Welcome to deepen with Pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover

and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your

relationship with him. Now let's dive in. All right. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Into the arena we go.

Let's go. Pastor Joby, we're in the year of stand firm and act like men. And so why a series about

fighting? Because it's manly. Yeah, well, we have been called to fight. And I think that the church

has done a great disservice to what it means to be a man for many, many, many years.

And it has called men to check their testicles at the door in order to follow Jesus.

And you just come and sit down and be nice, and we're going to sing nice melodic songs and talk about feelings and study.

And yet, one of the primary motifs through the scriptures is that this is war i mean from the

very beginning uh with adam and eve being tricked by the enemy man it's not about temptation

of an apple it is about overthrowing a kingdom that god has established and the end is jesus coming

to reclaim what is his.

And then when Jesus came the first time, it was that the kingdom of God is at hand.

This whole thing is war.

And so we've talked about fighting around here a lot, but it is definitely to help men see that the Bible, to be a Christian, isn't come in, sit down, believe some stuff, and be nice.

It is surrender your life to a king who is at war against death and the enemy and you are a part of that army have you read the

book the toxic war on masculinity yes and if you want to deep dive into what you just said about how the

church has gone sissy,

it basically has to do with the industrial revolution because men are no longer like raising their boys.

But if you look, before that, it was all about like training them.

And I mean, it wasn't Sissy to be the most important thing about you, which would be following the Lord. Pastor Bray, you talked about people you don't want to fight. You said a polar bear? Certainly don't want to fight a polar bear. Do you know polar bears have black skin underneath their white? I never try to get close enough one to figure out out. I do honestly, though, like if you could ride any animal, what animal would you ride?

I would want to ride a polar bear.

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