A Man Is A FIghter

We're talking tonight about man as a fighter because this is probably one of the easiest topics

!

Just by way of inspiration to be inspired.

The easiest topic though is that it's the easiest topic to be inspired by and the hardest

topic to actually live out.

And I think that I would really have failed if we can't actually have some deep conviction

both towards ourselves and towards our real life in terms of taking action in some of

these things.

That's the rule, rubber meets the road.

I think we all can look at different men and their testimony and be inspired by it, but

it's really easy for us to be so blind to how we are not being fighters in our own life.

And I think that the thing that I think is really hard for me also to articulate and encapsulate

is a way of inspiring in practical life ways in which we aren't fighters.

You know what I mean?

I think that there is a lineage where you see men who are very heroic.

They lead great lineages.

But there also is something that when men abandon their posts, they lead these destructive wakes.

You know?

I think that for all of us, there are men in our lineage or men in our lives that we look

to where we know that they abandoned their children.

They abandoned their life.

They abandoned their life.

Let's say they abandoned their career.

It's like a fundamental temptation for men to flee.

You know what I mean?

It's like the stereotype of the dad who just, you know, he hides away in his man cave.

You know what I mean?

Or the dad who, you know, when things get real tough, peaces out.

He'll start a new family.

When things get tough, they peace out again.

Start a new family.

And I think the issue here is not that being a fighter is not inspiring.

It's that the actual cost of fighting is we oftentimes consider too much.

So I'm going to go through, I'm going to give a couple of quotes here, and I'm going to

go through a history.

A history of cowardice and courage.

We go through a bunch of stories in history where men were courageous and had a whole cascade

and a beautiful legacy and where men were cowards and left a destructive wake.

And we try to land the plane and call us to examine the lineage of our own life.

And what are we doing?

What are we doing right now where we're either abandoning the fight or warring the fight?

But where are the areas in which we actually need to be held?

One of the things, when we first got married, we did a birth training because my wife hadn't

had a baby.

And Dara Aldi, you know the Aldi, some of you guys know the Aldi's, Dara Aldi did this

birth training.

That was the first time I met her.

My wife's in the birth world right now, so she's known to Dara a lot.

But Dara Aldi did this birth training, and on one of the nights she had her husband come,

I think it's Darren.

Dennis.

Dennis, sorry, thank you.

Dennis.

Dennis came and he basically gave teaching on how men can show up for a birth.

How men can not just be spectators of birth, but they can actually really make a difference.

And what it then said, it was really stuck with me.

She was like, I just believe that there's something fundamental in men that wants to be heroic

and can be heroic.

And he was saying this about his relationship with his own family.

He kept on saying, you know, with my wife, I want her to feel like I am actually heroic

towards her.

That I'll put on my cape, that I'll swoop in, and that I will fight whatever needs to be

fought.

I'll be in any fight that needs to take place.

I will be there.

I want my children to feel the same way.

I want my family to feel like my role is very, very heroic.

And that I live up to that.

One of the things that was kind of inspiring about him saying that is it's not normally phrased

that way.

You know, I think all of us men can relate with appreciating heroism, but not a lot of men

will say it out loud.

I want to be heroic.

I want my wife to feel like I am heroic towards her.

I want my children to feel like I'm heroic towards them.

There's something that's very masculine about that.

There's something very powerful about that.

Because kind of the spirit of being a fighter is a willingness to count the costs and execute

the costs of heroism.

Everyone loves the victory, but we all hate the cost.

You know what I mean?

I think a lot of this is because we are what is in the way.

You know what I mean?

The cost ends up being ourself.

So, I'm just going to hop in here.

This is one of my favorite quotes from D.K. Chesterton.

He wrote a book called Orthodoxy.

If you guys haven't read Orthodoxy, I really, really encourage you to.

This is one of the books that C.S. Lewis read that helped persuade him to become a believer.

It's very similar to mere Christianity.

It's like a defense of the Christian faith.

Incredible, incredible book.

Probably most of you guys, or a bunch of you guys have already read it.

But anyway, he has this.

This is my favorite quotes on courage.

Take the case of courage.

No equality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.

Sorry, what's that?

Let me make sure I'm...

Sorry, I'm going to go.

Courage...

Oh, sorry.

Take the case of courage.

No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.

That means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die.

He that loses his life, the same shall save it.

It is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes.

It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers.

It might be printed on an alpine guide or a drill book.

This paradox is the whole principle of courage, even if quite earthly or brutal courage.

A man cut off by the sea might save his life if he will risk it on the precipice.

He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it.

A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying.

He must not merely cling to life, for then he would be a coward, and he will not escape.

He must not merely wait for death, for then he would be a suicide, and will not escape.

He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.

He must desire life like water, and yet drink death like wine.

No philosopher I fancy has ever expressed this romantic riddle adequately, and I certainly have not done so.

But Christianity has done more.

It has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.

And so with this quote, Chesterton is really bringing together the idea of you cannot have real courage without also really fixing death.

Right?

And this is actually bringing in even what Josh was talking about last week, because a man is self-sacrificial.

You can't actually, you can't actually be heroic.

You can't be courageous.

You can't actually be a good fighter until first you come to terms with being willing to give up your own self.

So the whole aspect of masculinity that is encapsulated in courage and heroism is an embracing of willing to be the sacrifice.

That you are the one who's taking the cost up on your own shoulders.

And I think this is actually probably one of the great ailments of even like the modern day family is men wanting to have all the inconvenience be chased away from themselves.

It's all an avoidance of that.

You know what I'm saying?

Where we in our own selfishness avoid all the cost and everyone else around us actually bears the broken fruit of our abandonment because it's because of us.

You know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

We are the villains in our story rather than the heroes of our story, right?

It all comes down to our ability, like Josh was saying, of self-sacrifice actually willing willing this to be the ones who are that are exerting the cost, expending the cost.

It says in Proverbs 28 1, well you guys know this verse, a wicked man flees when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

And I think that one of the things at stake here is not just big courage, but the reality that in order for us to be bold as a lion, we actually have to face our own wickedness.

Cowardice is wickedness.

This is actually something that has been historically well perceived.

And I think in this modern day and age, it's no longer front and center that cowardice is wickedness.

That's what the scripture says.

The wicked man flees when no one pursues him.

The righteous man is as bold as a lion.

There is something that the Lord wants to instill in us that is actually being sanctified.

You can't actually be bold without being sanctified.

We can't actually be courageous unless we actually face our own worst enemy, which is ourself.

This is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt.

You guys have already heard this.

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who is at the best, knows the end, the triumph of great achievement.

And who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

I think one of our big failures here, if we're just a spectator of heroism and not a participator.

I think that's one of the things that this day and age knows that men have this instinct.

So we have full industries that just appease the instinct rather than actually encouraging them to participate in real life.

I think in large part, this is not a combination of video games, but there is an extent to which a lot of the video game industry is just exploiting men's desire to feel heroic.

Right?

I would even say that a lot of pornography is actually the same way.

I think there's something that you feel like you're treated with great glory by a woman who's willing to unclothe herself with you.

I actually think that a lot of men turn to that because they feel the opposite when they interact with real women.

There's a lot about men that wants to be acknowledged as heroic and glorious.

And there's a whole industry that just cater to making men feel that way in their spectated position.

Right?

All right.

So I'm going to go.

This begins the history.

I hope you guys have soft hearts to this.

This is very convicting.

We're going to start in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Everybody here should know the story.

Now the servant was more crafty than the wild animals the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman,

Did God really say,

You must not eat from the tree of the garden?

And the woman said to the servant,

We may eat from the tree of the garden.

But God did say,

You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.

And you must not touch it, or you will die.

You will certainly not die, the servant said to the woman,

For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened,

And you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,

And also desirable for gaining wisdom,

She took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband,

Who was with her,

And he ate it.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened,

And they realized that they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together,

And made coverings for themselves.

Adam was there,

While all this was going down,

And he did nothing.

This is the first great abdication of a man.

And the cascade has traversed all of history.

All of history's ailments can come back to this one event,

Of a man who abdicated his position,

And did nothing,

While his wife, or gate, and calmly as well.

I'm going to keep on going.

Numbers 13.

This is when,

This is when,

Moses sent out the spies,

To spy in the land of Canaan,

After they had been delivered out of Egypt.

Numbers 13.

And this is what they reported to Moses.

So this is right after the spies,

He sent twelve spies,

You guys probably remember this story,

He sent twelve spies,

One man from each of the tribes,

And they went and scouted out Canaan,

And they came back.

And this is their report.

This is what they reported to Moses.

We went to the land where you sent us.

It really is the land flowing with milk and honey.

Here is some of its fruit.

But the people who live there are strong,

And the cities have walls,

And are very large.

We even saw the descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites live in the Negev,

The Hittites,

The Jebusites,

And the Amorites live in the mountain region.

And the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea,

And all along the northern river.

Caleb told the people to be quiet,

And listen to Moses.

And then Caleb said,

Let's go now,

And take possession of the land.

We should be more than able to conquer it.

So Caleb is actually very confident.

They can actually do this thing.

But the men who had gone with him said,

We can't attack those people.

They are too strong for us.

And they began to spread lies amongst the Israelites

About the land they had explored.

So not only were they cowards,

They actually invented a lie to discourage the rest of the peoples.

They would not have to go.

They said,

The land we explore is one that devours those who live there.

All the people we saw were very tall.

We saw the Nephilim,

The descendants of Anachron,

The Nephilim.

We felt as small grasshoppers.

And that's how we must have looked to them.

So this is them scouting out.

They come back.

They give them a report.

Caleb says,

Let's go.

The rest of the guys create a lie

And discourage the children of Israel.

And so what do they do?

They wander around the wilderness for 40 years.

And that entire generation passes away.

And then what happens?

Joshua and Caleb ends up going as well.

They actually do go to the promised land.

And one of the things it says,

After Joshua's conquest,

It says that Joshua conquered 31 kings.

And so what Caleb was believing right here was actually true.

Because they did do it.

But there was fear in the hearts of some of these men.

And they were cowards.

Not only were they cowards,

They actually came up with a false plan.

They actually came up with an alternative plan.

They actually directed their initiative

To circumvent what the Lord had worked on to do.

Thank you.

All right.

First chance, Samuel 17.

This is long.

David overheard the report from Saul.

And Saul said for him,

This is David.

Why?

David said to Saul,

Let no one lose heart on the account of the Philistine.

Your servant will go and fight him.

Saul replied,

You are not able to go out against the Philistine and fight him.

You are only a young man.

But he has been a warrior since his youth.

David said to Paul,

Your servant has been keeping his father's flock.

When a lion or a bear came and carried out off sheep from the flock,

I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth.

When it turned on me,

I seized it by their hair and struck it and killed it.

Your servant has killed both lion and bear.

This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,

because he has defied the praise of the living God.

The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion,

the paw of the bear,

will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine.

And Saul said to David,

Go, and the Lord be with you.

And Saul dressed David in his own tunic,

and put a coat of armor on him,

and a bronze helmet on his head.

David fastened on his sword over his tunic,

and tried walking around,

but he was not able to know.

I cannot go on these, he said to Paul,

because I am not used to them.

So he took them off,

took off his staff from his hand,

chose five smooth stones from the stream,

and put them on the pouch of the shepherd's bag.

With his sling in hand, he approached the Philistine.

Meanwhile, the Philistine and his shield-bearer in front of him

kept coming closer and closer to David.

He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy,

glowing with health and handsome,

and despised him.

And he said to David,

Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Come here, he said,

and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

David said to the Philistine,

You come against me with a sword and spear and javelin,

when I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty,

the God of the armies of Israel,

whom you have defiled this day.

And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hands,

and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.

This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine's army

to the birds and the wild animals,

and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

All those gathered here will know that it is not by my sword or spear

that the Lord saves,

for the battle is the Lord's,

and he will give all of you into our hands.

As the Philistine moved closer to attack,

David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

Reaching into his back,

he took out a stone

and struck the Philistine in the forehead.

The stone sank into his forehead,

and he fell face down on the ground.

So David triumphed over the Philistine

with a sling and a stone.

Without a sword in his hand,

he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

David ran and stood over him,

took hold of the Philistine's sword,

drew it from the sheath.

After he killed him,

he cut off the head with his sword.

When the Philistine saw that their hero was dead,

they turned and ran.

Then the men of Israel and Judah

surged forward with a shout

and pursued the Philistines

to the entrance of Gath

and to the gates of Ekron.

Their dead were strewn along

the Sheeran road in Gath and Ekron.

When the Israelites returned

from chasing the Philistines,

they plundered their camp.

David took the Philistine's head

and brought it to Jerusalem,

put the Philistine's weapon in his own tent.

As Saul watched David

going out to meet the Philistine,

he said to Abner,

that's his general,

commander of the army,

Abner, whose son is that young man?

Abner replied,

surely as I live,

your majesty,

I do not know.

The king said,

find out whose son that young man is.

As soon as David returned

from killing the Philistine,

Abner took him

and brought him before Saul

with David still holding

the Philistine's head.

Who's son of you, young man?

He said,

and David said,

I am son of your servant,

Jesse of Bethlehem.

One of the things I think

is really cool about that story

is what they really wanted to know

after he did that

is whose son is this?

Who raised this man?

And actually,

I think that's part of the mystery

of courage.

Not only just facing ourselves,

but also there's something

that pertains to even sonship,

like who is your father?

That's a really good question.

There's something about fatherhood

that instills courage in men.

And I think that that's part of the,

that is part of the fruit

of resolving

and the fruit of growing

in your relationship

to the father

is instilling the wisdom.

I think it's hard

without your identity

as a son being well established.

It's hard to have

this kind of self-escourge.

It's one of the things

the world builds up in us.

Second Samuel 11.

We're talking about

David being a hero here.

The reason Israel

continued to be a nation

is because

David prevailed over Goliath.

Phil seems we're going to take him.

And then he ends up being the king.

The king of the nation of Israel.

What does he do?

So, 2 Samuel 11.

Guys, this is both a tragedy

and a victory.

I'm going to read a bunch of stories.

Some of these are good stories.

Some of these are bad stories.

This is what perceives from our heart.

2 Samuel 11.

In the spring,

at the time when kings go off to war,

David sent Joab out

with the king's men

and the whole Israelite army.

So he sent his general

and he did not go.

And they destroyed the Ammonites

and besieged Rabath.

But David remained into Jerusalem.

And what does he do?

He sees Bathsheba

bathing

on the top of

her house.

He calls her and he sleeps with her.

He gets her pregnant.

And what does he do?

He's trying to protect himself.

So he goes and tries to hide it.

And he can't hide it

because of the integrity of Uriah.

So then he goes and has Uriah built.

And it's one of the things

that happens in his household.

Because of this one event,

the Lord curses his household.

David loses the son

that he impregnated Bathsheba with.

And then he loses two more sons,

including Absalom,

who created a civil war in the kingdom.

And David, you know,

wouldn't kill Absalom,

some of the most familiar

with the story,

this whole cascade

of just like a complete tragedy

in the house of David

that started so,

so gloriously

with him trusting the Lord,

with slaying Goliath

and things like this.

And obviously,

the life of David

is such an admirable life.

And this is like

the great taint on his life.

But what did he do?

He didn't go off to war.

It was a time

when everybody else went to war

and he just stayed home.

It was a time

when kings go to war,

David stayed home.

Right?

Okay.

Some of these

are not just Bible stories.

508 B.C.

Horatius.

How many of you guys

are familiar

with the story of Horatius?

It's one of my favorite stories.

Thank you.

At least somebody knows.

Okay, so Horatius.

This is early days

of the Roman Empire.

They get invaded

by the Truscan army.

And they come right up

to the River Tiber,

which is right outside of Rome.

And Horatius

is a captain in the military.

He tells him

and two of his officers

to come with him.

He tells the rest of the men,

I want you guys

to cut down this bridge.

He and two of his officers

go down to the other end

of the bridge

and fight off

the Tuscan army

who's trying to cross the bridge

and hold them at bay

while they cut down

the entire bridge

and the bridge collapses

and they fall into this river

and they swim back

and survive.

In the lay

that tells the story

because the Greeks

are very poetic,

this is what it said,

that he said

before he caught on that bridge.

This is one of the

most awesome,

incredibly awesome poetic line.

To every man

upon the earth,

death cometh soon or late

and how can a man die better

than facing fearful odds

for the ashes

of his fathers

and the temples

of his gods.

Such a bad-ass boy.

Such a bad-ass thing to say

before you go

defend the bridge.

Knowing that your men

are going to cut the bridge off,

your men are cutting the bridge off,

and I also love too,

it says,

for the ashes of his father.

So you can kind of

back to that theme

of like,

there's something

about honoring his fathers.

You know what I mean?

Just like this acknowledgement

of the legacy

of fatherhood

that's been passed down to him.

Such boldness.

Such incredible bravery

and boldness.

Darius III.

This is 331 B.C.

I'm going to just keep

on living through history.

These are chronological, baby.

All the way up to the hill.

I'm really going to go

all the way up to the hill.

I'm not joking.

I'm not joking.

I have no time.

Darius III.

The Persian emperor

twice abandoned

his massive armies

mid-battle against

Alexander the Great's

first ISIS

and then at the

decisive end clash.

His cannon caused

his troops to rout,

that means it caused

them to flee,

and handed Alexander

the entire Persian empire.

This is one of the reasons

Alexander the Great

was able to conquer

the entire world.

This was his one

big adversary

that stood this way

from having the entire world.

They handed Alexander

the entire Persian empire

and ended 200 years

Persian rule.

The king's fear

literally withdrew

the map of the entire

ancient world.

We, because of this,

if this hadn't happened,

think about it.

We wouldn't be,

we wouldn't be speaking

a language that's

based on Greek,

right?

The Persians,

like if Alexander the Great

hadn't conquered the world

again, you don't know

how history would have gone.

But this cascade,

as a result of

Alexander the Great

conquered the entire world,

then you have Greek

being passed down

and the Roman rule,

et cetera, et cetera.

This is changing

the course of history.

One man,

one Persian king

was towered.

Now, I'm not saying,

unfortunately,

you know what I'm saying,

for our history.

All right.

Keep going.

This is one of the things

that's said in the New Testament,

this is an encapsulation

of the heroes of the faith

in the Old Testament.

It's Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And what shall we say?

For time would fail me

to tell of Gideon,

Barak, Samson,

Jephthah,

of David,

and Samuel,

and the prophets,

who through faith

conquered kingdoms,

enforced justice,

obtained promises,

stopped the mouths

of lions,

and quenched the power

of fire,

escaped the edge

of the sword,

were made strong

out of weakness,

became mighty in war,

put foreign armies

to flight.

Women received back

their dead

by resurrection.

Some were tortured,

refusing to accept release,

so they might rise again

to better life.

Others suffered mocking

and flogging

and even chains

in the prison man.

They were stoned,

they were sawn in two,

they were killed

with the sword.

They went about

in skins of sheep

and goats,

destitute,

afflicted,

and mistreated,

of whom the world

was not worthy.

It's my favorite lines

of scripture.

Of whom the world

was not worthy.

Wandering about

in deserts

and the mountains,

in dens and caves

and other earth,

all these,

though commended

through their faith,

did not receive

what was promised,

since God had provided

something better for us,

that apart from us

they should have

not been made perfect.

They did all this,

foreseeing Christ

that they didn't know.

They did not know Christ yet.

They foresaw Christ.

This is one more verse

from the New Testament.

Revelation 12,

11,

again one of my favorite

verses in the New Testament.

This is talking about

people who experienced

persecution.

This is about the believers

who experienced

the persecution

of the tribulation.

This is what it said

about them.

And they have conquered

him by the blood

of the Lamb

and the word

of their testimony.

For they loved

not their lives

even unto dead.

They overcame,

they conquered,

and they did not

love their lives

even unto death.

All right,

fast forward.

This is like

mid-300s.

This is right around

the same time

as the Nicene Council.

Arianism,

because I'm about

to say that,

is the rejection

that Jesus Christ

is one with the Father.

It's a rejection

of the divinity of Christ.

When the heresy

of Arianism

threatened to consume

the church,

one man stood

for truth.

God raised up

Athanasius

to be a hero

of the faith.

Some of you guys

never heard that name.

I hope you remember it

after this.

God raised up

Athanasius.

It's such a powerful story.

To be a hero of the faith,

to stand for truth,

and to be a theological

light in all the world.

At the time

when this heresy

had strong political

and religious support,

Athanasius stood firm

and unafraid,

defending the divinity

of Christ

by declaring

the crisis

of the same substance

with the Father.

He was exiled

five times.

He was hunted,

he was slandered,

and forced to flee

into the desert.

Yet he never wavered.

When almost the entire

Christian world

had gone Arian,

and St. Jerome

could write

that the whole world

had grown

and was astonished

to find himself Arian,

Athanasius stood

virtually alone.

His courageous defense

preserved the orthodox faith

in the divinity of Christ

that we still confess today.

I thought,

oh no,

people don't know this.

The church

almost entirely rejected

the divinity of Christ

around this time.

And there was one man,

he just had balls

of freaking steel.

He would not back down.

And literally,

he was persecuted

by almost the entire church.

And then one after one,

people started getting persuaded.

And by the time

the Nicene Council

was actually formulated,

this is within like

decades of the Nicene Council,

the entire council

acknowledged the divinity of Christ

and our most important creator.

One man,

there was one man,

there was one man,

one church leader

just would not relent.

Very dark hour for the church.

You know what I'm saying?

Anyway,

we keep on going.

408,

this is like

about a century later.

Silico,

the brilliant general

who had repeatedly saved

the Western Roman Empire

from barbarian invasion,

was suddenly accused

of treason

by the jealous courtiers.

That's the other

political people.

The emperor,

Honorius,

too weak and fearful

to protect

his best defender,

too weak and fearful

to protect his best defender,

ordered Silico's execution.

Within two years,

Rome itself was sacked

by the Viscoths

the first time

in 800 years,

removing the one man

who could have held

the empire together,

helped trigger

its final collapse.

So they killed

their main general

and then within two years

they were sacked

and that was the bald Roman Empire.

Again,

like cowardice.

This is actually

a good thing too

to note

is that these men

weren't just cowardly,

cowardly,

they schemed

against what was there.

You know what I'm saying?

I think that's one

of the themes here.

That's why I think

the scripture calls it

wickedness.

The wicked queen

in one minute or so.

All right,

another one.

It's probably absurd.

You guys might not know

about this.

Joshua Chamberlain,

a college professor

turned colonel.

His 12th,

sorry,

his 20th main regiment

was at the extreme flank

of the Union Army.

That means he was

all the way down

at the back,

close to where

the enemy,

basically the most

important position.

That's what keeps

your entire army

from being flanked

effectively by the enemy.

So anyway,

the college professor

turned colonel,

his 20th main regiment

was at the extreme flank

of the Union Army,

low on the amble.

Oh, sorry,

I meant to say,

this is at Gettysburg.

Sorry.

At Gettysburg,

Joshua Chamberlain,

the college professor

turned colonel,

his 20th main regiment

was at the extreme flank

of the Union Army,

low on amble

and facing repeated

Confederate assaults.

Out of bullets,

he ordered a bayonet charge

downhill.

So they were at the hill position.

They had the high ground.

Out of bullets,

he ordered a bayonet charge

downhill,

a surprise that shattered

the enemy

and their attack.

He held the hill

and helped save

the Union victory

at Gettysburg.

When he did this,

it entirely changed

the whole tide

of that battle.

That is the main battle,

the way that that battle

went,

it was considered,

that would be actually

the settling of the war.

And that's actually

what happened.

When the Union won

that battle,

it ended up being

that the Union

actually won the war.

And one of the main

events that happened

is this guy,

they all ran out of ammo,

he just told them

to put their bayonets

on and they charged

down belt.

Just think about

how different things

would have been

if the Union Army

had bossed the battle

against Gettysburg.

One man split second

gutsy call.

Thank you so much.

I actually about

to ask somebody.

I'm like,

you know,

I'm going to get a little

jump in.

Figure I'd just

fight through it.

One man split second

gutsy call.

May have kept

the entire country

from splitting forever.

Okay,

now this is still,

this is crazy.

Hope you guys like these.

Czar Nicholas II,

1917.

When revolution broke out,

this is in Russia.

When revolution broke out,

1917,

the Russian emperor,

afraid of more bloodshed

and unwilling to fight

for his throne,

simply gave up the throne.

His cowardice created

a power vacuum

which the Bolsheviks

build.

So Bolsheviks are

the OG communists.

That single act

of quitting led

directly to Lenin

taking power

and 70 years

of Soviet rule

in the Cold War

that shaped the entire

20th century.

It is estimated

that up to 60 million

people were killed

under the Soviet's rule

and some 10 to 20 million

of them being Christians.

All come right back

to just one man

rolling on,

one man running,

one man fleeing

and abdicating,

literally abdicating.

Neville Chamberlain,

1938.

1938.

The British Prime Minister

chose to avoid

the war at all costs.

Paying Czechoslovakia

to Hitler

with his famous

Peace Corps

behind it.

That single act

of backing down

convinced Hitler

that Britain

and France

were weak

and emboldening him

to invade Poland

the next year

and spark World War II.

Millions died

because of lack

of aggression.

And just a couple more

and then wrap up.

This is another one

that applies

into the Red Ark.

Cuban Missile Crisis.

I think it's named

Arkhipov.

Cuban Missile Crisis,

1962.

On a Soviet sub

surrounded by

U.S. warship

dropping depth charges,

the captain,

the political officer,

the captain

and the political officer

wanted to launch

a nuclear torpedo.

So they're under assault.

Arkhipov,

the third ranking officer,

so this is the third person

in command,

refused.

A single vote

against it

stopped a launch

that could have triggered

an all-out nuclear war.

One man,

one vote,

and the world

kept breathing.

And to some of these guys,

just has such

awesome hands.

He'd like make me emotional.

He'd be like,

holy shit.

Like that one dude

didn't do that.

You know what I mean?

Can you freaking imagine?

Like one man.

It's actually similar

to the story

that you told last week

about that one guy

who sacrificed himself

in the Japanese

and turned the camp.

He's like,

he's such a man of courage.

So freaking inspired.

So freaking inspired.

I'm going to end

on this note

and I'm going to give

you one last,

one last story.

I think the fundamental

thing,

that gets in our way

of being as heroic

as we'd like to be

is ourself.

And I think that

when we are not willing

to look at ourself

and acknowledge

that we are our own

worst enemy,

when we can't face

a man in the mirror,

we are destined

to be the villain

in our own story.

I think there's something

incredibly masculine

and incredibly enrivening

to not only ourselves,

but to those

who trust in us

when we first

and foremost

are facing ourself.

And that's the question.

Where will you run

to be free

of yourself?

And the truth is,

none of these things

are possible

and all of these

things are possible

if we can just

turn to the Lord

and find freedom

from ourself.

You know what I'm saying?

Any act of courage

and heroism

is entirely achievable

if your personal cost

is of no issue.

If you can freely

spend and be spent,

it is of no issue.

This is the last story.

About 40 years ago,

about 40 years ago,

there was a man

who had just had,

his wife had just had

their third child

and the Lord

just radically

appeared to him.

He was radically

convicted of his own sin

and his mom

had been praying.

Sorry,

here's a little,

here's a little story.

And his mom

had been praying

for many, many years

and he was convicted

of his own sin

and he was specifically

convicted because

he had been cheating

on his wife.

He had been hiding

a lot of sin from him.

And he went to her,

she was still in the hospital

and he confessed

all of his sins to her.

He tore all these things

that he had not told her

he had been keeping

in the dark

and how he had been

an adulterer

and he had been cheating

on her and all this stuff.

But he just said,

the Lord appeared to me

that the Lord

had been praying to me.

And he completely

turned his life off.

Completely gave his life

to the Lord

and his life

has forever changed.

That was Dennis.

Okay.

Dennis is sitting

right there.

Dennis' oldest daughter

married Josh Christopherson.

And when Josh came around

according to his daughter,

Dennis is one of the people

that instilled

a lot of the virtues

of masculinity

in large part

taught Josh

many of the things

we're talking about today.

And including

a desire to plant churches,

including a desire

to lead churches.

The reason Michael

knows how to speak Spanish

is because Michael's parents

in Dennis and Sue

went down

and planted orphanages

in Mexico.

In Dennis,

in large part,

is a lot of the legacy

of what brings us here today.

If Dennis had not

faced himself that day,

we actually would not

be here today

talking about this right now.

I say all that to say

that the most important thing,

it's easy to look

at Dennis' legacy.

Dennis had nine children.

Every single one of his children

are following the Lord.

All of his kids

who can get married

are married with kids.

Dennis has had

an incredible legacy

and a very beautiful life.

It's been for the female God.

He's very much poured out

his life selflessly

for the female God.

That came because

he actually faced

his main enemy.

It wasn't all those

things out there.

It's really easy

to imagine yourself

a hero in a story

where all the villains

are out there.

And I think

that the main reason

why we missed

the mark on this one

is because we're not

able to look

at the man in the mirror

as the main villain

that needs to be slain.

You know what I'm saying?

So,

the only last thing

I want to leave you guys with

is that

there is a paradox

for masculinity.

Men want two things great.

Men want a worthy fight.

We long for a worthy fight.

This is why young men

are so quick

to sign up

in the military

to go off to war.

I agree with myself.

And we also want peace.

How can that be a place?

There is something

that the Lord

has read into the heart of man.

Distinctly,

I believe it is,

I think the right term for it

is shalom.

Translated as peace

in the scripture.

Shalom does not just mean peace.

It actually means

everything in its right place.

Shalom comes about

as a result of order.

The Lord has constructed men

as fighters,

as middle conquests,

as ones that he gives

dominion over.

And when we fight

for the right things,

it creates order.

It creates shalom.

It creates home.

I believe many men

are looking for a vision.

They're looking for a fight.

They're looking for a mission

to go on.

The Lord has given us one.

And it starts with us

picking up our cross

following Christ.

But also,

it has to do with this

peace that we're fighting for

that is actually

the kingdom of God

that expands

across the world.

And there is an extent

to which we long

for that in our own homes.

I think that's one of the most

difficult things

as a husband.

You fight your whole day

and then you just sort of

roll home

and then you just be

peaceful and chill.

And what is it?

It's extremely challenging.

There's a bunch of other things

you never fight for.

I think that one of the things

that we've given into

as men

is feeling entitled

to peace

and unwilling to make

our own sacrifices

that the Lord calls us to

that would actually

create that peace.

if that makes sense.

Right?

So,

anyway,

that's all I've got.

That's what I'm going to

leave you guys with.