You're listening to audio from the Village Church. If you'd like to check out more resources or give to our

ministry, please visit us at the Villagechurch.net. If you could just remain standing for a little bit,

yeah, we, we've been talking coming out of this week, and I was preparing for a sermon Friday night at Consecrate and one of the things I

was doing is looking back over kind of the most up-to-date info I could find about the reality

of living in Denton County and I was struck struck by how much of the brokenness and heartbreak

and I mean like the sheer volume of domestic violence, the amount of drinking and I'm,

listen, I like a good bourbon more than anyone but I don't move to three and four of them

every night.

And I was struck by how much of the carnage in our community is tied to uninitiated men.

And brothers, look at me, I will never shame you.

I will never shame you.

There is a weight that you bear that I understand. And so I

never want to shame you. Like here's what I know about Matt Yost. Matt Yost is my guy. We've trained

Jitza together for years. I've known him for those, that old time, I used to see him out at the

flag football field. And here's what I know about Matt Yost. He's a good dude.

You know what he was 13 years ago?

A good dude.

Sitting up there, uninitiated, trying to get by, trying to navigate the angst in him,

and not quite sure Jesus was going to be the thing for him because of things he's done,

because of what he, like he just was, it's something else, it's not Jesus.

And so what happens, well, let me start with scripture.

Paul says in Romans 815 that you and I have not been given the spirit of slavery unto fear, but given the spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Father, this is functionally an identity shift. And what happens to men, and maybe I'm sure

...