Ironworks I October 10, 2020

man it's good to have the guys back for ironworks it's been a little while yes been a while since we've gathered together and it's good that you're here and glad to have you with us um i uh one of the things i i've always loved is um since i was a little kid is binoculars and telescopes i mentioned on wednesday night the bible's like a telescope you know um if you uh look through it man you can see entire entirely different worlds and beyond if you just look at it it's just a telescope and there's a lot of people that look at the bible like like they're just looking at a telescope they're not looking through it but when you look through it man that's where all the excitement begins and letting the word be that window into god's eternal plan and promises you know and and i love that and i'd like to do a a study today that's going to start uh if if we're going to keep that sort of you know telescope theme going maybe more of a rifle scope on this occasion as you uh as you uh uh we want to hit the bullseye but i'm going to start out with it kind of zoomed out i i i love uh there's a loopholed scope that i that i have that um you know you start way out but man when you start zooming that in it's just uh it's almost hard to find your target uh when it's all already zoomed in it's so powerful you know and uh but i i kind of want to do that we'll start off in a distance kind of zoom in on an issue uh and hopefully we'll hit the mark uh today so we'll start way off in exodus chapter 36 exodus 36. and we'll begin in verse 20. exodus 36 20. it says there in exodus 36 20 and he made boards for the tabernacle of shateem wood standing up the length of a board was 10 cubits the breadth of a board one cubit and a half the board had two tenons or hands equally distance one from another thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle he made boards for the tabernacle 20 boards for the south side southward and 40 sockets of silver he made under the 20 boards two sockets under one board for his two tenons and two sockets under another board for his two tenons let's fast forward to verse 31 and he made bars of shateem wood five for the boards and one of the one side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward and he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other and he overlaid the boards with gold and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars and overlaid the bars with gold you you might be saying brett you're zooming way out now uh you got this thing of boards and bars and sockets and silver and gold what in the world does that have to do with iron works well here's the thing for you engineering guys you guys are all like yeah this is interesting sockets boards you know bars and how it's being held together and fitted uh the tabernacle of god and and uh there's an interest you know just on how the structure of the tabernacle really looks uh for some of you there's a level there but but if you're a bible student and you know the scriptures the typology of the tabernacle is pretty deep the tabernacle is both a picture of jesus which is worth studying and remember lo i come in the volume of the book it is written of me jesus would say um but but it also you know even as we our body is a temple to the holy spirit i believe the tabernacle can be sort of a picture of us and how the lord uses us and maybe even his church the church of jesus christ and how we're fitted together to make a building uh you know and there's different analogies that the bible uses whether it's the tabernacle or the temple you know as far as the temple goes you know the new testament tells us that you and i as brothers in the church and and even the the men and women of the church were all living stones being fitted together to make a temple where the lord can dwell and we're the church of jesus christ um the other analogy is of course the body of christ you know christ is the head of the church and and the people of the church they're the body of christ but i was reading this you know recently and just seeing the boards and the bars and the way they're fitted together thinking of how the lord uses his church in that same way different pieces different members uh different roles that we play and we're part of a a building whose maker is god and he wants to use that building and he wants to dwell in that place which we would call his body the church of jesus christ and how essential those parts are when i go to israel with some of you guys some of you guys have been there we um we go to this place in timna which is out in the middle of nowhere um it's a nice stop because we're traveling through the negev desert from the southern tip of israel headed back up toward jerusalem and it's a long journey but about halfway there for miles and miles there's not one blade of grass or weed on the ground it's just desert barren desert and we pull off the road often go up this windy little road and go up to this place where there's this little tabernacle sitting and this jewish lady who runs it and she she takes us through the tabernacle it's a life-size tabernacle um made of boards and bars and sockets she doesn't use real gold she uses a gold spray can of paint but uh but but it you kind of get the idea and it's a life-size model of the uh tabernacle um and it's kind of it's kind of interesting to see and uh people like what are we doing out here in the desert in this little tent you know it's a hundred degrees out here you know but uh this this little jewish gal gives us the dissertation about how the tabernacle is a picture of jesus christ and it's really an awesome stop and some people even have told me about that's one of my favorite stops on our israel trip which is kind of kind of fun uh but but to see it you realize each of these boards and sockets if you pulled one of them out the whole thing falls apart that's the way it works uh it all kind of depends on itself to hold itself together and i think there's a great picture in that for for you and me we all play a role in the church of jesus christ and um one of the things that the lord has been putting on my heart lately and i i i'm praying that the holy spirit will be able to speak through me this morning because i i find it hard to say this without offending people unnecessarily you know me i'm not afraid to to offend people but um but i know that a lot of ladies are watching today uh out there and so i'm having to be careful here um it's it's the curse of the online live stream uh the ladies are watching so ladies uh be be careful on this one this is important i'm talking to the brothers this morning um and and uh one of the things that i'm concerned about is how men have largely checked out of the church um the the the feminization of the church of jesus christ is something i've watched from the time i was a child to the present day and i am concerned not not as much at atheist i love that we have a strong group of men leading and participating i i pray and hope we can even do better but the the greater church is is of great concern to me the feminizing of the church where um now you know a lot of churches and ministries are uh opening the doors for women pastors and um i know that uh that's the popular hip thing bible doesn't teach that at all it's not even close to sort of make that argument you have to just totally chalk off entire areas of scripture and say well we just don't believe that or it's not for today now by the way when you open that door uh that section of scripture is not for today it was for the ancient times of paul um when you open that door you have uh suddenly holes in the dike and you're gonna have to start plugging those holes and good luck with that because pretty soon you say well i don't agree with any of these things in fact homosexuality i don't like that ripped it out of the scriptures uh you know i don't like the idea of of you know that marriage is limited to just a man and a woman you know rip that out of the bible and that's what people are doing that's what we're seeing happen in our churches today that's why so many doctrinal issues have been off the rails because we've just you know started to pick and choose the scriptures we want to say that's for today or that's not for today what's interesting is god made us very specifically and i'm one of those guys who believe that god made men and women differently and thank the lord for that you know i mean i'm glad that we're different um what would the world be like without women if it was just men this would be the worst place in the world to live i think i'd want to just shoot myself in the head right now i'm so thankful for uh for women and and their role that they play and it's so sad this women's lib and the women's movement and all this stuff that's happened in the last 20 30 40 years one of the things i've noticed is is women are losing on this one the idea of who a woman really is they're the ones who are losing um if did you see the vice presidential abate debate this week um it was interesting to me uh no matter what side of the spectrum you're on politically it was interesting to me see you know it's quite different than the presidential debate um and uh i thought pence did a good job he was very uh gentlemanly and kamala harris she she you know did you know had had she said what she wanted to say and but but here's the thing uh pence there was a couple times where he just kind of softly interrupted her just a few times uh not nothing compared to the presidential debate as far as interruptions and stuff uh but but just a few you know but he i thought he was very gentlemanly well he got the next day of course raked over the coals for because she was a woman and he treated her horribly and what was interesting about that this is where i feel like women are losing out you know um there's this kind of thing where they they want to have equality but they also want to be treated better uh and that's that really came out in the vice presidential debates like yeah we want to be thought of as special and treated better uh but we also want to be equal so so suddenly the the the vice president uh pence had to if he was gonna be okay he would have just said nothing just duct tape his mouth and have him sit there and let her to say whatever she want and that's kind of what what the alternative to having a debate uh would be and and so what happens is ultimately i feel like women are losing out um you know the the blessings that the bible talks about for women you know the bible gives contrary to what a lot of people talk about the bible gives great honor to the woman and puts her in a place of esteem and that men are supposed to i mean our our goal is to treat women with great honor that's what the bible talks about so put that aside for a second so and let's talk about the men's role in the church well men we've just politely stupidly i think sat by and said well over the years if women want to do the role of men uh then okay that's great knock yourselves out and so we've we've we've become a culture that has just allowed you know even in the church of jesus christ we could even talk about careers and and family and nannies we could get into all kinds of stuff about the equality that's happened with men and women and that push for that and are we really better off for it but i'm not going to get into that i want to talk about the roles of men and women in the church because we're the ones who've dropped the ball i think the worst the church of jesus christ we've dropped the ball i say that largely because because you know what happened is the roles of men here's what typical men do we tend to say well you want to do the work and we'll just sit back and say okay less work for me uh we'll just go sit on the lazy boy with the remote control and watch tv ladies knock us out so so largely if you look around the nation and barna has done some research on this about the church and how while there's still more men senior pastors than there are women senior pastors in america one of the things that's interesting is now the church is largely run by committees in churches by women the the church is largely being directed by women even though there's still more men senior pastors women elders women pastors women assistant pastors and the church has opened up to that and the problem is it's being taught by the way in our christian colleges and universities many of them um george fox made a big shift in the last decade where basically man if you believe that only men can be pastors you are like from satan uh i've been yelled at by uh george fox from professors one lady two ladies actually came on a wednesday night that were uh george fox professors who came on a wednesday night and they said we find an interesting pastor brett you know they were real huffy uh that you had only a man leading worship on wednesday there were no women up here on stage and and we were looking at your you know you know website and you have no women as elders and deacons and and we think you're a chauvinistic and they just started letting me have it there i've never been asked since then to speak i used to speak at george fox chapels they don't invite me anymore um i'm on their bad list because we don't have women pastors and elders at athe creek now now why is that what's the deal with that why don't you turn over to scripture with me uh so we can show you it's first timothy um and there's there's actually a bunch of scriptures that we could go to about the role of men and women in the church of jesus christ and and people don't like this one but it's it's scripture and and i want you to think about this because the argument against the scripture i'm about to read to you is that it was for that day for paul and for timothy in the local application of that day this is what paul was telling timothy for then um but i want you to look for a reason to to say is this for today or is this something that's for all time uh and and maybe you can take a look and see how you are at rightly dividing the word of truth it says here um and this kind of starts to get to the crux of the matter um he says uh let's let's just start with the whole chapter verse one chapter two first timothy chapter two verse one i exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions giving of thanks be made for all men for kings for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godless godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of god our savior now starting off right there you know we're we're called to pray that's first of all the most important thing and for those in authority over us and man whether it's obama clinton you know bush or trump we should be praying for those who are in authority over us we should all be praying i mentioned that we're going to pray for trump uh to be healed you know of the coronavirus and and you know sure enough we get uh notes saying you know you guys only pray for trump why didn't you pray for obama and i'm like man we prayed for obama too how do you were you there when we were praying for what's wrong with you you know like people are just weird today um uh but but i got to be careful because we're supposed to live quietly and peaceable and that's hard sometimes for me um now now um this is good and acceptable the sign of god our savior that's what it says verse 4 who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth for there is one god and one mediator between god and men the man christ jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time so man i love this because there's there's those that would say and even churches and denominations that say there are other mediators between god and men whether it's your priest or mary or you know some other saint that you're you know praying to or something that that's not biblical there's only one mediator between god and man and that is jesus christ you know it's interesting when you go to the vatican which i have been uh in rome there in saint peter's basilica it's an interesting thing to me that how they exonerate peter so high in the catholic church if you're from that tradition i would just say would peter be happy today that his toe got kept kissed clean off the statue did you know they had to replace peter's toe in the in saint peter's basilica because people just for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years kissing in their his toes just he lost his toe so they had to you know get out the jb weld and you know kind of i don't know how they did it but they stuck another toe on there and that one's starting to be smooth now uh because they're still kissing it when you go to saint peter's basilica you don't see jesus anywhere nowhere you see angels and you see peter and you see the some dead popes there's actually a dead pope lying in a glass coffin you can see him he's still there and he was amazingly not deteriorating for a while but he's starting to deteriorate now uh his body uh he's looking more like a skeleton it's a little creepy there's you're going to worship the lord you see this skeleton there of a dude it's it's weird um i knew that it was weird but when i went and saw it i i was stunned of just the absence of jesus and one of the biggest well the catholics claim it's the biggest one in fact when you go to saint peter's basilica um there the the church itself has marks on the floor of all the other churches how big they are uh and they mark it on the floor in mark marble so they can say see we're bigger notre dame is only right here uh you know the the one in new york city's right here but but ours is right it's like this is the biggest one pee do big deal uh it's it's it's just i have to say um you know the weirdness of that whole thing what is the church really supposed to be like you know the problem with some of the churches whether protestant or catholic is we put man's traditions in and it starts getting weirder and weirder you got to stick with the bible some people say what do you brett know about the church this is barely a church where's the cross uh you have no cross in your this was in a real church where in the bible does it say you're supposed to put a wooden cross they looked at that as an electric chair back in the day like where why'd you why is all these people putting electric chairs on there on their buildings you know it's like like where does it say you're supposed to have a cross now don't get me wrong do i love what happened on the cross of course um is it okay if people want to wear a cross or even have a cross in their church yes but part of the reason we don't have a cross in this building is because everybody tells me i have to have one and it's just just not true that's just man-made stupid traditions that we come up with and white robes and pointy hats and swinging incense stupid man's traditions i'm just saying uh check the bible for that if you want uh i always like to say don't just take my word for it but uh acts 17 11 it you know you got to say like the bereans search the scriptures and see what that guy is saying is true or false well brett doesn't tradition have something tradition is interesting to study we can learn from church history of course but if you're making traditions of man the rules you're going to be off course real fast because we people we blow it all the time i love how the bible tells us how to do church and this is one of those areas where as we get into this you know first timothy chapter 2 amen you know the the mediator between god and man here's the bible saying there's only one mediator and tradition says no there's actually more than just jesus uh whether you're praying to the saints or whether it's your you know you've got to go to your priest for a confession that's just not that now the bible does say confess your sins one to another but the priest is not the one who can forgive sins it's only christ jesus is the only mediator for sins of man there's just goofy traditions that actually start to controvert the bible jesus said this for example um call no one your father of course except your real biological father you can go on father but but he's saying in the church don't call anyone your father and isn't it funny how the catholics say oh we're going to call him father even though jesus said don't call anyone your father those are the kind of things you think how did they get man's tradition gets in the way so this idea of jesus he's the only mediator between god and man that's the church right there that's real church right there um and speaking of that verse 7 he says where unto i am ordained a preacher paul says to timothy and an apostle i speak the truth in christ and lie not a teacher of the gentiles in faith and verity i will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting man verse 8 should be marked in every man's bible isn't it interesting the lord calls us men out i would that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath without doubting um without wrath there that's the king james way of saying it um the idea is without personal bitterness is if you look in the greek text there it's kind of an interesting word that's talking about that your heart needs to be right when you go and pray and you shouldn't have anger and bitterness and unforgiveness that kind of stuff in your heart when you're praying to the lord but uh and also without doubting you know praying like james 1 6 it talks about the the man who prays the prayer of real faith you know uh that's the idea there so um the priority is that men pray i would that men pray everywhere why does the lord call out the men in that one one of the things that i so appreciate about the women in our congregation and in the church of jesus christ is their propensity to pray and to be more spiritual than us women have a just a natural proclivity to seek the lord and pray and do spiritual things think spiritually we i'm not saying this is across the board i'm just making a huge generalization but the bible makes this as well and that is that men tend to be logical and practical and sometimes for some of us prayer doesn't seem very practical so the lord has to give you and me as guys just a little kick in the rear and says i would let men pray hello guys you know it's time to pray you know that's what the lord's saying here uh don't don't miss this powerful tool that the lord gives to us he says i would that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands by the way we lift up hands often when we sing songs of praise and we should the bible says stand up and bless the lord your god and lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the lord of course we should do that but it's interesting here the context excuse me is uh is in the context of prayer that we lift up our hands in prayer kind of like moses on the mount there as he was praying for joshua that was fighting in the valley well here's where it gets really really uh sketchy for for uh for when the ladies join in verse nine in like manner also the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works now pause for a second if you're a woman and you're listening this you've got to admit this is kind of tough shame-facedness and modest apparel what's that all about um and it's easy for us guys well i guess that's what the ladies have to do but if you're a woman this this is kind of tough to hear now what you have to do is compare and contrast um who paul's talking about he's talking about the godly woman we'll we'll have sobriety and shame face of this what's that well the difference is the prostitutes of that day and you got to understand it was a little different you know we we have you know pornography hidden away in our culture on our you know iphones and our computers and and you know they we don't even really have the the same you know thing that we had back when i was a kid remember you'd go through the store and there was the magazine racks with the cardboard covers to make sure kids weren't seeing something they weren't supposed to uh and you know pornography you know today we've got it all sanitized you know i say this facetiously uh hidden away but in bible times not only did they not have the magazines with cardboard covers they had women standing nakedly in the niches of the temples to diana like you could literally walk down the street and there would be prostitutes trying to woo men in to worship you know uh astrath or diana these goddesses of fertility and and it would it was really just a prostitution ring but it was very open and in your face and there was a certain way they dressed with braided hair and they didn't have their faces were that of great confidence and luring you know and so paul's talking about that the woman of of god that's in the church is the opposite of her that's what he's teaching um and you know from time to time i try to help you guys out and i and myself as well that we all be guys i say ladies come on be considerate of the guys you know what you're wearing and uh and in the church you know and and i'm so thankful for that sensitivity uh you know our culture and women's lib days and the me too move and all that says guys tough it deal with it you know i am woman hear me roar and uh and i can do whatever i want dress everyone if if you're lusting after me that's your problem that's that's the culture we live in how thankful i am i am for godly women who uh say you know what i i understand that you know guys uh are uh different that wired different than than women and uh and they are sensitive and that's what paul is asking is for women to dress modestly in the church and that's something that uh is important and good now uh so already if you're a woman reading this it's already kind of tough hearing that but but the idea is you know being a woman that professes godliness and has good works but then it gets even more difficult verse 11 let the woman learn in silence with all subjection but i suffer not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man but to be in silence for adam was first formed then eve and adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was the tren was in the transgression notwithstanding she shall be saved and childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety now in my defense i've taught this with women in the building um i've done this several times now and all those passages of the bible now what's going on here with this idea of let the woman learn with silence and all subjection well this is the big great controversy and this is where george fox and liberal churches today uh just blow this off altogether you know it's interesting that i see men who've kind of checked their their responsibility of being a man in the church just check their card at the door when they say i just love when you know joyce myers teaches uh the church the problem is her teaching is off and she's a woman teaching as a senior pastor over men um well what does it say when it let the woman learn in silence and subjection i suffer not a woman to teach they just say well that was for that day paul had a problem in the church of women who were trying to you know be too powerful and so he was just telling timothy for there for that moment what's the evidence that paul is talking about a bigger frame of our scope as it relates to the role of women in the church what's the evidence here anybody god's reference to their role going back to [Music] adam and eve that's a pretty big time span from adam and eve to the time where paul's bringing this up the point he's not talking about the current culture of that day he's talking about what happened in the garden of eden there was a problem there and by the way this is where i think it has to do with the way men and women are wired god has different roles for the men and the women in the church and and let me just make this clear just because the women are not supposed to teach or use some authority in the church doesn't mean they're less than us it does not mean they're less intelligent than us in fact uh those of you that are married are probably like yeah they better not make that argument uh uh you got to be careful of that and and of course uh women are capable and and so good at so many things and and yet god says i want you to play this role i want you to play the other role it's a little bit like when you're on the football team um you know uh i was so thrilled when i was in middle school because guess what when i was in middle school if you could believe this i was quick i was mean and lean and quick and i was one of the fastest guys in the school and so i was a tailback in middle school but by the time i made it to the eighth grade they put me into the role of a fullback well we're a little more blocking a little more powerful i was slowing down just a smidge as i was growing boy but as a freshman in high school at 200 pounds uh still in great shape i might add i was a fullback my freshman year fullback fullback and linebacker played both ways on the varsity team as a freshman but then you know i was getting bigger and bigger and slower and slower i loved playing in the you know tailback or fullback though those were great glory positions but then when i reached 2 15 and by the way my my junior year this is a funny thing uh no my senior year i was the only one on our whole team over 200 pounds our hidden valley high school uh we were just a little tiny people these little tiny football players except for me uh and so what are you going to do you know by the time i was a senior i played offensive guard and linebacker they i was no longer running the ball except for my senior year we played this do you guys remember i think it was nc state when remember the play they did we did the same play they did the next week where the center um snapped the ball and the quarterback acted like he took it and he ran back to like he's gonna you know he's hiding but the center just sat the football on the ground next to his foot well the offensive guard moi uh just reached down to pick it up and just started kind of walking toward the nobody knew where and then the quarterback jumped back and yelled fumble and he dove over here and all the people went and dove over here while i was walking over to the you know lumbering uh over to the uh and made a touchdown our senior year so i did carry the ball um uh my final play of my senior year yeah uh but it was not pretty not to say the least now all that i oh why was i talking about this some people are made for some positions you know if you try to if you take in you know the dallas cowboys and you take their offensive guard and put them in the quarterback role and you put the quarterback in the offensive guard position and you switch those too guess what somebody's going to die probably the quarterback um and uh and and and you know the are they going to really be effective you know with a big lumbering you know uh there's a there's a canadian football league uh quarterback that's over 300 pounds i forget or he was a few years back it was kind of fun to watch uh people just kind of hang off his body and you just kind of look around and arms you know person hanging here you just kind of whoo you know throw uh it's great but normally that doesn't work and and you just got to admit some of you are more you know safety or maybe you know tight end material and others of you know your offensive lineman and you just kind of have to admit your role and learn to go with it in some ways that's what the lord does he says in the church the men are in the position of leadership and authority teaching the word uh not so for the woman the woman's going to have other roles and there's great roles that the women has in the church there's so many women in the bible that were a giant blessing to the church whether you're talking about tabitha who you know was just a beloved beloved woman or or others lydia the the woman there at philippi um uh you know uh there was ananias uh not i've been on top of them uh uh no uh there there's others you know uh analyzes the fire probably not the best example but there were uh great examples of women and and the roles there are roles given maybe not as glorious in some people's minds as what i get to do people say brett you get to teach in the bible why can't women do that don't know the lord just made that clear he did give us a little bit of a reason though he said that in the garden of eden eve was the one who was deceived and i always mention this and talk about this i don't think very many men would have fallen for the serpent thing what'll happen if you eat the fruit your eyes will be opened and you'll be enlightened and guys will be like you know whatever kind of not into enlightenment i'm pretty fine the way i am um but a woman whoa you'll be more spiritual you'll become like god like you got to give the woman credit for having that desire to be deeply spiritual and become more like god you give her credit for that but the problem is according to this she was deceived easier than adam would have been how is adam deceived a naked woman it's like okay it's like okay laura's like oh boy okay i'll put him in charge of the church because he's he's going to be not really driven to have that that deception of deeper spiritual by the way think about this new age think of all the new age that's out there today and it's been out there for a long time who leads the new age movement largely in the world it's it's mostly mostly women and you know whether it's oprah or shirley maclean or now there's a bunch of newer you know more i am god running down the beach kind of thing the goddess within all that stuff that's been around for a long time you don't see a lot of men running down the beach saying i am god necessarily but there is this proclivity and then the bible nails it down it says men are to be the ones handling doctrine now one of the reasons i've been harping on doctrine lately is because the church of jesus christ is moving away from good doctrine and i'm concerned about that and i i think there's a link to just us checking some of these scriptures out and saying yeah we're not going to do this anymore we're going to have women be pastors and they'll be teachers and you know somewhat the woman's senior pastor they should have equal rights that's what the world says we should do that and so i'm concerned that the role of the man and and here's the problem we as men traditionally said well i guess if women want to do it they can and we've just sat by and let this kind of happen to the church of jesus christ and and you know especially in today's you know for what i'm talking about today could get you into real trouble you know male privilege and all this stuff that's being harped on today and what i'm saying is biblically sound but people today really don't like what i'm saying um you know here's the thing the men have a role in the church and we need to do what god's called us to do whether people like it or not and the question i would ask you this morning is what has been your role in the church don't think about anybody else think about you right now what has been your role how have you functioned in the church and have you been a part of the the solidifying and the strengthening of the church or have you been more of a passive male in the church just saying well just let the you know so it's what a shame to see the church going off the rails doctrinally but you know hopefully we'll have a few pastors that'll stay stay the course see here's the thing as i kind of fight this battle of good solid doctrine that's lacking today and you've heard me in the last several weeks trying to talk about this even in our you know prophecy updates one of the things in the last days is people won't endure sound doctrine but they have you know teachers with you know the itching ears of the people and you know just trying to say what people want to hear and and the last days that's what it says will happen but what i'm actually needing from the men at hatha creek and and i would hope the whole church of jesus christ will get on board with us eventually where we realize man we gotta we we've got to stand together and do what god's called us to do as as far as our role as males by the way you know this woman shall be saved and childbearing um the word sozo there is is for saved it doesn't mean salvation like she's going to go to heaven instead of hell um to have children um and and the reason i want to say that is because i know there's women listening and what about that you can listen to this teaching i did on first timothy chapter two it's online there but but um but one of the things i've noticed is one of the mistakes men have made is taking the bible from from the you know early history and using scriptures like this to sort of put women down you know she should be barefoot and pregnant you know home uh you know doing dishes and diapers and that's what she's supposed to do and that's what she'll be saved and i've noticed men have wrongly taught and and that's why the pendulum swing in our culture today is over here where women are saying yeah whatever we're going to do whatever we want in the church because men have taught this badly and not been sensitive to the wonderful roles god has called i i would say if if men are the linemen holding the line doctrinally women can can have amazing roles in the church whether it's women ministering with women or we have wonderful women in our children's ministry we have women who are caring for people that are needy and cooking meals for people that are hurting we've got women who are helping young mothers with babies and you know uh people that need counsel and uh suicidal you know women ministering to women and by the way i think that's more effective anyway for women to minister to women and men to minister to men i think that's biblical so the thing that i want you to kind of think about as you and your role is is just maybe a few different levels you can jot these down simple things to think about really number one men are called to participate in the church we're called to participate are you a participant or are you just an observer and how do you participate what does that look like and man we could do a whole session on this men's participation in church you know the antithesis of this would be the guy who says i don't need to be part of the church um i i could be out you know fly fishing on the river that's my sanctuary and that's where i use fly fishing because i don't do that so i can be hard on the fly fishermen in here um uh i won't talk about motocross or anything like that um but uh you know whatever it is the guys say instead of church you know i i do this and it's my sanctuary it's where i meet with lord um what is the church anybody what is the church anybody it's people so when you say go to church first of all let's forget about the building this is just a warehouse that we built that means nothing and and when athena creek's raptured this will become a bowling alley or something whatever but i'm talking about people and the church of jesus christ is a group of people and you're supposed to be a part of that and and one of the things you're supposed to do is not be the lone ranger christian but you're supposed to participate in the church and the activities of the church whether we like it or not brett i'm just not a people person i just kind of like to be home you know working on projects at home i'm not a person that likes to be in a crowd join the crowd welcome to my world uh you know it's funny like my my debbie knows my wife knows more than anybody i am just as happy being all by myself doing things i like to do i don't i'm not a person that needs people uh in my life or so i think i think the lord made me a pastor because he knows i would have been extremely rebellious in this i would have been the guy that maybe would show up at christmas and easter you know the creature and just kind of uh you know go to church because the family wants me to i can see myself in that role uh because you know being around extra people not my favorite thing my my kids are all like when we go on vacation like dad we didn't realize you're such a non-people person um it is funny because i hang out with people a lot and so when we go on a trip or something i'm kind of like huh i can be by myself and my kids are like dad you're a recluse you're a weirdo but i have to force myself to not be that i really do and and uh it's it's part of my job description thanks the lord uh to be with people but guess what you're called to that too and it can look like so many different things but you know you need to participate and what that means is is uh be a part of what god's doing at whatever church body you're a part of now this is where it gets tricky because sometimes i'm talking about anthony creek sometimes i'm talking about the greater church here's what i need to tell you this is a especially in the covid era this is something that's being lost i'm afraid even more than ever as as churches have stopped meeting and um it's gone to strictly online and so what's happening now is we're seeing men bouncing around from church teaching to church to switching from this youtube channel to the other and and now they've got five different pastors they're listening to but it's making it easier for us to forget about the church the church is not just bible teaching oh it should be that it should include bible teaching but it's not just that the church is a group of people where we're supposed to serve one another and love one another we're supposed to be a part of the congregation and that's something that i fear that we're losing it's part of why i think we need to get back to meeting because we're losing something the bible says nope don't forsake the assembling of yourselves as is the custom of some and and isn't it interesting to hear the lord through paul saying i would that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands so man we can talk for hours on this what are the things that a man does to participate there's the obvious becoming a part of the the team here whether you're part of you know sean's security team uh or or if you're part of the parking lot crew getting people parked that's that starts to get you plugged in and getting to know people helping with sunday school ministry um you know we've got teams of people that are uh you know delivering and meals and helping people those houses have burned down and and we've got trips that of men go into different countries to you know care for you know messed up communities from hurricanes or whatever we've got all kinds of things that kind of the big things but then what about some of the more subtle things like being here on sundays and wednesdays and sunday nights three services that's crazy you guys are fanatical the church gathers it's what we do and being a part of that is to really be a part of that and be here um and then not just to bolt as soon as i say you're dismissed some of you guys are like the cartoons as soon as i say you're dismissed there's like a little puff of a cloud you're like where'd they go they just disappeared there pure it's time to go brett you said dismiss but what would happen if you engaged more as a man in the congregation and you know this is where i love seeing husbands and wives ministering together where you know you find someone who uh looks a little bit alone looks a little bit down in the church they're they're there to be found that's not hard if you look um a lot of times when i'm talking to people after a service up in the front i i'll be talking to someone and i'll be looking around and there's just people i go oh i wish somebody would go talk to that person oh man i know that person is down right now look just look at him you know and i'm like where are the the brothers who are willing to come in and stand alongside of somebody i know it seems awkward and but that's what we're called to do to stretch ourselves and and to engage into the congregation and be a part of the church of jesus christ to participate um and and man looking for ways to participate now here's what i always get after a sermon like people come okay brett show us what to do i'm not sure i can always do that plus i don't have all the time for that i can't talk to the thousands of guys that are in our church and say okay here's what i want you to do here's what i want you to do we do have a pastoral team that's large and can help you maybe get on the right direction and figure out what your gift is are you a quarterback or are you a lineman are you a safety or are you a tight end like like what what is your what is your uh talents and gifts and and i love that you all have different giftings and talents part of it's finding how you fit in in the church there are churches that do this maybe better than anything creek but i've got an argument my argument is a lot of times that's very contrived and and you can make people get engaged in stuff and you got programs to get everybody all plugged in but i noticed that that stuff tends to kind of come and go and people try it but it sort of feels weird and then they they just bail when it's more of a natural progression of a guy finding his niche in the church and and i think the guy's gotta want it and it's gotta come from him not me cracking the website come on guys it's more you guys saying um i know i need to engage in the church now i need to work at finding what is my role in the church so number one just to be a participant in the church is is is important and we need that today number two not only are men number one to be participants in the church but men are number two to lead the church of jesus christ we need leaders um and uh frankly i i worry a little bit at easy creek because you know we're getting older now the graying of ac creek now that we're 25 years old some of you guys in here man when i first met you were single guys having all kinds of fun doing fun stuff now i see you with child carriers and cribs rolling into church with a bead of sweat coming down your forehead and you're busy you know with your families and stuff which is great uh but some of you i see some of your kids going off to college you know and it's funny because because you guys were all young when we started and i love that we that we're getting older and more mature hopefully um but you know what i also need i need young i need young leaders i need guys and and i don't know you know have we dropped the ball maybe but i need young men who are saying i want to be a part of leadership now what that requires this is again something you don't find and this is where the church i think we've you know the greater church has dropped the ball uh how does that happen it happens by engaging participating you know the reason i was spotted by my pastor as a leader is i felt the call of god in my life so i engaged i did whatever they would let me do i'm shocked that they let me do some of the things they let me do i had no idea what i was doing but at 12 years old i started teaching first grade at one service the next service i was upstairs in the sound booth running the sound for the service uh in the next service i was there taking notes and listening to the sermons so that i got it down really and i'd listen to the sermon twice that sunday and the reason why is i wanted to know it so well that i could teach it myself and i engaged nobody told me to do that i just did that and then guess what pastor john my pastor's like who's this kid that's always here doing stuff and he started to have breakfast with me i remember when pastor john as just a kid he said brett uh denny's you know six o'clock uh monday morning so i i'd you know get a lift from someone to denny's at six o'clock and john would start to get to know me a little more and we started telling me about ministry and and i didn't spend a ton of times meetings with with john i wished i could have had more but uh how helpful it was and he started to realize this is an up-and-coming young leader and he invested time in me and taught me about leadership and i became an elder in our church at the ripe old age of 18 i think i was when i was an elder of the church can you believe that but that's that's wrong did you know that jesus called his disciples most of them were in their teens when he called them um i think we we have this view that the apostles all had gray beards as they were sitting around the table nope they were all some of them were in their teens they were just young guys that jesus was calling and so i love that we we do have some great young men by the way and i've spotted them and i've seen them but we need more um dads you need to encourage your young men to engage but if you're not engaging what do you think they're going to do they're not going to engage either one of the reasons i engaged that way as a young 12 year old kid is my dad was engaging in the church he was one of the elders in the church and was serving the lord and that was the model that i had if i had a dad that was sitting at home watching football on sunday morning while mom dragged us off to church i would have at the earliest age possible stayed home with dad watching football um you see i believe this need that we have for young leadership at athy creek is is largely because dads are not always setting the greatest example so we need men to step up in leadership you know what i've had some of our elders move on and moved to other towns uh during coronavirus we have we've had lots of eighth greekers moved to boise and texas um they're taking the easy way out um i i moved i moved here because i knew portland was wacko like that's why i moved here uh you know they needed ministry here that's why i'm here i'm not moving um i don't think um no i'm just kidding i'm not moving uh god called me to the craziest city in america and i love that um and that's what we have we have work to do here so so all that to say you know man i hope we can get more and more uh leaders as i see a need for leaders especially the young guys man i'd love to to see more and more of the young guys stepping up and we do have some good guys that are coming up in the ranks and i think it's awesome so men are to lead the church and that's not going to change at the creek um i've been told several times you know there's too much testosterone at ac creek and and i say well you know maybe we're making up for so many of the churches that have too much estrogen because i'm telling you the church has been feminized and and maybe athena creek is swinging a little bit the other way on the pendulum but i think if i'm if i if i'm reading the bible correctly which i do my best to search the scriptures on this i'm wondering if we're not strong enough honestly when i see the men in the early church and the way they rolled we've been so pushed by culture and by what's hip today that i don't think the church is functioning in a very healthy role um i think the role of men and women in marriage has messed up our view of who god is because god has a relationship with us that's like a marriage the jews are the wife of god the church is the bride of christ and we don't even know what that looks like anymore because marriage has become so secularized that we have lost what the true male role and the female role looks like we need men to take up leadership and and to not be ogres i'm not arguing for us to be leading and saying women have no place in the church that's that's equally wrong and sinful um we we need to be the church that treats our women better than any women on the planet but we also need to be the church that leads stronger than than most churches that i see we need strong men leading teaching instructing the church um and then number three not only uh men are uh are to participate in the church men are to lead the church number three you're not gonna like this one and this is not gonna be very popular but i don't care men are to submit to submit themselves to the church men are to submit themselves to the church this is a big one one of the reasons i think the church has got so bad is not only are men not engaging in the church men are doing their own thing even the christian solid ones um and we don't we don't value the church or the leadership or the authority of the church let me just show you one verse that's kind of maybe helpful go to hebrews with me after timothy you go into hebrews near james that that area but um check this out this is this is what the author of hebrews tells the the church in these days it's hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. and man this is a verse that sobers me as a church leader sobers me right up when i read this i think man this is heavy but it says in hebrews 13 17 it says obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you he says pray for us for we trust we have good conscience in all things willing to live honestly but i beseech you the rather to do this that i may be restored to you the sooner isn't it interesting here that they're you know the idea is to obey them that have rule over who's got rule that's the we're talking about the church leadership there now i'm not trying to be like the apostolic faith church any of you guys raised in the apostolic faith uh movement uh there's even one what's it called i think it's called the christian faith movement don't quote me on that but um they they tend to want to control your life is that the way it was when you grew up like if you're going to get married you better have approval from a b and c elders and the pastor and you also have to if you're going to buy a house or buy some property you have to have permission from the church like there's a there's a weird thing that's almost like a cult in some ways where they want to control you and tell you what you can and can't do that's not what i'm talking about um in fact the scriptures talk about we as leaders we don't want to be have dominion over your faith but to be what anybody huh helpers of men's joy that's that's what my role is really one i don't want to have dominion over anybody or tell them what to do but at the same time i've noticed that we've lost a certain reverence for the institution and the authority of the church and man i can just go on and on about the evidence of that we've become so independent we like to be independent you're not the boss of me church as you know and maybe it's because we've lost the stained glass and the fancy robes and the pointy hats people are like bret you know we're not going to submit to you and your leadership team you're just a bunch of guys like us um which is part of what we want to be we want to be just one of the guys that's that is kind of our our thing here at 8th and creek but at the same time maybe we've done ourselves a disservice by maybe our presentation i don't know where most guys are like yeah whatever you guys are our elders pastors but that kind of means nothing um there's no real authority what's the evidence that i see of that well let me just give you an example this is going to shake some things up but i see some of you you know dad's well-meaning i understand baptizing your own kids on a vacation in a lake somewhere what in the world are you doing like why where's the church yeah but brett you're not the boss of me i can baptize my own kids if i want to i don't need a pastor from afee i'm the pastor of my own home that sounds great but you're you've been drinking your bath water buddy your your kids are doing them a disservice in my uh opinion because when you read the bible unless there was no other alternative the baptisms were done publicly with the church surrounding them it was a public profession with the the leadership of whatever church of that area it was a place where everybody it was like making a public profession saying i'm going to follow jesus and it was recognized by the church of jesus christ i think that's a mistake if you're a well-meaning father but you're baptizing your kids saying i can do that and we don't need the church involved or the pastors at athey involved with that i think that's a mistake you can disagree with me if you want but if you'll notice and if you do a search of all the baptisms the only remote one was acts chapter 8 fill up in the ethiopian eunuch that's the only one but they were out in the middle of nowhere remember uh um how did philip get there does anybody remember [Music] right they were you know like philip was just kind of traveling and bumped into this guy in the middle of nowhere sitting in his chariot and then you know remember after he baptized the guy he was translated away from there back to some other like what a weird story that is uh it's a pretty unique situation this ethiopian guy who was and he had a team of people around him it was a public thing because there were people with them but they he said here's water what hinders me there was no other alternative at that time he says i want to be baptized so they did it i get that but philip was by the way a leader in the church do you understand that he was he was one of the deacons in the church you see i think it's a mistake another evidence is weddings um you know it used to be that that being married let me ask you is this your marriage which one matters the most that god and the church of jesus christ was a part of your wedding or the kate brown and the state of oregon was a part of your wedding what's the most important part now don't make the mistakes some people say well we don't need the state of oregon so i'm not even going to go get the documentation we're just going to be married around the tree and sing kumbaya and get married with pastor brett we'll do it right here i won't do that i'll tell you why because jesus did acknowledge the bill of divorce that was recognized by the government um that that is still legitimized by jesus remember that when he was talking about divorce and the hardness of men's hearts but the idea of marriage is something that is an institution that the church has been part of now i i can't make as strong of an argument on that one as i can about baptism but if if i'm um if i'm a father and i've got kids getting married i want the church to be a part of that and i'm going to raise my kids to know that you know what having a pastor i'm not going to do your wedding uncle bob's not going to do your wedding for crying out loud but a guy who's actually a licensed ordained minister it used to be where you used to have to have that now you can go online and get the church of elvis or whatever you know you can get your certification to marry people and bury people anywhere you want you can google it man and get it right now you could be ready to marry people right now you know what that's just diminishing the role of the church of jesus christ it's been happening for decades and some of you guys have that kind of a mindset yeah the church yeah whatever you know we can get a pastor or whoever will say you do you don't you will you won't you're married and it's all good i think that's that's missing out on on the the authority of the church of jesus christ we've become really good at being lone rangers and uh living our lives separately from the church i see people today uh and i've i know this is gonna make people mad but fca young life these great organizations i should say doing good work but they are not the church of jesus christ they are para church organizations and and you know they're they're doing some good work but here's what's happened over the years is i see a lot of men particularly who see the fca and f and young life as more important than the church well the church isn't ministering to kids as well as uh young life we can argue that all day long who's doing a better job or not or what have you but if young life is successful if they're successful the thing they're going to see is people who want to love to be a part of the church of jesus christ if young life is successful their kids will say it's time to go to church because church is the non-negotiable fca young life is not the church now i say this as a former fca dire leader i was a huddle coach in fca for for a while and i love the idea of fellowship of christian athletes don't don't get me wrong i'm not opposed to those but i see this thing where there's this mindset i see guys that give their tithes and offerings to fca which is not where the tithes and offerings are supposed to go that's where offerings can go but the tithe belongs to the lord bring ye the tithe into the storehouse where's the storehouse anybody yeah it's the church and then the church uses those resources to help um with those ministries and and youth and all that that stuff and and they're supposed to be doing really good at that boy i wish i could let me just say some crazy stuff wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get all the really cool fca leaders that are out there and just have them be part of our youth team at ac all the the ac creek fca people or young life people say that's going to be our youth team but you know what none of them will do that they the ones i've talked to or said no no fca is more important and young life's more important than than the church that's just the way i feel that's the way i i see it kind of rolling out don't get me wrong i love those organizations but man um the mission field the church should be doing the missionary work a lot of para church missionary groups are out there and uh god bless them i love what wycliffe bible translators do and and stuff like that that's great but you know it's interesting the church is trying to do really great missionary work too and i would i'm just going to say it i think that as you go through the church well brett wait a minute wait wait a minute um we're all the church all the people in fca all the people in young life all the missionaries we're all just the church you said it's not the building it's just the people true but by definition if you if you're true to the new testament who's supposed to lead the church jesus is the head of the church um jesus is always the answer you're right yup jesus um yep that's why he said it too um but but then who's supposed to who's the under shepherds of the church pastors elders deacons uh there's another one in there that i'm going to put in there bishops brooke do you have bishops at anything creek we do it's just the word bishop became kind of weird with the catholic church and some of the so we don't call them bishops anymore we call them well the greek word is not bishop it's episcopas and and in the word it says there were episcopases uh well who are they we call them governing elders because they're they function as an elder in the church but they have an additional role of governing kind of the the church really guiding leading the church on every level so we have a team of governing elders who are the guys that do everything from just discern how to you know use the resources the finances that we have and big decisions the church has that's the governing elders we have a greater group of elders great men who are given specifically you know acts chapter 6 to the ministry of prayer and the word ministering to the congregation leaders in the church we have a group of deacons who are helping with the logistics of the church and remember they had to get the deacons because the elders were so busy taking care of logistics that they weren't able to pray with people so we have deacons who are taking care of some of those logistics of our church but the church by definition is not led by fca director or young life directors the church of jesus christ is led by pastors elders and deacons you want to know why i got out of fca i'll just tell you um i was at a great huddle coach at will's i was a huddle group at wilson high school maybe you guys remember tyler ross played in the festival for oregon state years ago but he was a high school kid when i was an fca director at wilson we had this great group of kids and it was growing and it was thriving and i was doing really really well well the fca the new fca director that was in town was a woman and uh she called me and said uh brett you know we love what's going on your group's growing and it's thrive wow we wish every fca group could be like this and i said thank you that's great i'm having a blast but we have a problem i said uh-oh what's that well we notice that you take the young men out for burgers after school but you don't take the young girls out you know one-on-one uh like you take the young guys out i said yeah that's not gonna happen and you know what her her response was what's wrong with you in the pacific northwest all you guys have this weird thing about you know men taking girls out for lunch and i just said well you know i said here's the thing you know and i tried to explain as a bible teacher you know to be above reproach abstain from the appearance of evil and you know and i said there's great women that we have in our you know in our at our resources that can meet with girls and guys can meet with guys and you know i'll take a group of guys and girls out together and for burgers but i'm not gonna meet one-on-one well they said that's not gonna that's not gonna work we need and so i resigned now she's no longer part of that uh thank the lord that group and the upstate director now local here is awesome i gotta say really really cool guy um and uh i don't know him personally but i do know of him and just a great great dude so don't get me wrong but see this is what i'm talking about this is where when a woman's in a leadership role i'm not sure there's a discernment there that god has given there's other things that women have that are way better than men but in the area of just just being leaders of the church god says men are supposed to lead that so that's why i can't say that the fca or the young life or these uh you know wycliffe or or um why wham or whatever these groups are as good as they might be they're not really part of the church because they're not under the authority of pastors elders deacons um that's a real church not a fake church i hope that you guys will will sort of get behind me and our leadership team here at athens say you know you know what this might be seem weird you might think we're male chauvinistic you might think we're trying to control things which we're not but let's legitimize the church again let's say you know what we're gonna we're gonna have the church get back to having some authority and saying weddings funerals you know uh you know uh the things that are you know baptism uh the things that the church is supposed to be a part of and linked to in people's lives let's let's let's bring back the the validity and the value of that athy creek should not just be a place where people hear teaching from this big mouth it's a big mouth and i love to teach but that's not what church is to just come and listen to a dude talk that's part of it but but the church is a group of people that we realize this is an institution that god acknowledges god only acknowledges three institutions and it's not young life fca and wyom the three institutions god actually acknowledges is number one um the the family mom dad and the institution of the family which the world is really hostile toward right now by the way number two government god acknowledges government that we're to submit to the powers that be and that the authorities are of god uh you can't make that argument that even though government gets corrupt we can still know that god is interested in government and we're supposed to submit to authority uh but number three is the institution of the church and he doesn't really recognize any other institution so these guys that are out there these men that are out there just kind of being the lone ranger and giving their tithe to their favorite group and and kind of baptizing their own kids and doing their kids weddings and stuff and saying yeah we don't really need the church i think they're doing a disservice to their kids and to the people involved because the goal is to be linked to god's people to be linked to the church of jesus christ and i think we're doing a disservice to that i know that for some you might be wrestling with this and i've been thinking about this praying about this for a long time but i'm concerned because i wonder if we're coming to the day and man i'm way over time so i got to sum it up here wrap it up i i wonder if we're coming to the day where the church is going to need to be recognized because we're going to need marching orders what do you mean brett well in this covid thing for example whether churches should meet or not meet man we've heard screaming from both sides some people said man what in the world we got a big complaint from somebody uh last week that reported us to clackamas health or whatever because we're meeting with people with and not everybody's well we're not everybody's wearing masks um and so people are you know and that's our second complaint and this could put us on the on the radar um and and and so people are screaming at us about how we're doing that other people are screaming we should have opened a long time ago and forget all this stuff and and we got people screaming about that and telling pastors all our leadership team what we're supposed to do um like we haven't thought about it then we've got stupid guys um i gotta say there's like this one guy um that uh was on our social media and some lady asked why are you guys doing tickets and we explained because we need to you know keep the number to a minimal because we're still trying to you know do wise social distancing and then this other guy chimes in you churches that have rolled over for kate brown and because he saw the word social distancing little did he know he was screaming at a church that is reopened and he was just dumbly replying saying you churches have just caved in and you need to start meeting again i wanted to say you're an idiot but i didn't i didn't because i knew that was sinful and wrong because here we are opening the very church that he was trying to say we should be uh he just didn't he wasn't he just wasn't what should i say he just wasn't aware of what was going on there um the explanation but all that to say we need to get back to authority because i i wonder when let's say persecution really does become bigger and i could see that happening in a fairly short order where the church is we're really going to have to kind of be on the same page and here's what i would recommend if find a church that you can go to and if it's not you guys here or the guys and you know people out online right now make sure you're plugged into a church that you can say you know what we're going to pray for our leaders our pastors elders deacons we're going to pray that they lead the church wisely because frankly you know when people would call us or yell at us and say you guys need to do this so you guys can do that whatever happened to them realizing wow there are pastors and they're the ones who god has placed in authority to lead the church and you know the truth is my elders and my team we've blood sweat and tears prayed about all this stuff we haven't just glibly said well i think we should meet again you know whatever it's time to me no we we have been on our knees praying and i would argue more than the average person by a hundred times over we've been deeply praying searching the scriptures we're the ones saying man we bear this weight of responsibility of what we should be doing as a church and i'm not saying that every church should be doing the same thing it is interesting once safety creek opened our doors um we're seeing a lot of other churches now opening their doors praise the lord for that um but they were kind of looking are you gonna open your door are you gonna and one pastor met with me and said well when you guys open your doors we decided we're gonna open our and then whatever but it was not something we just took lightly and and so um we understand there's gonna be people that don't agree and think we're all wacko but maybe athena creek's not the church for them totally get that but what i need from acey creek men is for us to stand together let's just say suddenly persecution comes and let's just say the proud boys and the prayer patriots and other groups are saying it's time to go to war um what i hope guys would do is say boy those are institutions that you know may or may not be evil or good or bad i'm not going to even make that argument right now um i don't even really know much about the the proud boys uh but um you know the thing is they're all people are saying well what are those groups gonna do i would wonder if if the wise man says what is the church of jesus christ going to do in days of persecution not what are the proud boys with our ars and all this stuff what what not not that what's the church of jesus christ see i saw a in our armor with the coveted thing i saw bad behavior from christian men just saying here's what we're going to do and forget the church and you guys i think that's going to be a mistake it really is going to be a mistake and i i think like the early church in the book of acts when they were under persecution they moved as a unit and the lord blessed the the church grew under persecution radical persecution more than you and i could even imagine there were ten waves of persecution from the roman empire that were profound but the church got stronger and bigger every step of the way because they were together as a church today i worry that people don't care about the church they're going to look at all the other institutions and groups and harebrained ideas of how to defend ourselves and stuff like that i think the church of jesus christ should be your as a man your number one group that you're linked to associated with submitted to serving with praying for it's the church of jesus christ we need to get back to that that's my prayer for you guys for for all of us guys in jesus name let's pray lord we we look at the days we're living in and they're perilous times like like paul said there to timothy and i know certain men are always going to just kind of do their own thing and go their own way but i pray that your church in these last days that we're living that we would be in line with your heart your mind that we wouldn't make our decisions with a hot tempered headed uh strong-headedness but that we would make our decisions on our knees seeking your face seeking your word looking to the scriptures for wisdom lord i pray blessing upon the women at the greek i pray that they would be the most loved on cared for protected but blessed women on the planet but i also pray that we as men would know what our role is biblically and that we would step up to the plate and do what you've called us to do and be who you've called us to be so bless the brothers of athe creek bless the brothers of the entire church of jesus christ lord where churches have become feminized even pastors feminized lord i i worry about our young men and the models that they have to to see of what a what a man of god really looks like i pray that you would restore the strength in your church lord and that men would take up the the charge to be what you've called them to be to serve you to walk humbly with you but with real strength lord may doctrine be restored may solid biblical teaching be given lord we pray your covering on your church in jesus name amen amen amen let's stand together well if you would be praying for our leadership uh you know there's there's challenges in these days we're living and um and i think we're headed for even greater challenges and and um but you know greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world so we're trusting in the lord and and these are these are times where i think athey could be very much under attack especially after this teaching uh so uh be praying for us and we appreciate that um so may the lord bless you guys and it's good to have you back in the building and we'll see you next month we'll do another round of iron work so stay tuned for that and uh god bless you you're dismissed

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 3,150

Rating: 4.8857141 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: RJwutPvAPlg

Length: 78min 26sec (4706 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020