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Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of Preaching to the Choir, the Sunday edition of the Mike Force podcast. As you can tell by my voice, man, I was sick for a week. Seven days. I haven't been on the Internet in seven days, which is rare for me, everybody. Like, why aren't you coming out and doing videos? Because I'm sick. It happens. It happens in life. As you can see from the backdrop of Korean mats, pillows and tents, we took the camping indoors. I mean, technically we take it outdoors because it's 55 degrees and sunny, whereby in South Carolina, Myrtle beach, where my mom's at, it's snowing right now. Upside down world. Hey, if you want to support the channel, you could support the channel by picking up this hat. Preaching the choir in the description down below. It will be shipped for my mom, so there might be a slight delay based on the blizzard they just got hit with. But also subscribe and hit the notification tab because it helps me with this channel and getting it out to more people. I want to let you know that I've been thinking of you even when I'm in the fetal. Very sick. I spent last week in Colorado sucking my thumb under a blanket with the chills. On my birthday, I was in Colorado getting the Raptor bed chopped off so we could do some Raptor Bowen customs. I'm gonna get that camper set up on the Raptor to enjoy spring and summer with the fam. And while I was there being really sick, and I'm the worst sick person by the way, just feel sorry for myself, I was thinking about seasons of life. You know, life is like the flu season, except many of us for some reason have an expectation we're going to get sick during flu season. And when it happens, we're like, oh yeah, it happens every season. But we don't think that way. When we're thinking about our life and the challenges we face. We often walk through seasons where life is hard. Institutions, financial circumstances, people, their pressing on us and we have these challenging moments where we have to overcome this adversity to be better. But certainly saying it and then living it is completely different. It's easy to say more challenging to live. Although I would hope you would create an expectation. That's just the way it works. When you are getting attacked or feeling like you're getting attacked, you often want to retaliate. You often want to be on the defensive and you feel like not doing so is weakness. But like I always say with this idea of reallocating Your time, these marbles and Mason jars. That's the best way for my brain to illustrate it. You don't have time to allocate those marbles, your time, your resources, and to other people. That energy is reserved for your family. That energy is reserved in being present. That energy is reserved for the work God has put directly in front of us, not for anybody else. And that's not indifference. That's what we call stewardship. Scripture says, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. And wisdom begins with deciding what deserves our attention and what does not. Here's what many people get confused in these moments in our lives. We think when something or someone attacks us loudly, relentlessly, we assume it's coming from a position of strength. No, it's not. It's not confidence. It's not control. Most of the time, the attack itself is direct evidence of weakness. The allegations, the lies. People who are secure don't obsess. They don't obsess. People who are at peace don't fixate. People living in truth don't need to destroy someone else to feel stable. But if your life is falling apart, if every bridge that you've drawn is being burnt over the ground, if all your relationships are falling apart, if you find yourself in a situation in these wicked patterns, being unfaithful and this continues to perpetuate, well, it might be an indication where aggression usually comes from. Desperation, from someone trying to outrun their own choices. And that's how it often plays out. It's a house of cards built on lies that's bound to fall. Scripture says the wicked flee, though no one pursues. That's not power. That's fear. It's insecurity. Have you seen this pattern play out in your life? When someone speaks loudly about morality, justice, accountability, while quietly living in a contradiction, burning those bridges and their relationships with their best friends to the ground. Secrets, rationalizations, compartmentalization, infidelity hidden behind justification. Affairs with married people framed as circumstances instead of choices. Instead of choices. How ironic. They demand integrity from others while avoiding it themselves. And it will all come to light. But it's not your responsibility to bring it to light. It's God's. Because sin doesn't stay contained, disorder doesn't stay private, and duplicity always leaks. Oh, and does it leak? You see, the more you try to invest the allocation of your time and energy into those people, into those things, into those circumstances, the more you hurt yourself. Because God knows the truth. And eventually it comes full circle. You See, Scripture is blunt about this. Be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you out. Not because someone exposes it, but because the truth has weight, has consequence, and they will always speaking from experience sink you to the bottom. Living that way takes effort. Living in lies, even if subtly, you have to suppress guilt instead of confronting it. So projection begins. Ah, the virtue and enemies are manufactured. It's easier to attack someone else than face your own reflection, that ugly reflection. And that is why we don't retaliate. Because retaliation puts us in a role that isn't ours. Do not repay evil for evil. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. God doesn't need our help revealing the truth. Patterns reveal themselves. And the truth character exposes itself. And our job is to stay clean, stay clear, stay conscious to our faith while it all unfolds. Silence isn't weakness, is confidence. Focus isn't avoidance. It's obedience. And we won't waste our energy defending ourselves to committed people that are misunderstanding us. Our time is better spent raising our children. Our time is better spent living righteously, doing the work God placed in our hands today. Let the dead bury their own dead. Don't abandon life to manage decay. And let God handle what doesn't belong to us. I hope this message has resonated with you. Saying it out loud is a asthma check I desperately need. It's not up to you, it's up to him. Praise God. Spend time with your families and I love you guys. Till next time. Peace out, guys.