Transcript Wild At Heart Chapter 3

Wild At Heart
Chapter 8
• A Battle to Fight: The Enemy
• “Enemy-occupied territory- that is what this world
is” C. S. Lewis
• Thomas A Kempis quote 139
• Luke’s Question 140
• “the early death of a man’s warrior keeps the boy
in him from growing up” Robert Bly
• If this is true so then is the opposite
• If we can reawaken that fierce quality in a man,
hook it up to a higher purpose, release the
warrior with-in, then the boy can grow up to be
truly masculine.
• Blaine’s picture
• “Every man is a warrior inside. But the coice to
fight is his own” Blaine Eldridge
• The warrior is not the only role a man has to
play, but it is crucial in our movement towards
masculine integrity and it is hardwired into
every man.
The Warrior Heart 141
• Major Sullivan letter 141
• A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission
to his life that involves yet transcends even home
and family. He must have a cause to which he is
devoted even unto death.
• That is why God created you- yes you- to be His
intimate ally in this great battle.
• You have a specific place in the line, a mission
that God made you for.
• That is why it is so essential to hear from God
about your true name, because in that name is the
mission of your life.
• “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that
all my past life had been but a preparation for
this hour and for this trial” Winston Churchill on
leading the British in WWII
• The same is true of you; your whole life has been
a preparation.
• “I would love to be William Wallace, leading the
charge with a big sword in my hand”, “but I feel
like I am the guy in the fourth row with a hoe”
• That’s a lie of the Enemy
• He says “your place is really insignificant, that
you really aren’t armed for the battle anyway”
• But the truth is in your life you are William
Wallace, who else could be?
• There is no other man to replace you in your life,
in the arena you have been called to. If you leave
your place in the line, it will remain empty. No
one else can be who you are meant to be.
• You are the hero in your story… not a bit
player…not an extra… but the main man.
• After our wounds are healed, God calls a man
forward to the fron lines to develop and release
in us the qualities that a warrior needs:
• 1. A vision to a cause greater than selfpreservation Mark 8:35
• John’s mercenary story 142
• 2. A warrior must be cunning, he knows when to
fight and when to run. He can sense a trap and
never charges blindly ahead, he know what
weapons to carry and how to use them.
• 3. A keen awareness of the enemies we face; the
world, the flesh, and the devil.
• A sort of unholy trinity
The Traitor Within 143
• John Owen passage from “Sin and Temptation”
• Ever sense Adam gave away our true strength
many of us men do not want to speak up unless
we know it will go well, and we do not want to
move unless we are guaranteed success.
• What scriptures call the flesh, the old man, or the
sinful nature is the part in every man that wants
the easiest way out.
• Examples on 143-144
• To put it blunt your flesh is a weasel, a poser, a
selfish pig.
• But your flesh is not you.
• Did you know that? Do you act like you believe
it? Your flesh is not the real you!!!!
• Paul write in Romans 7
• Sin is not us, it is not our true heart
• Remember your heart is good “I will give you a
new heart and put a new spirit in you…” Ezekiel
36:26
• That is a big lie in the church today that you are
nothing more than a “sinner saved by grace”
• You are a lot more, you are a new creation in
Christ.
• The new testament calls you;
• A saint
• A holy one
• A son of God
• In the core of your being you are a good man
• The war waging in us is a civil war, not between
us and God, but between the traitor within us and
our true heart fighting alongside the Spirit of
God in us.
• Romans 8:2-3, 9-11
• The real you is on the side of God against the
false self. Why is it important that we understand
this?
• Because the man who believes his heart is
nothing but sin cannot have the will to fight
• How do we win this battle against the traitor
within, your flesh, the false self, the poser, this
model of cowardice and self-preservation?
• To crucify it
• Not your heart, or the true man within us. Not
getting rid of the desires for battle and adventure
and beauty, but to shoot the traitor.
• But how?
• Choose against him every time you see him raise
his ugly head…
• Walk right into those situations you normally run
from. Speak right to those issues you normally
remain silent over.
• If you want to grow in true masculine strength,
then you must stop sabotaging it.
Sabotage 146
• Rich’s story
• He deliberately chose to push down his true
strength and live the false self.
• If you do that enough you won’t believe you
have any strength.
• John’s boss story
• Sabotage happens when we give our strength
away.
• Masturbation is sabotage, it is a selfish act that
tears you down, so does sexual involvement with
a woman you are not married to.
• Carl’s story 146-147
• “A Man must strive long and mighty within
himself, before he can learn fully to master
himself” Kempis
The Real Thing 147
• When you start choosing to live out of your
strength you will discover that it grows each
time.
• Rich’s story revisited
• Begin to taste your true strength and you will
want more.
• Something in the center of your chest feels
weighty and substantial.
• We must be willing to let our strength show up,
many of us are unnerved by our own masculinity.
• Gordon Dalby story
• John’s dream
• Our strength is wild and fierce, and we are nore
than unsettled by what may happen if we let it
arrive.
• A man’s addictions are the result of his refusing
his strength.
• “let people feel the weight of who you are, and
let them deal with it” Brent Curtis
The World 149
• What is the world?
• It is not a place or a set of behaviors.
• It is any system built by our collective sin, all of
our false selves coming together to reward and
destroy each other.
• The world is an carnival of couterfiets;
– Counterfeit battles
– Counterfeit adventures
– Counterfeit beauties
• Battle your way to the top and you are a man
says the world
• If this was true then why is it many of these men
are often the emptiest, most frightened, prideful
posers around?
• Counterfeit adventures-inappropriateness with
hobbies.
• Counterfeit beauties- golden haired woman- porn
• The world offers a man a false sense of power
and a false sense of security.
• Where does your false sense of power come
from?
– How pretty your wife is?
– How many people attend your church?
– Your your knowledge/Degree?
– Your position or title?
• What happens inside when I suggest you give it
up?
• What would happen if tomorrow you lost
everything the world has rewarded you for?
• Where am I deriving my strength from? Ask this
of yourself often.
• Jesus warns us about anything that gives a sense
of false power.
• When you walk into a a church function, He said,
take the backseat, chose a path of humility, don’t
be a self-promoter, a glad hander, a poser.
• Climb down the ladder and look to be the servant
of all
• If you want to know what the world really feels
about you, just start living out of your true
strength.
– Say what you think
– Standup for the underdog
– Challenge foolish politics or policies
– The world will turn on you like sharks
• Jerry McGuire clip?
• Pastor confrontation story
• The world of posers is shaken by a real man.
• They will do what ever it takes to get you back in
line
– Threaten you
– Seduce you
– Undermine you
• They crucified Jesus for it
• But it did not work, did it?
• Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and the
sheer force of His presence.
• Let the people feel the weight of who you are
and let them deal with it.
The Devil 151
• John’s soccer game story 151
• Change the characters and the setting and the
very same thing has happened to you. Only you
thought the whole thing was your own mess.
• I am sure the devil has a place in your theology
but what about in the daily events of your lives?
• Has it ever crossed your mind that not every
thought that has crossed your mind comes from
you?
• We are being lied to all the time
• We never stop and think
– Who else is speaking here?
– Where are those ideas coming from?
– Where are those feelings coming from?
• Saints before us took the enemy seriously
shouldn’t we?
• “We are not aware of his schemes” 2nd
Corinthians 2:11
• Chaldeans Job 1:12-17
• Woman Luke 13:16
• Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5:3
• We see it clearly in scripture Satan’s ways and
his heart towards us but do we think of him…
• When there is a terrorist act?
• When we have a headache that keeps us from
praying or studying scripture?
• Or in a fallout in a ministry or trouble in the
church?
• Who was behind the brutal assault on your
strength and those wounds you have taken?
• “It is the image of God reflected in you that so
enrages hell, it is this at which the demons hurl
their mightiest weapons” William Gurnall
• There is a whole lot more going on behind the
scenes of our lives than most of us have been led
to believe.
• Christmas story revisited Revelation 12 153-154
• Philip Yancy on Christmas 154
• Spiritually speaking this is no silent night. It is
D-Day
• “As a Christian I believe we live in paralell
worlds. One world consists of hills and lakes and
barns, and politians and shepherds watching their
flocks at night.
• The other consists of angels and siinister forces
and the whole spiritual realm”
• Christmas story continued 155 Revelations 12:17
• Behind the world and the flesh is our deadliest
enemy that we ignore and do not recognize
• We live right now on the front lines of a fierce
spiritual war that is to blame for the casualties
you see around you and most of the assault
against you.
• Matrix movie clip
• Yes, Luke there is a dragon.
• Here is how you slay him…
• Chapter 9 A Battle to fight: the strategy