WHO DO YOU SEEK PRAISE FROM

Norman Goodman shares his personal journey of becoming a Christian and how it transformed his life. He discusses a recent controversy surrounding a football player's graduation speech that promoted traditional values. Norman encourages Christians to stand up for their beliefs despite potential backlash. He also emphasizes the importance of seeking God's praise over the praise of man. Norman references passages from the book of John to reinforce his message. Good morning. Welcome to another episode of Old Dog Soul Box Podcast with your host, Norman Goodman. This is May the 20th, 2024, and it happens to be my birthday today. Well, you know, we had men's breakfast at Cathedral of Faith on Saturday the 18th, which we do at my church. And one gentleman, I told him that my birthday was on Monday. And he said, he said, when did you accept the Lord as your God, Jesus as your Lord and Savior? I said, about a year ago. He said, well, you are actually one year old, you know, because you exactly started to live and became a new man a year ago. So biologically and carnally, you may be 61, but spiritually, you're only one. I thought that was very interesting and it made a whole lot of sense. But today's podcast, I want to start off with a prayer. I want to start off with this verse. This is Ephesians 6, 14-17. 6, 14-17. I stand in the evil days, having my loins girded about with truth. I have the breastplate of righteousness. My feet are yard, shard with the gospel of peace. I take the shield of faith. I am covered with the helmet of salvation. And I use the sword of spirit, which is the word of God. You know, when I first started this podcast, about four years ago, pretty much during the pandemic, I was on a different path then. The path I'm on now is much different than it was then. Back then, I was more secular. I was more progressive in my thinking. I used a lot of profane language. I was the, that was the old me. I was in the wrong frame of mind and the wrong clothing. And when you become a Christian, you take on a new man, a new raiment, a new garment, which is clean. The old man is gone away. So if anyone listens to my old podcast and episodes of my podcast, the reason why I have not deleted them or taken them out, because I wanted to use them as a testimony of where I was at one point and where I am today. Because of me taking and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. And it came shortly after my father passed away. And I felt like the Lord was calling me to stand up for his kingdom, something that I feel like a lot of Christians have not. A lot of people are Christians in name and name only, but not in deed. They're not willing to sacrifice their positions or their livelihood or their standing in the community by standing up and actually speaking the word of the Lord. And why do I say that? Probably about a week ago, there was a young man that plays football professionally for the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, I stopped watching sports for the last couple of years, so I don't really keep up with what's going on in football, basketball, or anything else. But this was hitting the Internet all over the place. And obviously, it rubbed with some feathers. He's a kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs. And this young man's name is Harrison Bucker of the Kansas City Chiefs. And he had a commencement speech at Benetton College. Now, you've probably heard of it. It's been all over the Internet. And it's a Catholic college. It was a graduation. And he said some things that the progressives or the secular world seem controversial, which I found interesting that conservative views are controversial, but progressive views aren't controversial. And on this podcast, I've turned it. I still will talk about some political things on this podcast, but it will go in the direction of having a biblical worldview. And it's primarily for believers and nonbelievers. It's just like a gut check or it's a more compass check is what I'm trying to get at. And what he said was, and I'm not going to go over the whole speech, but I would definitely encourage you to go listen to his speech. His name is Harrison Bucker. He's a Kansas City Chief kicker. And pretty much in short, what he talked about at the graduation was he congratulated the students on their achievements, and he encouraged the women not to forsake being mothers and homemakers. And he also encouraged the men to be unapologetic of being masculine and taking on the male roles and being the leaders in their homes. And he also talked against the pride month, having pride but not the pride that is a sin that we celebrate for the month of June that's become legal in all 50 states, which started in 1969, and how we got to this point. And he was pretty much talking with his core beliefs as believing in the sanctity of the traditional family, his wife taking on her vocation as being a homemaker. He's taking on his vocation as being the father and the head of the household and the lead and taking on those responsibilities, which line up with scripture. Now, he's a Catholic. I'm not a Catholic. I'm a Christian. And he considers himself a Christian. The difference between his beliefs and my beliefs is that we put Jesus Christ as the head of the church and not Mary. And we know in Catholicism they kind of put Mary as the center, but we don't do that. But he was still talking in language that my core values match. And I applauded him for that. And he stood up for his core values in an environment that wasn't popular. You know, instantly the NFL came out with a statement saying that they don't support his views. They support the LGBTQ community and feminism and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Kansas City Chiefs came out saying that we support our LGBTQ community and diversity, equity, and inclusion. And they were all just trying to, you know, let everybody know that, hey, we're all about homosexuality and abortions and diversity, equity, and inclusion. And our views don't, you know, match his views. And I found it interesting that a lot of people out there wanted him to lose his job. A lot of women feminists kind of lost their minds. And it was by far for the courts for progressives, understandably. People that live in the secular world, people that are influenced demonically by demons in their lifestyle and their choices in life. And so he was an encouragement of a man that actually stood up for his core values. He didn't have his head in the sand like 99% of the Christians do in our society today. And what I want to talk about here and I want to just give a little brief ministry on is I'm in John 12, John 12, and John 12, 42. And the Lord just put this on me because it's something I think we need to talk about as Christians. And let me go over John 12, 42, and I'm going to take it all the way down to probably all the way down to 50, okay? And a lot of you that are Christians and that read the Bible, you probably already know this already. But I'm going to go over it for those who may not be familiar with it. And it starts off like this, John 12, 42. Nevertheless, among the chief rulers, also many believed on him. What they mean by him, they mean Jesus. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the synagogues. Now, what is that saying? That's saying that there were men, there were people in the ruling, in the synagogue that believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God. That he was a true Messiah, that he was an anointed one. But because they did not want to lose their positions in the synagogue, they didn't want to lose their livelihood, they didn't want to be ostracized or cast out by their peers, they stayed silent. And that's the case today. We're facing the same thing today in the Christian and Christianity and in the churches. A lot of Christians will not profess their dedication to Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God on their jobs in public because they don't want to be ostracized and not invited to the parties or they don't want anybody not to like them. So my question to you is, as a person that's a believer, this is only to the believers, who do you seek to for praise? Are you seeking for man's praise? Is man's praise more important or is God's praise more important? Let's go to 43 here in John 12. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. And Jesus cried out and said, he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. I found that to be very, very, when I read it at first, I've read it many a times, but a lot of it, it didn't click. And what he was saying, what Jesus was saying was, if you believe on me, it's not me that you believe in. It's the father that you believe in. It's the one that sent me that you believe in. All right. That's what he was saying, that my father sent me. And because you believe that I am the Messiah, you believe in the father. And because you're not afraid to profess that, you believe in the father. Jesus always did not put himself as the center. He always put his father as the center. Let's go on to 45. And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me again. He's talking about the father. When you see me, you see the father. You see the light of the father in me, and it radiates out. Then he goes on to say in 43, I am come a light unto the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. In 48, he that rejects me and receives not my words has one that judges him. And the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last days. And he's talking about him father. Jesus is saying that I didn't come to judge you, but there is one that's going to judge you. And that's his father that's going to judge you. Right? That's what he's saying. Okay? In 49, for I have not spoken of myself. It wasn't me that was speaking what Jesus is saying. I'm not speaking. These aren't not my words. But the father which sent me, he gave me the commandment what I should say and what I should speak. He's talking about the father here. Jesus is saying is that it's not me speaking. These aren't my words. Okay? This is the father. The father is speaking. He's speaking through me. You know, Jesus is saying it's like, hey, I didn't write the mail. I'm just delivering the mail. Okay? If you believe in the words that I'm saying, you're believing in the father. Okay? And I know that his commandment is life everlasting, whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the father said unto me, so I speak. And he's saying that whatever the father told him to speak, he spoke it. Okay? And my thing is this. This is my thought. Okay? That we as Christians, we have been pushed to the corner. We have been made to worship God in a closet. You know, you'll hear pastors say before, you know, develop a prayer closet. Find a place in your home where you can go and you can worship God. And I've heard this many a times and I thought that was an interesting thing to say. I have to take a spot in my dwelling space and I'm going to go in that spot and I'm going to pray to God. I have a 816 square foot living space bungalow, me and my wife. Every square foot and every inch of this 816 square foot bungalow is my praying closet. Every inch of my home, I pray to the Lord, I pray to him no matter where it is. It's not one spot that's dedicated just for prayer. I've always found that interesting that we're being told to have one spot. God is everywhere. He's everywhere. And I go and pray to him everywhere, whether it's in my bedroom, in the kitchen, in the living room, in the other bedroom, wherever, in my backyard. You know, every single place that I can praise and talk to the Lord, that's what I do. And I talk to him openly. You know, the conversation that I have with him is just like me having a conversation with you right now. And we always have great conversations. We really do. And he always gives me something. He may not give it to me right then, but I would notice like a month or two months or somewhere down the line, as my relationship with him is growing, he'll give me the answer to the question that I may not have asked, but it was in my heart. And as Christians, I find that we're not bold enough to express ourselves and our belief and to stand for God's kingdom in public. You know, the secular world doesn't mind if we praise God and Jesus, as long as we do it in a quiet space away from everybody else. But the rest of the world, they're going to express themselves and their core beliefs right out in the open in front of Christians, in front of Muslims, in front of everybody else, and we better not say anything. But as far as our core beliefs, we need to be in a corner somewhere. And 99% of the Christians have done that. People don't go on a job and profess their belief in Jesus Christ. You know, I went to Amazon one time for a job interview, and as soon as I walked into the building, the warehouse, they had a large LGBTQ rainbow flag right in the center the moment you walked into the building. And the one question I asked myself, how many Christians, people who consider themselves Christians, are working for Amazon and they see that rainbow flag every day and the trans flags and whatever, knowing what they represent, and they are silent on it because they don't want to lose their position in the synagogue. OK, they've been in need of bail because of a job, because of a paycheck. Right? They lean to their own strength, their own understanding, and they didn't use the strength that God has given them to cast out the devil in his own warehouse. If you look at Target, Target got a lot of pressure. How many Christians work for Target, knowing that Target supports and advertises the LGBTQ community, diversity, equity, inclusion? Look at Chick-fil-A now. Chick-fil-A used to be one of the, in my opinion, was one of the best fast food restaurants out there with the best service and everything. Only thing they do is serve chicken, and I'm already seeing the cracks in Chick-fil-A and their standards dropping because of their diversity, equity, and inclusion department because they support LGBTQ, homosexual, abortions, and everything else. I'm going to ask another question to all the Christians, people that consider themselves Christians. Every four years on the 5th of November, how many Christians actually go, especially in the black community, and they go vote Democrat? How many go and vote blue? No Christian votes for the Democratic Party. Why? Because they support the destruction of the traditional family. They support homosexuality. They support abortions. They support transgenderism. These are the things that the Democratic Party support. The Republican Party is not far behind them. The Republican Party that we have today is the same way. The question I'm asking is how many Christians vote every four years for the Democratic Party? I would suggest none because no Christian will vote for abortion, for homosexuality, for transgenderism, for the destruction of the nuclear family, to get rid of God, get rid of Jesus. No Christian would do that. No true Christian would do that. God has put this on me because I feel that we're just not bold enough as Christians. I go out of my house every day. We had the men's breakfast, and I always have this. I have a baseball cap with a cross on it, a big cross. You can't miss it. It's huge. One on the front, one on the side. I always have a shirt on that represents something about the kingdom of God. Jesus, where there's Christianity, where there's spirituality. I have some shirts on Amazon that represent that. If you're interested, you go to Amazon, and you put in the search, NAGWEARS, that's N-A-G-W-E-A-R-S. Put that in the search, and all of my products and T-shirts will come up. It's more biblically based than anything else. I have a few other designs up there, but I'm focusing more on a biblical worldview than anything else because I believe the Lord has called me to do that. I wear that, and I make that part of my uniform. I said that when I went into the men's breakfast. I said, this is my uniform. My goal is to make the enemy uncomfortable in my presence. I ask Christians out there today, those who profess to be Christians, are you making the enemy uncomfortable in your presence? I did a podcast on that earlier, and I would suggest go back and listen to that. Is the enemy uncomfortable in your presence? Because you know he's all around you. You know the principalities are all around you. Ephesians 6 says we don't fight against flesh and bone, but we fight against principalities in dark places. We know we're fighting against demons. So, I'm asking you right now as a Christian, knowing that June is right around the corner, I think within a week or so, what are you willing to do? Are you willing to do like John said, I put myself under the authority of man, that I might gain a few? What are you willing to do in the month of June to hopefully gain a couple of souls that have been captured by the enemy in the homosexual community? Are you willing to go into the belly of the beast to get a few souls for God's kingdom? Only you can answer that question as a Christian, as a person who professes to be a Christian. Never deviate from your core values. Not for to have a job, to get a paycheck, not to make people comfortable. Jesus didn't come to judge the world, but God will judge the world and he's going to judge the church and he's going to judge us. And if we're not standing up for his kingdom every single day and every moment of the day, we will be held accountable for that. Keep in mind, those who are Christians, 65 million babies have been aborted, murdered since 1973 in the United States in abortion. When I go past the Planned Parenthood clinics, I see nothing but white people professing to be Christians, fighting for the lives of God's children. I don't see any African Americans. I don't see any blacks out there. I don't see any black churches in front of Planned Parenthood doing that. So I'm asking you as a Christian, especially in this black community, when are you going to stand up for the kingdom of God and go fight for his children and fight for his kingdom? Or are you going to keep using that same lame excuse that I hear all the time that drives me crazy, forgive me, that God is in control of everything? I find that to be one of the most cop-out comments that I've ever heard out of a Christian's mouth in my life. Because what that tells me in my mind, when someone says God is in control of everything, that I'm going to bury my head in the sand and I'm not going to get into this fight. God needs warriors. As my pastor would say, he don't need people with pure-itis just sitting around doing nothing and letting everybody else get involved and fight the battles for God's kingdom. So my question to you again is who prays is important to you? Is it man's praise or is it God's praise? Only you can decide that. I just wanted to talk about this a little bit. Didn't want to drag it on. But what I want to encourage, especially men, because our church right now is thirsty for men. And men have been devalued in their communities and in their homes for the last 70, 75 years, ever since the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution and feminist movement. And men, when they're devalued in their homes, they're going to be devalued in their communities and they will be devalued in the church. And right now we are in a desperate need to have men enter into the church and start leading the church as God has intended for it. Now, there's going to be a challenge for our women. Because our women will have a difficult time with that because men, because women have been leading the church for so long that it will be very difficult, I feel, in my opinion, to allow men to take control and lead the church. And a lot of women have to ask themselves, have they submitted themselves to God, truly submitted themselves to God? Because if a woman has truly committed herself to God, submitted herself to God, having men lead the church would not be a problem. Women will step back and allow men to lead and help as God had intended for women to do and to help build the church up and let the men lead. And that's a problem I feel like that's in our community. We don't have enough men leading churches. And that's why we don't have men leading communities and that's why we don't have men leading the homes. Because men have been devalued. And the church is a large part of men being devalued in the homes and we need to get back to what God had intended for us to do anyway, to lead. Jesus is the head of the man and man is the head of the woman. Okay? And that's the order that God had put everything in. And in order for us to get this mess straightened out, we got to get back in order. Right now we're out of order. We're out of order. So I want to encourage the women and the men to submit themselves to God totally 110%. And then if we do that, God will restore our community. We restore our children to us. And we will be much better not just as communities but as a country in the United States. And the devil is a defeated foe. He knows he is, but the problem is we have to believe that he's a defeated foe in his principalities. And we need to regain our church, our communities, and our country. That's what we need to do. But anyway, I want to finish this podcast off with a prayer. Oh, dear Lord, in the name of Jesus, I want to thank you for the opportunities that you've given us to praise you and to honor you. I want to thank you for the knowledge that you've bestowed on all of us. Lord, give us the courage to stand up for your kingdom no matter where we are, whether it's in the church, whether it's on our job, whether it's in a park, whether it's a community, whether it's in restaurants, and whether we're doing business. Give us the courage and strength because we know that you already have plans for us and you are our protector. All right. You did not put fear in us. That's the enemy. And, Lord, I thank you for the gifts that you've given us. I thank you for what you are working on the other side for us. And, Lord, use us as a tool for your kingdom while we're here on this earth before you call us home because it's all about you and your son, Jesus Christ. And we thank you. And we thank you for everything you've done for us. And we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for his sacrifice. Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice. We thank you for the blood. And we thank you for the salvation that we have and the grace that we have because we do believe that you are the chosen one, that you are the Messiah, that you are the anointed one to save this world and defeat the enemy. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Stay blessed and minister to someone today. Stand up for God's kingdom. Okay? Have a great day. Bye-bye.