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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. I used to hear it all the time in the military. I would die for my brothers. I would die for my country. I would sacrifice it all. Many men did. I would have for sure, for my family. Men. Say it with pride, chest out, voice steady. I will die for my family. I take a bullet, I'd lay my life down. That's easy. It's easy to say you died for them. But will you live for them? The uncomfortable question is, will you stop drinking for them? Will you rise early for them? Will you put down your phone for them? Will you kill the habits that are slowly killing the man they need for them? We love to imagine ourselves in this worst case scenario, this heroic circumstance where one moment of courage absolves a lifetime of neglect. But all that is is virtue signaling. I do feels good. And I don't mean virtue signaling online or social media. I mean to yourself. That lie that you tell yourself, what I've realized is just the self awareness or the understanding of truth shortens the distance between the lies you tell yourself and the reality that you live in. And it gets closer, almost narrowing in your field of view so you could see it. And that's important because I'm not here to preach to the choir or preach down to you because I'm as guilty. Because the devil doesn't need you to fail in a moment of crisis. He just needs you distracted on a Tuesday. It's one of the beefs I had with church. It seems hypocritical, right? You go into Sunday, repent for your sins, and then start the perpetuating cycle of sin on Monday morning, knowing you can get away with it because you could just ask for forgiveness on Sunday. Isn't that how virtue signaling works? It's the lies that we tell ourselves. Scripture doesn't call us to fantasy courage. It calls us to daily obedience. In Luke 9:23 it says, and he said to them all in if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me daily, daily. Not once, not in a movie scene, not in a hypothetical, daily proactively checked in, not checked out. Dying for your family is super dramatic. The probability of it happening very slim to none. But it's easy to say because it feels good. Living for them is harder to say because it's work. It's real work. 1 Corinthians 15:31 says, I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. Daily deaths look like discipline, like consistency, like saying no when nobody sees it and nobody is there to provide affirmation. And man, do we love affirmation? I do. What if you don't have it? What if. What if there is no applause? Can you still get it done? A lot of people say that they die for them, but are you rising for them? Rising before the sun? The excuses, maybe even the impulses. Proverbs 24:10 says, if thou fate in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. And how many of our strength is small? I virtue signal. It's big. I got my stuff together. I have integrity, character, all these things a woman would want. But I fall so short. Something that's helped me profoundly is praying with gratitude, checked in daily. So if I see myself on the phone neglecting my family, if I see myself drifting into sin, if I pray with gratitude, it helps me course correct. It's that pulling out of the compass, taking a new azimuth and heading, and then stepping in the right direction. Let's be honest, alcohol, for example, which I've stopped drinking completely, isn't the issue. Distraction is. Numbing yourself instead of leading is because again, it's easier to virtue signal. It's easier to drink and numb yourself than it is to get up and do the hard work. How many people have a vision of their success? And they post about it, they talk about it, but how many people do the hard work day in and day out to actually get closer to that success? Ephesians 5, 15, 16 says, See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Redeeming the time, not wasting it, not dulling it, not trading it for temporary peace. Do you know the wealthiest man in 1998? No, I couldn't tell you the wealthiest man today. Why? Because when you die, your wealth dissolves and nobody cares. Your kids don't need a martyr, they don't need a hero in one moment, in one specific fantasy in your mind. They need a present father. They need a hero that wakes up, engaged and present every single day. Your wife, for example, doesn't need presentations, promises. She needs consistency. James 1:22 says, but be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves. Hero talk without daily action is self deception. Men ask, what would I do if everything went wrong? That's the wrong question. The real question is, what are you doing today while everything is still salvageable. And it's never too late. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late. And remember, no kingdoms are lost in a single battle. They rot in time through neglect. And families are no different. You don't prove your love by what you do in catastrophe. You prove it by what you do in the ordinary. The gym, the Bible, the table, the boring, the burden, the mundane. That's where men and women of God are formed. And especially now, I'm figuring it out. That's where families are saved. One of the main mission statements of Unshaken Community Church is to save families, to keep families together. Like I've said before, I've been in many units in the military. In my life, the most important unit is a family under God. I appreciate you guys.