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Turning the Tables: Confronting Broken Male Culture 0:00 If you have a Bible, I want you to hold 2 spots. 1 in John chapter 8 and 1 in Matthew chapter 10. We're in part 3 of a series called Turning the Tables. Right? And what0:11 we're learning is that every man of God will see things, every man of God will recognize things, and every man of God will be called out of0:23 his love for God and in his identity in God to confront what he sees in a healthy way. In part 1, we we looked at how God will call0:35 us to confront ourselves, sometimes the hardest 1 of all. In part 2, we talked about how God will call us to confront other brothers0:47 out of our love for God and in our identity in God. And in part 3, we're gonna talk about how God will call every man of God to confront0:59 injustice versus what? Cause injustice. I mean, let's let's put it this way. On this whole issue of injustice1:11 and evil on planet Earth. If you're a man and you're looking for encouragement, do not turn on cable news. Alright? Because within seconds, you'll find yourself1:23 shaking your head. You'll see vulnerable or fatherless young men getting swept into violent crime and1:35 terrorizing people on the streets. You'll see powerful men, story after story, of powerful men using their positions of influence or celebrity to take advantage1:47 of and exploit women. You'll see entire exposes on sexual industries or web based industries built around1:59 listen to this. Built around men and their inability to control themselves and control their behaviors. Right? I mean, every day2:11 around the world, there are thousands of stories that detail the negative outcomes of broken male character and culture.2:23 And you see the suffering that that causes. Now before we slip into depression, right, as a community of men, there is a movement2:35 of guys who are turning the tables on broken male culture. And I like to put it this way, that you can see by contrast light2:48 against the backdrop of darkness. So while broken male culture creates sort of a dark backdrop of behaviors and consequences that cause people to suffer, and it's3:00 very dark. Against that dark backdrop, you can see light. You can see contrast. You can see a movement of men who are stepping up in the3:12 big and small spaces, and confronting other men, confronting problems, confronting situations that they see in big spaces, in3:24 big areas, in big cities, in small spaces, in families, in neighborhoods, where they are agenting God's love and God's justice.3:35 You see, for this community of men, for this movement of men, which we like to call the dangerous good movement, for them, staying invisible, like, in the in3:47 the context of all this dark injustice going on, that's not an option. Alright? Sympathy is not a substitute for that community of men, for action.3:59 Alright? And their commission from Christ is really simple. Shine. Against the the dark backdrop of the injustices that we see, our community of men,4:11 this global livestream, and a worldwide community of men, we're called to shine. The question is, will we? So in today's livestream, we wanna see Jesus4:22 model confronting injustice in the gospels, and we wanna see him turn the tables on it, learn from him, and then get the biblical basis4:34 for why god calls every man of god into this confronting of injustice. So if you have the downloaded notes, I want you to look at the top of4:46 your notes, and you'll see a passage of scripture from our our our first passage, John chapter 8. And we're gonna witness Jesus getting confronted.4:59 The the injustice comes to him, actually, in this situation, but he has to see it, he has to recognize it, he has to confront it. So let's roll the film in John chapter 8. It says this, at dawn5:10 he, Jesus, appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught5:22 in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, quote, teacher, this woman was caught in the act5:34 of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say? They were using this question as a trap in order to have a5:46 basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, let5:58 any 1 of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground.6:11 At this, those who heard began to go away 1 at a time. The older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman6:22 still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, woman, where are they? Has no 1 condemned you? No 1, sir, she6:34 said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin. What a tension packed,6:47 tension filled moment of both injustice and then justice. And the context of this is in6:59 Jesus's time, religious men created the the context for both infidelity and divorce at7:10 their very whim. It wasn't God's plan. It wasn't according to God's decrees in his word. It was a religious movement and7:22 force in male culture that made it easy for men to do a couple of things. Divorce and abandon their women, and then the consequence of divorcing7:34 and abandoning their women easily, sent women into prostitution. We see that in other stories, in the7:46 gospel in the gospels. And what's so ironic in this situation is it takes 2 to tango. Alright? It wasn't just the woman7:57 in the act of adultery, but they chose to bring the woman instead of bringing the man. And there's something fundamentally unjust about that.8:09 So you have a married man who's choosing to do that, but they don't bring the married man before Jesus, they bring the woman, who by the broken because8:21 of the broken male culture over time, most likely was forced into prostitution. So I wanted you to have that context and just see on its face8:34 the injustice that is confronting Jesus right here. So let's unpack sort of the the main themes in this and come to a conclusion biblically.8:46 So what do we see? Write this down. We see a woman who is being shamed morally. Not the man, because they were protected because of their8:58 anatomy. That's broken and that's unjust. Secondly, we see a group of men using this situation and her deceptively.9:10 Right? When the Bible says the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery, teachers of the law and Pharisees in that context,9:22 exclusively a men's club. So we see a group of men either concocting or poaching a situation and using this9:33 woman, exploiting this woman's both her situation and the circumstance that she finds herself in deceptively. Third, we see a9:45 crowd of people witnessing this publicly. Now it does not surprise the crowd that this is being, exposed. It doesn't9:57 surprise the crowd, who is agenting it, a group of religious men. It doesn't surprise the crowd culturally, but they are witnessing10:08 what's happening. You have the woman, you have the group of religious men who are using this woman deceptively, and they're10:20 all watching this go down, they understand the issues, but no 1 is speaking up for her. Fourth, we see10:32 God's man. In this case, the son of God, but he's God's man, he's God's son, intervening personally. So they use the situation,10:44 they being the group of men, they use the situation to try to trap Jesus and and embarrass him and get him to decide something that they can leverage10:56 against him based on his decision. And we see god's man, Jesus, intervening personally, and he does it in a way that levels the11:07 playing field that gives dignity back to the woman, puts everyone in the same boat. Right?11:20 And stops someone from dying. Not a bad result. Right? So deft. And of course, we look at Jesus and he's behaving in an11:32 unorthodox, maybe even an unmanly way. He's quiet before he talks. And they keep pounding him and pounding him, and he's11:44 riding on the ground. And when we get to heaven, we're gonna ask Jesus what he was riding, but he's riding on the ground. I hope he was riding down their names. I don't know. But finally, Jesus, after stooping11:56 down, he rises up. Imagine the scene. Right? Woman, group of men trying to use her deceptively, wondering if it's gonna12:08 succeed. The crowd watching it, and he stands up and he says, let any 1 of you who is without sin be the first12:21 to throw a stone at her. Woah. Man, you talk about thunderous silence. So God's man intervenes. He doesn't12:33 throw a punch, but he steps between the injustice and the woman. And he intervenes.12:45 And then lastly, is is the outcome of that intervention. Everyone is convicted spiritually. So God12:57 wins. And everyone is convicted. The the woman, as we saw in the story, after everyone leaves, right, she's13:09 convicted spiritually by an experience with grace. Woman, where are your accusers? Well, they're gone. Well, neither do I.13:21 I I accuse you. I do not condemn you. She is convicted by truth. Now go and leave your life of sin. The group of men who were13:32 holding the stones, maybe the crowd, right, that were holding they're convicted. They're like, yeah. He's right. Right? I'm not without sin.13:44 It's just that I'm not getting caught in the middle of my sin and marched out into the public. And so I imagine that you could just hear the thuds13:56 of the stones hitting the ground as people turned in and under conviction of the Holy Spirit and start just leaving14:08 the the the area. You see, what's so cool about this vignette is that Jesus was turning the tables on injustice.14:20 Everybody there knew how broken male culture had created this ecosystem that was self serving. It served the man, if you had the right anatomy, you could do14:32 things and not get caught while women were caught and marched out into the public. And when I think about14:44 us as a community of men or even as God's men, walking planet Earth, that type of intervention is supposed to come out of us. Alright?14:56 It says that in Matthew 12 35, it's Jesus talking. He says, a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man15:08 brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. You see, our insides as men come out. What we're really made of, comes out.15:20 And the key thing is that whether what's inside of us is good or whether what's inside of us is bad, it's gonna come out. And what we see here is the good15:32 inside of Jesus come out against injustice, out of his identity in the father, out of his love for the father, out of his15:43 love for those whom the father loves and created. The good inside of him comes out. And that's really what I want us15:55 all to see, is that evil inside of men is coming out. We see it every day on cable news, and we hear stories. You know what needs to come out? The16:07 good. You know, I love this quote about that dynamic of good coming out and evil coming out and getting a victory. I love this this quote by Edmund Burke. It says,16:19 when bad men combine, the good must associate, else they fall 1 by 1 an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible16:31 struggle. We see evil men combining to do evil things and make people suffer. The bible tells us that as God's men, we need to combine, and we need to16:43 come together, and we need to confront that evil. So let's now turn from getting God's heart and watching Jesus interveneGod's Delight in Righteousness and Justice 16:55 against injustice. And just make the case for why God's man is called to confront injustice and make the connection from17:08 the God of righteousness and justice to the man of God. Alright? Let's look at our let's look at the next verse, Psalm 33 5, and we'll start making these connections. Alright? Psalm17:20 33 5 says this, the lord loves circle that. Righteousness and justice. The earth is full of his17:32 unfailing love. And so a simple reading tells us this, if you know God, then you know that he loves17:44 righteousness and justice. He loves people being rightly related to him and rightly relating to each17:55 other. That's just a good, simple working definition of righteousness. Men rightly related to God and rightly relating to18:07 people and all their interactions with people. Righteousness. Right? There's a flow. This connection is informing that connection. And then he loves justice. In other18:19 words, he loves to give people what they're due. If people are due compassion, they get compassion. If people are due protection, like the18:31 woman caught in adultery, they get protection. Alright? If people are due dignity because they're image bearers, they get dignity. Alright? If people are due18:43 discipline, they get discipline. That's justice. Giving to others what is due. So the bible says the lord loves righteousness and justice. And if we love18:55 God, we love what he loves, and we hate what he hates. Right? Let's go to the next scripture, Jeremiah 9 23 and 24. It says this, let not19:07 the the wise man boast of his wisdom or the the strong boast of their strength, or the rich boast of their riches. But let the 1 who boasts boast19:19 about this, that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For in19:31 these, I delight. Again, god is saying in his word that we can boast in how much money we have, how strong we are, and how much we know. Or we19:43 can boast in the fact that we know God and we know what he likes, that he delights in kindness and righteousness and justice. Right?19:56 Let's look at our next scripture. Because we'll see that not only does God love righteousness and justice, he's tracking it in his20:07 sons. Listen to this passage from Isaiah chapter 5 verse 7. It says, for the vineyard of the lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah, his20:19 delightful plan. Thus, he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. So you have the vineyard of the20:31 Lord of hosts, which is the entire community of people who believe, and then he singles out the men in that community. You read, and the men of20:43 Judah, his delightful plant. And we have to remember that this is Isaiah, the prophet during the Babylonian exile. And the kings of Babylon had what are called20:54 hanging gardens. They were these immense, extravagant, places where a king would21:06 escort visitors into these hanging gardens, and he would point out his delightful plants. Oh, that one's from this part of the world, and when we conquered that area, that that plant came21:18 from here. And you have to understand that the garden, the hanging gardens for the king of Babylon were a place of pride. So the prophet during the21:30 Babylonian exile, Isaiah, he borrows this this image and this cultural truth of the king, the21:42 gardens of his delight, and his delightful trophies, right, his plan. And he projects that into our relationship with God21:54 as men, specifically. So he says, there's the realm and the people that God oversees, and then there's this garden of God's delight, and it's22:06 the men. And he's imagined the king walking through and just saying, you know, that's Bob, and that's Kenny, and that's Paul,22:18 and that's Martin, and that's Jack, and that's Randy. And God takes pride in his sons. God the father takes pride22:31 in his sons. And what does he point out about them? What's he looking for? Right? He's looking for his sons to reflect22:43 back positively on him. That's why the passage says, thus, he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. In other words, in this community22:55 of men that God is examining, which is supposed to give him delight and pride and pleasure, he's looking for his own character to be manifested in his sons.23:08 And man, is he ever disappointed. What does he see? Unrighteousness and injustice coming out of his sons and creating23:20 bloodshed and cries of distress. Now, as as a men's pastor, as a leader23:32 in the men's movement, I see God's heart here, and I see his heart for this community. Every 1 of you listening to the sound of my voice, every 1 of you participating in this livestream, we23:44 are the garden of God's delight. And God wants to point to us in in in great pride and with great satisfaction.23:56 But I have to report that what does he see? He sees bloodshed and he hears cries of distress. He hears the suffering that comes about24:09 from the injustices produced by broken male culture and character and conduct. Now I want you to see that because God's tracking24:20 that. There's what's actually happening, and then there's what God wants, and that's where I now wanna turn the shift is gotta really see what God wants. So God loves righteousness and justice, God's tracking24:32 righteousness and justice in this community right this second, And then I want you to see the model of Jesus and then we'll draw some conclusions. In Luke 4,24:45 Jesus initiates his public ministry. So for the first 30 years of his life, Jesus is the son of Mary and Joseph. In this moment,24:57 listen to this, he goes to the synagogue, opens the scroll of Isaiah, reads it, and then says, that's me. Let'sSpirit-Empowered: Imitate Jesus Against Injustice 25:09 roll the film in Isaiah chapter 4. Jesus is reading the scroll of Isaiah, quote, the spirit of the lord is on me because he25:20 has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed25:33 free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened25:45 on him and he began by saying to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. We see Jesus describe what25:57 it means to be spirit empowered. He says the spirit of the Lord is on me. In other words, the spirit is in control. God's spirit is controlling me. He's anointing26:09 me. He's falling on me. To do what? To proclaim, and then he identifies some different audiences, to proclaim good26:20 news to the poor. Right? To let those who feel left out of God's kingdom and poor spiritually, to let them know26:33 you're not poor. God's kingdom is for you. You're rich. Right? He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. That means that the things that26:45 hold you in bondage, the things that that keep you locked into a negative self perception, circumstances, traumas, you can break free26:57 from that. You don't have to feel that way about yourself anymore because of God's presence. Recovery of sight to the blind. That includes physical27:08 blindness, that includes spiritual blindness. I was blind but now I see. I used to think this way about myself, now I see through God's love, I think this way about myself. My eyes27:20 have been opened. I'm made by God, I'm made for God. 1 day I'm going to God, Right? To transition. To set the oppressed free. Right? People27:32 who are weighted down. They're pressed down by circumstances, things out of their control, oppressed, right, to proclaim the27:44 year of the Lord's favor. God's favor now is invading these situations where people are feeling lonely, they're feeling27:56 left out, they're feeling disenfranchised from God, from prospering, from from goodness. Because of things they over which they have28:08 absolutely no control. They find themselves in these situations. So we see Jesus announcing his targets. This is who I'm going to. I'm going to the least. I'm going to the lost, and I'm28:20 going to the left out. What's the common denominators with all of these audiences that Jesus is called to? They need dignity. They need protection.28:32 They need to know that not only does God sees them, but God loves them. And when we watch Jesus operate in the gospels, we see him do, after this announcement,28:43 do exactly that. He breaks the rules of the broken male culture of his time and he touches the ethnically unacceptable, the physically unacceptable, the morally28:57 unacceptable, the professionally unacceptables. He touches the unacceptables. And what does he bring to them? Into their loneliness, he brings presence. Into29:09 their lack of dignity, he brings dignity. And he divests himself of his own dignity to give them dignity.29:21 So looking at those passages of scripture about the God of righteousness and justice, that God loves righteousness and justice, God's tracking righteousness and justice in29:33 us, right? That Jesus was the man of justice, giving people what was due in our circumstances. Let's let's identify29:44 3 truths. And the first truth we wanna identify is that God's man loves what God loves. If God loves righteousness and justice, God's sons love righteousness and29:56 justice. God's sons love when people are rightly related to God and rightly related to 1 another, making right choices that bless. If30:08 God loves justice, giving to people what is due, especially people who feel like they're the least or people who feel like they're lost in the system, people who are left30:20 out, right? And that is driving their self perception and diminishing their worth. God30:32 loves justice, giving them what is due. Alright? Second, God's man expresses who God is. It's not enough to love what God loves. We actually have to take30:44 action and express who God is. Alright? God is righteous and God is just. Not only does he love righteousness and justice, but he is righteous and just. And he wants30:56 us, as his sons, in his family, to have the Father's resemblance. Number 3, God's man imitates God's son. The31:08 same spirit that came over Jesus and that called him into these domains of injustice, to bring dignity, to bring31:19 protection, to bring a message that, hey, you might think you're not worthy of love or in value or or or not valuable. I'm here to tell you, you are worthy31:31 and you are valuable because you're an image bearer. You're created in the image of God. So God's man loves what God loves. God's man expresses who God is. God's man31:43 imitates God's son. In Galatians 4 6, not on your notes, it says that God has poured the spirit of his son into our hearts. So the same spirit31:55 that took over control of Jesus's public ministry lives in us, dwells in us, and wants to work the character and conduct of Christ32:07 out of us right now in today's moment as individuals and as a collective. Look at the next verse on32:19 your downloaded notes from Ephesians 5 1. It says this, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ,32:31 circle that, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself for us gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God32:43 as a fragrant aroma. So what do we see there? We see the command to imitate god. The god who loves32:55 righteousness and justice. The god who's tracking how we express and manifest righteousness and justice in the big and the small spaces33:07 of our lives. Alright? And we see the model. And I had you circle in Galatians 5 1, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for33:18 us. We see what what confronting injustice looks like. It's a no to yourself and it's a yes to God and people. Really33:30 simple. When you confront injustice, just like Jesus did, it's a no to yourself. It's a no to your your self preservation,33:42 your self gratification, it's a no to your self convenience and your self comfort, but it's also a yes. It's a yes to God and to other people. Now I33:54 want you to think about people where loneliness I want you to think about people where a lack of dignity. I want you to think about people where there's a lack34:06 of worth are in today's culture. Where are they? What do they look like? What's happening to them? Right?34:19 Because of the choices made by a man or men in their life. I want you to think about that. People who are lonely, people who lack dignity, people who34:31 lack worth, and it's because of a choice that created a consequence that ripples into them. There's a blast zone34:43 emanating from a choice that a man or that men have made in their lives that impacts the way that they think about themselves and life and their purpose.34:55 Think about all the single moms. Think about all the children of single moms who have to wake up every day and they35:07 see other families where the mom isn't single, the mom's married, and there's a dad. And they question, you know, was it me? Did I do something wrong?35:19 Why did I pick that guy? Look at where I am now. Breaks your heart. Think about those kids, fatherless. And we talk a lot about35:31 the dynamics of fatherlessness on kids and how it quadruples a whole cascade of35:42 negative dynamics in their lives and unhealth. Think about women who are trapped in the sex trade. Who's creating35:54 that demand? Who creates a demand for that? Men do. You know, it makes me think about a time several years back36:06 when I took a group of men to harbor harbor city, Compton and Watts here in Southern California,36:18 partnering with my wonderful black brothers and pastors and their men. And what we did is we identified, single moms in the community, and,36:30 a group of us, black and white, we show up, ring the doorbell, just let them know as a group of men, that their name was36:42 given to us by their pastor, and we had we had a we had a gift basket for them. And in that gift basket was a lot of things. And for school and for the kids and just meeting practical needs, and we36:54 just wanted to know that they were seen by God, they were loved by God, and we wanted to be the hands and feet of that. And then we would ask at the end of every encounter on every porch, is there anything we could pray37:06 for you, anything you need? And this 1 mom, Tracy, she said, you know, there is 1 thing that I really need. She goes, our cat, has died and it went37:18 underneath our house to die, and it's stinking up our entire house, and we can't get it. And no sooner did she say37:30 that than I looked behind me and all the men had disappeared. And they're trying to get in between the water meter and the brick to get under house to get that cat. But only 1 guy in our group could fit. His name was37:41 Dennis. Dennis was, a smaller dude, and man, Dennis wiggled his rig in there, had a garbage bag, grabs the cat, dead cat that's stinking up the37:53 entire house, and, pulls it out. And, I remember the look on Tracy's face when we pulled that cat out from38:05 underneath her house. She just was blown away that a group of men would come, a group of men would bless, a group of men38:17 would would go to go to bat for her. She just wasn't accustomed to that. In fact, she felt lonely. She felt, isolated. Felt like no one's but you know who saw her?38:28 God saw her. And when God sees people, we need to see people that God sees, and we need to step in and step up. And I just thought about that stinky smell38:40 in her house, that that was a daily reminder to her of her isolation, of her loneliness, of her circumstance. And I know that that38:52 isolation and loneliness contributed to, boy, where's God? Look at my life. A negative self perception. Why did I make the choices I made? But39:04 then god sent the cavalry. And you know who it looked like? It looked like a community of spirit empowered men. I'm just wondering right now if there aren't some groups39:16 of people in your community that are waiting for you to either knock on their door or show up in their lives so that they can be seen, they can be39:28 recognized, and the devil can stop causing them to suffer. And we can turn the tables on broken male culture that may have39:40 created some circumstances that led to where they are, and in contrast, bring the light of Christ through the light of our community. You know,Show more In this video 0:00 Turning the Tables: Confronting Broken Male Culture16:48 God's Delight in Righteousness and Justice25:02 Spirit-Empowered: Imitate Jesus Against Injustice39:52 Mission Briefing: Shine as Sheep Among WolvesComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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