Psalm 12: A Call To Manhood

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you.

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I Remember a conversation that I once had with my grandpa This was a long time ago.

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I was beaming over this brand new technology called Windows 3 .1 and How and how you could play video games on a floppy disk and my grandpa was like a floppy what?

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He said we didn't have floppy disks back when I was a kid We shot marbles and we played outside and we climbed trees and we played in the creek and this new fangled generation

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I think he actually used that term Doesn't know anything about that which actually isn't true because my grandpa raised me and we did those things together

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But I think he was he's just on a polemic My grandma chimed in during the middle of this conversation and she said

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Oh Kendall, you know, this is just how old people talk She said my grandpa said the same thing about us

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Our generation was was so weird and strange and she said and I bet you When you get older, you're gonna say the same thing about your kids and your grandkids, too

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And then we all kind of laughed they laughed because they thought it was true. I laughed because I was like I refuse I Will not be that parent but Things have changed a lot over the last

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Five years even not all change is bad. Not all new things are bad or evil

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For instance, there's lots of technologies that have improved the world you think about Gutenberg's printing press where Bibles were able to be printed and disseminated all over the globe and scriptures

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Given to people who never had languages before the printing press changed the world it ushered in the modern era

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And yet it was from that invention that we got pure garbage like Mein Kampf from Hitler, which is his lunatic ravings from prison or the

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Communist Manifesto from the charlatan named Karl Marx Modern invention you think about the

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World Wide Web, which also was a revolutionary Invention it allowed us to be able to share the gospel all over the world to create videos to put them out

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I mean, I remember John MacArthur saying one time that in a given year every country on earth went to their website and Hundreds of thousands of people were were listening to the gospel because of this thing called the

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Internet and yet the Internet is the place Where also evil abides in? Tremendous amount the

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Internet has ushered in the widespread use of pornography black market drug sales Child trafficking you name it

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The question is not about technology, the question is about the direction for which we use it or the manner in which it is employed and something changed

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I Think a few years ago the speed of change has been increasing

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It used to be that a generation might look a little different than their former generation, but now Two years ago three years ago four years ago looks entirely different than what it did back then our world today back then a

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Few changes would cause my grandpa to get up in arms and go on a diatribe Now things change second by second by second and not for the better Now we should have seen this coming

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All of the roots and all of the seeds of where we're at today in our society Existed in the 1930s and 40s and I'm just going back to that because it's about 90 years ago the 1940s widespread

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Women began leaving the home and began pursuing careers and that's not a bad thing

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I'm not saying that women can't work, but I am saying that the large -scale Abandonment of women raising their children at home and daycares raising their children and public schools raising their children birthed a generation in 1960s that now because they didn't have a proper understanding of biblical sexual ethics ushered in the sexual revolution

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The first motherless generation that grew up is the one that gave themselves over to sex drugs rock and roll and peace of a perverted sort

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You think about that generation that just said let's just have free sex and everything will be okay

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The next generation in the 1970s is when abortion was legalized because if you're gonna have free sex Then you have to also murder your children to keep it going

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Society decided that it needed a mechanism to Preserve its depravity and while they were killing their children

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Through this legalization of abortion 20 years later fruitlessness continued no longer men and women

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Sinfully getting pregnant in our society and increasing in that way Homosexuality became widespread in America in the 1980s in the 1990s

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The LGBTQ movement has even admitted that it's done this on purpose that they've put homosexuality on our

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TVs in the 80s Constantly because they wanted us to be offended.

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They didn't mind that we didn't agree with it They wanted us to be offended because eventually our offense would become well

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That's just not for me and then eventually our well This is just isn't for me would become well I guess it's okay if they do it and eventually the it's okay if they do it will be

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I think that this is right They've desynthesized the culture to where now in the 1910s or that in the 2010s.

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Sorry Oh Burger fell You have a legal revolution where we've legalized it and codified it where we've actually called sodomy marriage

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So we're not only a society That kills a million babies a year on average.

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We're also society that has entirely perverted marriage all these seeds were there in the 1940s

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When sodomy was renamed marriage the floodgates of Pandora's box opened and our

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Generation is what was birthed out of it. We should not be surprised So when we come to lockdowns globally

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When we come to churches need to shut down or we're gonna in Canada lock you out of it and arrest your pastors

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Where churches down in Louisiana were burned because people were afraid that that a virus was going to spread

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We shouldn't be surprised at that we gave up as a nation our relationship with God a long time ago when we see that Public cartoons that are aimed at children have now been co -opted by the transsexual movement and Drag queen story hour comes to PBS.

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We shouldn't be surprised we shouldn't be surprised when conversion therapy is banned when when literally telling a child that God made them beautiful and Wonderful as a girl and that they don't need to mop off their breasts or if they're a boy

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They don't need to chemically be castrated. That's now illegal in Canada. That's coming to,

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Massachusetts It's already illegal. If you're a psychologist wait pastors will be next right now

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The next frontier is already being debated in our universities and that is pedophilia

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Where papers are being written right now where arguments are being put forward you watch in a generation we will see 40 year old men marrying eight -year -old girls and People will turn a blind eye like nothing has happened.

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We say no that will never happen. We said that before one thing

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I'm thankful for is That I do think people are starting to wake up. I think the church is starting to wake up.

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I Think we've had a sort of Wizard of Oz moment where we've woken up and we're not in Kansas anymore and we realize it

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But the feelings that we feel are real That gut level concern that fear that anxiety that you feel living in this society

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It's real when you see men like Jeffrey Epstein Glenn Maxwell on TV and you see their connection with the

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Clintons and you see child trafficking in other countries and when you see The rate of abortion that we have in this country

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It's almost hard to remember how evil it is because we hear about it so much Babies are being ripped apart in the place that they're supposed to be safe in New York City It was more likely for a black male to be aborted than to be born.

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It's disgusting when we look at the news at night and that pit in our stomach

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We said dear God, how is the world like it is today? When I drive down the street and I hear four -year -old boys

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Cursing and saying things that you shouldn't know about until your third year in med school Where have we gone?

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That feeling that you feel that I feel that sadness that anger that frustration and hopelessness

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Is the feeling we ought to feel and it's not a new feeling It's a feeling that David King David who lived 3 ,000 years ago also felt in a similar moment in the society that he was living in It's a thought and it's a feeling that he felt in Psalm 12

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Which is why I want us to read Psalm 12 Well, I want us to pray considering Psalm 12 and why

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I want us to Examine Psalm 12. So let us pray Let us examine the psalm together and we'll read it as we go

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Lord Jesus. I Pray that this would not be 38 year old

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Kendall acting like a grandpa Lord I pray that we would see the real evil that exists

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Lord, I pray that we would see that you are the only cure and Lord, I pray that we would see as a part of that cure and a part of that healing

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The Church of Jesus Christ needs a Renaissance and a revival and a reformation of men So what

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I pray that in Jesus name, amen Now when we come to the Psalms like I said earlier and I think

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Derek said it as well the Psalms is a Songbook for warriors. They were mostly written by warriors and kings.

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In fact when the church Moved away from singing the Psalms is when you see and you can trace it through history

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Is when you can see that the church lost its masculine voice and it became a mostly effeminate

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Institution it was written by soldiers and fighters who were on their way to battle

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It was written with an expectation that these songs would enliven the troops

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These songs would encourage them these songs as they would wrestle with the enemy and that they would create this nation that God had called them to create that was based on the truth of the

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Word of God that these songs would be a part of their theology and their doxology and these songs would

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Revitalize the people so that the people would live holy lives dedicated to God David one of the great psalm writers was also one of the greatest warriors in the

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Old Testament and David had this expectation That the songs would heal the songs would encourage the songs would enliven

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All of the people but especially the men David is a man who was a warrior who chased after God and all of his labors were dedicated

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Towards the revitalization of his nation, but in psalm 12 you have a moment

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I've tried to find the date of this psalm, but most scholars are not really sure about when

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David wrote this psalm Whenever it was you have a moment in David's life where he looks out and he sees that culture is

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In ruins his nation is in shambles and the state of men is in an all -time low

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He connects those thoughts together So let us begin with verse 1 when

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I say I'm calling the fall of the nation and the fall of masculinity David says help

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Lord for the godly man Ceases to be for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

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David is starting where everyone should start The very first word that he says is help

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He looks out across his nation he sees that godly men have disappeared they vanished that society lies in ruins because of of godly faithful men

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Have now abandoned and shirked their calling and he's grieved and he cries out to the only one who can actually help and that is

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God Now there's a couple clarifications that we need to make right off the top of the message

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Number one, this is not a Christian nationalism message where we're all about God guns and Mirka This is not that We do not place our faith and our hope and our trust in America not even a bit

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We don't place our joy and whether America's succeeding or whether America is failing

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We don't we are citizens of heaven and we await a Savior who is coming from heaven to bring us home to be with him

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Forever, but just because we're citizens of heaven doesn't mean that we don't care about the state of our country it doesn't mean that we don't want our country to repent and experience revival because if America were to experience revival with all of the resources and with all of the

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Publishing that we have and all of the technology that we have we could with Christ Have a huge impact in the kingdom of God Why not

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America fail if we don't have to again our joys not rooted in it Our hope is not rooted in it where our hope is rooted in Christ, but we are called to To live where we live to serve where we serve and to minister

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So this is the task ahead. The second qualification that I would make is while David is

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Beginning Psalm 12 talking to the men Everyone is in view So if you're listening to this and you're saying if you're a woman and you're saying well this message isn't for me

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I'm gonna I'm gonna check out for just a few minutes. Don't Because you ever heard the phrase rising tide lifts all boats

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You ever heard that phrase? rising masculinity

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Lifts all people because when men are healthy, they love and care for their wives well, and their wives become healthy

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When healthy families exist children are healthy when healthy children exist neighborhoods are are

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Lifted nations are lifted David exclusively is calling out the men in this passage, which we want to be faithful to do in the sermon

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So if you're if you're a man and you feel like that this sermon is for you And it's for me

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But we we both care about our country. We care about all people men women and children The sermon is directed mostly towards the brothers today

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David's first words in the passage or help His first words in the passage or help He doesn't make excuses and he doesn't begin playing politics like maybe we would be tempted to do today

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He doesn't wrangle like -minded people together into a political action committee He doesn't fundraise or campaign or make smear commercials about his political opponent.

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He doesn't have elections He doesn't do flyers he prays He turns to the

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Lord and says help This problem can't be solved with politics this problem can't be solved with with commercials this problem goes past human machinations

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To a nation that needs God Which is the same for us

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This nation will not be cured This nation will not revive Unless we turn to the

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Living God Revival doesn't begin with human effort. That's the first thing that this first verse teaches us

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Revival Is when God? Supernaturally breathes his life into a culture if you study revival

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It's happened over the course of time in various different places and times here in New England Revival happened when

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Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield and others were preaching the gospel and all of a sudden Churches all over this area were caught up in the

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Spirit of God and they repented It is something that cannot be forced and something that cannot be manipulated it's something that cannot be bought

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God at times will catch a society up in revival But the way that it happens is by his power and not ours, but I will tell you this some of the things that happen right before a revival which are also led by the

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Spirit of God alone is That men and women return to the Bible and they start reading it and they start understanding it

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They start yearning to know the text men and women begin to pray Churches all across this country if revival is getting ready to happen.

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Their prayer meeting will be more populated than their Sunday morning gathering Because people long to be in the presence of the

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Living God Repentance Not I'm just praying that I'd love more or beauty pageant repentance praying for world hunger praying for poverty

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Those things are good, but let's get real We have real sin in our life that needs to be prayed for when revival begins to happen the

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Spirit authors authentic Repentance where we're on our knees and we're crying out to the

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Lord. Help me like David help It's the first thing we learned is revival

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Can't be manipulated by human effort. It's by God's power alone The second thing we learned we just mentioned that was that revival happens when we cry out to God and not

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Try to solve the problems ourself The third thing that we learn is that failed masculinity is one of the things that causes us a society to fail failed masculinity is one of the downfalls of human society

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Look at what David says help Lord for the godly man ceases to be men who are godly have become extinct in David's era

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For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men faithfuls referent is man so what

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David is saying is godly men have ceased to be faithful men have disappeared from among the sons of men and that is why when he comes down later and he says that people are

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Abused and they've been made victims and they're hurting and they're broken. These things happen when masculinity is broken as Men go so the culture goes

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If we have a weak cadre of men who live to play video games and wake up at 10 o 'clock in the morning with no

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No recourse of how to care and serve a family if we have men who can't grow up and commit to a woman and have Their hands all over their girlfriend if we have men

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Who are drunk luscious who are avoiding responsibility who don't love and care for their families if we have men who are addicted to porn

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Instead of godly lovemaking if we have men who are weak pitiful buffoonish selfish insecure whining constantly needing someone to pep them up Prop them up and boost their ego.

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Our society will soon follow The kind of man that I'm talking about there is a nation killer

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That kind of man is what crushes empires Because whether we like it or not

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Men were made to lead Men were made to protect and care and steward and love

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Healthy godly men protect the things they love and if there's no one left to protect our defenses are broken healthy men

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Care for and provide a secure place for a woman to build a home And when a woman builds that home where she's protected where she's got a man who cares enough for her to To give her that space in that environment when that happens children are raised up Nations are made healthy

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You can research this in history You can look at every civilization

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When weak and sinful men creep in they cripple women crippled women don't build homes

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Crippled homes don't produce good children good children. Let a nation die.

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It's all in history It can be demonstrated in every era and then across to be demonstrated in the scriptures

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The day America adopted feminism was the day that America signed its own death certificate

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Again, men and women are made equal in the eyes of God men and women have equal dignity value and worth and I would argue

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That women are the most valuable and I know this is not biblical I'm saying this from my perspective as a man men women are the most valuable because they bring new life into the world and they're worth

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Protecting they're worth caring about they're worth giving our lives for Women are the weaker vessel in the sense that they need someone to protect them

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Not because they're weaker mentally emotionally or spiritually or anything else men are called to care for their wives and Weak men don't and weak men kill nations

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The implications for this are huge, but I think they have to start in the church men

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We've got to look across our lives and and see where we've fallen short

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Where we've lived like our father Adam instead of living like the one man the true man Jesus Christ We've got to apologize for letting this culture happen on our watch

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These sins inculcated under our watch We've got to stand up like first Corinthians says and act like men and let everything that we do be done in love acting like a man is not

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Macho bravado where you fart the loudest drink the most and and and you're some sort of joke.

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That's a joke Real men are patterned off Jesus Christ real men look like Jesus That means that we need to read the

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Bible We need to study the Bible men. You don't read for just yourselves you read for an entire family you open up the

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Word of God and You're reading so that you can learn what the precious truths of the

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Bible say so that you can share that with your wife So you can share that with your children You learn doctrine not so that you can be puffed up and prideful you learn doctrine so that you can safeguard your family from error

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You're committed to prayer because you're a provider and a caretaker You committed to praying with your wife and praying with your children

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If you're what if your wife has never heard you pray and your children have never heard you pray Repent brother

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Repent if your children have never heard you share the gospel with them repent if you're expecting the church

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To disciple your children one hour out of the week and you've got them the rest of the time.

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We don't do that with anything Your children are too important your wives are too important to let fail brothers let us live like Christ and love like Christ and disciple our

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Wives and disciple our women Jesus has called men and women both to be disciple makers I've had so many guys in my life say well, who do

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I disciple? Start with your wife brother Start with your children Love her enough to lead her

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Because see listen, this is the thing men The question is not whether you will be a leader or not

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That's not what the Bible says. The question is whether you'll be a good leader or a bad leader The Bible has called you a head.

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The Bible has called you to lead. The question is whether you will do it well or Whether at the end of your life, it will be wood hay and stubble burned up.

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This is an important work This is an important work. I remember as a kid

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Asking my grandpa to take me to church and watching how that changed my grandpa's life and how he was spiritually avoidant before that and He became the sort of man who led me and who taught me the scriptures not perfectly

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But when my grandpa started going to church It changed him what a wonderful way that us as men can make sure that our families

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Are growing in the truths of scripture by being in church taking the sacraments

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Reading the Bible in prayer. Those are things I Don't actually care It's a strong statement

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But I don't and that's truthful. I actually don't care how good you are at your job. I Don't care how many widgets you make.

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I don't care how well you lead other men I don't care if you are a commander of a thousand troops and they all look to you and love you and Respect you if you're not successful in your home

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And if you're not successful in your marriage, and if you're not successful with your children, then all of it was worthless All of it was worthless

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If you fail to lead yourself and you fail to lead your wives and you fail to lead your children You will produce the kind of nation

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David is talking about. I know this is strong.

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I Love you That's why I'm sharing these things. It's time for us as men to repent It's time for us to evaluate our lives according to the scriptures and to not make excuses for ourselves

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That's what Adam did The very first man Adam, what did he do he let his wife

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Eat the tree and he didn't say a word. He didn't protect her He didn't care for her.

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And then when she handed it to him He accepted her leadership and he ate and he caused all the things that now

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We see and break our hearts the sinful nature of the fallen nature Satan comes and subverts the family

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God established the family and Satan subverts it men time to repent and reclaim your role as Head as godly faithful loving righteous head

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Even more than that I Want to make sure that this is abundantly and crystal clear men.

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You do not lead apart from Jesus Christ The pattern of your leadership is not

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Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or a high -powered CEO or a king or anyone else The pattern that you are to live your life based on is

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Jesus Christ if you Live like that Your wife will be thrilled under your leadership

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Your wife will be blessed under your leadership if you love her like Jesus loves the church

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And gave himself up for her. She will thrive your children will fry thrive They will rise up and call you blessed

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If you love God like Jesus loves God if you have joy like Jesus or if you pray like Jesus you obey like Jesus It will make a difference in your family more than anything else that you can do now, of course we can't obey

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Jesus perfectly as You read Ephesians 5 and it says love your wife like Jesus loves the church.

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How many of you have said I can't do that Jesus loves the church perfectly.

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I can't do that. And if and if Jesus knew my wife well, no I'm sure somebody said that His wife's worse than you his wife is us

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He married us He claimed us He does know and he's faithful is the number one thing that you were working on this season being more like Jesus or It's the number one thing you're working on is catching up on a television series

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Be honest with yourself is your obsession Jesus Christ Or is it pornography or is it business or is it investing or is it vacations?

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Where's that hobbies or is it friends or is it being avoidant not being at home? The Bible says that we're to be like deers panting after water

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That means deers who are so famished by thirst That they're gasping for it

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That's the attitude men that we are yearning for Christ and That we are leading the way in our homes and our families now, maybe you say

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This doesn't apply to me praise God, but I would say be sure If you don't think that it applies to you, maybe you're killing it, but I would invite you to ask your wife

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I would invite you to say honey How am I doing it loving you like Jesus loves the church?

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what area is my fallen short in and Brothers be humble if you ask you're inviting the answer

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Ask her honestly, is there any passivity in my leadership? Is there any avoidance where I don't love you?

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Well, I don't care for the kids. Well, is there anything in me? Ask her and while you're at it ask your children.

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It's not a sign of weakness Actually, it's weak not to repent to your children Your children love you and respect you more and they want to follow you more and they trust you more if you repent to them

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And you tell them where you fall short and you model for them how to repent as? Well if they see you your entire life

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Making excuses for yourself and saying on internet wasn't my fault. It was someone else and seeing you act like Adam in the garden

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Then you're producing that in your boys and you're producing that in your girls Ask him ask him honestly, where am

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I falling short? How am I not loving you? Well, how am I not preparing you for manhood? Well Boys don't exist and girls don't exist future men exist and future women exist as Parents, we're not raising up boys.

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That's part of the problem. We have a lot of men who act like boys We're raising up future men we're raising up future women ask them

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Because again healthy families make healthy nations Healthy families are submitted to To God now, let's get back to Psalm 12

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David is crying out to God for help because he's sent where of the godly men gone And he sees all kinds of perversions that are happening in his society.

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Look at what he says in verse 2 They that's the men speak falsehood to one another with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak

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They is the third person pronoun for failed masculinity in David society They refers back to where have the men gone.

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Oh Here's where they're at. They're speaking falsehoods They're filled with toxic flattery

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Westminster Confession of Faith says that we are to love God and enjoy him forever

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Praising him with our lips the men in this society were filled with flattery

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They were chest bumping they were puffing themselves up They weren't giving honor and do and praise to God.

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They were diseased. I think this one is one of the worst with a double heart That's what it says

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They're no longer consumed with the glory of God They're half -hearted creatures like in Revelation 3 16 where it says where Jesus says that rather you be hot or cold

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Not lukewarm because I will spew you out of my mouth David is saying that the men in his society were half -hearted

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They were the kind of men who would say amen in a sermon where we're talking about men need to act like men

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But when you find them, they're not acting like men They're running away from their responsibilities and shirking and abdicating their role.

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They're the kind of men who would say absolutely Yes, I need to take a relationship with God seriously, but they don't wake up Or they say

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I can't wake up 15 minutes earlier read my Bible and spend time with God You don't know my schedule repent of your schedule

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The most important work we do is being in the presence of God no matter what your job is no matter what your schedule looks like the most important thing you do is you get in front of your holy

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God and You're known by him and that changes you so that you can love the people.

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God has called you to love David looked out across the landscape of his nation and He saw a nation filled with boys who were never taught to be men

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Biological males who love their sin more than they love their God indulging their flattery instead of giving praises to the king and because of that a

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Culture of unprotected and uncared for women abound along with a legion of bastardized children.

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That's what happened Look at your society today That's what happened

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David responds with a blistering imprecatory prayer imprecatory prayers or prayers that are prayed

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When you're calling down judgments Happen rarely in the Psalms. There are Psalms that are entirely imprecatory, but they're not a lot

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It's a minor genre in the in the canon of the Psalms, but David thought this was so bad

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This culture of failed masculinity that he called down curses on it He says may the

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Lord cut off all flattering lips and May the Lord cut off the tongue that speaks great things the ones who have said with our tongue we will prevail with our lips or Our lips are our own who is

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Lord over us? David prays a strong prayer because the heart of Failed masculinity is a refusal submit to the

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Lordship of God. That's the heart of it when they say who is Lord over us They knew who was

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Lord over them Yahweh King of the Jews was Lord over them But they've become so sinful and perverted in their in their machinations that they look and they actually said who is

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Lord over us The heart of failed masculinity is a refusal submit to the Lordship of God.

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It's a refusal to be held accountable by the Living God It's Essentially to look at God and say

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I am in charge not you I'm gonna do what I want not you and brothers

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When you say that when you do that, you're inviting judgment upon your head You're inviting the wrath of God the

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Bible says That Christians we will be punished not eternally, but like sons our father loves us and A loving father disciplines his children brothers who are in Christ in this room

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But you were not living according to the picture of masculinity that God has given for you You were poking a bear and you were asking

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God to punish you and he will because he loves you Why not repent?

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Why not turn? Why not plead with the Living God and say forgive me. I want to be a man

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Who's worthy to lead my family who's worthy to lead my children why not repent Don't go on in a hard -heartedness

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Repent, I think it's also important to mention That David is

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Directing these prayers at the wicked and it's easy for us to say the wicked is somewhere out there

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The wicked are the people who do this and who do that and who do this and who do that the wicked is not me

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We're all wicked it's important to remember that we have all fallen short of the glory of God we have all

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Had the poison of asps on our lips. We've all indulged falsehoods and flatteries.

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We have all fallen short of the glory of God So while David prays an imprecatory prayer here

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Talking about the wicked I also want us to remember that we are the ones who have failed as well We failed in our dating.

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We failed in our marriages. We failed in our parenting. We have failed in every way we are the kind of men that David is talking about and We are the kind of men who also deserve the judgment of God David realizes this in Psalm 51

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Where he says be gracious to me. Oh God, you don't ask that unless you're Really needing grace

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According to your loving -kindness According to the greatness of your compassion blot out my transgressions.

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He's admitting here that he's wicked Wash me thoroughly for my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me

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Against you you only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are Justified when you speak and you were blameless when you judge behold,

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I was brought forth in iniquity and In sin, my mother conceived me behold you desire truth in The innermost being and in the hidden parts you make known to me wisdom

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Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow

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Make me hear joy and gladness let the bones which you have broken Rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities create in me a clean heart

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Oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your

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Holy Spirit for me Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit

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Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. Do you see what's happening here?

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He's saying I'm the one I'm the man. I'm the problem I'm the one that God would be righteous if he destroyed and yet I'm gonna appeal to the loving -kindness of God who can purify me

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And it can wash me white as snow and on the cross. That is what happened to us For nothing no righteous act that you and I have ever done

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Jesus Christ died for rebels and he died for wicked men and he died for men like us

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So that we have been washed whiter than snow and look at what David says when the joy of his salvation is restored

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When his experience with God is restored he teaches He demonstrates to other people what it means to know

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God men Grab ahold of this when you know God and when you know how awesome he is and how righteous he is and how gracious He is you can't help but teach your wives.

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You can't help but love your families You can't help but be Like this where you're gonna teach other people the ways of God because his grace is so mind -blowing to you that you have to share

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It it's better than a football game. It's better than a last -second three -pointer It's better than anything you've ever experienced and when you feel it you share it

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He doesn't treat us as we deserve He raises up a substitute and that substitute is the perfect man

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Jesus Christ who lived perfectly You want to look at what manhood is look at Jesus?

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He demonstrated it perfectly for you and you if you are saved brother have gotten his record

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He got your record of failure. He got your record of abdication and shirking your duties

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He got your record of fallenness and you got his live dear brothers

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According to that vision he died So that you could die to sin he rose so that you could rise with him and live for him

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Let's finish off the psalm together Let's see how David is even foreshadowing repentance and regeneration and redemption here in this passage in verses 5 through 8 because of the devastation of the afflicted

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Because of the groaning of the needy now God says I will arise. I Will set him in the safety for which he belongs

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The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of the earth refined seven times you

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Oh Lord We'll keep them You will preserve him from this generation forever

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The wicked shut about on every side when violence is exalted among the sons of men men The application is that if Christ Jesus has died for you, and if you are living in his grace, he will sustain you

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He will help you He will hold you and keep you and he will protect you from this

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Wicked generation that we live in if we want to understand how We fight as Christian men if we want to understand how we do battle as Christian men

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It is not to get on a political soapbox and try to run for a campaign

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It is to love your wife teach your children. And if all of us did that we change the world We can do that in Jesus Christ because he loves us.

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He died for us. He sustains us He protects us and he equips us for the mission that he called us to God will visit the wicked

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That's Absolutely true God will visit the wicked in this society God will visit the wicked in Tomorrow's society

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God will visit the wicked in every human society The question is not

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Whether God will visit the sins of people. He will the question is what side of the battle are you on?

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Are you on the side of Christ hidden in his shadow where the violence of God's wrath was taken for you

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Where the arrow of God's wrath was plunged into the heart of Christ instead of you. Are you on his side?

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Are you left vulnerable living in your own flesh living in your own sin doing your own thing? He will deliver his church and his people

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What side of the battle are you on as? We close I want to just give you a an application

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I Rarely mark out that I'm doing applications. So I want to speak To you tenderly now.

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I know this is a hard sermon. I Know that I'm saying that That we all collectively need to man up and quit making excuses for ourself

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Brothers if that makes you angry run to Jesus If that makes you frustrated run to the

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Bible submit your life to him Let him mold you let him shape you let him

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Make you into the man that you he has called you to be and with that rest of that energy that you have go love your wife and love your children and You will see that the hand of God will bring you a heritage

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When you're an old man, and you're a grandfather and you look at children's children running around and you see that their mothers and fathers are your children who now love

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Jesus and who are teaching their children to love Jesus and On your deathbed when you see that hundreds of people are in your lineage and who are living out

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What you first taught your children you will see the power of God in your life

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And you will see the legacy that God has given for you. We often live on two small time increments

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We look like the microwave generation We indulge our flesh today and we forget about a thousand generations that God is going to use to change this world

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Brothers do the slow work Do the faithful work do the biblical work and you will see

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God bless your hand Let's pray Lord I thank you so much for Psalm 12 and I thank you so much for For the message that it communicates to us as men

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Lord, it certainly does communicate to all of your people. But Lord we took today To point out how

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David points out the masculinity crisis in Israel and Lord We certainly have that in the evangelical church in America today

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Lord I pray that us men Would capture a vision for what it means to be set -apart men holy men righteous men

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Lovers of Jesus lovers of the word prayer warriors Tender with our wives loving towards our children

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Lord I pray that we would capture a vision not for tomorrow not for the next day, but for a thousand generations

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That we would raise boys to be future men girls to be future women that Lord we would take that Responsibility seriously when we think about making war in society

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Lord I pray that we would make war in our homes that we would reclaim territory from the enemy in our homes

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Lord Jesus. I know you bless this work. I know you've called us to this work Lord Help us submit to this work in Christ's name.