Have you ever felt frustrated that you just don't seem to be consistently living like the man that you want to be? I know I feel like that all the time. And you know that God has a purpose for your life. You you want to make the most of the life He's given you. You have good intentions of impacting others and chasing big dreams and living each day on mission, but there's just something that makes you feel like you're leaving a lot on the table.

And it can be extremely frustrating when you feel like you're constantly falling short of your expectations. Or you feel like you're working extremely hard but still just seem behind all the time. And you may ask something like, Why is it that I can't seem to be consistently the man that God has called me to be? That's a great question to ask. But when there's this gap between who you want to be and how you're actually living, that can be an extremely discouraging place to be. And I know God has created you for a purpose.

I believe you were made to enjoy a great life in relationship with him. I believe he's given you gifts and talents and abilities and dreams for a specific purpose. He has a life for you that's amazing. But the reality is there's also an enemy who doesn't want you to experience that life, right? He wants to keep you from everything that God has in store from you. And we see this so clearly laid out in John 10:10, where Jesus says, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. We see the two sides of this. There's an enemy who wants to steal and destroy, then there's Jesus who wants to give you life and to give it to you the full. And God is giving you an invitation to live life to the full, to step into everything that He has for you. But it's the enemy's mission to keep you from experiencing that. He wants to kill, steal, and destroy your life. And I believe that one of the biggest goals is to slow.

That one of his biggest goals is to slowly get you to slip into passivity. Passivity, it's something we talk about a lot on this podcast. It's one of the biggest attacks on men today. And it has, and it has been since the very beginning. And when I say passivity, I'm not just talking about laziness. Usually that's kind of what we think about. The guy who's just sitting in his parents' basement playing video games. I'm not necessarily saying that, even though that is a form of passivity. But I believe that passivity is when we stop taking

Responsibility for, and we stop taking action on what matters the most in our lives. Passivity isn't simply laziness or just doing nothing. You can be busy, you can be successful, you can be ambitious and productive while still being passive in the areas that matter the most, right? You can make good money, you can work out five days a week, you can go to church every Sunday, you can be incredibly busy and you can still be passive because passivity isn't just the same thing as inactivity.

It's allowing things like comfort and fear and distraction and procrastination to slowly pull your focus away from the things that you say are the most important. Right? You can be crushing it in your career and completely neglecting your family. You can be in incredible physical shape while your relationship with God is just non-existent. You can be very busy every second of the day and never make progress in the things that actually matter. Passivity isn't how much you're doing.

It's about whether you're intentionally living for the things that matter the most. And I think that if the enemy knows that he can't completely destroy your life, if he can't just take it away all at once, he's gonna try to slowly destroy it through passivity. If he can just keep you on the sidelines of your life, if he can keep you distracted from what truly matters, then he can keep you ineffective. And passivity is a real enemy that's coming to steal you from the life that God has created you to live. And most of us.

Have the life we want to live, and then we have this life that we're actually living. And there's a gap in there, right? It's like I know I want to be this kind of man, but then you don't consistently live up to those standards. And that gap is usually created by passivity. It's passivity's goal to steal your attention, it's passivity's goal to steal your time, it's passivity's goal to keep you ineffective, it's it's passivity's goal to keep you feeling unqualified and to keep you doubting yourself all the time so you don't chase the dreams God has put in your heart.

It's coming for every man and it comes in different and it comes in different ways. It doesn't care how talented you are, doesn't care how much potential you have, doesn't care about the dreams God put in your heart. Passivity doesn't usually just walk through the door and announce itself. It's usually really subtle. It whispers, you know, put it off till tomorrow. Hey, you're tired today. Just take the day off. Things are really busy right now. You can push that off until later. Just wait until you're ready. Watch one more episode. You know, have one more drink. You can have that

Critical co that critical conversation later. None of those decisions in the time feel catastrophic, right? But it's just one thing after another that can slowly lead you to where all of a sudden you're coasting through life, you look back and you've wasted the last few years, or you haven't made progress in the things that you say matter the most to you. And that's what makes passivity so dangerous. It's usually not just this big one-time event. It's a slow burn over time. Then all of a sudden you realize how far you've drifted drifted.

Or how much time you've wasted. And I've been blessed in in the last few years to work with a lot of different men. And I've seen firsthand how destructive it can be. And I've also seen in my life the areas where it creeps in. And it creeps in all the time. Even though I researched this and have devoted my life to it, it still attacks me all the time. And I'm I'm with you trying to fight back. And and in working with these men and trying things in my own life and just kind of seeing how it shows up the most often.

I've come to realize that passivity usually comes from four different things. It usually comes in four different ways. So imagine that passivity is our enemy, it's the enemy, and it's coming to destroy your life, it's coming to steal your life, and it has four generals. Passivity has four generals, and these generals will attack from all different directions and in different areas of your life. And so I'm gonna go through these four generals of passivity, and I want you to think through them as I go through them and think through the different areas of your life and see where they're showing up.

Okay, so let's go ahead and jump in. So the first general of passivity that I see so often in my life and in other men's lives is fear. Fear. Almost always, some sort of fear or shame is behind your passivity or your inaction in an area. It could be fear of failure, could be fear of not being good enough, could be fear of stepping out and looking foolish, could be fear of other people and what they're gonna think of you, fear of making the wrong decision or

Being exposed or added responsibility, imposter syndrome, all these things. All sorts of fear can keep you stuck in passivity. And the enemy wants to use fear in your life to keep you from the life that God has for you. He wants to use it to keep you on the sidelines, to keep you passive. And I think more dreams have unfortunately been unrealized because of fear than almost anything else. More dreams haven't been realized because fear has kept men from stepping out or that it's kept them from even trying, from even starting, from even following through long enough.

Think about your spiritual life right now. Is fear keeping you from sharing the gospel? Are you afraid of what others are gonna think of you? Is fear keeping you from joining that small group or leading the small group or even going to church in general? Is shame? You know, that's a part of fear. Is that keeping you from spending time with God? Think about your relationships right now. Is fear of rejection keeping you from asking that girl out? I know so many guys right now who desire to be married. It's such a good intention.

It's a good wish that they have. It's a great desire of their heart. And I know they'd be amazing husbands, but unfortunately, just the fear of possibly getting rejected keeps them from ever even trying. It keeps them on the sidelines. Husbands, if you're married, is fear of not being enough keeping you from really leading your wife well? Is it safer just to hide behind your career or hide behind sports or alcohol or gambling or whatever else it is than to step out and lead your family well? Think about your health. Think about your career. Think about

Your dreams, where is fear quietly hiding out and keeping you on the sidelines? It's so important for us to always look at this. If you find yourself delaying on different things, usually there's something underneath that's keeping you there, some sort of fear that we have to deal with first. Okay, so that's the first general. The next general of passivity is distraction. And I think we could all agree that distraction is a huge part of our lives today. There's so many things right now.

That are competing for your attention. It can be the obvious distractions like your phone or social media or watching too much TV, or it can be the vices that we run to to avoid responsibility. Things like pornography or gambling, alcohol, drugs, you name it. Even good things in your life can be a distraction if they keep you from the great things. I think anything that keeps you from focusing on what really matters the most to you is a distraction. And distraction usually feels really busy.

And so oftentimes it feels productive. You can be so bombarded with distractions that your life feels insanely full, but that doesn't necessarily make it meaningful all the time. And I know for me, if I'm not intentional, I'll fall into distractions all day long. If I have my phone just sitting on my desk, I will look at that thing all day long. I have to actually purposely put it in a different room so I can lock in, right? It takes effort. It takes effort to fight back against distractions. We're we're receiving so many messages all day long.

If you just leave that to chance, oftentimes you're going to fall into distraction. Things that feel urgent are going to take your time and attention way more often. So you got to intentionally design your environments to minimize distraction. You got to be proactive. You got to plan your days. You got to schedule the things that matter the most to you. You got to build your life around your priorities and not just everyone else's agenda for you. You got to create space in your day to actually be quiet and listen to the Lord and pray.

You know, passivity can be being so full, you know, packing your life so full that you don't actually have time to sit and quiet and be with the Lord and see what He wants to do in your life and to listen. That's passivity too, when we drown out the Lord's voice with so many distractions and so much noise. And so think about the distractions that are coming in your life. Think about the different areas. Are those things keeping you from really going after everything that God's put on your heart to do and everything that God's made you to be? Okay.

So the third general after that is delay. Delay. How many dreams have been lost because you thought you'd get to it someday? Right? In fact, the phrase someday, I feel like, is the ultimate killer of so many important things in your life. Passivity wants to convince you that you always have more time, right? It wants you to think that there's always going to be a better time to start the business. It wants you to think that you have plenty of time to go to your sports or your kids' sports games. It wants you to think that

You're gonna get to that dream someday. But the longer that you wait to do something, the less likely you are to actually do it. So you have to fight back against delay. It's coming to steal your time, it's coming to steal your attention. The enemy thinks it's fine that you have this big God-sized dream, right? He doesn't care if you have it as long as you don't take action on it, as long as you keep waiting for the perfect time to start it, right? That's not really a threat to him. Good intentions are great, but without intentionality and without action, without follow-through, without actually doing it.

It it's it's not that big a deal to the enemy. So he wants to use delay to keep you from doing the things that God has put on your heart to do. So you've got to fight back against delay. You've got to be proactive, you've got to be intentional, put it in your schedule, take action, start small, get consistent, stick with it in the long haul, and see what God does in your life. Okay, the last one, the last general of passivity that I see so many times is comfort. Comfort says this is easier, right?

It's easier to sleep in than to go to the gym. It's easier to watch TV than to work on the dream. It's easier to avoid the hard conversation with your wife than to admit that you're insecure or that you're scared or that you have some problems that you're trying to work through. You know, those things are hard. it takes vulnerability to do. So it's easier to try to just do something else that feels more comfortable. It's easier to stay in the job that you hate, right? Than risk doing something that you actually care about. We naturally move.

Away from pain and towards comfort. But what feels better right now isn't always what produces the best life later, right? I think we know that. But think about the best moments in your life, right? The mountaintop moments, the moments of the greatest fulfillment or achievement, but the happiest moments of your life where you found the most joy. Think about those moments. Most likely you had to go through some sort of challenge to experience that moment. You had to take a risk. You had to

Work extremely hard. You had to have a vulnerable conversation. You had to endure some conflict. We spend so much time trying to avoid pain that we don't open ourselves up to experiencing the mountaintop moments either. The enemy would love nothing more than for you to sit in comfort all day long and do nothing that actually impacts the kingdom. He would love nothing more for for than for you to spend your life just accumulating things and living in comfort as long as you don't spend it impacting other people, as long as you don't spend it loving other people, as long as you don't spend it pursuing.

The things that God has put on your heart to pursue. So think about your life. Are there areas that you've gotten too comfortable? Are there areas where you need to take some risks, have the hard conversation, do the hard work so that you actually build something meaningful? Passivity is coming for every man. It's coming for me, it's coming for you. And it doesn't care who you are, what you've done, or where you're planning on going. The enemy is coming to try to steal, kill, and destroy. And he's going to use those four generals: fear, fear.

Distraction, delay, and comfort to steal the life that God has for you. So you gotta fight back. It's time to reject passivity. It's time to throw it off. It's time to get intentional with your life, to be more proactive, right? In order to come to overcome this, you have to be intentional. You can't just coast your way to a meaningful life. You can't just show up each day and just expect to not become distracted. Expect to not delay on things. Expect to not let fear kind of bubble up and overwhelm you. You have to be intentional.

So I want to just encourage you this week to just take one bold step against the four generals of passivity. So you can take one, you can do it against all four, but think through these questions here as I leave you for this week. So what is one thing that you've been afraid to do that you need to do today? One thing that you've been afraid to do that you need to just start today, do today. What is one distraction that you need to fight back against this week? Is it your phone? Is it TV? Is it

you know, anything else? Is it sports? What is one distraction that you need to fight back against this week to stay focused? What is one thing you've been procrastinating that you need to just do today? Where is that delay taking hold in your life that you need to just take action today? And then how can you get out of your comfort zone this week to pursue something meaningful? Okay, so think through those. Pick one, pick all four. I don't care. Take action this week, do something.

Where you reject passivity, where you push back against these four generals. And I know God has created you for something great. You have value because He made you and He doesn't make mistakes. So be the man He created you to be this week. Reject passivity, chase those God sized dreams and build a life around what matters the most.