Transcript
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The speaker introduces himself, his family, and the reason he came to speak. He sets up the message by emphasizing family, biblical authority, and the idea that men are called to fight for their homes.
Speaker A
All right.Hey, if you got your Bibles, head over to Genesis, chapter one and two, man, we're gonna get right at it.I do just want to say just a couple quick things.Number one, he's right.I don't travel and speak.
I'm gonna talk about this in a second.I got three adopted kids and man, you know, it's just not something I do.I'd rather be home.And I turn down things that I know sometimes people would think I'm real dumb for turning down.And some of you, this is the thing that you need to hear more than anything else is I think they're dumb because I would rather win with my kids.I don't want to win the world and lose my kids.And so.But man, there's.This is the one thing in the, in this 12 month rotation, I was like, man, I'm going to do that because I believe in that guy right down there, James Griffin.And it's an honor, it's a real honor to be here.Let me listen, nobody came here to hear about me.We came here to get into the Word together, I'm assuming.
So let me kind of get right at it.I do just want to introduce my family real quick because this is going to be important in about, in a few minutes.So let me just show you.Here's Howard and Family pictures.I'm gonna do this real fast.Nobody cares about this stuff.Here's Howard and family picture from last year.So this is the fam right there.I got Ms. Eliana right there.There's Ms. Jana, there's Ms. Felicity.Now if you see it, you may be gone.If you pay attention, you may be going, hey, man, I thought you had three kids, not two.I do.
So here's the full picture.There's Hudson right over there.Yeah, you look real close.There he is.He's all boy, all boy, all the time.
And so I'm in it, man.I'm in it right now.We got 15, 11, 7.It's going awesome.And then I do just.
I always like showing.It's my favorite picture of my girls.I'm gonna talk about my girls here in a second.So it's my favorite picture of my two girls.This is them.That's their little.We call that the stink eye.They're at it, man.Okay, so we're gonna get right at it and we're gonna be in Genesis.Really?
Genesis 2 and 3 in particular.I wanna give you a heads up in the next few minutes.I don't know how familiar you are with Pastor James's ministry, what we're doing here.I will, in the next few minutes, depending upon the background that you come from, I will say some things because we're talking about the role and the calling that God has placed on men.I will say some things that are politically incorrect, but they're biblically correct.
And I'm assuming, listen, I'm assuming if you wanted the political correct thing, you could have stayed home and you could have watched cable news.But I'm assuming you came in here as a man of God to get into the word of God and you wanna hear what the word says.And so we're gonna get right at it.And just now, if you hate it and it frustrates you, I do want you to know I am also a compassionate man.So honestly, you can send me a note.If it's frustrating, send me an email.I'll read every single one.You can email me at james griffin actlikeman.com and I'll read all of them.It's gonna be awesome.It's gonna be great.
Okay, now what we're gonna do In Genesis 2 and 3, let me just set a theological framework.In Genesis 2, God establishes the first family.What's interesting is Satan is not introduced until Genesis chapter three.What you have to understand, no matter your age, no matter your generation, is the Bible teaches, as soon as you start a family, Satan starts a fight.And what that means is that you have an enemy.
And what you must understand is that your family is not your enemy, but your family has an enemy.And the enemy wants you to think that your family is your enemy, so.So that you'll fight with your family against each other instead of fighting for your family against the enemy as men and women of God.And what you have to understand is, so listen, you just gotta.We're gonna talk about being a man in general, how God's designed that.
But some of that has to do with family.And some of you, at the outset of this day, which you must understand is that you are in a war.There is a reason the Bible uses war analogy as the primary analogy.There's a reason he's called an enemy.He wants to steal, kill, and destro everything in your life.He wants your faith dead.He wants the faith of your children dead.He wants your.Listen.He wants your children to burn in hell.
And that is a gleeful thought to him because he is full of anger, rage and malice.And so every day when you wake up, I've heard it said before, that the birthmark of a believer is a bullseye.We as men of God, as husbands, as fathers, as Christian men.It's not like you're in a war.It's a war analogy.And it's not actual.It's really just spiritual.You are actually in a war.And people's lives, futures and eternities depend on you standing up and acting like a man, bending your knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ and waging that war in the power of the spirit.That's what that man's going to talk about.
In the power of the spirit to win it.Not just for you.Watch this.Not just for you and your life, but for your lineage and your legacy.
He shares a formative memory from Promise Keepers and Tony Evans, then argues that changing a man changes a family, neighborhood, city, and nation. He uses statistics and cultural critique to stress the damage caused by fatherlessness.
Speaker A
Now, when I was.
I am blessed dude.When I talk to dudes, I just.My eyes get all leaky.I'm not an emotional guy, but my.My eyes get all leaky.
I'm an 80s baby.But the 90s made me.And so, like, I grew up in it, you know.It's 90s, man.It's back late 1900s.We rode dinosaurs to school.And I had to.I had a. I had a.My whole childhood.Had a poster of the greatest basketball player who has ever lived.
If you thought of anybody besides Michael Jordan, hold up five fingers, make a fist, punch yourself in the face.It's Michael Jordan whole time, man.That was my entire childhood.But I'm a top.But my grandfather was one of the first Christian men in my entire family tree.
And he passed his faith to my father.And there was this other thing going on in the 90s called Promise Keepers.Anybody remember Promise Keepers?My dad in Promise Keepers.98.Vintage, bro.Vintage 98.My dad took me to Nashville to Promise Keepers.And this big dude walked out I'd never seen before.Big black preacher Tony Evans.Back then he was swole.He looked like an inside linebacker.And he walked out and he had this intensity on him.And I'll never.I was.
I think I was 16 years old and I'll never forget.He looked out at the room, and this is how he began.He said, if you want to change a continent, you must first change a country.If you want to change a country, you must first change a state.If you want to change a state, you must first change a county.
If you want to change a county, you must first change a city.If you would change a city, you must first change a neighborhood.If you would change a neighborhood, you must first change a family.And then he said, if you would change a family, you must first change a man.You must first change a man.
Now listen, here's reality.The reality, whether you like it or not, reality is undefeated.Reality is where men step into their God given purposes, things flourish.And where men refuse to do that, things burn.And listen, bro, if you're not on Team Jesus yet, you don't even gotta be on Team Jesus to realize that's reality.
I'm just gonna give you data.You don't even gotta have doctrine.I'll just give you data.71% of inmates and 81% of rapists come from fatherless homes.90% of all homeless and runaway children, fatherless homes.
60% of youth suicides, fatherless homes.President Obama, during his administration, he said this.He said children without present fathers are 500% more likely to live in poverty and commit a crime.900% more likely to drop out of schools.2000% more likely to end up in prison.
Fatherlessness.This one thing, one thing.Listen, it doesn't matter what anybody else says about the system or the news or the education, it doesn't matter.This is the thing.Fatherlessness is the number one contributor to the following five societal crime, homelessness, unwed pregnancy, poverty and future fatherlessness.
Fatherlessness is a better predictor of incarceration than race or poverty.What our culture has been doing for three generations is looking at men like you and saying that what they're doing, defying the laws of God, defying the design of God.And what they have been doing is they've been doing that and they've been chanting, this is progress.This is progress.This is progress.This is progress.Well, how about this?In 1965, 7.7% of babies were born to unmarried mothers.In 2020, most recent data I could find, that number is nearing 50%.Listen, that is not progress.
It is not liberation.It is an unmitigated disaster.Why?Because when men step into their callings, things flourish.And they were.When they.Where they refuse, things burn.Okay, now let me just make a point and let's get into the word.You are the men of your homes, of your churches, of your cities, of your societies.The women and the children are at home right now.
So get this down deep in your heart.The futures of the people who are not in the room are dependent upon the obedience of the men who were in this room.It's not just about you.It's not just about you, okay?In fact, let me just say this one last thing.
That right there is why everything is so jacked up right now.We've spent three generations in our culture Doing the opposite.We've been breaking down men and then trying to get the government to take the place of fathers.Where the government starts saying, we'll protect you, we'll provide for you, we'll indoctrinate you.We'll.
We'll decide what's right and wrong.We'll define things like marriage.We'll teach your children.Well, no, no, no, that's not what we need.We need less government and more godly men.
That's when we need godly men.They are both the answer and the opposite.They will be the solution.
The sermon turns to Genesis 2 to explain that God designed men to work and to live under His will. He encourages young men to embrace responsibility, ambition, and disciplined habits that honor God.
Speaker A
Okay, now let's get into it.This is Genesis, chapter two.Here we go.It says this then.So we gotta.Design implies destiny.Whoever designed it gets to define it.So we gotta go back to how the designer defined what it means to be a man and the role God has given us.And I gotta get at it.Here we go.It says this.Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.This is the first foundational thing we have to understand about being men.You must understand about being a man is think about this.So what that says is the first time God ever created a man.What he did is he got his hands dirty and he got down, and he got down in the dirt and he got his hands.
What do I got this on?
He got.I can't take it off.All right, I'm just gonna go.He got down, he got his hands dirty, and it says that he got dust on his hands and he put them all together.And then he fashioned the first man, Adam, out of the dust of the ground.And watch this.The Bible says that he breathed the breath of life into that man.The Hebrew word for breath is ruach.It means spirit, breath or wind.So I want you to imagine this.
God's down on the ground, hands dirty, forms Adam.And it literally says that he breathes.I want you to imagine this.Just breathe the breath of life in Adam.And Adam, the first thing that he ever saw, just inhaling his first breath, just.
And his eyes open and he's face to face with his maker.And that is what you were designed for in your life.You were designed, in fact, you'll never be happy.You'll never be fulfilled.You can't drink enough beer, bet enough women, make enough money, succeed enough.
You were designed to live in a face to face relationship with your maker.And you'll never be happy until you get it.And he wants to have it with you.So this is what it says from the very beginning that God designed us to do this.Okay, now check this out.What you're gonna see, we're just gonna.Here's how I like to preach.Read a little, talk a little, read a little, talk a little, and then we're done.That's what we're just gonna read.Read a Bible and talk about the Bible.
So what you're gonna see is every Bible teacher in history has noticed that in this passage, God designed men for three primary things.There are three things that he gives the man that he does not give the woman.And design implies destiny.So here we go.This is verse 15.
It says the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it.The number one thing that you were designed for as a man is you were designed to work.Amen.Amen.We were designed to work.Now, I just want to point this out.Notice this is before the fall.This is before sin enters the world.There ain't no grain in the engine.There's nothing gunking up the thing.
This is before the fall.So this is when everything is good and nothing is wrong.When everything is good and nothing is wrong.God puts man in the garden to work it.So you and me, we were designed by God to work.
I just.About three months ago, I had a.My grandfather, Grandpa Hemingway, went to be with Jesus, went out Jesus.He died at 96.He was a He.He.They don't make him like that anymore.He died on the same farm he was born on 96 years ago.96 years old.He did something on the farm.
Something on the farm.And every day of his life until about two months before he died, he believed in NASCAR and Jesus and International Harvester trucks.That's what he believed in.He pureed hot dog.It's a true story.He pureed hot dogs after he lost all his teeth and drank them through a straw.And we said, grandpa, why are you doing that?And he said, well, I went to Walmart and a blender was $60 and, you know, and the dentures were 500.So a pureed hot dogs drank through a straw.That's true story.
If you know any farmers that makes sense to you.If you don't know farmers that don't make any sense to you, Grandpa, when he was 96 one time I asked him in his 90s, like, Grandpa, why are you still getting up and messing around with the farm?This is what he said.He said, When I was a young man, I used to think that I was keeping the farm alive.And now I understand the farm's keeping me alive.
You see what you were designed to work.God gave you a purpose.And I've heard it said like this before.Old preacher said it like this, that men are like semi trucks.They drive better with a load.
It's like when you got something on your back, it's gonna run.Okay, now let me get real practical.If you are, let me.Let me see the young man.Who are the guys whose ages are under 35?Where are you at if you're under 35, man?Praise God, first of all.Hey, can we honor these young men for making a time to be here?Let's honor them, man.That's a big deal right there.
That's a big deal.Let me see him one more time.Under 35.Where you at?It's awesome, man.God bless your vision and your flexibility, your ability to eat carbs and all the things.God bless you.Okay, now listen.What I'm about to say, listen, this is like a prophecy over you.This will not be you.What I'm getting ready to say will not be you.And you need to decide in your heart right now that will never be me.What a lot of guys in our generation, I'm 42.But in our generation and down do is what they do is they work really hard not to work.They work really hard not to work.So here's what they do.They act like kids spend their whole childhood avoiding responsibility.Then they go to college, and instead of working hard at college, they drink, smoke, party.
That's all they do.They don't work hard.So they can't get a good job when they get out of college.So then they get out.And because they didn't do that, they don't get a good enough job to take care of the college debt that they incurred when they went into college.So then instead of working hard and taking responsibility for the cost that they incurred, instead of working hard, they sit on their couch and vote for people who will make other people pay for the debt they incurred and what they're doing.Watch this.
They're working really hard to.To never have to work.You were designed to work.God made us men to work to build stuff to win.So listen, man, I'm not coming at you like, honestly, if you're a young man.
Listen, the old heads in the room, I need you to signal to these guys what I'm saying is true right now.If you are a Young man, I'm going to tell you how to get a decade ahead of anybody else in your generation.If you'll do this, if you'll get up, read a chapter of your Bible every day and pray every day, go to work, have a good attitude, try and just do what you said you're gonna do, you'll have a decade head start on every other guy in your generation.Amen.You were designed to work.Now, let me say one other thing.Let me keep rolling through the passage, man, on this.I wanna say one thing.Some of you guys, you're killers, like in a good way.You're like that guy that's like.You wake up every day, I'm wired a little bit like this.
Honestly, you wake up every day and it's like, man, I want to go out and kill something, drag it home.I want to make the deal, I want to execute the merger.I want to build the thing.I want to win the competition, build, fight, win all the stuff.
And sometimes I got a little pet peeve with churches, and I'll do this every now and then.Now first of all, understand, you should not let work, money, success, become an idol.Don't do that.At the same time, we got a guy right down here that just wrote a great book called Godly Ambition.What you should have is some godly ambition in your life that actually I do wanna build, fight, win.
So listen, some of you, what churches will sometimes do is they'll be like, all the warnings are against success, against trying, against winning, against earning.And some of you need to hear this.You know what some of you need to do?You need to go out and you need to absolutely crush it.You need to win the empire, build the thing, make billions of dollars and then leverage it to throw haymakers for the kingdom of God.
That's what we need you to do.Okay?So you were designed to work.
He develops the idea that men must submit to God's commands rather than the world's opinions. Using a dog analogy and examples from Scripture, he explains that blessing comes from living under the authority of God's word.
Speaker A
Alright, let's go, number two.Here we go.Next verse.And the Lord commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree.So you can eat from any tree, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will surely die.The second thing God has given you as a man is he's given you his will.He's given you work and he's given you his will.Now listen, this is so important.Listen, listen, listen.You, right now, you live in a world that is lorded over by the Father of lies.And the number one Lie.The enemy wants you to believe it's a lie about the character of the father, that he's actually not a good dad who loves his kids and wants to give you good gifts.
That's the number one lie the enemy wants you to believe.So notice this in this passage, he goes, hey, man, any tree in the garden, all yours.Have fun.Do all the stuff.There's only one tree.That's no.So watch this.It's one no in a world of yeses.Why?Because he's a good dad that loves to give good, good gifts to his kids.
He's like the dad that stocks the pantry with all the best snacks and then goes, hey, man, don't drink the bleach under the sink.That's what he's like.Okay?So in fact, even in this passage, he gives all.Like, think about this.Here's how good God is.I just.I need you to get the loving character of the father down in your heart so that you become a father.Like, he's a father.So check this out.Literally, the first command he ever gives is, be fruitful and multiply.That's Hebrew for bow chicka wow wow.That's what that is, man.By the way, that's a Joby Martin joke, and that's hilarious.That's what that is.
And I heard that.Amen over here.Okay, now listen.So what he's done, but watch this.What it says is he.
I want to focus on a word that's an unpopular word in our culture.We need to regain this word.It doesn't say.He suggested.It doesn't say.He implied.It says he gave this.It said what he says he commanded.He commanded it.God has given us his will.They are not suggestions.He's a lord.He's not a life coach.These are commands that he's given.And what a man of God does is he bends his knee to the lordship of Jesus so that he can then stand up and act like a man full of the Holy Spirit and obey the commands that have been given to us.And what you must understand is your entire life, the younger you are, the more you need to get.The earlier you get this in life, the quicker things will change in your life.Your entire life is a war of wills.
And the decision you will always have to make is which will will supersede the other wills that are at war in front of me in my life.Like, think about this, man.It's.Sometimes it's people, sometimes it's a culture or whatever it is, man.Remember What Jesus said.Jesus said.Jesus was very clear, unapologetic in his lordship and his demands as Lord.
Remember what he said.He said, man, you can't even follow me unless you.And he used the word hate.Unless you hate your father, mother, wife, children, all these things.And what he was doing is he was acknowledging the fact that there will be a war of wills between you and people in your life.Now, sometimes that don't make sense to people.What's it mean that Jesus said?Wait, he said, hate your father, mother, wife?What does that mean?I'm gonna give you an analogy.
So I'm not like a pet guy.They're, like, not my thing.But my wife is a.She's a dog girl.So Jana, a few years ago, she got his dog.
That's Jack.I don't believe in clothes on dogs.I just don't believe in it.But Jana's all about.And that dog's like this big.It's basically just barely.Not a cat.That's what that dog was.But that dog, what it did is that dog, it was like.It had, like, doggy mental illness.Like, for real.Like, I'm not joking.So it did this thing where if it got scared, it would just flip over and pee in the air.I don't know why it did that, but then it was really annoying.But then it also had this thing where if it got scared, it just got aggressive.Like, real fast, it got aggressive.So the problem was we just adopted our first two kids.So I kept, like, snipping at them and nipping at, that kind of thing.Well, then one day, I'm standing here in the living room.
Jack's over there, baby's on the ground.
And I watched Jack, and he nips at one of my babies, and he clips the arm of one of my babies.Exactly, exactly.Now, listen.I don't know.It was like in that moment, something snapped inside of me.Now, I'm not proud of what I did.And I may ask him to take this offline.
When he did that, I just got up, I walked over to our kitchen.I opened a drawer in the kitchen.I pulled out a kitchen knife.I walked over to the middle of the living room.I picked up Jack by the scruff of his neck.
I took him outside behind the house.I lifted up his head.I put that.I'm just joking.I didn't do that.
That's a joke.That's a joke.I didn't really do that.That's a joke either.But I did get.You didn't I. I did get you a little bit.I did get you up, so I didn't do that.Now, what I did do is he got put down the next day.I assume you're like, oh, Josh, don't you love animals?Yep.Medium rare.Love animals.Absolutely, man.Absolutely, absolutely love animals.Now, here's my point.
Did we in some way love Little Jack?
But watch this.But our love for that dumb dog, in comparison to my children, love looked like hate.When Jesus stands in front of us as disciples and he calls himself a Lord and he says, if you're going to follow me, you must be willing to hate your father, mother, wife, children, everyone around you, he's saying, you can love them, but your love for them in comparison to your love for me, it must look like hate because they're so far apart.And what he's saying is, my will must supersede every will that this around you in your life.I'm not issuing suggestions.
These are commands.Now let me just say this and let me move on again.The younger you are, the quicker you have to get this.Listen, there is the Word and there is the world.And the Word and the world are in constant conflict with one another.
And you will have to make a decision as a man.Which one stands in authority over the other one?Do the opinions of the world stand in authority over the Word and decide.I like that.I don't like that.That's right.That's wrong.That's bigoted.That's oppressive.I don't.Does the Word world stand in authority over the Word, or does the Word stand in authority over the over the world and let God be true and every man a liar?
And listen, this is blessing that God is seeking for you.He's a good dad that wants to give good gifts to his kids.Again, for you younger guys like, bro, you got to get this quick.One of the great misconceptions people have.
God does not bless people.In general.God doesn't bless people.What he does is he blesses a place.That place is under the Word of God.
And when you as a man bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus, stand up and act like a man, and you place yourself under the authority of the Word of God.You place yourself in the place of blessing.And the second that you take yourself out from underneath the authority of the Word of God, you remove yourself from the place of blessing.Is this making sense?So what he's done is he's given us a will that he commands us to obey.You must first bend Your knee to the lordship of Jesus before you can stand up and act like a man.
The speaker teaches that God gives men a woman as a necessary ally and warns single men to choose godly wives wisely. He explains the order of work, leaving parents, marriage, and sexual faithfulness, then describes what healthy intimacy and marriage should look like.
Speaker A
Now, number three, I'm gonna say this one and then I'll read it because I'm a riff on this for a second.Okay?The third thing.So he gives a work, he gives a will.Number three, he gives a woman.This is Genesis 2:18.How much time I got?All right, good.It says the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone.
I will make him a helper fit for him.Now, let me pause right here.I got time to do this, so I'm gonna do it.I'll make him a helper fit for him.Now, real quick, helper, this is the word.I'm going to talk about it here in a second.Azerknegdo.What it literally means is, it means a necessary ally.What the Bible means when it says that God has made a helper fit for you.I'm going to do the Hebrew here in a second.What it means, we're going to Bible nerd out for a second.What it means is that there's a calling that God places on your life as a man.But if you are destined for marriage, and the vast majority of you are designed for that, our culture's down on marriage.The Bible's real high on marriage.The vast majority of you need.
Here's what you need to do.You need to find a cute girl that loves Jesus, marry young, start serving God, read a chapter of the Bible every day, pray every day, have it.Work hard, have at least one more kid than you think you can afford, and build things instead of complaining about things you do.That stuff's going to go awesome in your life.Okay?Now, what he says right here is, he says, a helper fit for you.Now, married guys, let me talk to you real quick.A lot of times what we love is we love to emphasize the headship that men have.And listen, honestly, I'm all about that.In fact, I think the church not talking about that clearly enough has done more damage than we'll ever understand.
But what this right here says is that your wife has been designed as a helper for you, married man.I just want to encourage you in this.She is your necessary ally.Emphasize the word necessary.What that means is that you cannot, in the providence of God, accomplish what he's put you on earth to accomplish without her help.So all I'll say is, hey, man, don't be surprised when your helper starts helping.Don't be surprised when she starts going hey, what if you look at it like this?Hey, don't.Here's a big one.Don't trust that guy.That guy's shady.To me, that girl seems off.She's your helper.Don't be surprised when she starts helping sometimes that's not nagging, it's helping.It's her doing her God given purpose.
Okay, now, helper, for you younger guys, I'm just gonna do this real quick for the single guys, let me just speak to you in a very straightforward way.This is like when I was like 19.This is what I wish somebody would have told me.You will either necessary helper, you have to have this.You will either marry every man, either in the woman that he chooses, will either marry a launch pad or a lid.
You will either marry a godly woman that is a launchpad and you go farther because you have her, or you will marry instead of a godly woman, you will marry a godless woman.And she will, instead of propelling you farther, she will be your lid.That will be the most important decision you ever make besides bending your knee to the lordship of Jesus.So listen, choose wisely.Choose wisely.
Listen, man.Charm is deceptive.Beauty is fleeting.But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.You know what that means?Listen again, I'm just worried of men's.I'm just gonna speak in a straightforward way.If you're a single dude and the thing that's most important to you is cleavage, size and a thigh gap, you're an idiot.You're an idiot.And you're all, pastor, can't you be more positive?Yes, I'm positive.You're an idiot.I'm 100% positive.Why?Because charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
There is nothing like a godly woman who, who serves as a launchpad for her husband.And listen, here's what you need to know, man.Let's just, let's.Let's be for real, for real.It doesn't matter what she looks like.
Look at your grandma.Gravity wins.Gravity's going to win.So you want to place your bet on the thing that gets better with age, not worse.And that's godliness and character.
Now watch what does.Let's keep going.Okay, where was I?Here we go.So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.
And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and he closed up his place of flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man.Therefore, a man shall leave.Now, listen real.Listen real close to this order.A man shall leave his father and his mother.
Leave hold fast to his wife.Then they shall become one flesh.Verse 25.And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed.That's my favorite verse in Genesis.
Now, I just want to point this out.Okay?Did you.Again.Just.For 30 more seconds.I'm talking to the younger guys.Did you notice the order?The order.If you go back a few verses, first we're going to work it and keep it.So we're going to get a job.That's step one.Then it says, leave his father and mother.Oh, I made enough to get out of the house.That's a good.That's a great idea.Okay, Now I'm gonna leave father, mother, then I'm gonna hold fast to my wife.It's covenantal language.It's talking about getting married and then become one flesh.Did we see the order?
Is that order clear?Okay.The single guys are like, I don't know.It doesn't seem real clear.Doesn't seem clear.
And all the dads and daughters are like, real clear, real clear, real clear to me.Okay?So the order is, get a job, leave mom and dad, marry a woman, and then.Then have sex.That's the order.
That's the order.Okay?Now, notice the language, what it says.It says one flesh.What's the number?You tell me.It says one flesh.It's not a trick question.What's the number?1.
1.How many people should you, as a man of God, have eyes for?One.So let me just speak to you in a straightforward way.God has given you a woman to love.
The way that you do.That is you prioritize her above all else.You have eyes for only one woman.Listen, let me just.Again, straightforward way.I'm just like.I'd rather preach like a jackhammer than a feather duster.I'm just gonna.Let me go right at it.This means stuff.Like, it means no work, wife, no sliding into DMs.We're not porn guys.This is.No, My best friend's a Girl.But it's okay.
None of that.One.One.When you get married, you draw a circle.And you and your wife are the only people in that circle, and nobody else ever gets inside of that circle.Relationally, emotionally, intimacy, people, I get.I get crap for this all the time.Can I say crap?I. I get stuff this all the time.Online, like, I'm a Billy Graham rule guy.
I'm a Billy Graham.And listen, man, people, all that, what that means is I am never alone with a woman ever.That ain't Jana or one of my daughters.Never.And now listen, y' all are clapping.I get crap for that online.Because all the feminists are like, uh, that keeps people from being able to.I don't like that.Well, guess who does like it.Jana.
Jana.Jana likes it.Okay, so this is what it says.One flesh, one flesh.Now I'll just say this because it is one of your greatest battles.This is a whole different sermon.Have you ever noticed in the Bible, Ephesians 6, it says to stand firm against the devil's schemes.But then if you go over to First Corinthians 6, this is really interesting.Ephesians 6, stand firm against the devil's schemes.First Corinthians 6 says, flee from sexual immorality.
So here's what's really interesting, what the Bible literally means.If you were to go out to your car today and literally the devil was there, the whole red get up and, you know, the horns and the tail and all the stuff, the Bible's like, hey, man, bow up.Take your stand.You're full of the holy spirit and you fight.If instead you go out there and there's some shady 27 year old coworker in a shady minisk or whatever it is, Run forest, run.You are no match for this enemy.That's what that's saying.You flee from sexual immorality.You stand firm against the devil.Now watch this.
Here's what it says.Listen.What it says right here is God has given you a woman to love.Check this out.So the Hebrew right here, we're going to bible nerd out for a second.I'm assuming you came here to get the word of God.So this is what it says.The Hebrew is aer connecto.What that literally means is help.If you go to your old KJV that your grandpa had, the two words were help meet.That's what your little KJV Bible says says Azerkone, a help who was meat for Adam.It lit.Check this out.It literally means one who stands in front of.That's what it means.
So check this out.When the Bible says she was a help meet, it means that you check this out.You were designed.And she deserves a face to face relationship with her husband.So like, man, you just need to ask this.And I know, dude, it's different for guys than it is for girls.Jan and I, we've, we've fine tuned the best ways for us to hang out.You gotta figure all that stuff out here.I'm just gonna give you one diagnostic question.There are three types of marriages and you need to know which one you're in.
Some people, they're in back to back marriages.This is when the marriage begins to feel like a battle.Your enemies, you go to bed and you get on that side and look that way and she gets on that side and she looks that way.And the whole marriage, it feels back to back.You're in a battle.
Some people, you get in the real thick of it.Like I got kids, you know, I'm running a big old church and doing all the things and I got kids, you know, 15, 11 and 7.All this stuff, you get in the thick of it and your marriage didn't feel back to back.What can happen to you when stuff gets busy is marriage feels side to side.You feel like business partners.
It's like ships passing to the night, hey, let's think the calendar, let's check the budget, let's do this stuff.But there's no intimacy.There's no intimacy there.Some marriage, back to back.Some side to side.But watch this.The Bible says this.Azer Connecto, face to face.God designed you and she deserves a face to face relationship with you.It's talking about intimacy.You know what intimacy is?Intimacy means intimacy.Now the question is, and I want you to ask this question in your heart right now.I'm not asking you.If I were to ask your wife which one of those three marriages you have, which one would she say?
That's the question you need to answer.God has given you work.He's given you a will.He's given you a woman.Now let me start landing it.Okay, now I'm going to get to this spot.This is the most important part.I'm going to get to this spot where the whole Satan tempting Eve happened thing, the whole apple thing happens.Now if you've ever wondered on date night when you get in the car with your wife and you say this question, you go, hey babe, where do you want to eat?And then she says, she says, I don't know.Do you know why that is?Women can't choose where to eat.Because the first time they chose what to eat, they doomed all of humanity.That's why.That's it.
I just want to.That's it.Let me just.That's a joke.That's a joke.Okay, now that's now, all right, I got time to do this, so I'm doing it.I never get to do this when there's not a bunch of ladies present.It's probably going to be online, so I'll blow my cover.But I'm going to give you a trick.And listen, this is for real works.Here's what you're going to do.Next date night, you get in your car, and when your wife gets in, you say, babe, I planned a date night ahead of time, and I'm gonna take you to your favorite restaurant.Guess where it is.She guesses.You go where she guesses first.That's it.That's it.That's free.That's free.
He moves into Genesis 3 and shows how Satan deceived Eve while Adam stood passively by. Through personal stories, he urges fathers to protect their wives and children from spiritual and cultural threats.
Speaker A
All right, now, here we go.
This is Genesis 3.Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.Y' all are fun.This is fun.I like this.
He said to the woman, did God really say, this is what the enemy always tries to do is man.He tries to get you to doubt the character and the word of God.Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from the fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.She's already doubting the character of God because she's adding commands and adding strictness to what God has given her.
Then Satan says, you will not certainly die.The servant said of 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 that the fruit from the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it.She also gave some to watch this, some to her husband.And I want you to say these next four words out loud.
Some to her husband who was with her.He was right there.He was right.Listen, man.He was right there.
Adam stands passively by like a complete doofus while Satan def watch this attacks and devours his wife and his family.And Adam stands there watching it happen, and he does nothing.Listen.What you must understand men.I listen and I see it in me.
Listen, bro.I see it in me.It is like.It is the thing I wake up every day and when I read my Bible and get my little journal I make, this is the one thing every day I fight the most.Your greatest temptation in your family and your life.It will not be iniquity.It will be passivity.The thing that will get you the most is like a little wobbly wheel on a cart.The most is not doing the wrong thing.It will be to do nothing.
Adam stands passively by while that happens.Now, let me tell you what Adam should have done.Here's what Adam should have done.All right, I'm gonna use an analogy.So years ago, I was taking my little.
My little girl, Felicity, you saw her earlier, to the.A little part to play.Now, what you got to know Felicity is she's not special needs, but she was born with a very significant birth defect.She's 10 surgeries in.She's just a very delicate, precious little girl.
And when she was.This is a side note.When she was born, for the first year of her life, her head, the circumference of her head was in the 97th percentile, and her body was in the third percent percentile.Looked like a walking candy apple for, like, two years.So I took Felicity over to the playground, and we're hanging out at the playground, and this kid.
This kid, he was standing there at the playground, and he just.He was standing there, and he had his dad over here, and it just felt weird.And the dad was like, super.This dad, bro.He was like.
He was on that James Griffin workout plan.Jack, man and all.Jack.And this kid started doing this weird thing where there was a stick and Felicity was playing with a stick, and he looked at the stick and he looked at Felicity, and then he looked back at the stick, and he looked back at Felicity, and then he looked at me, and then he looked back at the stick, back at Felicity, back at the stick, back to me, back at the stick, back to Felicity.And literally right in front of me, he grabbed the stick, held it, and whacked my daughter in the head.
Now, listen, bro, when that happened, it was like my eyes went red, the sky went dark.I heard a voice that said, finish him.It was like I was like, bro, insane.Insane.And in that moment, I just, like, step right.Listen.I put myself right in between that kid and Felicity.Now, why did I step right in between that kid and Felicity?Well, here's why.Because if he did one more thing, I was going to end up doing prison ministry from the inside.
I was ready.Now, listen, watch this.Do you know what I did?Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch.I don't always get this right.
Watch, watch, watch.You know what I did as a man?I stood in between my family and the thing that was attacking them, what Adam should have done in Genesis 2, Adam should have seen the serpent.He should have stepped in between his wife and the serpent and said, over my dead body, you get to my wife.This is your calling as a man and as a husband.
And some of you right now, God, later in Genesis 3, when they sin and they hide, God comes.And he doesn't call to Eve, he calls to Adam.He calls the man.And his question is, God says, here's the question, read it in your Bibles.There's your homework.
His question is, where are you?And that question echoes across the centuries and millennia to husbands and fathers.Now God is asking you and me, where are you?Where are you, man?Some of your wives right now, they're being devoured by the enemy, by catty, godless wind down Wednesday friends that are not good for them.
And you're standing passively by and just letting it happen.Some of you, man, it's your sons, your sons are addicted to pornography.And listen, let me just say something real practical.If you are handing your son an unrestricted iPhone and when he's in his teens with no protection on it, I love you.You're insane.
You're insane.You might as well put a stack of porn magazines in his bedroom and say, good luck, son.Hope you don't look.Your children listen a whole different sermon.Your children should not have technology greater than their character has been formed to bear because the.The serpent will get in that thing.And that's how he will attack your wives and your.Your sons.Your daughters.Some of your daughters, man.I got daughters.I'm very.Listen, people think I'm nuts.I think you're nuts.I don't care.
My daughters are 15 and 11.They got no social media.They got no social media.And listen, you may say I'm cra.Here's all I'll say when they're scrolling forever on freaking TikTok and Instagram.
That's not just entertainment.That is shaping the consciences of children.And some of you are like, well, you know, it's their phone, their phone.You're the dad, you're the authority.They don't have a phone.You have a phone that you let them use for a minute and listen.And listen.It's shaping their consciences.And 90% of what they're seeing is pornified woke pagan swifties.I said it.
That's like 90%.And that's forming the consciences of your daughters.Okay, so what we gotta do is we gotta step in between those things.Dads, let me keep going.Let me keep going.Okay?Let me keep going.
God pursues fallen humanity, pronounces judgment, and promises a coming offspring who will crush the serpent. The speaker connects this to the sacrificial lamb, Passover, and Jesus as the fulfillment of God's rescue plan.
Speaker A
Now watch what God does, because this is every time I preach this message, this is when it gets just a little quieter because you're like me and you're looking back on moments that are now or in the lives of your wives or your children.You go, man, I was passive there.I am passive there.What am I gonna do?Watch what God does.It begins with God, and then it goes to you.God says this.So he chases them down.
Watch this.God.We.We sin.God pursues.
We sin.God pursues.God chases them down in his great love for them.And he said, watch this.He curses.The three things that you were given.Work.Will.Woman.I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offsp.
This is amazing.Okay, we're gonna Bible nerd out to finish the sermon.Between you and the woman and between your offspring.And when it says offspring, it is a singular word.In other words, someday.
Oh, this is good.Someday there will be one offspring of Eve and that one offspring that someday will come.He will come.And he will.Watch this.
He will crush your head.Speaking to the serpent.He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.And then it says this.The Lord God made the garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.Oh, Lord, help me preach this part.So what God does right here is he makes a prophecy on one of the first days of all history when we'd all jacked it up.And what he says is, he says to Eve, he says, one day you're gonna have one great.You're going to have one great grandson who will rise up.And this serpent, just as he attacked the first Adam, he will strike at the second Adam.
But when he strikes at the second Adam, he will bruise the heel of the second Adam.But that second Adam will crush his head.And then he says this.Then it says that the next thing he does is the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.So right after he prophesies about a descendant to come, who will crush the head of a serpent, be a serpent crusher.
What he does is he goes and He.He slays.Watch this.An innocent animal.And then after slaying an innocent animal, he covers their sin in what was used from the slain innocent lamb.Now, is any little flashing light going off in your head?Any of that sound familiar?Lord, help me preach this part.Bible scholars refer to this as the proto Evangelion.That is two Latin words pushed together.Proto means first.Evangelion.It means gospel.This is the first tent of the gospel in the Bible.Now, if you trace this, there's a scarlet thread from here to you.
So right here, God slays an innocent lamb, and he covers them in the sacrifice of the innocent lamb.Now, if you fast forward to Exodus 12.All of Egypt, remember the children of Israel, they're all up in Egypt.And God says, hey, man, this angel of death is going to come and he's going to visit death on all the firstborn of all the families.But then he goes, but there's one thing you can do.He tells the dads, he tells the fathers, he says, hey, man, I want you to go out and why don't you find an innocent lamb?I want you to slay that innocent lamb.And then he gives a very specific command.I want you to take hyssop, a very specific plant.Hyssop.
Dip the hyssop in the blood of the slain lamb.And then I want you to put it on the lintels and the doorposts of your houses.And wherever the angel of judgment comes and it sees the blood of the lamb, it will not visit the sins of the house.On the house, it will, in grace and mercy, pass over.Now, what Bible scholars say is that when they would have taken that hyssop, the way hyssop works, it's like a drippy little thing, they would have done this.They would have gone up to the lintel, over to the doorpost, over to the doorpost.And so when the angel of judgment came through, if you could be in Egypt, what you would see is doors covered in crosses with the blood of slain lambs.Fast forward to this thing called the Day of Atonement, the high holy day.
In ancient Egypt, what they would do is they would take.They would take two innocent animals and one of them was called the scapegoat animal called the Azazel.
They would confess all the sins on the head of the animal and then they would let it go out into the wilderness to visually indicate they were separating your sins as far as the east is from the west.Then they would take the other one and they would slay it and they would cover everything with its blood so that God didn't judge everything where the blood of the slain lamb was.Now fast forward to the New Testament.Jesus comes.John the Baptist sees Jesus.
The first thing John the Baptist says when he sees Jesus, remember what he says.Behold the Lamb of God.That takes away the sins of the world.Then fast forward to the Passover, the first Passover, the Lord's Supper.That's a little painting.Everybody on the same side and Jesus there.And if you ever notice this, it talks about the little spices they had, talks about the bread, talks about the wine, talks about the cup.There was supposed to be a lamb on the table.The Bible makes no mention of the Passover lamb at the Last Supper.Do you know why the lamb wasn't on the table?Because he was sitting at the table.It was Jesus Christ.Then fast forward to the cross.And the Gospel of John gives us this very interesting detail.The Gospel of John says that Jesus cried out and gave up his spirit.
He was crucified.It says at the ninth hour, that was 3pm and it was on the day that the lamb was supposed to be slain.In Judaistic sacrificial system, it was on the day when that lamb was supposed to be slain.I will let you guess at what hour of the day the Jewish people would slay the sacrificial lamb.The ninth hour.
At that exact same time.Do you know what's happening here?It doesn't matter how much you've jacked it up.It doesn't matter what you've done.God pursues you.
Jesus Christ has been slain.You are covered in the blood of the Lamb, and he washes away your sins as far as the east is from the West.And he begins to make things new for you.New.
He closes by showing how one man can break a sinful family line and create a new spiritual legacy, using Josiah and the faith of later generations as examples. The sermon ends with a call for men to bend their knee to Jesus and a prayer for transformed lineages and legacies.
Speaker A
Now, let me land it.This is the last thing.Now, some of you right now, what you're like, is man.Josh.Yeah, but, like, yeah, I've really.I've really messed it up.
And I honestly, like, I'm a bad man.I've made a bad family.Let me tell you something that I learned.I've been studying the bible for, like, 30 years.I've never seen this before this year.
All right, just stick with me and be a bible nerd for 30 seconds, and then I'll pray for you.
When you read the Book of Daniel, there's these three dudes, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.And they're little teenagers and they're the guys in Babylon.Everybody's like, hey, bow down or we're going to kill you before this little idol.And these three little teenagers are like, hey, man, kill me all you want.We must obey God rather than men.Ain't bowed down now.I've always wondered for my entire life where these three little teenagers get the discipleship inside of them to defy an entire Nation.And like, sorry ain't bending the knee.Where'd that come from?Now put a bookmark in that.
If you go back into the Bible, there was a dude named.Watch this.Josiah.Josiah.Josiah was one of the kings of Israel.
Josiah had two dads.Josiah discovers the book of the Law, reads the book of the law, reads it in front of the entire nation, leads a whole nation in repentance back to God.God pours out, revive, reformation and revival for a resurgence of the purposes of God in Israel.May he do it again in our day.May he do it again in our day.So this is what Josiah does, and he leads this national revival outpouring of God's spirit.All right, now, Josiah had two dad.He had a dad and a grandfather whose names were Amon and Manasseh.They were very wicked.Both of them were two of the most wicked men who had ever lived in Egypt.
Sexual degradation, murder, burning their children, altars to demonic, false gods.Wicked, evil, vile men.When Josiah leads the nation in repentance and revival, here's what he prays.He says that he's bending his knee to the God.Watch this.He says this to the God of my father.And then instead of saying Amon or Manasseh, he says, david.David.And in that moment, what Josiah was doing is, my dad was not a good man and my grandfather was not a good man.But I'm going to go back into my family tree, and I will find one man in my family tree that was a man of God.
And I don't have to be who my dad was, and I don't have to be who my grandfather was.I'll find that man and claim his spiritual heritage as my spiritual heritage.And I'll follow in a spirit footsteps.Now, that has implications.Let's go back.Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.Here's all we know.In Daniel chapter nine, we're told that they were people who served in the king's court.Your homework.You go home and do the math.
Those guys, these little teenagers they were serving, where'd they get the discipleship to defy the empire?They were serving in the king's court under Josiah when he leads the nation in national repentance.And their lives as teenagers are changed because one man chose to break his godless family tree, reclaim a spiritual lineage.And he changed not just his life, but his lineage and his legacy.And his children's children's children were throwing haymakers in another kingdom because of his decision to bend his knee to Jesus.Christ.No, this is a man.
That is what some of you will do.Today.You did not have a good dad and you did not have a good grandfather.But today, you will bend your knee to Jesus Christ and you will change not just your life, but your lineage and your legacy forever.And there will be people with your last name long after you're hugging Jesus, throwing haymakers for the kingdom because of what you did back in 2026.
Okay?Now, I want to pray for you if that happens.So would you do this?Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?Father, thank you for the unspeakable blessing of the Word of God.
Father, I pray that you would take this and attend with power the word preached.Father, would you please, right now, deposit it into the hearts of men right now that they would bend knees and not just change lives, but lineages and legacies forever.They would never be the same.Their families would never be the same, and their children's children would never be the same because they made a decision to cast themselves on the mercy of Jesus Christ.Father, we love you.
We commit ourselves to you in his crucified and risen name.And all God's people said, amen.Amen.Amen.Amen.