[0:00] I'm going to actually start today a two-part series, this week and next week, on the Dominion Mandate, okay, from Genesis chapter 1. And the Dominion Mandate in Genesis chapter 1, which I'll read here in a second, was given to both men and to women.
[0:16] And so I'm going to speak this week to men and next week to women on the Dominion Mandate, okay? Okay, if you're a woman, don't check out today because there's great value in understanding both genders' roles.
[0:33] There's great value in understanding them for multiple reasons. If you're married, there's obvious reasons to understand both roles. If you're a parent, there's obvious reasons to understand both roles.
[0:46] If you're single and want to pursue someone of the opposite gender, then you need to know what that gender is supposed to be doing and what would be attractive according to God's views on things.
[0:58] There's many reasons to value these things, apart from the fact that it's Scripture. So just because it doesn't apply to us in the moment doesn't mean it's not important because all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful, even if we're talking about men and you're a woman.
[1:17] Or next week, if we're talking about women and you're a man. So let's make sure that we see value for both. So starting in Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 to 28, this is where we see so much of what these first three chapters of Genesis are so huge for our lives because they speak of the way God wants things to be, the way God created things to be, and how they are to be, how we were created to be, not just where things are at.
[1:51] And when you know how you're created to be, you can function in your role, okay? God created us for certain purposes. God created us in a certain way. And these first three chapters of Genesis are really helpful for that.
[2:02] So in Genesis chapter 1, God's creating the world. verse 26 says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[2:26] So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.
[2:38] And God blessed them. God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
[2:54] Okay? Have dominion. Other versions would say rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens. So God has called both men and women to rule.
[3:06] God made men and women in his image, and then told them to multiply, to fill the earth. So basically, when he tells them to multiply and fill the earth, he's filling the earth with his image.
[3:19] Okay? Which he's also, what he's also doing is filling the earth with his rule. When he created the earth, he didn't create the whole earth completely ordered. Okay?
[3:30] He created one garden in order. And then he told man that he created, man and woman, were made in his image to go fill the whole earth, multiply and fill the earth with his image and rule over it.
[3:44] Okay? So this was God's plan to bring his rule into all of creation, to bring his order. Okay? To bring the creation into order. He didn't create a fully ordered creation.
[3:57] He did create the garden. But he created us to work it, to keep it, to take dominion over it. All right? So when you think of dominion, there's a, it's important to think about that word because we have a call to do that.
[4:13] Both men and women are called to take dominion over the earth. Okay? We are to rule over it. We have the similar words that go with that. Forms of that word would be dominate or a person who is dominant.
[4:27] Okay? Also a word, the word domain. Okay? Someone who's dominant is someone who rules. Someone who is dominating is someone who's ruling over what it is that they're supposed to be ruling.
[4:39] The domain is the area with which they rule. Okay? The domain is the area with which they rule. We as human beings have multiple domains that God has given us to rule over.
[4:52] Michael Foster and Don Bontenant in his book, It's Good to Be a Man, says, The reason that God creates man on the earth, according to Genesis, is for productive, representative rulership.
[5:06] Productive, representative rulership. This is what it means to exercise dominion, to fruitfully order the world in God's stead. It's more than stewardship. Okay?
[5:16] It's not just stewarding what God's given. He goes on to say, The term stewardship mutes the far more forceful terms that God actually uses. Rule the earth or have dominion means to reign with kingly power.
[5:29] Okay? King Jesus, the king of all the earth, creates humans that bear his image and then are to extend his rule by filling the earth with his image and ruling over his earth.
[5:43] Bringing the kingdom of God, the kingdom, the rule of the king, the dominion of the king into every area of the earth. This is what we're called to. This is what we're all called to. Okay?
[5:54] So, what are the domains that we are to bring this into? All the earth, that's pretty vague. Right? What are different domains? One would be your personal life. Okay?
[6:05] Are you taking dominion over your personal life? Or is your personal life taking dominion over you? Are you taking dominion in your marriage?
[6:16] Are you taking dominion with your children? Taking dominion in church? Not just the building, but with all that church encompasses.
[6:28] Taking dominion in your work. Taking dominion everywhere else. Okay? These are different domains. All right? Doug Isle says, A man makes things better.
[6:39] He brings things into greater order, usefulness, and beauty. Okay? This is what God's called us to do. To bring things into greater order, usefulness, and beauty.
[6:50] And if you think of the domains of your life, this is what we should be doing. So, how can I bring this into greater order? How can I bring this into greater usefulness? How can I bring this into greater beauty? Randy Stinson and Dan Dumas in their book, A Guide to Biblical Manhood, says, A life that is consistently characterized by disorder is evidence of a general pattern of passivity in the domains.
[7:12] Let me say that again. A life that is consistently characterized by disorder is evidence of a general pattern of passivity in the domains. A man cultivates the gardens of his life or tends the fields of his life.
[7:29] The garden or fields of your life are what you are responsible for. A man exercises dominion over the areas of his life that he is responsible for that God has given authority over.
[7:40] Okay? So, I want us to ask the question, men, how are we doing with these different domains of our life? How are we doing with taking dominion over these areas where we're ruling well in these areas?
[7:53] I'm sure all of us could look at some of these things and say, well, maybe that's an area where I'm ruling well. And then that other area, that's an area where I could do a better job. There's some passivity in some of these domains, so to speak.
[8:08] Passivity is basically the opposite of what we're supposed to do. And that's why I never gave the name of the message today. Making war against male passivity.
[8:18] Okay? Making war against male passivity. What is passivity? The definition of passivity is lacking in energy or will. Tending not to take an active or dominant part.
[8:31] In other words, tending not to take action or dominion. Okay? Lacking in energy or will. Tending to not take an active or dominant part. Do you have any areas of your life where you're not, as men, where you're not taking, where you're lacking in energy or will?
[8:48] Or you know this is an area where I'm supposed to be doing specific things for God, but I'm lacking energy in that area. I'm lacking willpower in that area. The Bible says in Job 38, verse 3, dress for action like a man.
[9:04] Dress for action like a man. Luke 12, 35 says, talks about staying dressed for action and being like men. 1 Corinthians 16, 13 says, act like men.
[9:16] Men take action. Okay? Men take action. In one sense, passivity in both men and women, if it involves total inaction in areas where there's supposed to be action, that's wrong in a man or a woman.
[9:32] But men are supposed to be marked by action. Men should be initiators. Men should be one who are looking at what needs to be done and leading in action. Okay?
[9:42] That's part of the essence of what masculinity is. That's why God said to Job in Job 38, 3, dress for action like a man. Like a man. He tells us there what it's like to be a man.
[9:55] What is a man like? A man is like someone who is ready to take action. Man, he's got his loins girded, so to speak, could be another way to say that.
[10:05] I think maybe even the King James might say it that way. Gird your loins and take action. Okay? Dress for action like a man. So how do we take, wear some areas of passivity in these particular domains.
[10:19] We have to point them out. If we don't point them out, then we won't be able to tackle them. We won't be able to make war against them. Do you realize that if you're passive in these areas, it keeps us from fulfilling the dominion mandate that God's given us as men.
[10:33] Right? If we're passive in these areas, if we allow passivity, if we say, oh, that's okay, I'll just leave that there. I know I shouldn't be passive there, but I'm just going to allow it there. That's going to have a drastic effect on what God's called us to do.
[10:46] Okay? So what are some of these areas of passivity? If we're looking at our personal life, is there a lack of order or disorder? Is our life in divine order, divine order of priority?
[10:58] God gives divine orders of priority. He says, these things are more important than other things. If someone were to look at our personal life and they say, is your personal life in order? What would they say? Is it ordered?
[11:10] Are you taking the God-given ability that he's given you to order your life, to take dominion over your life? Or is it marked by disorder? Are we taking responsibility or are we avoiding responsibility?
[11:22] James 1.17 says, Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Are there things we as men we know we're supposed to do, but we just keep avoiding the responsibility?
[11:33] I know I'm supposed to do it, but I keep putting it off. Maybe a few wives could give a little elbow about a few things that they've been hoping that the husband would do, hasn't been doing for a long time, right?
[11:45] Are we avoiding responsibility? Do we have vision? Or do we have little to no vision? Passivity in our personal lives often looks like not having vision for our personal life.
[11:57] Roberts 29.18 says, Where there's no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. If you feel unrestrained in your personal life, it may be because you're passive in the area of vision.
[12:09] Meaning, I don't have a vision for what my personal life is even going to look like. I don't have a vision for my time. I don't have a vision for my scheduling. I don't have a vision for how I make choices. I don't have a vision for making sure things that should be in my life are there.
[12:24] If you're passive in that area, then you're not taking dominion like the way God had called you to do. Sometimes this looks like last minute planning, right? Are you constantly marked by last minute planning?
[12:37] Or are you taking initiative to say, Well, I mean, of course there's sometimes when last minute planning is okay. But as men, if we want to have a vision for our life and we want to do things well, we can't always be procrastinating to the last minutes.
[12:50] Number one, that's not giving other people in our life an opportunity to be able to be a part of stuff that we're a part of. But also, it's just bad leadership. It's laziness.
[13:02] It doesn't allow things to be the best they could because we're scrambling at the last minute. Waiting until the last minute to plan things is an act of passivity that keeps us from dominating the way God calls us to dominate.
[13:15] Keeps us from dominating an area of times. What about busyness? I mean, say, how could busyness be passive? Tim Ferriss says, Lack of time is actually a lack of priorities.
[13:29] Being busy is a form of laziness, he says. Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing and is far more unpleasant.
[13:44] He calls being busy a form of laziness. He says, Lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. But wait a minute, Josh, I thought you said that men are supposed to take action. Don't be deceived into thinking that taking any action is a masculine thing.
[13:59] Indiscriminate action. Indiscriminate action. Indiscriminate action. Action that is not purposeful. Action that's just filling time is not manly. And it is not godly. God wants us to take specific action in specific ways.
[14:13] But oftentimes we can feel like, oh, I'm doing a good job because my life is busy. If your life is busy with the wrong things, that's evidence of passivity in that domain.
[14:28] We need to be intentional with our time and say, what is my time? What should my time be spent on? Just being busy is action, but it's not the kind of action that God wants us to have.
[14:39] What about a lack of self-control? Proverbs 25, 28 says, A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
[14:53] Proverbs 16, 32 says, He who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city. Part of taking dominion in our personal life is having self-control.
[15:06] Saying, I will not be ruled by anything. I used to be a person who was ruled by sin. I used to be a person who was ruled by my desires. I'm no longer ruled by my desires anymore. I'm in Christ.
[15:17] I reign in life now. Sin used to reign over me. Now I reign over it. Now I'm marked by self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
[15:31] Many people are very vulnerable. Many men are very vulnerable because they're not active in this area of self-control. Sometimes passivity looks like being afraid to make mistakes.
[15:46] Afraid to fail. Always playing it safe. Risk averse. Not trying new things because we want to be comfortable and just take the status quo. God calls men to take chances.
[15:59] Take risks. Okay? In order to take dominion, we have to take risks. Sometimes what happens is a man hides behind an overemphasis on what we're good at while neglecting the rest of what it means to be a man.
[16:14] You ever do this, men? You have this semblance of saying, well, I'm not passive. I'm really good in this area. So I just keep majoring on the thing I'm good at and trying to hide the thing I'm not good at.
[16:26] That's an act of passivity. A man who's serious about what God is serious about, a man who's serious about what the Word of God says will say, I'm not just going to hide behind my strengths.
[16:37] I will tackle my weaknesses. I will make war with my passivity. Is that your attitude? Or are you hiding behind the things you're good at? Do you avoid doing the things you're not good at and just gravitate towards the things you're good at?
[16:51] Of course you do. That's what most men do. That's the natural thing we want to do. But it keeps us from doing what God wants us to do. God has work that he wants to do in our lives. And some of us are avoiding it and hiding behind the things we're good at.
[17:05] And that's not okay. It's great to be good at things. I'm glad we have men in this room who are really good at things. But if we're using that to hide the things we're not good at, that's not okay.
[17:17] That's a passivity that keeps us fulfilling the dominion mandate that God has given us to rule. Sometimes this passivity looks like being around strong men and always deferring.
[17:32] Okay? Now, humility is a good quality. We should defer to men at certain times. We should care about other people and what they think. And there's times when we should submit and defer.
[17:43] But if we're marked by always doing that, that means that we're not believing that God has made us a specific way and a particular part of the body to bear upon the other people around us.
[17:55] It can be an act of passivity. Because what it's doing is preventing body loss. It's handicapping the body. If I'm not trying to be. If I am around strong men and I defer to them 100% of the time or majority of the time because I'm afraid to be who I'm called to be and I'm afraid that I'm not as strong as they are.
[18:16] And if I challenge them that my weakness and my insecurity might be exposed, we all lose in that case. And sometimes people who are stronger are too loud.
[18:31] Sometimes they're too forceful. But that's never an excuse for a man who's not as strong or is not as forceful not to be who God's called them to be and to bring God's rule into a particular situation through the way they're gifted.
[18:45] We need every member of the body. We need to not be passive in areas of deficient skill. There are certain skills that we need to grow in. What's your plan?
[18:56] Men, what's your plan to grow in a skill you're deficient in? If I had asked you to say, okay, what are some skills you're deficient in? Skills you know that as a godly man you're supposed to have. That's one thing. But the next thing is, what's your plan?
[19:08] How are you going to tackle that deficient skill? Do you believe that God has given you power to rule over that weakness? Do you believe that God has given you power to rule? That he's made you in his image and he wants to fill the earth with his rule in his image.
[19:22] And so that these things that you're deficient in, these skills that you know God wants you to have that you're deficient in, that God has given you everything you need for life and godliness to tackle those things. So what are you doing?
[19:33] Are you tackling it? Do you have a vision for it? Do you have a plan? Or do we just have desires? Do we just have wishes? Wishes aren't getting things done.
[19:45] Wishes aren't going to obey Jesus. Good desire is good desire, but good desire without a plan is just a wish. Sometimes our passivity in our personal life looks like not growing up.
[19:59] Where we just perpetually stay childish. We're not acting like a man, meaning we're not acting like a grown-up man. Is that Peter Pan syndrome where we're, you know, just, I just want to continue to prolong my childhood.
[20:12] Are there particular areas of growing up that God is asking you to grow up in that you're not willing to let go? Particular childish areas that God wants you to let go of so that you can take dominion.
[20:23] Areas of responsibility. Areas of discipline in your time, in your schedule. Areas of the way you relate to your family. The way you relate to other men.
[20:34] God wants us not to be passive. He wants us to grow up. He wants us not to put things off. One of the greatest ways to be lazy and passive is procrastination.
[20:49] Which basically says, why do today what I can put off till tomorrow? Right? Or I like to call it manhood avoidance. We can't procrastinate on these things.
[21:00] We can't hesitate. David, what did he do when he went out to face Goliath? Did he hesitate? No, it says he ran to the battle. I love that.
[21:10] 1 Samuel 17, 48. When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. What is your MO when it comes to things you need to tackle?
[21:24] Battles you need to face. Are you hesitant? Are you a hesitant man? A hesitant man is not a man who's fulfilling God's mandate to rule. You don't rule with hesitancy.
[21:37] You run quickly to the battle. What battle are you hesitant in today? What battle have you been hesitant of recently? You're afraid to tackle it. You're avoiding it.
[21:47] You're not running to it. You're running away from it. David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. God wants you to run quickly to your battle lines. There's battle lines that we need to get specific about, man.
[21:59] We need to say, hey, this is a battle line I have to run specifically to. I need to run to this battle line. I need to stop running away and I need to stop being hesitant. Hesitancy is a weakness in men that keeps us from what God has called us to.
[22:13] And it's usually evidence of the fact that we don't believe that God is who he says he is. David was the opposite of that. He said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? I'm going to feed his flesh to the birds of the air.
[22:27] He had confidence. The Lord will deliver me just as he's delivered me from the lion and the bear. Do you have that kind of confidence in the Lord that the battles he has in front of you, that he's given you power to overcome them?
[22:38] Because he created you. You're his crown prince of creation. Humans. God has created us to rule, men and women.
[22:48] But God's called us as men to come into these situations and say, so what? You got a battle here? What are you going to do? Are you going to be hesitant about it? Are you going to run after it? Are you going to run after it? What about marriage?
[23:04] What about marriage? Are there areas where we're being passive in marriage? Okay. Areas where we could bring more order in our marriage. Areas where maybe we're avoiding responsibility.
[23:16] We need to take responsibility. But we don't have vision for a marriage and we need to take vision. Not leading our wife. Not taking initiative. Genesis 3 verse 6 says, It's one of the most damning verses in the Bible.
[23:32] Adam, he's there with Eve. And this snake is tempting her. And it says he was with her. Are we just with our wives and not leading our wives?
[23:45] Genesis 3 verse 17, the curse is pronounced upon all mankind. And he says it's because you listened to your wife. In other words, you followed her lead.
[23:56] You didn't lead her. Are we leading with sacrifice? Ephesians 5 verse 25 says, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
[24:08] One of the ways we war against passivity is we war against our own self-preservation. One of the hardest ways for a woman to feel loved is if she doesn't believe that her husband loves her more than himself.
[24:23] Most often women feel unloved because they think, oh, he loves me more than himself. I mean, he loves himself more than me. Okay? He's not willing to sacrifice for me.
[24:33] I'm not convinced. I don't trust. A lot of wives will say this when they don't feel loved. I don't trust that he cares about me more than himself. I think he cares more about himself. Sacrifice blows that out of the water.
[24:46] We have to be willing to sacrifice. We have to look for ways to sacrifice for our wives. We can also be passive when it comes to authority. So how would you be passive when it comes to authority?
[25:00] A lot of times this looks like not leading when you're not recognized, regarded, or respected. This is passive. What if your wife doesn't recognize you? What if she doesn't regard you? What if she doesn't respect you? Do we stop leading then or do we only lead when that's there?
[25:13] If we stop leading in that, that's passive. Keeps us from exercising the authority that God has given us. The other thing is the abuse of that authority by persuasion, by exclusively asserting authority, which is passive and lazy.
[25:29] Just throwing out a title and not being a man who wins a woman's heart. It's so much easier to just say, hey, you need to submit to me without being a man.
[25:39] Who is worthy of submission. Without being a man who is one who lays down his life. To just persuade by exclusively asserting authority can be passive and lazy.
[25:53] This also has implications for those who are single when it comes to marriage. A single person with no intentions of finding a wife, that's a passivity that goes against the dominion mandate.
[26:03] God wanted people to get married. You're counseling single people? You are a single person? You're wondering, should I get married? Unless God has given you some call, like Paul had, where it's some kind of dangerous specific calling where it would make no sense for a wife and kids, then you don't have to think about it.
[26:20] You don't have to pray about it. Genesis 2.18 says it's not good for the man to be alone. Genesis 1 said that he created men and women. He made them in his image. He told them to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and to do it.
[26:33] You can't do that unless you get married. You can't fill the earth with your kids unless you get married. That's what God wanted to happen. Young men and young women nowadays, they're not even thinking about getting married.
[26:45] If you encounter one of those, you should rebuke them. You should say, hey, you should want to get married. If you don't want to get married, something's off here. And I'd say, well, what about the people who want to get married and they don't?
[26:58] Yeah, that happens sometimes. That's out of your control. But not even desiring it, not pursuing it, not having it on your radar, that's not thinking the way God wants things.
[27:10] Now, that's not the only way you can fill the earth. We can fill the earth with disciples if you don't get married. But that should be a desire in every single person, to want to get married.
[27:21] Unless God's given them some call that would say, this doesn't make sense, much like what Paul had. What about with children? Bring order to the area of children.
[27:34] This is an area where things have got quite off over the years. We live in a world of gentle parenting now, where it's like bringing order to children, taking the God-given authority to raise up children in a way that loves them.
[27:51] We've now twisted things so much that we have doctors, licensed professionals, doctors saying, oh, it's not good to spank your children. Literally the opposite of what the Bible says.
[28:03] The Bible says if you spare the rod, you hate your children. Professional doctors now say if you spare the rod, you love your children. It's complete flipping around of what Scripture says. Will we be ruled by what Scripture says or be ruled by what our culture says?
[28:17] We have the courage to buck the trend. Listen, your culture is not showing you how to bring order into your family. It's not showing you how to do that. And one of the things that's off is most Christians would say, oh, yeah, I agree.
[28:33] I have a responsibility to teach my kids right and wrong. I have a responsibility. If they do something morally wrong, I have a responsibility to discipline them and teach them what's right. But that's not the only thing you're called to do, man, as you're leading your families, as you're fathering your kids.
[28:49] Sometimes what happens is we end up only disciplining for acts of right and wrong and not for order. You're also called to bring order into your family.
[28:59] You're called to teach your kids order. Some things aren't morally wrong in and of themselves all the time. But if they in certain it depends where it's being done.
[29:12] Depends where it's being done. What do I mean by this? It's you might say, well, I want my I want my boys to be wild. I want them to be wild men who do great and crazy things and are risk takers.
[29:24] That's good. But if they're wild men in the wrong places, that's not good. Does that make sense? And so sometimes I think parents, especially ones who grew up in a little bit more chaos, which is a lot of families nowadays, we almost thrive more on chaos.
[29:40] And we think, oh, I enjoy the chaos. You're not loving your kids, though, if you enjoy the chaos. We need to teach our kids order. We need to teach our kids to learn how to sit. We need to teach our kids to respect other people and respect other people's things.
[29:55] If the kids are outside and they're jumping around on the trees, and they're hanging from the trees and they're running around the grass and they're digging holes, that's perfectly fine. If they're doing that inside the house, that's not OK.
[30:07] You know, they're jumping around on the couches with their muddy feet and they're hanging on the drapes on the window. OK, and they're breaking things in the house.
[30:19] We would say that's not OK. Why? Because it's morally wrong? Because the Bible says you shall not jump on the couch? Doesn't say that anywhere. Why does a man have a responsibility to do that? Because he's supposed to bring order to his family.
[30:34] Proverbs 29, 15 says, The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. We've now made it OK to leave kids to themselves.
[30:44] And sometimes what happens is, in the name of freedom, in the name of wanting to raise free kids, exciting kids, kids who will be daring kids, we live kids to themselves. And what it ends up being is a disgrace to their mother.
[30:57] This is the scriptures. You don't just teach your kids right and wrong. You teach them order. You teach them authority. You teach them how to behave. You teach them how to be respectful. You teach them how to not be rude.
[31:09] 1 Corinthians 13 says, Love is not rude. If your kid is rude, you're not teaching them the right things. You've got to teach them not to be rude. You've got to teach them how to learn how to do things in the right place at the right time.
[31:24] 1 Timothy 3, verse 4, when talking about the qualifications of an elder, says he must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity.
[31:35] It's not good when we have families who discipline their kids for right and wrong, but their kids are out of control. And here's one of the reasons why it's not loving.
[31:48] Other people end up not liking your kids. Other people end up wanting to reject your kids because they're out of control. You're not loving them in that case. You're not taking the rule that God's given you, the mandate that God's given you to bring order and rule.
[32:03] It should start in your home. That dominion mandate starts in your home. And we need to bring order to our children. We need to make them know, Hey, you need to learn how to sit.
[32:15] Hey, you need to know proper order. When you're outside running around, that's great. Do that. But when people are talking, you're not going to be rude or disruptive. When I tell you to sit and do something, you do it.
[32:27] You might say, well, that's right and wrong. It is. It has to be both. But there's an acceptable lack of order in families nowadays that needs to be confronted. And men, guess who's responsible?
[32:38] Fathers, you are. You're responsible, fathers. You need to bring order. And guess what? That's going to take work. So if you're lazy, you need to make war against your laziness and your passivity. Because your passivity will always want you.
[32:51] It'll breed disorder. Passivity breeds disorder in fathers and in families. We have to war against that. What about in the church?
[33:04] Where do we lead in the church? Well, we bring order to the church. We take responsibility in the church. We have vision for the church. But we fill the...
[33:15] In the family, we fill the earth with children. How do we also... Is that the only way we fill the earth? That's obviously the main way he was talking about there in Genesis chapter 1.
[33:26] There's another way to fill the earth with his image. What's that? It's his image in a different way. We're all created in his image. But that image falls short of the glory of God when it's marred with sin and people are unbelievers.
[33:38] What about when people become disciples of Jesus? And Jesus Christ lives inside of them? What better way to fill the earth with his glory than to fill the earth with disciples?
[33:49] Right? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What is to his glory when men and women come into the kingdom of God and submit to King Jesus and are made disciples? They become disciples of Jesus.
[34:02] The earth is filled with his glory. Do you have a vision in church to make disciples? Do you know how to make a disciple? It's one thing to say, okay, I got to be a family man.
[34:13] I want to, you know, have kids. Well, what if you never get married? Well, what if you've done that and now your kids are older? Again, it's not just that. We should also be filling the earth with disciples.
[34:26] We should be making disciples. We should know how to equip people to be disciple makers. Jesus said when he left, Matthew 28, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded.
[34:41] Do you know how to make disciples? As a church plant, we're called to make disciples. As Christians, we're called to make disciples. Men, you're called to lead in this in the church. Men are called to lead in the church.
[34:55] In disciple making. Are you someone who feels confident that I know how to make a disciple and I know how to equip other people? And if you don't, are you passive in your lack of knowledge of how to make disciples and how to equip someone else to make a disciple?
[35:09] If there's one thing we should never be passive in, it's disciple making. If there's one thing we should never be passive in, it's knowing how to make a disciple. If there's one thing we should never be passive in, it's knowing how to equip other men and other women.
[35:22] To make disciples. Do you know how to make disciples? We know a lot of things, but do I know how to do the one thing that God left us with right before he ascended into heaven?
[35:33] He said, go, make disciples. Can we take away from the dominion mandate, the great commission?
[35:45] Are they not connected? That God wants us to go into all the earth and make disciples. Do we know how to make disciples? We think of church. Are we just thinking of, oh, I have this new church plant.
[35:56] I just, you know, what's in it for me? I don't like this particular part of it because it doesn't serve me as well. Are we thinking, how can I make disciples? When I think about this church, do I wake up in the morning and say, God, give us souls, help us to make disciples?
[36:11] Who are the particular people I'm going to? Who are the particular people I'm praying for? How am I rallying together with my missional community to say, all right, these are the people we're after?
[36:23] When we do things like gatherings and different ways that we're being missional, what's our vision for follow-up? What's our vision to reach out to people and say, God, I want to make disciples.
[36:35] I want to be obedient. Are you competent in this, men? Are you competent in this? Are you able to take your dominion mandate in this way and fill the earth with disciple makers? It's easy to just criticize, right?
[36:55] To be the cowardly critic, a know-it-all who's quick to criticize but afraid to take action. May it never be said of us in this church or any men in this church that we're afraid to take action, that we are just ones who criticize but don't take action.
[37:09] But may we always be people who are taking action. May we always be the men in the arena who aren't those cold and timid souls that neither know victory or defeat, like Roosevelt said.
[37:21] But we're men in the arena. We might be making mistakes. We might not be doing it right all the time. But for Christ's sake, we will always be in the arena, giving it our best, blood, sweat, and tears, laying down our life.
[37:34] That's the kind of men we need. What about in your work? Are we bringing order into our work? Are we taking responsibility? Do we have vision for our work and how we can grow in our work and be skilled?
[37:47] Or are we just calling it in and just doing the bare minimum? We say, no, I have vision for being a godly worker to bring godly order, to bring God's rule into every area that I'm in, including my work.
[37:59] Say, all right, I'm here to bring more order, more usefulness, more beauty into this workplace. How can I do that? How can I make my boss more money? And they say, that's what I'm doing?
[38:10] Of course that's what you're doing. You think your boss is in business for charity? You think your boss is in business just for something to do? I mean, he might be, but most companies exist to make money.
[38:22] Most of you work so you can make money. Your job is to make them more money. Your job is to be productive. Are you doing that? So that you can use that money and be productive in your family.
[38:33] So you can do 1 Timothy 5 verse 8. 1 Timothy 5 verse 8 says, If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith, and it's worse than an unbeliever.
[38:47] I was meeting with a guy a few months ago professing to be a believer. Him and his wife are separated. He's got two kids, and he is not providing for his family.
[38:59] And he's professing to be a Christian. I said, listen, I don't believe you're a Christian. Kind of looked at me kind of dumbfounded. I'm like, are you familiar with 1 Timothy 5 verse 8? It says that if you don't provide for your family, that you're worse, that you've denied the faith and are worse than unbeliever.
[39:15] I believe that you've denied the faith. You're not providing for your family. He's talking about wanting to get back together. He's talking about being a Christian. I'm like, listen, I don't care about your talk.
[39:27] You're not providing for your family. You've denied the faith. What are you going to do with that? And he just stared at me and didn't say a word. That's a passive man right there. It's honestly one of the most passive men I've ever met, actually.
[39:40] But I just wanted to grab him and just say, what are you doing? You have a wife and two kids. Okay, we have to take these things seriously.
[39:52] That's why we have to take work seriously. We can't be lazy when it comes to work. We can't just put all that on our wife. We can't just think about it last minute. No, we have to be proactive.
[40:03] We have to say, okay, how am I going to do this? And lastly, everywhere else. Not retreating. Not just living in a little Christian subculture, but filling the earth and subduing it.
[40:15] I was talking with some of the guys earlier, maybe you don't know this, but when Roe v. Wade was overturned, that meant that all abortion rights went to the states. And there's multiple states all over the country that are voting on these things.
[40:28] This year, if you live in Missouri, we'll be voting, those who vote, there's a vote in place to add a constitutional amendment to enshrine in our state's constitution in Missouri the right to abort your baby up until the end of nine months.
[40:48] Again, we've been given a mandate to rule. We can say, oh, I'm just going to do my little Christian subculture over here, and I don't really care about that kind of stuff.
[40:59] I'm just going to do my thing over here. And you think that they're just going to leave you alone? Has that worked in the past? You think they're just leaving us alone? You think the devil's going to leave you alone? You think evil people are going to leave you alone?
[41:11] I don't think so. God put us on the earth to be salt and light. God put us on the earth to make things better. And when men, the only thing was that quote that says, the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
[41:29] We need to have our wits about us and say, hey, not on my watch. Not on my watch. I'll fight for the unborn. I'm going to take seriously my responsibility to vote no against something like that.
[41:42] You can have all kinds of different views on politics, but I don't know how you have any different view on it when it comes to abortion like that. We have a responsibility. It's been placed there.
[41:53] We can't make the laws. We can't choose who becomes the candidates. We don't get to pick that, but we do get to influence that. Do we take that seriously? In conclusion, God's wanting us as men to be active, to be go-getters, to not be passive, to be quick to act, always ready for action with no hesitation.
[42:15] In other words, being alert and aware. Running to, not from, specifically running towards what the flesh wants to avoid. Trying new things, taking courage and risk, being free to lose, getting out of our comfort zone, always growing, maturing, and improving, not afraid to fail.
[42:34] Winston Churchill has been ascribed as saying, success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. We just say, I'm not going to give up.
[42:45] I'm going to keep going. Men, we need to make war against our passivity. If there's any areas of passivity in you, it's one thing when you're in a larger church, you don't feel it as much.
[42:55] In a smaller church, every act of our passivity as men, we all feel more. The other men feel it. The women feel it. The kids feel it. We feel it because there's no hiding it.
[43:08] There's no hiding it. If we're not doing a good job leading, we're all going to feel it. If we're not doing a good job in our family, we're all going to feel it. If we're laxing in our personal lives, we're all going to feel it.
[43:23] You can't hide from it. And wherever you go, there you are. And wherever we go, it's this small band of people. There we are. There's not a whole lot of other people.
[43:33] So we can't afford passivity in these areas. As men, we have to be, we have to take this dominion mandate seriously and say, I'm going to war against male passivity and take dominion over the specific gardens of my life.
[43:45] I'm going to target specific ones. And the other men in your life should know what they are so they can hold you accountable to it. Where's the areas where you're targeting? Where's the areas where you're making war? We need to fill the earth with children and disciples and subdue it for the kingdom of God.
[44:02] Fill it with children and disciples and subdue it for the kingdom of God. That's what we're called to do. Doing a good job with these little ones and creating more of those.
[44:13] Okay? We're filling the earth with those. That's a good thing. But it's not just filling the earth with kids. It's filling the earth with disciples. If your kids aren't disciples of Jesus, there's no merit in just making more of them.
[44:25] Does that make sense? We have to be responsible with what God's given us. And we need to teach our kids and raise up our kids that we're a disciple-making family. We live to make disciples not just in our family, but outside of our family.
[44:39] Amen? Amen.