Skip to content Your Biggest Enemy Sep 21 · 50 min ...more
Your Biggest Enemy
September 21, 2023 · 50 min
Your biggest enemy is… you. To take dominion over your life, you need to first take charge over yourself. What does that look like? Join us as we dive into taking dominion over the self.
Series Mark Driscoll Audio September 21, 2023 · 50 min · Mark Driscoll Audio
Your biggest enemy is… you. To take dominion over your life, you need to first take charge over yourself. What does that look like? Join us as we dive into taking dominion over the self. ...more Show the full description Show less Your biggest enemy is… you. To take dominion over your life, you need to first take charge over yourself. What does that look like? Join us as we dive into taking dominion over the self.
Series Mark Driscoll Audio
384K followers
With Pastor Mark, it’s all about Jesus! He is a spiritual leader, prolific author, and compelling speaker, but at his core, he is a family man. Mark and his
384K followers
0:00 Well, howdy. Pastor Layton here, and it's time for RealMed.0:04 So, I hope you have your nachos. I hope you got some non alcoholic beverages. I mean, whatever your conscious allows is fine with me. But there are people all over the globe0:15 joining us today for Real Men. It's gonna be awesome. We're growing like crazy. There's people all the way in other countries watching alongside you guys tonight, as well as churches that are gathering0:27 in their buildings watching real men with you guys. It's awesome to have so many men across this country, across this world, joining together to grow in their faith and to be encouraged0:39 with other brothers in Christ. That's what we're called to do. That's what men in this day and age need to do to be good fathers, husbands, and leaders in their community. So thank you for joining0:50 Real Men today with us. This series is gonna be absolutely epic. We are all about healthy masculinity and equipping men. Pastor Mark is passionate about reaching men with the gospel1:02 because when the gospel gets involved, everything gets better. We're pro Jesus, pro building men up, we're pro helping men become better husbands, fathers that bless women and children. If you want to get connected and1:13 have all the updates about real men, the best way to do that is text men to 99383. Men to 99383. That's not woman, that's not child, that's not baby, that's not trans, it's1:25 men to 99383. We'll send you tons of free resources and all kinds of stuff that'll build you up to be a better man. And if you're like my wife and you're a woman watching alongside us, you should comment below. Because1:35 there's a surprising amount of women that watch this because they want better husbands and fathers in their life, and single women trying to learn what a good man is. So if you want to join us in person1:46 and you're a senior pastor, we would love for you to fly out, come to Real Men, We'll host a dinner with Pastor Mark. You can ask all of your questions, learn how Real Men is, learn the secret1:58 sauce, and you can replicate it back in whatever state you're from. We've had people from North Carolina, South Carolina, from Texas, from Washington, from California, from Oklahoma. We have guys join us all the time. We2:09 gather together at Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, around tables where we hear an awesome teaching from Pastor Mark, what you're about to hear, and then we build each other up in small groups, ask them2:21 some questions that are sermon based, and we grow together. So it's awesome, guys. And right now, it's sermon time. So get those nachos ready and get ready to dive into some real protein.2:32 Alright, guys. We are in a little series of dominion for dudes. And I I I do believe, and this is not hyperbole, I think this may be the most significant message that I have ever given to men.2:45 And this is really where it all begins. And let me just start by saying this. Your biggest enemy is you. Your biggest enemy is you. My biggest enemy is me. The greatest threat to2:56 your future and your family is you. The greatest threat to my future and my family is me. As men, we can get very frustrated with government, and you should be cause our government's terrible. You can get3:08 frustrated with leaders at work, and that's fine, because most of them deserve it. But the end of the day, the person that's most influential in your life, your family, your future, your legacy is you. And if3:20 you can't rule you, everyone and everything that depends on you will suffer because of you. I I I wanna I wanna just talk real honestly. I mean, I've3:32 I've seen so many men self destruct. It really is devastating for me personally. I was thinking about it today. Some of the men that I started ministry with, brothers and friends, many are dead. They didn't even make it3:43 to my age. I know of many men that they self destructed, imploded their marriages. They broke their children. They ruined their legacy. And some of them started off as people who would have said they were Christian or3:53 even Christian leaders. And the point is this, that you and I are first and foremost responsible for ourselves. And the way we come into this position is when you're a little4:05 boy, you're under the dominion of your parents. We're talking about dominion. And we looked at last week that God is a father. We're his sons. He has all dominion. And when you're a little boy, you're growing up, your4:16 parents have dominion over you. They decide where you live, what you eat, what you wear, where when you go to bed, and where you go to school. When you become a young man, you start to get a little bit more of your own4:26 dominion. Now your parents aren't always there, so you get to make some of your own decisions. How will I behave in school? Will I listen to the teacher? Am I gonna obey the coach on the sport field? Am I going to,4:37 finish my homework? Am I gonna tell the truth? You've got a little bit of independence and a little bit of dominion. Get to make some of your own decisions. Then you become a young man. Now you're leaving your mother and4:47 father, working a part time job, maybe getting a full time job, graduating from college. Next thing you know, you're making the decisions in your life, and you're making the provisions for your life. Now you've taken4:58 responsibility for yourself and you have dominion over your own life. And then the next thing is you meet a woman, you ask her to marry you, and if she lacks discernment, she says yes and signs up for a lifetime of you.5:10 Signs up for a lifetime of you. And that's the key. Find a woman with low expectations and and and low discernment, and and and then ask confidently. And so then she says, yes, but5:22 now you have responsibility for her. And then hopefully, if you marry her, she sleeps with you. I mean, that's that's the goal. Right? Every every guy every single guy's got the same goal. We5:33 just we pursue that goal through marriage. So then you sleep with your wife, and next thing you know, she's she's pregnant. And now you've got someone else to take care of. And the goal as a man is to first and foremost5:45 have dominion over yourself, your body, your finances, your life. If you can't lead you, you can't lead anyone. If you can't manage you, you can't manage anything. You take dominion for5:57 yourself. And then you have a wife. Now you have a family. You have to exercise headship and dominion, leadership, provision, protection for that family, and then God gives you children. Maybe God gives you a business.6:08 Maybe God gives you a ministry. Maybe God gives you grandchildren and generations. Now what you're trying to do is take whatever level of anointing and dominion that God has given you and to6:20 exercise it for as much good and influence for as many people and as many generations as you possibly can. That's what good men do. And so, ultimately, this is what you were made for.6:32 And and and it's just such a broken world where we don't tell men why they exist. They exist to glorify God by exercising dominion. We live in a day when men are told to be passive, not6:44 active, to be irresponsible rather than responsible, to allow others to care for them rather than them being the caregivers. And a boy is taken care of, and a man takes care of others. And here's what6:56 our god says. Genesis 1 26. God said, let us make man. It's mankind. All of this nonsensical gender pronoun silliness is just7:08 it's it's it's ridiculousness. God made the race and called us man and mankind. K? And I and there are women and men, and7:20 then and the race is named after men, and the men are supposed to be the heads and the leaders of the race. After our likeness, let them have what's the big word? Dominion. God said, I have all dominion.7:32 You're my son. I'm giving you dominion. We'll talk about this when we get to marriage. You share co regency and you share dominion with your wife. Don't go home and say, best Mark says I have7:44 dominion over you. Don't don't do that. First of all, that whole sex thing we're talking about, that'll come to an immediate end. In addition, you rule with your wife. You don't rule over your wife. We'll talk about that7:54 in a future time. But have dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the heaven, livestock over how much of the earth? The whole planet. God made men to exercise dominion everywhere over everything.8:06 These people that are like, hey. Don't leave the don't touch any part of the planet. Leave the leave everything. No. No. No. God said, be fruitful, multiply, increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it. Exercise your8:17 dominion. Every inch of the planet is to be cultivated by men who are exercising dominion in business and family ministry and the like. And so my definition for our time together8:29 is dominion is a person with authority over a realm. It's these 3 things. So if you are the CEO of a company, you're a person, you have authority over the business. If you're8:41 the senior pastor as I am, you have dominion as the senior leader over the church. If you're a husband and father, you have dominion over your family. So the question is as a man, what are the spheres of your dominion?8:52 What are the places that God has given you authority and he's put you there to be an agent of good leadership? And here's what we see in the Bible. If men don't exercise dominion, Satan and demons and9:04 evildoers will. As soon as our father Adam doesn't exercise his dominion, in Genesis 3, Satan replaces him and takes over his family and the9:16 human race. Adam was supposed to have dominion over his family and the human race, and he allowed Satan to take all of that from him through his passivity. So if you wanna be a man who fails to9:28 exercise his dominion, you just need to be passive, not active, and you need to watch instead of speak and lead. And you know this as well as I do. If you do not exercise dominion in your family,9:40 usually the least healthy person in your family well. Your crazy mother-in-law, extended family members, domineering and overbearing people are going to start to exercise their dominion in the9:51 absence of you exercising your dominion. And this is where lots of men get very, very frustrated. They don't like it because they don't feel like they have authority and they're not taking responsibility. And the whole10:03 point of this series is to get you men activated and to tell you that God is a father. He has all dominion. He delegates that dominion to you, and you need to exercise that dominion.10:15 But you need to do so in a holy and a healthy and a godly way. And the result is exercising of dominion has to start with you. If you're not under control, then you10:27 can't lead anyone in a way that honors god. This is why of the 10 commandments, if you read the old King James translation, 9 of the 10 say, thou shalt not. It's your father going,10:39 son, don't do that. Son, don't do that. Son, don't do that. Son, don't don't lie don't sleep with her. You're not married to her. Don't take that. It doesn't belong to you. Don't say that. It's not true. Watch your10:49 emotions. Don't get out of control. And what God is doing as a father, he's saying, you need to exercise dominion over your life before you can influence others and expand that dominion. So here's11:01 your 2 options. And I just wanna be real serious and sober with you, man. You have 2 options, self dominion or self destruction. Those are your only options.11:13 Self dominion or self destruction. Let's just be honest. How many of you have seen a guy self destruct? Right? He he just he made some decisions that literally, it's like he took a11:25 grenade, pulled the pin, swallowed it, and blew himself up. And at the end of the day, he did it to himself. We all know these men, and some of us11:37 have been those men, and God has redeemed and saved us. And we're glad to have you, men. For you young men, just hear me in this. You can choose self dominion or self destruction. Those are the only 2 options that any11:48 man has. And I wanna talk about self dominion. Because what happens when we talk about dominion, bad men, foolish men, evil men show up, and they're looking for who they can boss around. Let me say12:00 this. Start by bossing yourself around. How many of you know those guys at work? They're telling everyone what to do, and they don't have it together. It's like, okay. You all chuckle because you've12:12 met that guy. Alright? So start with the guy in the mirror. Start with the guy on your driver's license, and then proceed forward from there. So they come to Jesus in Mark chapter 12 verses 28 through 31, and the12:24 religious leaders have a question to Jesus. Here's their question. Which commandment is the most important of all? K? So you read the Old Testament, there's all of these commands. There's more than 600 just in the first12:34 5 books of the Old Testament. Jesus answered, the most important is this. Here. So the first thing is, you need to listen. I appreciate you men giving me the honor of teaching God's word, but you gotta listen. It's like12:46 a son. A son doesn't know anything, so a dad needs to talk to him and teach him, and that son needs to open his ears to hear. God's our father. Hear, Israel. The lord our god is 1. There's only 1 god. And then he says,12:57 you shall love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. That's what we're gonna talk about. How do we exercise dominion over our heart, our emotional life, our soul,13:09 our spiritual life, our mind, our mental life, and our strength, which is our physical life? And that I want you as men to evaluate in these 4 areas, how am I doing in exercising my13:21 dominion over myself? And all of this, Jesus says, is in the relational context of love with God. For those of you guys who are more performance oriented and you're less relationship oriented,13:34 you need to know that all of this is relational language, he says, based on love. Love the Lord your God. So God loves you. That's what the Bible says. It's not that we love God, but God loved us first. K?13:46 And this loving relationship with God is something that many men struggle with because we tend to think of love as a it's a girl word. It's why we all hate Valentine's Day. You're like, it just it's where I13:58 spend money and feel awkward. Right? So when you hear love and you even hear the word love in the church, usually the language that gets taught is Jesus is like a groom and the church is like a bride and the bride and14:09 groom love each other. And if you're a dude, you're like, my whole goal is not to be the 1 in the dress. That's like my whole goal. Right? And if you're here, just so you know, that is on our bucket list, to die without14:19 ever wearing a dress. That's the room you're in presently. Okay? So for me, thinking of myself as a bride and Jesus as a groom, it's just super awkward. And I I just I started hearing Elton John music and14:31 feel like I should bedazzle my jeans, and I just don't feel good about that. Let me give you another way to think about a loving relationship with God. How many of you are a father and have a son or grandson? Do you love14:41 them? Yes. But you love them with a masculine love, not a feminine love. Men and women both love, they just love in different ways. So I've got 3 sons. I love my14:53 sons. I tell them I love them all the time. Pretty much every time I see my son say, I love you. Love you too, dad. We're very open. I I give him a hug. Tell him I love them. I love my sons. And now I've got15:05 a grand I've actually got 2 grandsons. One's born, and the other is ready for liftoff. He's taxied up to the runway. He's positioned. He may be on his way right now. He's ready. He's ready to launch. And first thing I15:16 did when I held my grandson, what do think I told him? I love you. And I gave him a kiss. I love him. And and my goal and hope and prayer is that he would love me like his dad's love me like his dad15:28 loves me. And so when you think of, you know, Jesus says, love God. Think of it like you're a son, he's a father, your father loves you, and you love him, but it's a masculine love. It's a healthy love.15:40 And how do we know that we love God? Jesus says something very significant. If you love me, you will Obey me. Obey me. The way you know that a son loves their father, they obey their father.15:53 They trust. I have a good dad. He's telling me the truth. If I obey him, my life's gonna go better because my father loves me, and I love him, and I trust him because of his love for me. So what16:05 Jesus is saying is, heart, soul, mind, and strength. I wanna unpack these quickly. Let's start with the heart, and here's the first question. How's your emotional health? Health. And16:16 for a lot of men, we like to have objectives, goals that are measurable. This is why we like points in a sporting event. This is why we like percentages on interest rates.16:28 This is why why we like, you know, periods in, you know, income balance sheets. There are some things that are a little harder to evaluate, like, how's my emotional health? But but you can16:40 answer that. And when it talks about the heart, the heart in the bible appears about 900 times. It's a massive megatheme in the bible. And the heart includes more than just your emotions,16:52 but it is encompassing your emotions. Jesus says it this way in Matthew 15 18 and 19. What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder,17:04 adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. So what Jesus is saying is the heart is upstream. The belief and the behavior, it's downstream. If you're17:16 like, man, I cuss a lot. I really am not good to my wife, and, I'm pretty perverted guy. The heart is the issue. Once the heart is right, upstream, things17:28 change downstream. And a lot of times, guys are working on behavior modification rather than heart transformation. And this is really a crucial key to fathering. The key to fathering17:39 is to get your kid's heart and connect it to God's heart. And as soon as you have their heart and God has their heart, the rest of that child's life is gonna get sorted out. If you17:51 don't have the heart, ultimately, that child is going to sneak or rebel or self destruct. We're this we're the sons of God. We're his kids. And so, ultimately, to be a Christian means you actually get18:03 a new heart. God's like, I'm gonna take out the old heart. I'm gonna put in a new heart. And so when we're talking about your heart, 2 things I wanna tell you. Here's what I've seen in men.18:15 Number 1, the 1 sin that I've seen infect and destroy hearts of men more than any other is bitterness. If you're a man, you've been used, abused, abandoned,18:27 betrayed, stolen from, lied to, taken advantage of, and underappreciated. True or false? True. True. That's the world we live in. And as a man, if you have a sense of justice in you, eventually, you reach a point where18:39 you're like, I I'm very frustrated. That was wrong. I I am very upset about whatever that may be. Some of you right now, it triggers people at work, bosses who abused you,18:50 maybe a wife who was unfaithful to you, or people who stole from you. There's a sense of justice that comes upon a healthy man. But if you choose bitterness instead of forgiveness, what you're doing19:02 is you're poisoning, you're destroying your own heart. Because at the end of the day, bitterness and when you're sinned against, and I know as men, we're all sinned against,19:15 you have 2 choices, forgiveness or bitterness. That's it. There's a fork in the road. And if you choose forgiveness, then you're gonna go up to God, and God's gonna come down to you. If you choose bitterness, you're19:26 gonna go down to Satan, and Satan's gonna come up to you. When all is said and done, I say this all the time, there's only 2 cultures, heaven and hell. And in the middle, when you're sinned against and offended and19:36 you're frustrated and you're unhappy and you're hurt, you have 2 choices. I'm gonna in I'm gonna invite heaven down or I'm gonna pull hell up. And as soon as you choose bitterness or unforgiveness, you're19:47 choosing the culture of hell. Hell is a culture of bitterness and unforgiveness. Heaven is a culture of forgiveness. And so what happens if you choose bitterness, now what you're doing, you're poisoning your soul. How19:59 many of you know a man, maybe it was even your father, your grandfather, he just got bitter, surly, jaded. It got dark. His heart got very hard.20:11 He lacked empathy, compassion. He was just a difficult, surly, grumpy, difficult man, but he had a reason for it. Something was20:23 done to him that he couldn't get over and he wouldn't release to God. And as a result, he allowed that to really poison his heart, and it infected and affected all of his life and20:34 relationships. The other thing that can really damage your heart is if you are a man, and this is a good indicator, if you experience emotionally a high degree of fear20:46 or anger, you don't your heart is not in a good place. Some men, they're driven by fear. They don't want conflict. They don't want failure. They don't want shame. They don't want criticism. They're driven by fear. Other20:58 men, the flip side, some men have anger, but really under the anger is fear. And the anger is someone or something that I love is not going to be given to21:10 me, or it'll be given to me and then taken from me. So the fear is I got the job, but what if I lose the job? The fear is I got the girl, but what if I lose the girl? And what happens21:21 is most men don't like feeling weak or insecure or fearful, and so then we overcompensate with anger. We kick up the testosterone. We get very frustrated. We're like, that's it. I'm21:33 gonna I'm gonna go from banner to Hulk. I'm turning green, and I'm gonna break some things, and I'm gonna go get my justice. And I would just tell you men, you've gotta constantly ask this21:44 question. And if you have a healthy wife, she's going to be helpful. How is your heart? How is your emotional life right now? K? And, and if you're always21:56 angry, you're not healthy. If you're never angry, you're not healthy either. Jesus was angry every once in a while, but he spent most of his time in joy.22:08 He had times of anxiety. He had times of oppression. He had times of exhaustion. But Jesus lived in joy, and there were times that he would have appropriate or healthy anger or anxiety,22:20 but he would return to joy. You need to know that you as a son of God, you and I were made to live in joy. Before sin entered the world, before Satan and demons showed up,22:32 every day was a good day. God's like, here's a girl. She's naked. You're like, this is a good day. Alright. This is a good day. We haven't invented clothes yet. Here's something to eat. You're like,22:44 this is really working out in the direction I was hoping. Okay? And then Satan and demons show up. Next thing you know, we're angry. We're fearful. She's wearing clothes. Everything went sideways. It was just a horrible22:55 situation. And so what happens is as soon as Satan and demons show up and we sin against God and we hand our godly masculine dominion to our enemy,23:08 not only is our dominion gone, so is our joy. So is our joy. So Jesus comes for the joy set before him. He endured the cross. So Jesus died so that we could be23:20 saved. He rises so we can give new life. And then he sends us the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the spirit includes joy. As a man, if you are23:32 doing well, you will live in joy. And when you deviate from joy, you will return to joy. That's how you know that's your plumb line. That's your north.23:44 A healthy person is a joyful person. And it doesn't mean that they're always joyful, but they return to joy. And let me say what this will do. This will create in your23:56 home, in your marriage with your children, a non anxious presence. Everybody needs some good news. Our world is filled with nothing but bad news. The good news is the24:07 Bible tells us not just what happened, but what always happens. And we don't just need to look at the Bible. We can look through it and make perfect and total sense of this weird, woke world in24:19 which we live. I've been preaching God's word for about 30 years, and I wanna let you know that real faith is independent, free, and a voice that is prophetic in a world that is24:30 pathetic. And I wanna thank you for your partnership. We are 100 percent supported by ministry partners like you. You can't cancel us. We don't have advertisers. We don't have24:41 publishers. You can go pound sand because people like you pay the bills. Go to real faith dot com slash donate. Give your best gift and help me keep up the good fight. Right?24:53 So think of it this way. If there is a man who's emotionally healthy, his heart's in a good place, and he's living in joy and returning to joy, if that dad comes home, is that a good thing or a bad thing?25:05 It's a great thing. It's like dad's home. Yay. Dad's home. K. Now if your dad is not emotionally healthy, dad comes home, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Bad thing, anxious presence. Some of you grew up in a25:17 home where your dad brought anxious presence. You're like, oh, no. Is dad is he angry? Is he stressed? Is he gonna yell? Like, what what what are we getting into? Your25:29 hope and prayer and goal as a man would be, you'd be emotionally healthy, and then you would bring a non anxious presence. You're around your wife, she feels at ease. You're around your kids, they feel at ease. Some of25:40 you grew up with a father who was emotionally unhealthy, and it created an anxious presence. The goal as a man is to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the spirit is joy, and to be, not an25:52 anxious presence, but a but a calming presence and a joyful presence. Number 2, soul. How's your spiritual health? Emotional health? First question. Spiritual health. Jesus said, heart,26:04 soul. We're talking about the soul. And, the Bible talks about your soul a lot. And some of you maybe are new to church. You're 1 person, 2 parts. You've got a physical body and a spiritual26:15 immaterial soul. Now the question is, what is the deepest, purest, truest part of you? We tend to think the body because it's what we're familiar with. But the deepest, truest part26:27 of you is actually the immaterial, invisible soul. How do I know? When you die and your body goes to the ground, what happens to your soul? It continues. You can live without a26:39 body, but there is no life without the soul. Therefore, the soul is the part of you that'll last forever. Now 1 day, God will rise your body from the dead. But what that means is to to26:51 be a healthy man, it's not outside in, it's inside out. We start with the soul, and we will get to the body. Both matter to the Lord. But too many men are only focused on the body, strength,27:03 appearance, and they're not worried about the soul. So the question regarding your soul is this, how much do you think about your soul, and how is your soul, and how are you doing it, tending to, and caring for your27:13 soul? The Old Testament alone speaks of your soul. I looked it up at least 750 times. Just the Old Testament. What's really curious, in our day, for those who try to heat treat mental health27:25 disorders or people who are struggling, they have something called the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. The health care medical professionals, the psychologists, psychiatrists, they will27:37 call this the the mental health bible, and it diagnoses all of the different clinical behavioral issues that human beings struggle with.27:49 In that entire bible, how many times would you guess that it mentions the soul? 0. Our entire mental health industry28:00 ignores half of our being. This is where I do like the social sciences. I believe in counseling and trauma therapy. I actually like studying all of that. I think it's very helpful.28:12 But the only way for someone to really be healthy is not just treat the mind and the body, but the soul. And only the holy spirit really can do the work on the soul. And so for you to have a healthy28:24 soul, it's first acknowledging, like, I do have a soul. And then to ask yourself, okay. What is the plan for my soul? I mean, most of us have a plan for our body. Like, I take I sleep. I hydrate. I28:35 exercise. I eat. Okay. You've got a plan for your body. What's your plan for your soul? What's your plan for your soul? And here's the big idea. You're not a person with a body who has a soul. You're a person with28:47 a soul who has a body. That if you're not well at the soul level, you're not going to be well at any level. And so your soul is your greatest possession. Your soul is the thing that'll depart and be with the28:59 Lord upon your death. Therefore, your soul should be your highest priority. This is where I don't get guys. They're like, I don't have time for church, a bible study, and prayer, and worship. I have too much going on.29:10 Too much going on to take care of your soul? How how do you possibly think you're gonna have a healthy life with a neglected soul? Right? If if who you are determines how you live, if you're29:22 too busy living to be growing, you're not going to be thriving. And so many men are like, I have time for the gym. I have time for work. I don't have time for my soul. I'm telling you, that has to be the first priority.29:33 And for your soul, here's what Jesus says in Matthew, 16 26. For what will a profit a man? So this is a really good word for men. If he gains the whole world and loses his29:45 soul. What Jesus is saying is, hey. You could make all the money. You could rule all the nations, and you could rack and stack all the women.29:58 And if you lose your soul, you've made a bad bet. You've made a bad trade. And what Jesus is saying is everything out there is fine, but everything in here is30:10 more important. And I would just tell you guys, some of you need to work a little less and pray a little more. Some of you guys need to give a little less time to your hobby30:22 and a little bit more time to your worship. And that maybe you are starting to exercise dominion over external things, but you're losing dominion over30:34 your soul. Very crucial and important. Here's 4 things your soul needs. Needs presence, prayer, praising people. First, your soul needs presence. You're meant to live in the presence of God. So this30:46 is worship and prayer and spending time in God's presence. Prayer is talking to God, listening to God. Praise, singing. Your soul needs to sing. And I just wanna honor30:58 you, man. When we started, Roman, nobody sang. Words every like, I don't sing. I'm a grown man. And now you guys sing. Okay? And you just need to know your soul needs that. And there's31:10 something really wonderful. It's a tremendous encouragement for other men when they see grown men worshiping in a masculine way. And it's not encouraging when you see grown men worshiping in a feminine way. I I just like31:22 the frosted tips, the skinny jeans, the guy who cries with a guy liner, and the painted nails. I just no. Okay. But the greatest worshiper the greatest male worship leader in the31:34 Bible was David, who also killed giants and hunted large game with a knife. So that's my guy. Right? That's that's how we31:45 wanna sing and worship. We wanna worship as men. We need to praise. And then lastly, you need people. You need God works through people, and you we need each other. That's why we're here. So you guys can31:57 meet your brothers for the battle. How's your emotional life, your heart, how's your spiritual health, your soul, your mind? Heart, soul, mind, strength. Mind, how's your32:09 mental health? How's your mind? And thinking according to the bible, thinking is 2 things. It's war and it's worship. That's what thinking is. War,32:21 Satan is the father of lies. He's always bringing us lies, and so thinking is war. And that's why the Bible says, and Paul tells the Corinthians, to take every thought32:33 captive in obedience to Christ. The language is from military battle and conflict. Let's say you're in battle, and then you take a prisoner of war. Let's say it's a high ranking general. You literally put a sword32:44 underneath their throat, and then you take them to your commanding officer, and that prisoner of war is interrogated for information. And then it's evaluated. Are they giving32:56 us factual or erroneous information? That's literally what it means. What it means is when you hear something, you need to take that thought captive. Like, is that true or false?33:08 Is that from my father or the father of lies? Do I believe this or not? In addition to thinking being war, it's worship. We worship God by thinking33:20 his thoughts after him. If God says something and we agree with him, that's worship. Here's how Paul says it in Romans 12 1 and 2. He says, spiritual worship includes the renewing of your33:32 mind. That's what he says. And so as men, what we need to do is we need to change our thinking and our mindset. There is a battle for the mind that is33:43 constant. Because if life is a battlefield, which it is, and you men go to war every day, then the mind is the fortified headquarters.33:55 The mind is like command central. The the mind is where all the decisions are made. And and the bible says that not only is life a war and that the mind is a fortified34:07 headquarters, that the word of God is a weapon for war. K? It says that it's a sword. And and a sword in the ancient world, that was the weapon of war. If you're gonna go to34:19 war, you're gonna strap a sword, 1 handed sword or a 2 handed sword. And every once in a while, there was a big guy who could wield a 2 handed sword with 1 hand. Those are the guys you avoid in the battle. Those34:31 are the big boys. But what he's talking about is using the word of God to demolish arguments and strongholds. And and let me just say this. Our world is filled with nothing but a constant barrage of34:42 lies, deception, and nonsense. It just is. And so it's like, no. There are men and women. There is right and wrong. There are angels and demons. There is heaven and hell. I know that's not what you think, but34:54 look, I'm just telling you, that's what my father says, and, we're gonna have to have a fight over this because this is a weapon for war. And so what I would tell you as men,35:06 when you open the word of God and I would just tell you, you need more time in the bible than you think you do. And I just feel inclined in the spirit to say this. For you men who have been Christians for a while,35:18 if you're only reading the old passages and quoting the old verses, you're not maturing. As we get older, we need to be learning new things. We need to be adding to our knowledge. New35:30 scriptures, new parts of the bible, new concepts, new doctrines, new themes. And ultimately, when we open the bible, we should be looking for truth, what is true, wisdom,35:42 what do we do, and then here's what it requires for a man, humility. I'm willing to receive it. And you men just need to know, your father wants to speak to you, and he35:54 primarily does that through his word. And when you open the scriptures, I'm gonna talk about it more this next weekend, something wonderful happens. First, the bible is the only book that36:05 when you open it, the author meets with you. How many of you have read a book? You're like, man, I wish the author was here. I'd ask him all the questions. You can do that. The same holy spirit who wrote the scriptures,36:15 if you open the scriptures and pray, he'll meet with you, and you can talk to him, and he's gonna help you understand because he loves you, and he wants you to know what the father has said. And, and I'll just I'll36:27 close with this. You've got to be in the word of God, and the word of God has got to be in you. Your mind will be deceived. It'll be confused. It'll be attacked. It'll be36:39 clouded unless you are constantly in the word of God, and the word of God is constantly in you. But here's what I don't wanna do. I don't wanna make it something that you have to do. I want it to be something that you36:50 get to do. I I just thought of this. I'll just share an illustration. I feel like there's some men in the room, and I'm gonna use you as an analogy. How many of you men in the room, your37:02 father has died? K. Your father's died. How how much would you like if you could just sit down and talk to him? Right.37:14 Like, my grandpa died when I was 10. My grandpa George. I love him with all my heart. I would give if god said, hey. How about I bring grandpa George back for an hour? I would love to see him, and I'd love37:26 to talk to him, and and and I and I'd love him to talk to me. There's that, country song I think, Scott M. Curry, 5 more minutes. Just comes to mind. What he's saying is, man, if I just37:38 had 5 more minutes. Here's the good news. Your father in heaven never dies, and he'll always listen to you, and he'll always talk to you. And37:50 so if I'm the son, like, if I've got a dad who will listen to me, and I got a dad who will talk to me, and if I ask him, he's gonna help me, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna talk to that dad, and I'm gonna listen to38:02 that dad. And that's what bible study is. And if you're new, you just need to know this. I always tell this to our men. God doesn't bless men. He blesses men who place themself under the authority of his word.38:15 K? If if how many of you, your father how many fathers in the house like me? What if you told your son to do something? You're like, son, here's what I want you to do. What if your son came to you and said, dad, I38:26 believe you. That's exactly what I wanna do. I'm struggling. Could you help me obey you? What would your answer be? No. Praise God. Tell your sister to do the same thing. Right?38:38 So your father, if he tells you to do something and your heart posture is, I agree with him and I wanna obey him, if you pray, father, helpShow more
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Mark Driscoll
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