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This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast.
0:58
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:59
Let's get into it.
1:00
Okay, first before we go into today's subject matter, I just want to say a quick thank you
1:03
to everyone that responded to our last podcast.
1:06
So we talked about mainly goal setting, and we talked a lot about why most men don't set
1:10
goals, why that's a struggle for a lot of guys.
1:12
And I had a lot of people reach out, a lot of people that I didn't even know were listening
1:16
to the podcast, and they were just telling me, Hey, Kyle, you know, I look back at my
1:20
goals and based on your podcast, I just wanted to make them better.
1:24
And so they let me know that it's a lot of guys set goals for the first time.
1:28
And so one guy who I've known literally since junior high, and he is not a type of guy that
1:34
is a goal setter.
1:35
Let's just say it that way.
1:36
And he's like, look, I'm setting goals.
1:37
I'm going to show him to my wife, and I sent him mine or I'm going to send him mine so
1:41
he can see him.
1:42
And so it was just a really, really good thing for a lot of people.
1:46
So I'm really glad I worked out that way.
1:47
And then also it was a big help to me as well, because I didn't even meet some of my own
1:51
standards on some of my goals.
1:53
So some guys very nicely and politely pointed out on some of my goals that they're just
1:56
like, hey, Kyle, you didn't exactly do a stretch goal in this area.
2:00
Do you think you can maybe bump that up a notch?
2:02
So it was good to have that accountability.
2:04
The one thing that I will tell people is one thing that I did see on some of the goals
2:08
that some of these guys sent me is that they just weren't quite specific enough.
2:13
I know we talked about smart goals and some of the struggles that people have with smart
2:16
goals and that I have with smart goals.
2:18
But some of the goals were just very nebulous.
2:20
So they didn't really say anything.
2:22
They were pretty squishy.
2:23
There just wasn't a whole lot there.
2:25
So if you are going to set goals, just make sure that you are specific.
2:29
All right.
2:30
So today is going to be a fun one.
2:33
Today is going to be a fun podcast.
2:34
I know this is going to strike some people the wrong way and I'm kind of actually looking
2:37
forward to it.
2:38
So again, today's episode is called Pussies and the Pews that just by itself is going
2:43
to make people a little bit squeamish, but just hang with me.
2:46
And I will just say before we get into the content today, my intention today is not to
2:51
offend anybody for offenses sake.
2:54
I guess it would be the best way to say it.
2:56
So the thing is, if you were offended by my viewpoint today and they're very likely will
3:00
be a lot of you, or if you're offended in the way that I've described something, but
3:04
you can't prove me wrong, you can't prove that my philosophy is incorrect, then the problem
3:09
is likely with you and not with me.
3:11
So today's podcast and really my philosophy on the subject matter that we're talking
3:15
about today is meant to be a wake up call.
3:19
If what I say today makes you uncomfortable, perhaps you should try and discover why that
3:23
is.
3:24
And really, if you're still uncomfortable, just stick with me and hear me out.
3:28
Because the last thing I would want someone to do is within the first five or ten minutes
3:31
here, something they don't like, they turn me off and then they don't really get to the
3:35
overall point.
3:36
So I just want to make sure that that is clear for a lot of people that just stick with me
3:40
to the end.
3:41
And the thing is, is what I'm going to be talking about today, you will not hear what
3:44
I'm talking about and what I'm going to say from the pulpit on Sundays.
3:48
Unfortunately, you're just you're not going to hear that.
3:50
And you won't hear from many, you know, quote unquote men's ministries either.
3:54
They don't really go into some of the areas that I'm going to go.
3:57
And the thing is, there's there's just a revolution that needs to happen within the
4:00
church.
4:01
And pretty much here at end onto life, we are here to deliver.
4:04
So the four, the four things that I'm going to look at today or the four questions is
4:09
what is the problem?
4:10
That's the first one.
4:12
The second is, how did we get here?
4:14
The third is, what is Christ's likeness?
4:17
And four is, how do we redeem ourselves?
4:20
So first, let's go into what is the problem.
4:22
So let's get right into it.
4:23
And I frame the problem in the, from the perspective of that, there are two epidemics going on
4:29
right now.
4:30
The first epidemic is of men leaving the church.
4:34
And the second epidemic is of effeminate men inside the church, okay?
4:40
So let's go back to the first epidemic of men leaving the church.
4:43
So if you look at any stats, I mean, there's some stats there that haven't been updated
4:47
in a while, but we can pretty much assume and that most of the trends are still going
4:51
in that direction, but there's a huge chunk of women that attend church without their
4:56
husbands.
4:57
So they, they are in a marriage relationship and a covenant relationship with a husband,
5:01
but that husband does not actually attend church with them.
5:03
So obviously if that is a family where there are children involved, that mean that there
5:07
are children that are going to church without their fathers as well.
5:10
So, and really, whenever you look at this, I guess the best case scenario is that the
5:15
men don't go because they're bored.
5:17
So, so that's the thing is when they've gone to church, they've been bored.
5:20
So they're just like, man, I don't want to go.
5:22
I don't want to do that anymore.
5:24
But I guess the worst case scenario would be that they're actually being repelled that
5:27
it's not really something that maybe they do want to go to church, but they're actually
5:32
being repelled away from it.
5:34
And so there's a great quote by David Morrow in his book, Why Men Hate Going to Church.
5:38
And I love this quote.
5:39
It says, the real tragedy is not just that we're losing boys.
5:43
We are losing the most competitive, aggressive boys.
5:47
High testosterone boys destined to be leaders and innovators are checking out of the church
5:52
at a young age.
5:53
And so we look at what's happening with young people, and then we look at how it's manifesting
5:58
with husbands and aren't going to church even with their wives.
6:01
And you kind of come to this thing where the stop process may be that there's there's
6:05
a binary choice that some guys, whether this is correct or incorrect, they feel as if they
6:10
have a binary choice between number one.
6:12
I can be a good church guy, whatever that means, or number two, I can be a real man.
6:17
That I mean, I either choose to check my balls at the door and then walk inside and do my
6:21
church thing, or I keep my balls and I go do something that a real man would do.
6:26
So I mean, the thing is, is you may look at that as like a very neander, tallish way of
6:30
looking at the situation, but you talk to any number of guys, especially guys that are
6:33
no longer in the church.
6:34
I mean, you're going to see that to be the case.
6:37
And really the problem is we're losing our leaders.
6:40
A lot of these young boys that were in that David Morro quote that are leaving the church
6:44
at a young age or leaving as soon as they get to college and get out of their parents house.
6:48
These are the future leaders of the church.
6:50
These are the future thought leaders within communities.
6:53
And really the horrible thing is that the church is doing them no favors because everything
6:57
within the modern Christian church is telling these men, this is not for you, like everything
7:05
we're doing.
7:06
This is not for you.
7:07
It's telling you, and you know, we'll get more to some specifics into that later.
7:10
So moving on to the second epidemic, and that's the epidemic of a feminine men inside the
7:16
church.
7:17
The thing about it is men are not being shown a real life version of strong biblical manhood.
7:25
I mean, even just as a challenge to you, like if you had to think of a strong biblical manly
7:29
man, could you immediately come up with somebody?
7:33
I mean, maybe for some of you, you got to think about somebody and maybe someone to come to
7:37
mind that's in your local community.
7:39
Maybe someone that's actually within your church, hopefully you think you look in popular culture
7:43
and you're just not going to find people just readily available.
7:47
But that's the thing for men is that's what we want.
7:50
We want to follow strong men.
7:52
I mean, just look back in history, you have Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, George
7:58
Washington, General Patton, Ernst Hemingway, you know, Jack London, just guys like that.
8:03
And I mean, guess those are older examples, but even look at modern examples, you've got
8:06
Jocko Willink and Pat Tillman, Chris Kyle, Adam Brown, one of my favorite characters of
8:12
anything ever of Navy SEAL, the subject matter of the fearless book, which I've recommended
8:16
before.
8:17
But that's what we want to follow men like that.
8:20
We want to follow men that have accomplished things.
8:23
We want to follow men that are changing things for the better.
8:27
But the problem is, is when you look around the church, you don't see men like that.
8:31
Like when's the last time you saw someone in the church that was like Jocko Willink,
8:34
but biblically based like was like Teddy Roosevelt that had that robust manly leadership
8:41
but had like that strong Christian basis for their lives.
8:46
And here's the thing, and before anyone gets mad, I obviously am not talking about all
8:50
of these people.
8:51
It is a case by case basis, but I am saying that a lot of church staff tends to be more
8:56
effeminate.
8:57
These are softer types of people, people that are drawn into ministry kind of tend to be
9:03
more on the softer side.
9:05
And I even talked to people that are in seminary school, and a lot of people in seminary schools
9:09
ping softer, more effeminate, they're more emotive.
9:13
And again, just so no one misquotes me, I'm not saying that all people are that way.
9:18
It's just they have a tendency to ping in that direction, and it'd be really hard for
9:22
you to prove me wrong on that.
9:24
And just the church is a place where men that struggle with same-sex attraction, and that's
9:30
exactly how we're going to be wording it, men that struggle with same-sex attraction,
9:35
they can come in and feel unchallenged.
9:39
So again, I feel like men that struggle with same-sex attraction should always feel welcome,
9:43
like 100% of the time feel welcome, but a lot of these men just feel really unchallenged
9:48
to change their point of view or the way that they're living their lives.
9:52
And there's another good quote here by David Moro, and here it is, "Why do so many effeminate
9:57
and gay men attend church?
10:00
Maybe because the church is one of the few institutions in society where there's no pressure
10:05
to act like a man.
10:06
In fact, men are encouraged not to.
10:10
Where else can a man express his feminine side and be applauded for it?"
10:16
And that's it right there.
10:18
And if you think back on some of the people that you've dealt with in the church or some
10:21
of the people that you've run across, that you would say that, that tends to be true
10:25
for you.
10:27
And the second thing I want to talk about today, again, we kind of looked at what is
10:30
the problem.
10:31
The second thing is, how did we get here?
10:33
And this is very, very important.
10:35
So it's not just look at where we're at right now, but how do we get to this point?
10:38
So really, when you look back on the history of the church over 2,000 years, the church
10:43
was a place where real men were and where real men wanted to be.
10:49
And the examples we see from that is really from the early church.
10:53
You see leaders of local communities, they are actually leading spiritually for their
10:58
local communities.
10:59
You see Jesus's, his disciples, so his immediate 12 and then became 11 and kind of on from
11:06
there.
11:07
You look at all the other disciples that were immediately there and converted when they
11:11
saw him, about 500 people that saw him resurrected.
11:15
And then we look at the martyrs as well.
11:16
Like these were some of the most manly, and of course there were female martyrs that were
11:19
incredibly brave as well, but the men were so manly and so robust in their testosterone
11:25
filled ways of manhood.
11:28
And that's just really where those people wanted to be.
11:30
And the interesting thing about the early church is it was very fundamentalist.
11:35
I mean, the church had a very fundamentalist, literal view of the Triune God.
11:41
And specifically Jesus, there were no really questions about Jesus's manhood or the things
11:45
that Jesus does, but the thing that we see is as time wore on, the church kind of strayed
11:52
from that fundamentalism.
11:54
And when you look back on history and church history, it looks like there are two key periods
11:59
that were really damaging for men overall.
12:03
And the first period was the Industrial Revolution and the second were both of the World War.
12:09
So Industrial Revolution think, you know, late 18th century, early 19th century and the World
12:14
War were obviously the early 20th century.
12:18
But the thing about it is when you think about the Industrial Revolution, at that time, where
12:23
were all the strong, able-bodied, masculine men during the Industrial Revolution?
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I mean, all those men were working.
13:00
Those men were in the factories, maybe they were underground, working in coal mines or
13:04
doing things with oil and gas industry, whatever that may be.
13:08
And that's where all those men, all those very strong, virile men were.
13:12
Also, if you think about it, during World War II and World War I, where were all the
13:17
strong, able-bodied, masculine men during that time?
13:21
They were all fighting.
13:23
They were all out there fighting.
13:26
You never really thought these people as being highly involved in their churches or in local
13:30
ministry during that time because they were either working or fighting.
13:35
Then we see what I guess I'll call the turn for lack of a better expression.
13:41
Many of the manly men, I guess, who would have otherwise gone into ministry or had a
13:46
very, very robust attachment to local ministry and to the church.
13:52
They died in war or they died in industrial revolution-related type accidents, mechanical
13:58
accidents, or maybe they sought other means of employment.
14:02
They struggled mentally coming back from the war, having experienced shell shock.
14:06
It just, what ministry wasn't on the top of their list of things that they wanted to go after.
14:11
And then we look at what happened is if these men are off at war, or if these men are working,
14:18
what's left inside the church?
14:21
I mean, the only males left inside the church or the young, the weak, or the sickly, right
14:26
or the old.
14:28
So you're having these places, these churches, that are becoming very overwhelmed with a
14:36
female presence.
14:37
I mean, you might have 85, 90% female.
14:40
And so when you look at these types of places, you're looking at a turn in the types of content
14:46
that was happening.
14:47
Because again, the manly men aren't there.
14:50
The men that are left or tend to be a little bit more feminine or they're weak or old.
14:54
So the sermon focus and the content of the sermon started to change, the music started
15:00
to change, the decoration started to change, the different types of missional focuses.
15:05
They all seem to become a little bit more feminine, right?
15:08
I mean, because that's the thing is if you look at it from a marketing perspective, obviously
15:12
if the majority of your target audience is of a particular gender or race or age or persuasion
15:19
or worldview, you're going to start marketing and catering to those needs.
15:23
And so the turn that we see, it was gradual, but I'm not sure that it's ever stopped.
15:30
And so let's look at sermon content.
15:31
So what sermon content tended to be, especially in the early church, it was very truth and
15:37
justice oriented, or and you could look at those as more masculine type qualities.
15:42
And then it moved into more of a grace and forgiveness type of content, which tends to
15:48
be a little bit more effeminate.
15:50
And then also look at the music.
15:52
So I'm going to actually dedicate an entire future podcast episode to the subject of praise
15:58
and worship music and what that's done to men within the church.
16:01
But when you when you look at the musical content, we were once singing about singing
16:05
the praises of the conquering just God and now we're just singing about Jesus like he's
16:10
our boyfriend that we like want to cuddle with them.
16:13
And even if you look at some of the lyrical content, and again, I'm going to break this
16:16
down on future podcasts, some of it even comes off as homo erotic.
16:20
So for some of you guys out there that listen to praise and worship music and for whatever
16:22
reason, you're just like, I am not down with this.
16:25
I don't understand, I feel like I'm supposed to like this, but I don't, I don't feel bad
16:31
and we'll get in, get into why, but, but then we look at modern society.
16:35
We live in maybe one of the most pluralistic, relativistic, feminist cultures that we've
16:40
ever seen.
16:41
And that is really exacerbated some of the issues within the modern church.
16:44
And so when we combine everything that I've talked about in terms of how we got here,
16:48
we have men leaving the church and droves.
16:51
There's rampant fatherlessness all over the United States and really all over the West.
16:57
And it's at the same exact correlation time in terms of when men are leaving the church.
17:02
Christianity overall is losing its standing in the West and Christians along with that.
17:07
And so we just get where we have scores of pussies in the pews.
17:11
Just tons of cowardly dudes sitting in the pews wasting away.
17:15
And I know for a lot of you that that's hard to hear, but again, I think you know it's
17:19
true.
17:20
You really get down to the core of it.
17:22
You do know that that is true.
17:25
So the third thing, let's talk about what is Christ likeness.
17:29
Okay.
17:30
So what we know about Jesus is Jesus was not a simple guy, right?
17:33
Jesus was a lot of things at the same time.
17:36
So Jesus, for instance, was 100% grace and 100% truth.
17:41
So we get that from John 1 in verse 14, and that's where it says, "And the word became
17:47
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory, glory as of the only son
17:53
from the father, full of grace and truth."
17:56
So when some people read this, they see grace and truth and they look at it like a 50/50
18:02
relationship.
18:03
Like, okay, we have, you know, I think Andy Stanley did something like this where he had
18:06
a big jar and he had a pitcher that said grace on it and a pitcher that said truth in it.
18:11
And you know, most people think you just pour 50% of grace in and 50% of truth in, but in
18:16
all actuality, he was 100% both because we talk a lot about modern ministries that are
18:21
more grace focused, a little bit more of the liberal type ministries or the ones that are
18:25
more like regimented and lawful, and those are the truth ministries, right?
18:31
But the thing about the reality of the situation, which was Jesus was 100% both.
18:36
He didn't just give someone grace without telling them the truth, right?
18:40
I mean, when you think about it and he wasn't just telling someone the truth without being
18:43
graceful towards him as well.
18:45
So that was our savior, but at the same time, Jesus is 100% Lamb of God and 100% Lion of
18:55
Judah.
18:56
Okay.
18:57
So, and some of you may have never even heard Lion of Judah before, but I can almost guarantee
19:01
you if you're listening to this podcast, you've heard the expression or the naming Lamb of
19:06
God.
19:07
So the church, the modern church and its leadership have really done a fantastic job of reminding
19:12
us of the Lamb of God, like, you know, all the musical content.
19:16
We talk about the Lamb.
19:17
There's been movies made about the Lamb of God sermon content.
19:19
Just think about it.
19:20
How many times have you heard the Lamb of God mentioned in modern sermon content?
19:26
But I want you to think about that same type of expression and think about how many times
19:31
have you heard your pastor in the last year or really any pastor ever, even mention the
19:37
Lion of Judah?
19:39
Just think back to like the last year, if you're active in church, think back to the last
19:42
year, how many times has your pastor said the Lion of Judah?
19:45
The actual words, the Lion of Judah.
19:48
And just be honest, I mean, when you think of Jesus, so if you weren't thinking about
19:52
Jesus at the moment, someone just brings him up and what's your opinion of Jesus, which
19:56
version of him comes to mind first?
19:59
Is it the more palatable Lamb, you know, the easy to snuggle with Lamb, the easy to control
20:05
Lamb, or is it the unpredictable Lion, the wrathful just Lion?
20:12
And the church and its members in a lot of ways have forgotten about the Lion of Judah.
20:17
And so one thing I want to talk about here is I want to talk about who Jesus was.
20:21
So our Savior, our Messiah, who was he and what was he like?
20:25
And so we can go to Scripture and find lots of different examples.
20:28
I mean, if you look at the four Gospels, that is so much information about not only what
20:32
Jesus did, but the character of the man and kind of how he operated.
20:35
So the first thing I want to look at is in Matthew 10 in verse 34, so I'll read it here.
20:40
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
20:45
I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
20:48
And so that that Scripture has been taken out of context quite a bit.
20:51
So the Cambridge Bible commentary basically says is this is a contrast rather between
20:56
union and division than between peace and war.
21:00
So we can literally look at it that when Jesus comes, he's causing division.
21:03
You know, he's even said he causes division within families division from brother to brother,
21:09
because the thing about it is, is there is actual truth, and then there's what's comfortable
21:13
for us to think about.
21:14
And Jesus is not as concerned about our comfort as he is about his truth.
21:18
So another thing I want to look at is Luke 4.
21:21
There's a story and it talks about Jesus casting out a demon with just his voice.
21:27
So this is at the end of Luke, Luke 4, it's a verses 31 through 37, and I'll read her
21:32
right now.
21:33
So here we go.
21:34
And we went down to Capirtum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath.
21:39
And they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority.
21:43
And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried
21:47
out with a loud voice, ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
21:52
Have you come to destroy us?
21:54
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
21:57
But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him.
22:03
And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him having done
22:06
no harm to him.
22:08
And they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word?
22:12
For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out.
22:18
And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
22:21
So obviously Jesus with his voice only cast out a demon, like there wasn't some like weird
22:30
ritual that had to happen.
22:31
It wasn't like they put a mirror on top of a bed, like in the movie, Constantine and like
22:35
called him out, like kind of that weird thing.
22:37
He just said, Hey, you're just going to get out of him.
22:40
And that's really all that's going to happen here.
22:41
So that's not that's not bad, right?
22:44
That that's pretty that's pretty good stuff.
22:45
But I mean, let's let's just keep going.
22:47
Let's let's take it up a notch and keep talking about our Savior here.
22:50
On 11, it talks about when Jesus reclaimed Lazarus from the dead.
22:56
And so when when Jesus arrived, post death, that the Greek word used to describe his expression
23:03
at the time it translates to snort with anger.
23:08
That's what the Greek root word means is to snort with anger.
23:12
Now, I don't know about you guys, but I have definitely snorted with anger before.
23:16
It was not a pretty sight, sometimes people are there to watch it and witness.
23:20
Sometimes they're not, but to snort with anger, that's not just disappointment over your team
23:26
losing the national title game and the college football playoff.
23:30
It is a whole different animal, a whole different kind of anger.
23:33
So let's go ahead and look at the story and we'll pick it up in John 11 versus 38 through
23:39
44.
23:40
Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb.
23:43
There was a cave and a stone lay against it, Jesus said, take away the stone, Martha, the
23:49
sister of the dead man said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has
23:53
been dead four days.
23:55
Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of
24:00
God?
24:01
So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you
24:05
that you have heard me.
24:06
I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around
24:12
that they may believe that you sent me.
24:14
When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus come out.
24:21
The man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face
24:25
wrapped up in a cloth.
24:26
Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go.
24:32
Okay.
24:34
He screamed at a dead guy and told him not to be dead anymore.
24:40
Like how freaking gangster is that like Jesus said, you're dead.
24:43
You're not going to be dead anymore.
24:45
Like that is crazy.
24:47
That is our savior guys, but, but even look, look at the words used here.
24:51
It said that he called out in a loud voice, right?
24:54
For Lazarus to come out of the tomb.
24:56
Now the Greek word used for loud here is the same word used to describe the storm that
25:02
nearly sank the disciples boat in Matthew eight, like the same word and the Greek language
25:08
is very specific.
25:09
So Jesus did not casually mention, oh, you know, Lazarus would be really awesome if
25:14
you could just wake up.
25:15
You know, so all these people start believing in me.
25:17
I mean, but if it's, I mean, I don't want to impose and I don't want to make it things
25:21
awkward.
25:22
Like, no, like he screamed and it was so loud, it was compared to gale force winds and a
25:27
storm at sea.
25:29
And really now I want to get into really my favorite scripture story.
25:32
And that's the one that we see in John two and it's in verses 13 through 16.
25:36
So I'll just go ahead and read it.
25:38
So the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the temple.
25:43
You found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting
25:47
there and making a whip of cords.
25:50
He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and he poured out the coins
25:56
of the money changers and overturned their tables.
25:58
And he told those who sold pigeons, take these things away.
26:02
Do not make my father's house a house of trade.
26:07
And that is my version of Jesus.
26:10
Okay.
26:11
That is our savior.
26:12
Okay.
26:13
And I don't mean to say like that's my version and you can't have it.
26:15
It's like that.
26:16
That is a real story of something that happened.
26:19
That is what Jesus of Nazareth, the historical Jesus who is also happens to be our Messiah
26:24
and savior.
26:25
That is who he was.
26:26
Okay.
26:27
And let's talk about his aggression here in this story.
26:30
And this is why I love love this story so much.
26:32
I mean, the first thing is this was premeditated aggression.
26:37
There is no indication that Jesus walked into the temple and already had a whip on him.
26:43
Right?
26:44
I mean, I mean, go back and read it again.
26:45
He didn't already have the whip on him.
26:48
Like he left the temple, went and found one or maybe even made it, which is even more
26:53
awesome.
26:54
And then he came back, right?
26:56
Like it was premeditated aggression.
26:59
This was not something that happened in a very short period of time, unless he, you
27:03
know, just showed up and tossed a whip down at the door before he walked in, but that's
27:06
not likely.
27:07
So it was premeditated aggression.
27:09
And the second thing is it was sustained aggression when you, when you look at the story,
27:14
it says he drove out all of the men, the sheep and the oxen, he drove them all out of the
27:19
temple.
27:20
I mean, there was very likely not a few of them.
27:23
I mean, the temple was huge in the area where he walked in was a huge area.
27:27
So it's not very likely that there was a few people in that, in that area at that time,
27:32
and it says he drove out all of them.
27:33
So it was a very sustained aggression.
27:35
And the last thing is, is it was a very intimidating aggression.
27:38
I mean, during this long process, which we've just established, it probably took a while,
27:43
no one even thought to intervene.
27:46
And if, if that doesn't blow your mind, just think about, think about your workplace.
27:50
Like if you work into a place with a bunch of offices or cubicles or something like that,
27:53
think about if one of your coworkers just started going completely ape, just crazy,
27:59
throwing tables over, driving people out of, of their offices with a whip or something
28:04
like that.
28:05
Just think about how insane of a situation that would be.
28:08
And I know we got some sheepdogs listening to this podcast.
28:10
Wouldn't you take action, wouldn't you, wouldn't you take action on some of your coworkers and
28:14
try to stop that, try to mitigate the issues?
28:18
But what if they were like, I don't know, six foot 10, 400 pounds and completely yoked
28:23
out of their brains?
28:25
Would you probably chill on the intervention?
28:27
Yeah.
28:28
I mean, maybe, maybe you're even more baller than, than most people, but you're probably
28:31
not just going to launch right in and, and have issues and words with that person.
28:36
Jesus was so intimidating with his aggression at this moment.
28:39
People didn't even think to intervene.
28:41
And, and again, I'll, I'll say one more quote here from David Murrow.
28:45
And it's this.
28:47
That's quote, the line of Judah was very popular in fundamentalist churches as recently as a
28:52
few years ago, but even here, his son is setting.
28:56
And it's no wonder why he doesn't seem to be a very good Christian.
29:00
So just look back and think about the four stories that I just told about Jesus and think,
29:05
are those examples that you would think in the modern church that they would say, if
29:09
it wasn't Jesus that did them, but maybe it was you that did them.
29:11
And they were like, oh yeah, that was acceptable.
29:14
That was what a good Christian would do.
29:16
And for most of us you would answer no, obviously, and you may even yourself, you may hear a
29:20
story of somebody that maybe did something similar to that.
29:24
And you wouldn't be accepting of that at all.
29:26
And I really think that that causes part of the problem that we're in right now.
29:30
So now I want to get into the fourth and most important question, which is, how can
29:33
we redeem ourselves?
29:35
So, so we've looked at, you know, what the problem is kind of how we got here.
29:38
We looked at what real Christ likeness is, but how can we redeem ourselves from here
29:42
on forward?
29:43
We have three suggestions that I'd like to go and throw out.
29:46
And the first is, we need to frame our connection to Jesus accurately.
29:51
We need to frame it accurately.
29:54
And so what I mean by this is our connection to Jesus is not a quote relationship, okay?
30:01
That's not how most guys would think about a relationship anyway.
30:05
Like it's a discipleship, right?
30:08
Because most people you'd say, you know, oh, you know, when I entered into a relationship
30:11
with Jesus, but guys don't talk that way like you just don't hear guys talk like that.
30:17
But in a discipleship situation, that is something that we're used to.
30:20
We're used to following someone's lead, someone who's more experienced or stronger or better
30:24
than us.
30:25
And look back throughout the New Testament, Jesus said two words often when talking to
30:31
people and that was follow me, right?
30:34
He always said, follow me.
30:36
He didn't say, hey, be in a relationship with me.
30:39
Come into an intimate relationship with me.
30:41
He didn't say those things.
30:42
It was follow me.
30:43
Again, the word follow it.
30:44
It's an action word, right?
30:46
So we've really got to redeem ourselves by framing our connection to Jesus accurately
30:50
that it is about discipleship and not relationship, right?
30:52
At least not in the normal way that we would frame relationship.
30:56
The second thing that I would say so that we can redeem ourselves is that we have to
30:59
develop into a real biblical man.
31:03
So that's a call for each one of us individually to develop into a real biblical man.
31:08
And so I want to draw a delineation from the outset, which is let's look at what the caricature,
31:14
I guess, is of modern manhood.
31:16
So it's a four by four truck.
31:18
The guy who likes to hunt, you know, the sports fanatic.
31:21
The guy who chases women and drinks, you know, bush beer and cusses for no reason.
31:26
That's kind of the caricature of modern manhood.
31:30
But for us, we look at biblical manhood as a man that focuses on cultivating spiritual,
31:36
mental and physical resilience and toughness.
31:39
I mean, that's really it.
31:40
That's why we hit that home so often that we're all about that.
31:43
But if you focus on cultivating spiritual, mental and physical toughness and resilience,
31:48
you're doing things that we've seen some of our heroes from the Bible do.
31:52
There are stories all over the Bible of men doing something very similar.
31:56
And I spend a lot of time on that on our 21 day men's devotional on the U version app.
32:01
It's 21 days and it's 21 different stories and a lot of those are biblical men and what
32:06
they were doing to cultivate those things.
32:08
So the third thing I want to talk about in terms of how we can redeem ourselves is to
32:12
call other men out.
32:14
Okay.
32:15
I mean, we've got to frame our connection to Jesus accurately.
32:18
Yes, we've got to develop into a real biblical man ourselves, but we've got to call other
32:23
men out because the reality guys is is most guys have become comfortable that they become
32:29
so comfortable with abdicating leadership to other men or even other women.
32:35
And that's just not in the church.
32:37
That's also at home in work in the community.
32:40
They're completely okay with saying, yeah, you know, you, you go do it.
32:44
You go lead these people.
32:45
You go help these people.
32:46
I'll go sit here on the couch, I'll play video games, I'll join another intramural league,
32:50
I'll play another round of golf, whatever the thing is, right?
32:53
And and I know that that this type of content is is striking some of you harder than than
33:01
it may other people.
33:03
But I mean, part of the deal is, is if this particular thing, like calling other men out
33:07
is striking you as difficult and maybe because you're one of the men that needs to be called
33:11
out and no one likes being called out, right?
33:13
I mean, no one likes being told when they're overweight that they're overweight and they
33:17
need to fix it.
33:18
No one's being told that when they're in mountains of debt, that they need to get out
33:21
of debt and they need to fix it.
33:22
That's a very convicting type of thing and most guys aren't comfortable in those types
33:26
of situations.
33:27
So again, I just want to reiterate that the way I think that we can start to dig ourselves
33:31
out of this whole and out of this problem that we've created within the modern church
33:34
is that frame our connection to Jesus accurately, develop into a real biblical man and to call
33:40
other men out.
33:41
And I just want to clear a few things up here at the end because, you know, I've talked
33:45
to some people about my philosophy and sometimes you can get the wrong idea or if you take
33:48
one thing out of context, it just kind of throws the baby out with the bath water.
33:52
So I want to make sure that I'm very clear about what I'm saying on a few things.
33:55
So the very first thing is that I'm not saying that we should ignore the Lamb of God because
34:02
I know some people will hear this and be like, Oh, my gosh, this guy doesn't want to talk
34:05
about the Lamb of God.
34:06
That's not right.
34:07
Right.
34:08
I agree with you.
34:09
That's not right.
34:10
But I'm saying that we need to explore the line of Judah more because the thing about
34:14
it is is when we find the line of Judah, we find Jesus because he is fully lying of Judah
34:20
while he is fully Lamb of God and you just have to look at it.
34:24
Look at the places in the world where the gospel is being accepted and that Christianity
34:29
is exploding at alarming rates.
34:31
So if we look at China, if we look at Korea, if we look at sub-Saharan Africa, even in Latin
34:37
America, a lot of sex of Christianity are getting even more charismatic and deeper and
34:42
more fundamentalist.
34:44
And that's the point is that the places where Christianity is growing the most are the places
34:49
where they have a most fundamentalist view of who God is and who Jesus is in relation.
34:56
And really specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, the reason why Christianity is exploding
34:59
there because a lot of the African religions have a lot of very charismatic and other
35:04
worldly things that they just normally believe in.
35:07
That's just part of their society, part of their culture, miracles and things that are
35:10
unexplainable.
35:12
So a virgin birth and a guy being raised from the dead is kind of acceptable.
35:18
They just don't look at that as some sort of a crazy thing like, oh, I need to have science
35:21
prove this for me like we would hear someone say in the West.
35:24
The second thing that I want to be clear on is that you don't have to be a tough guy
35:31
to be a modern Christian, okay, because I even talked with one of my best buddies from college
35:36
the other day.
35:37
You know, he was listening to some of my podcasts and some of the interviews I've done on some
35:40
other podcast and read some of our stuff and he was just like, man, you're just not, you're
35:46
just not appealing to me like I'm obviously not your target market.
35:50
And you know, I was very curious as to why you would say that because we had very similar
35:53
upbringings and you know, both athletes and kind of kind of found church the same way.
35:58
And the thing about it is is I guess what he was hearing is that if you're not into
36:03
you know, guns and hunting and MMA and Jiu Jitsu, that you know, undaunted life isn't for you
36:08
or that, you know, that I'm somehow claiming that you can't be a good modern Christian
36:12
if you're not into those things.
36:14
But I want to be clear like, yeah, some guys are into hunting and shooting and MMA and
36:20
and Jiu Jitsu and judo and different things like that.
36:22
But some guys are into art and classical music, theater, cooking, you know, some of those other
36:28
types of things.
36:30
But the real thing is is I don't care about what you're interested in.
36:35
Like I don't care what your hobbies are.
36:38
I care how you carry yourself.
36:40
I care how you act like I care how you treat the people that you're around.
36:45
I care about the amount of life that you're creating in the communities around you.
36:50
I mean, I care how much that how much you work to cultivate spiritual, mental and physical
36:54
resilience.
36:55
I mean, just look at examples from history.
36:58
Deidrick Bonhoeffer, I suggested a a doc or a biography rather of Deidrick Bonhoeffer
37:04
on our 100 books that every modern Christian man should read, Deidrick Bonhoeffer is literally
37:11
one of the baddest dudes to ever live.
37:14
But the guy was like a total nerd, like, you know, certifiable bookworm, mama's boy.
37:21
But the dude tried to kill Hitler.
37:24
I mean, the dude was insane.
37:27
So so again, I don't really care about what the stuff that you're into or kind of kind
37:32
of the wiring.
37:33
But just look at it, if you can quote scripture from memory, but you can't physically protect
37:37
your family and you're able bodied and capable of doing so, you are not a strong Christian
37:42
man.
37:43
I mean, the same is true.
37:44
If you can rep out a 405 on the bench, but you're too cowardly to intercede on someone's
37:49
behalf and the spiritual realm, then you're not a strong Christian man.
37:53
I mean, even look at guys, you know, let's say you've read a hundred books in the last
37:58
12 months, but none of those helped you dive deeper into your discipleship journey with
38:02
Jesus.
38:03
You're not a strong Christian man.
38:04
You're you're missing the mark and the thing is, and I'm not saying that there is a mold
38:09
of a person of a perfect Christian out there.
38:12
I am saying that we've accepted what we've accepted as the quote unquote good Christian
38:18
or the good church guy is wrong, like it's just flat out wrong.
38:23
And the third thing that I just want to go ahead and clear up very quickly is that on
38:27
Daunton life will provide content that helps men seek the line of Judah.
38:32
I mean, I mean, obviously you hear a sign off with, you know, keep seeking the line
38:35
of Judah.
38:36
You've you've heard me put that on on other different things and blogs and you will get
38:40
plenty of the Lamb of God.
38:42
Okay.
38:43
Like go to any church, read the overwhelming majority of books at your your local Christian
38:48
bookstore.
38:49
Look at any of the songs that are played on K love or any of those radio stations.
38:53
You're getting the Lamb of God.
38:55
You're getting plenty of the Lamb of God.
38:57
And I'll just be open and honest, like our philosophy isn't for everyone.
39:01
Like what we talk about, how we talk about is not always palatable.
39:03
It's not going to appeal to everyone's sensibilities.
39:07
And we may be abrasive and it's because we want to knock off any weak part of you.
39:13
I mean, just think about it.
39:14
We hear about iron sharpens iron all the time, right?
39:17
Here people say that in church or they'll put that as like the scripture verse for their
39:21
six a.m.
39:22
Saturday morning prayer breakfast or chili cook off or something like that.
39:25
But have these people ever really thought about the process of iron sharpening iron?
39:31
I mean, that is a loud process.
39:35
There are pieces of metal flying around and breaking off.
39:40
It's hot.
39:41
It's uncomfortable.
39:42
There might be steam involved in these different areas.
39:45
That's when iron sharpening iron.
39:47
It's not just a bunch of well behaved men sitting in a circle talking to each other about
39:51
their feelings.
39:52
And there's nothing wrong with sitting in a circle and talking to other guys about what's
39:56
going on in your life.
39:57
But good grief.
39:58
If iron is going to sharpen iron, it's an active process.
40:01
So, so guys, here's the deal is if you disagree with me, I'm always looking for guys to discuss
40:08
things with me.
40:09
I'm always open to discuss things.
40:11
I mean, hit me up info at undaunted life or info at undaunted.life is our email info at
40:17
undaunted.life.
40:18
Here's the deal, if you disagree with me, but you can't provide evidence for why my philosophy
40:24
is wrong, then just save it.
40:26
I'm really not interested because again, this is meant to be a wake up call.
40:30
It's not going to be comfortable for everybody.
40:32
If it's not comfortable for you, you should dig into why that is.
40:36
Before we move on to the end of the podcast, I just want to do a quick resilience boost.
40:40
So again, we are a men's Christian ministry.
40:42
Our mission is cultivating manly resilience and specifically we work to provide content
40:47
that forges spiritual, mental and physical toughness.
40:50
So today, just the quick resilience boost is going to be on mental and spiritual resilience.
40:54
And so I've quoted this book several times today.
40:58
And that's why men hate going to church by David Morrow.
41:01
So I would just highly suggest that you guys add that to your reading list for 2018.
41:07
But I will go ahead and just kind of give you a heads up on this book.
41:11
It some of the things in this book are overtly opinionated.
41:15
So he will say things that are not substantiated with a whole lot of evidence or maybe he doesn't
41:20
do the most robust job in defending his point of view.
41:24
He's just kind of revealing his opinion.
41:27
But a lot of the points in this book are substantiated with research.
41:32
There are a ton of footnotes throughout this.
41:34
You can tell that the guy researched this, you know, some of the research just by virtue
41:39
of how research is developed and released is a little bit old.
41:43
And again, this book was written several years ago.
41:46
He's he's updated it since, but it's definitely a good thing that I would say that would be
41:50
a good boost for everyone's mental and spiritual resilience is to read this book.
41:54
Why men hate going to church by David Morrow.
41:57
So thank you as always to the people that listen to this podcast.
41:59
You know, for some of you this struck a chord in you for others, it may have offended you
42:02
a little bit.
42:03
I just appreciate you all sticking it out to the end.
42:05
Please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud or Google Play and refer your friends to listen
42:09
and share on social media.
42:10
Guys, if we deserve a five star review, please leave one.
42:13
That's how this podcast is going to continue to grow.
42:15
If people keep recognizing it as something that they're enjoying, the website is www.undaunted.life.
42:22
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at undaunted life and on Facebook.com backslash undaunted
42:26
life.
42:27
Check out our free devotionals on the U version app to search undaunted life under plans.
42:32
We also want to thank the band August Burns Red for allowing us to use their music library
42:35
for our content.
42:37
The intro outro track on this podcast is their song, King of Sorrow, which is off their latest
42:41
record entitled Phantom Anthem.
42:43
The links are in the description.
42:44
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
42:46
Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical
42:51
toughness.
42:52
Keep seeking the lion of Judah.