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[0:00] We're talking tonight about man as a fighter because this is probably one of the easiest topics! Just by way of inspiration to be inspired. The easiest topic though is that it's the easiest topic to be inspired by and the hardest topic to actually live out.

[0:39] And I think that I would really have failed if we can't actually have some deep conviction both towards ourselves and towards our real life in terms of taking action in some of these things. That's the rule, rubber meets the road.

[0:51] I think we all can look at different men and their testimony and be inspired by it, but it's really easy for us to be so blind to how we are not being fighters in our own life.

[1:04] And I think that the thing that I think is really hard for me also to articulate and encapsulate is a way of inspiring in practical life ways in which we aren't fighters.

[1:15] You know what I mean? I think that there is a lineage where you see men who are very heroic.

[1:25] They lead great lineages. But there also is something that when men abandon their posts, they lead these destructive wakes. You know? I think that for all of us, there are men in our lineage or men in our lives that we look to where we know that they abandoned their children.

[1:43] They abandoned their life. They abandoned their life. Let's say they abandoned their career. It's like a fundamental temptation for men to flee.

[1:54] You know what I mean? It's like the stereotype of the dad who just, you know, he hides away in his man cave. You know what I mean? Or the dad who, you know, when things get real tough, peaces out.

[2:05] He'll start a new family. When things get tough, they peace out again. Start a new family. And I think the issue here is not that being a fighter is not inspiring.

[2:16] It's that the actual cost of fighting is we oftentimes consider too much. So I'm going to go through, I'm going to give a couple of quotes here, and I'm going to go through a history.

[2:28] A history of cowardice and courage. We go through a bunch of stories in history where men were courageous and had a whole cascade and a beautiful legacy and where men were cowards and left a destructive wake.

[2:45] And we try to land the plane and call us to examine the lineage of our own life. And what are we doing? What are we doing right now where we're either abandoning the fight or warring the fight?

[2:59] But where are the areas in which we actually need to be held? One of the things, when we first got married, we did a birth training because my wife hadn't had a baby.

[3:10] And Dara Aldi, you know the Aldi, some of you guys know the Aldi's, Dara Aldi did this birth training. That was the first time I met her. My wife's in the birth world right now, so she's known to Dara a lot.

[3:21] But Dara Aldi did this birth training, and on one of the nights she had her husband come, I think it's Darren. Dennis. Dennis, sorry, thank you. Dennis. Dennis came and he basically gave teaching on how men can show up for a birth.

[3:35] How men can not just be spectators of birth, but they can actually really make a difference. And what it then said, it was really stuck with me. She was like, I just believe that there's something fundamental in men that wants to be heroic and can be heroic.

[3:48] And he was saying this about his relationship with his own family. He kept on saying, you know, with my wife, I want her to feel like I am actually heroic towards her. That I'll put on my cape, that I'll swoop in, and that I will fight whatever needs to be fought.

[4:01] I'll be in any fight that needs to take place. I will be there. I want my children to feel the same way. I want my family to feel like my role is very, very heroic. And that I live up to that. One of the things that was kind of inspiring about him saying that is it's not normally phrased that way.

[4:16] You know, I think all of us men can relate with appreciating heroism, but not a lot of men will say it out loud. I want to be heroic. I want my wife to feel like I am heroic towards her.

[4:27] I want my children to feel like I'm heroic towards them. There's something that's very masculine about that. There's something very powerful about that. Because kind of the spirit of being a fighter is a willingness to count the costs and execute the costs of heroism.

[4:40] Everyone loves the victory, but we all hate the cost. You know what I mean? I think a lot of this is because we are what is in the way. You know what I mean?

[4:51] The cost ends up being ourself. So, I'm just going to hop in here. This is one of my favorite quotes from D.K. Chesterton. He wrote a book called Orthodoxy. If you guys haven't read Orthodoxy, I really, really encourage you to.

[5:03] This is one of the books that C.S. Lewis read that helped persuade him to become a believer. It's very similar to mere Christianity. It's like a defense of the Christian faith. Incredible, incredible book. Probably most of you guys, or a bunch of you guys have already read it.

[5:14] But anyway, he has this. This is my favorite quotes on courage. Take the case of courage. No equality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.

[5:28] Sorry, what's that? Let me make sure I'm... Sorry, I'm going to go. Courage...

[5:39] Oh, sorry. Take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. That means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die.

[5:55] He that loses his life, the same shall save it. It is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers.

[6:06] It might be printed on an alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage, even if quite earthly or brutal courage.

[6:17] A man cut off by the sea might save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying.

[6:44] He must not merely cling to life, for then he would be a coward, and he will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he would be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.

[6:59] He must desire life like water, and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher I fancy has ever expressed this romantic riddle adequately, and I certainly have not done so.

[7:10] But Christianity has done more. It has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.

[7:26] And so with this quote, Chesterton is really bringing together the idea of you cannot have real courage without also really fixing death. Right?

[7:37] And this is actually bringing in even what Josh was talking about last week, because a man is self-sacrificial. You can't actually, you can't actually be heroic. You can't be courageous.

[7:48] You can't actually be a good fighter until first you come to terms with being willing to give up your own self. So the whole aspect of masculinity that is encapsulated in courage and heroism is an embracing of willing to be the sacrifice.

[8:05] That you are the one who's taking the cost up on your own shoulders. And I think this is actually probably one of the great ailments of even like the modern day family is men wanting to have all the inconvenience be chased away from themselves.

[8:19] It's all an avoidance of that. You know what I'm saying? Where we in our own selfishness avoid all the cost and everyone else around us actually bears the broken fruit of our abandonment because it's because of us.

[8:32] You know what I mean? You know what I mean? We are the villains in our story rather than the heroes of our story, right? It all comes down to our ability, like Josh was saying, of self-sacrifice actually willing willing this to be the ones who are that are exerting the cost, expending the cost.

[8:51] It says in Proverbs 28 1, well you guys know this verse, a wicked man flees when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. And I think that one of the things at stake here is not just big courage, but the reality that in order for us to be bold as a lion, we actually have to face our own wickedness.

[9:17] Cowardice is wickedness. This is actually something that has been historically well perceived. And I think in this modern day and age, it's no longer front and center that cowardice is wickedness.

[9:29] That's what the scripture says. The wicked man flees when no one pursues him. The righteous man is as bold as a lion. There is something that the Lord wants to instill in us that is actually being sanctified.

[9:40] You can't actually be bold without being sanctified. We can't actually be courageous unless we actually face our own worst enemy, which is ourself. This is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt.

[9:50] You guys have already heard this. It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who is at the best, knows the end, the triumph of great achievement.

[10:29] And who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

[10:42] I think one of our big failures here, if we're just a spectator of heroism and not a participator. I think that's one of the things that this day and age knows that men have this instinct.

[10:55] So we have full industries that just appease the instinct rather than actually encouraging them to participate in real life. I think in large part, this is not a combination of video games, but there is an extent to which a lot of the video game industry is just exploiting men's desire to feel heroic.

[11:12] Right? I would even say that a lot of pornography is actually the same way. I think there's something that you feel like you're treated with great glory by a woman who's willing to unclothe herself with you.

[11:24] I actually think that a lot of men turn to that because they feel the opposite when they interact with real women. There's a lot about men that wants to be acknowledged as heroic and glorious.

[11:36] And there's a whole industry that just cater to making men feel that way in their spectated position. Right? All right. So I'm going to go.

[11:47] This begins the history. I hope you guys have soft hearts to this. This is very convicting. We're going to start in Genesis chapter 3. Everybody here should know the story.

[11:59] Now the servant was more crafty than the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from the tree of the garden? And the woman said to the servant, We may eat from the tree of the garden.

[12:13] But God did say, You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. And you must not touch it, or you will die. You will certainly not die, the servant said to the woman, For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, And you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

[12:29] When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, And also desirable for gaining wisdom, She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, Who was with her, And he ate it.

[12:47] Then the eyes of both of them were opened, And they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together, And made coverings for themselves. Adam was there, While all this was going down, And he did nothing.

[13:01] This is the first great abdication of a man. And the cascade has traversed all of history. All of history's ailments can come back to this one event, Of a man who abdicated his position, And did nothing, While his wife, or gate, and calmly as well.

[13:19] I'm going to keep on going. Numbers 13. This is when, This is when, Moses sent out the spies, To spy in the land of Canaan, After they had been delivered out of Egypt.

[13:33] Numbers 13. And this is what they reported to Moses. So this is right after the spies, He sent twelve spies, You guys probably remember this story, He sent twelve spies, One man from each of the tribes, And they went and scouted out Canaan, And they came back.

[13:45] And this is their report. This is what they reported to Moses. We went to the land where you sent us. It really is the land flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit. But the people who live there are strong, And the cities have walls, And are very large.

[13:59] We even saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev, The Hittites, The Jebusites, And the Amorites live in the mountain region. And the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, And all along the northern river.

[14:11] Caleb told the people to be quiet, And listen to Moses. And then Caleb said, Let's go now, And take possession of the land. We should be more than able to conquer it.

[14:21] So Caleb is actually very confident. They can actually do this thing. But the men who had gone with him said, We can't attack those people. They are too strong for us. And they began to spread lies amongst the Israelites About the land they had explored.

[14:36] So not only were they cowards, They actually invented a lie to discourage the rest of the peoples. They would not have to go. They said, The land we explore is one that devours those who live there. All the people we saw were very tall.

[14:48] We saw the Nephilim, The descendants of Anachron, The Nephilim. We felt as small grasshoppers. And that's how we must have looked to them. So this is them scouting out.

[14:59] They come back. They give them a report. Caleb says, Let's go. The rest of the guys create a lie And discourage the children of Israel. And so what do they do? They wander around the wilderness for 40 years. And that entire generation passes away.

[15:11] And then what happens? Joshua and Caleb ends up going as well. They actually do go to the promised land. And one of the things it says, After Joshua's conquest, It says that Joshua conquered 31 kings.

[15:22] And so what Caleb was believing right here was actually true. Because they did do it. But there was fear in the hearts of some of these men. And they were cowards.

[15:33] Not only were they cowards, They actually came up with a false plan. They actually came up with an alternative plan. They actually directed their initiative To circumvent what the Lord had worked on to do.

[15:44] Thank you. All right. First chance, Samuel 17. This is long. David overheard the report from Saul.

[15:59] And Saul said for him, This is David. Why? David said to Saul, Let no one lose heart on the account of the Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him. Saul replied, You are not able to go out against the Philistine and fight him.

[16:11] You are only a young man. But he has been a warrior since his youth. David said to Paul, Your servant has been keeping his father's flock. When a lion or a bear came and carried out off sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth.

[16:29] When it turned on me, I seized it by their hair and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the praise of the living God.

[16:43] The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion, the paw of the bear, will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you. And Saul dressed David in his own tunic, and put a coat of armor on him, and a bronze helmet on his head.

[16:57] David fastened on his sword over his tunic, and tried walking around, but he was not able to know. I cannot go on these, he said to Paul, because I am not used to them. So he took them off, took off his staff from his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, and put them on the pouch of the shepherd's bag.

[17:12] With his sling in hand, he approached the Philistine. Meanwhile, the Philistine and his shield-bearer in front of him kept coming closer and closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and despised him.

[17:26] And he said to David, Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Come here, he said, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

[17:37] David said to the Philistine, You come against me with a sword and spear and javelin, when I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled this day.

[17:50] And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine's army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

[18:03] All those gathered here will know that it is not by my sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands.

[18:14] As the Philistine moved closer to attack, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his back, he took out a stone and struck the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

[18:28] So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him, took hold of the Philistine's sword, drew it from the sheath.

[18:40] After he killed him, he cut off the head with his sword. When the Philistine saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron.

[18:54] Their dead were strewn along the Sheeran road in Gath and Ekron. When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, put the Philistine's weapon in his own tent.

[19:08] As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, that's his general, commander of the army, Abner, whose son is that young man? Abner replied, surely as I live, your majesty, I do not know.

[19:19] The king said, find out whose son that young man is. As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with David still holding the Philistine's head.

[19:30] Who's son of you, young man? He said, and David said, I am son of your servant, Jesse of Bethlehem. One of the things I think is really cool about that story is what they really wanted to know after he did that is whose son is this?

[19:42] Who raised this man? And actually, I think that's part of the mystery of courage. Not only just facing ourselves, but also there's something that pertains to even sonship, like who is your father? That's a really good question.

[19:54] There's something about fatherhood that instills courage in men. And I think that that's part of the, that is part of the fruit of resolving and the fruit of growing in your relationship to the father is instilling the wisdom.

[20:12] I think it's hard without your identity as a son being well established. It's hard to have this kind of self-escourge. It's one of the things the world builds up in us. Second Samuel 11.

[20:24] We're talking about David being a hero here. The reason Israel continued to be a nation is because David prevailed over Goliath. Phil seems we're going to take him.

[20:36] And then he ends up being the king. The king of the nation of Israel. What does he do? So, 2 Samuel 11. Guys, this is both a tragedy and a victory. I'm going to read a bunch of stories.

[20:46] Some of these are good stories. Some of these are bad stories. This is what perceives from our heart. 2 Samuel 11. In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army.

[20:58] So he sent his general and he did not go. And they destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabath. But David remained into Jerusalem. And what does he do? He sees Bathsheba bathing on the top of her house.

[21:10] He calls her and he sleeps with her. He gets her pregnant. And what does he do? He's trying to protect himself. So he goes and tries to hide it. And he can't hide it because of the integrity of Uriah. So then he goes and has Uriah built.

[21:22] And it's one of the things that happens in his household. Because of this one event, the Lord curses his household. David loses the son that he impregnated Bathsheba with. And then he loses two more sons, including Absalom, who created a civil war in the kingdom.

[21:38] And David, you know, wouldn't kill Absalom, some of the most familiar with the story, this whole cascade of just like a complete tragedy in the house of David that started so, so gloriously with him trusting the Lord, with slaying Goliath and things like this.

[21:53] And obviously, the life of David is such an admirable life. And this is like the great taint on his life. But what did he do? He didn't go off to war. It was a time when everybody else went to war and he just stayed home.

[22:04] It was a time when kings go to war, David stayed home. Right? Okay. Some of these are not just Bible stories. 508 B.C.

[22:16] Horatius. How many of you guys are familiar with the story of Horatius? It's one of my favorite stories. Thank you. At least somebody knows. Okay, so Horatius. This is early days of the Roman Empire. They get invaded by the Truscan army.

[22:29] And they come right up to the River Tiber, which is right outside of Rome. And Horatius is a captain in the military. He tells him and two of his officers to come with him.

[22:40] He tells the rest of the men, I want you guys to cut down this bridge. He and two of his officers go down to the other end of the bridge and fight off the Tuscan army who's trying to cross the bridge and hold them at bay while they cut down the entire bridge and the bridge collapses and they fall into this river and they swim back and survive.

[22:59] In the lay that tells the story because the Greeks are very poetic, this is what it said, that he said before he caught on that bridge. This is one of the most awesome, incredibly awesome poetic line.

[23:11] To every man upon the earth, death cometh soon or late and how can a man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods.

[23:23] Such a bad-ass boy. Such a bad-ass thing to say before you go defend the bridge. Knowing that your men are going to cut the bridge off, your men are cutting the bridge off, and I also love too, it says, for the ashes of his father.

[23:39] So you can kind of back to that theme of like, there's something about honoring his fathers. You know what I mean? Just like this acknowledgement of the legacy of fatherhood that's been passed down to him. Such boldness. Such incredible bravery and boldness.

[23:52] Darius III. This is 331 B.C. I'm going to just keep on living through history. These are chronological, baby. All the way up to the hill.

[24:04] I'm really going to go all the way up to the hill. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I have no time. Darius III. The Persian emperor twice abandoned his massive armies mid-battle against Alexander the Great's first ISIS and then at the decisive end clash.

[24:23] His cannon caused his troops to rout, that means it caused them to flee, and handed Alexander the entire Persian empire. This is one of the reasons Alexander the Great was able to conquer the entire world.

[24:34] This was his one big adversary that stood this way from having the entire world. They handed Alexander the entire Persian empire and ended 200 years Persian rule.

[24:46] The king's fear literally withdrew the map of the entire ancient world. We, because of this, if this hadn't happened, think about it. We wouldn't be, we wouldn't be speaking a language that's based on Greek, right?

[24:59] The Persians, like if Alexander the Great hadn't conquered the world again, you don't know how history would have gone. But this cascade, as a result of Alexander the Great conquered the entire world, then you have Greek being passed down and the Roman rule, et cetera, et cetera.

[25:13] This is changing the course of history. One man, one Persian king was towered. Now, I'm not saying, unfortunately, you know what I'm saying, for our history. All right.

[25:24] Keep going. This is one of the things that's said in the New Testament, this is an encapsulation of the heroes of the faith in the Old Testament. It's Hebrews chapter 11. And what shall we say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

[25:56] Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so they might rise again to better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains in the prison man.

[26:09] They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy.

[26:22] It's my favorite lines of scripture. Of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering about in deserts and the mountains, in dens and caves and other earth, all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should have not been made perfect.

[26:41] They did all this, foreseeing Christ that they didn't know. They did not know Christ yet. They foresaw Christ. This is one more verse from the New Testament.

[26:53] Revelation 12, 11, again one of my favorite verses in the New Testament. This is talking about people who experienced persecution. This is about the believers who experienced the persecution of the tribulation. This is what it said about them.

[27:05] And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives even unto dead. They overcame, they conquered, and they did not love their lives even unto death.

[27:23] All right, fast forward. This is like mid-300s. This is right around the same time as the Nicene Council. Arianism, because I'm about to say that, is the rejection that Jesus Christ is one with the Father.

[27:39] It's a rejection of the divinity of Christ. When the heresy of Arianism threatened to consume the church, one man stood for truth. God raised up Athanasius to be a hero of the faith.

[27:52] Some of you guys never heard that name. I hope you remember it after this. God raised up Athanasius. It's such a powerful story. To be a hero of the faith, to stand for truth, and to be a theological light in all the world.

[28:07] At the time when this heresy had strong political and religious support, Athanasius stood firm and unafraid, defending the divinity of Christ by declaring the crisis of the same substance with the Father.

[28:18] He was exiled five times. He was hunted, he was slandered, and forced to flee into the desert. Yet he never wavered. When almost the entire Christian world had gone Arian, and St. Jerome could write that the whole world had grown and was astonished to find himself Arian, Athanasius stood virtually alone.

[28:38] His courageous defense preserved the orthodox faith in the divinity of Christ that we still confess today. I thought, oh no, people don't know this. The church almost entirely rejected the divinity of Christ around this time.

[28:51] And there was one man, he just had balls of freaking steel. He would not back down. And literally, he was persecuted by almost the entire church. And then one after one, people started getting persuaded.

[29:01] And by the time the Nicene Council was actually formulated, this is within like decades of the Nicene Council, the entire council acknowledged the divinity of Christ and our most important creator. One man, there was one man, there was one man, one church leader just would not relent.

[29:17] Very dark hour for the church. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, we keep on going. 408, this is like about a century later. Silico, the brilliant general who had repeatedly saved the Western Roman Empire from barbarian invasion, was suddenly accused of treason by the jealous courtiers.

[29:40] That's the other political people. The emperor, Honorius, too weak and fearful to protect his best defender, too weak and fearful to protect his best defender, ordered Silico's execution.

[29:55] Within two years, Rome itself was sacked by the Viscoths the first time in 800 years, removing the one man who could have held the empire together, helped trigger its final collapse.

[30:06] So they killed their main general and then within two years they were sacked and that was the bald Roman Empire. Again, like cowardice. This is actually a good thing too to note is that these men weren't just cowardly, cowardly, they schemed against what was there.

[30:21] You know what I'm saying? I think that's one of the themes here. That's why I think the scripture calls it wickedness. The wicked queen in one minute or so. All right, another one. It's probably absurd.

[30:32] You guys might not know about this. Joshua Chamberlain, a college professor turned colonel. His 12th, sorry, his 20th main regiment was at the extreme flank of the Union Army.

[30:44] That means he was all the way down at the back, close to where the enemy, basically the most important position. That's what keeps your entire army from being flanked effectively by the enemy.

[30:54] So anyway, the college professor turned colonel, his 20th main regiment was at the extreme flank of the Union Army, low on the amble. Oh, sorry, I meant to say, this is at Gettysburg. Sorry.

[31:06] At Gettysburg, Joshua Chamberlain, the college professor turned colonel, his 20th main regiment was at the extreme flank of the Union Army, low on amble and facing repeated Confederate assaults.

[31:19] Out of bullets, he ordered a bayonet charge downhill. So they were at the hill position. They had the high ground. Out of bullets, he ordered a bayonet charge downhill, a surprise that shattered the enemy and their attack.

[31:33] He held the hill and helped save the Union victory at Gettysburg. When he did this, it entirely changed the whole tide of that battle. That is the main battle, the way that that battle went, it was considered, that would be actually the settling of the war.

[31:47] And that's actually what happened. When the Union won that battle, it ended up being that the Union actually won the war. And one of the main events that happened is this guy, they all ran out of ammo, he just told them to put their bayonets on and they charged down belt.

[32:00] Just think about how different things would have been if the Union Army had bossed the battle against Gettysburg. One man split second gutsy call. Thank you so much.

[32:10] I actually about to ask somebody. I'm like, you know, I'm going to get a little jump in. Figure I'd just fight through it. One man split second gutsy call.

[32:21] May have kept the entire country from splitting forever. Okay, now this is still, this is crazy. Hope you guys like these. Czar Nicholas II, 1917.

[32:32] When revolution broke out, this is in Russia. When revolution broke out, 1917, the Russian emperor, afraid of more bloodshed and unwilling to fight for his throne, simply gave up the throne.

[32:45] His cowardice created a power vacuum which the Bolsheviks build. So Bolsheviks are the OG communists. That single act of quitting led directly to Lenin taking power and 70 years of Soviet rule in the Cold War that shaped the entire 20th century.

[33:04] It is estimated that up to 60 million people were killed under the Soviet's rule and some 10 to 20 million of them being Christians. All come right back to just one man rolling on, one man running, one man fleeing and abdicating, literally abdicating.

[33:24] Neville Chamberlain, 1938. 1938. The British Prime Minister chose to avoid the war at all costs. Paying Czechoslovakia to Hitler with his famous Peace Corps behind it.

[33:36] That single act of backing down convinced Hitler that Britain and France were weak and emboldening him to invade Poland the next year and spark World War II.

[33:49] Millions died because of lack of aggression. And just a couple more and then wrap up. This is another one that applies into the Red Ark.

[34:02] Cuban Missile Crisis. I think it's named Arkhipov. Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. On a Soviet sub surrounded by U.S. warship dropping depth charges, the captain, the political officer, the captain and the political officer wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo.

[34:25] So they're under assault. Arkhipov, the third ranking officer, so this is the third person in command, refused. A single vote against it stopped a launch that could have triggered an all-out nuclear war.

[34:40] One man, one vote, and the world kept breathing. And to some of these guys, just has such awesome hands. He'd like make me emotional. He'd be like, holy shit. Like that one dude didn't do that.

[34:52] You know what I mean? Can you freaking imagine? Like one man. It's actually similar to the story that you told last week about that one guy who sacrificed himself in the Japanese and turned the camp. He's like, he's such a man of courage.

[35:03] So freaking inspired. So freaking inspired. I'm going to end on this note and I'm going to give you one last, one last story. I think the fundamental thing, that gets in our way of being as heroic as we'd like to be is ourself.

[35:21] And I think that when we are not willing to look at ourself and acknowledge that we are our own worst enemy, when we can't face a man in the mirror, we are destined to be the villain in our own story.

[35:38] I think there's something incredibly masculine and incredibly enrivening to not only ourselves, but to those who trust in us when we first and foremost are facing ourself.

[35:49] And that's the question. Where will you run to be free of yourself? And the truth is, none of these things are possible and all of these things are possible if we can just turn to the Lord and find freedom from ourself.

[36:06] You know what I'm saying? Any act of courage and heroism is entirely achievable if your personal cost is of no issue.

[36:19] If you can freely spend and be spent, it is of no issue. This is the last story.

[36:29] About 40 years ago, about 40 years ago, there was a man who had just had, his wife had just had their third child and the Lord just radically appeared to him.

[36:49] He was radically convicted of his own sin and his mom had been praying. Sorry, here's a little, here's a little story. And his mom had been praying for many, many years and he was convicted of his own sin and he was specifically convicted because he had been cheating on his wife.

[37:04] He had been hiding a lot of sin from him. And he went to her, she was still in the hospital and he confessed all of his sins to her. He tore all these things that he had not told her he had been keeping in the dark and how he had been an adulterer and he had been cheating on her and all this stuff.

[37:19] But he just said, the Lord appeared to me that the Lord had been praying to me. And he completely turned his life off. Completely gave his life to the Lord and his life has forever changed. That was Dennis.

[37:30] Okay. Dennis is sitting right there. Dennis' oldest daughter married Josh Christopherson. And when Josh came around according to his daughter, Dennis is one of the people that instilled a lot of the virtues of masculinity in large part taught Josh many of the things we're talking about today.

[37:50] And including a desire to plant churches, including a desire to lead churches. The reason Michael knows how to speak Spanish is because Michael's parents in Dennis and Sue went down and planted orphanages in Mexico.

[38:03] In Dennis, in large part, is a lot of the legacy of what brings us here today. If Dennis had not faced himself that day, we actually would not be here today talking about this right now. I say all that to say that the most important thing, it's easy to look at Dennis' legacy.

[38:17] Dennis had nine children. Every single one of his children are following the Lord. All of his kids who can get married are married with kids. Dennis has had an incredible legacy and a very beautiful life.

[38:28] It's been for the female God. He's very much poured out his life selflessly for the female God. That came because he actually faced his main enemy. It wasn't all those things out there. It's really easy to imagine yourself a hero in a story where all the villains are out there.

[38:43] And I think that the main reason why we missed the mark on this one is because we're not able to look at the man in the mirror as the main villain that needs to be slain. You know what I'm saying? So, the only last thing I want to leave you guys with is that there is a paradox for masculinity.

[39:02] Men want two things great. Men want a worthy fight. We long for a worthy fight. This is why young men are so quick to sign up in the military to go off to war.

[39:13] I agree with myself. And we also want peace. How can that be a place? There is something that the Lord has read into the heart of man.

[39:27] Distinctly, I believe it is, I think the right term for it is shalom. Translated as peace in the scripture. Shalom does not just mean peace. It actually means everything in its right place.

[39:41] Shalom comes about as a result of order. The Lord has constructed men as fighters, as middle conquests, as ones that he gives dominion over.

[39:54] And when we fight for the right things, it creates order. It creates shalom. It creates home. I believe many men are looking for a vision.

[40:06] They're looking for a fight. They're looking for a mission to go on. The Lord has given us one. And it starts with us picking up our cross following Christ.

[40:17] But also, it has to do with this peace that we're fighting for that is actually the kingdom of God that expands across the world. And there is an extent to which we long for that in our own homes.

[40:30] I think that's one of the most difficult things as a husband. You fight your whole day and then you just sort of roll home and then you just be peaceful and chill. And what is it? It's extremely challenging.

[40:41] There's a bunch of other things you never fight for. I think that one of the things that we've given into as men is feeling entitled to peace and unwilling to make our own sacrifices that the Lord calls us to that would actually create that peace.

[40:54]  if that makes sense. Right? So, anyway, that's all I've got. That's what I'm going to leave you guys with.