We're talking tonight about man as a fighter because this is probably one of the easiest topics
!
Just by way of inspiration to be inspired.
The easiest topic though is that it's the easiest topic to be inspired by and the hardest
topic to actually live out.
And I think that I would really have failed if we can't actually have some deep conviction
both towards ourselves and towards our real life in terms of taking action in some of
these things.
That's the rule, rubber meets the road.
I think we all can look at different men and their testimony and be inspired by it, but
it's really easy for us to be so blind to how we are not being fighters in our own life.
And I think that the thing that I think is really hard for me also to articulate and encapsulate
is a way of inspiring in practical life ways in which we aren't fighters.
You know what I mean?
I think that there is a lineage where you see men who are very heroic.
They lead great lineages.
But there also is something that when men abandon their posts, they lead these destructive wakes.
You know?
I think that for all of us, there are men in our lineage or men in our lives that we look
to where we know that they abandoned their children.
They abandoned their life.
Let's say they abandoned their career.
It's like a fundamental temptation for men to flee.
You know what I mean?
It's like the stereotype of the dad who just, you know, he hides away in his man cave.
You know what I mean?
Or the dad who, you know, when things get real tough, peaces out.
He'll start a new family.
When things get tough, they peace out again.
Start a new family.
And I think the issue here is not that being a fighter is not inspiring.
It's that the actual cost of fighting is we oftentimes consider too much.
So I'm going to go through, I'm going to give a couple of quotes here, and I'm going to
go through a history.
A history of cowardice and courage.
We go through a bunch of stories in history where men were courageous and had a whole cascade
and a beautiful legacy and where men were cowards and left a destructive wake.
And we try to land the plane and call us to examine the lineage of our own life.
And what are we doing?
What are we doing right now where we're either abandoning the fight or warring the fight?
But where are the areas in which we actually need to be held?
One of the things, when we first got married, we did a birth training because my wife hadn't
had a baby.
And Dara Aldi, you know the Aldi, some of you guys know the Aldi's, Dara Aldi did this
birth training.
That was the first time I met her.
My wife's in the birth world right now, so she's known to Dara a lot.
But Dara Aldi did this birth training, and on one of the nights she had her husband come,
I think it's Darren.
Dennis.
Dennis, sorry, thank you.
Dennis.
Dennis came and he basically gave teaching on how men can show up for a birth.
How men can not just be spectators of birth, but they can actually really make a difference.
And what it then said, it was really stuck with me.
She was like, I just believe that there's something fundamental in men that wants to be heroic
and can be heroic.
And he was saying this about his relationship with his own family.
He kept on saying, you know, with my wife, I want her to feel like I am actually heroic
towards her.
That I'll put on my cape, that I'll swoop in, and that I will fight whatever needs to be
fought.
I'll be in any fight that needs to take place.
I will be there.
I want my children to feel the same way.
I want my family to feel like my role is very, very heroic.
And that I live up to that.
One of the things that was kind of inspiring about him saying that is it's not normally phrased
that way.
You know, I think all of us men can relate with appreciating heroism, but not a lot of men
will say it out loud.
I want to be heroic.
I want my wife to feel like I am heroic towards her.
I want my children to feel like I'm heroic towards them.
There's something that's very masculine about that.
There's something very powerful about that.
Because kind of the spirit of being a fighter is a willingness to count the costs and execute
the costs of heroism.
Everyone loves the victory, but we all hate the cost.
You know what I mean?
I think a lot of this is because we are what is in the way.
You know what I mean?
The cost ends up being ourself.
So, I'm just going to hop in here.
This is one of my favorite quotes from D.K. Chesterton.
He wrote a book called Orthodoxy.
If you guys haven't read Orthodoxy, I really, really encourage you to.
This is one of the books that C.S. Lewis read that helped persuade him to become a believer.
It's very similar to mere Christianity.
It's like a defense of the Christian faith.
Incredible, incredible book.
Probably most of you guys, or a bunch of you guys have already read it.
But anyway, he has this.
This is my favorite quotes on courage.
Take the case of courage.
No equality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.
Sorry, what's that?
Let me make sure I'm...
Sorry, I'm going to go.
Courage...
Oh, sorry.
Take the case of courage.
No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages.
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.
That means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die.
He that loses his life, the same shall save it.
It is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes.
It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers.
It might be printed on an alpine guide or a drill book.
This paradox is the whole principle of courage, even if quite earthly or brutal courage.
A man cut off by the sea might save his life if he will risk it on the precipice.
He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it.
A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying.
He must not merely cling to life, for then he would be a coward, and he will not escape.
He must not merely wait for death, for then he would be a suicide, and will not escape.
He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it.
He must desire life like water, and yet drink death like wine.
No philosopher I fancy has ever expressed this romantic riddle adequately, and I certainly have not done so.
But Christianity has done more.
It has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.
And so with this quote, Chesterton is really bringing together the idea of you cannot have real courage without also really fixing death.
Right?
And this is actually bringing in even what Josh was talking about last week, because a man is self-sacrificial.
You can't actually, you can't actually be heroic.
You can't be courageous.
You can't actually be a good fighter until first you come to terms with being willing to give up your own self.
So the whole aspect of masculinity that is encapsulated in courage and heroism is an embracing of willing to be the sacrifice.
That you are the one who's taking the cost up on your own shoulders.
And I think this is actually probably one of the great ailments of even like the modern day family is men wanting to have all the inconvenience be chased away from themselves.
It's all an avoidance of that.
You know what I'm saying?
Where we in our own selfishness avoid all the cost and everyone else around us actually bears the broken fruit of our abandonment because it's because of us.
You know what I mean?
We are the villains in our story rather than the heroes of our story, right?
It all comes down to our ability, like Josh was saying, of self-sacrifice actually willing willing this to be the ones who are that are exerting the cost, expending the cost.
It says in Proverbs 28 1, well you guys know this verse, a wicked man flees when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
And I think that one of the things at stake here is not just big courage, but the reality that in order for us to be bold as a lion, we actually have to face our own wickedness.
Cowardice is wickedness.
This is actually something that has been historically well perceived.
And I think in this modern day and age, it's no longer front and center that cowardice is wickedness.
That's what the scripture says.
The wicked man flees when no one pursues him.
The righteous man is as bold as a lion.
There is something that the Lord wants to instill in us that is actually being sanctified.
You can't actually be bold without being sanctified.
We can't actually be courageous unless we actually face our own worst enemy, which is ourself.
This is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt.
You guys have already heard this.
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who is at the best, knows the end, the triumph of great achievement.
And who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I think one of our big failures here, if we're just a spectator of heroism and not a participator.
I think that's one of the things that this day and age knows that men have this instinct.
So we have full industries that just appease the instinct rather than actually encouraging them to participate in real life.
I think in large part, this is not a combination of video games, but there is an extent to which a lot of the video game industry is just exploiting men's desire to feel heroic.
Right?
I would even say that a lot of pornography is actually the same way.
I think there's something that you feel like you're treated with great glory by a woman who's willing to unclothe herself with you.
I actually think that a lot of men turn to that because they feel the opposite when they interact with real women.
There's a lot about men that wants to be acknowledged as heroic and glorious.
And there's a whole industry that just cater to making men feel that way in their spectated position.
Right?
All right.
So I'm going to go.
This begins the history.
I hope you guys have soft hearts to this.
This is very convicting.
We're going to start in Genesis chapter 3.
Everybody here should know the story.
Now the servant was more crafty than the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman,
Did God really say,
You must not eat from the tree of the garden?
And the woman said to the servant,
We may eat from the tree of the garden.
But God did say,
You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.
And you must not touch it, or you will die.
You will certainly not die, the servant said to the woman,
For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened,
And you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,
And also desirable for gaining wisdom,
She took some and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband,
Who was with her,
And he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
And they realized that they were naked.
So they sewed fig leaves together,
And made coverings for themselves.
Adam was there,
While all this was going down,
And he did nothing.
This is the first great abdication of a man.
And the cascade has traversed all of history.
All of history's ailments can come back to this one event,
Of a man who abdicated his position,
And did nothing,
While his wife, or gate, and calmly as well.
I'm going to keep on going.
Numbers 13.
This is when,
Moses sent out the spies,
To spy in the land of Canaan,
After they had been delivered out of Egypt.
Numbers 13.
And this is what they reported to Moses.
So this is right after the spies,
He sent twelve spies,
You guys probably remember this story,
He sent twelve spies,
One man from each of the tribes,
And they went and scouted out Canaan,
And they came back.
And this is their report.
This is what they reported to Moses.
We went to the land where you sent us.
It really is the land flowing with milk and honey.
Here is some of its fruit.
But the people who live there are strong,
And the cities have walls,
And are very large.
We even saw the descendants of Anak there.
The Amalekites live in the Negev,
The Hittites,
The Jebusites,
And the Amorites live in the mountain region.
And the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea,
And all along the northern river.
Caleb told the people to be quiet,
And listen to Moses.
And then Caleb said,
Let's go now,
And take possession of the land.
We should be more than able to conquer it.
So Caleb is actually very confident.
They can actually do this thing.
But the men who had gone with him said,
We can't attack those people.
They are too strong for us.
And they began to spread lies amongst the Israelites
About the land they had explored.
So not only were they cowards,
They actually invented a lie to discourage the rest of the peoples.
They would not have to go.
They said,
The land we explore is one that devours those who live there.
All the people we saw were very tall.
We saw the Nephilim,
The descendants of Anachron,
The Nephilim.
We felt as small grasshoppers.
And that's how we must have looked to them.
So this is them scouting out.
They come back.
They give them a report.
Caleb says,
Let's go.
The rest of the guys create a lie
And discourage the children of Israel.
And so what do they do?
They wander around the wilderness for 40 years.
And that entire generation passes away.
And then what happens?
Joshua and Caleb ends up going as well.
They actually do go to the promised land.
And one of the things it says,
After Joshua's conquest,
It says that Joshua conquered 31 kings.
And so what Caleb was believing right here was actually true.
Because they did do it.
But there was fear in the hearts of some of these men.
And they were cowards.
Not only were they cowards,
They actually came up with a false plan.
They actually came up with an alternative plan.
They actually directed their initiative
To circumvent what the Lord had worked on to do.
Thank you.
All right.
First chance, Samuel 17.
This is long.
David overheard the report from Saul.
And Saul said for him,
This is David.
Why?
David said to Saul,
Let no one lose heart on the account of the Philistine.
Your servant will go and fight him.
Saul replied,
You are not able to go out against the Philistine and fight him.
You are only a young man.
But he has been a warrior since his youth.
David said to Paul,
Your servant has been keeping his father's flock.
When a lion or a bear came and carried out off sheep from the flock,
I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth.
When it turned on me,
I seized it by their hair and struck it and killed it.
Your servant has killed both lion and bear.
This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
because he has defied the praise of the living God.
The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion,
the paw of the bear,
will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine.
And Saul said to David,
Go, and the Lord be with you.
And Saul dressed David in his own tunic,
and put a coat of armor on him,
and a bronze helmet on his head.
David fastened on his sword over his tunic,
and tried walking around,
but he was not able to know.
I cannot go on these, he said to Paul,
because I am not used to them.
So he took them off,
took off his staff from his hand,
chose five smooth stones from the stream,
and put them on the pouch of the shepherd's bag.
With his sling in hand, he approached the Philistine.
Meanwhile, the Philistine and his shield-bearer in front of him
kept coming closer and closer to David.
He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy,
glowing with health and handsome,
and despised him.
And he said to David,
Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
Come here, he said,
and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.
David said to the Philistine,
You come against me with a sword and spear and javelin,
when I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty,
the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you have defiled this day.
And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hands,
and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.
This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine's army
to the birds and the wild animals,
and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
All those gathered here will know that it is not by my sword or spear
that the Lord saves,
for the battle is the Lord's,
and he will give all of you into our hands.
As the Philistine moved closer to attack,
David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.
Reaching into his back,
he took out a stone
and struck the Philistine in the forehead.
The stone sank into his forehead,
and he fell face down on the ground.
So David triumphed over the Philistine
with a sling and a stone.
Without a sword in his hand,
he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
David ran and stood over him,
took hold of the Philistine's sword,
drew it from the sheath.
After he killed him,
he cut off the head with his sword.
When the Philistine saw that their hero was dead,
they turned and ran.
Then the men of Israel and Judah
surged forward with a shout
and pursued the Philistines
to the entrance of Gath
and to the gates of Ekron.
Their dead were strewn along
the Sheeran road in Gath and Ekron.
When the Israelites returned
from chasing the Philistines,
they plundered their camp.
David took the Philistine's head
and brought it to Jerusalem,
put the Philistine's weapon in his own tent.
As Saul watched David
going out to meet the Philistine,
he said to Abner,
that's his general,
commander of the army,
Abner, whose son is that young man?
Abner replied,
surely as I live,
your majesty,
I do not know.
The king said,
find out whose son that young man is.
As soon as David returned
from killing the Philistine,
Abner took him
and brought him before Saul
with David still holding
the Philistine's head.
Who's son of you, young man?
He said,
and David said,
I am son of your servant,
Jesse of Bethlehem.
One of the things I think
is really cool about that story
is what they really wanted to know
after he did that
is whose son is this?
Who raised this man?
And actually,
I think that's part of the mystery
of courage.
Not only just facing ourselves,
but also there's something
that pertains to even sonship,
like who is your father?
That's a really good question.
There's something about fatherhood
that instills courage in men.
And I think that that's part of the,
that is part of the fruit
of resolving
and the fruit of growing
in your relationship
to the father
is instilling the wisdom.
I think it's hard
without your identity
as a son being well established.
It's hard to have
this kind of self-escourge.
It's one of the things
the world builds up in us.
Second Samuel 11.
We're talking about
David being a hero here.
The reason Israel
continued to be a nation
is because
David prevailed over Goliath.
Phil seems we're going to take him.
And then he ends up being the king.
The king of the nation of Israel.
What does he do?
So, 2 Samuel 11.
Guys, this is both a tragedy
and a victory.
I'm going to read a bunch of stories.
Some of these are good stories.
Some of these are bad stories.
This is what perceives from our heart.
2 Samuel 11.
In the spring,
at the time when kings go off to war,
David sent Joab out
with the king's men
and the whole Israelite army.
So he sent his general
and he did not go.
And they destroyed the Ammonites
and besieged Rabath.
But David remained into Jerusalem.
And what does he do?
He sees Bathsheba
bathing
on the top of
her house.
He calls her and he sleeps with her.
He gets her pregnant.
And what does he do?
He's trying to protect himself.
So he goes and tries to hide it.
And he can't hide it
because of the integrity of Uriah.
So then he goes and has Uriah built.
And it's one of the things
that happens in his household.
Because of this one event,
the Lord curses his household.
David loses the son
that he impregnated Bathsheba with.
And then he loses two more sons,
including Absalom,
who created a civil war in the kingdom.
And David, you know,
wouldn't kill Absalom,
some of the most familiar
with the story,
this whole cascade
of just like a complete tragedy
in the house of David
that started so,
so gloriously
with him trusting the Lord,
with slaying Goliath
and things like this.
And obviously,
the life of David
is such an admirable life.
And this is like
the great taint on his life.
But what did he do?
He didn't go off to war.
It was a time
when everybody else went to war
and he just stayed home.
It was a time
when kings go to war,
David stayed home.
Right?
Okay.
Some of these
are not just Bible stories.
508 B.C.
Horatius.
How many of you guys
are familiar
with the story of Horatius?
It's one of my favorite stories.
Thank you.
At least somebody knows.
Okay, so Horatius.
This is early days
of the Roman Empire.
They get invaded
by the Truscan army.
And they come right up
to the River Tiber,
which is right outside of Rome.
And Horatius
is a captain in the military.
He tells him
and two of his officers
to come with him.
He tells the rest of the men,
I want you guys
to cut down this bridge.
He and two of his officers
go down to the other end
of the bridge
and fight off
the Tuscan army
who's trying to cross the bridge
and hold them at bay
while they cut down
the entire bridge
and the bridge collapses
and they fall into this river
and they swim back
and survive.
In the lay
that tells the story
because the Greeks
are very poetic,
this is what it said,
that he said
before he caught on that bridge.
This is one of the
most awesome,
incredibly awesome poetic line.
To every man
upon the earth,
death cometh soon or late
and how can a man die better
than facing fearful odds
for the ashes
of his fathers
and the temples
of his gods.
Such a bad-ass boy.
Such a bad-ass thing to say
before you go
defend the bridge.
Knowing that your men
are going to cut the bridge off,
your men are cutting the bridge off,
and I also love too,
it says,
for the ashes of his father.
So you can kind of
back to that theme
of like,
there's something
about honoring his fathers.
You know what I mean?
Just like this acknowledgement
of the legacy
of fatherhood
that's been passed down to him.
Such boldness.
Such incredible bravery
and boldness.
Darius III.
This is 331 B.C.
I'm going to just keep
on living through history.
These are chronological, baby.
All the way up to the hill.
I'm really going to go
all the way up to the hill.
I'm not joking.
I have no time.
Darius III.
The Persian emperor
twice abandoned
his massive armies
mid-battle against
Alexander the Great's
first ISIS
and then at the
decisive end clash.
His cannon caused
his troops to rout,
that means it caused
them to flee,
and handed Alexander
the entire Persian empire.
This is one of the reasons
Alexander the Great
was able to conquer
the entire world.
This was his one
big adversary
that stood this way
from having the entire world.
They handed Alexander
the entire Persian empire
and ended 200 years
Persian rule.
The king's fear
literally withdrew
the map of the entire
ancient world.
We, because of this,
if this hadn't happened,
think about it.
We wouldn't be,
we wouldn't be speaking
a language that's
based on Greek,
right?
The Persians,
like if Alexander the Great
hadn't conquered the world
again, you don't know
how history would have gone.
But this cascade,
as a result of
Alexander the Great
conquered the entire world,
then you have Greek
being passed down
and the Roman rule,
et cetera, et cetera.
This is changing
the course of history.
One man,
one Persian king
was towered.
Now, I'm not saying,
unfortunately,
you know what I'm saying,
for our history.
All right.
Keep going.
This is one of the things
that's said in the New Testament,
this is an encapsulation
of the heroes of the faith
in the Old Testament.
It's Hebrews chapter 11.
And what shall we say?
For time would fail me
to tell of Gideon,
Barak, Samson,
Jephthah,
of David,
and Samuel,
and the prophets,
who through faith
conquered kingdoms,
enforced justice,
obtained promises,
stopped the mouths
of lions,
and quenched the power
of fire,
escaped the edge
of the sword,
were made strong
out of weakness,
became mighty in war,
put foreign armies
to flight.
Women received back
their dead
by resurrection.
Some were tortured,
refusing to accept release,
so they might rise again
to better life.
Others suffered mocking
and flogging
and even chains
in the prison man.
They were stoned,
they were sawn in two,
they were killed
with the sword.
They went about
in skins of sheep
and goats,
destitute,
afflicted,
and mistreated,
of whom the world
was not worthy.
It's my favorite lines
of scripture.
Of whom the world
was not worthy.
Wandering about
in deserts
and the mountains,
in dens and caves
and other earth,
all these,
though commended
through their faith,
did not receive
what was promised,
since God had provided
something better for us,
that apart from us
they should have
not been made perfect.
They did all this,
foreseeing Christ
that they didn't know.
They did not know Christ yet.
They foresaw Christ.
This is one more verse
from the New Testament.
Revelation 12,
11,
again one of my favorite
verses in the New Testament.
This is talking about
people who experienced
persecution.
This is about the believers
who experienced
the persecution
of the tribulation.
This is what it said
about them.
And they have conquered
him by the blood
of the Lamb
and the word
of their testimony.
For they loved
not their lives
even unto dead.
They overcame,
they conquered,
and they did not
love their lives
even unto death.
All right,
fast forward.
This is like
mid-300s.
This is right around
the same time
as the Nicene Council.
Arianism,
because I'm about
to say that,
is the rejection
that Jesus Christ
is one with the Father.
It's a rejection
of the divinity of Christ.
When the heresy
of Arianism
threatened to consume
the church,
one man stood
for truth.
God raised up
Athanasius
to be a hero
of the faith.
Some of you guys
never heard that name.
I hope you remember it
after this.
God raised up
Athanasius.
It's such a powerful story.
To be a hero of the faith,
to stand for truth,
and to be a theological
light in all the world.
At the time
when this heresy
had strong political
and religious support,
Athanasius stood firm
and unafraid,
defending the divinity
of Christ
by declaring
the crisis
of the same substance
with the Father.
He was exiled
five times.
He was hunted,
he was slandered,
and forced to flee
into the desert.
Yet he never wavered.
When almost the entire
Christian world
had gone Arian,
and St. Jerome
could write
that the whole world
had grown
and was astonished
to find himself Arian,
Athanasius stood
virtually alone.
His courageous defense
preserved the orthodox faith
in the divinity of Christ
that we still confess today.
I thought,
oh no,
people don't know this.
The church
almost entirely rejected
the divinity of Christ
around this time.
And there was one man,
he just had balls
of freaking steel.
He would not back down.
And literally,
he was persecuted
by almost the entire church.
And then one after one,
people started getting persuaded.
And by the time
the Nicene Council
was actually formulated,
this is within like
decades of the Nicene Council,
the entire council
acknowledged the divinity of Christ
and our most important creator.
One man,
there was one man,
one church leader
just would not relent.
Very dark hour for the church.
You know what I'm saying?
Anyway,
we keep on going.
408,
this is like
about a century later.
Silico,
the brilliant general
who had repeatedly saved
the Western Roman Empire
from barbarian invasion,
was suddenly accused
of treason
by the jealous courtiers.
That's the other
political people.
The emperor,
Honorius,
too weak and fearful
to protect
his best defender,
too weak and fearful
to protect his best defender,
ordered Silico's execution.
Within two years,
Rome itself was sacked
by the Viscoths
the first time
in 800 years,
removing the one man
who could have held
the empire together,
helped trigger
its final collapse.
So they killed
their main general
and then within two years
they were sacked
and that was the bald Roman Empire.
Again,
like cowardice.
This is actually
a good thing too
to note
is that these men
weren't just cowardly,
cowardly,
they schemed
against what was there.
You know what I'm saying?
I think that's one
of the themes here.
That's why I think
the scripture calls it
wickedness.
The wicked queen
in one minute or so.
All right,
another one.
It's probably absurd.
You guys might not know
about this.
Joshua Chamberlain,
a college professor
turned colonel.
His 12th,
sorry,
his 20th main regiment
was at the extreme flank
of the Union Army.
That means he was
all the way down
at the back,
close to where
the enemy,
basically the most
important position.
That's what keeps
your entire army
from being flanked
effectively by the enemy.
So anyway,
the college professor
turned colonel,
his 20th main regiment
was at the extreme flank
of the Union Army,
low on the amble.
Oh, sorry,
I meant to say,
this is at Gettysburg.
Sorry.
At Gettysburg,
Joshua Chamberlain,
the college professor
turned colonel,
his 20th main regiment
was at the extreme flank
of the Union Army,
low on amble
and facing repeated
Confederate assaults.
Out of bullets,
he ordered a bayonet charge
downhill.
So they were at the hill position.
They had the high ground.
Out of bullets,
he ordered a bayonet charge
downhill,
a surprise that shattered
the enemy
and their attack.
He held the hill
and helped save
the Union victory
at Gettysburg.
When he did this,
it entirely changed
the whole tide
of that battle.
That is the main battle,
the way that that battle
went,
it was considered,
that would be actually
the settling of the war.
And that's actually
what happened.
When the Union won
that battle,
it ended up being
that the Union
actually won the war.
And one of the main
events that happened
is this guy,
they all ran out of ammo,
he just told them
to put their bayonets
on and they charged
down belt.
Just think about
how different things
would have been
if the Union Army
had bossed the battle
against Gettysburg.
One man split second
gutsy call.
Thank you so much.
I actually about
to ask somebody.
I'm like,
you know,
I'm going to get a little
jump in.
Figure I'd just
fight through it.
One man split second
gutsy call.
May have kept
the entire country
from splitting forever.
Okay,
now this is still,
this is crazy.
Hope you guys like these.
Czar Nicholas II,
1917.
When revolution broke out,
this is in Russia.
When revolution broke out,
1917,
the Russian emperor,
afraid of more bloodshed
and unwilling to fight
for his throne,
simply gave up the throne.
His cowardice created
a power vacuum
which the Bolsheviks
build.
So Bolsheviks are
the OG communists.
That single act
of quitting led
directly to Lenin
taking power
and 70 years
of Soviet rule
in the Cold War
that shaped the entire
20th century.
It is estimated
that up to 60 million
people were killed
under the Soviet's rule
and some 10 to 20 million
of them being Christians.
All come right back
to just one man
rolling on,
one man running,
one man fleeing
and abdicating,
literally abdicating.
Neville Chamberlain,
1938.
The British Prime Minister
chose to avoid
the war at all costs.
Paying Czechoslovakia
to Hitler
with his famous
Peace Corps
behind it.
That single act
of backing down
convinced Hitler
that Britain
and France
were weak
and emboldening him
to invade Poland
the next year
and spark World War II.
Millions died
because of lack
of aggression.
And just a couple more
and then wrap up.
This is another one
that applies
into the Red Ark.
Cuban Missile Crisis.
I think it's named
Arkhipov.
Cuban Missile Crisis,
1962.
On a Soviet sub
surrounded by
U.S. warship
dropping depth charges,
the captain,
the political officer,
the captain
and the political officer
wanted to launch
a nuclear torpedo.
So they're under assault.
Arkhipov,
the third ranking officer,
so this is the third person
in command,
refused.
A single vote
against it
stopped a launch
that could have triggered
an all-out nuclear war.
One man,
one vote,
and the world
kept breathing.
And to some of these guys,
just has such
awesome hands.
He'd like make me emotional.
He'd be like,
holy shit.
Like that one dude
didn't do that.
You know what I mean?
Can you freaking imagine?
Like one man.
It's actually similar
to the story
that you told last week
about that one guy
who sacrificed himself
in the Japanese
and turned the camp.
He's like,
he's such a man of courage.
So freaking inspired.
I'm going to end
on this note
and I'm going to give
you one last,
one last story.
I think the fundamental
thing,
that gets in our way
of being as heroic
as we'd like to be
is ourself.
And I think that
when we are not willing
to look at ourself
and acknowledge
that we are our own
worst enemy,
when we can't face
a man in the mirror,
we are destined
to be the villain
in our own story.
I think there's something
incredibly masculine
and incredibly enrivening
to not only ourselves,
but to those
who trust in us
when we first
and foremost
are facing ourself.
And that's the question.
Where will you run
to be free
of yourself?
And the truth is,
none of these things
are possible
and all of these
things are possible
if we can just
turn to the Lord
and find freedom
from ourself.
You know what I'm saying?
Any act of courage
and heroism
is entirely achievable
if your personal cost
is of no issue.
If you can freely
spend and be spent,
it is of no issue.
This is the last story.
About 40 years ago,
about 40 years ago,
there was a man
who had just had,
his wife had just had
their third child
and the Lord
just radically
appeared to him.
He was radically
convicted of his own sin
and his mom
had been praying.
Sorry,
here's a little,
here's a little story.
And his mom
had been praying
for many, many years
and he was convicted
of his own sin
and he was specifically
convicted because
he had been cheating
on his wife.
He had been hiding
a lot of sin from him.
And he went to her,
she was still in the hospital
and he confessed
all of his sins to her.
He tore all these things
that he had not told her
he had been keeping
in the dark
and how he had been
an adulterer
and he had been cheating
on her and all this stuff.
But he just said,
the Lord appeared to me
that the Lord
had been praying to me.
And he completely
turned his life off.
Completely gave his life
to the Lord
and his life
has forever changed.
That was Dennis.
Okay.
Dennis is sitting
right there.
Dennis' oldest daughter
married Josh Christopherson.
And when Josh came around
according to his daughter,
Dennis is one of the people
that instilled
a lot of the virtues
of masculinity
in large part
taught Josh
many of the things
we're talking about today.
And including
a desire to plant churches,
including a desire
to lead churches.
The reason Michael
knows how to speak Spanish
is because Michael's parents
in Dennis and Sue
went down
and planted orphanages
in Mexico.
In Dennis,
in large part,
is a lot of the legacy
of what brings us here today.
If Dennis had not
faced himself that day,
we actually would not
be here today
talking about this right now.
I say all that to say
that the most important thing,
it's easy to look
at Dennis' legacy.
Dennis had nine children.
Every single one of his children
are following the Lord.
All of his kids
who can get married
are married with kids.
Dennis has had
an incredible legacy
and a very beautiful life.
It's been for the female God.
He's very much poured out
his life selflessly
for the female God.
That came because
he actually faced
his main enemy.
It wasn't all those
things out there.
It's really easy
to imagine yourself
a hero in a story
where all the villains
are out there.
And I think
that the main reason
why we missed
the mark on this one
is because we're not
able to look
at the man in the mirror
as the main villain
that needs to be slain.
You know what I'm saying?
So,
the only last thing
I want to leave you guys with
is that
there is a paradox
for masculinity.
Men want two things great.
Men want a worthy fight.
We long for a worthy fight.
This is why young men
are so quick
to sign up
in the military
to go off to war.
I agree with myself.
And we also want peace.
How can that be a place?
There is something
that the Lord
has read into the heart of man.
Distinctly,
I believe it is,
I think the right term for it
is shalom.
Translated as peace
in the scripture.
Shalom does not just mean peace.
It actually means
everything in its right place.
Shalom comes about
as a result of order.
The Lord has constructed men
as fighters,
as middle conquests,
as ones that he gives
dominion over.
And when we fight
for the right things,
it creates order.
It creates shalom.
It creates home.
I believe many men
are looking for a vision.
They're looking for a fight.
They're looking for a mission
to go on.
The Lord has given us one.
And it starts with us
picking up our cross
following Christ.
But also,
it has to do with this
peace that we're fighting for
that is actually
the kingdom of God
that expands
across the world.
And there is an extent
to which we long
for that in our own homes.
I think that's one of the most
difficult things
as a husband.
You fight your whole day
and then you just sort of
roll home
and then you just be
peaceful and chill.
And what is it?
It's extremely challenging.
There's a bunch of other things
you never fight for.
I think that one of the things
that we've given into
as men
is feeling entitled
to peace
and unwilling to make
our own sacrifices
that the Lord calls us to
that would actually
create that peace.
if that makes sense.
Right?
So,
anyway,
that's all I've got.
That's what I'm going to
leave you guys with.