Skip to content Stand Alone Messages: It's Time! Jun 18 · 52 min ...more
Stand Alone Messages: It's Time!
June 18, 2023 · 52 min
In our current "woke" culture, God's design for gender is being neglected to follow satanic ideologies that promote the LGTBQ agenda. At BRAVE we champion the Word of God and desire that both men and women can live out the fullness of their design and calling. On Mother's Day we celebrated women by studying Proverbs 31. This week, on Father's Day, we specifically addressed the men as we studied Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians at the end of his first letter. The need of the hour is for men to be men and stand up and lead so that Christ can be glorified, and our culture will turn their hearts back to God. May this week's message be an encouragement to both our men and women as we seek to honor the Lord. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church June 18, 2023 · 52 min · BRAVE Church
In our current "woke" culture, God's design for gender is being neglected to follow satanic ideologies that promote the LGTBQ agenda. At BRAVE we champion the Word of God and desire that both men and women can live out the fullness of their design and calling. On Mother's Day we celebrated women by studying Proverbs 31. This week, on Father's Day, we specifically addressed the men as we studied Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians at the end of his first letter. The need of the hour is for men to be men and stand up and lead so that Christ can be glorified, and our culture will turn their hearts back to God. May this week's message be an encouragement to both our men and women as we seek to honor the Lord. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less In our current "woke" culture, God's design for gender is being neglected to follow satanic ideologies that promote the LGTBQ agenda. At BRAVE we champion the Word of God and desire that both men and women can live out the fullness of their design and calling. On Mother's Day we celebrated women by studying Proverbs 31. This week, on Father's Day, we specifically addressed the men as we studied Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians at the end of his first letter. The need of the hour is for men to be men and stand up and lead so that Christ can be glorified, and our culture will turn their hearts back to God. May this week's message be an encouragement to both our men and women as we seek to honor the Lord. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are and Lord, we thank you. Lord, we thank you for 148 souls that will never face a crisis eternity, but have welcomed you into their0:11 life through the power of your holy spirit through repentance and faith. Lord, we pray that those children would grow up in the knowledge of the Lord, that they would help advance your kingdom on this side of heaven and0:23 that you would continue to grow your church. Father, we thank you for the ministry of your word. We believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, Lord, that you have a word for us.0:35 And so Lord, our prayer today is that you'd helpful to me and you'd helpful to all of us as we hear that we would hear your voice loud and clear. So now for all of us who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord, who0:46 will believe what the Lord says specifically to you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen, amen. I'm fond0:58 of saying so go the men, so goes the church, so goes the church, so goes the world. If you wanna change the world, you need godly men to change the world. The greatest example of a godly1:10 man is the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came to the world, if there's 1 relationship you wanna study and if there's 1 person that he cared about more than any other, it was his dad. From the very1:21 time that he was a young boy, we see his family traveling back to Galilee from Jerusalem and they realize Jesus isn't with them, so they make their way back down to Jerusalem and they find him in the temple and they say,1:33 son, where were you? And what does he say? Did you not know I needed to be in my father's house? We see him grow in wisdom, knowledge and stature, but throughout his entire earthly ministry, he's always wanting to spend
1:44 time with his dad. Mark 1 35 says, very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went to solitary places where there he prayed. He was seeking his father early in the morning. We see after he fed
1:55 the 5000, he's up on a mountainside praying all night long before he walks on the water and calms the storm and takes the disciples to the other side. Even before he selected his 12 apostles out of all of his disciples,
2:06 he stayed up all night praying to his dad. When it came his time to be betrayed and go to the cross, he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, what do we find him doing? He's talking with his dad. He wants to spend time with his
2:17 dad. On the cross, who's he talking with? He's talking to his dad. Father, forgive them for they do not what they do. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And right now he's even standing at the ready waiting to
2:29 hear the words of his dad saying, go get my people and that's when he'll come back. He still listens to his dad. He loves his dad. He loves him so much that even when he was leaving and he told his disciples, I'm going
2:39 to prepare a place for you but I will come back for you. And they said, well, where are you gonna go? He says, well, I'm I'm going to heaven. He goes, well, how do we know how to get there? He said, I am the way, the
2:48 truth, and life. No 1 comes to the father except through me. He's like, well, just show us the father. That'll be enough. And here's what he says. If you've seen me, you've seen my father. I am the father are 1.
3:00 When we see our God in the Bible, we see God as all powerful. He's omnipotent. He created everything out of nothing. We see that God is everywhere. He's omnipresent. We see
3:12 God as all knowing. He's omniscient. I mean, our God, our father is perfect. And even in Jesus Christ ministry, when people were trying to talk about what God was like, he was
3:24 saying, first of all, I am God and I know my father. I could tell you exactly what he's like. And he spends time in Luke chapter 15 telling 3 stories about a lost coin, a lost sheep and 2 lost sons. And he talks about
3:36 how his father is compassionate and slow to anger and merciful and not willing that any would perish but that all would come to the knowledge of him. And yet we see that the father is also defined as a
3:47 consuming fire. The father is 1 who doesn't tolerate evil. The 1 the father is 1 who punishes sin. All these things are true about the father. And so today what I wanna do is not just talk about fatherhood, I wanna talk
3:59 specifically to the men. On mother's day this year, I went through Proverbs 31 and give a message specifically to the women. And this year, wanna give a message specifically to the men because I believe God created 2
4:11 genders. I think both are equal in God's sight. Both are distinct and unique and have both equal value. And I think we need to address the men as well. And the reason we need to address the men is because of what I said.
4:23 So go the men, so goes the church, so goes the church, so goes the world. If we don't have godly men, we have no hope in this world. We need to have hope in this world. I mean, statistics will just tell you how bad it
4:34 is. I mean, if you just look across the landscape and you do a study, you'll realize that over 99 percent of the rapes are caused by a man, 96 percent of mass shootings are men, 89 percent of murders,
4:46 men, 87 percent of robberies, men. And so what people begin to say is, oh, the men are the problem in the society. It's toxic masculinity. We can't have men be men. We need to
4:58 feminize men. No. We don't need to feminize men. We need godly men. We need godly men. And we need men to be men the same
5:09 way women are called to be women. I tell women, be as feminine as as you wanna be. Be be the fullness of a woman if that's what God created you. But men, be the fullness of all that God created you to be. And here's the
5:20 problem, from the time I was a young boy growing up in the church, the church was the 1 place that I would come where I didn't see strong godly men. Some in the business world, some in
5:32 the athletic world, some in the academic world, didn't find them in church. Found very feminized, effeminate men that didn't lead. I was never attracted to Christ because I didn't see men going
5:44 after Jesus the way I saw him going after something else. We want men going after Jesus. We want men leading for him. And now is the time. I mean, now is the time to do this.
5:56 Our our culture is on the verge of an entire collapse. We need men to step forward and do something. People are waiting for men to step forward and do something. Right? Everybody in here has
6:08 been hurt by a man, just so you know. Every woman in here has been hurt by at least 1 man, if not multiple men. Every guy has been hurt by a man because when men don't live the way they're called to live, the
6:20 wound that it leaves is significant. So the answer is not getting rid of men. The answer is not making men feminine. The answer is training godly men to be godly so that men can be the fullness of what Jesus Christ
6:32 wants them to be as their gender. And that's what we wanna talk about today because now is the time because the world is waiting for men to stand up. I heard a story a number of years ago about a pastor that was on
6:43 vacation when his sons were little there about the age of 10, 8 and 3. And he told them as they were on the fishing dock, as he was going back to get some more life jackets and utensils and stuff for the
6:54 boat, just watch your younger brother, keep an eye on him, keep an eye on him. And while he was back there, he heard his 2 older boys scream, dad, come hurry. And the dad came running around the corner,
7:06 noticed a 3 year old boy had fallen in the lake and immediately he went into action. He didn't stop and pray about what should I do? He just went and dove after his son because his 3 year old son didn't know how to
7:18 swim. And he dove down and started looking, but the water was all muddy and he couldn't see anybody and he was floating around trying to see where he was and he was running out of breath. So he came up, took a deep
7:28 breath and went back down under saying, if I never come back up, I'm gonna find my son. And sure enough, right before he was about ready to run out of air, he felt a boy. He felt his son and his son had been wrapped
7:40 around the dock. He was just like holding on. And so he grabbed him and pulled him off and brought him to oxygen. They laid out on the dock for a second and just shock. Son was okay, he
7:52 was okay. About 5 minutes later, he looked at his 3 year old son. He said, what in the world were you doing holding on to the pole? He said, dad, I was just waiting
8:04 for you. Just waiting for you. There's a world out there just waiting for men to be who God called you to be, that are dying without your leadership. And that's what we
8:16 want to address today. If you have your Bible, I wanna encourage you to open your Bible to first Corinthians chapter 16. First Corinthians chapter 16, we're gonna look in verses 13 and 14. It's the last chapter in the
8:28 book of first Corinthians that Paul writes to a church that he's encouraging, that knows the Lord but they're not living it out. They're not godly and he's exhorting them at the end and telling them, here's how I want
8:38 you to live. And as he's saying these words to them, they're applicable to all the people, men, women, boys, and girls, but I'm specifically making application today to the men. Here's what he writes. Be
8:50 on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Beyond the alert, stand firm in
9:02 the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. It's time men. It's time for us to be everything that God wants us to be. Time for us
9:14 to let Jesus Christ empower everything that we need to be. And there's 5 truths I wanna talk about from this text that it's time for us. And the first is this, wake up, wake up. It's time to
9:26 engage. Wake up. It's time to engage. Notice what he says, be on the alert. What's that mean? Stand at the ready. Be vigilant. Notice the signs
9:38 of the times. See what's going on. Stay awake. Be alert. Remember when Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane and took 3 of his disciples along with him and said, hey, stay alert. Be on the ready.
9:49 Jesus knew he was about ready to be arrested. And what happened to these disciples? As Jesus goes off to pray knowing that he's about ready to go to the cross and he's sweating drops of blood that he's praying so hard
10:01 and so stressed out, and he goes back and finds his 3 main disciples and what are they doing? They're asleep at the wheel. And Jesus said, could you not just say wake with me for at least an hour? I mean, all I'm
10:13 asking is an hour. I'm about ready to die. I mean, pray with me. Be on the alert. It means wake up. Men, listen to me. Wake up. Look at what's going on in our woke
10:25 culture and wake up. I mean, here's what you need to realize. When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, heaven and hell are eternal realities. It is very, very
10:36 real. When people die, they either go to live with Christ permanently or be separated from Christ in an eternal hell permanently. That's reality.
10:48 So when you see things going on in your family, in schools, in our culture, in your neighborhood, it's not enough to just say, well, that's good for them. It's not good for me and I'm gonna be wake up.
11:00 If you don't engage and get involved in what's going on and share the gospel, these very people will spend eternity apart from Christ in hell. And who's he called to lead?
11:12 You. God wants us to engage our culture with Christ. God wants us to lead in our culture for Christ. God wants us to stand up for
11:23 him, for Christ. That's what he wants. Wake up. Because oftentimes we're just like the disciples. We see things in the news, we hear things that are going on, and here's what we begin to think. Yeah. My wife does
11:35 the devotions with our kids. Yeah. That's the PTA's job. That's the HOA's job. I'm busy with my job. I'm not getting involved in any of that stuff. If I say
11:47 anything, I'm gonna get attacked. I might lose my job. I'm just gonna go to sleep. Wake up. If those of you who know Christ go to sleep, there's no hope for the world. Only
11:59 men that wake up can change the world. Now, have great hope because I believe with my whole heart, believe with my whole heart that if men will stand up and be who God called them to be, cities
12:11 will change, cultures will change, nations can change. That's why Jesus told us to go in all the world, alright? If I didn't believe that, I'd quit today. What's the point?
12:23 Jesus Christ died for all of our sins and rose from the dead. Through repentance and faith, you can have a relationship with him. If it stops there, I've already told you all the good news. I'm telling you to get engaged
12:35 in the battle. I mean, be involved in it. Do what Christ calls you to do. Wake up. You can't be asleep at the wheel and call yourself a man of
12:46 God. Spiritually wake up. Jesus said this. Jesus said, enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are on it, but narrow is the
12:58 gate, right? And small is the road that leads to life and few people find it. What does that mean? It means the majority of the people that you know are going to hell. I mean, think about it. Think about your friends at
13:10 work. Think about your friends at school. If they haven't repented of their faith and are walking in the truths of Jesus, they will go to hell. According to the word of God, they will. According to Jesus, they will. That
13:20 should bother us. That should bother us. Christ wants us to share the gospel. Christ wants us to wake up. Christ wants us to engage in our culture. He says, be on
13:32 the alert, right? We need to be on the alert against Satan schemes. We need to be on the alert against false teachers. We need to be on the alert against our cultural wokeness. We need to be on the alert against anything
13:43 that would go contrary to the Word of God. It means men wake up. Wake up. It's time to engage. You can't just sit by passively and say, my time's
13:55 past. I'm already retired. You know what? I've got all these other things going on. There's nothing more important than the kingdom of God and Christ righteousness in your life. Wake up. It's time to engage.
14:06 Be on the alert. Then he says this, stand firm in the faith. Stand firm in the faith. If Christ is calling you to wake up, the second thing he's calling you to do is stand up. Stand up. It's time to protect.
14:19 Stand up. Stand firm in the faith. It's time to protect. Now stand up means this. Stand up means to offer resistance to somebody or something. It means to refuse to abandon
14:31 one's opinions or beliefs. If you believe it here, you better believe it out there. Standing firm means I'm believing it here and I'm not giving up any ground out
14:43 there. Why? Because the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. When the world tells you shut up, that's a church thing, that's a separation between church and state, you proclaim it
14:55 even louder that Jesus is Lord whether you wanna believe it or not. You don't have the ability to make Jesus Lord, Jesus is Lord. You have the ability to
15:07 respond to him as Lord, but you can't make him Lord. I'm here to tell you he's Lord, he's always been Lord, he'll always be Lord, and he's Lord over all. He's Lord over
15:18 our nation. He's Lord over our schools. He's Lord over your neighborhood. He's Lord over your family. He is the Lord.
15:30 In the first century, Caesar was Lord. In our generation, we give Lordship to all sorts of other agencies, government and school. Jesus Christ is Lord. He has
15:42 all authority and men not only wake up, but would you stand up? Stand up at work, stand up on the golf course, stand up with your friends, stand up with your enemies, stand
15:54 up because if you really believe it, then live it because we need to protect what's going on that God wants to protect. You say, well, what do we need to protect? We need to protect
16:05 kids. We do. We need to protect our churches that they're true and we need to protect the deity and the lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what he talked about when he was here.
16:17 Did Jesus care about kids? He said, let the little children come to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. In Matthew 18, here's what he said to those who are hurting kids, to those who are taking
16:29 kids in the wrong direction. Matthew 18 6 says, but whoever causes 1 of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be
16:41 drowned in the depth of the sea. Is that clear? You know what a millstone is?
16:53 It's hundreds of pounds of a weight. Here's what he's saying. If any kid would wanna come after me and you're leading them in a different direction, it would be better for you to drown yourself than do that because the
17:05 hottest places of hell are for people like you. That's not politically correct because no Christian can be politically correct. You preach the gospel. When you have schools and
17:16 woke agenda that are more into indoctrination than education, you speak up against it. You stand firm with it. That's what we're called to do. Well, who's called to do that? My wife's
17:28 on the PTA. No, you as a man, you're called to do that. When school boards have their meeting, men, you should be the 1 showing up, telling them what to change. The reason that people keep pushing back is there's no 1
17:40 there standing up. All you have to do is stand firm and they won't push any longer. Why? Because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to you and Jesus said, will build
17:52 my church and even the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You have all the power you need in Christ to stand firm. Stand firm for our kids. You as parents get to decide where you wanna send your kids. I could say
18:03 a lot about that, but that's your decision as parents. But here's the truth, you better speak up about what's being taught to your kids and you better tell people it's wrong to promote an
18:15 agenda that goes against the word of God because that's what Jesus would do if he was here. And what about religiosity? People that call themselves by the name of Christ that aren't
18:27 Christians. I mean, don't care about your denominational background. We have people from every kind of denominational background and no denominational background don't even know what a denomination is, they come to
18:36 brave. The gospel is this, it's Jesus Christ plus nothing. That's the gospel. God sent his only son, Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of all.
18:47 He died on a cross. He rose from the dead and through repentance of your sin and turning to Christ, you can have life in him. That's it. There is no other way. You say, well, what
18:59 do you say about the word? I believe everything in the word of God is true. From Genesis 1 1 through Revelation 22 21, all of this book is true. When somebody starts talking from a pulpit
19:11 or bible study or anywhere else and say, yeah, well, I know it says that, but let's not pay attention to those. Let's go on here. I'm done with them. Done. If you don't want all the book, don't take any of
19:23 the book. Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed of you when I come. Shame on you for not preaching the word. Shame on you for not believing the word. And here's what people say. Well, pastor
19:35 Jeff, if you preach the entirety of the word, you're gonna offend a lot of people and people that would come to church what might not come because they'll be offended. They're already rebelling and going to hell. I don't
19:46 care. I want them saved. Hey, pastor Jeff, when I taught on Genesis and Revelation, when I taught on Genesis, in Genesis 1 that God created the world in 6 literal days and created 2 genders, male and
19:57 female, and they created 1 race, I had people write me and say, you can't just say that because there's a lot of Christians out there that believe that God didn't create the world in 6 literal days. And if you say that,
20:07 you're gonna turn off all the scientists out there. To which I said, I don't care what other people think about how God created the world. I care what God thinks
20:19 about how he created the world, and God believes he created the world in 6 literal days and rested on the seventh. So that's what I'm gonna preach. And if you don't like it, you can take it up with God when you get
20:29 there. God created 2 genders. He created male and female, and both have equal value in the sight of God, and both are distinctly different with distinct roles as to how they should function in the church, in the home,
20:41 and in the community. God created 1 race. It doesn't matter what your skin color is, we all came from Adam and Eve. Say, how can you say that? Because that's what the Bible teaches.
20:53 I'm not making political statements, I'm making truth statements about what Jesus teaches. And if we don't engage in that fight and we keep giving up ground, we're not gonna have anything to stand on. Don't tell me all
21:04 we care about is that Jesus died and rose. That's not all I care about. This is who he is. Everything in here reveals who he is. I love it all. Even the stuff I don't understand. It's the word of God.
21:17 When Jesus was talking to the pharisees, was he polite? Was he politically correct? Read Matthew 23 sometime. Woe to you. Woe to you. Woe to you. Woe to you. Woe to
21:28 you. You travel over the whole earth to win a single convert and when you do, you make him twice as much of a son of hell as you are. You clean the outside but inside you are whitewashed tombs,
21:40 you're dead man's bones, you're wicked. You diligently study the scriptures because you think that in them you have life, yet I'm standing right here before you and yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
21:53 You children of hell, you brood of vipers. Who is he telling that to? Nice religious people that were leading people away from the truth.
22:05 Did Jesus stand firm? Oh yeah, he stood up. That's why he got killed. How about Mark chapter 14 verse 62 where the high priest is questioning him, are you the Christ? Are you the are you really
22:17 deity? I mean, you claim you're the son of God, but maybe you're 1 of the sons of God and we're all sons of God or are you the Christ? Are you really God? And Jesus wasn't answering him. And the high priest said, you're
22:28 not gonna answer? Are you the Christ? And in Mark 14 62, Jesus gives his answer. Here's what he says. Are you the Christ? Here's what Jesus says. I am. Remember where that comes from in Exodus chapter 3?
22:40 The 1 that was speaking to Moses in the bush, that's the 1 that's talking to you right now. I am. And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. He quotes Daniel.
22:51 What's he saying? Here's the irony here. You're asking me if I'm God? I am. I've always been. I created you. You're trying to judge me for being who I am. Here's the irony.
23:02 Next time you see me, I'll be coming to judge you in the entire world. Was he politically correct? High priest tore his robe. That's what caused his crucifixion. We must protect the deity of Christ.
23:15 We must protect the church against false teachers. We must protect our children. It's not an option. It's not an option. We must wake up and be
23:27 engaged. We must stand up because it's time to protect. I don't think these are political issues. Abortion is not a political issue. It's not
23:39 a political issue. Now, before I talk about this, I want you to know something. I know there are hundreds plus people, women here at Brave that had had abortions. I want you to know something. Our God is so loving and so
23:50 forgiving that in Christ, his shed blood washes all of that clean. His blood has the ability to make everything new that you don't have to live under the guilt and shame of all of that.
24:04 But that doesn't change his standard. Women do not have a right to choose to murder. They don't. Men do not have a right to choose to murder. Abortion is murder.
24:16 So that's just political. Well, 150 years ago, if I would have stood up and said, slavery is immoral, it needs to stop. People would have said, you're just being political. Now, nobody would argue that. They would all
24:27 say, slavery is terrible. I can't believe we hung on to it that long. Abortion's terrible. I can't believe we're hanging on to it that long. Children are a blessing.
24:41 Marriage. According to the bible, marriage is between a man and a woman. There are only 2 genders. The first command in the bible is to be fruitful and
24:52 multiply. If you have the same sex, you can't be fruitful and multiply. You can't even obey the first command God puts in the bible. There's no such thing as civil unions. There's no such thing as homosexual
25:04 homosexual marriage. There's marriage because God designed it between a male and a female till death do they part. That's marriage. That's not political. I don't care what political party
25:16 you belong to. I care that we stand on the truth of God's word. That's what God says. How about gender? I don't care what the world says.
25:29 They think there's like I don't know how many genders people think there are. There's 2. Whatever you were in utero is whatever you will be. No matter how many drugs or surgeries you have, you will always
25:41 be what you were in utero, period. Full stop. Why do I care about it so much? Because I know that people that go
25:53 through gender transition and all those different things are multiple times more likely to commit suicide, multiple times more likely to be depressed. Why? Because you can't go against what God created and
26:05 be happy. Doesn't work. I care about you enough to tell you that. I value human life on both sides at birth and at death. I value freedom of speech. All these things are in God's word.
26:18 Stand up men. If you say you believe them, you can't just sit and clap in church and say, yeah, I believe that. If you're not doing anything out there, you're fake and you're a
26:29 coward. Get involved. Wake up. It's time to engage. Stand up. It's time to protect. Isn't it interesting in Ephesians chapter 6 where he tells us to put
26:41 on the full armor of God? What does he say? Ephesians 6 11, put on the full armor of God so you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. First Peter 5
26:53 9, he tells us to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. What's the devil wanna do? The devil wants to take ground. The devil knows that the world and every place in it belongs to the Lord. And what's he do? He
27:03 lies to people to say, no, this is my ground. I get to do whatever I want, however I want. Jesus says, no, everything belongs to me. I have all authority over all things. And if you truly believe in me,
27:15 speak it, live it, stand up to it. Don't get back down. Don't retreat. Don't run around. Don't be a coward. You stand firm. Men, I'm telling you, it's time
27:27 to stand up. You can't watch what's going on in our culture and be a Christian man and be passive. It's time to stand up. Now, if you're called to wake up and stand up, what's the third thing he
27:39 calls us to do? I love this part. I like it all by the way. Can you tell? Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith. What's the next few words? Act like men.
27:52 If you're gonna wake up and stand up, I'm gonna tell you this, man up. Man up. It's time to lead. Got any Texans in here? Cowboy up. All right?
28:03 Speak your language. It's time to man up and be a man. You're being called up. Now these words act like men are 1 word in our Bible.
28:16 You know what act like men really means? Be courageous. I think we'll say it like this here, be brave. Acting like a man means to be brave. What does it mean to be
28:27 brave? We use words like bold, resolute, authentic, virtuous, and engaged. Be bold in your faith. If you're really trusting Jesus, then here's my question. What are you trusting him for? Where are you being
28:39 bold in your faith? What are you trusting him to do that if he doesn't come through, you're in trouble? How are you trusting him with your money? How are you trusting him with your family? How are you trusting him with
28:48 your kids? How are you trusting him with your job? When's the last time you took a step of faith and said, I know I'm being prompted. Don't even know how to do this. I don't know why God's having me do it, but I'm gonna
28:57 do what God told me to do because I'm bold in my faith. That's what it means to act like a man. Being resolute in your identity. What does that mean? That means what God says about me and his word is completely true
29:09 about me and I'm gonna take ownership of it. I'm completely forgiven. I'm completely loved. The devil has no power over me. In Christ, I have all authority. I'm chosen.
29:21 I'm special. All those things because Christ is in me are true of me. Being a man means I'm gonna take hold of the word of God and believe that what God says about me is true even when the enemy lies and says it's not.
29:33 What about being authentic? Authentic in relationships. Authentic means this, I am who I am at all times in all places the same. I'm the same here as I am in my family. I'm the same in my family as I'm at work. I'm the
29:45 same at work as I am in my neighborhood. I'm the same in my neighborhood as I am on the golf course. I'm consistently authentic. There's something I don't like here. I'll tell you, I don't like it there. I'm not a
29:54 Christian chameleon where I act a certain way at church and I act a different way at home and I act a different way with my friends and I acted I'm authentic. What you see is what you get. That's what it means
30:06 to be a man. What about virtuous? Virtuous in character. It means I'm growing in Christ likeness by obeying his commands more and more. Not perfectly, but increasingly. I want
30:18 what Christ wants. I wanna grow like Christ wants me to go grow. I wanna be who Christ wants me to be. I wanna be virtuous in character. And e, I wanna be engaged in the mission. If Jesus Christ put
30:30 me here and decided this was the time and space for me to live and these were the gifts that he gave me, I wanna exercise them all for his glory through the church and through the world as long as God gives me
30:42 life. I wanna be on mission for him. That's what it means to act like a man. It's not machismo. It's not how much you can lift. It's not how many cars you can fix. It's not even if you have
30:53 a toolbox. I can say that on authority. It's who you are in Christ and how you're living for him. Because men tend to go 2 ways when they don't have Christ.
31:05 They tend to get abusive and be bullying or what happens most times in the church, they get really, really passive. They're milquetoast. They're cowards. They don't stand up for anything.
31:17 Their wives lead everything. Their children do everything. They might provide a paycheck if they're lucky, but they just kind of sit around and do nothing. And both are abuses of what it means to be a man. Being a godly
31:29 man means I'm gonna man up and be who God wants me to be and reflect his glory into every sphere of influence that I have. In my church, I'm a man, I'm called to lead in my church. In my home,
31:41 I'm the head of my home. I'm called to lead like Christ wants me to lead. I'm a elevate my wife and my kids. In my job, I'm called to lead for Christ wherever he's given me employment. In my neighborhood, I'm called to
31:52 lead for Christ because this is the ground he's given me to lead. That's what it means to be a man all the time. Not that we do it perfectly, but that we desire it and that we wanna grow in it. Man
32:03 up, it's time to lead. I wanna tell you something. Oftentimes we think that, you know, when we watch I had the privilege of being a starting quarterback and I had the unfortunate situation of being a
32:15 backup. So I've been on the field and I've been on the sideline, much prefer to be on the field. But on the sideline you can hide. You can't hide when you're in the game. On kingdom soil,
32:27 there is no sideline. When you got connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, you got put in the game. You're in the game. So act like a man. Now the Septuagint, which is the Greek
32:39 transliteration of the Hebrew Old Testament that was written, was first produced, you'll see that word act like men show up all over the place. I'll give you an example. In Joshua chapter 1, when he's taken into the
32:50 promised land where it says in your Bible, be strong and courageous, which is a correct translation, Here's what it would read literally. He's telling Joshua, be strong and act like a man. Only be strong and very
33:02 much act like a man. Have I not commanded you be strong and act like a man? I mean, that's how he was talking to Joshua. Act like a man. Acting like a man means to have the courage of the Lord on the inside to lead God's
33:14 people in the way that you want them to go. And when men lead, the world changes. And I'm not talking about outside prowess. When the Lord called Gideon and came to him, the angel came and said, mighty
33:25 warrior. Gideon's a wimp. According to the world standards, but not with God. God saw him as a mighty warrior. God even saw him as so powerful that he could trim his army down to
33:37 300 and God was gonna show him victory to show him just how mighty in the Lord he was. Manning up is not out of my own strength. Manning up is under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ so that I can live
33:49 out the full values of everything the Bible teaches me that I need to be. That's what it means to be a man. And now's the time. I remember talking to my wife when we were first married. She was in a Bible study with
33:59 about 200 ladies that were doing different small groups and I remember asking her, we lived in central Illinois. I said, what do you think would happen if another hundred women joined your Bible study? She said, I don't
34:08 even know what you mean. I'm like, well, if you had 100 more women, what would go on? She's like, well, we'd have 300. And I said, yeah, I know the math, but what would happen? She's
34:20 like, I don't know what you mean. We just have more godly women, I guess. I said, that's great. I said, you know what would happen if we had 300 men that were living for God completely? Our whole city would change
34:31 because men are called to get involved and unfortunately, the gospel has been relegated to just an intellectual ascent to I believe in Jesus and do nothing when the gospel is a call to be on the kingdom soil to advance
34:42 Christ's kingdom on this side of heaven. When you look at the great movements in church history, I mean, 1 of them was the Methodist movement, which is no longer a great movement because I was part of it and got out. But
34:54 at 1 point it was when John Wesley was the founder. Here's what he said. Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen
35:05 or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. You know I love preaching to men at brave? Because I love you. We have some of the most special,
35:17 godly men that come here. This is not a rebuke. I'm I'm preaching to myself while I'm preaching to you because I wanna be the fullness of everything God wants me to be and I want you to be the fullness of everything God
35:28 wants you to be when you exit this building. So when people see men from brave, they're like, oh, that's that group that truly lives for the Lord, that's godly, that's responsible, that speaks the truth and does it in
35:40 love. Man, that's an incredible group of men. That's what I want. That's what you want. That's why you're here. Amen. But now's the time God's called you to lead. He's called you to lead
35:52 in your family by the way. Man, I'm telling you, if you're the husband of a wife, bless her with your words. If you have children, bless them with your words. I mean, it doesn't take much of a reading through the old
36:02 testament to see how there was always a fight to see who was gonna get the blessing. There's something special about a dad speaking words of life over his children. It's not enough just to show it. You gotta speak it.
36:14 It's called a blessing. A blessing is spoken. Speak the blessing. I'll tell you how important it is because I know there's people here in 80, 90 years old that didn't get the blessing spoken over them and there's still
36:24 an emptiness in your heart saying, I wish I would've had a dad that told me how special I was. Well, why that emptiness? Because the way God designed it and the way God set it up for families is for godly men to be the
36:35 ones speaking blessing into his kids' lives. If you have sons, speak blessing into their life, show them their future. If you have daughters, speak blessing into their life and show them their future. If you have a wife,
36:45 speak blessing into her life and show her how special she is and how you're better because she's in your life. Now I'm not preaching this because I do it perfectly. It would only take a short conversation with my wife,
36:55 daughters and son to be like, he ain't perfect, trust me. But part of being a godly man then is going back when you're not and saying, I need to ask your forgiveness because the way I spoke to you or the way I acted
37:07 that was wrong, that was not in alignment of who I am as a Christian man and I need to tell you I'm sorry and this, will you forgive me? That's being godly too. God doesn't call you to be perfect. Only
37:19 he's perfect. God calls you to grow into perfection. God calls you to be that kind of man. Bless your kids. Everybody else is telling them stuff. Dads, you have more influence
37:31 in their life than any other person on the planet. Even when you think they're not listening, they're listening. Even when you think they're not watching, they're watching. Bless your family.
37:43 Bless your wife. Bless your kids. Men wake up, stand up and man up. It is time. If you're going to wake up, stand up and man up, let me tell you the fourth 1 that you need to do. Let's look at the
37:55 text. It says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men. Then it says this, be strong. Be strong means this, rise up, rise up. It's time to fight. Rise
38:07 up. It's time to fight. I know that's not like a churchy thing to say and the reason it doesn't sound like a churchy thing to say is our church in North America has become so feminized that men can't really be men
38:17 anymore in the church. It's hard. But when I read stories in the bible, I get pretty fired up about the stories in the bible because I see men being men. Remember when David killed Goliath? Anybody ever heard of that
38:28 story before? I mean, I love that story as a guy. At our warrior night, I preached that story for an hour. I love that story. In a cursory reading, what you find is it wasn't David's power, it wasShow more
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