Spiritual Disciplines for Regular Guys: Prayer & Activism

[Music] all right best night of the week best place to be best guys in town hey man hey welcome to real men we're honored to have you we love you we're excited to see you and if you guys are new you just made an incredibly good decision you're surrounded with the best guys amen we're in this together gentlemen the world has lost whatever is left of its freaking mind and we are the last guns at the Alamo for sanity amen all right so welcome to real men and thank you to everyone who's joining us o

nline and let me say we are here to build men up to bless women and children and so if you are here you are here because you matter you matter to me you matter to our church you matter to our leaders you matter to our god man your life matters your marriage matters your kids matter your grandkids matter your legacy matters your business matters and if we can get them in I'm convinced we can win the war so thank you for giving the honor of being with us uh tonight what we're doing is a little ser

ies on spiritual disciplines for regular guys and so disciplines are just sort of healthy habits how many of you guys have some healthy habits for your body right where are my gym Bros where are you protein shake uh tank top uh ax body spray Bros where are you guys at you got some healthy habits we still love him and we're praying for you you know we're all in process no judgment um uh but please just you know get a towel on in the locker room anyways um for some of you guys have got some health

y habits for your body and oftentimes we don't know how to have healthy habits for our soul you're a body and a soul most men take better care of their body than they do their soul and so for us the spiritual disciplines are what are some healthy habits for your soul and so today we're going to look at two and then we're going to spend time around the table and in prayer and let me say this your table leads are the best of the best guys they love you they pray for you uh they're going to pray fo

r you tonight they'll follow up with you this week if you need guys to come alongside these are the guys who are here to help and we want to be the guys that if you need a job we want to help you find a job if you want to get married we're going to help you not marry Satan's ex-wife get the right girl get it lined out get it teed up and off to a good start you want to be a Dad we're here to help you learn how to be a dad you want to figure out your finances we're here to help you want to buy a h

ouse mortgage brokers are here you want to start a company those guys are in the room we're here to do life together and we're here to do life better and part of that starts just individually pursuing what I'm going to call the spiritual disciplines or healthy habits the two today are what I'll call prayer and activism and uh there are notes at realfaith.com and if you're a notetaker you can find it all there in this regard prayer is preparing us to then be active and I was thinking about it my

first two pastors uh as a new Christian were bow hunters and you guys bow Hunters all right yeah it's great you guys it's good to eat protein that you've killed that's just a general good rule so my first two pastors one was a guy who was he was a Navy vet my second Pastor was a big guy African-American looked like Mr T played linebacker for a bit for the Dallas Cowboys and he they both loved the bow hunt so my first two pastors were bow hunters and uh one thing you learn about bow hunting at le

ast uh if you've ever done it or seen anybody do it before you go backward you got to go you gotta before you go forward rather I went to public school I make yours I apologize uh before you go forward sometimes you need to go you got to go backwards so like in Bow Hunting you need to retreat from the place that you think you'll have the best shot and you're going backward and then what you do when you see something in your line of sight you pull the bow backwards so that what you can then move

forward with your arrow and then move forward with your feet to go observe what you've killed most men like to go forward we don't like to go backward but sometimes the key to going forward is going backward it's like pulling a bow it's like getting more strength and tension so that when you move forward you move forward with more strength and intensity and so prayer what I'm going to say is like pulling back and activism is launching forward so we're going to look at these two twin disciplines

uh first prayer is pulling back I'll talk a little bit about prayer I've got a whole series called pray like Jesus I got a book called pray like Jesus if there's some in the bookstore take a copy for me for free if you'll read it but prayer is communicating with God prayer is hard for men because there's two things we don't like emotions and words how many of you have heard that from your wife right so prayer is where we learn to have emotions toward and conversations with God our Father to buil

d our relationship so there are various ways to pray praying includes speaking to God you could do this audibly or quietly if you're at work and you can't pray out loud you can pray silently God knows your thoughts and Satan can hear your words but he can't read your mind and so sometimes if there's something you really need to talk to the Lord about but you want a secure line of communication like in some sort of battle condition silence is where you're thinking something and God Alone can hear

it so it can be audible it can be speaking and it's listening to hear from God prayer is both listening and speaking prayer can happen anywhere anytime not just in church in your car at work at the gym wherever you happen to be and often includes other spiritual disciplines so you might be studying the Bible and say I need to stop and talk to God about this journaling I was praying and some thoughts come to mind I need to write this down or Worship You may be praying and then just start singing

and also when we sing together that's a form of prayer so how cool was it just a few minutes ago to hear all these guys sing together it's awesome right we put the base in it and that's the way it should be and as we sing together that's how we are praying together so prayer is a lot of a lot of ways to communicate with God but let me say this prayer is absolutely essential to you growing and maturing as a man you can't be emotionally or spiritually healthy unless you pray and in addition if yo

u can talk to God and listen to God this is going to have a real side benefit to your relationship with your gal if you could talk to her and listen to her it's going to open up that relationship many men struggle with these relationships because they struggle with this relationship if you don't talk to him you're probably not going to talk much to others if you don't listen to him you probably won't listen much to others if you don't have some sort of healthy emotional connection with him you'l

l have a difficulty having a healthy emotional connection with others so a couple things about prayer number one prayer is something you get to do not something you have to do one of the worst things that religious guys do they'll take things that we get to do and they'll turn them into things we have to do like when I was first married somebody came up to me and they said you have to have a date night I was like don't say it like that I'm hoping that there's a pot of gold at the end of that rai

nbow I'm looking forward to it you know taking my wife on a date is not something I have to do it's something I get to do talking to my God and hearing from my God is not something I have to do I get to do as soon as we take something you get to do and we make it something you have to do it tends to become something you don't want to do in addition number two God doesn't need your prayers you do hey let me just say this God's going to be fine tomorrow whether or not you pray today God's not goin

g to wake up tomorrow and be like dang it Tony you ruined my whole day you didn't talk to me or listen God's fine either way God doesn't need our prayers we do it's not for God's benefit but for ours in addition number three uh prayer is not informing God but it's inviting God sometimes guys pray they're like why should I talk to God he already knows everything yeah you're not telling God anything in prayer he doesn't know but you're inviting him into your life your UPS your Downs your wins your

losses your struggles your questions your decisions and I'll explain all of this in a moment but God doesn't need prayer and God isn't informed by prayer we need prayer and prayer is how we invite God in and let me say this too sometimes guys will pray and they'll say I prayed and it didn't it didn't work which means God didn't do what you said see you know it doesn't work like that how many of you have got a son okay son how many of you don't obey the commands of your son if you do you're a te

rrible father and you should spank yourself okay God is a father you are a son Sons don't bust dads around Sons open their ears and do what their dad says and so sometimes guys will say well prayer didn't work I prayed I told him what to do and he didn't do it that's because he's God one of the benefits of God you do what you want so prayer isn't commanding God but oftentimes prayer is how God changes us because sometimes we're in something we're like okay God here's what I want you to do he's l

ike that's not what I'm going to do but I'm going to use these circumstances son to make you like my son Jesus these may not be the things that you wanted but these are the things that you needed and as your dad I'm going to use them to bless and benefit you a couple of ways to pray just practical how many of you are verbal processors or okay I am I've turned it into a career yes half of what I say I just thought about a second before and and prayer is verbal processing so some guys think that p

rayer needs to be very formal it can be very informal it could be verbal process you're like okay I just and for me how many of you guys I'm not the uh Lotus position first of all I can't do it I'm 52. I'm at the point if I drop something I'm ordering another one on Amazon I'm not going down for it that's just too much of a commitment so what I like to do I like to talk to God while I'm driving or while I'm hiking or going for a walk I like to be moving and physically active in all just verbal p

rocess and I'm just talking to God and sometimes the verbal processing if you talk to him It prepares you to talk to them like before you have a big conversation with your wife have that conversation with god before he got a big conversation with your boss have that conversation with god it's verbal processing it's also unburdening there are times as men that you all carry responsibilities some of you have got a wife you've got kids you've got a business maybe you've got some prodigal kids maybe

you've got aging or elderly parents maybe you've got employees you've got a big burden on you as a man you're carrying a lot of weight and then all of a sudden your wife gets sick your your dad goes to the hospital your your wife is suffering postpartum depression your kid goes apostate like man I'm carrying that load as a man there are certain things that will crush you and you need to transfer the burden to the Lord prayer is where it's like God I I've done everything I can do I've said every

thing I can say I can't carry this this is where Jesus says come to me all you who are weighed down with load my yoke is easy my burden is like what he's saying is I'm gonna help carry that load for you or I'll carry all of that load for you what men tend to do when they're overburdened let's just be honest and have a conversation men that are overburdened they're overwhelmed they're overextended what are some negative things that they tend to do to cope with it drink right you like I'll get dru

nk that'll fix it how many guys have gotten drunk and can testify to the other guys that that didn't help I've never seen anybody say I got drunk thank you Lord that really helped that was great right like if you're having a hard day you know if your accountability group is like Jim Beam Johnny Walker and Jose Cuervo I'm just telling you it's not going to end good what other things do men do when they've got a lot of burden on them they look at porn they are then self-medicating sometimes they i

solate they're like I have a lot of people and things bothering me so I'm going to avoid all those people and things and when men get isolated it's very dangerous God told our first father it's not good to be alone and he was perfect and we're not and if it's not good for a perfect man to isolate it's not good for sinful men to isolate what are the things the men do when we're really burdened take it out on others and get angry some guys here's their emotional Spectrum sleep and angry that's it

that's all you get so if you're carrying a burden what do you do do you self-medicate do you isolate do you get angry or do you bring it to God who can carry it and say okay God here's what I'm struggling with and literally pray that burden off of you some years ago my pastor Jimmy Evans who's going to come preach for us in March um he asked how's your prayer life I said I'm doing great I'm talking to the Lord all the time he's like how are your burdens I said I'm freaked out I'm stressed I'm an

xious I got a nervous eye twitch I'm very stressed out he's like then you're not praying to God you're complaining to God he said it's not prayer until you've transferred the burden I said well thank you Barnabas for that tremendous encouragement you know but it was like it's true if all I'm doing is telling God I'm being crushed but I don't transfer the burden to him I've actually not done what I need to do and what he wants me to do in addition uh prayer is uh unburdening it's also forgiving s

ometimes you're just like you know what I can't talk to them I'm frustrated with them I'm hurt by them I'm sick of them but I'm not going to engage with them because if I engage I will enrage instead I'm going to go talk to the Lord and I'm going to forgive them and I'm going to bless them and I'm going to let it be between them and the Lord sometimes in prayer because sometimes there are things and people and conflicts and issues and situations the more you talk about it the worse it gets and i

f you talk to that person it's only going to deteriorate so what do you do to get closure go talk to the Lord forgive them say lord it's between you and them now I forgive them I bless them I let you deal with them sometimes we pray too to receive power you're going through something I've never been through this man I don't know how to do this and this happens all the time in a man's life he's strong in one season and then he enters into a new season like I've never been married before I don't k

now what to do never had a kid before never lost a job before never been in the hospital before never had to start my career over I've never been here prayers were like you pray and you invite God to empower you father I need your help I need your Holy Spirit I need your presence to give me through it a couple of others I think one of the most powerful prayers is a thankful prayer we practice this all the time at my house dinner time at our house usually a Bible is open we'd have some sort of co

nversation wherever the kids wanted to go but I've always asked my kids who's got a thankful prayer we always start with thankful prayer and what I love is my kids are thankful kids because they've always prayed thankful prayers my wife is a thankful woman if you want to change the temperature in your home just increase the attitude of gratitude if Dad and wife and kids are thankful and they verbalize their gratitude and the specific people and things they're thankful for that's a pretty awesome

place to be and so thankful prayers I pray pretty much every Thursday is my prayer day I go up to the mountains I hike so I'll jump in the Bronco I go up to the mountains and I hike and I verbal process and I talk to the Lord and I always start my hike with thankful prayers hey God thanks for this thanks man and I'm just thinking about people and things that I'm thankful for and I'll be honest with you uh recently I think I did about a 12 mile hike and I was going to do thankful prayers and the

n talk to God about other things I had so much to be thankful for that I hiked the whole 12 miles just with thankful prayers and I'll tell you what nothing in my life changed but everything in my soul changed I was like you know what I've got some issues and problems and complications and needs but look at all that God has done in my life like I was just overwhelmed I called my wife I was like honey I just hiked 12 miles and I just thank God the whole time and I thank God for you and the kids an

d actually I I'll be honest with you guys I thank God for you guys I was like thank you that I can walk into a full room of men they want to be like Jesus because I've been in a lot of rooms but I've never been in that room so much to be thankful for and lastly just to ask God what do you want me to do what is what is my calling what does obedience look like as a son so let me explain for how many of you guys let's just be totally honest we're in church how many of you guys struggle with prayer

how many of you guys like yeah I kind of suck a prayer okay there's and if you didn't raise your hand you're a liar and you're lying in church I I've never met a guy who's like oh my prayer life is amazing I was like you need to pray for humility so um but here's the key to prayer the key to prayer is knowing that God is a father and you're a son that's the whole key to prayer this is the whole theme of pray like Jesus the book Luke 11 1-2 Jesus was praying at a certain place apparently a place

he goes to to pray when he finished one of his disciples guys come up here's what they asked him Lord teach us to pray men don't naturally know how to pray men don't just figure out prayer men need to be taught how to pray that's why we're here as John taught his disciples he said to them when you pray say father okay this is where I want to land this is Mass this is this is mad most men struggle with prayer and the key is don't focus on how to pray focus on who's the father because G the discip

les come they're like okay Jesus we're Believers we're Jews we memorize the Bible we grew up in church we're spiritual we believe in God here's the thing though we don't know how to pray men is that kind of humbling to admit that some of you guys that would be you you're like I've been at Church my whole life but I really don't know how to pray don't be ashamed of that just be honest about that they were and what I love is Jesus doesn't shame them he helps them he doesn't beat him down he builds

them up and here's what Jesus says don't worry about how to pray worry about getting to know God as your father this is the key that unlocks prayer for men God is our father we are his Sons how many of you are a dad and you've got a kid one of the most life-altering experiences for a man he becomes a dad as soon as you become a dad you have a whole new revelation of God like the Bible says he's a father now I'm a father oh now I now I have some understanding of how my father feels about me how

many of you held your kid you were overwhelmed how many of you held your kid and you just love them how many of you pursue your kids how many of you listen to your kids how many of you serve your kids how many of you sacrifice for your kids and here's what I know men if you're a dad you all do because you're those guys were those were those guys who bless our kids we're kids we're the guys who believe that life comes from God and we're not just sireing our children we're fathering them I still r

emember holding my kids just like oh my goodness I have a love for them that I don't know if I've ever had this kind of love before and I'm concerned for them in a way that I've not really been concerned for others before how many of you your your child started talking do you remember those days when your child started talking to you how amazing was that when you were little let's say when when your child was little I just kind of see this in my mind how many of you holding your child your child

was little you're a dad and they're trying to talk remember that like they're and you could tell they're like like Pentecostals you're like I need to interpret that I don't know what we're talking about but they're trying to and how many of you just in your heart you're like they're not good at communicating but they're trying you remember that that's how God feels when you learn how to pray at first you're going to feel like a child you'll be like I don't know how to do it I don't know what I'

m doing I think yeah and God's like you know what you're my son and I you know what what I didn't need for my sons my sons are in the room I didn't need my sons to be articulate I just celebrated the fact that they wanted to have a relationship with me and they were trying I didn't need syllogisms just mumbling was enough for me guys it's it's like a kid learning to talk when you learn to talk to God it's going to be a little mumbling at first that's okay the hard part for men is to learn new th

ings we like to do things that we're good at and if we're not good we don't this is why Once you turn 40 you don't try anything new for the rest of your life never if you've not done it before yeah I'm not trying it because I'm not going to be good at it and I'm a man and only do things that I'm good at okay but it's okay to start how many of you let me ask you this question how many of you dads how many of you when your kid pursues you and wants to talk to you you drop everything to have that c

onversation amen you're like my kid loves me my kid trusts me my kid wants to talk to me my kid wants me to give them advice God's a father you're a son this changes prayer it doesn't matter how old you are you still need your father right you still need his wisdom you still need his presence you still need his affection Jesus it's let me say this too most men don't see God as father so let me just ask you a question permission to speak freely how do many men or most men wrongly perceive God wha

t's that judge how many men you say judge like he's not there to help he's there to judge he gives you commands and orders and if you disobey he drops the gavel and punishes you if God is a judge does anyone love the judge does anyone pursue the judge when you've messed up how many of you are looking for a judge how else do men wrongly perceive God Untouchable far away busy distant because some of you your father abandoned you and you've projected your Earthly father onto your heavenly father li

ke my dad didn't care he walked out he didn't want anything to do with me that must be how God is no it's not how God is God is like a father who loves his son his present for his son is proud of his son and is there to help his son other wrong perceptions or misperceptions the men often have of God well he's just there for the miracle the Genie in a Bottle and that is you know what I live my life and you know in case of emergency break glass and try God so it's like oh gosh I think my girlfrien

d's pregnant Lord if she's not pregnant I'll be a missionary you know you're you're trying to negotiate some some sort of Hostage negotiation at the last minute all right and so in that you what it is is you only invite God at the last minute and he's not there at the beginning and many men see God as a boss he gives you a job description and then he gives you a performance review if you did good he'll reward you you did bad he'll punish you God is not a judge of his sons God is not a genie for

his sons God is not abandoned his sons God is not a boss to his sons God is a father to his sons the father to his sons I'll prove it to you in the Old Testament there's a lot of fathers listed it's a patriarchal book father son father son father son father son but rarely in the Old Testament is God referred to by his people as a father perhaps on 15 occasions Jesus comes along we just read the words of Jesus Jesus is the what of God it's the Son of God you know what that means he's our big brot

her he's our big brother how many of you wanted to be like your big brother when you grew up hey Jesus Is Our Big Brother we want to be God's sons who grow up to be like our big brother the son of God Jesus comes and he starts teaching about God now if you've been here for any length of time you know the answer but what do you think the most common name that Jesus used to refer to God father again we looked at it our father so I just feel inclined in the spirit to say this Jesus says when you pr

ay pray like this whose father Our Father what this means is you're one of his sons you need to have that Identity On You and then you will live up to the name that he has given you you are Paul says this in Galatians in Romans you are the sons of God you are the sons of God God is your father and he has adopted you to be his son this changes everything for a man how many of you wish you had a loving powerful wise generous constantly available father who pursued you I changed our whole life righ

t well we want to be those guys for our kids but the father is that way to his kids this is why I'm way off on a rabbit Trail men struggle with the love of God because we tend to think of God as something other than a father if you are a son and he is a father how many of you understand that there is a special unique love between a father and a son not speaking anything negative of dollars I've got two I love with my whole heart but there is a love connection that is masculine that is strong tha

t is dignified that is Honorable between a father and a son for you to love God is for you to be a son who is loved by a father and in return loves your father so Jesus comes along as the son of God his number one title for God is father 65 times in Matthew's gospel as well as Luke Matthew Mark and Luke I should say about 65 times he refers to God as father over a hundred times in the Gospel of John Jesus refers to God as why does Jesus call God in the four gospels father 165 times because he is

and we tend to forget we tend to take our Earthly father and then project that onto our heavenly father what we need to do is get to know our Earthly father by first knowing our heavenly father once you know what that father is you know what father should be like Jesus calls god father in the four gospels 165 times there is zero evidence that any individual before Jesus called God father and then Jesus says he is the father I am the son and when you pray pray our father now you are an adopted s

on part of the family let me say this man you're not an orphan you're a son you're not a problem you're a son you're not a failure you're a son you're not damaged you're adopted you are the sons of God everything in this culture wants you to think that you are something else then the father says that you are you are not Daughters of God you are sons of God I want that on you and I want that in you because that will help you to learn how to pray and live in relationship with the father Jesus chan

ged the course of world history before Jesus nobody was saying God's My Father and Jesus says he is my father and he is our father and this is where I'll say one other thing with prayer oftentimes the Bible talks about praying with one specific action added to prayer the laying on of hands okay let me say this to become a Christian to become a Son of God means that the father has put his hand on you he has said this is my son in whom I'm well pleased the holy spirit is going to dwell in this man

and he is going to become like his big brother the son of God and then what God does because you men are heads you're the heads of your homes if you're a single man you're the head of your life if you're a married man you're the head of your home God gives us the opportunity to lay hands and pray over people guess what that is that's a fatherly Ministry what we're going to do at the end of our time together for those of us that are here and you're welcome to do this if you're with a group onlin

e we lay hands and pray over each other you know why because the Bible says that this there's a special impartation that comes how many of you you don't just tell your son do you love him but you hug him you kiss them on the head right you give them a piggyback ride you touch him this is Ministry of presence this is spiritual fathering some of you guys I just I just would so love for you to do this one thing that'll change your marriage and change your family pray for your wife and your kids lay

hands on and pray over your wife and your kids you want your wife to trust you bring the presence of God your wife if you want your wife to feel safe with you bring the presence of God you want your kids to love you to adore you to trust you to pursue you to listen to you bring the presence of God get with the father in prayer have him put his hand and of course I'm talking there about the Holy Spirit on you and then go to people and lay hands and pray over them something Supernatural is going

to happen in this room in a little bit men who have never been prayed for are going to be prayed for and by putting a hand on someone here's what you're saying I'm here with you you matter I care about you there is a God and I am interceding for you before him and I am inviting my father to do for you what my father does for me okay that's what we do and we pray and you guys should see it I'm way off my notes but I I like to stand in the back and here's what I like to see I like to see your wive

s and your girlfriends walk in take a deep breath shocked and start crying because their husbands their brothers their sons their grandfathers are being prayed for and praying it's amazing I'm telling you man something happens in the Unseen Realm when there is prayer especially when it is initiated by the sons of God who have the Father's Heart so prayer I've got six minutes which means nothing so um so to start with my original analogy prayer is like pulling the bow back and then activism is la

unching forward with the full confidence and power of God's calling on your life you can't proceed forward until you've gone backward you can't have strength until you've spent time in the father's presence so I'll close with this Matthew 26 this is activism this is the firing forward and the reason I belabored the point of the pulling the bow back I think that's where all the work is I think it's pretty easy to let the to let the arrow fly Matthew 20 here's what Jesus says these are kind of his

last words this is near the end of his his life on Earth the 11 disciples went to Galilee the mountain to which Jesus had directed them when they saw him they worshiped him we'll talk about Worship in a few weeks but some doubt it and Jesus came and said to them how much Authority you need to know this Jesus Christ has all authority okay all authority in heaven and on Earth that's the invisible and the visible realms it's been given to me go therefore literally in the Greek as you go make what

disciples disciples are those who have discipline the root for disciple and discipline same thing you can't be a disciple unless you're disciplined so the spiritual disciplines are how we make disciples it's disciplined lives of what all nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit if you've not been baptized let your table lead know we'd love to sign you up for baptisms we got a big one coming for Easter teaching them to observe or obey all that I want have commanded

you and behold I'm with you always to the End of the Age here's what he's telling us Jesus has all authority Jesus has commands and we need to obey him and if we seek to obey his commands he will go with us and help us he'll never leave us nor forsake us he'll be with us always until his second coming so this issue of moving forward until you get with God you're like okay God what do you want me to do where do you want me to go what do you want me to say um God you want me to move forward but f

irst I need to pull backward and get with you and I need to hear from you and I need to know and then when you tell me then I will be active our entire culture is dominated by weak neutered castrated effeminate passive weak woke in active worthless men that's our world and if you're on the Internet it's your mom's house posting a critique thank you for proving my point Okay so Satan wants two things first he wants you to be completely compromised and to deny your God and if he can't get you to d

o that his second move will get you to be passive inactive passive men are the problem passive men watch evil men Rule and reign passive men watch the wrong men make the decisions you can't be passive in your life you can't be passive in your marriage you can't be passive with your children once your daughters hit 13 years you sure as hell can't be passive when your children make the second most important decision of their life who they're going to marry you must be active and and the key is thi

s passive men are a problem since Genesis 3. our first father Adam Satan shows up and what does he say nothing what does he do nothing and here's the big idea if you won't be active Satan will if you won't lead yourself Satan will lead you if you do not lead your family Satan will lead your family the question is not will there be a leader the question is will it be you or will it be your enemy will it be the one who comes to steal and kill and destroy and the reason why so many men are passive

and not active a couple of reasons number one you've been brainwashed you young men with a woke apostate ridiculous insane agenda that all masculinity is toxic it is not there are strong men like Jesus Christ there are courageous men like Jesus Christ there are focused men like Jesus Christ there are cold men like Jesus Christ there are anointed men like Jesus Christ their masculinity is not toxic God made you as man your man you're God's man you're God's Sons you have the same spirit in you tha

t raised Christ from the dead you have the same calling on your life as the Son of God did you belong to your father you are loved by your father you're adopted by your father you're called by your father you're never leave you're never forsaken by your father more than anything we need men healthy and active not just active but healthy the pulling back prayer listening spending time with the father in the presence of God makes you healthy and then you get active like Father send me into the fig

ht where do you need me what am I supposed to do where do I lead where do I take responsibility where do I make decisions where do I make a dent where do I make a difference passive men are not Godly men they're cowards there's a little line I remember in Revelation talks about all the people who don't make it into heaven one of them is the cowards there's no room for cowards in heaven there's no there's no room for cowardly Sons Of An Almighty God man you're more important than you think you ar

e you're more needed Than You Think You Are you're more rare Than You Think You Are your life matters your decisions matter your marriages matter your children matter your grandchildren matter God loves you with a Father's Heart God has a Destiny for you as his sons God has things to be done by you that only you can do man I'm telling you this whole world is just trying to make men castrated passive all of you young guys here's what you've been told just sit on the couch and about being a victim

I'll just tell you that's why your whole generation's got Mental Health because you're freaking crazy and at the end of the day if we just sit back and let this culture raise our kids and let the spirit of this world rule our wives and let the sex and gender and sexual nonsense determine our identity in our future and nothing will change and everyone will suffer here's what I'm telling you prayer get with the father and get his heart get his courage get his confidence get his calling activism w

here you need to be active where are you passive man fear you just don't want the conflict you don't need to be a bully you need to be active and present is it bad teaching you've been told that the weaker you are the better you are we've got a whole generation of men that have got half the testosterone of a few Generations ago the average man today has got the same grip strength as his grandma did a hundred years ago literally I mean it is it is an absolute Devastation of masculinity too much p

assivity it's time for you guys to meet with the father and get active some of you are already doing it and I honor you for that some of the guys around the table it's new for them you're going to help them so I'm going to pray for you and you guys are going to get some time together couple of things here's we're going to discuss around the tables number one who would benefit from you regularly laying hands and praying over them guys don't don't lay hands on your kids for violence but for prayer

don't lay hands on your wife to control her but to bless her okay and then number two how can we pray for you and if some of you guys are like I don't know what to do that's okay gotta start some of you guys like it feels weird yeah you'll get used to it some of you guys are like I'm not sure it's going to work give it a try father thanks for an opportunity to be together and father I thank you that we're your sons and I thank you that you call us Sons God in a world where masculinity is under

attack where men are castrated and neutered we're passive men are celebrated and and active men are canceled we pray against these the demonic spirits at work in this world God we pray against the the Ahab Spirit of just passive indifferent weak effeminate feckless worthless men and God we pray that you would fill us with your spirit that you would give us courage and strength that we would know when to be tough and when to be tender that we we know when to speak up and when to be silent God I p

ray that every wife of these men would have the best version of them I pray that every child of these men would have the best version of them and Lord God when all is said and done give us give us a tender heart but a thick hide until we stand before our father it's not Judgment Day and so we don't have ears to hear until we hear from him Lord I pray for those men who have been passive they've not been active maybe they're active in areas of their life but there's active areas where they're succ

eeding but there's passive areas where they're just watching God I pray that they would be active father I pray a special anointing on the prayer lives of these men that they would hear from you that they would have courage and Clarity and Confidence from you and that when you tell them to move they would be disciplined as disciples they would do what Jesus said they would obey everything that you have commanded us to be in to do and Lord God we pray we pray for the sick culture we're in we're k

illing our kids we're we're gender mutilating our sons we're we're handing them screens to be raised by Chinese propaganda on Tick-Tock and pornography and brainwashing and re-hardwiring then we're wondering why they're depressed so we put them on medication then they self-destruct with addiction and then they're dependent on the government and then they kill themselves Lord the world and its wisdom does not know God and so God we want to have our eyes open we want to have our ears open we want

to have our hearts open so that we could hear what you would have to say and we could do what you've called us to do in Jesus name amen love you guys