what's perceived there and these roles are being switched and what it's really doing to our society. So, you know, those temptations of the eyes and it's. Yeah, it's one thing, but it's also that battle in your mind to want to go after something that is unnatural, as Tyson said so well earlier. And we see that a lot with our women in society now.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: I believe Tyson said something about it being putting things in an unnatural order.
And so today, I'll tell you, probably going to go outside and exercise a little bit. You know, I love to exercise. Anybody that knows me, you know, that's. That's absolutely something I enjoy doing. And when I thought about natural order of things and how things are, God creates things in order. Your human body is in order.
And it's interesting to me, the opposing muscle groups and things like that, but it's that muscular harmony, if you would, that creates athleticism.
Hey, Arnold may have looked good in the 70s and 80s, but he wasn't out throwing the javelin, right? Like, he's not. He wasn't stepping into the boxing ring, things like that. Okay. But the athletes who have everything in order, and it's interesting, the Bible calls us as be like athletes, right? Going for the prize.
But everything has to be in order for you to be a good athlete. You have to be able to create that synergy between all the muscles in that harmonious transfer of power. So just kind of running through my thought there.
[00:23:58] Speaker C: No, but you're spot on, though, Jason. I mean, even what you're talking about, and we talk about lust, and I know we don't have much time left, but this topic could go for. For 100 podcasts and we'll never get to the end of it. But, but, but, but lust is something that obviously you have to work on. I mean, it is something you have to do. And, you know, the greatest, the greatest defense against the most natural enemy to lust is fear. Fear of the Lord. You know, and when we have that true fear of the Lord, like we would do with our fathers when we were growing up, about doing something wrong and being, you know, but the fear of the Lord is really the enemy to lust and controlling that and, you know, for us. And I want to use, you know, daily time, you know, in the word and prayer and your quiet time as your defense mechanism for this, because, you know, you have to build up a resistance to lust. It's not something you're naturally going to do because naturally you want it. It's your desire. But, you know, Jason, when you're working out, I mean, you know, the only way you're going to get bigger and better at what you're doing is to. What it's to increase your weight.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Oh, man, I got a struggle.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Right? Yeah. And so, you know, the only way you're going to overcome lust is to increase your learning about it and your understanding and your spiritual. Really, really your spiritual health over your physical side of things in this case. But it's still the same process. It's still the same, you know, everything that relates to lust.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: So you hit a good. A really good turning point here as we talk about lust. And I went to the Sermon on the Mount and because I love our best friend and, you know, it's just A super impactful sermon on the Mount. And he talks about if you've ever, you know, heard people say, don't commit adultery, but if you look upon a woman and you lust after you've already committed in your heart, and then he begins to talk, Jesus says, and if your right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from the. And he goes, you know, it's better if one of your members perish, and the whole body should. And if your right hand offend, they cut it off. Now, first off, that. That's not. God's not saying, hey, self mutilation. Let's just. Let's just stop that.
But what really struck me was this. And for the last 20 years, there's a bunch of listeners who've been really good at a very few things, and one of those few things is hunting people. Let's be candid. Okay, Colby?
And when you do that, you get to know that person very intimately or that, that group of people intimately. When you're, when you're looking for terrorists or when you're doing things like that, you get to know, hey, what time do they wake up? What time do they do this? How often do they do this? Do they write with a pen, a number two pencil, whatever. Right. As detailed as you can get.
When you find yourself in conflict with that lust, you have to reverse that psychology on yourself. And you have to go, hey, man, I'm hunting that old lustful Jason. And so I gotta stop doing. You know, instead of finding points that interdict and points to find, I need to find points to avoid. Right? So I gotta cast that, that eye out from me. If it's, if it's my eye, if it's something I see, then I need to take those active steps to get away from it. Yeah, it. You know, I love the statement, what does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?
If you're the head of the household, it's, don't let your kids or your people. You're going to struggle, just like you said, you know, it's. You're going to struggle. You're always going to struggle this side of eternity.
But, like, you have to know yourself and you have to know, okay, man, this is where, you know, old Jason would have failed. I need to not go there. If, if you struggle with alcohol and your favorite liquor store is on near Walmart or whatever, pickup place, Right. You need to find another place to go shop.
Just avoid it altogether. Yeah, Go the other side of town. If you're if your friends only get together and they do wrong or send you down the wrong path, man, you got to start avoiding them, you know?
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: So, but that, that was some thoughts that I had on, on how to a solution and not just identifying the problem.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Tyson, what do you. What do you think want to give you?
[00:28:26] Speaker C: Well, I think, I think Jason's spot on. I mean, you have to be intentional, right? Everything, everything related to our walk as brothers and as Christ trying to be like him is intentional.
It is your own. You have to put forth that effort. Right. You can't do it on your own. You've got to have him with you. You got to have Christ walking right next to you the entire time. And, you know, one of the things that, you know where this all started, and I'll just share this is a Bible study I did with about five or six guys on lust. And it really just impacted me. And one of the things that came out of that was if, you know, Jason, if you or Colby, either one had a disease and you really wanted to be cured of that disease, you would probably be praying nonstop, hey, God, help me to get over this. Take this disease away from me. Help me to find a solution, Help me to find support. Help me to find. But you know what? That's no different than lust, and lust is a disease. And we should have that same desperate prayer against lust in our own lives. And hey, here's the thing. And I shouldn't be just praying about my lust. I need to be praying for Jason. I need to. Colby, I need to be praying for you. I need to be praying for our churches, for our cities, our states. But my point is, it's not about just us in this battle. It's about everybody in this battle and praying for each other. And being intentional about that, I think is the key for all of us. And one of the things that was really interesting and Jason touched on this, and Black Friday was so good about this. I mean, if you had your phone out yesterday, you were getting blown up with ads and you were getting blown up with emails, and you were getting blown up with Black Friday this, Black Friday that, you know, one of the things that it talked about in this devotional was a media budget. Just like a financial budget, you need to have a media budget just so you can get through to overcome a lust free life. And here's the question. I mean, can you have a lust free life?
That's a great question.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: Nominal question, I think. Yeah, I think you're going to struggle with that to the day you die because it's that unnatural. It's that consuming passion.
And, you know, you hit the. You said something about Black Friday. So when you study the psychology of manipulation, people can say, oh, I'm not, you know, you can't manipulate me. And this, that, and the other. You're wrong.
You know, there is a empirically proven, codified task task list that will absolutely manipulate you.
If you really want to read some sadness, study Milgram's experiment when he was like, if you don't think people will be compliant.
And he is actually one of the psychologists that you have to have a review board now before you do anything on people because he psychologically broke people who were participating. Right. So I think as from consumer wise, you're always going to struggle with it because they're always going to push your buttons and pull your levers, but you also have those naturally in tune, right?
The lust of a woman. Solomon talked about that. That that dude probably had a pretty good insight. With a thousand wives and, I don't know, concubines, talk about a habit getting out of control and, you know, and.
[00:31:45] Speaker C: What do you say? He said it's all vanity, right?
[00:31:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
I think that's because you're. You're looking for that, that item, right? That. Oh, this will fulfill me when in reality.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: Bible talks a lot about being content, but your contentment is coming from Christ.
You know, maybe God didn't give you that, you know, Magnum PI Ferrari because he knew he would flip it on its top and kill yourself.
Or, you know, maybe God didn't make you a millionaire because you'd never be close to him.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: Just the same reason I try not to let my son eat an entire bucket of ice cream, which he absolutely could. You know, diabetes ain't a friend, you know.
No, I don't think you'll ever be lust free. I think you can tampon it down.
But what do you think, Colby? Tyson?
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Well, no, and then I'll give Tyson the final word as our guest. But I think just summing it all up, I think really, you know, Tyson, you really hit something that kind of resonated with me is that we have to try to help each other. And that's kind of the whole point of this show is like iron, sharp and iron. And I think too many guys, you know, are kind of our primary audience, right? And women out there, too. But I think women innately are more comfortable talking to each other. And whereas guys, we want to try to act like we're tough and nothing's going on. You ever talk to a guy, everything is great? Like, okay, man. Like, no, everything is not great. But lust. Whether you see a brother that's lusting after, you know, and we've heard guys talk about, oh, I gotta have this promotion. I gotta have it. I gotta have it. And trying to get them to think, can I struggle with this? Is get you to think, okay, well, why do you want. Whatever this thing that, you know, I hear you talking about this quite a bit. Why? Right? And, you know, especially if they have a believer, if you can have that conversation from a believer perspective with them, is this something that's gonna edify the Lord ultimately and bring him glory and bring you peace in your life? Or is this something that, you know, again, the adversary comes as an angel of light. It always looks good. That promotion, that job, that title, you know, the admiration from that strange woman. You know, whatever it is, it looks good, but it's not necessarily from the Lord. And I think that was really an awesome point. But I'll give you the final word here as we put a bow on a great.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Before you give it to Tyson, you said something that I think is an absolute value. It's a pearl that should be cast out.
A buddy of mine one time said, and I'll never forget it, he looked at us, he goes, hey, it doesn't matter how good looking that woman is. There's somebody at this very moment who's tired of putting up. Who's tired of putting up with her and what. That. What that means. And I'm not, you know, because I know our greatest fan is going to listen to this, and I'm going to catch it.
[00:34:45] Speaker C: Right?
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes, you are.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: I love her very much, but it's like this, just like you said, that could be applied for some guy. Right? He was just talking to us guys.
And the point is, the grass isn't always greener on the other side. It could be over a septic tank.
Right?
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: God has put you where you are, and, you know, it's in him you find that fulfillment. But I did want to cast that out there.
You gotta be careful what you want. That could be a whole new flavor of crazy that you're not accustomed to.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: So, yeah, Tyson.
[00:35:27] Speaker C: No, I mean, just. Just my final take on that, Colby, is this, is that, you know what. One of the mentalities that I think, you know, would help a lot of men, especially those Christ followers, is, you know, you have to. You know, lust has a way of deceiving you of who, you know, in the case of a woman, who she really is, you know, that, that, that's the daughter of God, that's the daughter of Christ, you know, and that's the way we should look at her. And not as, you know, a sense of fulfillment or a sense of whatever that, you know, lust creates in that situation. And, you know, the way that. And I'll just be finished with this. Iron sharpens iron. You know, I have an accountability group that I have breakfast with every Tuesday morning at 7:30. And when we eat, we have five questions we ask. And one of those questions are, hey, did you expose yourself to anything this week that would have created, you know, a sense of weakness and, you know, cause you to sin, you know, and that's more than just your eyes outside. It's your eyes on your phone, it's your eyes on your tv. You know, the public's not making it any easier on us. I mean, you're seeing that, I'm sure, in Orlando this week. But, you know, at the same time, our only way to battle this is your personal relationship with Jesus Christ and making that priority your first priority. And when he's your first priority, you can overcome these other areas. Maybe, maybe not as well as you like, but I'll just be honest with you, you know, and Jason and I both felt this. I believe even since we've reconnected, you know, after what, almost 30 years, you know, we are sharpening each other, you know, and we're encouraging each other and holding each other a little bit accountable as we, you know, text each other messages and call each other and say, man, how you doing today?
That's the difference maker, is iron sharpening iron.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: I love it, Tyson, because that is the whole heart. And the reason why we started the Jonathan Project, right, And just that title, right, like one of the greatest examples of true friendship, man or woman, you find in Jonathan and David. So, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Like, that was. That was a powerful insight. Again, for everyone out there listening, please go. And we're going to put into the episode notes how to get to the Friends of Nazareth. Great organization, great effort. If you want to support the nation of Israel, get their hearts turned towards Jesus Christ, their true messiah. You know, this is a great opportunity, so we most definitely want to highlight the Friends of Nazareth. Tyson, thank you for all that you're doing out there supporting the kingdom, being a kingdom, man.
Yeah. And it was great having you on the show here with us. So for everyone listening, this episode and every episode comes out every Tuesday morning You can find this at Spotify, Apple, itunes, Amazon music, you name it. You can find the Jonathan Project podcast. So please go out there, subscribe, tell your friends, family, neighbors. This is a great season to have these kind of conversations with people are seem like they're more in tune to hear the greatest message they'll ever hear. And we're trying to do our part.
Jason Tyson, thank you so much for being on the show. Jason, I'll give you any final thoughts we have as we wrap up.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: No, I appreciate Tyson, you being here. Colby, I always appreciate you doing all this, and he really is the technical brain behind this, and I appreciate him putting it out there. Every time he reads off the list, I'm like, we're on that place, too. I didn't know that.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: So we're learning.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: We're learning. So really do appreciate it. Good to see all you guys.
[00:39:01] Speaker C: So thank you so much.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: Awesome. Take care.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: See you.
