F4F | Mark Driscoll Authority Irony

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseboro, I am your servant in Jesus Christ, and this is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

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Word of God. So if you know the history of Fighting for the Faith, one of the things that we were known for in the past is that we were vocal critics warning the body of Christ about the vision casting leaders that were being pumped out by organizations like Leadership Network, the

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Purpose Driven Community, and Bill Heibel's organization, the Willow Creek Association, and the original graduating class of vision casting leaders, which included men like Pete Wilson, Darren Patrick, did any of these names ring a bell to some of you all?

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Tommy Sparger, Perry Noble, Mark Driscoll, their stories haven't ended well.

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Their stories have ended with moral scandals, big huge failings, as well as abuse beyond compare.

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In fact, they abandoned the biblical office of pastor and under the advisement of men, again, like Bob Buford, Bill Heibel's, and Rick Warren, they set themselves up as vision casting leaders, and you've got to get behind the vision and support the vision, and otherwise

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God's going to throw you off the bus. Yeah, we'll talk about that. These men, they are not pastors by any stretch of the imagination.

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They have set up an office that doesn't exist biblically, and the duties that they have given to themselves and the authority they have given for themselves is not found in Scripture.

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These men cannot be challenged. They will not submit to authority until it becomes too morally repugnant for them to maintain their position, and then usually they have to slink away, and that's exactly what

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Mark Driscoll did. But we're going to be talking about Mark Driscoll today. It's been a long time since I've talked about Mark Driscoll, and I've been warning the church about him, and I was wandering through my

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YouTube suggested videos, and he popped up, and there was a video of his recently that was put out that went viral, and I was legitimately shaking my head and asking the question, when is the body of Christ going to learn?

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When are they going to learn that they are not to support men like Mark Driscoll? They are to mark and to avoid them.

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And the stories of where he is now in Arizona, coming out of his new church, it's not really a church.

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It's a corporation that he set up. Yeah, that's right, and he has total control of the said corporation.

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It just operates as a church, you see what I'm saying? But the stories coming out of there are that the same abuse that happened at Mars Hill is occurring there, and here's the interesting thing, is that a lot of people don't know even recent church history, let alone ancient church history.

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So we're going to provide you with a resource where you can kind of catch up if you're not familiar with the story of the rise and fall of Mars Hill Church, because it's important because Mark Driscoll has never repented.

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And so let's whirl up the desktop, and yeah, the Aurora's been out a lot lately, although I shot that one in May, but that's a different story altogether.

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So we're heading over to Real Faith by Mark Driscoll. Yep, he still has a YouTube channel, and I want you to note something.

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He has 169 ,000 subscribers. There have been major platforms that have been platforming him lately, and this video that we're looking at here, well, this one's only got 8 .6

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thousand views, but some of his videos are starting to get upwards of like 100 ,000 views.

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And he's starting to make a comeback, but he shouldn't. Anybody who understands their

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Bible and understands the history of Mark Driscoll and what took place at Mars Hill and what is currently taking place at his current venue that he's set up that he has complete control over, this is not a man you want to be listening to.

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This is a guy who, well, I think the way we could describe him is that he has a history of being a control freak, a megalomaniac, may even be narcissistic, has zero empathy.

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And the people that have left Mars Hill, they tell stories of spiritual and psychological abuse.

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That's how this goes down. This guy is not even qualified, according to the biblical qualifications, to be a pastor.

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This is a man who needs to be sat down, and nobody should be listening to him. So the name of the, the name of said video is

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The Key to Being a Man. And when I listened to just a few minutes of this thing, we'll listen to a few of them, the best thing

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I can, the best way I can describe it, if you're familiar with the Breaking Bad series and the spinoff

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Better Call Saul, Mark Driscoll preaching from the stage of his new church, claiming, you know, that he's giving keys on how to be a man, would be like if Saul Goodman had set up a

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YouTube channel completely dedicated to this one topic, how to be an ethical attorney.

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The irony is so thick here, it's beyond reason. And we're going to take a look at some of that and remind you of, of just what exactly

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Mark Driscoll is. And we're going to give you a link to a resource that if you haven't worked your way through this resource, you need to, because there are a lot of little

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Mark Driscolls out there today. You know, Tavner Smith was one of them.

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And Stephen Furtick, he still is. So yeah, that's the best way

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I can put it. So let's listen to a little bit of this. And yes, I'm going to be interrupting him because my eyes are going to roll out of my head at certain points.

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Can't be avoided. So we'll just have to suffer through it together, shall we? Here we go. The key to being a man is first living under the dominion, the sovereign rule, the ultimate authority of our

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God, okay? Before you can do anything, before you can be anyone, before you can affect any healthy significant change, first thing is you need to be a man under authority.

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Mark, have you ever heard the phrase, do you practice what you preach?

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This is where we're going to insert a plug. There is a podcast.

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All of the episodes are available on YouTube as a convenient playlist even.

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And the name of the podcast is called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

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And I'm going to point you to, if you just want to kind of cut to the chase and ask yourself the question, is

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Mark Driscoll a man who has been under authority? No.

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By no stretch of the imagination, then episode 11 is the one you want to listen to where all of the chickens come to roost.

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And if you listen to the entire series, I mean, it is a train wreck in slow motion.

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And when we started Fighting for the Faith as an audio podcast, Mars Hill was probably at the peak of its game.

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And in evangelicalism, Mars Hill, the Acts 29

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Network, the Purpose Driven Community, the Willow Creek Association, all of these things, they were all the rage, all the rage.

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And the type of leaders they put out were all little cookie cutters of Mark Driscoll.

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That's not a good thing. That is a terrible thing. And here's the reason why.

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The reason why is because Scripture says regarding those who are to be pastors, there are qualifications to be a pastor.

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And this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put remained in order. This is Paul writing to Titus. And appoint elders.

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Here, this is the presbuteroi. These are the pastors, right? In every town as I directed you, if anyone is, number one, above reproach,

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Mark Driscoll is not above reproach. In fact, let me remind you of a couple of things.

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Mark Driscoll, as we got near to the end of his reign of terror at Mars Hill in Seattle, there was a whole series of things that just came out really like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, machine gun style.

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Number one, he was a blatant plagiarist. Yeah, he published a lot of books, but man, he sure did plagiarize a lot of people and never gave them correct attribution.

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And he was called out on the carpet. I remember it was a

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Janet Mefford. She called him out on the carpet regarding that. And boy, did it create a controversy.

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But the thing is, is that she was right. And she should have never have apologized, but she was forced to do it by the corporate broadcasting station that she was working for.

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She should have never apologized because it later came out that Mark Driscoll didn't plagiarize in just one book, but we're talking like seven, nine of his books had blatant examples of absolute non -attribution of stuff that he ripped off from other people.

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He was a blatant plagiarist. But the other thing that happened is that the book that he was plugging at the time, he had spent upward of $200 ,000 from church funds to buy his way onto the

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New York Times bestseller list. All of this is documented in The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

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And this is all talked about in episode 11, The Tempest. And so he bought his way onto the

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New York Times bestseller list, totally, totally unethical as all get out, using church funds to do so.

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And so many copies of his book ended up just being tossed, being thrown away. And that was part of all of this.

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And as all of this was happening, and it was like every day there was new information and more information coming out about Mark Driscoll and his leadership style and more like abuse style and the things that were going on and the people that were being destroyed by this man that finally the board of directors acted and they sat him down.

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They put him on a sabbatical, a leave of absence. But here's the thing. He refused to submit to authority.

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And just a few weeks later, he announced that God had told him that what the board of directors was doing, that it was a trap and that God had told him that he was finished at Mars Hill.

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It was time for him to move on. The man is incapable of submitting to any authority at all.

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And so he's still a fugitive. OK, I mean, this again, let's use the

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Saul Goodman example here. If you're familiar with the Breaking Bad series and Saul Goodman, Saul Goodman eventually has to leave

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Albuquerque. And we find that he's on the run, taking on a different persona, living in Nebraska, working at a

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Cinnabon, right? This is what Mark Driscoll has done. He is a fugitive from church authority and from being put under authority and called to repent of his sins.

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He's a fugitive from it. All he did was, you know, leave Seattle and move to Arizona and set up shop, you know, the same way

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Saul Goodman did. But here's the thing, is that he's banking on the fact that people have a short -term memory.

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And now this is almost 10 years ago. It is almost a decade ago. And there's a whole generation of kids that are in their 20s, and they're seeing

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Mark Driscoll videos, and they are completely oblivious to the history of this man.

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But I remember because I covered him. In fact, let me give you an example of kind of a best of, if you would.

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This will give you just a flavor of what this man and his leadership is all about. And back in the day, it was my audio podcast.

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We're the ones who broke the story. We're the ones who initially put the audio out warning people about just how abusive this man was.

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But listen to this audio. It's shocking. And I won't play the whole thing, but just listen.

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Here's what I've learned. You cast vision for your mission. And if people don't sign up, you move on.

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You move on. There are people that are going to die in the wilderness, and there are people that are going to take the hill.

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That's just how it is. Too many guys waste too much time trying to move stiff neck, stubborn, obstinate people.

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I am all about blessed subtraction. There is a pile of dead bodies behind the

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Mars Hill bus. And by God's grace, it'll be a mountain by the time we're done. Self -fulfilling prophecy.

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Again, you need to listen to the entirety. If you're looking for a good podcast, something to listen to on your commute to work, and one that serves as a warning regarding these vision casting leaders and men like Mark Driscoll, again, the rise and fall of Mars Hill, it is worth every hour that you invest listening into it.

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And again, episode 11 is the conclusion of all of this. And here's the thing, is that Mark Driscoll not only didn't submit to authority, he refused to submit to authority, played the

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God told me card in order to avoid being made accountable. And near the end of this podcast, former members of Mars Hill from their staff, they describe

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Mark Driscoll as a deadbeat dad, who just at the end of it, just flat out just abandoned his own child.

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This man, there's nothing about him that represents biblical manhood at all.

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He is not qualified to be a pastor. He's not qualified to teach anybody about what it means to be a man.

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The man is a narcissistic, abusive coward who refuses himself to submit to any authority.

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And he's never repented of the evil that he committed at Mars Hill. Instead, he blames everybody else and he tries to cast himself as a victim.

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And he's not. Because the wonderful thing about the rise and fall of Mars Hill, that podcast, they present the receipts.

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All of the allegations are backed up with eyewitness testimony and other things.

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The receipts are all there. So yeah, nobody should be listening to this man.

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Let me come back to our biblical text. So Mark Driscoll, no, he is not above reproach.

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He's not even repentant for the damage that he did at Mars Hill. The husband of one wife, well, that's good for him.

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And his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. An overseer is God's steward, must be above reproach.

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Timothy, I think it's 2 Timothy, says he must not be quarrelsome. Boy, is

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Mark Driscoll quarrelsome. He must not be arrogant, quick -tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain.

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But hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

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He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

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For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

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And they must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

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One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Well, this testimony is true.

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Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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But here's the deal. Mark Driscoll does not meet the qualification of being above reproach at all.

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And him talking about, in order to be a man, you have to be under authority.

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Yeah. Again, Saul Goodman teaching ethics for attorneys. That's what this reminds me of.

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We continue. First thing, Paul says it this way. I'm not my own. I was bought with a price.

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You men needs to start thinking in terms of not what I want, but what does the Father want? Number two, as soon as we do that, once we are under dominion and we're good sons living under the

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Father's dominion, guess what we're ready for? Guess what we're ready for? Dominion. Once we're under His dominion, now we're ready to exercise our dominion.

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Okay, Father, I'm going to do what you say. Now I can lead a family. Now I could father a child.

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Now I can grow a company. Now I can do a ministry. Because I've been under authority.

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Now I am ready to be in authority. Again, the rise and fall of Mars Hill.

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It is nothing but a litany of how this man abused his authority and refused to submit to authority.

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The worst thing that happens for a man, he's in authority, but he's not under authority. We've all met these guys.

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We're looking at one right now, and it's this guy named Mark Driscoll, the one with his hand raised.

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We've all met these guys. He's the guy that he's describing.

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The irony is thick here. These are the guys, and there's two ways to fail as a man when it comes to dominion and authority.

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Number one, you can abuse your dominion and authority. Yep, and that's exactly what

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Driscoll's done. He's never repented of it. This isn't in my notes. I just feel like I'm supposed to say it.

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Some of you struggle with dominion, leadership, headship, and authority because your dad abused his authority and his dominion.

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I can see it. I don't know why. I just see it. Claiming direct revelation from God still.

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Some of you, your dad, he was bigger than you, so he would bully and intimidate you. He would hit you. He would shove you.

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He was exercising his dominion. Mm -hmm, and listen to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast.

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Bullying is a kind way of saying what he engaged in when he had authority, absolute authority at Mars Hill.

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But he was doing it in an abusive way. For some of you, your dad was a big personality. He was very loud, very aggressive, and maybe even scary and dangerous.

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And he had dominion, but he didn't have love in the Father heart of God. And he was exercising dominion, but guess what he wasn't doing?

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Living under God's dominion. What we're not talking about is men who are going to be just tough, and they end up abusing their authority.

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And this is what we're seeing in our day. We're seeing where there is this effeminate culture, this emotional, spiritual, physical castration of men.

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We're seeing this woke, weak, progressive culture. Right, and you shouldn't be talking about the woke.

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You're not qualified because you're an abusive conservative. I'm a conservative. But this guy has no credibility at all because he's abused his authority.

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Never really repented of the evil that he did. Ran away from being held accountable.

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What we're seeing is we're seeing a number of men who are saying, I am tired of not being honored and respected.

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Therefore, I am going to exercise my authority and dominion by being abusive. Again, it's completely lacking any self -awareness.

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This is weird for me to be listening to. This would be like the Andrew Tate's of the world. We're not talking about that.

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He is more like Andrew Tate than he is Jesus Christ. I could tell you that. Talking about being under dominion so that you learn how to be in dominion, being under authority so that then you're ready to be in authority.

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And then you're ready to treat your wife like your God treats you. You're ready to treat your kids like your God treats you. You're ready to treat your grandkids like your

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God treats you. And the way you treat them is still under his dominion. Father, I married your daughter.

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How do you want me to treat her? Father, you gave me children. We share a name called Father. How do you want me to treat these kids? Why weren't you asking yourself this question when you were in authority at Mars Hill?

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Do you think Christ wanted you to bully and abuse and abscond when you were at Mars Hill?

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Is that the way Christ wanted you to lead there? Father, you sent your son to the earth and he worked a job and I got a job too.

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How do I work this job to the glory of God? The two ways that men fail and err. One, they abuse their dominion and authority, or two, they abandon it.

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That's exactly what you did, Mark. Good grief. And so here's the thing.

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He is banking on believing that almost 10 years has passed and people don't remember.

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But I remember. I was warning the body of Christ about Mark Driscoll and his abuse years before everything blew up in his face.

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And then when it blew up in his face, we covered it in depth at Fighting for the Faith. And while it was all going down,

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I had private conversations with people who regularly attended Mars Hill in Seattle and a few people who were on staff there.

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And boy, with these people coming out of that, they were wounded beyond belief.

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Some of them legitimately had like PTSD and couldn't even darken the door of a church for many, many months afterwards because of how poorly they were treated by him.

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And then when he was called on the carpet, brought to account and basically called to repent of what he did, he just up and left and totally abandoned

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Mars Hill. And the whole thing collapsed in just a matter of a few months.

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It was breathtaking to watch. And so him talking about abusive male leadership that abuses their dominion and authority and then abandons people.

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This is his biography. And here's the thing. You know what he's not saying here? He's not saying,

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I used to be like this and I've since repented. I cannot believe the evil that I did when

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I was in leadership at Mars Hill. And so I am telling you, I know from my own personal experience and how horrible

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I was that this is not the way to go. And by the grace of God, he's brought me to repentance and forgiven me for the evil that I've done.

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No, he isn't doing that at all. There is no autobiography here or even self -awareness of what it is that he's done.

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Instead, he's just talking about it like, yeah, this is a terrible thing.

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And people do this as if he hasn't done it. And the thing is, is that there's too many people.

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There's too many dead bodies. He's the one who said that by the grace of God, that there will be a mountain of dead bodies behind Mars Hill before he's done.

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And that's exactly what happened. So mark and avoid this man.

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If you don't believe me, then go and listen to the rise and fall of Mars Hill, especially episode 11.

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And then just ask yourself, honestly, is Pastor Roseboro telling me the truth about Mark Driscoll?

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The answer is, yes, I am unapologetically telling you the truth.

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Mark and avoid this man. And anytime he shows up on somebody's platform, you need to respond.

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You need to say, this man is an impenitent abuser and has no place.

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He's not above reproach. He's not qualified to be a pastor in the body of Christ, according to the scriptural qualifications of a pastor.

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And he still needs to repent. Instead, he's flat out abandoned his church at Mars Hill.

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And now he's like a deadbeat dad, gone, and off to his new wife without ever reconciling regarding the damage that he's wrought.

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Somebody that must be marked and avoided. Hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And those of you who support Fighting for the Faith, I want to give you a thank you, because without your financial support, we couldn't continue to bring

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Fighting for the Faith to you. And so all of our crew members, again, week after week, as we're putting new videos out,

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I have to thank you because you are making it possible for us to do this. If you would like to join our crew and support us financially, there's a link down below that will take you to our website, and you can join our crew and support us as well.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.