024 Core Beliefs: Masculinity

With a podcast seeking to identify the truth of biblical masculinity, it only seems right that while we are evaluating core beliefs, we talk about the core beliefs around masculinity. The world's concept of masculinity is not biblical at all. However, in this episode, Joey defines true masculinity and calls men into a deeper understanding of what it means to live an effective masculine life by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Transcript

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With a podcast built on bringing clarity to the concept of biblical manhood, you had to know that with a series like Core Beliefs, we're gonna talk about the core beliefs of masculinity. Well, let's not waste any time. Let's just go ahead. Let's get into this. Welcome to the Iron Pursuit Podcast, where men are forged by the truth of God's word. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. This podcast is a call to biblical manhood. Here, we challenge men to rise above comfort, reject passivity, and live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Each episode is designed to strengthen your faith, sharpen your character, and equip you to lead with integrity, grit, and grace. So whether you're a husband, a father, a brother, or a friend, this is your invitation to pursue the kind of manhood that honors God and changes generations. This is the Iron Pursuit. All right, all right. Welcome back to the podcast, guys. It's so good to be here with you. We are on, I think, if I'm not mistaken, this is like our 24th, maybe 25th episode. I could be wrong. I'm kind of um getting them crossed up, but I know that in our series of core beliefs, we are on our fourth lesson of core beliefs. And today we're going to be talking about the core belief of masculinity. Most times, uh, when I think of masculinity, I always am taken back to my childhood and the TV shows I watched back then. How many of you uh remember some of those old TV shows? Now, I'm a Gen Xer. I was born in 1979, and we had quite a few shows back in the 80s, right? Back in the early 80s. They were some shows like The Brady Bunch, Leave It to Beaver, uh, The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Uh, I think uh what's some of them? One of them was called Family Ties and Even Growing Pains. And and I don't want you to just kind of flip out on me with all of this. I'm not saying that all of these um shows depicted like the perfect example of a father. I'm not saying that that all the things that were that were going on on those shows were were necessarily uh right, morally right, or whatever. I think they were probably closer morally right then than they than they are today for sure. But what I'm simply saying is that those shows had fathers in the home in some degree, even with Fresh Prince of Bel Air, you know, you had uh Will Smith, who was the nephew, and then you you had Uncle Phil um who was the father of that home, but he kind of took took Will in um as as a as a son and and raised him. There was a father in the home, and someone uh displayed this sense of masculinity in the family. However, things have changed drastically in Hollywood land. It's difficult to find shows anymore that portray um strong masculine leadership in the home. Uh today's culture, I think, um I think it would be fair to say that today's culture um I think it argues a lot about masculinity. Uh I'm I'm I guess I'm trying to find the the right way to say that. Um saying that it argues about masculinity is right, and um I know that surely you've heard the buzzword of what they call toxic masculinity. Um there are a lot of people that celebrate the um the idea of masculinity for what it for what it I think for what it really is. Uh while there are other people who want to attack masculinity, but did you know that scripture doesn't apologize for masculinity? Do you know that masculinity is God's design? Did you know that? You see, masculinity is redefined actually through the person of Jesus Christ. Real masculinity is not this thing that is being portrayed today in our world like a like I the idea of domination, but it but also masculinity isn't isn't passive, it and it's it's not representative of of ego uh either. Masculinity is is strength that has been submitted to God for the good of others. All right. I want I want you to keep that idea that definition in mind as we go through that. So let me let me repeat that for you. Masculinity is strength submitted to God for the good of others. Masculinity is strength submitted to God for the good of others. If you get outside of a definition like that about masculinity, I think that it can become twisted and warped. I think that it can uh become a little bit more of what the culture's trying to call toxic because it will be more about domination. Uh, it will have more going along the lines of passivity, where the man just sits back in his recliner thinking the idea of, well, I've earned it, uh, so you need to serve me type thing. It'll have more of that ego, narcissistic feel to it. Uh, but that's not what true masculinity is. In fact, the Bible teaches us quite the opposite of that. Uh, I'm gonna go through just three things uh real quick, I say real quick, you know, within the next 30 to 40 minutes here, um, about masculinity, and we're gonna kind of open up some of the beliefs, uh, the core belief systems of masculinity. First of all, masculinity is responsibility. Uh, it's not privilege. The first man in scripture, his name is Adam, he was given responsibility before he was given relationship. I want you to stop just a moment, and I want you to hear what I just said. You need to pay attention to this. Responsibility before relationship. Adam was given a responsibility before he was given a relationship. You see, too many guys want to jump straight into a relationship before they know how to be responsible for anything. You see, you think that you can be responsible for a woman, you think you can be responsible for a family, and you haven't even learned how to feed the pet yet. Come on, be for real. Just be honest. You you haven't you haven't learned how to how to keep a house clean, you haven't learned how to wash your truck, you haven't learned how to change the oil in it. Uh, you know, and I I know that that's another topic for another day, but come on, bro. You have to seek responsibility before you seek a relationship. Back in Genesis chapter 2, verse 15, the Bible tells us that Adam was placed in the garden to what? To just have sex with Eve? No. Go go read it. Genesis 2, verse 15, it says that Adam was placed in the garden to work it and keep it. To work it and keep it. Masculinity began with stewardship. God created this man, and then in a way to help develop and forge this man's masculinity, he gave him responsibility. Do you know what a steward is? The the very definition of a steward, it means to be the keeper or the guardian or the superintendent. That's what it means. And God created Adam, placed him in the garden to work the ground, to keep, to keep the garden, to work it and to keep it. And he said, You are going to be the steward of what I've given you. You're going to be the keeper, you're going to be the guardian, you're going to be the superintendent of what takes place here. And so when you think about masculinity, you know, and I think I could probably do a world masculinity versus biblical masculinity. I don't want to get into it like that, but I want to I want to say real masculinity. When you get to thinking about real masculinity, it's going to ask some questions, okay? Masculinity is going to force you to ask some questions. First of all, what has God entrusted to me? If you're a man and and you're you're you're growing into this masculinity thing, you're going to ask, what has God entrusted to me? And I want you to just ask yourself that question. Let's just look around for a moment. Let's just think about it. As a young man, you probably don't have as much entrusted to you as an older man, a more seasoned man would, but you still have things you are responsible for. What are they? Maybe it is a pet, like I alluded to just a few moments ago. Maybe uh it is a vehicle, maybe it's your home, maybe it's your elderly parents or grandparents, maybe it's a business that you have, maybe it's just your job. Maybe you just need to be responsible in the job that you have applied for, signed up for, been hired for. And whenever you evaluate yourself, how responsible are you with those things that you have been given responsibility over? Can you honestly say that you are being a good steward with what God has entrusted you? If you cannot answer that with a definitive yes, you are not ready to move on in responsibility. Just case in point. You're not ready to move on. If you have not passed this test right now about the things that God has entrusted with you right now, if you are lousy, if you are irresponsible, if things around you that are always tearing up. For example, you have a truck, the truck is always tore up because you're ripping and romping on it and you don't know how to take care of it, you do not deserve another truck. Period. You don't deserve one. If you can't show up to work on time, you are not being responsible with what God's given you. You do not deserve a raise, you do not deserve uh a position increase. You you don't you don't deserve any of those things. Okay? Just flat out. If you are not being responsible with what God's given you, you're not showing yourself to be a very good man. And you are part of the reason why people are calling masculinity toxic, because you think you are owed something. You are not owed anything. The second question, not only what has God entrusted to me, but what am I responsible for? If you're going to look into this idea of masculinity, you're going to ask yourself the question, who am I responsible for? When a real, when real masculinity thrives, a man stops looking at what he can do for himself. He he stops looking at what toys I can buy for myself. You stop looking at how many ladies I can lay down in the bed with. You stop doing those things. Masculinity does not sit here and and and just like pumping testosterone, wanting to see how much stuff I can acquire, how many ladies I can be with, uh, how how much how much beer I can drink or how many joints I can smoke. That's not what masculinity is at all. Instead, the man, the masculine man, he asks, hey, he looks around. He says, hey, who am I responsible for? And in time, that answer, the answer to that question is going to change, guys. It's going to change. By the evolution of it, it you, it's usually the same for all of us. And this example uh isn't meant to cover all the bases, although I'm I'm I'm about to cover several of them, uh, but it will give you an understanding of what the concept of evolving responsibility is. And I want to use the six stages of masculine development from John Eldridge's book, uh, Fathered by God. If you have not read that book, John Eldridge's book, Fathered by God, I encourage you, I highly encourage you to get a hold of that book and and do some reading there. In that book, John Eldridge is going to cover six stages of masculine development. And stage number one, he calls it the beloved son. This is the youngest stage. This is when masculinity uh begins to develop in a boy's life. As a very young boy, when you think about that stage, uh, we're responsible for just a few things. Let me just give you an example. Uh cleaning our room, uh, feeding the dog. Okay. If you had responsible parents, parents that that actually cared, you were probably given the responsibility of taking care of your room or taking care of the things that that you were given, taking care of your clothes, taking care of the shoes. I I I remember uh as a boy, uh we did not have very many things uh whenever whenever I was calling Hey Rocky, Rocky's showing up over here and uh he's trying to be a part of the podcast today. Hey, buddy. Uh but I can remember as being uh uh being a boy uh when uh my mom and dad, they they would give me a pair of shoes ever every year. Like you got one pair of shoes. And uh if I got a pair of Nike shoes back in the day, man, that was something. And I and you know, you got them for Christmas, and I was responsible for taking care of those shoes. And and, you know, I man, we didn't wear our good shoes outside to play in like some of these goofy kids do today. You know, like man, some they they just they have these brand new shoes and they want to take them outside and and uh you know play in the yard or or whatever with these brand new shoes on. We didn't do that. Uh I had to be responsible for what I had. So as a young boy, I was responsible for cleaning my room. I didn't do a real good job of that. You know, I I kind of I kind of failed at that one, uh, feeding the dog. Uh I wasn't real good at that all the time. You know, as a boy, you you're not good at doing all these things, but if you're never given responsibility and never taught how to fail at responsibility, you never really learn responsibility at all. So you move from the beloved son stage into the second stage, which is called the cowboy stage. This is where the boy becomes adventurous, and and this is where he's an older boy, maybe 10, 12 years old, on into the teenage years, and we become responsible for bigger chores, okay? Bigger chores outside that require us uh maybe to use power equipment. I know in my life it was using a lawnmower, using a trimmer, what we called the weed eater back in the day, uh even a tractor. And then eventually it moved on up to my dad showing up one day because I was responsible. I worked um all the things. My dad shows up one day and he gives me my very first truck. I had to pay for the truck. My dad took care of my insurance, but the responsibility he gave me, he said, you are going to pay the note on this truck. Truck cost about$3,000 at the time, and uh it was a 92 S10, black with silver striped down the side of it. I love that truck. I had so much fun in it, five speed on the floor. Uh real good fun truck. And um and the responsibility was I had to take care of it. Not only did I have to wash it, change the oil, all those different things, but I had to pay um, I had to pay the truck note. You know, I had to keep keep up with all of that. And then that moves us into the third stage, which is the stage of the warrior. This is where uh we begin to fight for things that matter to us. We fight for our beliefs, whether they are, regardless of whether they are uh religious or whether they're political, uh it usually turns into that that fighting in us, that that warrior mentality in us, it usually transitions into a uh a professional responsibility at work. Uh we move up in position uh because we we begin to be noticed for what we stand for. That moves to the next position of lover. This is where the responsibility moves towards loving a spouse, finding that person that you want to spend the rest of your life with. And then you go to stage five, which is the king. This is where a man uh assumes the responsibility of providing for, protecting, and leading a family. It's a greater responsibility, right? And then lastly, you move into the sixth stage, which is called the sage. The sage is an older man, a man who has become an elder, and he is now responsible for passing on the baton of wisdom to younger men. He becomes a mentor. So you can see that down through these stages, responsibility increases. And as a man grows in his masculinity, he asks these questions: What has God entrusted me with? And now, who am I responsible for? And as you grow in life, you are responsible for more things and even more people. And then he asks this last question, and then we'll move on. Am I actually protecting and cultivating what God gave me? So we've identified what God has given us or what God has entrusted us with. We've identified who we are responsible for, and now we're asking, am I doing a good job of it? Am I protecting, am I cultivating what God gave me? And whenever you identify what you are responsible for, you evaluate how good of a job you're doing protecting it. Are you guarding what you've been entrusted with? And are you cultivating it? Are you making it grow? Are you tending to it? Um, are is your is your family better because you are actually in it? Over in Matthew 25, I don't want to spend a lot of time there, but Jesus gives us the parable of uh of the talents, where there's a certain amount of talents. There's five talents given to one, two given to one, and one given to another. And the the one who had the five talents, he took it and he invested it, doubled it, and and God gave him more responsibility and you know, more uh reliability. The same thing happened with the guy with the two, but then you have that one, that guy that has the one talent. And he said in the scriptures uh that I was afraid that that you were a man who you you reaped where you haven't sowed. In other words, the this guy knew that his master was a great investor and and that he was he was pretty ruthless with his money, and and he he was very intentional with what he did. And he so he was afraid and he said, Well, I took my talent and I buried it, and uh, and here's what you gave me. And he gives him back that one talent, and so the master takes that one talent away from him, gives it to the guy who now has 10, um, and he and he casts this other guy into prison. And you know, and we don't want to be that person. We don't want to be the person who has taken uh what God has given us, and we are just very irresponsible with it. We don't want to do those things. You see, the world wants you to believe that masculinity is the problem with our world. You follow what I'm saying? And and whenever we take the talent that God's given us, i.e., the masculinity that God has given us, which is a talent, it is a responsibility, it is a privilege to have masculinity. Whenever we take that that God has given us and we use it irresponsibly, it does become a problem of the world, right? It does become this thing where men are trying to dominate the other sex, you know, trying to dominate women, or they are just being passive and they're like, well, I'm owed this and you need to bring me a sandwich and a and a can of beer, or your ego gets in the way and you're a narcissist, and on and on and on. Masculinity can become those things. And the world wants us to believe that that is the base definition of masculinity. But the truth is that the fall of man did not begin with violence or what the world would call toxic masculinity. That is not where the fall began. That's not the problem. The truth is that the problem began where there was passivity. That's the truth. Adam's standing there while Eve is pulling the apple off the tree, so to speak. You know, don't send me an email because it wasn't an apple. I don't know what kind of fruit it was. But Adam is standing there silent while the enemy is invading his home and he does nothing about it. And so many times that's exactly what men do. You see, we just stand there passively, allowing the enemy to come in and out of our house, through our TVs, through our computers, through our phones, whatever it may be, and we do nothing about it. You see, a man does not run from this responsibility. A man will run toward that responsibility. Don't run away from that responsibility. If you are seeking out masculinity and you are looking for the core values of masculinity, you understand that masculinity is a responsibility. This is a core value, okay? It is a responsibility. And you do not run from responsibility. You run towards responsibility. Second of all, second core belief masculinity is strength. Strength under authority. Strength under authority. In every introduction to this podcast, you hear the mission statement of what we are trying to do with this podcast as we put episode out week after week. We are trying to help men understand what biblical masculinity is all about. And in that intro that you hear, you hear the music, you hear that funky music. And by the way, shout out to my brother Jackie and Chad Parker. They're the ones that put all of that stuff together. And Jackie played all the instruments on there. And we've just re-edited that and kind of made it a little bit funkier. I love the organ sound that's in it. But anyway, I digress. In that intro, when you hear me talking in that intro, you hear these words where I say that we are encouraging men to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what we're trying to do. That is what strength under authority looks like. Strength, power, strength under authority. You see, strength alone is not masculinity. I want you to think about this. Tyrants are strong, but they're not showing biblical masculinity just by being strong, just by putting someone under your thumb, just by overpowering them and dominating them. That's not showing true masculinity. Biblical masculinity is when there is strength submitted to the will of God. And I believe that the perfect model for manhood is Jesus Christ. Real quick, think about this. Think about how Jesus showed courage without cruelty. How many times in the scriptures, uh, if you if you've read through the gospels and um just just like right now, if you if you uh are a part of church with me, if you if you've listened to any of the sermons that I've preached recently, I've been preaching through the gospel of John. And so we're sharing this life story of Jesus through the eyes of John, um, the author there, John. And John writes multiple times about Jesus uh being courageous by standing up to hypocritical religious leaders of his day. And he lovingly called them to repentance while patiently correcting their warped ideology and theology. He he consistently did this. So Jesus was courageous without being cruel. And honestly, guys, um we we might struggle with that sometimes. Also, what Jesus did, he he has conviction without arrogance. Jesus didn't walk around all smug and arrogant. Instead, the gospel authors identified Jesus as being meek and humble and and his and in his meekness and and and humility, he never it never restricted his his zeal or his conviction for truth. He was still willing to share hard truth by by being humble and by being meek. He did all of these things. And then also notice how Jesus uh he had complete authority without selfishness. I I man, I think this is this is awesome. Jesus was the son of God. And if you were to go over and read in Philippians, how that Paul describes about Jesus, you know, coming down from where he was, being the Son of God enthroned in heaven and coming down and taking a place among men, uh putting on the skin suit, being a human, uh, multiple times Jesus demonstrated his authority over all the all the things in the earth. Think about it, the elements. He stands on the front of a boat and tells a storm to be still, or he finds someone who's diseased, that they're they're blind, they're sick, they're deaf, they're whatever, and Jesus heals them. Or there's there's the woman, the, the, the, the funeral procession coming down the road. Jesus stops the funeral and touches the boy and raises him to life. He stands at the tomb of Lazarus and he speaks Lazarus' name, and the guy walks out of the tomb. Jesus did all this stuff. He showed his authority, and yet he selflessly gave himself day after day to the mission of the gospel message until finally one day he gives the ultimate sacrifice on the cross. And you know, Luke, Luke put it this way in Luke 9 23, he says where where Jesus speaks, he says that if if you choose to follow me, you have to deny yourself, you have to take up your cross on a daily basis and follow me. You see, the strongest man in the room is the one who is fully surrendered to God. It's not the one who's all jacked up wearing a v-neck shirt or a muscle shirt or whatever. It's it's not the guy who can lift the most weight in the weight room. It's not the guy who can down the most beers, it's not the guy who can shag the most ladies. The strongest man in the room is the one who is fully surrendered to God. And that leads us to this core belief. Real men bow their knee to Christ before they ever lead anyone else, before they ever try to lead anyone else. You know, guys, we can't really lead other people until we're able to lead ourselves. You have to understand that. Real masculinity is a submissive thing. It is a submissive thing. It's coming under the authority of Jesus Christ, submitting yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And whenever you do that, you prove that you have true masculinity living within you. Lastly, number three, masculinity is sacrifice for others. It really is sacrifice for others. You know, the world says that masculinity is about getting what you want when you want it. But the Bible says masculinity is about giving yourself away. Did you notice that? Remember, I told you the greatest example of masculinity is Jesus. And what did Jesus do? Jesus gave himself over and over and over again. Ephesians 5 25 gives us this example. When Paul is talking about husbands loving their wives, he actually says, Husbands, love your wives as, or love your wife, I should say, as Christ loved the church. The question is is begged for an answer here. How did how did Christ love? If Paul is telling the husband, hey, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Well, explain that example for me there, uh, Paul. Tell me what how did how did Christ how did Christ love? Well, he laid down his life. He gave his life for the church. The church is considered to be the bride, Christ is considered to be the groom, just like you are the husband, she is the wife, then the church and Christ are this union that's being brought together here. And Jesus was willing to lay his life down for her so that she could be saved, so that she could prosper, so that he could cultivate her, make her stronger. You see, masculinity reaches its highest form in sacrifice, and Jesus proved this. We have this exemplified down through the ages. You have fathers or grandfathers who exemplified masculinity for you, just like I have a father, a grandfather, uncles who have exemplified masculinity for me and have passed these things down to me. But what I have seen uh in the concept of masculinity as it pertains to fathers, I want you to think about this. You have fathers who are masculine, they sacrifice comfort for their families. Think about that. Fathers sacrificing comfort for their families. If you are a father uh or even a man, you may not be a biological father, but but you're you're fathering others that are around you, nieces, nephews, whoever that they may be. You're a man, um, you know, if you're a father, you know, a man that's that's recognizes and prioritizes his responsibilities. You know what I mean when I say that you have sacrificed your own comfort for your family. I'm not saying that that women don't do this, that mothers don't do this. I I mean I would say that in in the world, most of the time, um, women are doing this much more than men are. And um women have this tendency to just sacrifice over and over and over again um for for their family, for their for their children. And a lot of times because men are passive and they're not taking on the true responsibility of masculinity. They're passive, they just sit back and they just let everybody else do the stuff because they feel like they're owed something. The woman has to step up and be a uh has to sacrifice a little bit more. That should change. It shouldn't be that way. And hopefully, with you men, that is changing. But fathers do sacrifice, and men that are true masculine, biblically masculine men, they are sacrificing uh their own comforts for the well-being of their family. I I think of all the men who work extremely dangerous jobs away from their families for extended periods of time to provide. Um, you are sacrificing your own comfort to provide for your family. We've recently come through a pretty bad ice storm uh here in Louisiana. I say recently, you know, a month, month and a half ago, however long that it was. And um we we um we had a lot of power outages for quite a long extended period of time. And there were a lot of men who were linemen that, you know, worked for energy or or worked for the power companies, and they spent hours, days, long nights, uh dangerous situations away from their family so that other people could get their power back on. And and they were that was their job, and they were uh sacrificing their comforts for the well-being of their families. And men, we thank you so much for doing that. You know, you're you're not thanked enough for the sacrifices that you make, and I really do appreciate that. Uh leaders sacrifice their reputation for truth. Did you know that? Leaders will sacrifice their reputation for truth. Remember, I'm talking about the how that masculinity uh is representative of sacrificing for others. It's not always wanting to get your way, it's about sacrificing for others. And so fathers sacrifice uh their comforts for their family, but as you grow and as responsibilities change or as you take on more responsibility, you become a leader, and leaders will sacrifice their reputation for truth. I want you to think of the younger, dumber days, whenever you uh may have done some things because it was quote unquote cool, but now that you've matured, you realize that standing for truth is much more important than having this quote unquote cool reputation, right? And so you will allow your reputation to be hurt or to be tarnished, if that's what you what you would call it, uh to be damaged in order to stand for what's right and for what's true. And whenever you become a really good leader, a man who is devoted to his family, a man who is devoted to the cause of his life, you're going to a lot of times allow your reputation to just be hurt, uh, you know, because the reputation was something different back then than it is now. And your reputation of standing for truth and morals and values, standing for Christ uh on a Christian platform, uh that's that's what's gonna start taking the the uh the priority in your life because it's gonna matter to you, it's gonna matter to your, to, to how your family is raised and on and on and on. And and so you're going to sacrifice your reputation for truth. And then you're gonna have men, real biblical masculine men, who are sacrificing their safety to protect others. You see, masculinity is on full display in my mind whenever I see men rushing into dangerous situations to save and protect others. I think of firemen, I think of policemen, um, you know, first responders, all these all these different people who do all these different things. But, you know, I also think of courageous masculinity uh whenever I think of a man who is willing to stand toe-to-toe with the evil that is trying to come into his home. That's a dangerous situation, too, because you are putting yourself in a position to where you have to stand against the darkness that is wanting to invade your home. You can't stand by passively like Adam did in the garden back in Genesis 2 and just allow things to just happen haphazardly. You've got to be willing to stand there and do the hard things, even when they're spiritual things. You see, guys, I think for a lot of us, we are good at doing the physical things, but our families and our churches and our communities also need us to charge the front lines of our of the spiritual battle as well. We can't just stand by on the sideline and allow things to just haphazardly go by. A man will always prove his strength by what he's willing to sacrifice. And there are going to be things in your life that you're going to sacrifice because of the belief system that you have, the core beliefs that you have harbored and and you have instilled into your being. You believe these different things about God and about purpose and about masculinity and about your identity. You believe all of these different things. And what is really buried down inside of you with these beliefs is what's going to come out, okay? Jesus said that what is inside of a man is what's actually going to come out and flaw the man, right? It's not about what he eats, it's about what's actually coming out of the heart of the man. You see, uh, as I get ready to close this, uh give you just a few more thoughts. Biblical masculinity is very simple. I think it's very simple when it comes to looking at it from a practical uh position. You just look at biblical masculinity and you see it, it's simple. But guys, even though it's simple, it's very demanding. It does demand something from you because it takes responsibility. It takes you submitting yourself to the strength of God, taking your strength and submitting it to the strength and the leadership of God. And then you have to be willing to sacrifice for others. But you know, this is what I believe at the end of the day. At the end of the day, that kind of masculinity, it doesn't shrink back when things get hard. Instead of shrinking back, it rises up. Whenever there are difficult things, the man who has this biblical masculinity, he doesn't just bow his head when things get hard. He lifts his eyes, he lifts his head, and he says, Where can I be of the greatest effect? And then he charges the line. You see, the world desperately, desperately needs men who will follow Christ courageously, desperately. The world is out there trying to give everybody a false idea and a false concept of what masculinity really is. But guys, the world needs men who will stand for truth and who will charge the front lines and fight. I'm praying that that is what you will do. Until we meet again, God bless. Hey guys, thanks again for listening. Remember, share, like, and subscribe. If you think this podcast could help someone else, please share it with them. Check us out on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook at the IronPursuit. If you're interested in my personal or marriage coaching, send me an email at theironpursuit79 at gmail.com. Thanks again for listening. And remember, never run from the clashing because that is where the iron is sharp.