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Since 2000 Every Man Ministries has been activating men worldwide to live out their truest identity in Christ through its discipleship resources, live events, and steaming platform.
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Unveiling the Inner Man: Breaking Through Spiritual Plateaus 0:00 Greetings, men. Kenny Luck, founder of Everyman Ministries. You know, after 30 years of helping men in the mental health, pastoral, and coaching context, the 1 working assumption I've operated on is0:12 this. Men, they're like icebergs. You only see the tip. Under the waterline of the image that they are projecting and the lives that they are living are massive spiritual, emotional, and relational0:24 battles they recognize, but they're just not talking about. And it creates a dissonance. It creates spiritual plateaus. It creates unresolved tensions0:35 within that start to eat away at their faith, eat away at their hope. It opens them them up to spiritual attack and lies to the point where so many, if they were honest, would say, I believe in God and I believe his0:47 promises are true, just not for me right now. Have you ever felt that or thought that? Well, here's the thing. So many men I counsel and coach say the same thing. I'm attending church. I'm reading my bible.0:59 I'm going to men's group. I'm praying. But I'm not sensing or experiencing God the way I see it promised in the bible. You know, that abundant life that Jesus speaks of. I'm I'm not breaking1:11 through, and I know there's more. I just don't know how to get there, and it's confusing me. It's affecting my relationships with God and other people. Now, if you've ever felt the same way, if you've ever had any of1:22 those thoughts, welcome to the club. As men, we go through different seasons of personal, professional, and, yes, spiritual life. And listen, that calls1:34 for new Christ formation, new faith steps, new discoveries, and new thinking. You see, there's no big mystery here. The big wheels of life, of relationships,1:47 Christ formation, and of fulfillment turn on the hidden axles of what the Bible calls your inner man. So when the Bible says, watch over your heart with all diligence for1:59 from it flow the springs of life. It's not calling for new outer spiritual behavior management. It's calling for a new you. You say, how do you know, Kenny? Because God called2:10 me personally into a new season of Christ formation after 25 years as a pastor and counselor. And you know what I needed? I needed a community of brave brothers, of2:22 professional men who were spirit filled, and I needed a solid process and godly coaching to walk me into a new place of strength, a place of powerful sacrifice, a place of complete2:35 tenacity in my purpose, a place of growing authentic generosity, and a place of meaningful insight into myself first and for other2:47 people. That's my promise land. What's yours? If you're like me and you want a new place of growth, if you want the dissonance to go away, if you want an inner breakthrough in Christ, if you want to discover what is2:58 it that is holding you back spiritually versus continuing to say some narrative to yourself and other people, just lean in right now. There is a next adventure in God3:10 and in life waiting for you. But the old thinking, the old victories you cling to, the old patterns of living, just the old thought processes are not3:22 going to cut it in this next adventure God has for you. The promised land that he has for you. And that's why I'm inviting you into the every man promised land living experience, where Christ3:34 formation advances in new ways, where the language of the heart is spoken. And where the enemy, he takes it on the chin and strongholds are broken. You want your next3:46 adventure in Christ to begin? Then fight the good fight like I did. Believe. God is at work. Register. Get into an every man promised land group. Our team of trained coaches3:58 are eager to meet you and to start getting you prepared for the greater works of Jesus in and through you for this next season and adventure of life.Set Aflame at Christmas: The Meaning and Prayer of Advent 4:19 Welcome to the men's global live stream. If you have a Bible, I want you to hold a couple spots. 1 in Luke chapter 1 and the other in Psalm 1 39. We'll be referencing those4:31 passages a little bit later in the study. And also, I wanna remind you that if you're joining us for the first time, click the downloaded notes because that will give you a nice outline to follow along and all the Bible4:42 passages and all the fill ins are there for you. We're starting a new series. It's 3 parts and it's called Set A Flame at Christmas. And the reason we're calling it Set A Flame4:54 at Christmas is because the body of Christ around the world is preparing to celebrate the birth of our savior. I mean, just look around your neighborhood right5:05 now. All the lights, all the the trees, all the decorations, that's all relating back to the birth of our Savior. And we call this season5:18 Advent, and you might be really familiar with that, and you might be not familiar with that. And so what I thought I'd do as we have this Advent series set aflame at Christmas is to give you just a5:30 little short history, give you a working definition of the word Advent, give you a practical definition of how Christians can celebrate and participate5:42 in Advent, provide some practical prayers for you to engage Advent, and then look for and engage practical experiences that will help you experience Christmas in a5:53 really transformational way. So let's do a little history. Alright? Advent is traced back to really times of preparation. Just remember that word. You're gonna hear it a lot, and,6:05 it is the 1 main word connected to Advent. Early Christians would spend 40 days in preparation for baptism. There would be prayer. There would6:17 be fasting. There would be preparation. Move forward in church history into the fourth century in Europe, and Advent was also a time of and6:29 season of preparation, also to get ready for baptism in the church. In the sixth century, the Roman Christians began associating Advent not with Jesus' first6:41 coming at Bethlehem, but with his second coming and getting prepared for his coming. So there's that theme again, very preparation oriented.6:53 And then Advent evolved historically into what we sort of feel now, which is a major season that is celebrated by the body of Christ all over the7:04 world 4 consecutive Sundays prior to Christmas Eve and beginning with the last Sunday of November ending, of course, on7:16 Christmas Eve. Maybe you have, like in my house, an Advent calendar. Right? And so it's 24 days and maybe you open it up and maybe there's a story or maybe you have an Advent7:28 devotional or you light Advent candles. There are numerous ways that all are geared toward the same thing. It's to get us to focus and7:40 prepare for the birth of Christ. Now, in this series, the goal is not merely to look at a single moment that God broke into history7:53 at Bethlehem or when Jesus breaks it again at his second coming, but to allow the focus on Christ's birth to focus us just8:05 on our relationship with God and to allow room during this time before, Christmas Day, where we celebrate Jesus's8:17 birth, for a fresh, for a strong coming of Jesus into our lives and hearts during this season. Praying into this season,8:29 right? And as we do that, we are trusting here at Everyman that the Holy Spirit will come and he will set you a flame at8:41 Christmas. So there's a couple of themes that I want you to just know you'll be hearing about the whole idea of preparation, the idea of8:53 fire and flame, and then the animating or sparking or igniting factor of the Holy Spirit. And so let's let's do a little bit of9:05 a practical working definition, and then we'll move into some practical prayer and some practical experiences. So if you have the downloaded notes, at the top of your notes, you'll see, the Latin word9:16 Adventist, okay, which is the Latin translation of the Aramaic word, maranatha, which means simply to come. Okay? And9:28 it's invitational, right? Maranatha meant come. We'll talk about that prayer of the early church, right? Maranatha. Adventist is just the Latin9:41 translation of that word, Maranatha. Now, functionally, and that's the key word, because we're preparing for Christ's coming, his incarnation.9:53 What could that mean functionally for us, experientially for us? So Advent practically, functionally for us in the series is a season of active10:04 wanting and watching. Right? That's what we do when we're preparing for anything to happen. Looking and longing, inviting Christ, listen, to come once more10:17 into my life and into the world I live in. You see that the transition there? It's not just celebrating an event that happened in the past. No, it's seizing what this10:29 season means, the coming of Jesus and inviting Christ to come once more into my life to be born again again in my life,10:41 and then as he comes into my life, he goes through my life into the world that I live in. Now we see this theme of coming, that first10:53 Christmas in the gospel of Luke. They're on your downloaded notes. Luke 1 verses 78 and 79 says this, because the heart of our God is full of mercy towards us, the first light of11:04 heaven shall come to visit us, to shine on those who lie in darkness and under the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the path11:17 of peace. I love the picture, the relational picture that is built here, and it starts with how God feels11:28 about us because the heart of our God is full of mercy towards us. You might wanna circle that on your downloaded notes. Because he has so much mercy and he11:40 wants to project that mercy toward us, it says the first light of heaven shall come to visit us, to shine on us, to guide us.11:52 Right? And so whenever you're anticipating, someone coming, right, you're getting excited12:04 about that. You when you know that that's the fact, woah, this is God and God is relational and because God has intentions for this relationship and he's full of12:16 mercy, he's gonna visit me. That's kind of the mentality that we want you to have as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. That it's not just an event, but God12:27 wants to come, and he wants to come with a heart full of mercy toward you, and he wants the light of heaven to visit you, to shine on you, alright? Especially if you're going12:39 through trial and difficulty and darkness or you feel like under the shadow of death. I think a lot of people feel like they are during Christmas. Maybe they're alone.12:51 Maybe it's it's not a season of hope, and then they see everybody celebrating, and they compare all the the the joy and the glad tidings with where they're at really in life. And you know, that's that's13:03 the essence of coming, God coming at Christmas. He came into the darkness to shine on us. He came into a broken planet, a13:14 broken earth, 1 that was unredeemed and in bondage to darkness to shine the light. Maybe some of you listening today need to hear that,13:27 and you need to know that the light of Christ didn't just come once, it can come again and again and again to shine on you right in the midst of your darkness. And you know what13:39 the value of darkness is is that you can see light. When you're in a super tough situation or circumstance where there is seemingly no light13:50 or no hope, man, you can see when it comes quickly. And that's our prayer for you during this series. And so since Advent functionally means14:02 inviting Christ to come once more, for this session, we're gonna have an Advent prayer connected to the word come. Alright? Now I want you to write this14:14 down. The Advent prayer of God's man, and you can carry this with you into your Advent season all through December 1 through 24 as you build up to celebrating the birth of Christ, the14:26 advent prayer of God's men is this. Write this down. Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus. Right? We're just taking advantage of that theme14:38 of come. And in the language that Jesus spoke, that's what Maranatha means. It means come, except for we're praying it.14:49 We're praying all through this Advent season for a fresh coming of Jesus once more into our lives. So it's Maranatha come, Lord Jesus. And as we go through the points15:01 in in today's session, we're gonna be praying together. So there's your there's your practical definition of Advent, there's your functional definition, Christ coming once more15:14 into my life and coming into my world, and then just seeing the theme in Luke's gospel surrounding Jesus coming and what the nature and picture of it was, and I don't want you to miss that, that15:25 it's God's heart and God's heart is full of mercy, and he wants the light of heaven to come and visit you. Wow,15:37 that's what I want, and so we pray, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Okay, and now we want to make a little bit of a transition. So there's our key prayer, we're going to15:49 pray that again. But if we're gonna get set aflame at Christmas, you know, there's a process, right? When you have an ember and what do embers need? Like, you know, you boy scouts out16:01 there, you know, they they need they need spark and once once you get a little some embers going and you've got it either on the ground or in your hand, what do you do? You need proper wind16:13 to grow it from an ember into an ongoing flame, into a small flame, into a growing flame, which then can turn into a16:25 blazing fire, set a flame. But first, we have to kindle the flame. So let's let's start with the ember of faith that you have in Christ, his person,16:37 his work, his coming, and your desire for him to come into your life once more in a new and fresh way and come into your world. And I want you to see this theme,16:50 right, of wind. Right? So we have the ember of our faith. We want to be set aflame during the Advent season, but we need a proper wind, and the wonderful thing is that Jesus talks17:01 about the wind of the Holy Spirit. And here's there's our third big, you know, theme. Right? Let's read in John17:13 chapter 3 verse 8. Jesus talking about the wind that blows. He says this, the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell17:25 where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. And so Jesus is talking about supernatural transformation17:38 through the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. Now, much like the wind where we can't sense exactly where it's coming from, like, we17:50 don't we don't have a pin that we could drop and say, oh, the wind started there. It just comes. Right? And then we sense that something's happening. We see the leaves moving. We18:01 see tree branches moving. We can feel it on our face. Right? We sense its effect. So when Jesus is talking about the wind blows wherever it pleases, on18:13 whomever it pleases, and we can know that it's real, it's like we don't say the wind is real isn't real because we can't see it. No. We hear its sound. We can see its effects.18:26 Jesus is talking about spiritual transformation through the Holy Spirit. So have you ever you ever met somebody who's been transformed by Jesus? And you18:38 can't really say, oh, well, this is exactly the point of origin where that came from. All you see is a changed life. Right? You sense new words. You see new actions.18:51 You sense that they have a new perspective on themselves and life, and it's being worked out. So you see the effects of the presence of the Holy Spirit blowing19:02 on and blowing into and changing a life, and then you go, wow, that's God. Right? That's what Jesus is saying. So as we talk about19:14 being set aflame at Christmas and kindling that flame, right, to get set aflame, right, we need a proper wind. And that wind is the19:26 presence and person of the Holy Spirit. Now we see this theme of wind coming, sensing and seeing its effects and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit even more19:38 dramatically and seeing it man Jesus's words manifested in the book of Acts. Listen to this passage from Acts chapter 2. Without warning, there was a sound like19:50 a strong wind, right? Gale force, no 1 could tell where it came from, okay, there's that reflection on Jesus' words. It filled the whole building then like20:02 a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. So we see actually20:13 the Advent, the coming of the Holy Spirit, how does it come? Well, it comes like a strong wind, people are assembled in faith, their faith is in waiting for20:25 the Holy Spirit to come, it comes, and I love the language, no 1 can tell where it came from. Just like Jesus said, what happened? And then it just starts filling space and filling hearts,20:37 and then what is the image? As the Holy Spirit comes like a violent wind, it takes the embers that are in the room, the faith that is in the room, and like a wildfire,20:50 the Holy Spirit starts spreading through their ranks, going into people, transforming them from within, and then going out and having an impact on the world21:02 around them. Man, that is the prayer for you during this series. That you would pray, Maranatha, come, Lord21:14 Jesus, during this season. And it doesn't matter what season kind of season that you're in. Maybe you're in a seasons of success. Maybe you're in a season of delay. Maybe you're in a season of difficulty. Maybe you're in21:24 a in a health crisis. Maybe you're in a season of trial. Maybe there's relational conflict. We can all pray. Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus.21:36 So Advent is an opportunity for the coming of Jesus actively into our lives. Now, the next question we have to21:48 ask is, okay, we need a proper wind to kindle the flame, to get set a flame, but how will functionally, practically, how will the Holy Spirit moveShow more In this video 0:00 Unveiling the Inner Man: Breaking Through Spiritual Plateaus4:19 Set Aflame at Christmas: The Meaning and Prayer of Advent21:50 The Four Winds: Holy Spirit's Path to Personal Transformation5:34
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