Human Sexuality, Gender, and God's Creation with Owen Strachan Day 2 Afternoon | Live Conference

Okay, now that everybody has eaten we're going to begin the next session with a round of

calisthenics.

Just kidding, but we will sing.

So if you would please stand with us as we begin this session with praise to the Lord the Almighty.

Praise to the Lord the Almighty the King of

creation.

Oh.

My soul praise him for he is my help and salvation.

To his temple draw near Praise him in glad

adoration.

So one Shelters

me under his wings.

He so gently sustains us.

How the desires.

Are.

Planted in

Praise to the Lord who doth prosper thy work and

defense goodness

and mercy here daily attend thee.

Ponder What the Almighty can

do

to the Lord.

Oh let all that is in me adore.

Him.

All that hath life and breath amazes me

Every

blessing to

my heart to

sing thy grace streams of mercy Never

ceasing call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious Sonnet sung by

flaming tongues above Praise the mount I'm

fixed up on it mount of thy

Redeeming

love I love has blessed me

thou hast brought me to this place And I know

thy head will bring me safely home by thy good

grace.

Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from

the fold of God he to rescue me from

Danger bought me with his precious

love great a debtor Daily I'm

constrained to be Let thy goodness like a

fetter Bind my wandering heart to thee

prone to Wonder.

Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart.

Oh take and seal it seal it for thy courts above.

Oh that day when freed from sinning I shall see

Thy lovely face full of rain in blood -washed

linen How I'll sing by Sovereign grace

Come my lord.

No longer Terry bring thy promises to

pass For I know thy power will keep me

till I'm home with the.

Thank you so much for that Great song

by Josh the man with the best goatee in evangelicalism.

Okay.

So what we're gonna do now is we are

going to Consider four types of men from Scripture

in this session and then in the last session as I said to you this morning I've switched a few things around

and we're gonna end on a high point with David we're gonna end with King David as an

example of godly manhood and as a type of Christ,

okay.

So that is what remains before us in terms of my material then we have a Q &A.

To close out our time together.

What I want to do first then with you in this session are four deficient types

of manhood and before we dive into those four types, I Want us to

understand the context of toxic?

Masculinity men are said as I alluded to last night to be toxic today and

I reject the idea out of hand that there is something toxic about manhood.

So I don't affirm that I I think it is very dangerous for us.

Example to tell our young men our boys that they are toxic.

You know in a special and unique way.

I I think that is tremendously Damaging to boys and young men and men

for them to hear that and that's why the book you received graciously From pastor Jim and the elders for

this conference is the war on men the war on Men because

men are said to be toxic and I would encourage you hearing the sound of my voice to know

that men are hearing that message today and Young men are hearing that message today

and they're internalizing it and it's not having good effects.

So I really do believe there is a war on men and on manhood more generally.

But that doesn't mean as we've already talked about that men don't have sin to face because

men Definitely do and as we're going to now talk about there are four

major ways, I think that men fail or if you will there are

four major types of Deficient manhood that I want to cover with you in our

brief session.

Now the first of them is the lost man the lost man.

This is the kind of man we see in Genesis 3 verses 1 through

7.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden and the woman said to the

serpent We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.

But God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it.

She added that lest you die, but the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree Was to be desired to make one

wise.

She took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was With

her and he ate then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they

sewed fig leaves Together and made themselves Loin cloths, let's pray father as we

embark in this discovery this session this time I pray that you will bless us and you will strengthen

us and I pray that you will help us to help men.

I pray that the men in the room will identify sin and you will help us to kill it and I pray father for

your blessing.

On men in this church that you would remake them by the power of your gospel in Jesus

name.

We pray amen.

The reason by the way, we focus on these four types is because the stakes are so high with men.

Because if you do not train men, well, you're you're setting yourself up for disaster.

You can't avoid it and when men struggle by the way very quickly when men struggle.

It's not only men who are affected right?

It's women who are affected and it's children who are affected.

So you can't simply say men are struggling.

Well, whatever that that's that's on men in.

Feminists will argue it's not a bad thing that men are struggling nowadays it's kind of good that men

would get to wear the struggle hat for a while because men have had it so good for.

So long in the world now, it's their turn to be in the cultural penalty box again.

That's not a sound way to think that's not a gospel driven way to think and furthermore when men

struggle I'm at pains to say that everyone else will be struggling as well.

So that's you can't just say women are doing great women have leaned in.

Women have leaned forward women are leaders now and men have stepped back.

Yay feminism.

This is going to be great.

This is going to be golden hour in America.

No, it's not if Men aren't men if men are not strong men

again.

Disaster is coming for you this very week as some of you have seen on social media.

The pictures in the videos numerous veterans of D -day on the 80th

anniversary of D -day were flown over to Normandy France and

walked the beaches.

There was there were a number of reporters who were embedded with this group of veterans.

Basically all of whom now are in wheelchairs very much in wheelchairs a number of them a

hundred years old.

And it was a great week for us as a civilization to reflect on the state of men.

Because I'm not sure if a D -day was needed today in cultural terms.

I Don't know that we could pull it off.

I Honestly don't and I don't say that, you know ripping the the rising generation.

A lot of in a lot of cases young men haven't been trained in manhood haven't been discipled haven't been helped.

Haven't been fathered and so on.

But that's just a little picture of where we are that there was something in past generations not that they were

all a Christian.

They weren't but there was instruction in manhood and I fear a lot of this is lost

today.

Well.

This is a problem as old as the earth because Adam is our first lost

man in this scene in Genesis 3.

Remember how important it is that the Lord God said that Adam's charge was to work Eden

and what?

Keep Eden right guard Eden.

That's the whole call to protection that we've talked about earlier today.

It turns out that Adam didn't heed and respond to that call at all

he had the Lord God say to protect Eden to Adam directly and Adam

failed in the mission the serpent came to the woman the woman stepped into the man's

place and Engaged the serpent and got numerous things about the command of God wrong.

Didn't identify the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by that term.

Called the tree the tree that is in the midst of the garden added a prohibition to not touch it.

And so the woman was not doing well in this conversation this real historical conversation.

In.

Genesis 3 then the serpent rounds on the woman and tells her you will

not surely die.

If you do what God has forbidden you to do, that's the voice that we were talking about in our previous session.

That's the voice of paganism talking because paganism is a dummy animated

by the devil the the lie.

That our culture that pagan cultures believe is exactly that that you can live according to the

flesh and you will not die.

But remember that Paul in Romans 1 said that people who live in that way know That they deserve

to die for their sin and yet they live that way.

Anyway, this is a chilling passage because it Disabuses us of the notion that if

God would just show up and do our evangelism and apologetics for us.

Everybody would obey.

That's a very common way for you and me to think the reality is.

The human heart can be so proud and so slow to hear that God himself.

This is a weird thing to say, but it's true.

God himself can give you divine instruction and Then you can have an opportunity

to put that instruction into practice and you can completely disregard What God just said?

That's what Adam does here that's what Eve does here they they don't at all Obey God, they

don't listen to God and that shows us the capacity of the human heart.

For pride talk about pride month.

It's been pride history for all of human history since this moment.

We're living in a pride world not in a happy way.

Don't have a ticker tape parade about it.

That's the reality though that our hearts can hear divine instruction.

Don't think that your discipleship and your Christian faith would necessarily be all the better if Jesus had

just personally discipled you because Jesus can personally disciple you and you can reject what he has

taught you to do.

The Lord God himself can give you instruction and you cannot hear it.

That's what happens with Adam.

Adam had a threat come into the garden.

Adam had the devil target his wife and he did basically nothing.

All he did was stand there passively and eat the fruit that she gave him to eat.

And this is a sign of one way we men fail.

In a place where we need to step forward and we need to show God given God

Identified strength we instead shrink back we disappear and we allow

ourselves To get lost and that is happening with men all around us.

We still have men in our midst, but we have men who in many cases

Have abandoned their calling and as a result many are suffering in our time.

That is one kind of deficient manhood that we see in the Bible.

The second type is this the angry man the angry man.

We've talked about this some.

But we meet an angry man in Genesis 4 in One of the sons of Adam now

Abel verse 1 was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground in the course of time Cain

brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his

flock and of their fat portions and The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain

and his offering he had no regard so Cain was

very.

Angry and.

His face fell.

The Lord said to Cain.

Why are you angry and why has your face fallen if you do?

Well, will you not be accepted and if you do not do well sin is crouching at the

door.

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.

In this passage we see that Cain is rebuked by the Lord and

Cain does not respond in faith.

Cain does not handle reproof.

Well.

And I think a lot of us man and woman alike Can see a scene like this and know that this isn't

necessarily our favorite moment on the monthly calendar.

The time when we get reproved.

Is this making sense to anyone the time when your spouse has a word of slight tweaking

in your behavior.

The thought that there could be something that you are not necessarily doing perfectly in all respects and

someone around you Suggests that to you.

We all fail in this regard some of us more than others and it can be hard

For us all of us men and women alike boys and girls to hear reproof to hear

just critique.

And Cain gives us a picture of how to handle criticism

abysmally.

The way to handle criticism Abysmally is to reject

it out of hand and to get very Angry at it.

That's exactly what Cain does.

We know this instinct.

Well, all of us do we don't all have the same personality.

We don't all respond sinfully in the same ways.

But we at least know what it is to have our blood run hot.

When someone says to us, I don't know that you want to keep going that way I think you might have hurt

their feelings.

Maybe we should do this a different way.

The Lord has no regard for Cain's offering and Cain doesn't

handle this with humility and graciousness and Listening a

listening spirit instead Cain Handles God's disregard for his offering here again.

This is God's verdict, right?

You and I can think well if God corrected me it would be done.

So well that then I would just handle it great.

But instead my spouse doesn't know how to say these words to me.

And so it it hurts me and it ticks me off because they don't they don't say it the right way and they may not Say it the right way,

but even if God said it to you himself You still who you still

could get very?

That is what happens precisely with this man.

Cain did not rule anger.

Anger ruled Cain in Fact it basically took him

over.

He lived his life angry.

It's not hard to do this man and woman alike.

It's not hard to do this as a man.

Men have that much greater Capacity for strength right 50 to 60 percent more upper body

strength on average men have on average 2 ,000 to 3 ,000 percent more testosterone than women

which is why we relax as boys or men by forming sports that

allow us to hit one another and Collide into one another for fun and why when it is time to

relax.

We turn on a war movie which is somewhat ironic if you think about it or even a Western Like tombstone

where people shoot at each other for fun.

Okay.

This is what we do as men.

It's it's not though because we're toxic.

It's because we are wired for action and we have this capacity in us.

That a little bit like catnip can make us a little bit crazy on the outer edges of it.

Let's be honest.

We have this inner drive and that can be used for tremendous good.

And that can be used for real evil and we have to know that we have these capacities as men.

We don't all look the same.

We don't all bench press the same but we have as we become an adult man we have

some physical strength at least a lot of us do and we have that energy that

Testosterone in us and if those instincts and those capacities aren't channeled

for the glory of God.

Specifically if we are not born again.

Those can do tremendous damage to the people around us just as they can be used for

amazing good.

Cain then is a warning to us.

He's the angry man.

He kills Abel.

He goes on to do this in verse 8 Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him when

the Lord shows up in a kind of reprise of Genesis 3 to ask Cain where

Abel was.

Cain denied being his brother's keeper.

But but Abel's blood righteous.

Abel's blood shouted from the ground verse 10 in poetic Language, let's

learn then men.

From the image of the angry man here in Genesis 4.

There's other images.

There's other examples of this found throughout the Bible, but this is a directly biblical example.

Very early in the scripture of the way of the angry man, and I would just encourage us all sometimes

we're angrier than we know sometimes we don't even realize how disgruntlement

or grumpiness or Challenges are affecting us and we're bringing that home again

we may not even be aware of it and that can have an effect on our wife and our children around us

and.

So our challenge here is not to is not to hate ourselves or see ourselves as worse than women or

something like that.

But our challenge is to think in a gospel driven way.

Our challenge is not to be proud like Cain.

But our challenge is to pursue humility.

We want to be strong men in God that's a very good instinct.

It's right that little boys want to grow up to be strong it's right that boys look up to

soldiers.

Policemen firefighters men who put their lives on the line for others.

We want that.

I love that my son when he sees a policeman.

This isn't you know, I'm not telling a story to praise my wife and me.

My son has always done this.

He looks up to men in uniform as so many boys Innately do and he'll go up to them and ask them all these

questions about their line of work and that sort of thing.

We want that.

But we've got to recognize that it is not only our calling to be strong.

It is also our calling to be humble to be humble men.

Cain is not humble when someone is not humble.

They literally don't Hear that's the mark of pride.

You don't hear and Christian discipleship is many things at base.

It is hearing it's listening.

It's paying attention.

How many times do dads and moms say that over the course of years zero to twelve pay attention?

Can you pay attention?

Are you paying attention?

Are you did you pay attention that did you hear that?

I just said that did you not hear that right?

It's we say to our kids our parents said it to us.

It will continue down the generations until Jesus returns and everyone is paying attention.

Okay, isn't it significant that you hear the trumpet and he returns pay attention you get you get my point.

It's a it's a congenital defect of humanity that we don't pay attention, but that's what humility that's

what the spirit works in us.

It's not just pay more attention Christian.

Be more humble Christian man or woman alike.

It's the spirit working in us to produce humility.

It's a fruit of the spirit.

And so let's embrace this.

Let's go hard for humility.

Let's take opportunities to listen.

It's not that's not the easy button of the Christian life.

This is not the fun part.

When you get critique when somebody's speaking into your life when somebody's speaking into your marriage when

somebody's speaking into your fatherhood.

When someone's speaking into your singleness not the fun part, but this is the part where we grow.

This is a part where we grow like crazy when we are humble and we listen.

So we need to pray that God would Keep us from being a cane and God would

make us one who listens who pays attention.

Tomorrow's sermon is on David hearing Abigail when David

is about to slaughter people and Abigail barely barely shows up

in time and on the spot David and his warriors with their Their swords

strapped onto their thigh ready to cut throats.

Stopping their tracks and listen to this one woman David and 400 warriors and not,

you know toy soldiers men who have killed many others in the past

and instead of acting foolishly David.

Listens.

That's the power of humility.

Everybody.

Everybody wants political power today and understandably we can.

We can know why people want to put things to rights.

It's actually a good instinct in many respects, but the Bible concentrates power in

such surprising places.

It's not the guy who's yelling at everybody and forcing them to

go his way.

Who's the powerful man you want to know.

Who's powerful.

The man who has the spirit working in him and who is self -controlled and humble.

That's Spiritual power.

That's when you're powerful not in yourself, but by the working of God in you you're under control.

You're not a city without walls to quote Proverbs, but you're a man who's disciplined.

You're a man who listens and you're a man who can grow because you can actually hear what

someone's saying to you.

Cain couldn't hear a word even with Almighty God.

Talking to him.

What a place to be.

What a powerful thing.

The natural fallen heart is God himself speaking to you and you.

Gritting your teeth and making excuses.

It's a dangerous reality.

Third type.

The soft man.

The soft man.

We find this figure not in the book of Genesis, but we find this figure in Judges.

We find an example of the soft man.

The wavering man.

The fearful man in Gideon.

The the figure of Gideon.

We find Gideon in.

Judges.

Six we find Gideon in Judges seven and so Gideon

is a crucial player in the strange surprising weirdly

encouraging and troubling book of Judges.

Two of the examples we're covering here are from the book of Judges Gideon and next

Samson.

Gideon's the soft man.

He's the opposite of Samson.

Who's the out -of -control man?

Gideon had a father who openly worshiped the false God

Bale.

This is a hard situation from the outset.

Gideon Was afraid of his dad.

His dad led many men in Gideon's town to worship Bale.

Gideon lived a fearful life.

He harvested wheat at night.

Because there were evil tribes around him namely the Midianites Who

wanted to destroy Gideon and his family and so Gideon? harvested

wheat.

At night when he could be safer

in Judges 612 the Lord came to Gideon and an angel

addressed Gideon as a mighty man of valor.

This is not actually what Gideon had shown himself to be.

But this is what God was calling Gideon to be by his own

grace.

This is very similar to what we were talking about with Proverbs 31 it is not that

Proverbs 31 is a list that you're supposed to Throw at women and say you're failing at

this.

It is supposed to be Aspirational and a beautiful picture of what a woman can be by God's

power.

Similarly God addressed Gideon as a mighty man of valor.

Even though Gideon was actually a very fearful man, but what God was signaling is that Gideon?

This is what you're going to become.

This is what I'm going to make you and that should be very encouraging.

To us God takes weak soft Passive fearful men

and he changes them.

He changes us into something much greater.

The Lord's call to Gideon was a very easy one.

It was to destroy his father.

Joe ashes idolatrous altars to demonic false.

Gods.

Wow you tracking that anybody ever had some inter -family dynamics.

You ever felt how hard it is to go against a dad or mom who you disagree with?

You tried to witness to family members who aren't Christian and don't want to hear it.

My family back in Maine sadly largely unsaved one time I tried

to witness to my grandfather and.

The conversation started going into church life.

And I tried to witness to my grandparents before and my grandfather who was a strong

man.

Not a Christian, but a strong man looked me in the eye without blinking and said stop.

Like that and that was it.

That was the end of the conversation.

I.

Know how hard it is as some of you do to have family members who are not walking with the Lord and you try

to Be a witness and you feel so weak and It's hard.

Well Gideon knew this firsthand and God didn't just say

Have a dinnertime conversation over the decaf about you know, how things are going with Joe ash.

God said take a hammer and destroy your dad's idols.

This is quite a calling.

Gideon did so Gideon in the middle of the night as was his custom

destroyed his dad's idolatrous altars and Joe ash found out the next

day.

And in Judges 6 28 to 32 We see that Gideon's

God inspired courage Actually turned the tide in his

surroundings.

Gideon feared that Joe ash was going to probably attack him and kill him which was not an

unreasonable fear and instead Joe ash the dad stood up for his son

and things changed in the town.

And so we're getting a picture here as we will in our next session with David of this equation.

Cowardice begets cowardice but courage begets

courage and Oftentimes, it's one man one person

Who will stand up to evil?

It's not usually in the Bible lots of people it's often one person.

It's often.

One person standing in the gap who will say No, and God

uses so.

Frequently one.

Person.

Isn't that the opposite of the way many of us are thinking about America right now?

Turning America around whatever that would look like how we want that.

Guessing many of you want that I want that.

Don't you don't you think?

I.

Don't know.

Maybe we're outnumbered and outgunned.

I think we might need a revival I think we might need you know tons and tons and tons and and tons and tons and tons of people

to To turn this around and I just think that's impossible.

Oh, really?

Do you know about a book called the Bible?

Where over and over again?

There's not an army.

There's no army or Excuse me.

There's an army of one.

There's one person.

This is what happens with Gideon one man Turns the tide of a town and not an

impressive man an afraid Passive timid man and yet God works in him and

Everything turns around.

Could it be that way in America?

Is God weak?

It's the gospel not powerful anymore.

Christian.

Whatever happens in days ahead.

Don't live in fear.

Stop living in fear.

Live in hope.

Live in God -centered trust.

Your God is invincible.

Your God is not Cowed or worried by the opposite side.

Your God is strong.

He'll choose to do.

Whatever he chooses to do.

He gives people up doesn't he.

He gives societies over.

He lets civilizations crash.

He does whatever he pleases.

Whatever he does is right.

Yet know this he's not outmatched.

He's not outmatched by paganism.

He's not outgunned.

He's very strong and frequently in history and in the church and with

unsound doctrines and unsound movements and Wokeness in the church and government's closing the church

down and terrible things happening among the people of God.

You think oh, no.

We don't have the numbers anymore.

No, you may not have the numbers, but you know who you have.

You have God.

You've got and as Knox said to requote it one man with God is in the

majority.

Do you believe that?

Is that in your bones?

Let that sink into your bones.

It's true God lets Gideon experience this

principle Keenly and judges seven very quickly.

Gideon amasses an army of 32 ,000 men.

Yay.

Strengthen numbers.

Here we go.

32 ,000, right?

Does Gideon go into battle with 32 ,000?

You learn that in BBS you learn that on the flannel graph right you remember that The Lord

makes a cut.

He has Gideon do a test with the with the 10 ,000 he initially pairs the army down from

32 ,000 to 10 ,000 and Then this next major cut is with a test

where The men are to lap water.

They're to go to a stream and see who drinks water in

what way and The Lord God tells Gideon and judges seven six that he is to keep

for his army only those who kneel down to

Lap water and put their hand to their mouth.

I've been told I'm ranging outside of the camera.

Sorry I'm so sorry, but I I'm Reaching the point in the preaching and teaching.

There's a lot of preaching and teaching and I'm needing to testosterone.

Speaking to me move around a little bit.

Okay, but anyway near it near the stream and and the only ones Gideon can keep are the ones who

do this.

They they they lap water.

Uh -uh.

It's not just that they lap water.

It's that they scan the horizon.

You see actually the only ones Gideon is to keep are the ones who have a warrior

mindset.

It's the true warriors not necessarily in the terms of the the bigness of their biceps, but the ones who are

Protectors the ones who even when they're drinking water

are scanning the horizon.

Later in the Old Testament this type of man is going to be called.

It's one of my favorite terms in the Bible a watchman

a watchman on the wall.

That's this type of man.

Everybody wants a warm bed at night right then and now.

But there's a certain type you find them all through the Bible.

They're also called mighty men with David and these are the types who yes.

They like a warm bed just like the rest of us, but they have other priorities on their mind.

Specifically they have the good of other people on their mind even when they would love to relax.

That's what this type of warrior is.

He's always scanning the horizon.

That's the type of man we need.

We need men who are watchmen on the wall we need men

who are Protecting and defending when they would rather not be on the wall.

They'd rather be down there where everyone else is sleeping but

instead They're watching we need these kind of men.

Young.

Middle -aged and Elderly, we need these men single and we need these men married.

We need to train our boys to be these kind of men by the grace of God.

We need men you see returning to this concept who pay.

Attention.

Few things are more deadly than a man who doesn't pay attention.

Think about your phone for a minute.

Mines on the table.

One.

One stratagem of Satan.

I'm not against smartphones.

Mine is right there.

But one stratagem of Satan is to get us just lured into not paying attention.

Because of a smartphone which sounds silly when I say it.

But we all battle this now, don't we so many of us battle this not paying attention because of a phone.

Just think about how silly that is, but that's the temptation.

Yes.

So again considerations of smartphones aside.

We need men who even when they're drinking water.

Pay attention.

We need men who are protectors.

We need men who understand themselves as warriors.

People laugh at that when you say that now.

If people laugh at warrior manhood, there's nothing funny about it.

I don't mean that you necessarily carry around a Braveheart broadsword with you, you know all through life or something.

You know one of those seven -foot Scottish swords.

You can try that by the way, you can try carrying a Scottish broadsword like William Wallace at all through life.

That's a joke.

Okay.

Anyway, I don't know how that's gonna go for you, especially with TSA, but.

What you really need to do is not is not carry a sword.

You can pack heat depending on your state.

But what you really need to do is be a spiritual watchman and think of yourself as a

warrior in the mold of the greater David King Jesus.

Well, we don't have much time to talk about this story.

I have to conclude Gideon's narrative very quickly.

Long story short with just 300 men remaining.

The Lord gives the victory to Gideon and his forces.

The Lord routes the Midianites.

Thousands of them die and God shows up for this weak man.

Brothers and sisters the Bible is trying to get our attention and The

Bible is trying to teach us that the kingdom of God doesn't work according to human

metrics.

Doesn't work that way.

The power of God is not determined by man's statistical patterns.

Because there's no reason Gideon's army should have won but Gideon's army routed

the enemy forces.

Are we reading our Bibles?

Are we hearing the Old Testament?

Are we knowing that God is loading us up with?

Encouragement and stories like this and and the the message to conclude this little

disquisition on Gideon is this.

God takes those of us who are weak men and he makes us strong and he uses us for

good.

So be encouraged by that.

That's an encouragement.

That's a very encouraging biblical reality.

Fourth and finally the exaggerated man for this session.

Samson.

Ah so much to say about Samson.

The figures in the Bible are more interesting than anything Hollywood's ever come out with.

Our Bibles are so engrossing.

Samson's real.

Samson's real because of the Nazarite vow.

Samson has.

The greatest strength any human being has ever had.

Samson's the strongest human who has ever lived.

He's a fascinating figure and character.

Samson is the exaggerated man.

Samson is the man that many men want to be.

Unregenerate men.

Samson is who in our natural strength as men.

We crave to be.

Samson is Andrew Tate.

But actually a lot stronger.

Samson is red pill manhood with no gospel.

That's Samson.

He can defeat anyone.

Samson's exploits.

Seem like someone has fictionalized them.

No one is fictionalized them.

Samson is threatened by a roaring lion and judges 14 6.

What does Samson do?

Well, we read this.

The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him.

Although he had nothing in his hand.

He tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat.

Samson is attacked by a lion the alpha predator of the natural world.

And Samson rips its jaws apart.

This is strength.

This is incredible strength from the Spirit of the Lord.

This is in your Bibles by the way.

You can read this men can find this interesting.

It's true.

Yes.

There's a lot there to study and It's not made up.

Samson goes to Lehi and he's in Philistine territory and the

Philistines come shouting to meet him.

This is judges 15 14 and 15.

Guess what happened.

The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and the ropes that were on his arms.

He's tied down.

Became his flax that has caught fire and his bonds melted off his hands and he found a fresh jawbone of

a donkey.

Ruh -roh Nazarite vow, but I digress and put out his hand and took it.

He took a jawbone and with it he struck a thousand men.

This is mind -blowing.

This is all real.

This is all history.

This is Samson.

This is the strongest man who's ever lived.

He did things that you know.

They have to do CGI to make happen in the movies nowadays and all these superhero movies.

Samson really did it.

He slew a thousand men.

This isn't Jason Bourne.

This isn't Tom Cruise.

This is this is the real thing.

This is all because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.

Are you are you picking up the biblical pattern if God blesses you?

No one can stand against you if God is not with you.

Woe betide you and that's what happens to Samson.

Samson didn't just live by his muscles.

He lived by his eyes.

His eyes drove him as a theme throughout his life.

Judges 16 -1 in Gaza.

He saw a Prostitute and he went into her.

He lives by his flesh.

He lives by his strongest passions.

He followed his heart.

He had no regard for the Nazarite vow.

He had no sense of just how immensely blessed he was of God to have these

capacities.

Do you know what God gave him this strength for God gave him this strength so that he could be?

The alpha.

Defender of the people of God.

He's a one -man army.

Against the Philistines one man.

There's our principal one man.

But he doesn't care.

He lives by his eyesight so he sees a prostitute and Against all his training and teaching

he goes into her but then he meets his match Delilah and eventually as you know in

this story Samson reveals the secret of his strength and so Delilah has his hair

cut and the Philistines rush upon Samson and in judges 16 19

Capture him and that is the end of his story.

Nope nope.

The man who lives by his eyes were almost done break.

The man who lives by his eyes has his eyes.

Gouged out and he's then taken into captivity.

He's taken into the hall of the Philistines great hall and they host a banquet.

To celebrate the capture of the greatest warrior who has ever lived.

Human strength.

Samson is chained between two pillars.

The Philistines are worshiping their demonic God Dagon in this hall, it's feasting its revelry.

It's sin of all kinds around him.

Samson's eyes are gone.

Can't see a thing.

But his hair is growing back.

Philistines have forgotten.

They're not paying attention.

And so for the only time in the narrative of Samson.

The only time.

He prays Judges 16 28.

Oh.

Lord God.

Please remember me.

I'm getting choked up.

I don't know Samson, but it's just so powerful to think of what this this man had and squandered.

Excuse me.

Please remember me and Please strengthen me only this once Oh God

That I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two.

Eyes.

The Lord.

Grants his request.

Philistines have no idea.

He's just prayed this probably prayed it under his breath standing there bowed in defeat and.

Then in one final display of strength, he gathers all his might and he pulls

down the pillars and every.

Philistine dies.

Because this is the power of God and one man with God.

Can do unspeakable things to the kingdom of darkness.

So Samson is such a sad tale.

He's the exaggerated man.

He's the Alpha.

But he's the Alpha who though loved by God by blessed by God.

I think known by God.

Doesn't really care for God.

Doesn't see his life as worship.

Remember that theme.

This is the epitome of somebody who has every spiritual gift and blessing and doesn't want to worship God.

Doesn't want to worship God.

You know what he wants to be.

He wants to be a Philistine.

He's the man under the Nazarite vow who wants to be a Philistine.

That's what happens with us when we live for the flesh.

We want to be the world.

It's not just that we're struggling with a certain pattern.

No, you want to live like the world you want to be an unregenerate person and.

And we have to repent of that.

We all do regularly throughout our life Lord.

Forgive me.

For thinking that thought for having that wicked desire run through me forgive me for that conversation.

Forgive me for entertaining that course of action.

Whoa, that is pagan.

Forgive me for that we all we all have to live a life of Repentance and confession of sin

and and we're not just forgiven in the moment of our conversion.

We all have to keep getting forgiven.

Samson is such a sad story, but you know what Samson is.

Samson is a redemption story.

Isn't he?

Because at the very end of his life He understands Who God

is and who he should be by the power of God and God uses

Samson.

One man.

Arms outstretched sound familiar to deliver his people and there will one day

come a Greater Samson Who will not abuse the calling

of God?

But who will perfectly walk in the ways of God and store up perfect

righteousness for sinners like you and me and who will then stretch out his arms and

Cry out for forgiveness and give up his spirit and die For us

and that's the greater Samson Jesus Christ.

So even in the Bible's cautionary tales There's hope father.

Thank you so much for these four types of deficient manhood.

It's weird to sounds weird to thank you for that.

But thank you so much that we can learn from these negative examples and we're not father man or

woman alike looking down from a skybox Mocking these men these men

have our weaknesses.

These men could be us as men and as sinners all man and woman alike.

We could easily fall prey to the flesh.

Thank you for your grace father.

Thank you for redeeming Love, thank you that you took men like the ones we've talked about

in particular With Gideon and Samson and you turned them around and you use them for your glory.

Do that with us any man in here.

Any person in here man or woman alike who feels like they've gone too far and they've messed things up too much

and they're beyond The reach of your grace.

I pray you'd encourage them and help them to see that they are completely wrong and there is infinite

Ever -flowing mercy and grace in the name of your son Jesus and in that name we pray.

Amen.

Six minutes food, sorry.

That's

on

me

responsible

for

the

length

of

these

breaks,

but

it's

really

sad.

I just want I just want you to know I'm I'm with you that I think there should be much more time

on these breaks.

So I'll try to talk to.

I'm trying to find him and talk to him after.

On another note.

This is a book.

I recently wrote.

It's called little house in the Ozarks.

It says Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I'll sign this copy.

So I'm I'm ready.

I was handed this by these kind gentlemen at the break, so It's

actually their fault.

But in fact, you can come you can come here my man and collect your.

It did there's no name there's no name here so Kevin found it.

Okay.

The only thing you're gonna remember from this weekend is Laura Ingalls Wilder,

it's like it's like preaching gym.

They never you know, they don't remember the con they remember like the weird story you told.

That would be your voice cracked.

Yes, I mean so I'm.

Yeah, all the countercultural stuff that's gonna go away we

Have been talking about up -and -down men and in this final session our last session together.

We're gonna talk about my favorite Biblical character outside of Christ and that

is David King David.

So this is our fifth type of manhood.

We just did for this is the fifth type the strong man the strong man

and In saying even that term strong man.

Let me just reiterate.

I don't mean David is strong in himself.

I mean that David is a man who God made strong.

Okay, so we lock that in doesn't mean that a man like David wasn't called to show

actual strength.

Because he was we're gonna talk about that and it's a story.

Of course, you know, but it does mean that We need to locate the source

of our strength as Christian men very carefully and it is not in us it is in God.

If you had seen Goliath back in the day, you would have thought him unbeatable.

First 1st Samuel 17, which is the text we are in in this final session.

Goliath was nine feet tall, maybe nine feet six his coat of

armor alone weighed about a hundred twenty -five pounds.

His spear was made of pure iron and Itself weighed

about 15 pounds.

It would have made a sickening and I do mean sickening thud when it went through a man.

Which no doubt it did often.

Goliath represented the strength of the Philistine army

throughout the narrative of David and first Samuel the greatest foe

that Israel faces are the Philistines.

The Philistines have a number of giants among them and they truly

were Giants, they were double the size of normal men of the day.

That's the rank Goliath belonged to that is his

bloodline.

The two armies Israel and Philistia drew up together for battle as

recorded in 1st Samuel 17 and Goliath went out and

In verse 8 said this shouted to the ranks of Israel.

Why have you come out to draw up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul?

Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me if he's able to fight with me

and kill me.

Then we will be your servants.

But if I prevail against him and kill him then you shall be our servants

and serve us and the Philistine said I Defy the

ranks of Israel this day.

Give me a man.

That we may fight.

Together.

Let's pray father in this final session.

Give us eyes to see the power of Courage that you give.

Let us not gaze back on David as a museum piece gathering dust in our Bibles.

Fire us up to be a force for good in our day man and women alike.

But father help the men to lead in this respect.

I pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Goliath is offended by the Israelites.

Goliath.

Recognizes that the Israelites are soft.

That's why he said the last part of what he roared.

He defied the ranks of Israel.

He wants someone to fight.

He openly dishonors and shames Israel the people of

God.

This is one of those rare moments in the biblical narrative where there is a direct confrontation

Between the seed of the serpent of Satan and the seed of the woman

Israel in Epical form they're arrayed against one another.

Seed of serpent seed of woman.

They're facing off.

This is the way Biblical history and extra biblical history

goes.

All of history in Genesis 3 15. We quoted it earlier today is framed according to

that great conflict.

Everything that is happening around us is the result of the serpent Opposing

the seed of the woman who ultimately is King Jesus.

This is one of those moments when as I say the two sides Take physical shape.

Another instance of this kind of conflict is Moses before Pharaoh.

Moses represents the seed of the woman the good line and Pharaoh

represents the seed of the devil the evil line and That

conflict is still playing out.

From King Saul all the way down to his men in this scene

first Samuel 17 11 tells us that the Israelites quote were

dismayed and greatly afraid.

When they heard Goliath roar in natural terms.

We would have been too if Goliath Split that door right there somehow got

past the elite security team out here that I'm looking at before me.

The gentleman who asked me to sign I said I told you I would sign it anything you put in front of me.

And he put in front of me the catalogs and Devotional works and Jim's books and there anyway, it was it was a debacle

out there.

The the signing table got overrun.

But if if Goliath walked in and his head split that opening right there,

and he started roaring at us.

Huh, it would be terror unlike we've ever felt.

So Goliath wasn't a fake foe he was real.

He was actually terrifying.

All of Israel was terrified as a result.

They were dismayed.

What a word.

What a word to use.

They're dismayed.

It means they saw no prospect of hope.

They were not just afraid.

There's no hope.

They don't have any solution to the problem known as Goliath a nine -foot

Six inches tall problem right before them.

There was only one person in the entirety of both sides

of these warrior groups Who was not afraid?

It was a young man Who was only at the battlefield?

Because his father Jesse Asked young David to

come and bring supplies To his brothers who were fighting

for Israel.

We read this in first Samuel 17.

Verse.

12 Now David was the son of an Ephrath right of Bethlehem and Judah

Named Jesse who had eight sons in The days of Saul the man was already old

Jesse and advanced in years.

The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul the king to the battle and the names of

his three sons Who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn and next to him Abinadab and the

third Shammah.

David was the youngest the three eldest followed Saul.

But.

David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

For 40 days the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening.

At this point in verse 17 Jesse tells David to take a bunch of food

to David's brothers.

In Verse 21 we pick back up again.

Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle army against army and David left the

things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers as

He talked with them.

Behold the champion the Philistine of Gath Goliath by name came up out of the ranks of the

Philistines and spoke the same words as before and David heard him and The

men of Israel.

All the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were much

afraid.

The only figure in This scene who was not afraid was

basically a diminutive Shepherd boy, he was not a member

of the ranks of Israel.

He was not the one who was trained in warfare in technical terms.

He was bringing cheese to his brothers.

God.

Wants you to understand something from this scene as a man and as a Christian.

It is a repeated theme in the Bible.

The ones God so often chooses to use are not the ones that man expects him to

use.

God does not work in the way the natural mind would think he would work.

God is not bound to the natural man's workings.

God is not subject to our preconceived Expectations.

God isn't bound by anything.

God does whatever he wills and.

Frequently throughout biblical history the ones God chooses to use are those no one would

appoint for the tasks He uses them for.

In actuality David's brothers get mad at him in verse 28.

I won't read it.

But in verse 28 Eliab gets mad at David because David starts showing courage.

In this fearful scene the narrator of 1st Samuel is

only highlighting the Unlikeliness of David for this role.

And Christian.

Christian.

Christian.

That is so important that you understand.

Because it's not the ones the natural man would expect.

That God uses to do his greatest works.

It's those no one would tap.

He so often uses.

David hates that Goliath is defying Israel.

But not just Israel in verse 26 David.

Says this.

What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and Takes away the reproach from

Israel.

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies

of the living?

God.

That is David's focus.

David is a God -centered young man.

David is akin to a teenager.

We tend to have such low expectations for the group of humanity.

We call teenagers and they are working things out and forming and growing and so.

It's good to let them develop and in a lot of senses.

And yet David is a young man.

Nobody's expecting to do anything and David is the one who cares not merely about the honor of Israel.

David as my friend Grant Castleberry has said cares about the honor of God.

David doesn't even care so much about the rewards that will come to the warrior who faces off against

Goliath.

He's asking the men about those rewards.

The men care about what they will get if they fight Goliath verse 25.

The king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's House

free in Israel.

The men the soldiers around David they care about material rewards.

What does David care about?

He cares most about God and That is true of the Christian.

You may not ever find yourself on some wild battlefield somewhere in the Middle East.

You may not be called to testify before the US Supreme Court.

You may be.

I don't know.

But even if you aren't if you are simply I repeat myself throughout this event a man or a

woman who stands on the truth Of God and cares about God more than about what anyone

thinks of you or anyone else.

There is no telling what God will do with you and through you.

Man or woman boy or girl alike?

Stop.

Telling yourself What God can do through you?

Stop putting yourself in a box of how small your influence can be.

Little old me.

Doing my little old thing in life.

You have no idea what God can do through you if David thought that way.

We wouldn't be talking about him right now.

David asks the men not about material rewards.

David cares about the fact that Israel's God is being insulted.

That's why brothers and sisters we stand up in the public square and we oppose men going

into girls bathrooms.

That's why we run for school board.

That's why we run for public office.

That's why we serve in local law enforcement.

That's why we run for state Representative or whatever it may be on and on it goes.

That's why we work in a community.

That's why we we try to have real influence where we are.

Don't just hide out and wait for Jesus to come back have influence where you are.

Be a Christian man or woman like David fight against the forces of evil and

don't do it out of hatred of flesh and blood do it out of Concern for the glory and

honor of God and the good secondarily of your fellow image bearer around you.

David cares about God, but those around him don't encourage him.

When he goes before King Saul he hears this in verse 33 he hears only

discouragement.

Throughout this narrative.

It's amazing.

You're not able to go against this Philistine Saul says to fight with him.

For you are but a youth and he has been a man of war from his youth.

You can't do this.

You're no good here.

You're not gonna kill this man.

You're a fool.

Why are you here?

Go go take the cheese go take the cheese to your brothers.

Get the cheese slices to them from the Velveeta.

Give him the Velveeta.

That's that's what the people around David say to him.

You can't they literally say you can't do this.

Relentless discouragement the man or the woman of God who is going to get anything done.

For God in this world is going to have to face Relentless discouragement.

Are you ready for that right now?

Are you ready to face a lot of discouragement?

Are you gonna melt?

When circumstances go against you when people discourage you I'm not mocking you.

I'm saying this is the way it goes sadly.

People around you when they hear about you wanting to do good things will discourage you will say

Don't do that.

You can't do that and Especially men Who we need to step up and

especially young men who we need to hear the call of God to become strong in

God and attempt great things for God expecting great things of God.

You need to know that if you're gonna make any difference for God in this world at all, you've got a

face.

Fierce.

Opposition Christian stop being a wet tissue and Start being a

honey badger, you know the honey badger.

You know the honey badger.

Have you seen the videos of the honey badgers on YouTube you have you have fun for you tonight.

Okay, I don't.

I'm not commending a lot of things on YouTube for you, but look up honey badger

Africa compound repeat that honey badger Africa

compound.

There is a true story of a honey badger in Africa who is placed in a

walled compound and stone walls and honey badgers are

Amazing animals if you don't know this some of you chuckled a few minutes ago.

So I think you know a little bit about honey badgers.

But for those of you not indoctrinated and the wonders of honey badgers, let me digress for just a second this honey

badger you know couldn't climb the walls didn't have the Mobile ability to do that.

But this honey badger was so cunning that it found a way to prop up a board.

Against the wall the stone wall climb up the wall and get out of this compound.

That was that was basically created to hold the honey badger.

And then the honey badger Went into the surrounding town and opened a refrigerator and ate all the food in

the refrigerator honey badger.

Okay, and it didn't harm anybody.

It's not a terrible ending or something like this.

But when you study honey badgers, they are creatures who have they don't have a lot of natural

advantages.

You don't look at them and go.

What a beautiful animal.

But yet they are absolutely ferocious.

There's other videos honey badger lions honey badger lions.

We're gonna add honey badgers to Laura Ingalls Wilder for the takeaways from the comments.

There's other videos stay with me for just one second.

There's other videos of honey badgers with like five lions around them.

Has anyone seen this and The honey badgers get wounded the Lions

rake this one honey badger.

I just pluralized it.

There's one honey badger gets gets slashed by a lion.

It's not a pretty picture and you think oh poor poor honey badger tiny, you know lion

honey badger and the honey badger.

Somehow not only manages to survive but with multiple lions

after it like Bears its teeth and bites back at the Lions and the Lions

are so taken aback that they actually draw back from this tiny little creature one of them

and.

Eventually the honey badger escapes you need to not be a wet tissue.

You need to be as a Christian a honey badger and that's the spirit that we see

in David.

He's nothing.

He's not tall.

He's not strong.

He's a young man.

He's not a warrior.

He rejects the armor of Saul.

King Saul says here's my armor take my armor amazing armor the best.

Armor that hands could form and and David initially puts it on himself.

Okay, maybe now he's finally able to go out against Goliath.

No, he's not.

He takes all the armor off.

It doesn't fit him.

It's clunky.

It doesn't work.

It's a symbolic picture.

He doesn't need the equipment of man.

He doesn't need what man gives.

So as you know, you know the story.

David.

He says this to Saul just before he goes out to battle Your servant verse 36 has

struck down both Lions Sorry lines both Lions and Bears and

this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them for he has defied the armies of.

The living.

God his concern again.

It's not himself.

It's not the warriors.

It's ultimately.

God.

This is what it means to live in worship of a great and awesome God in all of

life.

That's what he's talking about.

That's what he cares about.

That's what flows out of him a worshipful Christian.

It's just you can't stop them from talking about the things of God.

Man or woman boy or girl it just comes out of them.

That's who David is.

He cares about God's Glory more than his own safety.

More than his own well -being.

This is the epitome of a bad life decision in natural terms.

For a four -foot -eight kid to go out against a nine -foot -six tall giant.

This is not a good strategic Assessment of the situation.

McKinsey and company and consultants would not recommend this in the corporate business plan for the year.

But David doubles down verse 37 he's iron confident in God.

The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me

from the hand of.

This.

Philistine.

He doesn't say I really think God will.

He doesn't say I really hope God will.

He doesn't say there's a high Probability of my deliverance.

He says the Lord will deliver me when

believers arm up in God.

There is no telling what damage Satan is going to suffer.

This is true strength.

This is strength that is not found in sinful flesh.

This is strength that is found in God.

David is not strong because he has prowess with a sling.

He has a lot of military skill.

David is already strong when he goes out to battle.

Do you see that?

He's way stronger than Goliath.

It's not a fair fight.

Not not because of shoulder strength because David is strong in God and

Goliath is as weak as you can be.

God is teaching us.

Man looks on the outward appearance.

But God looks on the heart.

Believe that not just when we read an Old Testament story, but leave that now.

Believe that now.

Stop letting Satan tell you that we walk in natural

terms and we think in natural Categories we think in

supernatural categories.

There's levels to the game.

We believe in supernatural power because that is the

Unified witness of this book.

David was a man of God.

He feared the Lord.

He did not tremble before Goliath.

He trembled before the great and awesome God of Israel.

When David goes out to battle the Philistine.

Discourages David.

Everyone discourages David.

His brothers discourage David.

The men around David discourage David.

The king Saul who should be an encourager to David who should himself be going out to

war.

Against Goliath has instead a cheese delivering shepherd boy fight his battle

for him.

That's a picture of what happens in the church even now.

There are men who They have all the background all the credentials all the training has spoken at all the

conferences and written all the books.

They've got all the following and all the followers on social media and you can't find them when there's a battle

and instead It's cheese bearers who go out on the field to fight for the people of God.

Outmatched and outgunned in natural terms.

This is still happening.

This will continue happening until the end of the age that the supposedly courage Courageous, excuse me

won't go out.

They won't go fight the battle but the The youth.

The one who has come to deliver food to the scene.

He'll go out to fight the battle.

David is discouraged by Goliath as I say Am I a dog.

Goliath roars that you come to me with sticks?

Verse 43 in the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

David is not only demeaned.

Goliath curses David in spiritual terms.

This is Satan talking.

It's like in those Lord of the Rings Movies when you know a character is is being

Overcome by a stronger force and is speaking not of themselves.

But of a much darker force.

That is what is happening here.

Goliath is the instrument of the devil and Goliath is doing battle in a visceral way with

David and and seeking to draw David off and say David you cannot fight this battle.

I curse you.

So to be a follower of God in a fallen world is a serious thing indeed.

It's to face spiritual warfare in the strongest form.

David shrugs it all off.

Once again verse 45 You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with

a javelin.

But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of the armies of Israel.

Whom you have defied.

David is clothed in the strength of God and There is no strength like it.

And then David gives Goliath a promise.

He swears to him an oath.

This day.

The Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head

and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day

To the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know That there is a God

in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not With sword

and spear For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.

Verses 46 and 47.

This is how you talk When you have a great

God.

Not when you're a great person Not when you're a great man, but when you serve an awesome

God.

You can say these kind of things brothers and sisters you can be in

Corrupt departments corrupt corporations compromise schools

difficult communities fallen neighborhoods

surrounded by unbelievers facing opposition from all sides and if

God calls you into a Situation where you stand against evil

You can know that you are clothed just like David in the strength of God.

This day.

The Lord will deliver you into my hand.

That's what.

The shepherd boy says to the warrior and then David as One does when

one is confident in God.

Ran.

Quickly.

Verse 48.

He ran quickly to meet his foe he slung a single stone one small.

Stone this big maybe and he hit the Philistine dead on the forehead

and killed him.

Instantly, but that's not all.

Then he took the giant sword Administered a death blow in front of everybody

and cut off his head.

Verse 51.

You and I May not be called to cut off

Middle -eastern pagan Giants head in our life.

But you and I should be Tremendously encouraged by this scene

and I want to call men to take stock of.

This.

Display of God -centered trust and humility and

strength.

We've talked in our sessions together today and last night and will a little bit more tomorrow

about what we're up against and.

The odds are real and the wind is in our face.

But men of God are not those who run when there is a fire

away from the fire.

Men of God are those who run toward the fire.

That is what it means to be a man of God.

That is what it means to put others.

Before.

Yourself.

We've seen even in America Numerous examples of this in recent years.

The days are evil in the society but in Michigan just a few years ago a

public shooter went on to a school campus and opened fire

as has happened many times in the last 20 years in this country and Cut

many people down around him and everybody fled the scene.

But there was this young football player Looking like he was going to play d1 football

in that region named Tate Meyer and Tate Meyer.

Numerous classmates later said many eyewitnesses While everybody's

running this way There was this one football player who ran that way.

He ran toward the shooter and he helped take the shooter down and he was killed

in the process of doing so.

There's little pictures in God's common grace.

Even today in.

2024 when men are struggling.

Seriously, there's all these little pictures of God's common grace of men.

Like this men like David in.

Uvalde, Texas a few years ago again when a wicked

individual entered a School.

Think about the demonic element of this.

Satan targets children doesn't.

He friends.

He targets children over and over again.

Jesus calls the little children to himself in Matthew 18.

In Matthew 19 Jesus loves the children.

He warmly welcomes them as disciples say no.

No, get the children out of here in that in that culture.

The children weren't supposed to be amidst the grown -ups.

Jesus overcomes those social categories those boundaries and Jesus.

No, no, no, let the little children come to me.

Jesus showed love toward the children.

Satan hates children.

MacArthur just wrote a book the war on children.

Get it read it.

It's real war on children.

It's out there it's operative it's active today.

Say it's because it's because Satan hates children.

Children are the next generation of disciples small wonder that Satan keeps

targeting them in our midst.

This man named Jacob Alvarado is getting a haircut in Uvalde and his wife works at the school and

texts him that there's an active Shooter on premises and Jacob Alvarado dashes out of

the barbershop.

Grabs a pump shotgun on his way out goes to the school gets to

the school and Uvalde finds an entire force of soldiers and

policemen standing outside the school because they have orders not to go in and

There's a lot of there's a lot that's even right now being sorted out.

There's been multiple lawsuits in Uvalde and and one could argue rightly so along those lines.

But Alvarado doesn't stand down.

He goes into the school against orders and he leads he leads many teachers and many children

to safety.

The days are evil, but strong men are not are not gone.

They're still here.

May it be that in our midst We would be those kind of men and

May it be that we wouldn't just be those kind of men in physically Compromised situations,

but as I've tried to say throughout this event May we be these kind of men?

Spiritually.

May we find our strength in God and may we find our courage in God and

May we draw near to God and be loved by God and love God.

And worship God and yes even worship God by going into a

scene where death is unfolding and may we be the type of.

Man.

Who puts ourself between death and the innocent.

Because the Bible gives us one example after another of men.

Just like that and as I talked about in my previous session, I'm gonna end early in this

in this one the very end.

The greatest example of this of course is not anybody in their last few years showing

tremendous bravery under fire.

Greatest example of this of this Courageous manhood we've talked about with David

is not D -Day 80 years ago amazing as D -Day was.

Much as we will honor those men until we ourselves die.

The greatest example of this is King Jesus.

Do you know?

How Jesus is identified in?

Matthew's gospel.

For example Matthew introduces his gospel.

With a genealogy of course.

As you know in chapter 1 Andrew Peterson has a great song about the genealogy.

That I would commend to you family and I listen to it at Christmastime.

Do you know the very first name?

Identified with the Son of God in.

Matthew chapter 1 the book of the genealogy.

Jesus Christ.

The Son of.

David.

The Son of.

Abraham in other words the fulfillment of all that David was.

The fulfillment of all the promises to Abraham and the patriarchs.

Jesus is the one Who faces down the greater Goliath?

Jesus is the one who fulfills the Genesis 315.

Promise what's called the proto -evangelium the first gospel.

Jesus is the one who goes to the cross in order first John 3 8 to destroy the works of

the devil to destroy the works of the devil that is by making atonement for our sins and the sins of

all God's elect across all the ages.

And Jesus and dying is the one who destroys the devil who crushes the devil's

head who slings the shot That sinks directly into the forehead of Satan.

It's not that the reign of Satan is Ended with all finality at the cross.

It is that the victory of God over the devil is secure.

It's D -day.

It's the theological D -day.

It is that all the sins of God's people are atoned for at that cross.

And then Jesus of course does not stay dead, but three days later Rises from the

grave and that is not simply Jesus returning to life.

That is Jesus leading a new exodus into eternity.

Toward the new Jerusalem and the new Eden the new heaven and new earth.

And that is where all God's people are going.

We are passing through the valley of the shadow of death.

There's death all around us.

There's a culture of death in this country that wants nothing more than to see one baby after another

Aborted in the womb but Jesus is leading us in the midst of all this blood and all this death

and all this carnage that Satan is Creating and Jesus is leading us to our true

home.

So I close my Sessions with you a final Q &A to come in just a few minutes

by trying to take you there.

Don't just look around you don't just try to be salt and light in this day in

this age, but Christian.

Remember where we're headed.

We're headed home.

Soon, we'll be there and soon all the sad things Will be undone and

all the sad stories Will be untrue and we will be forever.

We will be forever with the greater David.

We will be with the warrior savior.

And we will join the warrior savior.

And all the angels and all the host of heaven will come with Jesus when he

finally once and for all time ends the reign of satan

on the earth and throws the devil into the lake of fire for all

eternity to come and then There will be no

marriages that struggle.

And then there will be no.

Unloved children.

And then there will be no orphans and then there will be no

Injustices and there will be no oppression and there will be no Prejudice

and there will be no need of forgiveness and there will be no family members Who suffer

and there will be no children who die.

And then there will be no pain in churches and then it will all be.

Made right.

Until that day in the power of god light the darkness.

And remember as well the words of jeremiah 29 Until that day do the most counter -cultural thing you

can do.

Plant.

Let's pray heavenly father.

Thank you for The story of david and goliath.

Thank you for the encouragement we derive from it.

I pray that you would especially call to men To be like david.

We're in the age of low expectations for our sons father.

Please do a counter work do a counter revolution Among us and help us to

invest in our boys and disciple our boys and love our boys and put an arm around their

shoulder.

And normally in general terms to train them and teach them in love and warmth and

kindness the ways Your word lays out for us and please do a work in our

boys that they would be strong that they would be like The warrior david in evil

times.

And father apart from from from boys and men do a work In our girls do a work

in our families do a work in our marriages.

We pray that we would stand against the forces of evil help us not to lose heart

in this evil climate.

Help us father To find fresh hope and fresh faith and fresh love through the

gospel of jesus christ.

Thank you for your spirit.

Thank you that you are more powerful than the darkness.

Please father do a great work in our midst even in evil days in jesus name.

We pray amen.

Three

o

'clock

we're

going

to

start

our

final

session

the

q

and

a.

Oh, hold on.

Uh, all right.

So i've already looked through these and read through these and I have good news for you.

Um.

Since i've already read through these I know that we're not going to get into another estrogen bath.

Like we had last night with a discussion a little house in the prairie.

You said you were sweating during that's because you started menopause halfway through that answer.

I don't even know where that came from.

All right, it's behind us.

We're not going to mention it ever again.

Except publicly.

Maybe publicly, but we're just going to put it behind us.

All right.

In what ways.

And we got quite a few questions here.

So I'll get through as many as we can so we're trying to do some of these might be rapid fire answers.

All right.

In what ways are we image bearers of god?

It is.

Is it only the communicable attributes?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I don't think that uh, we are supposed to isolate what it means to be the image.

In terms of one attribute there's a lively debate in the christian tradition over which attribute it is or

is it our relationality?

Is it our reasoning capacity?

Is it our capacity for faith.

Luther calvin and others disagree all about what the image precisely boils down to.

In my view and I wrote about this at some length in my book re -enchanting humanity.

If you want to read more about the image of god as I understand it re -enchanting humanity I spell out that I

think we are the image of god.

So I don't think.

Even that the image reduces to the communicable attributes.

I think it is simply that God made us as a little representation of himself now.

We are communicating people like he is a communicating people.

We are a loving people like he is a loving god to that question.

So there's truth in that uh, we are we are like god in in some respects in terms of our personal

makeup.

I mean he's of a different order than we are but um, but that would be what I would say.

I would say the image is.

Us so the attributes that we have the thing that our functionality or utilitarian functionality does not.

In in.

Endue us with the image of god, right?

We are able to do those things because humanity is the image of god.

And and the image of god is humanity.

It is our humanness, which is the image of god.

That's something unique to humanity that other creatures don't have.

That's exactly right.

So i'm in a little different place than some theologians and exegetes because a lot of them in the reformed

tradition.

Emphasize that the image is lost in the fall.

Yeah, or diminished or marred or all sorts of language like that.

I don't actually think that.

I think that.

Um, we are still image bearers.

Genesis six and nine if anyone sheds man's blood His blood will be shed for man is made in

my image those kind of texts.

I think that that actually signals that the image is an ongoing reality though.

I affirm total depravity as was quite clear here.

Um.

But yeah, I don't think if you have have less reasoning capacity.

You have lost the image or you are less an image bearer or things like that.

Yeah, I don't think that if you're not married, you're not fully an image bearer because the image actually is relationality

expressed in marriage.

That was carl bart's view so we could talk more.

So if you have if you're if your image of god is based upon your functionality then At some point if you lose your memory

you lose your creative ability you lose your ability to communicate you have dementia.

You lose your memory.

If that's what gives you the image of god those attributes.

Then you would say you would have to we would have to conclude that somebody who gets older And loses some of those capacities

is diminishing in the image of god and we would never say that exactly.

Yeah.

All right.

What guidelines would you recommend for how much time we spend with the world?

And how we spend time with them?

Thoughtful question.

I'm not going to be able to give any kind of Hourly allotment or something and it's going to vary

for all of us.

Um.

We want to exercise two principles.

Uh, we want to be in the world but not of the world and um that.

That reduces in exegetical terms to what jesus says in john 17.

And so we need a lot of time where we are not of the world.

So for example, we need to be with the church.

We need to be with the fellowship of the saints to some degree in our week.

But then we also need to be in the world to some degree and we need to um, you know be around sinners.

Even to the extent that people would label jesus as a friend of sinners and I just there again I said this in my session.

But I think a lot of us are on the on the far end of of being away from the world.

We need to be to a serious degree.

But if we're not in and amongst unbelievers, no one's going to be we are the light of the

world.

Jesus says.

Uh, I heard testimonies from former homosexuals whose churches didn't confront their sin right away.

But they still eventually repented and turned to biblical sexuality.

How should a church handle visitors and or regularly attending homosexuals?

Trans people etc.

Yeah.

That's become a thing where You don't address homosexuality.

Head on.

Um, you kind of say like tim keller did a version of this.

We're going to set that aside because that's kind of a nuclear issue.

And what i'm going to do is i'm just going to talk to you about idolatry and sin.

And that was kind of keller's approach in manhattan.

I don't have a biblical basis for that because for example in matthew

14 with Herod John the baptist called out herod for having

his brother's wife being in that sinful pattern publicly and directly.

Um all throughout the gospels jesus engages sinners and he doesn't just say this thing you're doing.

That's wrong and and disappear vanish, you know in a cloud of smoke.

He he works through the heart.

He asks them questions.

There's a broader discussion.

But fundamentally he identifies the the sin of the people.

He's talking to the woman at the well.

Yeah in john 4.

He's he doesn't say let's let's set aside.

Uh adultery and sexual promiscuity for right now, I don't want to be too on the nose with you.

Let me just establish a general rhythm of sin is bad and we'll get we'll get to that six months from now.

No, he's he says.

You've had five and the one you're with now isn't your husband now.

I don't think he's doing that in a in a hateful way.

Yeah, I think he's doing that in a very kind way.

But he's also quite direct with sin.

Homosexual or trans person shows up in a church service.

Should they be allowed to stay there from here?

Oh, yeah.

Should they be allowed to become members?

No, no.

No, I mean upon repentance.

Yep.

Yes, but uh, and we've got to be clear about that that We used to have more of a view in

some conservative circles where conversion Was like a bug zapper with homosexuality for

some strange reason homosexuality was treated like If you became a christian there's a

way to sort of pry out that sin and you would never have that again

and they're there got to be some pretty interesting and strange if you follow them down the

line efforts at Things like orientation change and I would affirm some of what was attempted there,

but not to the fullest extent because.

Um.

Um.

We are in in winning people to the christian faith helping them leave behind sin

patterns.

But a lot of us who get saved have to battle

Heterosexual lust Throughout our lives just to cut it straight for a second.

We didn't think that when we got saved there was a kind of bug zapper way for us to never

experience lust in that way.

I don't know why the church 40 years ago was saying if you convert to christ You can kind of get

zapped and you'll never have homosexual lust in your heart.

So I don't want to communicate to somebody that if they get born again.

That they'll never battle that they might.

That's not the sign that they're not born again, though.

Just like somebody having to kill lust In a heterosexual way, but that's not a sign.

They're not a christian.

Right?

So you got to be careful.

Is it possible for a man to be truly saved if he is passive and checked out angry neglectful of family.

Not growing in fruits of the spirit prideful and not willing to hear correction and rebuke will the saved always

manifest being a new creation.

Oh, that's a tough situation right there.

Sounds like uh from that litany of qualities.

Sadly, um.

If that doesn't immediately sound like somebody who is experiencing a whole lot of victory

in christ I guess somebody who's living that kind of life could be a christian but be in a bad place.

I think we have to have a category for that.

We know that peter wandered from his lord.

We know that we can all stumble.

We all stumble in many ways james 3 2 but over the long

haul a godly man.

Will be able to hear correction at some level.

Will want to grow.

Will fight his sin.

Will confess his sin.

And so that person that is being described there.

It sounds like could either be a man who's unregenerate that thinks he's a christian.

That might be the most likely reality.

Or he might be a a christian who's just really not doing well.

And he needs kind of the electric clamps To his chest from the spirit and he needs to wake up and start

repenting.

And confessing a whole lot of sin at the very least he should be warned that given his current

trajectory and his current manifestation of those qualities that that is indicative of Could very well be

indicative of the state of the soul.

For sure, and if if honestly if that is representative of a situation in this room

Then I would encourage a woman who has a husband who is professing faith and maybe smiling on

sunday morning But then is living in the utter gloom of misery Monday to saturday, I would

encourage her in a respectful way to reach out to godly women in the congregation.

Talk to them and then it really may be the case that there needs to be elder care.

Um for that couple not in a kind of, you know Navy seals break the door down in the middle

of the night on the guy handle him carefully.

But but try in a gracious way to get this couple with A wise and

godly elder elder and maybe his wife and talk through some dynamics of marriage.

Had a lot of questions about this.

So if I don't get to your specific question Just know that i'm trying to hit this subject and probably incorporate a whole bunch of

different questions.

That all kind of do the same thing.

If a family rejects you because you won't use their pronoun requests Do you step back and wait or try to

engage.

And if you engage how?

To put it another way do we.

Do we go ahead and honor people's requests that we use their preferred pronouns?

No, no, I don't think so.

No.

Um, I don't think we can this is a sticky one because

I don't think that we have to go in and um, like if we're trying to engage family

members, I I don't think.

We we are trying to have an explosion socially, you know from the outset we're

trying to To talk to that family member to have some kind of communication going on.

So we're we're using wisdom and how we address people, you know, if there's a transgender individual

I I don't know that I would be trying to use a ton of pronouns or something like like like what i'm trying to say Is you don't

need to be obnoxious as a christian to be a witness?

You don't need to say well what he is doing is he is saying this and what I would disagree is he you know.

Right, so you can you can do this I think in it in honestly a uh a wise and careful way.

But you do you should not consent I would say to we will use your preferred pronouns.

So I think I cannot use the preferred pronouns but still exercise some degree of pastoral sensitivity in

that situation, right?

Does that make sense?

Yeah, and if you're using if you do bend to that and use their preferred pronouns.

Then basically you're affirming a lie, right?

You're saying something with your mouth and with your demeanor that is that is patently untrue.

And in fact is affirming their rebellion against god as creator in the created order.

Yeah, like I can't I can't use their pronouns if they want to be called kitty cat.

Yeah, I i'm not trying to be silly like if that person if that family member I'm trying to be a

witness to them and we finally get to the table and they say I will talk with you.

But you need to refer to me as kitty cat.

I you know, and i'm a cat and my pronouns are cat pronoun, you know.

Seriously, yeah, I can't do that.

But but i'm not necessarily if they say that.

Going to then go ballistic about all i'm gonna I am gonna try to be.

Try to engage them.

Well, what do you say to them specifically they make that request?

This is your niece or your grandchild or your aunt?

What do you say to them?

How do you respond to that request?

Look, i'm i'm here at thanksgiving and I heard you speaking about me in the other room.

You said i'm a she and i'm not I identify as a he or they them.

And I want you when you're referring to me and i'm not in the room to use them.

My preferred pronouns.

I think you need to do um what we were trying to talk about throughout the The conference and you

need to have that good open honest communication and you need to say Something like I love you

to the core.

I want your good.

I am not here to get in a fight over.

You know what you are called.

I cannot use Those pronouns that you request that I use but what I

can do is I can talk with you.

Let's talk together.

And and seek to hear the other and reason together.

And I want to show you love.

And just like you wouldn't be loving me if I was doing something wrong in my life and I said

affirm this From where I stand.

I can't affirm you.

But again, I want to talk to you.

I want a relationship with you and let's see if we can reason things out and at least have a civil

mature conversation.

I would start there.

And and in that conversation, I would try to get to the gospel and sin and those kind of things.

That's a better answer than I would give.

I would tend to be far more sarcastic and biting and Okay, flip the premise on them and say okay.

Every time you refer to me, I want to be referred to as handsome and brilliant.

And when you're speaking to me in any situation anytime you refer to me I get my own adjectives.

You get your own pronouns.

I get my own adjectives handsome and brilliant.

So.

Maybe that's.

Maybe that's the best strategy.

Okay, so.

How about uh, you know on a similar vein um your.

Somebody was once known as jackie and now they want to be referred to as jack.

Um.

Those are.

Well other than jackie chan, I guess I was trying to think of of non, you know dual gender

names or Michael wants to be referred to as michelle.

Uh, do you go along with the name change and begin to use a different name for that person?

Uh there again.

My personal approach would probably not be to aggressively Repeat

their birth name 20 times in a 10 -minute conversation, honestly.

Um.

Just like if i'm talking to a gay person Let's say i'm probably not in

a 10 -minute conversation going to say 20 separate times being gay is a sin but what I am trying

to do is Is be truthful, you know hew to the truth stand for what is

true and um, and i'm i'm i'm so i'm neither afraid of using their birth

name nor am I.

Uh acting as if that is the ultimate issue.

The ultimate issue is the heart and that's where i'm not where those churches are that say we're not going to talk about

homosexuality.

Put that to the side for eight weeks.

Just hear us out on idolatry.

You know the idolatry of identity and chasing work and satisfaction and money.

That's what we're going to talk.

I'm not there.

I'm, not there not i'm not willing to say let's set that to the side.

But i'm also not the guy who's going to come in and use a bullhorn and shout at you.

Directly about the one sin.

I know that you're enmeshed and i'll talk about it with you.

But I am happy to talk about sin more broadly and I don't think we have to have.

What i'm trying to say jim is and these what these questions are getting at is I fear that sometimes we feel that

we're being unfaithful in evangelism.

If when we're face to face with a sinner, we don't only say this sin is wrong.

Like repeatedly if you don't do that, you're a bad evangelist.

You're compromising the gospel and what I want to say to people is no.

Look at how jesus converses with sinners of many kinds.

Look at where the conversation goes.

He's able to talk with them.

He's able to reason with them.

We I think we can laugh with them.

I think we can form a bond with them if there's something we Like in terms of movies or culture or sports teams.

I think we can forge that connection.

Christians don't have to be the weirdest most offensive person in conversation that they possibly

could be to be a faithful conversant.

When I talked earlier about rosaria butterfield the pastor there has I think his last name was smith the pastor who

engaged rosaria.

You can read her testimony.

Some of you probably read this secret thoughts of an unlikely convert if you want a good book.

About a pastor.

Engaging a professor of queer theory, which is all these situations, right?

He did it.

Well, I didn't say perfectly but he did it well and he was clear.

From the outset in a gracious firm way.

He didn't agree with her being a lesbian.

But he let the relationship develop.

And he let the conversation go all sorts of places.

She had lots of questions about the bible and he would patiently talk through Old testament passages, you know,

oh, so you do believe in mixed fabrics being sinful, you know, all that sort of stuff, right?

And he wouldn't say no i'm not talking about that.

You must repent now he would he would talk.

All the way through it and it took her Time.

I'm not saying we don't share the gospel in a given conversation.

I think we do but it took her a long time.

To become she calls it her train wreck.

Conversion because it was just an unfolding series of of smashes in her life

and it took a long time.

So I think the church today.

I think our wing feels too much pressure to kind of get the bullhorn out.

Click it in and just go at level a thousand.

I think we need to calm down.

And we shouldn't do relational evangelism in terms of setting sin aside but we should

feel free to be friendly and kind and nice and hospitable and loving and funny and

and truthful and truthful.

Uh.

On a similar vein.

This is going to get increasingly more difficult.

Your hr department more difficult than this.

Yeah your hr department, uh.

Sends out an email saying we would like you to include your preferred pronouns in your email signature from now on.

So that everybody else in the company knows how to refer to you.

Do you uh, do you go by that?

Do you abide by that or is that affirming a lie?

I don't know that it is a lie for you to say that you are he him or she her.

So I don't know that that's in itself sinful for you to say.

But isn't it a lie to affirm that.

Any of us has a right or responsibility to prefer our pronouns.

Yeah pronouns are a feature of reality.

So It would be a lie to affirm the premise because really what we're talking about is the premise of their position.

Is that we should?

Abide by other people's preferred pronouns.

The premise of their position is that one can choose their pronouns and make that known.

So that they can be referred to however they want.

If that's the premise the premise of that is a lie.

The premise of that is rebellion.

And if we go along with that with our hr department, isn't that affirming a lying or an untrue premise?

Yeah, I mean it could be.

I want to leave open that possibility.

I guess i'm not convinced that.

If you ask me am I a he her or a they them?

I think I can say i'm a i'm a he Him.

I might have said that wrong just a minute ago.

Um, I think I said he her yeah.

It's it's 320 at the end of seven sessions today and i'm after last night's book episode that we had.

It's a little yeah.

We're all a little confused.

I'm starting to get a little bit internally.

Um, yeah.

Myself.

No, I I don't know about you were confused before you showed up here.

I think.

Go ahead.

Listen, you just need to like literature more.

There's some good literature out there written by women.

Okay.

Um, so yeah I I don't I wouldn't these are hard questions and I want to be a little bit

careful about like this is the Line in the sand.

I just want to be careful um, because people are people are in humongous corporations where you have to

Give your you have to say your pronouns.

I I want to leave some room for conscience.

This is me.

You you may be in a slightly different position.

Your position makes sense to me I don't think it's unsensible, but I want to leave a little bit of room for like here's

the line for me.

Here's the line for you.

I can't say I can't even play by the preferred pronoun game.

That's that's defensible.

Someone else might say i'm gonna say i'm he him not he her i'm he him.

But I what I can say as a red line Is I don't think you should you should

use preferred pronouns of someone who is Uh going against their god -given sex that to me

is a clear red line.

Okay, how about a i'll give you a tactical Response to this would it be appropriate because this is how I would suggest

handling it.

Tell me if you think about this yay or nay I would email back and say I am a biological male.

So you use what pronouns are appropriate for biological males, it's good by me, right.

I'm, not picking pronouns because you're.

I reject the premise that I can choose my own pronouns.

But the reality is the truth is I was created as a biological male.

Therefore use the language that is appropriate to refer to biological males.

I will not give you my pronoun.

You use english try that.

Again back to this.

This is my default sarcasm is my spiritual gift.

So Yeah, I go back into the default sarcasm and I have to always pull back from that

to be gracious like owen.

Right.

So there's sarcasm and there's then there's owen.

I don't know about the standard is owen, but um I don't want that pressure, but I would.

Yeah, I like that and that's actually that was maybe not Articulated on my part a minute ago,

but I can actually say my my pronouns are he him.

That's not a preference.

So I think that's a true statement in a very similar position.

This is how you should refer to me Hr.

I'm a he him.

There's no preference.

So, you know, yeah something like that is great by me.

Yep, all right a little bit of a more difficult situation and I bring this one up not because anybody asked it.

But because I know that there is a family in this room here.

Who who knows somebody who has family?

There's a person in this room who has family members who are in this situation who have dealt with this situation recently.

Yes, you own a business you hire somebody as a receptionist.

Michelle comes in.

She does a great job.

You refer to as she her it's michelle smith.

This this relationship goes on for five years then you find out that this was once michael yes smith

and because Of surgery because of drugs because of the

presentation you had no idea.

That this person is actually a biological male.

They pull off the female act very very well.

Now that you know this information, how do you refer to this person?

You refer to this person as he him do you refer to him as michael?

Because you do that you're going to jail in the state of california.

It's almost at that point.

Um.

How do you handle a situation like that?

That is a very difficult situation from the outset.

So let that be said.

But it's probably one that A number of us are going to face.

Because in that situation you've been affirming a lie for five years not knowing it, right?

You've been going along believing what you thought was true.

And acting according to what you thought was true.

Now you find out that something else is true.

You continue to do that then you are living by lies and affirming something.

You're affirming an act of rebellion.

Yeah, I mean the employer relationship is a sticky one because you you get into discrimination

law and so You you have a place as an employer for as

a christian.

I mean for going this does not cut it With with what I know to be true from scripture,

but that can be a very sticky reality In terms of getting sued and those sorts of things.

So someone just has to know that.

You know to make it a little more of a handhold.

Morally, it'd be similar this premise you're giving me would be similar to You have

friends.

Um.

Who you find out one of them is transgender so to speak.

One of them transitioned the way that you're talking about.

They didn't actually become the opposite sex, but they tried to.

And you've been affirming their marriage, you know, can you go on affirming that marriage if one of the individuals Transitioned

so to speak and I would say no.

No, I don't think.

I can I can I can't pretend you're kathy when when you're michael.

Yep.

But that is going to be a whole barrel of monkeys fun, you know and trying to be a witness to people

in that situation.

I think the day we come back to the the principles the underlying principles is We have to be truthful and honest we have to speak the truth and

love.

This may sometimes cost us.

And I think unless the lord brings revival and changes some things in our nation There's going to come a point where we are going to be it's

going to cost us to affirm things that are basic truth.

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah.

All right.

Dial off a little bit.

Those were tough ones.

Let me back up a bit.

Um.

What about those who want to dress as a boy when a girl or a girl want a boy?

And they want us as family to support their change.

How do we deal with friends who support their child's or grandchild's change?

Even when they are believers you have christians who Have children that have gone through.

The people who claim to be christians their children are doing this and they want to affirm it.

How do we handle those people who are affirming that?