Real Men - 6 Ways Real Men Connect They Correct

it's an honor to have you men and I was thinking about it I went ran a quick errand one direction from here is Old Town Scottsdale all the restaurants the bars all the sports bars we have more men than any of those restaurants and I even drove by Hooters I didn't go in and take a headcount but I am very convinced that we have more men here tonight than they do and so I just want to publicly honor you because in Scottsdale if you're a man this is the place to be a man all right if you're here tonight it's because you have a want to you want to make a change you want to make a difference you want to make a legacy and we're here to help with a how-to the Holy Spirit gives you they want to we're here to help you with the how-to it's so the way this works I teach on Sunday if you really want to be yelled at for an hour I'll see you on Sunday every Sunday a long Bible sermon and what we do on Wednesday night for the men here real man I do a little summary and an application for the men then we'll spend time around the table in prayer and get into all of that so let me catch you up if you are in fact new on the Book of Daniel we're in the book of Daniel takes 12 weeks there's 12 chapters you can read ahead a chapter a week last Sunday we hit Daniel chapter 4 and I told you that the book starts Daniels in his teens so how many of you guys are like late teens mid teens or late teens early 20s young guys okay you guys all look hopeful we'll fix that just give it some time okay how many of you guys are my age 45 to 50 okay you're mature you're handsome you guys look wise congratulations and so what has happened is from chapter 1 to chapter 4 he's gone from being a teenager early 20-something to a guy who's 45 to 50 we've already covered a lot of years in his life and so at this point he is uh he's a mature man and where he is at he's in Babylon so he he lived in Israel God allowed his people to be attacked to be plundered to be enslaved he walks the 700 miles to Babylon where he is a slave eunuch in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar for 30 years at this point and there are some major gaps in his life and people will wonder well what happened he was doing the same thing as you and I doing his laundry cutting his grass bone to work in his bills there are major gaps throughout and a lot of it is just normal life so you can look at Daniel and say how come God doesn't show up like that he shows up like that in Daniels life every decade or two in some extraordinary way most days are just normal typical days like the rest of us what happens in chapter 4 King Nebuchadnezzar demonic evil counterfeit of the kingdom of God he is the counterfeit Jesus God the real God of the Bible gives him a dream and he can't interpret it he's up all night he's very distressed and anxious about it and he wants to know what in fact this dream means so he brings in Daniel to interpret the day the dream and three times in Daniel chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar the ungodly King says you have the Spirit of Elohim your Bible translations will say you have the spirit of the gods and in the Hebrew originally which is the Old Testament language Elohim tends to refer to the divine unseen realm it tends to refer to God angels demons other divine beings any invisible being any divine being any supernatural being is in that category so he says the Spirit of the Gods is in you he doesn't know who God is but he knows that Daniel has a different power because the presence of God comes with him and the point here is a man that if the Spirit of God is in you you bring the presence of God with you and then others will sense and see the work of God in your life and then they will have questions for you that's what happens with Daniel and one of the things that is really helpful for us is number one the Book of Daniel is about a man a guy named Daniel and we kind of look at his life from the teen years to the 80s by the time you get to chapter 5 he's in his 80s okay and so we get a view of a man's life which is really helpful for us as men and number two most of the scenes and snapshots of the tests and the ministry opportunities in his life there at work okay there at work you guys just got here most of you got here from work most of your life is at work much of your ministry is it work much of your spiritual warfare is it work the context for most of these complex situations is in fact work and so he is brought before King Nebuchadnezzar this is part of his job this is his job and he's before his boss and his boss happens to be a king of rules a kingdom the most powerful tyrant on the earth who has a real bad history of killing guys that he doesn't like so he's got a dream and he's tell me the dream well Daniel now has this really complicated situation because he understands the dream and his boss isn't gonna like it how many of you had a situation where you had to tell somebody something they didn't want to hear or maybe even that person was in power or they were your boss or they were in authority and you're like man if this goes sideways they're gonna cause a lot of pain in my life that's the circumstance and so Daniel interprets the dream in Daniel chapter four and he basically tells Nebuchadnezzar there is the Most High God who rules over all false gods and demons and kingdoms and rulers including you and he has two options for you plan a is humility plan B is humiliation those are and just so you know guys those are always our options how do I know because I've done a lot of Plan B that's how I know these are our options how many of you didn't try you melody tried humiliation and pivoted back to humility write that down start with humility I mean it's just you're gonna get there eventually and just take the shortcut don't go the long path of humiliation to get to humility so God says plan a you can be humble you can acknowledge that you're a mean wicked selfish independent awful guy who needs God and forgiveness and change plan B humiliation you can fight against God you can disregard disagree with God and then you're gonna go crazy for seven years you're literally gonna go nuts you're gonna you're going to move out of the palace you're gonna live in the yard you're gonna look like an animal you're gonna sleep outside and you're gonna you're gonna eat the lawn for seven years okay and and then God tells him you've got a year here is a year to what make your decision and now we look at that and we go what an idiot and then I would say we're all Nebuchadnezzar right we're all nevus Rock God oftentimes tells us hey do this don't do that or there will be this consequence he waits patiently and we disobey and then it all happens and it's not his fault it's ours because he warned us that's what Nebuchadnezzar does so he's got these two choices humility planning a humiliation Plan B which one does he choose plan B plan B he chooses humiliation he God waits a year and it's really the underlying issue is pride that God is saying you're very proud you need to humble yourself you need to practice humility he's up on the roof literally looking down on other people and he's very proud and arrogant look at my glory look at my kingdom look at my Majesty look at what I've done right and then God strikes him and he loses his mind he literally goes men he literally goes men question why we could have an open conversation about show briefly why does a man not just say he's wrong right how many of us is men that's an issue I mean there there are two kinds of men men who struggle with fraught and three kinds of it men is struggle with pride liars and dead men those are the three kinds of men okay men who struggle with pride liars and dead men those are the three kinds of men and what happens is we can be wrong we can say wrong we can do wrong we mess it up we blow it we're off and God convicts us God even send somebody to sort of remind us of that how many of you're married to that gal all right the Holy Spirit always sends her with a male and she makes sure you know and and then you have this opportunity as a man you're gonna be humble or proud if you're humble what do you do I'm sorry it's my fault I was wrong please forgive me God I need your help Jesus you died for this please save me please fill me with the Holy Spirit please cause me to be a different kind of man or don't ever apologize right how many of you how many of you really you grew up at home dad never said he was sorry and was never wrong okay at least 10% of you okay he had he had a Nebuchadnezzar problem he was always right and even if he was wrong you weren't going to get him to agree that he was wrong okay and this is where men in power they become proud and they don't demonstrate humility and they can't be corrected they can't change they can't learn because God can't change you until you acknowledge that there are things that need to be changed and so he's got this hard heart but he let me just say this with Nebuchadnezzar we could look at him and say I can't believe that guy or we could say you know what I'm a lot like that guy and we all are and God is patient with all of us and he gives us opportunities but never can there's a couple of things he's proud he's hard-hearted he refuses to say that he was wrong God is very patient and waits for him and then ultimately the the primary message that comes from him losing his mind living in the yard going crazy the Bible says his hair grows out his nails grow out I mean he has lost it is if you don't repent of your sin eventually you start to go crazy okay any of you know a guy like that there's something in his life that's obvious and everybody's like dude that's not working that's a problem you're you're off there but he's like I disagree I'm not gonna change you can't get me to own it I'm not going to pivot and then eventually that guy starts to go crazy he loses touch with reality he's he's not he's not doing well and this can be all kinds of mental health that is spiritually motivated this can be anger self-medicating self-destructive behavior it's a downward spiral of life and all he needs to do is say god I need you and I need you to forgive me and I need you to change me but he can't do that now that being said when Daniel brings this message to Nebuchadnezzar you've got this picture here between two men Daniels humble Nebuchadnezzar is proud Daniel's going to be honest with him Nebuchadnezzar doesn't want to hear it Daniels trying to do what God wants them to do Nebuchadnezzar is very stubborn and isn't going to do what God wants them to do so now what they're gonna have they're gonna have a conflict and they're gonna have a conversation and Daniel literally is gonna get face to face with a king and he's gonna look him in the eye and he's got some hard things to say and how he does that is where I really want to focus for us as men and the big idea is this connect before you correct from Nebuchadnezzar we can learn negative examples from Daniel we can learn positive examples from Nebuchadnezzar trying to be the king of your own castle being domineering overbearing abusing women drinking too much having an anger problem being stubborn never saying you're sorry that's just an off-the-shelf standard guy that comes out of Costco right that's just that's off-the-shelf right there's there that's just how guys start okay Daniel's the view of a guy who God has gotten ahold of him and done some good work so he's humble he's obedient to God he's trying to do the right thing he's filled with the Spirit of God he's trying to add value at work and wherever he lives and then they have this conversation and the question is for us am i a man who's more like Nebuchadnezzar or am i man who's more like Daniel and if I'm more like Nebuchadnezzar how do I pivot by God's power to become more like Daniel who really is a picture of Jesus so here's their conversation just a few verses then Daniel whose name was Belteshazzar that was his Babylonian name is God given name is Daniel which means God is my judge so he lives for God's judgment which allows him to ignore other judgments but the King gives him this false demonic name after a false demon God was dismayed for a while his thoughts alarm him so the Kings frustrated struggling scared of his dream the King can't ascertain said Belteshazzar let not the dream of the interpretation alarm you so they're face to face tells him the dream and he could see it on Daniels face you guys know what this is like all right like how many of you went into a doctor's appointment doctor comes out you're like uh-oh this can't be good you could see it on their face you could see it on the face Daniel's got it on his face melted cheese are answered and said my lord he's respectful maybe the dream be for those who hate you and it's interpretation for your enemies and I care about you I hope this doesn't come to pass therefore O king let my counsel be acceptable to you and here's all you need to do what break off your sins the key with your sins is is not to bend them a little bit or to just you got to break your life from your patterns you got to break your life from your addictions you got to break your life from your habits you just got to break it you can't just wound it carry it hide it minimize it you got to break it every guy's got something in his life he's like you know what it's connected to me I need to break that and be disconnected from it and let me say for some of you recovery guys that are here we are so proud of you we are so proud of you I met with one of the men in our church today and he broke heroin 20 months ago okay and it's broken and I said who broke it he said Jesus broke it Jesus broke it and so you men we all have things that were battling and fighting and we we need to break off from them okay and that's why we're here we're here to build you up not beat you up so you can break off whatever Satan has his hooks into you seeking to destroy you okay and so Daniel looks at him and he says break it off and and here's the good news if if you want to break it off guess what God wants to help you that's the good news I feel like God I want to break this off my life whatever this addiction is this compulsion is this emotional on health whatever it is that it's connecting me to something other than you I want to break that off so I can be healthy and live freely and the God of the Bible will tell you son I love you I'm happy to help he's always happy to help break those things off so Daniel here is telling him basically God's like a loving dad and he's here to help and whatever Satan's got into you that can be broken off and you can be free you just need to turn to God and acknowledge that you need help and you need to change and so ultimately he says break off your sins by practicing righteousness new habits new patterns which you men are doing and I want to honor that there are guys here that used to go to the bar and now they go to the Bible study hey there are guys here that used to go home and yell at their wife and on their way home they pray for their wife okay there are guys here that used to go home and watch porn and now they go home and read their Bible okay and that's and that's that's why we're here we want to break some things and then start to practice righteousness what's right what's good what's holy what can I live in my conscience with what can I be proud of as a man in that right sense of the word and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed how many people is this guy oppressed it's a lot he conquers Nations as a side gig I mean he's really he's really a tyrant that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity okay so here's what happens Nebuchadnezzar has a problem with God God has a problem with Nebuchadnezzar so God sends Daniel in to go face-to-face toe-to-toe with Nebuchadnezzar nobody ever does this right how many of you you know this guy the guy that nobody's gonna get in his face and nobody's gonna go toe-to-toe how many of you had that dad you had that grand dad you got that boss this was your little league coach that you sell out PTSD from you know every time you see a glove you get the nervous eye - it's right there just these are guys that have learned to win by domineering overbearing never apologizing force of personality how hard is it to get in that guy's face when he's already castrated you you're like I'm not going in for round two round one was rough okay and he's your boss and he's worshipped as a god and he can kill you I mean this is Daniels very courageous because he knows that what he is doing is what God is asking it's not a good thing for a man to be courageous unless he's doing what God is asking a man who's courageous and isn't doing what God is asking that's just a fool who's harming himself but he knows what God is asking of him so they go toe-to-toe and what happens is for all of us as men God is going to have moments where we need to go face-to-face we need to go toe-to-toe and we need to have a hard conversation we need to deliver the truth we need to say some things that that person may not want to hear receive and then error in one of two directions number one we don't have that conversation I'm gonna talk about it it's going to blow up we're gonna get to fight there's gonna be a consequence my wife is gonna make me sleep on the couch again I got to get a new couch my back is killing me I'm so tired of sleeping on the couch my boss is gonna fire me you know what I just I'm not gonna have that conversation so we avoid it or we have the conversation with a hard and angry heart how many of you have done that okay how many of you guys you are the more if there's a hard heavy conflicted conversation especially with someone in power or authority I tend to avoid those conversations how many of you are those guys notice be honest okay because I don't know this conversation how many of you you're the guy who has the conversation but your heart and your tone are not right you're angry you're mad your volume level is raised your name-calling your look them in the eye you're starting to invoke relatives and ancestors you're just like your mother you're just like your grandfather all of a sudden the family genealogy is coming out and you know the whole family reunions evolved and you're like yeah I probably went a little too deep far loud intense personal angry harsh start up what I was saying was something that needed to be said but I wasn't saying it in a way that they would receive it this is where it's putting truth in a flamethrower and pulling the trigger it's like well there are other ways to deliver it and all you've done there is just set him on fire and burn them to the ground and as soon as they say hey that was not loving that was mean hey I don't like the way you say that what's our immediate response be honest man what's our response yeah who cares okay what's another honest answer it's the truth yeah and you're being a jerk that's true too so we both win what we do then we will deliver what we believe is a message that needs to be delivered in a way that Jesus wouldn't deliver it and then when they point that out we double down true-false true-false how does Daniel do it well he does it by the power of the Holy Spirit three times in chapter 4 it says he's full of the spirit the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience goodness kindness gentleness faithfulness and self-control he's got the same holy spirit character of Jesus Christ and when he's dealing with Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar gets angry Daniel doesn't Nebuchadnezzar is yelling Daniel isn't Nebuchadnezzar is threatening throughout the book Daniel isn't Nebuchadnezzar is up all night very stressed and anxious Daniel he's doing fine okay he has an awareness of the presence of God in his life that allows him to respond to the Lord not react to the man because what happens is his men we have a conflict with someone and were responding and reacting to them instead of responding and reacting to God and then working out of his response through us to them so a couple of things I wanted to share with you just from Daniel and this is his example and this is important how many of you are dad's dad's ok many of you most of you you know if you think about all the children that are represented presently or in the future by men in the room we're talking about hundreds of children hundreds of children true or false as dads we got to correct our kids okay all of these are practical leadership lessons and this is true if you're a dad that's true if your husband is true if your granddad this true if you're an employee this true if you're an employer this is true if you're a ministry leader how do you connect before you correct how do you connect before you correct because if all you do is correct someone you've not connected with them you may make your point but you won't make a difference most men make points they don't make a difference our goal is not just to make a point but to make a difference to do that you connect before you correct to increase the opportunity for the person to hear what it is you're trying to say so number one serve before you speak before this hard conversation what's Daniel been doing for 30 years serving a terrible boss and a horrible company with awful benefits the castration is not a benefit neither is vegetarianism I mean it's like this is not the job that he was looking for but he faithfully served for 30 years so when he stands before Nebuchadnezzar and says okay God has something he needs me to tell you what is he doing he's still serving he's not only serving God he's serving Nebuchadnezzar doing what is best for Nebuchadnezzar how many of you if someone has served you faithfully when they bring some hard news to you you're more likely to receive it you're like I know you love me you served me you seek my best that's my wife Grace my wife Grace is faithful she's godly she's amazing and I know she loves me and no one has served me in my life apart from the Lord Jesus more than my wife Grace and she's made all these deposits in our relationship account so when she needs to bring something to my attention that is truthful but maybe for me a little hard to hear it feels to her like she's making a withdrawal but she's making a withdrawal from an account that she's made a lot of deposits in through serving some of you your let's say was your dad he would talk to you but he didn't really know you he would talk to you but he didn't really love you he would talk to you but he wouldn't really help you he just tell you what to do that's being bossy right that's not being godly sir before you speak number two forgive first do you think before Daniel got face to face toe-to-toe with Nebuchadnezzar he'd forgiven him why would you think that perhaps he had I mean he keeps serving him he's gracious to him he doesn't make it personal he says Nebuchadnezzar God tells us and gods told me to tell you to stop oppressing people or who did he impress Daniel and Daniel doesn't make it personal you just say like you did me and how you treated me and what you did to me I wanted to get married and I can I want to have kids and I can you know I want to be a grandpa and I'm not look what you did I wanted to live in Israel I'm in Babylon you even changed my name I mean if he wanted to back up the truck right and unload the dude's got a load he's got a load of complaints that are absolutely valid he doesn't back up the truck he doesn't dump the load he doesn't make it about himself at Nebuchadnezzar he makes it about God and Nebuchadnezzar and he gets out of the middle okay and he does that I think because he's already forgiven him if he hadn't forgiven him he's not gonna try and love him and help him and serve him right number three be the mailman the message that never that Daniel brings to Nebuchadnezzar whose message was who wrote the mail to use that analogy God wrote the mail what was Nebuchadnezzar the recipient what was Daniel the mailman the problem with us as men is that we'll say things that God didn't tell us to say our job should not be to write the mail but to deliver the mail okay not to write the mail but to deliver the mail so what this means is a man you got to check in the Bible okay is this is this what God says you got to check your own relationship with God okay God am i hearing from you my running it by wise counsel do I you know do I know what it is I'm supposed to say and then preparing my heart to say it in such a way that I don't just bring them your information but I bring them your affection okay because his men we're not just called to deliver information but also affection because because that's how God communicates to us like sons and so that the example here is Daniel doesn't write the mail God writes the mail Daniel delivers it Daniel starts to read the mail and what's his reaction oh if Daniel was still bitter do you think he would have been glad to read this mail how many of you if you're if you're bitter against someone and you've got really bad news to tell them it's a good day for you like my talk to your wife she's gone and I'm getting your dog and you lose you know because you're a jerk he's not like that he has hard bad news to deliver and he's worried for Nebuchadnezzar because he loves him and cares for his well-being and he doesn't want to see him hurt that's how you know that a man is forgiving that he's emotionally healthy and he's filled with the Spirit of God and so what he is he is the mailman but even in reading the mail interpreting the dream Nebuchadnezzar can see in his face he cares about me and this is hard for him to say - number four respect goes up honor goes down respect goes up honor goes down does Daniel respect Nebuchadnezzar the way he speaks to him oh my lord that's what he calls him and that's an honorary title for his position and then what happens is honor goes down to Daniel from Nebuchadnezzar if you don't respect someone especially when you bring information to them especially if it's another grown man if you bring respect the odds increase that you'll receive honor if you bring disrespect the odds are you're going to elicit dishonor and that's where men have lots of conflicts and Wars because now it's a battle to see who the winner is if you will start with respect it gives an opportunity for them to honor and in so doing it's a win-win and nobody has to lose and men don't need to get in a fistfight in a competition okay number five you conquer the fear of man with the fear of God be honest with me if God gave you this mail to deliver to a man like debbik Nezzer who really is the Adolf Hitler of the Old Testament right he conquers nations with a blitzkrieg and then he says hello we're having a problem with the Jews throw him in the fiery furnace he's the Adolf Hitler of the Old Testament how many of you if God said go tell Adolf Hitler to repent that would be a you'd be like no no no I he's obviously not elect it won't work no need to waste our time how many of us would have feared how many of you guys if you're honest almost any conflict elicits some anxiety in you you just it's like it not I know I need to have that conversation I need to do the performance review I need to fire that person I I know that we need to move on from that relationship I know that that family member is just codependent toxic taking advantage I know we need to do that but there's why do we not go because what we think is the pain that I'm enduring right now is not as bad as the pain I will endure if we have this conversation and that's fear and the Bible says that God has not given us a spirit of fear I believe that with fear is a demonic spirit it's a counterfeit right and all of Babylon is just filled with the spirit of fear to the point we looked at in the previous chapter Nebuchadnezzar makes a 90-foot golden statue of himself says hey I've got a new religion when the band plays counterfeit church everybody bow down and worship me and the commentators say 300,000 people bowed down you know what those are those are all people consumed by the spirit of fear three guys stood up Daniels friends because they're filled with a spirit of God you overcome fear of man with fear of God the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom so the Bible says Daniel fears he honors he Revere's God Daniel through the whole book is talking about God singing to God praying to God he's looking up Nebuchadnezzar's problem is he's up on the roof looking down he's looking down on other people putting fear on them instead of looking up to God and giving glory to him that's his whole problem so how do you overcome the fear of men let me say this we all have fear man some of you fear your wife some of you fear your employer some of you fear your kids some of you fear your dad your mom your extended family your critics your competition you fear somebody the only way you overcome fear of man that proverbs 29:25 says that fear of man is a trap or a snare it's it's a way of satan trapping you into a life that god doesn't intend for you the only way out of fear man is fear of God like okay God what do you want me to do okay I'm gonna do that because that's the right thing to do Daniel doesn't have any fear of Nebuchadnezzar because he has fear of God and lastly you got a love lost Daniels the believer Nebuchadnezzar is the at this point he's the unbeliever don't expect a lot of your non-christian buddies coworkers Aaron don't if they don't know God just assume that their character is not going to look like Jesus don't get so hung up on their character really the issue is they need a new nature they need to be changed at the deepest level of their being they need to meet Jesus they need to get a new heart they need to receive the Holy Spirit they need to experience the forgiveness of sin they need to be born again to use the language of Jesus what the annual doesn't look at with Nebuchadnezzar and say okay you know let's make some behavior modification so that you're not quite the tyrant you used to be this is actually you need God and God needs to change you at the deepest level of your being and so let me say this oftentimes the people that frustrate us or you could want to have very unhealthy conflict with they don't know Jesus so what do we want we want them to know Jesus so what do we do we try and bring the truth to them in a way that is loving so that we can talk to them about our God because our goal is not just to win an argument but to win a person so oftentimes as men we win arguments we lose people the goal is not just to win the argument but to win the person and that's why Daniel teaches us models for us has been connect before you correct let me give you some practical illustrations and I appreciate you guys hanging in there with me as our verbal process a little bit anytime that I give an example with my sons I don't know if you know this I could be a big personality I know if you guys have noticed that little be a little intense you know a little loud sometimes but I didn't want to raise kids that were scared of me I didn't want to bully them because you may be able to bully them when they're little what happens when they get big yeah they kick your butt if you're lucky right if you're lucky that's all they do to you they either rebel against you they get sneaky or IED or then they bow up to take you down so the young buck takes down the old buck so what is a bad idea when the kids are little especially the boys it becomes a real problem when they become grown men so for example with my boys when they were looking at three boys two girls how many of you fund do you finance your girls were more compliant anybody have that parenting ID I'd be like please do that like yes Daddy my sons be like you know I mean I just you know they weren't most of my sons they're good I love them and we're good now but but if there was gonna be disobedience who's gonna come for my sons my one daughter when she was little there was one occasion I realized how much power I add I looked at her and I said her name I didn't yell I didn't didn't you I just said her name and she threw up I just was like just yeah I was like wow that's like a superpower I have like that's amazing I could just make people I'm vomit man like I just say your name and you puke my wife looked at me she said you're really powerful in her life I said holy smokes I didn't so I tried it with my son didn't throw up then throw up hey so what I learned especially with my sons because what I wanted to do was not control or domineer over be overbearing for them I wanted to raise them to be what men that we could have a face to face to know so I literally when I deal with my sons and their little I would get down to this level why to connect before you correct this is what God did when he became the man Jesus Christ he came down and God on our level he literally came down and looked us in the eye he didn't just yell at us from above he came down to be with us below so I get down right here with my sons look him in the eye and I'd ask him questions before I kick before I corrected I always tried to connect I would say Who am I you're my dad how do I feel about you you love me who sent me here to be your dad God did okay now I got backup right if you're a cop always call for backup there's your backup and I would ask my sons this question of everybody on planet earth who is the person that is most for you why is that an important question if you don't know that I love you and I'm here to help you you're not going to listen to me occasionally the boys would be like you know dad I I think that's true but lately I've not felt it okay let's have a conversation about that let's connect before we correct when they get to the boy dad you're the person that loves me the most you care the most okay so I'm gonna tell you something now and I need you to listen okay and then I would correct him I would correct him almost every single time my sons would give me a hug and then I would give them a kiss and I would lay hands and pray over them and we would invite the Holy Spirit into the relationship because I didn't want to win an argument I wanted to win a son okay and I'm telling you as men we can look at Nebuchadnezzar and so I can't believe the way the guy ruled this kingdom my question would be whatever Kingdom you have do you rule it like Nebuchadnezzar okay and if so he said rather serve it like Daniel for the kingdom of God Daniel models for us as men this emotional health the ability to connect before you correct and how to really be a great leader that even leads the most powerful leader in the world okay that being said we're gonna break into discussion groups if you guys want to wander that's fine but these are my recommended talking points are you more likely to a not have the hard conversation or B have the hard conversation with a hard heart we tend to gravitate in one of those two directions number two is there someone you need to have the Jesus talk with really what Daniel is doing with Nebuchadnezzar is he saying there's another king my king whose name is Jesus is going to talk more about them in Daniel 7 they're having the Jesus talk is there somebody you need to have the Jesus talk with and you haven't because you don't want to have the conflict have the conversation in an effort to win the person and if there is somebody that you need to talk to you about Jesus they don't know Jesus it's not walking with Jesus and you'd invite him to men's or Church or give them a Bible or whatever let us know who that is so we can join you in prayer for them they this is a question that I believe is from the Lord for you last week and I'll be honest with you Wednesday night is super exciting for me really fun I love you guys it's an honor to be here it's it's an encouragement I just never seen what God is starting to do here anywhere in my life okay and I was driving away last week and I was super encouraged super excited I am up all night my wife hears me tell all the stories of what God's doing in your guys's life so we stay up late and I was driving away and right before I got on the 101 I just felt inclined and top was off my Jeep I was drivin looked up I was like Lord is there something I was supposed to ask the men that I didn't ask them last week I just felt inclined to asset and God spoke to me and he said as they're learning about Nebuchadnezzar ask them this who would consider you and Nebuchadnezzar in their life if they read the story of Daniel they say yeah domineering overbearing scary guy you would be that guy okay that's the question that I believe God asked me to ask you it's not an accusation it's a question and then the question is how can you be showing mercy to quote Daniel to them you men need to know the one thing Nebuchadnezzar didn't want to do was apologize and one of the most powerful things that a man can do is apologize we call it rip hence its ownership it literally breaks demonic strongholds in relationships when a man looks at his wife or a man looks at his kid or a man looks at his grandkid or a man looks at his brother a brother in Christ and says I was wrong I am sorry I make no excuse it's so bad Jesus died for it I promise you my heart's desire is to change how many of you if your father said that to you your whole life a change you'd be like oh okay well praise God there's grace here not only do we need to look at the story of Nebuchadnezzar from the perspective of those that are abused but also from the perspective that sometimes were the Nebuchadnezzar do you know what I'm talking about okay last - how do we pray how can we pray with you or for you today with you or for you and we break for discussion and then prayer and we like to huddle our guys up like a football team and pray over each other we borrowed that from Pastor Darian and ultimately if you don't want to pray you don't have to pray if you don't want to be prayed for that's okay but what I would say is we would love to pray for you and there there probably isn't another place that you can go tonight to be prayed for if you want a beer there's a place you want to watch a game there's a place you want to smoke a cigar there's a place you want to break Commandments there's lots of options prayer this is kind of your one shot okay so let us know what your prayer request is and then lastly do you need a Bible we've got these great Bibles they're leather-bound ESV which is the translation I tend to preach out of study Bibles with a lot of great notes how many of you guys think it's a good thing to give a guy a Bible right you can't be a Bible guy unless you got a unless you got a Bible so we want to give you if you don't have a Bible tell us now tell your table lead and we'll bring you a Bible and then the guys are on your table they're going to pray for you and you're going to start reading your Bible you can start in Daniel if you want us to read with us the cool story is you men have been buying Bibles for other men okay there's one guy here he came a few months ago as non-christian the guy's prayed for him God saved became a Christian came back we gave him a Bible he's reading the Bible it came up last week he's like I'll buy a case of Bibles for the next guy that needs a Bible let me just say that's our end zone guys together in relationship opening the Word of God learning how to follow Jesus amen so if you need a Bible we'd love to give you a Bible okay let me pray father God thank you so much for an opportunity to open the scriptures god I want to honor these men they could be anywhere tonight doing anything and they're here they're here to meet with God to meet with the men of God to invite the Spirit of God to open the Word of God to become like the Son of God and Lord I want to honor these men and I want to honor their choice Holy Spirit I pray that you would help them in every in any way to become like Daniel who's ultimately like Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and Lord God I believe that if men will own some things apologize for some things repent of some things say sorry to some people that literally healing could start to happen in homes families businesses generations and so lord thank you that there is nothing more powerful than love and forgiveness so please pour it out on these men please pour it out through these men this week in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 4,003

Rating: 4.8139534 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse, men

Id: QnQEDooNOnM

Length: 43min 53sec (2633 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 06 2020