Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sheep Get Sheared. I'm your host, Austin Creed. And today we're talking about religion and how a lot of people tend to use it as a crutch. Now, I know immediately when you hear a statement. Like that, you immediately want to make up your own mind. You immediately have a gut reaction of ohh he's right. Or ohh, how could you say that? That's terrible. I would never put it in those terms. But I think it's important for us to. Keep an open mind. And wanting to better yourself and wanting to become. The person, the ultimate version of yourself embracing ideas or questions that might make you uncomfortable, or that you're not used to battling, is good practice for the complicated situations you'll find yourself in throughout. All of life. I mean, make no mistake about it. Religion, whether it's something, whether you classify as religion or a spiritual walk, whatever it is you want to talk about, spirituality. Is one of the pillars of our lives. In the military, I learned that there were basically 4 pillars of everyone's lives. You picture your your entire being as a structure, and these four elements are the pillars upon which your life is built. We have the physical, the psychological. The spiritual. And then I want you to guess the last one. What would you guess? The last one is. You put your guests in the comments section. If you want but the 4th 1:00. Is probably the most important, and it kind of brings everything in all together. But you know what? I don't want to give everything away. We're going to really hop into the Christian Jewish perspective because that's more what I'm familiar with. Oh, we're going to really hop into this because living the Christian life especially that's, that's how I grew up. And I still identify as being a Christian person. However, I have more of an unorthodox perspective. I wrote a book. With the bachelor talking all about my philosophy, if you want to know more about it, and I talked about it on the show all the time, OK? But you know what? We live in a society today that's not very hospitable, especially towards the traditional judeo-christian values in our society. Now some of you love that and others do not, and I don't want gut reactions of just it's either 100% right or 100% wrong. That's boring. And frankly, it's not an intelligent conversation. What we're going to do today is we're going to look at. Different issues that might pop up and we're going to address them and I'm going to give you my perspective as a biblical bachelor, let me give you my perspective as someone who's been in the military, as someone who's lived life for. For a while now, in my own opinion, in my own understanding of it. But let's look at so on this show, unless she gets your podcast, we talk about relationships quite a bit, and I believe relationships are important to discuss because they're the most important aspects of our lives. Personal, professional, romantic, platonic. Doesn't matter. Relationships. Especially romantic ones are the most important decisions we will make in. Our lives. And in the spirit of that, we're going to address this from a religious standpoint and why I don't not believe that it's always smart to just rely on religion and not use your own brain. Let's, let's explore this. 

Lust is ruining your relationship with God. So let me give you my best tips in order to help you bounce back. And get closer with them. Let's get into it. #1 delete anything that is allowing you to lust. So if it's Instagram, tick tock. YouTube, Snapchat. I don't care what it is. If it is causing you to Luz, delete it and get it out of your life. Because the more that you have it in your life, you'll never be able to break away from it because that is a chain. That is advice that you're holding on to. If you don't have the self-control for it. Get it out of your life, #2. Keep yourself busy when you're busy with hobbies or jobs or working on a business you don't have time to lust. You don't have time to worry about the temptation in your life find you something that will keep you. Busy and you're good. Lastly, #3, you need to stay in that Bible. Often times whenever I struggle with less, I find that when I start to read my Bible it calms me down and it gives me a sense of foundation and peace. Whenever I read it, get into your Bible. There's so much wisdom and great words in there. I promise you. When. You are reading your Bible. You can't even. Fall back into temptation. Love you guys. You have a blessed day. 

I really hope I don't get a copyright. For that but. Let's really explore this because lust, when it comes to relationships, it's an aspect of a relationship. And for men especially, we struggle with this. This is just an unavoidable fact, and I don't want to hear the most, and I don't deal with this. I'm too much of a boss to deal with this, not a please. Please spare it for your friends who you try to front on and impress. I'm not gonna buy that garbage number. One thing that I noticed straight out the gate is this. People often use their reliance on God as an excuse is not to grow as an individual. That's the one thing that I, one of the things I really don't like. Now, do I think it's important to believe in something bigger than yourself? Absolutely. Do I still believe in God? Yes, I do. However, I don't use God like a walking stick. The crutch. God likes men of action in my experience, and I'm not going to claim to speak for God. I'm not not people do that already and historically not great. But at the end of the day, you need to think for yourself. And people talk about us being a sin and all that, and it is, but it may not be a sin for the reason you expect. We'll get to that later. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back through this video again. And I'm gonna turn off the volume this time because I don't want to get a copyright on this video. I don't know if I'm music's copyrighted or not. Let's go back and let's explore this again. The less is ruining your relationship. See, it's interesting. He talks about straight out the gate. First thing I notice is he talks about lust and how it affects you and what not. And you're right, it does. However, here's the alternative perspective we talk about lust. We talk about sin and all this stuff is if you've been in church or in synagogue, they kind of talk about this topic at least a little bit or they might. Hint around it, because they want to be child friendly as of children or teenagers or whoever. Don't understand what we're talking about. All they gotta do is go on TikTok and see all this rainbow riding garbage. You know that is permeating our society. But again, let's go back to his number one thing I wanna look at this number one is delete. Social media is allowing you to lust. OK, that's not bad. It's not bad. But again, this is just treating the symptoms, in my opinion. We need to get deeper. What is it that's actually affecting you? Because our biochemistry is something that we can. Used to our advantage or it can be used to destroy you. It's it's it's similar to electricity. Electricity can cause an explosion or it can power your house. It could power your car. It can power an entire city and civilization, or it can cause a giant explosion. But it still stems from the same source of raw. Hormones really are for the human being is a sense of raw power and energy. But too many people don't know what to do with that energy. They have no purpose in their life. They have nowhere. No, they have nothing to conduct that energy. They kind of just let the energy run them wherever they can go, and then they heater out and they wake up the next morning and do the whole thing over and over again. Let's see what else he has to say. Ohh yeah, yeah yeah, keep going. Delete it, we get it. Oh, she didn't have so much Dang music. What's his number two? Keep yourself busy. OK, let's have that advice. Giving yourself busy is not bad advice. But again, we are dealing with the symptoms and not addressing the infection. The actual underlying issue that we're trying to address indirectly. And that issue is your mindset. You know, recently I'll be honest with you all, I'll be honest because I believe in upfront honesty on the show. As someone who's been trying to. Build than myself as a better person, I practice what I preach on this show. If you think I'd turn the show off and I'd go off and just goof off and do dumb crap, you have not been watching the show long enough. I am constantly trying to better this show trying to help other people trying to make money trying to do all these things that are incredibly important. The problem is there needs to be a process. You need to know yourself and you need to know what you're dealing with, because if you just get too passionate, if you're couple passion to overflow. Then you're going to encounter maybe too much adversity and then you can lead yourself to failure, and then the whole system falls apart. But that's where the that's where discipline comes in. When I was in the military, I learned about this concept of discipline. I learned that you do the things you ought to do not cause. You always want to, but because that is what you must do. You that is what is required of you. That is what is expected of you and by in the military with by your leadership. But in your own personal life has to be an expectation, a bar to which you hold yourself, and you will not allow yourself to dip below that bar. But it's up to you to enforce that easy when there's someone else calling you out. And holding you accountable a lot harder when that accountability comes from within, that is difficult and hard to. I think I made my point on this. I wish this didn't have so much Nang music I could go through it a little bit more but. You see, in my opinion this is. Something that Christian men Jewish men need to hear because too many of us, we stem either into complete debauchery or complete devotion, and we need to find a healthy medium of living. In reality, you could try to separate yourself as much as possible. Or indulge yourself as much as possible, but eventually you're going to be forced to find that healthy balance, because otherwise you're going to be out of touch or out of time. And going back to relationships, a lot of times people become religious because they want to find meaningful relationships, whether it be romantic or platonic. And one of the biggest problems I have with Christianity, especially because it's a lot less fervent than Judaism. But a lot, there's a lot of lukewarm Christians out there, but one of the biggest problems I have is people pushing marriage, as if marriage has not changed since the days of which the Old Testament and New Testament writ. And it has, it just has we look at society used, the church used to be the one that connected marriages. Now it's the state through a legal binding contract. But the problem is we take all information and try to use it in the modern world and we end up having a miscommunication. And it doesn't always line up and then we have the problems in our modern day Society of men not wanting to get married and women can't find a partner and they're becoming unmarriable and everything else. But let's see what this gentleman has to say. Hey, I told you what? I don't think Christian men need to hear. He's not gonna tell you what he thinks. That all Christian men need to hear. 

Let's let's Christian men need to hear this. Go after the one so many Christian guys are pursuing girls simply because they're there. 

Like well, this is the safe, convenient option and it just makes sense, so I'm going. 

To ask her out. Dude, you're dating. To marry, remember that means that you should pick every single girl you pursue very carefully. I mean, if you're gonna put yourself out there, at least go for the one that makes your spirit leap. The one that forces you to get out of your comfort zone and risk rejection. The one that makes you nervous. The one that makes you. Ohh gosh, there's no way she'd settle. For me, go after that one. Don't settle, man. Go for the home run. 

What kind of advice is that? Ohh my goodness you know. See, here's the problem. I have a lot of religious men like. They're very, like, almost zealous is there's like, this line of you either are a Christian simp or you're non Christian and nobody listens to you and you're out in the cold. So here's the problem I have. We are teaching men to be weak or encouraging them to accept. A very poor self-image and that their entire self worth comes from just pouring their soul out to other people and hoping they don't get taken advantage of that they don't get exploited and that they don't get their entire life upended. That's a horrible strategy. 

Oh, hell no. 

And frankly, it makes me sick and I don't like it. I really don't like it and it makes. Me really unhappy. I get a lot of you who disagreed with me. You're going to say it. Comes down to this business business. 

Numbers SRK, yes. 

You're going to assume I'm only saying it because I want to make money or because of my show or anything else. Let me tell you something. You can be a strong person without being tyrannical, and you can be humble without being an absolute. Door mat for people. The problem is a lot of Christian men that I am known throughout my life that I see on social media. The list could go on and on is you either are basically Andrew Tate or you're a simp and I don't think that that's the line needs to be drawn here. Why is it we, as Christian men, are supposed to idolize women? When. Women are. Really just people like us, but yet a lot of times they're replaced with God because we let our hormones and the head below our waist do the talking and sort of the one above it. We use the downstairs instead of the upstairs to think, and that's what sabotages us. But let's go through this one more time. And I'm going to break this down. In depth. So let's do it. 

Christian men need to hear this go. After the one. 

OK. The one. OK, pause. I gotta stop immediately. The whole concept of the one. 

Oh my God. 

Is a total lie total lie. 

You lied to me. 

We need to really understand this idea. Nobody ever married anybody thinking I'm definitely gonna be a statistic. This person's definitely not the one I'm gonna marry them anyways. No, of course not. Everyone marries people because they feel happy. They feel good. They think it's going to last forever. They're in love, blah, blah, blah. Everything is great. I'm loving life. I'm in the honeymoon phase and then life hits you and you're like. Ohh boy Ohh wolf. And then before you know it your wife says she's unhappy. Your kids don't respect you. Everybody's saying it's your fault even though you can't pin down why and then boom. Then boom, your whole life gets upended, and they blame you, and you're left holding the bag, wondering what the hell happened. Now I get it. That's just one example of how it could go. It's either that or you try to be a beta and you think she's gonna love you, and then she becomes a feminist and doesn't like you. I could go down the. List problem is. There is no such thing as the one. OK. The whole thing is a total mythology that is built off of people's desire. To turn fantasy into reality, let's keep going. 

So many Christian guys are pursuing girls simply because they're there. 

Like well, this is the safe, convenient option and it just makes sense. So I'm gonna ask. 

Her out. Dude, you're dating to Mary, remember? 

Why are we dating? To get married today? Why are we even dating and getting married at all? Because my question. Have you seen the dating market price recently? It's disgusting. It's not good. It's built off of use, as Karl Marx said, use is the only currency and that there are very few times where you will ever hear me quote Karl Marx in a semi positive way and that is one of the few. But let's get back to this idea of dating the Mary marriage in the modern day and I wrote about this. If you think this is just something I made-up. I've written about this. This is not something that you should be pursuing in my opinion. Now you can do whatever you want you it's your life. You do what you want. But I'm gonna. I'm here to tell you you are not just marrying that woman. You are marrying the state who will step in if you step out of line or they perceive that you have. They will step in and they will not be on your. Alright, I will let you know that right now if you think there's equality in the family court system, no, there isn't. 

Oh, hell no. 

If you think that you're going to be treated favorably in family court. I I don't know what world you're living in, but it's not this one. And my friends, the divorce rate is high and it's increasing by the year and it's increasing because the women are divorcing the men, not the men divorcing the women, which I'm not completely opposed to, by the way. But we need to understand you could do everything right and still lol. News, but nobody wants to talk about that in the Christian, in the Christian lifestyle space, nobody wants to talk about that because you're a bad, toxic man. If you talk about that and then you say, well, Austin, what's your solution? Hello. I wrote about it. Biblical bachelor. I wrote about it. Paul's lifestyle. I wrote about how you can go. A different route if you want to do. It well, let's keep exploring this guy's route and see if there's. Anything worth listening to? 

That means that you should pick every single girl you pursue very carefully. I mean, if you're gonna put yourself out there, at least go for the one that makes your spirit. 

Ohh right, cause it's totally your spirit that's leaping and not something else. Who are we kidding? Who are we kidding? What is this? 

The one that forces you to get out of your comfort zone and risk rejection, the one that makes you nervous? The one. That makes you think, well, gosh, there's no way she'd settle for me. 

Ohh Jesus, why in the world would you say that about yourself? That is disgusting. 

Getting weird. 

You mean to tell me that you would say that about yourself, that she's settling for you? First of all, women's value. Is often measured by whether they have or don't have a man by the way, and they spend most of their time analyzing your actions with their friends, their Mama, their grandma, their sister, their bestie. Doesn't matter. They're talking about you. What you did, do, what you didn't do, what you should have done, blah blah blah. List goes on. So my friends, that is just factually incorrect. Second, if that's your, if you talk to yourself that way, that's bad. You need to increase your self esteem by putting yourself in hard situations to where you're not nervous about that anymore. There's really not that much to be nervous about when it comes to women. I'm being 100% serious here. Women are people just like you. They have problems just like you. They have insecurities just like you. But yet you're nervous about your insecurities. You think she's got altogether, she doesn't. Just look at any woman who wears a lot of makeup. They're trying to hide themselves. From you. Don't look at women's clothing and women's makeup. It's all sitting around getting wear their imperfections. Do you really think that really secure people would do that? The answer is no. 

Go after that one. Don't settle, man. Go for the home run. 

I don't understand why we're measuring our entire worth by women's standards. Yeah, this whole idea of lust being sin and whatnot and we can go down the list of the like the seven deadly sins. Gluttony, greed, pride, lust, slothfulness wrath. Let's go on envy. I think I said that already, but my friends, these are sins, but not for the reason you expect. I would like to assert something different for. Today, because we like to say that, oh, because God said it was bad, it was bad. Well, sure, that's one answer. But here's my answer. Let's go to Napoleon Hills out winning the devil. And he's going to provide a different alternative idea to this sin that we talk about, whether it's religiously or or. Even spiritually, we're gonna break this down and you might not agree with this, but that's good cause you need to get yourself thinking thinking is good drifting, not thinking, being blind is bad. Let's let's do this. 

Let us dismiss the public school system and go back to the churches for a moment. All my life I have heard clergymen preaching against sin and warning sinners to beware and repent so they could be saved. But I've never heard any of them tell me what sin is. 

That's a very good point right out the gate. 

Will you give me some light on this? 

Subject Sin is anything one does or things which causes one to be unhappy. Human beings who are in sound physical and spiritual health should be at peace with themselves and always happy. Any form of mental or physical misery indicates the presence of sin. 

OK, I want to pause right here. Those of you have not heard or read this book. The author is interviewing the Devil in his mind. He how he defines the devil is the negative portion of the atom. He's not a beast with a forked tongue or spiked tail. He is the negative influence in your life. It's a very interesting way to approach the concept. I wanted to tell you that so that you understand what's about to happen, so the answers are the devil. The questions are from the author. Let's keep going. 

Name some of the common forms of sin. 

It is a sin to overeat because that leads to ill health and misery. It is a sin to overindulge in sects because that breaks down one's will power and leads to the habit of drifting. It is a sin to permit one's mind to be dominated by negative thoughts of envy, greed. Fear, hatred, intolerance, vanity, self pity or discouragement, because these states of mind lead to the habit of drift. It is a sin to cheat, lie and steal because these habits destroy self-respect, subdue one's conscience, and lead to unhappiness. It is a sin to remain in ignorance, because that leads to poverty and loss of self-reliance. It is a sin to accept from life anything one does not want, because that indicates an unpardonable neglect to use the mind. 

A lot to take in, isn't it? My friends, this is not something that's easy to understand, really internalize. It's kind of easy, easy to conceptually understand, but it's hard to integrate it into your life. But again, look at how he portrayed that. It was a different approach that I think is way more profound than just someone telling you that if you said you're gonna go to hell. To me, that doesn't really do a whole lot for me. Might have done me might have done something back in like the 15th or 16th century when we had no concept of science and reason, but now we do, we understand. This type of logic, because it makes sense, at least to me, I don't know if it does to you. But again, it's an interesting way of approaching this. The concept, isn't it? That not that's a sin, not because necessarily you're going to hell. That might be a consequence as well, but because it damages you, it damage shows a deficiency in the creation of what God is trying to make, which is. His own image it it shows that you are not happy and it shows that you are not coming from a sense of abundance and not signals desperation, which often leads to depraved behavior. Interesting, isn't it? All my friends, this all leads back to understanding that we can't use religion or spirituality as a crutch. There are 4 pillars that are supposed to be on the foundation of every person's life. Promised too many people they don't want. Have all four or they want to treat one. As it's more important. Than the other, but it's not. There's not more important. It's equally important. We need to really understand and question. The reality is that we see whether it's from our pastors, from people we respect. We need to ask questions and come up with our own answers to me. And that is a solution for every person's life, because they'll always look a little different. It will be tailored to you so that you can actually live it out, not just conceptually understand it, but. Be able to take reasonable and permittable action so that you can do something and better your own life instead of just making a subservient, normal, casual existence. My friends. Please question everything you heard, whether it's from me and somebody else. I really want you to understand that you're not alone in. This life and it's OK to not have all the answers, but at least ask the questions so that you can then. Come up with the. Sir, don't let other people to answer it for you. Just have the courage to say you. Know what? This is a hard question and I'm not going to find the answer right away, but I'm going to keep looking. I'm going to test certain potential answers, but at the end of the day I'm always going to be open to learning something new. I'm not going to use. Old comfortable situations, old comfortable beliefs or anything as a crutch through which to keep me going forward. I am going to really forge myself a better life, a better limb with which I can seize the next opportunity. I know when I speak in metaphors that can be hard to truly understand the gravity of what I'm encouraging you to do, but I really hope that this is getting through to you, because this is how my brain works, and I really hope that I'm not alone with conceptualizing certain different concepts in this complicated way. My friends please stay informed and vigilant in your life and not just accept. Everything everybody tells you all the time. In the meantime, I really hope that you learn something and that you can use this to better yourself in every way possible, because you stand to benefit the most. What do you have to lose? I'm out. Peace.