it is a great privilege to be here it is also a comfort because many times when you go to a place and you're going to teach on something like biblical manhood you realize that you would like to have 10 sessions over each day for 10 days there's so much to talk about my comfort is this that many of you are in this place and I would just like to say if you you know from what I know of my years here gentlemen if you can't grow here I don't know where you would grow I have never seen so many brought together I've seen Godly men all over the world but I've never seen so many men brought together with a single purpose anywhere else in the world with a firm hold a firm grass on this what do I say though inspiration of scripture the inerrancy of scripture the infallibility of scripture but most importantly the sufficiency scripture so if you are in this church or you are in a another church of like faith you really need to Avail yourself because there are so many men around the world that are goodly men saved men and yet find it so difficult to find any place where they can congregate and grow remember to whom much is given much is required now when I'm in a place like this I don't have to think about okay I'm going to go into the Theology of the matter because you know I know that here in this place there are theologians that at whose feet I would sit um what I want to do is to encourage and exhort and rebuke I want you to wake up I want you to wake up to see your calling but most importantly to see the one who called you to see all that is at stake gentlemen I would not have done what I have done for the last three and a half decades if this was just about you getting your better life now but this is a matter of life and death of Heaven of Hell of Eternity and I want to look at that we're going to take different we're just going to move through different sections of scripture because I want to exhort you in specific areas so let's get started first of all go to the passage that was mentioned here already first John John 2115 first John chapter 2 verse 15 do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the Flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world the world is passing away and also it's lust but the one who does the will of God lives forever You live between two worlds you live between two worlds in a sense you are not of this world but you are in this world and and the work of the holy spirit inside of you makes you contrary to this world and makes the world contrary to you you must understand that but you live Behind Enemy Lines this is an extremely dangerous place you are called upon to believe in a greater reality that you cannot see but you're constantly bombarded by the things that you can see and although you have been regenerated there is still this flesh this remnant of fallenness that is in you that you must battle against that can be drawn out can be attracted by Temptation you've got to realize you are in the middle of a battle it's like a scholar said many years ago the world is at war at war at war and if we have a day of peace it's only because everyone is reloading but that's the Christian Life so many people are preaching that men should have it easy now everyone who is Godly in this world will be persecuted everyone who chooses to be Godly in this world must constantly swim upstream must fight against principalities and powers and mights and dominions this is not an easy place and it's not supposed to be and in one sense I'm glad it's not you say what do you mean there's something in me that desires to fight I don't mind dying I just don't want to die like a dog I just don't want to die like a passive frog that's been put into a kettle and gradually the water is heated up until he can't understand can't even sense that he's being boiled to death I don't want to go out without a fight and I don't want to go to heaven without scars I don't want to go to heaven without scars I don't want to earn Heaven I can't earn Heaven I glory in the fact that heaven is free I glory in the fact that there's only one hero in this story our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I glory in that yet at the same time because of who he is and because he has put me in a place where I have an opportunity to fight I want to fight for him you say oh yes yes brother Paul but the Great Commission I'm not talking about the commission I'm talking about the fight of faith I'm talking about the fight of Holiness I'm talking about the fight of dying to self-love and giving myself selflessly to my bride my wife I'm talking about going to bed tired every night because I've poured my life into my children I'm talking about laying aside all the silly little Trinkets and games of silly little men who are 60 years old laying them aside I don't need vacations I don't need toys I don't just want to live for him in the Practical of my life that's what we're called to do you think that the only one who does great Endeavors is the man who goes to the mission field now when someone asked me brother Paul how can I pray for you I always say the same thing pray that I would love my wife as Christ loves the church anybody can be burned at the stake it's heroic but to live every day walking in simple obedience to God while all hell is coming against you to stop you we're in this world and we're called not to love it but you will love it unless you're Christian unless you're truly regenerate you will love this world and you will hate God and the only way that's going to change is if God has changed your heart through the gospel and if you're here today to study about being a good man but you are not reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ none of this works we must be changed by the gospel but supposing that many of you are changed by the gospel now you must understand something we must cultivate our faith we must cultivate knowledge we must cultivate a right understanding of God we must cultivate the mind of Christ we must begin to see as God sees and how does that happen through the study of scripture the only way you're going to grow in your hatred for this world is to grow in your love for God and the only way any of that's going to happen is if you stop laying aside the word of God as though it was something quite unnecessary for your life Do not love the world do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him this is the part I want to go to for all that is in the world the lust of the eyes and the lust of the the lust of the Flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world the world is passing away and also its lusts now this could be a middle verb here the world is passing away it's kind of just floating away but could also be passive the world is being pushed out that God is already judged the world and it's being pushed out so that when we get to the Book of Revelation there's no place found for it Heaven and Earth flee away from him it's being pushed out oftentimes you go to Old museums and look at art books you see pictures of oftentimes monks and they're standing there in a window and they're holding a skull and they're looking at it and you think well that's kind of dark it is but but you need to understand what really is going on there it's the contemplation of mortality it's not just looking at a skull do you know what he's doing he's looking at himself that monk knows this will be me in a twinkling of an eye strong men grow old and old men die yeah strong men die men who are genius die strong men grow weak and die all men die have you really grasped that as a man I don't mean just played around with it and laughed and told a joke about it have you sat down and really thought about this you're going to die and everything you lived for outside of the will of Christ is going to burn everything you say well but I'm not a missionary and I'm not a preacher if you were in this church you know better than to use that language you can be a policeman and be a policeman every moment of your life for the glory of God and he takes it his service you can be a doctor you can be a ditch digger you can work construction so don't don't play that game it doesn't matter who we are missionary in the Congo our construction worker out on the highway if we know Christ and Christ knows us there's no longer the division of secular and sacred in our life everything is sacred if it's offered to him and he takes it as service to him one of the most life- changing things that I experienced I experienced before I was converted as a matter of fact it's one of the things that led to my conversion my father I was I was many times afraid of him he was big he was strong he was good I wanted to be like him in so many ways we're running with a roll of wire putting up a fence for the horses put a pole between the wire one man on one side one on the other and you roll it out and all of a sudden when we were talking we were talking about upcoming basketball season and and all kinds of things and all of a sudden I looked down and then I heard him scream I felt the wire drop I grabbed him we fell to the ground he was dead I realized at that moment it didn't matter if I was like my father who I never thought I would be like it doesn't matter he's dead strong like him and die courageous like him and die successful and die intelligent and die you fall in love you lose her in the end you need to contemplate you need to get away from media and contemplate your own death and contemplate everything you have invested in where are your Investments University of Texas when I was at the University of Texas I had to study a lot of different things for my major in economics Finance just all sorts of things engine engineering everything and I remember after I became a Christian and some of my friends said what are you doing and I said I'm not doing anything that I wasn't taught in class and they all knew it was very anti-christian University and they said what do you mean I said well remember Investments I've not stopped investing I've just traded up Where are you investing I'm not going to invest in this place anymore because I seriously believe it's going to burn and everything that's going to burn with it and the one who signs on the dotted line the co-signer with you in this world he hates you is going to take you for everything you have I'm just changing where I'm investing where are you investing where are you investing in your own godliness how much time a day are you investing in your own godliness because your wife's greatest need is a new husband a better you how much time are you investing in your wife how much time are you investing in the godliness of your children and in intercession for them how much are you investing in your local church Give us daily bread never forget this in the Lord's Prayer after he says Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done he says give us this day our daily bread people make all kinds of nonsense about that text well it's not talking about give us bread for 90 years it's give us daily bread all these different things and they miss the entire point you know what the point of it is you know what's really going on there you're praying in this way here you see the heart of Christ you're saying God my only reason for existence the reason for my breath is that your name be hallowed that it be placed in a category totally distinct from all other categories and honored above all categories I want to live for that for your name being hallowed for your kingdom to come for your will to be done now give me this day my daily bread Lord I don't want riches I don't want luxury I don't need anything just give me enough food and shelter and clothing so that I can devote my life to fulfilling those three things I prayed about just give me the sustenance I need to keep serving you that's what a man does in the creation commission Adams told to go out and bring God's Kingdom bring God's rules subdue everything in the world to the will of God for the glory of God The Great Commission I believe in one sense the call of the Great Commission and every command to the family and all the commands given to us with regard to every aspect of our life is almost a recommissioning of that in some sense we are to go out we are to subdue ourselves we are to subdue our families we are to subdue the world to the reign of Christ that's the only reason we need food it's to do that you see because the world is passing away and I am well aware that there are so many people that I love that I love so dearly that are passing away with it they're passing away apart from me I never knew you if we had time we could go right now and look at at the Book of Revelation and the Great White Throne judgment and they were judged by all the things written in the book of the law all the things written in the books they were judged you see this is not your home this is a place that you have been you've been thrown down into to do battle that's why you live that's why you live now I want to go on to something else I want to look for just a moment at this world and the first thing I want to do is I want to go to a strange passage over in Isaiah chapter 3. Judgment Upon A People God is bringing judgment Upon A people in this passage God is bringing judgment Upon A people and he says in verse 1 Isaiah chapter 3 verse 1 for behold the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both Supply and support the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water so he's going to remove this but what else is he going to remove the Mighty Man and the warrior the judge and the prophet the diviner and the Elder the captain of 50 and The Honorable man the counselor and the expert artisan and the skillful enchanter one of the greatest acts of God's judgment Upon A people is when he removes the noble men from leadership when he removes the entire population of noble men and there's nothing left but ignoble weak men now who would dispute with me today and say this passage has no application to the United States of America I travel around the world I see men strong angry and many of them mad at us I come home I see silly older men playing with toys I see little boys playing with video games and I see most people no longer even knowing what bathroom they should go in we are under the Judgment of God look at verse 4. and I will make mere Lads their princes and capricious children will rule over them and the people will be oppressed once again this is our world I've been amazed for the last 30 years and especially in sitcoms and things like that isn't it amazing that the parents especially the dad is always betrayed as even if he's kind-hearted he's foolish and really doesn't understand anything about the world and in the end the children are the ones that are the counselors but you know what most Christian men saw things like that and couldn't even discern there was a problem why not in the word not in the word not with men of the word and I think both those things are almost equally important Brothers the only thing that's going to keep you from this is the word the word the word my wife one time was teaching a group of women in Romania and finally after a couple of days one of them said miss miss chato we really love you you know your teaching and your help but on every question that we've had you've basically said just the same thing we need to be in the word why do you do that and she said well because you need to be in the word I'm sorry it isn't it in a way it's really wonderful wonderful that it's not mystical that you don't have to climb up to heaven or drive yourself down into hell to grow Its Really Simple isn't it wonderful that it's it's really quite simple read the word fellowship with Godly men fellowship with your wife fellowship with your children around the word learn the word isn't it wonderful that it's really that simple and isn't it terrible how accountable we're going to be on that final day because it was so simple I didn't say it was easy but simple there's no mystery to it no esoteric knowledge that you need you need the word now look verse 5 and the people will be oppressed each one by another and each one by his neighbor and the youth will storm against the Elder and the inferior against the honorable is that not our society today is that not exactly where we live now look at verse 12 O My People their oppressors O My People are children and women rule over them now most people when they read this they think yeah wicked women ruling over men but there's two possibilities here one has to do with someone like Jezebel who was a wicked woman who sought to usurp Authority and everything else then there's also Deborah Deborah's kind of difficult to explain isn't she here she's raised up this leader trying to put everything together in the scriptures it's my opinion that that Deborah was raised up as a rebuke to men and at no fault of her own do you know how many young girls and a young man you listen to me I travel all over even here even in my own church how many young girls between the ages of 25 and 35 Godly smart intelligent strong capable and they say are we going to be single all our life our only option is to be single all our life art to entrust Our Lives to boys our age who when they get a little bit of extra money buy cool tennis shoes or another video game what are we supposed to do Brothers the Chinese say there are no bad students it's bad teachers what kind of Legacy did you some of you were laughing what kind of Legacy have you left what have you done I am not going to stand here and curse the darkness and make fun of a younger generation I'm not going to do it because when you look in Israel a generation was raised up who did not know the Lord and whose fault was that previous generation yeah you guys not might not be playing Its All About Christ video games but a lot of you have wasted so much of your time doing the stupidest silliest things of which men are beyond that no brothers I'm telling you it was a great thing for me to learn that my life that I should go to the casket poured out that life is supposed to be difficult that self- sacrifice hurts that it's not about me you say oh it's about Christ be careful of a Theology of Glory it is about Christ but if it goes no further than that the words you've said are nothing more than a meme it's all about my wife it's all about my children then it's all about my church and then it's all about the elect people of God who have yet to hear the gospel of their salvation that's what it's all about that's what it's really all about Professional Men I know professional men in this church and I know professional men and other places around the world that are extremely professional extremely busy and they witness to more people in one week than I do in six months through their through their through their professions through their things they have Bible studies they encourage their maybe they don't do that maybe they don't have the gift of teaching but you go to their home and you see their children and their wives they're not about gaining something in this world they're just using the gifts that they have in order to serve in those concentric circles of concern now what do I mean by that this is the way I've ordered my life it was based on a book on evangelism that was written about 40 years ago by a very Godly Man concentric circles of concern but I took it and changed it up a little bit in the middle of that circle is me you say well that doesn't sound very Christian well it is and what am I saying when I say the middle of that circle is me the greatest Be a better pole washer thing I can do for everyone else on this planet is to be a better pole washer and what does that mean to seek to be more conformed to the image of Christ if I do not start with me in the word and renewing my mind nothing else Works nothing else works so first of all as men what do we do to combat this what do we do first of all our great goal should be to be conformed to the image of Christ in character isn't it amazing that the qualifications for an elder are almost exclusively character and you say well I'm not an elder I don't have to worry about that what you have to understand is in that list and tide us through in Titus 1 and First Timothy 3 what he's basically saying is this an elder needs to be a mature Christian and Mature Christian this is what a mature Christian looks like a husband needs to be a mature Christian and this is what a mature Christian looks like character to grow in Conformity to Christ which starts by cultivating the mind of Christ in the word of God and then growing if you don't know anything about the principles of marriage but you're a man who walks full of the Holy Spirit and bearing the fruit of the spirit you're going to be okay in your marriage now you need both things but the one without the other just doesn't work and so that's the first concentration you should be thinking of I need to be a clean tool a useful tool an accurate tool and then from there what is our greatest concern your wife your wife her godliness her sanctification her Prosperity as a person her flowering your wife what about me okay you die that's your job you say well I don't like that then don't walk around pounding your chest like a gorilla and saying you're a man because a man is someone who dies to self for his bride because Jesus was not a man he was the man and we follow him and then you give your life to your children well I thought children were first now there's your problem greatest thing you can do for your children men is to love their mom and you know why so many women hate their daughter-in-laws because it's your fault yeah sin has many consequences Neglect so as a husband you neglect your wife you neglect affection intimacy uh growing as friends you neglect all these things and so your wife she needs that she needs that she's a faithful woman she's not going to commit adultery but now you forced her to find it somewhere else and she finds it in her children and her children start supplying for her all the affection that she's not getting from her husband and then when other people come along to take her children away she can't stand it and it's your fault that's my fault you see when you see obedience and God's commands I I can remember looking at a certain thing in in Hebrews 10 taking Hebrews 10 and then seeing how it seemed like the entire Bible was interwoven into that chapter it was just unbelievable and you've got to see that in every aspect of our life everything is interwoven and if there's a thread that breaks loose here everything else starts to come undone so that concentric circle of concern it is is to give myself to my wife than to give myself to my children and then to give myself to the people of God and then to give to myself to the world in the sense of sharing with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ so look what we have here Brethren look what we have this is the world that we're living in now I want to go to another go over with me for a moment to Jeremiah chapter 12. verse 5. Jeremiah if you have run with footmen and they have tired you out then how can you compete with horses if you fall down in a Land of peace how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan Jeremiah has suffered we're early in on the book he suffered he prays something of a prayer of complaint in chapter 12. and you know what God says to him Jeremiah if you think this is bad buckle up buckle up in the last year we have seen we have seen that there is much darkness in the rules being made and just in one year we have seen a change in our society and we have seen change in society and government's view of the church and everyone's saying persecution persecution buckle up buckle up this is nothing but gentlemen this is a text that I think about with regard to myself I don't need to look at you I can look in the mirror you look at the difficulties that I've had throughout life that you know sometimes you think your difficulties are so great until you meet another person Difficulties and and I'm constantly asking myself Paul if you've run with footmen and they've tired you out how can you compete with horses Paul if if slander and attacks and Twitter and Facebook and all these other things that people do if all that bothers you makes you weak in the knees how are you going to die at the stake how are you going to go to prison how's it going to be when who knows another way we can look at this is I know people I work with tribal settings I've worked 13 years with with the Chinese some of my dearest friends in China and look at the things they go through in Myanmar my brother's there different places around the world and I see how little support they have they never studied in a wonderful Seminary they never and yet to see them stand against everything at risk of life and limb and I look at myself and I go really someone says well it's hard to study the Bible really well you know it's it's hard to be disciplined to go to a you know to kind of Covenant with the other group of men and grow together really that's hard really let me give you some tissue paper and wipe your eyes really so if we can't run with footmen how are we going to run with horses if we fall down in a Land of peace now I know the covet thing has had devastating effects on families and men and everything but honestly just having to spend more time at home has turned you into an alcoholic having to spend a little bit more time at home has made you angry with your wife what are you going to do when you have to spend a little bit of time in a prison cell really well you know it's so difficult to grow Brothers as I said if it's difficult to grow here then you don't want to leave here because it gets far worse than many other places I can tell you that this is a thing Paul and I think every preacher has looked at this text many times in their life if you think this is difficult and what's amazing he doesn't say do you think this is difficult it's not really he says you think this is difficult buckle up because it's going to get far more worse than you could ever imagine but throughout this entire book Jeremiah is told I will be with you and that is enough that is enough now I want to go to one other introductory text First Corinthians 16. some people have gotten rather annoyed with me that I said that men are not supposed to get in touch with their feminine side I've discovered that that annoyed some people Be strong First Corinthians 16 13 be on the Lord stand firm in the faith get in touch with your feminine side be strong that's not what it says do you realize that to many professing evangelicals today they probably will never now again preach this text because it will be offensive to their crowd would you have believed ever that this text would have been an offense and now oh be on the alert the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and if that devil were to take a vacation in Palm Springs for the rest of your life you would still struggle with sin beyond the alert outside and inside and a great rule with regard to that is do not trust yourself be on the alert how can you be on the alert you know sometimes I take somebody deer hunting and and I go look look right over there there it is and they're like right there and they're like and you forget that as a little boy you were trained don't look for a deer look for a little flicker of white look for something that stands out in that foliage in that Thicket that just doesn't belong there so I'm seeing a little tip of white on an ear and I know he's there that other person says there's nothing there no he's right there now why is that well from a little boy remember Timothy from a little boy from childhood you have known the scriptures Hebrews that we grow in our discernment by training The Book of Proverbs second Timothy 3 16 and 17. do you see how can you be on the alert you can only be on the alert in the following ways number one it's the word of God you have to train your eye you have to train your eye so that it recognizes look there it goes I remember when my my little boy first read his first book on on logic I think it was the fallacy detective or something and we went and heard a preacher and we came back and I was like oh my a Critic my son goes dad he committed two logical fallacies in his sermon I said okay you're not studying logic anymore but that you see he wouldn't have been able there were there were fallacies well one of them was but there were fallacies but but my point is this he wouldn't have known that unless he had read that little book fallacy Detective but by knowledge he was then able to discern no that was a deviation he was alert to it I mean his ears popped up and every little boy is a legalist so he wanted to point out really quick that everyone was wrong um do you say the word of God trains your eye don't be like the man who has to see full-blown sin coming at him capturing him and eating him alive before he recognizes full-blown sin you need to be discerning read the word of God so that when that thing pops up kill it kill it now another way in which your alert is in prayer Paul talks about being Alert in prayer in Colossians 4 has the idea of being Alert in prayer we we pray we pray we ask for God's help we ask for God's grace we could go on and on but another way of being alert that is often overlooked is you can't stay up 24 hours a day someone else needs to take watch one of the greatest kindnesses that the Lord has ever shown me he's shown it to me throughout the great portion of my life is surrounding me with Godly men I'm going to choose to be around men that make me want to be more noble that make me want to be more like Christ that sometimes I walk away from them and I'm ashamed at my lack of maturity and my lack of spirituality but it's not a shame unto condemnation it's a shame unto motivation so we are alert we are alert and how are we alert through the word of God through prayer and through others Brothers I've said this I think one other time since I've been here this last week and that's this Fight for everything please do not fall into the error of thinking Some people study the Bible because it's their gift or some people pray more than you because they're just have that kind of disposition one of the most helpful things I ever heard I heard from John Piper and its application to my life was unbelievable and that was this when when I heard that he said I have to fight for absolutely everything and I've asked other men about this men that I admired in the word men that I admired in prayer and men that I've admired and for their godliness and you know what for every one of them it wasn't any easier to study the Bible than it was for me it wasn't any easier for them to pray they had to fight the same exact battles then what's the difference they knew their life depended on it I remember one of the greatest preachers you've probably never heard of is a man by the name of David Miller um he's just one I mean still preaches it's one of the he's had such an impact on so many people's lives and I was chopping wood for him one day because he's in a wheelchair and I was chopping wood for him out on his hunting camp he hunts in a wheelchair with big tires and uh I was chopping wood for him and I said because I remember the first time that I heard him preach he goes he has a I can't imitate him well he's going to kill me for this imitation but he's like turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. and so I did and then he proceeded to read Acts chapter 2 about halfway through it I realized he wasn't looking at his bible he was just quoting Acts chapter 2 off the top of his head like it was nothing and he could do that just about any place else so I'm chopping wood one day and I said I said Brother David God has really given you a gift of memory said no he hadn't brother Paul don't talk like that I just work at it harder than you do you see I get you you think I slam people I get slammed so bad sometimes it's unbelievable think what he said he said no you know when I came out of whatever I came out of after about seven days and I like woke up and knew where I was I felt like I've been hit by a truck it hurts so bad because the machine they put on me that pounded me and pounded me to get my heart restarted three different times and went on forever they said when I breathe I didn't want to do that again it hurt so bad and I can remember just concentrating just just okay breathe just just go in and go out I didn't want to breathe but would have that have been a good option he said well it hurts yeah it does okay but you got it one other option die you breathe or you die you breathe or you die you study the word or you die you pray or you die I'm sorry that changes everything it changes everything doesn't it if only that we could all take seriously it would change so much in our lives you read the word or you die he goes on stand firm in the faith you know I love taking people to to um Hebrews 11 1 and you know Stand firm in the faith faith well let's just just look over there for just a second I'll take you because there's no sense saying stand firm in the faith if you don't know what that means now Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for I've always hoped to fly hope to fly unaided by machine and so this morning I woke up with a great assurance that that I could fly so I climb up on top of this building and I throw myself off with all the Assurance in the world and I die I have the conviction of Things Not Seen I've never seen anybody fly unaided but I have the conviction I can do it this morning so I climb up to the top of this building throw myself off with the greatest conviction and I die but if you just take that one text out by itself that's exactly what it's saying but that's not exactly what it's saying because you have to read it in the context of Hebrews and the context the entire Bible and in the thing that I want you to see that is so important how can you stand strong in the faith how can you even have faith how can you have the Assurance for something that you hope for how can you have conviction of of these things you've not seen you've not seen these things there's only one way and that is you have Assurance of things hoped for because God promised them in his word you have the conviction of something you've never seen because God promised it in his word and you as men cannot stand firm in the faith apart from the word of God you cannot it's impossible because faith is not a leap into the darkness it's leaping upon a rock it's trusting in what God Said and how can you trust in what God has said how can you do it gentlemen how can you trust in what God has said only if you've studied what he said only if you've been in a church that proclaims what he said that's all you can do and and listen to this I love this is one of my favorite texts it comes out of the the servant songs of the Messiah and Isaiah just listen who is among you that fear is the Lord that obeys the voice of his servant that walks in darkness and has no light you know in first John it says that if you walk in darkness as a continual style of life not a Christian so why is he saying here that the one who truly fears the Lord the one who truly obeys the voice of his servant the Messiah is the one who walks in darkness and has no light it means this that this is key to understanding almost everything with regard to piety and you need to know this this goes all the way back to the garden there was no reason for Adam and Eve to look at that tree and believe that it would kill them there was no evidence it was beautiful there was just no evidence there was no evidence that that Abraham when he looked at his body there was no evidence that he was going to sire a child we looked at his wife there was no evidence that she was going to give birth to a child there was you look around and there's absolutely no evidence with regard to that thing and you see that's the whole point of Genesis chapter 3 and people oftentimes don't understand it they'll say that that one sin brought the whole world into fallenness because it was against God and God is infinitely worthy and all that it's true but it was a huge sin because it all came down to the character of God who is God you look at that tree there's no reason to believe there's no reason to believe that tree will kill you except for the word of God and if you believe that word you are affirming God is who he says he is if you do not believe that word you are literally saying God is a liar about the worst thing he could be a liar and that is himself to direct attack on the character of God and so those who walk in darkness here are those who have their faith firmly set upon the word of God they need no other stimuli they need no carnal stimuli to worship they don't need to get psyched up at some Acquire The Fire Conference to go home to be good husbands to be obedient they don't even need to see temporal blessing for their obedience why well it's very clear look what it says he trusts in the name of the Lord and relies on his God that's Faith so when it says stand firm in the faith you know it's basically saying stop calling God a liar if you want to look at it negatively Act like men Brothers sometimes I come across men who and we all who are attacked with doubting or something but I want you to know that even though I'm going to speak kind words and I'm going to do this slowly I try to do with most men what I do with myself unmask that doubt that's not just a a little man who's hurting and he needs me to put my hand on his shoulder and say I understand doubt is a direct affront upon the character of God and when I see doubt in my life it just needs to be crucified and it needs to be acknowledged that's what it is unbelief in the character of God Now isn't it isn't it amazing that he says here in verse 13 stand firm in the be on alert stand firm in the faith act like men what does it mean to act like men be strong be strong in what way be strong and being alert be strong and standing firm in the faith how do you act like men you're alert you're ever Vigilant you've got a family to protect that's why I tell men if you won't study for yourself study for your wife do it for her if you won't do it for yourself do it for your children they need a man and a man isn't somebody who makes six figures a man isn't somebody who can lift a building a man isn't somebody who fights MMA a man is someone who is able to stand alert at his post to be vigilant with regard to his own heart to be vigilant with regard to his wife to be vigilant with regard to his children and to be vigilant with regard to his church realizing it's a battle battle it's a battle men who believe their God I've said this many times as a young man that was always very very afraid that had gone with me into the jungle several times and I mean he's scared of his own shadow everything was going to bite him of course everything would bite you there but the thing what I appreciated about him so much was he went he went weak he went afraid but he went why are you going son because they need Christ because Christ needs to be glorified here that to me is a man that to me self-sacrifice self- sacrifice selflessness the world doesn't revolve around you your family your wife is not an extension of you you have been called to serve but we can't we do