[SPEAKER_00]: High praise podcasts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, we've got Ephesians chapter five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians chapter five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, just a happy Father's Day to all of the men of God in the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read this out of Ephesians five and you might be going what it first, but y'all just hang with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to go somewhere with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many side of for the word today, man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians five, chapter five, verse twenty five.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.
[SPEAKER_00]: that he might sanctify where I already get an amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: We bred one verse of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all just hold your horses, praise God, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
[SPEAKER_00]: So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: He who loves his wife loves himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the two shall become what?
[SPEAKER_00]: One flesh, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I speak concerning, this is a great mystery, it's important, this is a great mystery by speaking concerning Christ and the Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless, each one of you in particular, so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband, let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you for this word today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you if something good to say to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you, Father God, for all the men in the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you, Father God, that we're anointed for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you for everyone that's here, Father God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your word says at a righteous man's step, so ordered of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we thank you, everyone here is on divine appointment and assignment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you, Lord, that as I speak, that you will annoy my tongue as I have already in the skillful writer to speak through with your words of life, exhortation, and evocation, and comfort to your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you for all of us in this room that you know, our ears to hear, our hearts to receive and our spirits to respond to what you're saying to us today in Jesus' mighty name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this might seem like an odd passage to begin a father's day sermon with because we're ready to talk about David killing Goliath on Father's Day, because that's what speaks to us, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This might seem like an odd passage whenever we begin to read it and we're talking about loving your wives as Christ loves the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: About laying your life down for other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe this is a passage that we really need to examine to understand what manhood is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned it earlier, but I am so thankful for the incredible men of God that we have in this church body.
[SPEAKER_00]: From day one in this church, we have always had strong male leadership.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it really can't be understated what a blessing that is for us to have it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever I say strong man leaders, if I want to make sure that I'm abundantly clear on this day, I am not saying that women can't lead or women are weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying in the church culture, in the contemporary world, sometimes it is like pulling teeth, they get men to just show up to church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let alone to lead and be the men of God that they're called to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm thankful at high praise.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have strong men of God who lead, who worship, who do all of those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the re-atmen, you'll give it up for yourselves this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And today, I'm talking a lot about fathers and husbands, but this can be applied to men in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to talk a little bit this morning about authentic manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can somebody say authentic manhood?
[SPEAKER_00]: We really are in the midst of a cultural identity crisis, not just in society, but in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And across the board, in our culture, in the church, we need men of God to stand up and be men of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we need them to be what that truly means.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, what we see is we see men disappearing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Physically,
[SPEAKER_00]: spiritually, emotionally, relationally, men are disappearing, not just in the church, but in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Attendance of men in the church down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Leadership of men in the church shrinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Engagement in faith and family is withering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes what we wanna do is gonna go, well, that's the woman's job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all got real quiet.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I was like, we need men to stand up, y'all were like, bless God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the woman's job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever we say that, what we think is, and we do need to mentor this, by the way, men, if you are interested in helping us out in the fish fry, see Mr. Robert, wait for everybody, see Mr. Robert Stewart, we need some guys to help us out, praise God, and help us with cooking fish, and doing all that good stuff, and if you're available, that's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: But hear me, that's wonderful, that's great, that service, but your service as a man of God is not you showing up once a year to the fish fry and bread in some fish and going home.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you to do that, but we also need you to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also need you to worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also need you to love your wives as Christ's love the church and gave him so for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you to engage with your children and show them what it means to love the Lord with all your mind, all your body, all your soul, all your strength with every part of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just need you to show up and act like your macho whenever it's fish fry time, and whenever it's wild game feast time, and then shrink from everything else because that's not really my personality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mind your business too much already?
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry, it's gonna get worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: While all this is going on, the world is shouting a thousand definitions of what it means to be a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And most of them don't come close to the model that we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have voices on the fringes of the church and in the podcast world and in the blogosphere
[SPEAKER_00]: that are shouting what it means to be a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're just as far off as the voices in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: So where have we missed it?
[SPEAKER_00]: What have we missed?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to propose today that we have misrepresented true manhood in what it has caused as a major shaking in our society today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the place that we need to start making this adjustment is not white for the world to get it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs to begin in the house of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs to begin with men of God actually being men of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs to start with men actually being fathers.
[SPEAKER_00]: not just seed donors, it needs to start with husbands being servants rather than thinking they're the king of the castle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's time to claim reclaimed authentic manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe this is the place that we have to start and this might hurt your feelings, but you'll be alright, you'll get over it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me and we have to leave the idea that Rambo as the model of manhood in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't shout me down because I'm preaching good this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to leave the idea that the Terminator is masculinity behind us.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Wick is not your model of what you're called to be as a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now listen, listen, I'm going to give some balance here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of y'all didn't know I knew what John Wick was, surprise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now listen, I want to give you some balance here, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not in any way saying that what we're all called to be is a bunch of Taylor Swift listening, lifetime movie watching, soy latte, sipping me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am equally saying, don't be that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the church has, see y'all were y'all shouted over that one, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: said, you're not called to be Rambo and you're like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see me?
[SPEAKER_00]: We have.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know you're not called to be Rambo.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're also not called to be this other thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the response here, me, the response to one extreme in the culture of feminizing men.
[SPEAKER_00]: is not to swing it the other way and for us to be some hyperversion of testosterone that puts everyone else down and things where the biggest toughest baddest and everybody needs to get up our ways and our wife better listen to what I have to say and my kids better shut up.
[SPEAKER_00]: That response is equally as toxic.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't respond to extremes, with extremes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You respond to an extreme with the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: In our culture, when something's marketed towards me and it's loud, it's aggressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's obnoxious, it's monster trunks, monster trucks, and energy drinks and heavy metal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing wrong with any of those things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care for monster trucks, but I can listen, I can throw down with some heavy metal if I need to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes I need an energy drink just to make it through the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing wrong with any of those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we make that the model of manhood, we are missing the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we make the model is I like ultraviolence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love the USC and I love to watch someone bleed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I like everything loud and intense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now listen, I love a big loud, actually movie filled with eighty-seven thousand explosions, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Bay, cool guys, don't look at explosions.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do walk in a way with a nuclear bomb going off behind him and he's putting on sunglasses and he's not affected at all, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all know what I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be in the theater on whatever this thing is July, thirtieth, when fantastic four comes out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be right there with my thing of popcorn, shouting while stuff blows up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you where you will not find me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not gonna find me at whatever the latest romantic comedy is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not gonna find me there unless I give a caveat, unless my wife wants to go and then I'm gonna take her.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the good news is, my wife hates those movies more than I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what you call marrying a winner right there, praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Commercial sell this image to us, movies glorify it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And tragically, the church has occasionally attempted to baptize it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've held up people like David as the model for Christian manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've held up people like Samson as the model for Christian manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've even held up people like Peter because he liked to cuss and try to kill a guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the model
[SPEAKER_00]: for Christian manhood, but these aren't the models of authentic manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is it produced in the church whenever we've held up these models?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's produced people like David, a bad father, not a very good husband, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was unfaithful and his kids were crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's produced people like Samson who might be jacked but can't be faithful to their house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he ends up putting bondage because of lust on his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are the models we have to leave behind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to make sure I'm clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that we all stand in a circle and hold hands and sing whatever song is popular these days with the ladies.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably not Kumbaya.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love sports.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're sixty nine days away from college football and church says amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, I love a good action movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was zero interest in chick clicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not saying we have to embrace that and feminize ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the opposite of what I want you to hear today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I am saying is that simply being macho is not the vision of authentic manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Simply throwing a ball around with the boys is not the vision of authentic manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the vision?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be macho and be in a lazy shoes of a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can bench press three hundred and be an awful husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that doesn't make you a good man because you can lift heavy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's be clear, authentic manhood is not about how loud you yell.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about how many women you can get.
[SPEAKER_00]: It ain't about your body count.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about dominance.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about being emotionally shut down and shut off from the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not manhood, that's testosterone wrapped up in maturity.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what do we do?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the proper perspective?
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe it's apparent who it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to be David.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're called to be like the one who is called the son of David.
[SPEAKER_00]: The vision of authentic manhood isn't David.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Samson.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Peter.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Joshua Gay.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Willie.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Pastor Garrett.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the vision of authentic manhood and what it really means to be a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we hold ourselves up against him and we don't look like him, we have not become the man that we are called to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if you can kill a giant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you love your wife?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if you can push down the pillars.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you be faithful to your kids?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if you drive the biggest truck with the biggest wheels and the coolest ramps and what your gun collection is.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I care about is do you serve the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you serve the house?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you leaving a legacy for your kids to pick up and carry?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are y'all with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is this too much for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor made this comment some years back in an interview with a magazine
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was talking about Jesus and he says this, this is a direct quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Revelation, Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattooed down his leg.
[SPEAKER_00]: A sword in his hand and the commitment to make someone bleed.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the guy I can worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't worship the hippie diaper halo Christ because I can't worship a guy that I can beat up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just for a moment, ignore the absolutely theological conundrum this puts us in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's just say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the type of thought that men we have to resist.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to resist something?
[SPEAKER_00]: Resist this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, gee, I love this Jesus has a tattoo down on his leg and a commitment to make someone believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we like to say in Revelation, he's the lion of the tribe of Judah and praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Read that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, I heard behold the lion of the tribe of Judah and I looked and behold, I saw a lamb.
[SPEAKER_00]: Commitment to make someone believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's committed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only person he was committed to make believe was himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was his commitment was for me to bleed for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the commitment of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing I came to give my life the first time, but whenever I come back, you better believe all the people that you personally don't like.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not to get on.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not the vision of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not the vision of man.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see in this letter to Ephesus what authentic manhood looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the model.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just tell us what manhood was, he embodied it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wept over Lazarus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He served his betrayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: He restored the one who denied him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He touched the untouchable.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he died for the very ones who rejected him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is real toughness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is what it really means to be masculine.
[SPEAKER_00]: You serve, you lead, you love.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what does it look like to be a real man in a lot of Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's break it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna give you some things real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing is this, a real man lays down his life, not just in death, but in daily living.
[SPEAKER_00]: John, fifteen, thirteen, greater love.
[SPEAKER_00]: has no one in this than the lay down wants life for his friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lay down your life for someone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which means this, lay down your ego.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lay down your preferences.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lay down your comfort.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lay down your time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe this with everything inside of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is not a greater way to measure how manly someone is than what kind of a husband and father they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the measuring stick.
[SPEAKER_00]: of how manly someone is, are you a good husband?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't just mean that you bring home a paycheck, although that's part of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna talk about that in a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then whenever you do bring home that paycheck that you're present with your family, come on somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one's a greater husband than Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's even talking about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, this is a mystery I'm speaking to y'all about Christ in the church, and y'all need to reflect this.
[SPEAKER_00]: in your own marriages.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it Paul's telling them, you love your wife the way Christ loved the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the model.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did Jesus love the church?
[SPEAKER_00]: He led his life down for.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what do we do is mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: We lay our lives down for our wives.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is nothing more manly than laying down your life for your wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you for that overwhelming response.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing more manly than watching what she wants to watch, rather than what you want to watch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's try that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing more manly than letting her have the remote control instead of you dominating it all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're getting somewhere today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a million things I could have said that had been less controversial than that apparently.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, Pastor, I'm with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But on the remote,
[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing more manly than buying her the new pair of shoes that she wants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if that means you can't buy the item that you wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's unselfish sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's laying down.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing more manly than whenever you want to go on a certain trip, but she wants a different trip, and you say, baby, you're going to do what you want to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, bless God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all want to be to tell y'all y'all we're all rainbow today and walk out and get your free cup and go home.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing more manly than making sure she's taking care of.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be, you want to be manly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be a caveman.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The picture of a man in relation to his wife is servanthood.
[SPEAKER_00]: It amazed me how often, because if you read up a few verses here in Ephesians, it has the part that all the men like to quote out of context.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wives.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to get a little angry whenever you say it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wives submit through gritted teeth, submit.
[SPEAKER_00]: to your husbands, which means we're having ribeye and potatoes every night.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to watch the entire Marvel catalog followed by Terminator II, the greatest action movie in history with a side of aliens, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Submit to your husbands.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we just stop there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't keep reading about giving your life for your wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: We like submit the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't read the Bible any farther.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only verse you need.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do what I say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you listen to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bobby, we're praying for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, he knows better, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is nothing more manly than you laying down your preference for your children.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is nothing more manly than you sitting down and playing tea party with your little girls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's equally, there's nothing more manly than you get out in the front yard and you let in your son dunk the basketball on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you could take him and I know you were thirteen all county whenever you were in high school.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's nothing more manly than you building their confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I grew up, I grew up, I'm tell y'all story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up with a, I have a sister, most of some of you know my sister, some of y'all don't, I've got a sister who's almost three and a half years younger than me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her kids are actually here today, Judah, and not the original.
[SPEAKER_00]: She probably in restroom, Judah, and Zoe are here, but I have a sister and my sister was very involved in dance, very involved in dance.
[SPEAKER_00]: She danced competitively and was in forty-seven thousand classes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And whenever,
[SPEAKER_00]: it was recital season or it was competition season and occasionally we would go as a family to these dance competitions very occasionally wasn't all the time but occasionally we're all going and I didn't have an option right staying home was not an option that was put on the table so I went to dance competitions and I had to sit at these dance competitions for a couple days and I'm gonna shoot straight with y'all
[SPEAKER_00]: It was awful, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is before you could have an iPhone to scroll on, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You couldn't watch Netflix on the iPad to pass the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was awful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hated every second.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I let it be known how awful it was and how terrible it was and how much I hated every second of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, God, sometimes, likes to troll us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what did God do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't give me one daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't give me two daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave me three daughters, like LeBron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not one, not two.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not said mine actually came to pass.
[SPEAKER_00]: Went right over something else head.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was right at you, E.J.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me and Pastor Casey and Kyle, we've been debating some of these young guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like LeBron's a goat and we're like y'all don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: y'all don't, y'all don't know game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not one, not two, three daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And guess what, all three of my daughters love to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: They love to dance and they're in eighty-seven thousand classes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, God's really a troll about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because whenever my sister was a kid, there was one recital.
[SPEAKER_00]: My girls don't have one recital.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've never had one recital.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we lived in Orlando, they had three recitals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that we are back in Panama City, this past recital, they had three recitals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And guess what Dad was doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Dad was sitting right there through all the recitals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wasn't going to complain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I am serving my children.
[SPEAKER_00]: because I am loving them, because I am there for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we were in Orlando and Josiah was in Taekwondo and he was getting black, he got his black belt and he was doing Xomeg and he was doing sparring competitions and all that, that didn't go, I need to stay home and study the word this afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dad was front row, shoutin' get it Josiah, kick him in the face!
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all think I'm playing, and I'm serious.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what manhood is in his serving, your family, not expecting your family to serve you, twenty-four-seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: That may keep going, I gotta go fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: A real man leads with love, service, and provision.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus told us Cycle, whoever wants to be greatest among you must first be serving of all.
[SPEAKER_00]: leadership in the kingdom in the family is not domination, it's demonstration.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here this, Jesus was a provider, spiritually and naturally.
[SPEAKER_00]: He provided life for us spiritually, but there's this portion of Jesus' life where he's a carpenter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what that means?
[SPEAKER_00]: He worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God, you want to be a man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Get a job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, now you're like, praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get a job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I have all these, I have, we'll have these, occasionally you, and this is a, a caricature that is emerging in the world today.
[SPEAKER_00]: These young guys who were eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one years old, I want to find a woman and get married.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get a job.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can't pay the bills, you don't need a wife right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the church says a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't pay the bills, you don't need a wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need more hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get a career, devote yourself to serving, to providing
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to get off Call of Duty and get a job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm just going to say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to leave it here.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Ruth was looking for a wife, I'm sorry, a husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Ruth was looking for a husband, thank you all for fixing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get the story right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get the narrative correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Ruth was looking for a husband, she found Boas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lazy ass and poor ass didn't find a wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Real man is emotionally whole.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus wept.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the most incredible things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever they come to Jesus, they say Lazarus died.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus wept.
[SPEAKER_00]: The shortest first scripture in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to learn, here's your scripture memorization for the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus wept.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just learned scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus weeps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus knowing full well
[SPEAKER_00]: that He is going to go and say Lazarus come forth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He weeps anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does He weep?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because people that Jesus loved were hurting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is moved and He weeps with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: A real man isn't afraid to feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Emotions are not weaknesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: God gave you emotions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to put it out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be a man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell your kids you love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give them a hug.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let them know how important they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell your wife you love her and don't go, I gave you a ring, didn't I?
[SPEAKER_00]: You all think I'm playing, and I've heard people say those exact words.
[SPEAKER_00]: I paid the bills, don't I?
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that enough?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's not.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be emotionally available and vulnerable, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Reject the lie that stoicism equals strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: A real man walks in holiness, I'm almost done, I promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: The standard of manhood isn't just character, it's Christ likeness.
[SPEAKER_00]: First Peter, one, sixteen says, be holy for I am holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This means purity and thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means faithfulness in marriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means integrity in your speech.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means honesty in business dealings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guard your eyes, protect your mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna put this out here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be amazing how much stronger men of God in the church would be if we would deal with the poor and epidemic that affects people and church just as much as it does people in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for that overwhelming response.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, my wife knows I watch it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Walk in accountability, live above reproach.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two more, go with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: A real man honors women.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: How would you feel for those of you who have a daughter?
[SPEAKER_00]: How would you feel if you're a little girl married somebody who treated her the way that you treat your wife?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if that hits you the wrong way and you go, I hope you don't marry somebody like me, then you need to change.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus elevated women.
[SPEAKER_00]: He honored their faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: He trusted them with resurrection news before the apostles even believed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speak to your wife with respect, even in disagreement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Raise your daughters to be bold and godly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Teach your sons that honor is not weakness, it's strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: Teach your sons that lay down your life for your wife and for your children is not a sign that you're not masculine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the most masculine thing you can do is to serve your family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let everybody else call it what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know what heaven calls it and heaven calls it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a man of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all women?
[SPEAKER_00]: Last thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm done.
[SPEAKER_00]: A real man built legacy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm one twenty seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Costs children's arrows in the hands of a warrior, but arrows don't fire themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to aim them.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means this you have to be intentional in discipling your children.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means this that you don't leave them learning about Jesus, just to your wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that she's not capable.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to misunderstand me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying women aren't capable.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, on Father's Day, I just, I meant to say this earlier, but we also want to honor all the single moms that are having to fill the roles of both.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stand with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We honor you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we believe God will be a God, a father to the Fatherless, and as the men of this church, we commit to be there for you whenever you need something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, it is not simply left to the wife to disciple the children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dad, you need to be involved.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to tell them about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to tell them what Jesus has done for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to let them know that he is real to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Church is at something we just go to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is somebody who changed your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell your children about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prioritize presence over performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: He present for your kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can honestly say we obviously grown up live very busy lives whenever I was a kid, but my mom, my dad, they were always there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only way my dad wasn't there is if he was out of town for some reason, ministry on the occasions we weren't with him, but I promised you this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If my dad was in town, he didn't go, well I've got an appointment, I've got to go to, so I'm not going to be at the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't go, I've got to go study to preach for Sunday, so I can't show up.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was present.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could tell you stories about my dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned my sister earlier whenever she was in dance.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the dance, there was a giant window.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember on occasion, my dad, my dad, half of y'all are scared of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially the younger people will be like, yes, he's terrifying.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he would do this all the youth leaders like, yes, praise God, Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's this window that looked into the dance studio.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my dad, whenever my sister was in there, would do this thing where he would occasionally, he would start at one end where the window began.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he would run across and would do ballet leaps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Simply to embarrass my sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was present, and he was there, and he showed up, be present for your kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your detachedness from them does not equal manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the least manly thing you could do, is be detached from your kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, wit.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can keep talking about this all morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to challenge you to change your perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: You aren't called to be in the image of Rambo.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are called to be in the image of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You aren't called to be in the image of David.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are called to be in the image of the one they called the Son of David.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I want to make sure I just do nobody walks out of here with a wrong idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not saying, I'll make sure I'm abundantly clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've said it about three times already, but I'm not saying you can't go hunt and you can't watch action movies and you can't drive a big pickup truck and you can't do this and you can't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: You all go for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knock your cells out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm simply saying this, that is not what defines you as a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thankful for the guys that go hunt because whenever we have wild game feasts, we got some good food to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thankful for the guys that go fish because we're about to throw down at a fish fry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thankful they make the loud explosive crazy action movies.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my jam.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on the Tomahawk chopping and screaming and then crying and then yelling at the TV.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come football season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Crying because we're probably gonna be awful again.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all about it!
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is not what defines you as a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: What defines you is being conformed to the image of the sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is manhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is masculinity.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is toughness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is grit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looking like Jesus' stepship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed and encouraged and identified you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a message here for high praise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, you can follow us on social media, on Facebook and on Instagram, and don't forget to go subscribe to our YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message.
[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.