Transcript
WEEK 1 I have a great sense of privilege right now that I get to be the one who gets to talk about what in the world it looks like to be a man of faith. He was one of the most controlling men I have ever met, he had to have constant control in his marriage, constant control over his children, constant control in all of his relationships, constant control at work, he was dominant and strong. But the more I unpacked his story, the more I realized that that dominance and control had left behind it all kinds of damage, that's why he wanted to talk with me. And the more I listened to this man, the more I realized this controlling man was one of the most fearful men I'd ever met. His control was a way of dealing with his fear, the way he dealt with his fear is having to be in charge of everything. As I am deeply convinced that we have it wrong, that that self-oriented dominance and control is actually not strength, it's weakness masquerading as strength. And what does it look like for a man to be truly fearless? Well, I want to take you to a wonderful fearlessness passage in the Psalms, it's Psalm 112. And although I'm going to spend most of my time looking at verses five through eight, I want to look with you at the very first verse of this Psalm. "Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments!" “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.” Now this will sound unusual to you, but I'm deeply persuaded that fearlessness begins with fear, that it's only ever fear that defeats fear. It's only ever fear that has the power to create a fearless life. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. What are we talking about that? We're talking there about that mind-numbing, heart-engaging, life-shaping awe of God. His incalculable power overwhelms my heart and has captured me. Where God becomes the lens at which I look at everything in my life. I look at everything in life through the lens of the stunning, mind-numbing glory of God. And my life is shaped by acknowledgement if God is this glorious, then His commands have to always be right. It's a life that's ordered by God at the center - God’s glory, God's wisdom, it's God, God, God, God, God. You asked me why I do what I do with my children, I say, because God is. Why do I treat my wife the way I do, because God is. Why do I handle my finances the way I do, because God is. It's an awe of God that shapes everything in my life. You see, it's only that awe of the glory and the presence and the promises and the power of God that then releases me from horizontal fear. It's fear, vertical fear, that then defeats horizontal fear in my life. There's a lot of men out there who portray a macho bravado who are actually fearful men. When I think of this vertical fear of God, this awe of God, I always think of two biblical characters. The first is Abraham. Abraham had staked his entire life on one single promise of God, that is that he would have a son and out of that son, all the nations of earth would be blessed. Now that's something worth living for. And Abraham tagged his life, hooked his life to that one single promise, but there's a problem, the son never came. Decade after decade after decade, they waited till Sarah, Abraham's wife, was way beyond childbearing years. Finally, in a miracle of God's providence, Sarah gave birth to a son. What a joyous moment, the promise had come true, and this son would live and he would become that one who would bless the nations of earth. And then, shockingly, God comes to Abraham and says, I want you to sacrifice your son. It seems like a cruel trick, it's a moment where life doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What would you have been thinking, men? What would you have said? What would you have done if God would have asked that of you? You staked your whole life on one promise and now He's going to rob the son from you. Doesn't make any sense. And Abraham as a faithful man takes Isaac out and they start walking toward that place of sacrifice. Isaac's smart, he's used to the culture, he's seen sacrifices before and he says to his father, “Dad, where's the animal for sacrifice?” Abraham doesn't say, “Shut up and keep walking.” He says these beautiful words - it tells you
Transcript: WEEK 1
MEN OF FAITH
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