What's at Steak Dinner 2/25/21

All right, Pastor, great job welcoming all these men and great job getting these men here.

Amen.

Y'all thank the Lord Jesus for everybody in the house.

Amen.

What a blessing.

What a blessing to have.

Pastor Johnny Hunt used to be my pastor, and he said, when y'all joined the church, we became a megachurch.

So having 11 children, uh 11 on the way, it's pretty amazing what God does when you uh surrender your life to him.

And so I can't take credit for my wife.

I can't take credit for my children, but God can.

So I give him all the glory and thank God for that.

So I want to challenge you tonight.

I mean, what we're experiencing tonight is is a gift.

I want to say that every time I try to speak before men, what you have with the church making men a priority.

That's a gift.

That don't happen in churches across America.

Uh that's not happening in in many churches as a whole, but there is there is a movement taking place that we feel like we're we're making some ground.

And I praise God, especially on this side of Atlanta, God's doing a great work.

And uh I pray that it'll continue to spread the flames of revival.

God leads something special there.

Had a chance to speak at a conference by Zoom today called Heart Cry for Revival.

God used several years ago before I resigned as a pastor to get a hold of my heart.

And the message was by Crawford the Ritz, and he spoke on brokenness.

Thank God I heard a message on brokenness before having to walk through brokenness, because if I hadn't heard that message before brokenness, I would have been a better, bitter man on the other side of my experience.

So God uses his word to prepare us on where we're going.

And I think the text he gave me tonight will be the same way.

I've heard several men talk about revival, and uh I got that message tonight, something we're speaking on revival, and I pray God will use it in your life.

My question is this will there be any evidence or any indicator that we met here tonight?

Will our wife be able to tell?

Our children and our children's children be able to tell that we met together.

God did something in our lives, and we took steps on the other side of that, and we kept walking with God, and it changed our life forever.

And I pray that tonight would be something that you're called to, and more than that, someone you're called to.

As God calls you to himself, that's the greatest privilege any man would ever have, is for God to call that man to himself.

God to invite you to be right with him.

And so that's what really my heartbeat tonight is, and I pray once we get things right with God, our families have a chance to be what God wants them to be.

Our churches have a chance to be what God wants them to be, and from that, everything else can change.

So tonight's message is not so much to you as a husband or a father, maybe a business leader, a coach, or teacher, pastor, ministry leader, whatever.

The message is to you as a man, you as a man, you personally and all of us collectively, and how we respond to that, I believe our lives ought to be able to tell the story about the God that we've met or the God we come to meet, and after that, our lives look totally different.

So if you do have a copy of God's word, take your Bible and turn to the book of Hosea, chapter six.

Hosea chapter six, and I want to speak on the subject, until he comes.

And so my prayer would be we would see this move of God take place until Jesus Christ comes back or he calls us home.

And by the way, you better be looking east.

Amen.

Eyes ought to be east, because Jesus Christ is coming back.

He could come back before I finish.

Question is, are you ready?

Are you ready for God to return?

As he said he was would return in the form and fashion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So as we look in this text here, I want to start in chapter six.

And as we go through this, I'm gonna just give you some things I feel like are important to share as you even think about next steps.

As some of you guys probably already thought about some of this, about what to do after this, I pray this will encourage you to continue to walk with God until he reigns righteousness upon you.

The Bible says, if you will take your Bible, just stand with me in honor and reverence.

Let's stand together.

It doesn't hurt to stand before Almighty God.

This is God Himself.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So we're gonna let God speak to us.

And some of you might say, I can't even find Hosea.

Thank God for a smartphone, you can pull it up and find it there.

But I tell you what, Hosea can find you.

The word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It's already thinking about what you're thinking about.

God's discerning us with his word.

He already knows where you are.

The question is, do you know where he is?

So listen what he says.

He says, This come and let us return to the Lord.

For he is torn, but he will heal us.

He has stricken, but he will bind us up.

After two days, he will revive us.

On the third day, he will raise us up.

That we may live in his sight.

Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.

His going forth is established as the morning.

He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and the former rain to the earth.

Take your Bible and turn over to chapter 10 and verse number 12.

Chapter 10 and verse number 12.

Same book, just a couple a few chapters over, okay?

Verse number 12.

I'll be preaching from this verse, okay?

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reign righteousness on you.

You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way in the multitude of your mighty men.

Look over in chapter 11, verse number seven.

He says, verse number seven, My people are bent on backsliding from me.

What does the word meant?

Bent.

It means like just the word to suspend.

It's actually hanging in men air, so to speak.

Like if you put a picture on the wall, it's suspending there on the wall.

It just hung up.

It's just there.

So men are stuck.

They're bent on sliding, uh, backsliding from me.

Though they call to me, most high, none at all exalt him.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the word of God.

That's the only thing I've got tonight.

And Father, I pray that the every word of God would prove to be true, as your proverbs would say.

God, every word matters.

Every single jot and every tittle matters.

And God, I pray that men would stop acting like it doesn't.

I thank you for the word from God.

I thank you for a word that we have we can hear.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And God, we can't fool you.

And God, I pray we'd stop trying.

And I pray even tonight that every man would allow you to zero in on our lives.

Thank you that the word's already doing that.

And I pray as it's preached tonight, I pray, God, that every man will have the privilege to respond.

God, I know you're calling men up.

I know you're calling men out.

Ultimately, calling men to yourself.

And Father, from that, everything can change.

God, I pray that we'll recognize how important you really are.

And God, how important we are.

And use this text tonight to encourage us to take the steps we need to take as we return to you.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Just for background sake, I just think I need to help you understand at least a little bit about the book of Hosea and so and understand a little bit about his life.

Hosea would be defined as a minor prophet with a major message.

So the reason why he's a minor prophet because his books are not as big as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets.

It's a called a minor prophet book for a reason.

But in the context of what God's saying in the book of Hosea, it's a pretty powerful story.

You see, his ministry was in a day where Israel was enjoying both political peace and a material prosperity.

Now we're in America, and it's a little bit different in our climate, but what was taking place also during that time of Hosea's time, there was moral corruption and spiritual bankruptcy, almost like the picture we're seeing right before our eyes, play out.

Listen to me, within the last hundred days, there's things that have been decided upon and elected in terms of decisions and all those things that are still being played out and of what has taken place in our culture in America.

So things are happening at a rapid, rapid rate.

And I just think they're going to continue to move that way unless God does something in our lives as men to help us be equipped to be able to fight and stand the day he's called us to.

The theme of Hosea is God's loyal love for his covenant people, Israel, in spite of their idolatry.

Hosea has been called the Saint John or the Saint John epistle, or the Saint John, the apostle of love, is who he's defined in the Old Testament.

So his heartbeat here, Hosea's heartbeat, is the love of not only God, but also the love of his people.

And yet God sends him as a prophet to give this powerful, powerful condemnation about where they were.

His message can't contains much condemnation, but at the same time, it's also dealing with the way God loves his people and how God deals with his people, how passionate even Hosea portrays this, even in this book nationally and individually.

Hosea was instructed by God to marry Gomer, a faithless wife.

That marriage to Gomer was depicted as God's marriage to Israel.

And in the book of Hosea, you can break it down in two major areas.

Number one, the book of Hosea is about an adulterous wife and a faithful husband.

It's also about an adulterous Israel and a faithful Lord.

So as we think about this, he mentioned the word backslide or the backsliding taking place in chapter 11, verse number 7.

God's saying something to us.

And I remember one time Junior Hill, anybody ever heard of the name Junior Hill?

You ever heard of Junior Hill?

Junior Hill made a statement about backsliding and he helped us define it.

If you want to know what backsliding is, there's three major things that happen in a man's life when he backslides, when he steps, he steps back away from God, when he steps back from his design as God intended.

When he steps away from what God wants in his life, he backslides.

What is he doing before that takes place?

Primarily, Junior Hill said he's unembarrassed about his own sin.

He could care less about his sin.

He doesn't recognize a lot of times he doesn't care less.

I mean, he doesn't care about his sin, even though he's even involved in sin.

And so I would just simply say this to you.

I think we as men have gotten used to living in the dark.

And we're not concerned so much about our own personal sin.

We don't deal with our hearts like we need to.

We don't even recognize sometimes that we're living in sin because we're so hard, we're so distant from God, and we're not even embarrassed about some of the things we do, what we say, how we treat our wives, how we don't lead our families, and how passive we can be, how complacent we are.

Can you understand what God's trying to say to us?

You're backslidden.

You need some help.

And God's just speaking right to that heart.

The other thing is this you're you're you're unexcited about the Savior.

Everything else excites you, but Jesus, man, he's not the one that really excites you, and that really helps you become and grow and develop and really recognize that you belong to someone.

You belong to him.

You've been bought with the price.

You've been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.

It's changed your life, has it?

Is there any indicator of that?

And so sometimes we forget about the sin that we're connected to and how we we we nurse that sin, we manage that sin, we we take care of that sin, and we we don't really care about our relationship so much with Jesus.

And the other thing, we've lost our first love and we're okay with living that way.

And then here's the other one we're unconcerned for sinners.

But uh, as we think about this, I thank God for a full room tonight.

If you weren't so much concerned about sinners, there wouldn't be a full house.

Amen.

Thank God that He He put something in our lives that we can do together and we bring people here and get them under the Word of God, get them a great stake and let God do what he does.

We we're just trusting God to speak.

And I pray as he speaks tonight that we would let him be what he wants to be.

And I pray as we continue to engage men, to encourage men even after tonight.

That's where the test is going to be.

Anybody can come to a steak night.

Amen.

Anybody can show up to this.

You know why?

Hey, there's food on the table.

What happens when whenever God begins to deal with you and unpack some stuff and really help you see who you really are?

You see, sometimes we can even fool ourselves, but God's word is discerning.

It even digs deep in our hearts and it discerns the thoughts and intents of your own evil, wicked heart, and thank God it does.

Because we need that.

We need that scapel of his word to cut deep and cut the cancer out so we can be the man God wants us to be.

So, number one, I would say there's three things.

But number one, the first one is this from this thing, and the word of God in Hosea chapter 10, verse number 12, it says, Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your phalogram, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness on you.

Hosea 10 · chapter mention

The first one is a command to be followed.

Don't you think God's word is full of commands?

Say amen.

It's simply full of commands.

God's got something to say, and he's not just saying it.

He's got with intent, he's with focus, he's with a missional approach to who he is, with changing the world and how he does, changing lives and how he does.

Thank God he can change our lives.

And so the word command simply means this.

It's an order given with authority.

Thank God that he's got all the authority, whether you recognize that or not.

He's the one with all the authority.

The best thing you can I can do is to submit to that authority and come alive as God would have us to.

So I would just give you two things about this command, okay?

I think I think in my own personal life, I would take this from God's word as we read the word of God from the beginning to the end, as God uses to help us.

I think number one, men need a commanding word two ways.

Number one is this we need a word to define us.

Who are we as men?

Who are we?

What does the word say about us?

If we have a word to define us, we have a better chance of being what God would have us to be.

If we don't know what that word is, if we've never studied the word of God to find out God's design and God's plan for a man, uh we're we're already behind.

And I would just simply say to you, as God begins to speak, go be the man God wants you to be and take other men with you.

That's a commanding word from God to define you as a man, to help you come alive as God simply desires.

And by the way, you can't be the husband God wants you to be, the father God wants you to be.

Listen to me, guys.

Whoever God wants you to be, you can't be that person without being the man God wants you to be.

It all starts there.

And a lot of us have no idea who God wants us to be outside of our relationship with Him and that this major core relationship.

We're so much concerned about this and that and the other, and God's concerned about where are you with me as a man.

You came into this world as a man.

You will die as a man.

You won't stand before God as a husband, a father, or anybody else.

You'll stand before God as a man.

It's the point under man wants to die then a judgment.

All that you've done as a man out of that relationship will be judged.

And so we need to recognize where we are.

The other word, I think, is this God wants to give us a word to direct us.

He wants, he gives us command to direct us and how to live and how to be what we need to be as men.

So he says the word sow.

The word sow means to spread, to broadcast this, to plant with the idea of bearing.

I'm going to sow this seed with anticipation, fruit's going to come out of this.

It's the idea of we're going to conceive and we're going to generate righteousness because of the seed being sown into our lives.

And thank God God's word does that.

It will not return void.

There's power in the word of God.

And I tell you one thing, guys, we're living in an American Christian culture that really sets this to the side.

Amen?

It just puts this on the shelf somewhere.

I've pastored long enough to know where guys would tell me when I when they want to meet me about something.

Oh, you don't need your Bible.

Oh, yes, I do.

That's all I've got.

Amen.

I don't need your opinion or suggestion or any exaggeration or rationalization.

I need the scripture and the word of God.

That's the only way we can find life because my opinion could lead to death, my rationalization could lead to death.

Yeah, I may not physically die, but my marriage could die, my dreams could die, my hopes could die because I'm doing what I want to do in the flesh, what I think's right, and he's speaking right to that in this passage.

Your mighty men, not my mighty men.

And by the way, a man of God looks totally different than a good man.

He looks totally different than a great man.

A man of God is totally different.

Which title do you want to wear?

A good man?

Oh, he's a good man.

He could go straight to hell.

Oh, he was a great man.

Titles everywhere on his name, he'd go straight to hell.

But a godly man will never go there.

He's been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and he wants to live.

And I tell you one thing, God's saying, come and return.

Come back to me.

Hey, Pastor said it right.

He's calling men back to himself.

He's calling men.

That's what happens when God gets a hold of us in revival.

We just come back to him.

I was listening to Stephen Alford, who taught me preaching.

He said this revival simply is Jesus.

Revival is Jesus.

So if you want to put a label on something, if you want to name revival something, just put the name of Jesus on it and that'll change everything.

That's when we have revival, when Jesus shows up.

When he's God Almighty and He's on the throne of our lives.

So there's a word that's spreading and getting this out.

Then the word righteousness shows up.

It refers to a life that is in agreement with God and consistent in his ways with Almighty God.

In other words, he's stepping with God.

The Bible says in Psalm 37, 25, listen to it.

I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsake him, nor his seed or descendants begging for bread.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6, blessed are those, listen to it, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

That's what the the promise in God's word of the sowing and reaping is coming alive, even as Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 6.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

The phrase is mentioned reaping mercy, which means the best thing about this command can be is to be followed, uh is that God loves you through the process of an with an unfailing love.

He's nurturing you, he's growing you, he's watching you make mistakes.

He's still there to pick you up.

Thank God he picks us up.

Thank God for a second chance, amen.

Anybody in the house need a second chance?

Amen.

About a third chance.

Anybody want to sign up for that?

How about a fourth chance?

Amen.

I need another shot at it.

God, give me another shot.

I wanted to get this right.

And I tell you one thing: thank God He's always there to help us get back up and be what He wants us to be.

Praise God for what He wants us to be and how He's right there with us to help us be it.

And so break up your fall of ground is the strong language in this text.

It's the root word for break means to glisten.

It's the picture of a lamp to light or to candle.

It's a candle that's burning.

It also means to till the soil.

So breaking up is God's doing something, and as he breaks that soil of our life up, as he deals with our hearts and lives, there's light there, there's hope, there's something's on the way with anticipation.

We can expect God to sow some seed in there, and we can expect the harvest to come out of that.

And that's what I think God wants to do with our lives.

But there's a warning in God's word, guys.

Every man needs to hear this, okay?

Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7 is in your Bible.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Do you live like it?

Do we live like it?

Do we parent like it?

Do we love our wives like it?

So, what's the word say in Galatians 6 and verse 7?

Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

That's in your Bible.

It's in my Bible.

It's a biblical truth, it's a biblical principle.

Johnny Hunt, my pastor, taught me this.

The Bible teaches in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2, the things you've heard of me among many witnesses, the same, commit them to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:2

And I believe whenever we hear the word of God preached by faithful, godly men, we're to take that word and live that word and also give that word away.

Did you hear me?

To give that, it shouldn't just get lodged right here.

Hey, how do I know it got here?

Because it gets out of here.

How do I know it landed here?

Because it gets out of here.

God's got us in a process of hearing things in faithful, godly men that gets it to other faithful, godly men, and the problem is we're not giving our seed away.

Amen?

We're not chucking the seed to somebody else.

But my pastor taught me this, and I've been sharing as much as I can whenever God gives me liberty.

So whenever you sow seed, there's three things to know about the law of the harvest.

You reap what you sow, you reap in a different season than you've sown, and then you reap more than you sow.

So be not deceived.

What are you sowing tonight?

If it's sin, guess what?

You're gonna see a season of sin coming in the future.

Some of us have seen decades of that.

And there's a price to pay.

Matter of fact, it affects your family.

The sins of the Father are passed down to who?

Right?

Are you concerned about where you are?

You ought to be.

I ought to be.

Am I right in a right relationship with God?

And hey, listen, if I think I've arrived, I'm already in trouble.

Already in deep need before a holy God.

And the first step I ought to be is on my face and on my knees before Almighty God, right?

We ought to be right here before God.

Brokenness and repentance.

God, please help me get the right step.

Matter of fact, it could be to stop what I'm doing so I can be the man you want me to be.

Listen to this.

The American gospel has evolved into a gospel of addition without subtraction.

It is the belief that we can add to Christ, we can add Christ to our lives but not subtract sin.

And God help us.

It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.

It is spiritual experience without any cultural impact.

It is revival without reformation.

It is revival without repentance.

And because you got revival on the sign in your church somewhere in America, does not mean God showed up.

You can't calendar revival.

You can't schedule revival, but guess what?

You can be ready when God sends it.

And it may not get listen to me, it may not get to anybody in the house but you.

And praise God that you responded when God spoke.

Hey, if I'm just praying if one man stands up and shows out for God tonight and how God wants him to, and how God calls him to himself, that's what I'm is God just give us one man.

Because I know if God touches one man, he can touch many more men after that.

But if he doesn't touch any man, we're in trouble.

Hey, you know that's in the word of God, right?

I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it.

But I found, listen to me, I found none.

And that's a dangerous day.

And so what we're trying to do in this ministry called Real Momentum is just number one, help men get right with God.

That's where it all begins.

So they have a chance to get right with their family.

So they have a shot at being the man God wants them to be in the church.

And then from that, everything else comes alive.

But if they can't get right with God, they can't get right anywhere else.

By the way, if you're not right with your family, you're already at odds with God.

If you're not right with your church, guess what?

You're already at odds with God.

It all starts with Almighty God.

So he says, seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness upon you.

The decision to follow these commands in this one verse must be a decision with your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength.

It's the attitude that says, enough is enough.

I will break up my phalogram, which requires deliberate attention.

Nothing gets by.

I'm paying attention to what God's saying, how God's speaking.

I'm going through some things.

There's such a thing called take off and put on.

Even through the book of Colossians and Ephesians, he says to take off some stuff and to put on some stuff, take off some stuff and to put on some stuff.

Have you even read that in the Word of God?

Do you know what you're doing to take it off?

Take off this mindset, take off this wickedness and put on this righteousness.

It's like you're taking off all this sin and you're putting on the righteousness of God.

That's the exchange life where Jesus Christ has come that you might have life and life abundant abundant.

And he said, He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

That is the great exchange that God has given us the chance to live for Almighty God.

And so as we think about these things, I just want to give you a statement about Adrian Rogers.

Anybody ever heard of Adrian Rogers in the house?

I love that man of God.

He's still preaching, he's alive and preaching.

Praise God, he's still preaching.

Listen to this, this will flat preach.

Listen to it.

He says there are people who go to church on Sunday morning, but they don't go seeking God.

He went on to say, I don't know how much of God you have, but you have all you want.

Wow.

You don't have more because you don't want more.

Pray that God would give you a burning, blistering thirst so that you would say, I'm done with religion.

I want reality.

I am thirsty today for what is real.

What a word.

So too many of us in here posture.

We have this posture about us.

We play the act really, really well.

And that's the thing about men's ministry.

What's happening over the years is we we have a breakfast and we think we're doing men's ministry.

All you have was a biscuit, bro.

And everybody can tell.

Because nothing changes when you go there, except maybe your belt line.

You know what I'm saying?

And you know why some guys don't come?

Because they've been.

It's not helping them.

They come in there and they leave the same the way they got in there.

They're not getting help on how to be a husband, how to be the man God wants them to be, how to handle finances, how to do things right.

I've talked to men that don't even have a life insurance policy.

How does that happen, guys?

We're not even equipping our own men to do the things that are basic so we can take care of our families if something happens to us.

That's what a spiritual leader does.

He looks after those even when he's not around.

He prepares for the future when he may not be there.

He's taking care of his responsibility.

It's bigger than he is.

And guess what?

He can't do it by himself.

He's thinking the face of God, and by insight and intellect and other men around him, he makes good, godly decisions to protect those around him if he's not around.

These are decisions we need to wrestle with.

More than that, there's a God that needs to wrestle with us and get a hold of us.

Number two is a condition to be feared.

He says you're fallow ground.

Not your brothers or your sisters.

It's your ground.

It's your property.

It's your heart.

It's your mind.

It's your soul.

It's your spirit.

It's you.

It's me.

Listen to me, guys.

It's us.

There is also a plural connotation in this text.

He says yourselves.

He's calling all of us.

Not just you and not just him, but hey, them and them.

And he's calling all of us.

Sow to yourselves.

Because when you sew to yourselves together, something special happens.

You trust God together.

God begins to use you to teach one another.

Not about opinions or suggestions.

God uses a table to help things come out of that table to get some stuff out so God can put some things in and change that man's life and transformation takes place.

And all of a sudden we begin to transfer the truth of God to the next generation.

We're not looking for the next gym pastor.

We're using the dads and the families that are leading their own families.

He's right there.

The next generation of pastors in your church.

He's your daddy.

He's your daddies of those students in there.

Or the daddy that don't come to church.

He's out there.

Go get him.

Go get him.

He needs help.

Who's going to help him in America today?

Hey, Americans wrote the man off, right?

God never wrote the man off.

Guess what?

He sent the man to change the world.

He sent the God man to change the whole world.

How did God fix the world?

He sent his son, Jesus Christ.

And one of the passages I love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, y'all know it's all about the this is called the chapter of love, the chapter of charity.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

And it's mentioned all through there about the love, but then it gets down to near the end of that.

Verse number 11, it mentions about when I was a boy, I thought as a boy, I reasoned like a boy, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

And to me, that is the picture of love.

When a boy recognizes he's to be a man and adolescence goes away, he steps up and be the man God wants him to be.

So instead of going from 12 and then adolescence takes over until he's like 33.

No, he steps up at 13 to be the man God wants him to be.

He skips all that other stuff.

He doesn't waste his virginity, he doesn't waste his life.

He knows who he is and knows whose he is.

And it changes his whole life, how he lives.

He understands what it means to be a married man because he's been around a table and talked hearing other men talk about that.

And he's got a vision for it.

It's not the world's vision, it's the word of God.

It changes his life.

He's pursuing that.

He's bought into God's design for his life.

And that's a that's a that's hey, that's that's something that's really significant.

That's choice.

And a condition that we need to deal with.

And so as we dig through some of this, I want to just give you six things that I think men are struggling with.

And this is a condition that we all need to wrestle with, okay?

These are things that I think we need to think about.

If you're even considering the privilege of better man on the other side of this, you will deal with these issues.

But I want to give them to you tonight so you understand a lot of what's happening in our world today, why these are here.

Six major things that men struggle with.

They can't hear their pastor when he teaches, they can't respond like they need to respond because they're struggling with so much of these in their own lives, okay?

And I would say some of you probably have all six of them in the house.

Some of you probably deal with every single one I'll mention.

You haven't had any help or insight about what these are, and some of you may not even know that you had this until I say it.

But God will use it by the quickening of the Spirit of God.

He will speak right to where you are, and I pray that those dead bones will come alive as God deals with them.

And he digs around like he did in the book of Nehemiah, digs through the trash and rubbish to get to the root of who you are, to call you up from that, to help you be the man God wants you to be.

The first one is this you can't be what God wants you to be because of a father wound.

It's a condition in your life that needs to be feared.

You've called, you've you've had this father wound issue.

Maybe your dad was an alcoholic, maybe he's an absent dad, never was around, he was abusive, or whatever that is, but you're living from a wound called the father wound, and everything you're around is is difficult and challenging because you haven't been able to please your dad, you haven't even met your dad, you you've you were left to yourself, whatever that looks like.

And there are many of us out there, many of them have dealt with that.

That father one, he wasn't the man that he should have been, and you haven't forgiven him, so it's holding you back as a man, and you're in bondage.

God wants to set you free.

Number two is the man who's who's got unprocessed trauma, a divorce, loss of a friend when you were young.

One brother I know that's gonna better man with me, he his daddy took his own life, and he told me, he said, when my daddy took his life, it affected me so deeply.

And in Better Man, he told me, he said, I hadn't talked about this in 15 years.

I haven't dealt with this in 15 years.

And he has a dad wound, and then he also has unprocessed trauma.

And he can't be the man God wants him to be because these two things are weighing him down.

These two things are taking all of his life, these two things are robbing God of the glory of God.

And he's he's stuck.

And he, hey, he goes to church every week.

He's there every single week, man.

He's there every week.

Every week.

And you're wondering why his life's not changing.

You're wondering why he stays there and he goes home and does things that he does.

You're wondering why all that, because he's stuck.

He's not where he needs to be.

He's not gonna be a disciple.

You know why?

He's stuck, he's hurt, and somebody's gotta help him.

The other one is this no manhood vision.

What does it mean to be a man?

What does a manhood look like from God's perspective?

By the way, that's the only one that matters.

Amen.

God's perspective, God's viewpoint, God's theological position.

Where does God say, where does God say, and what does God's, where does God stand about manhood?

And here's a better question: what does God say about womanhood?

If you're gonna teach manhood, you better know what the Bible says about womanhood, amen.

Because you've got a leader.

You better know what the Bible teaches about that.

You can't miss this.

That's why families mess up and disintegrate and hurt the next generation behind them.

And these kids have these all these wounds behind us, and they're overcoming all this mess and all this struggle and all this, and we're the people of God.

Golly, what's he saying?

Return, come back, come back and do it my way.

There's not another way out there, there's no plan B out there.

Why do it that way?

And he's calling them out because that's what they've been doing.

You've been doing this.

Hey, you've plowed and you've plowed wickedness, you've reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies because you trusted in your own way.

That's what God said.

No close friends.

Can you name the six men that will take you to your last day on earth?

Who your pallbearers?

Used to, when they used to used to put obituaries in newspapers, I would, as a young boy, I would read who was the obituary of the, who who was taking the person who died, who were the pallbearers?

And they'd list them out.

I'd know some of these people, man.

It ministered to me just to know that these men were listed to take this man to his grave.

I'd even ask it this way: can your wife name those six men?

Can your children name those six men?

You know, I believe in America, and especially in churches in America, we don't have a resource problem, we have a relationship problem.

We have no close friends.

We we we take stuff with us we shouldn't take any other day, but we don't have somebody we can talk to about it to help us get out of the trouble we're in.

And we carry it for decades.

I just told you one guy took it for 15 years.

It's a weight that's weighing him down.

Dad wound, lack of a manhood vision, unprocessed trauma, no close friends.

Here's one because you've got all these issues, you have addictive habits, pornography, alcohol, and drugs are robbing God of what he wants to do in your life.

You've bought into something else rather than him.

You've medicated with everything else rather than the word of God and the spirit of God.

And then you're spiritually stuck.

Nothing phases you.

You come to church and stay the same way, there's no sign of life, and you need revival.

It'll take a great effort to break up all this fall of ground.

You need God and you need men to help you do the same thing.

So I just say the last thing is really, really important to me as we look at this.

I just want to help you think about this tonight.

Invitation is going to happen real quick.

Matt's gonna come up.

Matt's pastor at Fusion Church.

One man has turned into thousands of men on this side of Atlanta.

I just met with a guy recently because of the influence of Pastor Matt and Fusion Church.

He's a social circle, First Baptist Social Circle.

He got and connected to Better Man.

He was in my group this last series, and he's got 70 men starting on Sunday.

So men are responding.

Men are responding.

Question is, will you be left behind?

God's gonna do a great work in men's lives.

There's no doubt in my mind, I've been watching it for nine years.

I'm expecting God to do much more than what he's already, then you know why?

Because we've been sowing the seed of righteousness.

And we're gonna watch him rain upon us.

And I'm expecting God to do that in all of our lives.

But I tell you what, I don't want to see you left behind.

And I believe the men at your table don't want to see you left behind either.

Your wife don't want to see you left behind.

Matter of fact, she doesn't want to be left behind.

Because you're her spiritual leader.

I'll say this, I say it every time I get to mention about spiritual leadership.

Beth Moore's not your wife's spiritual leader, you are.

Okay, guys?

You're responsible.

Beth Moore won't stand before God and give an account for your wife.

You hear me?

You will.

Hey, would your wife define you as a spiritual leader?

He loves and protects me.

He leads me the way the word of God asks him to.

Or would she say he's missing an action?

This man of peace ain't easy, is it, guys?

For some reason the church has fell asleep at the will of something so significant.

But I thank God for his word.

He says it's time to seek the Lord till he comes and rains righteousness upon you.

It's almost like we asked the question: do I go on living without making any adjustments?

Do I just come to another event and leave?

Come to another service and leave.

In other words, are you unwilling to break up your fallow ground?

And the greatest as if your usefulness for God are over.

Thomas Fuller, who made the statement, this is really impactful to me.

I think about it oftentimes.

Get the facts, or the facts will get you.

And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.

All things are difficult before they're easy.

So the question I have is tonight is this you know, talking about the choice to be faced.

What's the facts about your life?

What have you covered up all these years?

What has piled up on you, issue after issue after issue, and one day the top's gonna blow, hurting everybody around it.

I watch it all the time, hear about it all the time.

Jim Collins wrote a book called Good to Great.

He said, when you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth about your situation, the right decisions often become self-evident.

It is impossible to make good decisions without infusing the entire process with an honest confrontation of the brutal facts.

As you think about these things, I want to give you just a just three simple statements.

Okay, number one, the choice is to be faced personally.

Personal decision.

You break up your phalogram.

You know, as we think about this, as you look at this personally, you know, the heartbeat behind all this is really just being what God wants you to be and being sensitive to God's spirit and knowing that God desires to use you and help you be all he wants you to be, and God calls you to himself, and all those things happen.

But in Psalm 46, the Bible says this in verse number 10, be still and know that I'm God.

Sometimes I think we're so busy we can't even hear God speak.

Agent Rogers, I'll mention him again, he said, Satan won't make you bad, he'll make you busy.

And too many of us are so busy we can't hear God speak.

I've been so busy these last several weeks, I've been overwhelmed, but I've I've fought for every time I could get with God as much as I need, because I know I need it in my tank.

I need God to be right there to help me be the anchor of my soul.

I want God to just anchor me because I if I'm not careful, what I'm involved in right now can take me off track really, really fast.

And these are good things, these are great things.

But I need to know Jesus fresh every single day.

If we're not careful, cultural Christianity means that we will pursue the God we want instead of the God who is.

I want to just read this to you, okay, okay?

I don't want you to miss this.

Cultural Christianity, if we're not careful, means that we will pursue the God we want instead of the God that is.

It is the tendency to be shallow in our understanding of Almighty God.

Wanting the God, wanting Him to be more of a gentle grandfather type who spoils us and lets us have our own way.

It is sensing a need for God, but on our own terms.

It is wanting the God we've underlined in our Bibles without wanting the rest of Him.

It is God relative instead of God absolute.

Wow.

Do you know the God of the Bible?

Or the God of America?

Or the God of the church.

And these need to be defined, amen.

God determines what America looks like, right?

God determines what the church looks like.

And I'll tell you one thing, I've saw people fight for America on January the 6th.

Didn't y'all?

Y'all heard about that, didn't you?

Or did they get past y'all?

They organized, listen to me, guys.

They planned, they strategized, they did whatever they could do to make their voices heard.

Amen?

Some of them are Christians.

Say they are.

My question is this: would they strategize?

Would they organize and plan for their own local church?

Would they fight for their own local church the way they fought?

For a place that would die.

By the way, we're marching through here, amen.

I'm not, I don't belong here.

I don't know about y'all, but I don't belong in America.

I'm just passing through to a place called heaven.

Amen.

And I want to ask you something, guys.

Do you live more like an American Christian or a biblical Christian?

What's got your heart beating?

Matter of fact, when you think about where you are before Almighty God, it's a big deal to think about.

That day's coming, and I'd much rather think about it right now so I can get ready for the day that's coming.

I'd much rather be ready for what right now, because I could stand before God one heartbeat away, just like you are.

So this cultural Christianity is robbing God of his glory, and we think we can just passively disengage it, and it'll toss us to and fro, and we'll be in so much trouble.

See, once we seek him as he really is, the trite, casual remark no longer seems appropriate.

He's a holy, holy God, not just holy, but he's holy, holy, holy.

He's the Lord God Almighty who is and who was and is and is to come.

So it's got to be faced personally.

Number two, the choice needs to be faced promptly.

Promptly.

It is time.

The word now means now's the time.

It's due season.

There's no better time or season.

This couldn't be any better time than right now.

Thank God for the move of God.

Hey, this is it.

Tonight's it.

There's no better time.

Amen?

No better time.

Why wait till tomorrow?

God's ready right now.

He's right here right now.

Hey, it's his day right now.

Don't think about tomorrow and what it's going to do.

Right now, God's right here.

He's right here.

Romans 13, 11 says it this way.

And do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

The night, listen to it, is far spent.

The day is at hand.

Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision of the flesh to fulfill its lust.

Wow, now's the time.

Then number three, face persistently.

Till he comes and arranges righteousness upon you.

Simply means it's gonna come flow as water.

Man, when you turn the water on, you can tell.

I mean, you can tell when the water comes on in the shower, you it's flowing, it's moving.

There's power behind water.

We we watch waterfalls, we watch all these things with all this kind of power.

I mean, water is a powerful thing, it creates energy.

He said, let it flow as water.

That's what that really means.

Let it let it take over.

And he points out things and he shows us things and he helps us and he just helps us see.

This this thing's not once and for all, it's it's ongoing, it's continuing to move in our lives, and uh that this living water just moves and touches other people's lives.

It's a continual ongoing lifestyle in regard to fellowship with Almighty God.

Wow.

So I got one question for you.

As a man, where did God find you tonight?

With him.

Nobody else.

Not as a husband, not as a father, but as a man.

Where are you with the God who sits on the throne?

Whether you're in a social circle or you're in this room tonight, there's a lot at stake.

And it's not just on your plate.

As great as those things were, and as good as they need to be for men, because God wants his best for his men.

He wants to treat them with excellence and honor.

God never casually approaches men in manhood.

Look at his son.

He takes it seriously.

And Jesus Christ is a life-giving spirit that'll change your life and give you life.

I don't know about you, but you may be here tonight.

You don't know Christ, there's been no change in your life.

It's been simply said one time before: no change in who you are and your relationship with God.

Producing results outside of that means no Christ.

If you claim to pray a prayer and there's been no evidence of the Christ's life in you, you you've been greatly deceived.

You just you just said words.

Transformation takes place.

When Jesus Christ moves into a person's life, listen to me.

You can tell, and everybody else can tell.

Amen.

And you've been bought with a price, which means you you don't, this is not your life.

You you've been crucified.

You hung on a cross.

Amen.

You hung on a cross.

And over You was written failure.

Okay?

Because you can't do it.

Apart from me, you can't do anything.

I can't do it.

All these weights of being a husband and a father, being the man God wants me to be, I can't even begin to pick it up, man.

Why even try?

God don't want you to.

You're crucified.

He wants to pick it up for you.

And she needs it.

They want it.

And you can't give it to them.

But guess what?

He can.

He can.

Why don't you let him?

Christ bid you to come and die.

Come and die.

Until a man dies, I can never live.

I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live.

Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

It's not me who has ten, eleven kids.

It's the one who bought me, the one who paid for me.

He's choosing to live through me.

Never would have chosen.

Who does?

10.

I'll tell you one thing.

I'm so glad he did.

And every single day, they're bigger than I am.

I got one little two-year-old boy.

He's bigger than I am.

I got a little girl with special needs.

She's bigger than I am.

Got a wife, 23 years, bigger than I am.

I turned to Jesus.

He can help me be everything they need me to be.

As he lives in me and through me.

And the same invitations for you tonight.

I want to read something to you that God used to speak into my heart, and this man was deeply impactful in my own life.

This is the invitation.

This is what I'm inviting you to do.

And when I invite you to do this, we're going to have just some follow-through right after this message.

And you'll have a chance to take a next step.

You can't take it in the flesh.

By the way, you can't do manhood in the flesh.

You'll mess it up and you'll mess everybody else up.

If you try to do what manhood is in the flesh, it turns ugly.

It turns out to be toxic.

It turns out to be degrading.

It turns out to be dominating rather than desperate and dependent.

Stephen Alford said this in a message he written, I think it was 1959 or 69.

I was reading through it the other day.

God used this part to really help me.

I want to give it to you.

Alford says, I discover that I am one with him in his death, in his burial, and resurrection.

I share his risen life, and he is now an indwelling Christ.

And now the glory of the indwelling Christ begins to shine out in my experience as I become a personal reflection of Christ.

I will never forget the day when I discovered Jesus as a as the complete answer.

I endeavored with all my strength and with every psychological twist I knew to try to live this life.

Then one day I discovered that God had said something I had not heard.

He does it often.

When Jesus died at Calvary, over the life of Stephen Offer was written, failure, just even talked about that.

He said, I discovered that there was nothing good in me at all.

As a Christian, I could not count up anything in my life that could bring glory to God.

No rights, no reputation, nothing at all.

Having accepted God's sentence, condemning all that was of self.

I said, What then, Lord?

He made it very clear why.

You were crucified.

He did not say I would be crucified, but that I am now crucified.

When Christ died on Calvary, I was nailed there.

That is where I belong, and that is where I will stay.

I discovered also that I was buried.

No longer could I dig up the old man or try to introspection and the various other things advised by some false teachers today.

No, Stephen Ulford is buried.

And if you know that you are condemned, you're crucified, you're buried, then now, by faith, you must know too that you are unified and united by faith to a risen Christ.

And that redeemed humanity of yours, Jesus wants to live out his life.

He wants that body in which he will walk down the streets of your town, those eyes through which he will look.

He wants those lips to speak through, and that brain to think through.

He wants that heart to glow through.

He wants to live his life again in you.

Then the strain and the stress and fervor of trying to live the Christian life falls away as Jesus Christ becomes Lord.

Wow.

Men, you have a chance tonight to take steps to be what God wants you to be.

It could be the step of salvation.

It could be the step of revival like it was for me.

When I was a young man, I was away from God.

God called me to himself.

That's the greatest thing he ever could do for me.

I was already saved, but I wasn't living like it.

I was away from God.

God used the word and even several things to get my attention, to call me back to himself, and that's the greatest response.

That was over 23 years ago.

And to God be the glory.

Hey, I hadn't looked back.

I hadn't looked back.

God changed my life.

And he wants to do the same for you.

It could be salvation, it could be revival.

But there's no doubt in my mind there are men that probably need to be saved.

And I know there are men who need revival.

Let's pray together.

Father, as we bow before you and just trust you with this next step.

I wonder if there's anybody here that would say, I don't know for sure.

And if I were to be really honest, I need to be saved.

I want God to save me.

I'm tired of doing it my way.

I've tried, I've reasoned, I've like Dr.

Alford, I've done all the psychological twists to maybe think in reason that I'm I'm okay with God.

The facts are our friends.

And the truth is, God is clearly helping you realize you don't know him.

If that's you tonight, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you just lift up your hand and say, I'm not so certain I'm saved, I want to make sure I'm saved.

Just lift your hand up.

Anybody in the house?

I want to make sure what it means to be born again, to be saved.

Is there anybody here?

Three hands, I see right now.

Anybody else?

You're not by yourself.

Four.

Anybody?

Anyone need Christ?

Anybody else?

Alright, men, look at me.

No, these guys, everybody, everybody, head down.

These guys look at me if you had your hand up.

Look at me, okay?

When we start the invitation, there's gonna be some men I want you to go to.

Matter of fact, he's got a he's got a beard and he's ball headed with a real momentum sweatshirt on.

He will help you know Jesus, okay?

His name's Brett.

He will help you know Jesus, alright?

He's right there at that table.

Brett, would you just stand up real quick?

Guys, y'all see him?

Look at him.

They're right there, Brett.

They're right around you, brother.

Just stand right there.

Y'all come to Brett when the invitation happens, okay?

All right, man, if you need personal revival, just say, God, I'm not where I need to be.

You put your finger on something tonight.

Maybe those six things that God dealt with.

And you know you need a fresh touch.

You just need God's spirit upon you.

Just need a second chance to say, God, help me get this right.

If that's you, would you stand to your feet?

You need revival.

Anybody else?

Honest with God, I'm not where I need to be.

God knows it.

Your friends know it, your family knows it.

You just you want God to help you.

I had a sister praying for me.

I'm so glad she was praying for me.

There's no telling where I would be.

I was so far from God, but yet I was so close.

I was around it all.

But I needed revival.

Anybody else?

Just be honest before God.

Revival doesn't come to the proud.

He rejects the proud.

Revival comes to the humble and the honest.

I don't know about you, but I need revival every day of my life.

And if I were out there, matter of fact, I'm up here, I'm standing up.

I need revival every day.

I need a fresh touch from God.

I've not arrived.

And I want God to move every day.

I want that living water to flow and not dam up.

I want God to break through.

So if you need revival, just stand to your feet.

Look at me, guys.

You're not by yourself.

Amen.

Look around.

You're not by yourself.

You want God to move?

Guess what?

He's moving.

As he speaks to you tonight, whatever that looks like, with next steps, whatever it looks like, I pray you'll take the step you need to take.

Guess what?

It's going to be worth it.

It's worth it, guys.

Revival's worth it.

Because why?

Revival's Jesus.

It's Jesus.

So walk with him.

Let him talk to you, grow you, equip you, show you what you need.

And be seated.

As I pray, these men that have raised their hand to be saved, Brett's going to talk to them.

Invitation's going to happen.

You respond as you need to.

Then we're going to have Matt Alexander come up and tell you about next steps, okay?

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for a night like tonight.

Not many of them happen in our land anymore.

Where men just get together under the Word of God and respond to the Word of God.

We've gotten so good at church we don't even know what a move looks like.

God, we've got it all calculated.

We got it down to the scripts and the times and the slots and the slides and everything.

But we don't have you.

Our families tell the truth.

Our culture tells the truth.

And yet we keep doing what we're doing.

We schedule what we schedule, we calendar what we calendar, we budget what we budget, and we are far from you.

Ultimately, we figured it out.

We don't need you.

But God, every other thing in life tells us that we need a fresh touch.

And God, there's no way we'll see revival without men.

We're praying futile prayers to even think about revival without thinking about spiritual leaders.

And every man in the house is a spiritual leader, whether he lives like it or not.

He'll give an account for his life and those he's responsible for.

Whether he knows it or not, he'll stand before a holy God.

And every man has a chance tonight to get it right, to reconcile with God, so they may impact their family, they may touch the church and bless the world because of how they're walking with you.

Everything changes when men get right with God.

So, God, I pray as you move tonight through the invitation, however you see fit, may God be glorified, may God be exalted.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.