The American Soul

Set Your Purpose On God And Your Actions Will Follow

• Jesse • Season 5 • Episode 130

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We press on the gap between professed priorities and daily choices, then lay out a simple plan to realign time with faith, marriage, and purpose. Scripture from Song of Solomon, Hebrews 10, and Psalm 109 anchors practical steps, with stories from history and a spotlight on prison ministry.

• aligning time with stated priorities
• three-minutes-a-day habit for Bible, prayer, and spouse
• consistency over intensity as a spiritual practice
• Song of Solomon on faithful marital love
• Hebrews 10 on assurance, endurance, and community
• Psalm 109 and trusting God with injustice
• salvation promise and hope that holds
• courage from history and George Washington Carver’s purpose
• warning against ideologies that steal devotion
• support for prison ministry bringing Bibles inside
• book recommendation and ways to support the show

If you can donate $3 a month, $5 a month, there’s a website on the Buzz Sprout webpage where the podcast is hosted, where you can donate that money


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SPEAKER_00:

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, in whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. I know you'll have other things vying for your attention, so thank you for being here. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you. Very, very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the people listening to the podcast, Father. Here across America and around the world. Be with them, be with our families. Guide them and bless them, strengthen the marriages of those who are married. Guide those who have children and raising them to know you, Father. Help us to teach our children your precepts, your word. The gospel of your Son Jesus Christ on our hearts and our minds. Our doorposts to think about it when we get up in the morning to think about it when we go to bed in the evening. Help us to get our priorities, Father, in the right order. We have We obviously have our priorities so out of order. We put so many things before you. So many things before people. The people that you've put in our lives, Father. Help us to trust in you, even when we can't see it, Father, even when we think that nothing is is gonna turn out okay in this world. Help us to trust that in the long term you're in control. You're always in control, Father. But to trust that you know what's best for us, that you want what's best for us. God, our leaders be with those who are just. Draw them closer to you, Father. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith, both in the pulpit and in the state. And God, my words here, Father, please. Your son's name we pray. Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him? And if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Are you really acting on those things that you claim are your top priorities? Or are you giving a lot of time to, as I'm guilty of far too often, folks, uh Netflix, Hulu, Prime, social media of all different stripes, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Snapchat, whatever it is, Pinterest. You know, we we claim, a lot of us claim, well, God's my top priority, my spouse is my second priority, but our actions don't line up with that. The balance sheet doesn't show that of our time. You know, we claim we want to make America great, to make, to turn her around, but the only real way to do that is to make America Christian, to share the gospel. And we don't really do that. We claim one thing, but our actions, which tell the true story, they tell another. One thing that I that I've seen a few times, uh, we talked about it, I think yesterday or the day before on the podcast, uh, the article about screen time talked about setting clear expectations. And that's that's true in every aspect of our life, folks. And I think that's a lot of the reason that that we have problems in certain areas is because we don't set clear expectations in marriage with our kids for ourselves. And so it's easy. Well, I'll tell you this whole story, vignette, and we'll move on. It's Kobe Brunt. I'm gonna throw under the bus again. A lot of great little quotes from him. Uh and he talked about in the summers, in the offseason, in between years when he was playing in the NBA, he would make a literal, he would make a contract with himself about what his practice schedule was going to be like, what he was gonna accomplish each day. Throughout offseason. And he said he was giving advice to other players. He said, once you make that deal with yourself, he said, once you make that contract, he said, you have to absolutely stick to that each day. He said, and there's gonna be some days you get to the end of the day and you've got like one set of something left, two sets you're like, oh man, I'll just double up tomorrow. I'm tired. I want to go do whatever, go out with my friends. I don't feel like it. He said, you cannot do that. He said, you have to stick to that contract, that plan. And I think so many of us today fall into that trap. We have a plan, we have a, you know, I want to get closer to God. I'm gonna read the Bible each day. And then we go, well, I really don't feel like reading it today. I'll read twice as much tomorrow. And what does that lead to? Well, then we get behind, then we get disheartened, and then we just stop. Right? Whatever your goal is, right? If you haven't been reading the Bible at all, read it for three minutes each day. You've got three minutes at some point, folks, even if it's right before you go to bed. If you haven't been praying, pray for three minutes each day. If you and your spouse have gotten adrift, even if your spouse isn't willing to get on board, you make the point each day, I'm gonna sit and talk to them for three minutes. I'm gonna do X, Y, or Z for three minutes. I'm gonna do the dishes for three minutes each day, whatever it is. Your kids, if you've gone down that path of screen so far, man, and you just think you can't get back, just pick, okay, I'm every day, and then stick to it. It's like going to the gym, folks. It's better to go to the gym and work out for 15 minutes each day than it is to work out for three hours once a week. Consistency, discipline, repetition, muscle memory. Marine Corps preaches that for a reason. I spent way longer on that than I intended to. All right, so our marriage verse today, I think I need to check this, is Song of Solomon, yeah, chapter 8. Lovers reunited at their country home. Oh that you were like my brother, who nursed at my brother's breasts, at my mother's breast. If I should find you outside, I would kiss you. I would not be despised. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother. She who used to instruct me, I would cause you to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate. To the daughters of Jerusalem, he left his left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases. Love renewed in Lebanon, a relative. Who is coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree. There your mother brought you forth. There she who bore you brought you forth. The Shalamite to her beloved set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house it would be utterly despised. The Shulamites brothers, we have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she has spoken for? If she is a wall we will build upon her a battlement of silver, and if she is a door we will enclose her with voards of cedar. The Shulamite, I am a wall and my breasts like towers. Then I became in his eyes as one who found peace. Solomon had a vineyard at Belhaman. He leased a vineyard to keepers. Everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand silver coins. The Solomon, my own vineyard is before me, you, O Solomon, may have a thousand, and those who tend its fruit two hundred. The beloved You who dwell in the gardens, the companions listen for your voice, let me hear it. The Shulamite, make haste my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spice. Bible verses for today. We're gonna go to Hebrews chapter ten verses eighteen through thirty-nine. And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the most high place. And since we have a great high priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works, and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins, and there is only the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to us. For we know the one who said, I will take revenge, I will pay them back. He also said the Lord will judge his own people. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you. Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that He has promised. For in just a little while the coming one will come and not delay, and my righteous ones will live by faith, but I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away. But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones whose souls will be saved. Psalm one oh nine verses one through thirty one. O God whom I praise, don't stand silent and aloof, while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me. They surround me with hateful words and fight against me for no reason. I love them, but they try to destroy me with accusations. Even as I am praying for them, they repay evil for good and hatred for my love. They say get an evil person to turn against him, send an accuser to bring him to trial. When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty. Count his prayers as sins. Let his years be few, let someone else take his position. May his children become fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children wondrous beggars and be driven from their ruined homes. May creditors seize his entire estate and strangers take all he has earned. Let no one be kind to him, let no one pity his fatherless children. May all his offspring die. May his family name be blotted out in the next generation. May the Lord never forget the sins of his father. Fathers, may his mother's sins never be erased from the record. May the Lord always remember these sins, and may his name disappear from human memory, for he refused all kindness to others. He persecuted the poor and needy, and he hounded the brokenhearted to death. He loved to curse others, now you curse him. He never blessed others, now don't you bless him? Cursing is as natural to him as his clothing, or the water he drinks, or the rich food he eats. Now may his curses return and cling to him like clothing. May they be tied around him like a belt. May those curses become the Lord's punishment for my accusers who speak evil of me. But deal well with me, O sovereign Lord, for the sake of your own reputation rescue me, because you are so faithful and good, for I am poor and needy, and my heart is full of pain. I am fading like a shadow at dusk, I am brushed off like a locust, my knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones. I am a joke to people everywhere. When they see me they shake their heads in scorn. Help me, O Lord my God, save me because of your unfailing love. Let them see that this is your doing, that you yourself have done it, Lord. Then let them curse me if they like, but you will bless me. When they attack me, they will be disgraced, but I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing. May my accusers be clothed with disgrace, may their humiliation cover them like a cloak. But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord, praising him to everyone, for he stands beside the needy, ready to save them from those who condemn them. Proverbs twenty seven thirteen. For God can be trusted to keep his promise. God tells us, folks, if we will confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and believe, choose to believe, folks, whatever your heart, whatever doubts and deceit your heart or your mind, just simply choose to believe that God raised Jesus Christ of Nazareth from the dead, his son. And you will be saved. That's God's promise. He cannot lie, he cannot break his promise. All right. Private, U.S. Civil War, Delta Company, 4th Missouri Cavalry, U.S. Army, February 22nd, 1864, Ivy Farm, Mississippi, U.S.A. Voluntarily risked his life by taking a horse under heavy fire beyond the line of battle for the rescue of this captain, whose horse had been killed in a charge, and who was surrounded by the enemy's skirmishers. Accredited to St. Louis, St. Louis County, Missouri, not awarded posthumously. Presented july 8, 1897, born March 25, 1844, Wiesbaden, Germany, died August 10, 1930. Buried Mount Hope Cemetery, 12, Tac 107, TAC 3, St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Charles Biger Beager. Man, coming out of Germany again, we could use immigrants like that today, couldn't we? George Washington Carver. Soybeans, pecans, sweet potatoes, but most of us know peanuts. As a very small boy exploring the almost virgin woods of the old Carver place, I had the impression someone had just been there ahead of me. Things were so orderly, so clean, so harmoniously beautiful. A few years later in the same woods, I was to understand the meaning of this boyish impression. Because I was practically overwhelmed with the sense of some great presence. Not only had someone been there, someone was there. Years later, when I read in the scriptures, in him we live and move and have our being, I knew that the writer, what the writer meant. Never since have I been without this consciousness of the Creator speaking to me. The out of doors has been to me more and more a great cathedral in which God could be continuously spoken to and heard from. Man who needed a purpose, a mission to keep him alive, had one. He could be God's co-worker. My purpose alone must be God's purpose, to increase the welfare and happiness of his people. Why then should we who believe in Christ be so surprised at what God can do with a willing man and the laboratory? What is our purpose, folks, at the end of the day? What is our real purpose? What's the only real ultimate purpose that we can have? At the end of the day, all the other pursuits, money, fame, sex, fortune, even some that we view as noble, if we just stop at that point, right, like loving your children, it's not much of a purpose. The purpose has to be God's purpose. And along the way, that's gonna line up with things like loving your spouse, loving your children, caring for the poor and the widow and the orphan and the needy. But the purpose has to be God's purpose. That's gotta be our purpose each day, to do God's will, to save as many as we can, to work as hard as we can, as long as we can, to save as many as we can for God and Jesus Christ. Right? And when you hear Mr. Carver, Dr. Carver here, talking, you also understand God isn't limited to one particular denomination, folks. That's one of the things that is so sad and infuriating at the same time as people that try and claim that God is only working through their particular denomination. Any Protestant denomination, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox folks, that's just simply not true. You won't find that anywhere in the Bible. And people that tell you that, they're just they're risking their own souls and they're risking yours too. Because at the end of the day, when we get to heaven, it's not gonna matter what denomination you were part of. That's not gonna help you get into heaven. It's not gonna matter if you liked Mary or Joseph or the disciples or the thief on the cross. That's not gonna get you into heaven. The only thing is Jesus Christ. I'm reading through Churchill's first volume on the Second World War called The Gathering Storm, and there's two quotes that I just came across that I wanted to read from him. The first is fascism was the shadow or ugly child of communism. The second is, well, I'm gonna, this is a long sentence, so I'm just gonna read this whole sentence. Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of communism. While Corporal Hitler was making himself useful to the German officer class in Munich by rousing soldiers and workers to fierce hatred of Jews and communists, on whom he laid the blame for Germany's defeat. Another adventurer, Mussolini, provided Italy with a new theme of government which, while it claimed to save the Italian people from communism, raised himself to dictatorial power. As fascism sprang from communism, so Nazism developed from fascism. Thus were set on foot those kindred movements, which were destined soon to plunge the world into even more hideous strife, which none can say has ended with their destruction. Socialism, Nazism, Fascism, communism, leftism. They're all just different shades of the same monstrous, godless, antichrist evil folks. And they all work hand in glove with Islam. And there is absolutely no peaceful coexistence possible with them. Wanted to tell you real quick about a man that I have started to talk to online for a while. It's been a while, actually. Uh and his name is Calvin, and he's a pastor over in Florida. And his website is fitofaith.org. And if you get a chance, he has a pretty robust prison ministry, takes Bibles into prisons, goes to some pretty nasty places, but definitely is following God's command to visit those who are in prison. And if you can support, he's not asking for money, he's just asking for Bibles. Um and that that's folks, that's it. That's why we read, that's one of the reasons we read the Bible every day on here, because if we really want to turn America around, there is no other way to do that besides following God, whether that's praying or sharing the gospel, right? That's what needs to be done. If you're looking for a family-friendly, fun, hopefully middle grade read, uh fantasy, kind of like Narnia The Hobbit, Harry Potter, that kind of stuff, I humbly recommend Countryside. There's two books printed already out there you can buy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your local bookstore. Working on the third in the series now. And if you enjoyed, if you'd leave a review, I would very much appreciate that. And if you're getting something out of the podcast, if you feel like you can donate$3 a month,$5 a month, there's a website on the Buzz Sprout webpage where the podcast is hosted, where you can donate that money. So I would be grateful for either of those. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages, God bless America, God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.