Slay the Dragon
Father’s Day 2023
God has really been putting one group of people on my heart lately… and it’s fitting that today of all day’s I’ve been honored to preach
TODAY, I WANT TO SPECIFICALLY SPEAK TO MEN… LADIES YOU GET THE DAY OFF.
Opening Promises:
Ladies, please stand…
- Do NOT weaponize this sermon…
Gents, please stand…
- Some of the things I say today will challenge you, but as scripture says, Iron sharpens Iron…
- IF YOU WALK AWAY TODAY FEELING BURDENED BY WHAT WE TALK ABOUT… THEN IT’S CONVICTION, NOT FAILURE.
Today’s sermon is titled: SLAY THE DRAGON
Every great movie starts with the concept of Good vs Evil. Right vs Wrong. The heroic knight vs the evil dragon…
(MOVIES LIKE…)
Lord of the Rings, Rambo, Conan the Barbarian, Die Hard, just about every Steven Sagal, Jean Claude Van Dam, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Swartzenager, OR ANY MOVIE PRODUCED BY MICHAEL BAY…
YOU KNOW, THE TESTOSTERONE-INJECTED MOVIES…
Here you are presented with the idea, of an ultimate masculine hero vs a destructive, highly motivated, all consuming evil…
If the evil can get past the hero, then those he protects are doomed…
Just as it is in the world of fantasy… so it is in the world of reality… and the Dragon is real.
Revelation 12:9 (ESV)
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…
The Dragon knows that to get to God’s children, it must go through REAL MEN. The dragon knows if it wants to infiltrate into the lives of our wives and daughters, it has to go through REAL MEN. The dragon knows if it wants to take our families, our country, our schools, our churches… that it has to go through REAL MEN…
But REAL MEN have always fought the Dragon…
…and so now, the Dragon has changed it’s tactics…
The Dragon knows if it wants to destroy REAL MEN… it’s easier to go through the next generation of men
And right now… the Dragon is winning.
(THE NEXT GENERATION)
A GOOD SOLID HANDSHAKE
The American Journal of Hand Therapy – grip strength (good test overall strength)
- Their findings of Gen Z
- Sons less father,
- Men in their 20’s less than their grandmothers.
PHYSICALLY WEAKER
2007 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology (ENDO – CRIN – NOL – LOGY) & Metabolism:
- Men’s average testosterone levels dropping by 1% every year since 1980
- This means that in about 10-15 years, we’ll all be Care Bears
- 27% of 17-24-year-old men are too obese to join the military
- Up to 75% do not qualify for the military because of some sort of physical, mental, emotional, reason
- Over 1/2 young adults — 56% ages 18 to 25 overweight or obese (Johns Hopkins)
- Gen Z’ers today – 20% seeing therapist, 39% in therapy (weather that be group or individual), 42% mental health issues, 57% take meds.
- Big medication issues = anxiety & depression.
YOUNG MEN IN AMERICA ARE PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY WEAKER THAN AT ANY TIME IN RECORDED HISTORY
Could you imagine if Russia or China invaded us right now? We’d have drag queens throwing sprinkled cupcakes at the enemy hoping for the best outcome.
What we are seeing in America today is, LITERALLY, the diminishing of REAL MEN.
EVIL NEVER SLEEPS… AND WHEN REAL MEN DON’T STAND UP TO EVIL, EVIL TAKES OVER.
Washington State and California – gender-affirming care for 7-year-olds
- Laws that allow the government to take your kids if you do not affirm their gender
- It’s considered Child Abuse
Child suicide rates skyrocketing! (in children as young as 10 – 12 years old)
Pornographic material in school for elementary-aged kids
Toxic masculinity
Hook-up culture
THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON IN SOCIETY TODAY, ACCORDING TO THE WORLD, IS A STRAIGHT MALE WITH A JOB, MORALS, AND LIVES BY FAITH
THAT’S WHAT THE WORLD SAYS… BUT A GREAT MAN ONCE SAID… “FEAR NOT, FOR I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD”
In order for this upside down world to be set right side up… REAL MEN are going to have to step up
So… What is a REAL MAN? How do you define him?
What should a man look like?
What does the perfect man look like?
And HEY!!!! We’re blessed because we know his name.
If you’re going to define what a REAL MAN is, then we need to talk about the GREATEST MAN in the history of the world.
His name is Jesus. So if you’re new to NEC, WE WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WE LOVE JESUS.
- We worship Jesus,
- We follow Jesus.
- We sing to Jesus.
- Our allegiance is to Jesus.
- Our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus.
- Our eyes are fixed on the second coming of Jesus.
And the good news is for us, our God became a man.
So now, we know what REAL MEN are supposed to look like.
REAL MEN LOOK LIKE THE GOD MAN.
Jesus is the most significant man in the history of the world. Not just a good man, but the God man.
- More songs have been sung to him,
- More paintings painted regarding him,
- More lives have been devoted to him.
- More books are written regarding him than anyone who has lived in the history of the world.
No one is in the same category as Jesus Christ.
- Christianity is the biggest movement of any sort or kind in the history of the world.
- Billions today claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.
JESUS IS SO SIGNIFICANT We even measure time by his life.
- BC is before Christ,
- AD, (ANN – O) Anno Domini, which mean “the year of our Lord.”
There’s no one as big as Jesus.
There’s no one as significant as Jesus.
There’s no one as impactful as Jesus.
There’s no one who is as marvelous as Jesus.
And even the greatest leaders in world history have echoed this truth.
Napoleon said, and I quote, “I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man, between him and every other person in the world, there is no possible term of comparison.’
All men fall into 2 categories
1. Jesus Christ
2. All other men
This is why Time Magazine (before they went all woke), named Jesus, Man of the millennium.
So MEN, I want to ask this…. what is it like to be like Jesus? What is it going to take for you to become like Jesus?
And I’m gonna use just one scripture to define Him. THIS SCRIPTURE IS THE KEY TO BECOMING THE SLAYER OF DRAGONS.
Revelation 5:5-6 (ESV)
John says:
5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
(Here the Elder describes Jesus as a Lion – The Lion is a fitting image of our Messiah,
1. For the excellency of his strength.
2. For his heroic spirit.
3. For He is the ruler of all; the lion is the king of the jungle
4. And because all righteous judgment belongs to Him
6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Because of the elder’s announcement, John expected to see a Lion, but when he laid his eyes upon Jesus, he saw a Lamb instead. John even used the specific word for a little lamb; he “Signifies a little or delicate lamb.”
When men want symbols of power, they conjure up ferocious beasts and birds of prey, such as those representing nations and sports teams. But the representative of the kingdom of heaven is a Lamb, representing humility, gentleness, and sacrificial love.
TO BE A REAL MAN IS TO BE LIKE JESUS, BOTH, A TOUGH LION AND A TENDER LAMB
Tough: Lion
1. “King of the Jungle” (ruler over all the animals in the land) – LEADERSHIP
2. Lions eat whatever they want – buffalo, wild hogs, elephants – HARD WORKING
3. Live in “prides” or packs mainly females & children – not other grown males – PROTECTORS
Adjectives that describe the LION JESUS
“Indignant”; “anger”, “zeal”, “passion”
WHEN DO WE SEE JESUS AS LION?
Examples
Flipping Tables – Makes a Whip
John 2:14-15 (ESV)
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
You know you’re angry when you make your own whip and drive people off
Religious leaders are ripping people off
Jesus yells “‘My house will be called a house of prayer’, but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”
Protector of the innocent
Tempted in the Wilderness –
40 days of fasting
Jesus was physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted.
That when the devil attacked
Promised all the lands if Jesus would just bow down to him
Unfazed by discomfort.
On the Cross –
How much strength does it take, when you could call down an angelic legion of angels to eviscerate your enemies… and instead you just harness your strength, not to do any harm to anyone, but to bring salvation to everyone
What Jesus demonstrates on the cross is a meek lion.
Which is power, under control, for the benefit of everyone.
Men lets take a test to see if you’re a lion…
Saying YES to any of these puts you in a Lion Catagory
- Your favorite advice is to suck it up, get over it, or rub some dirt on it.
- The majority of the protein in your diet… was killed by you
- Your Trinity is Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Sylvester Stallone
- You have accepted Chuck Norris into your heart
Tender: Lamb
(John the Baptist when seeing Jesus for the first time)
John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
1. Lambs are tender and comforting – Children counting Sheep (NOT Lions)
2. Very social animals, they congregate in herds – welcoming to all
3. Tend to restrain from conflict
Adjectives that describe the LAMB JESUS
“Pity”, “Grieved”, “Loved”, “His heart went out”, “Burdened”,
Jesus #1 emotion = “compassion”
WHEN DO WE SEE JESUS AS A LAMB?
Examples
- When Jesus Wept – death of Lazurus
- Children – Jesus was a rough gruff guy – Carpenter, calloused hands, walked hundreds of miles,
- Isaiah 53 describes Jesus as “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
Jesus did not look like Jason Mamoa
Yet, the safest place for Children, the place they most wanted to be… was in His presence.
Jairus daughter – bedside
“Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).
You can see the stark difference in the two attitudes of Lion and Lamb.
To be like Jesus, we must find the balance in THAT small common word… AND
AND IS A JOINING WORD…
THE PROBLEM WITH MOST MEN IS THAT WE’RE NOT “AND” MEN, WE’RE “EITHER, OR” MEN
ONLY LIONS = TOO TOUGH, NOT TENDER ENOUGH
Men who are only Lions:
- Domineering, overbearing, exhausting – pushy, scary, angry
- They hurt their women & children & weaker men
- Toxic Masculinity is a myth, there is Masculinity, and then there are Toxic Men
- They tend to excel in business, but have no clue why their wife and children have no relationship with them
- Patrick Stewart
- Distinguished, award-winning actor Sir Patrick Stewart grew up in fear of his abusive father, a World War II military veteran.
Stewart, said, “As a child, I witnessed his repeated violence against my mother, and the terror and misery he caused was such that, if I felt I could have succeeded, I would have killed him.”
The article would go on to say,
The authorities were intimidated by his father, when his mother sought help, she was told “You must have provoked him,” or “Mrs. Stewart, it takes two to make a fight.”
Nothing could be further from the truth, says Stewart: “Violence is a choice a man makes, and he alone is responsible for it.”
STORY: THE SCARIEST PLACE FOR THAT CHILD TO BE WAS AT THE HAND OF HIS FATHER
ONLY LAMBS = TOO TENDER, NOT TOUGH ENOUGH
Only tender not tough
• Passive, avoid conflict, wave the white flag too often, eaten by lions (BOTH MEN AND WOMEN)
• They allow OTHERS to hurt their wives & children (avoid conflict)
STORY = Dad & daughter counciling DAD’S RESPONSE “I didn’t do anything”
CLOSED HAND – Be a Lion – for family, weak, women, children,
OPEN HAND – Be a Lamb – with family, weak, women, children
STORY: LION AND LAMB – CHASE OFF DOG, DAD TALKED TO A STRANGER, YOU’RE NOT EVEN A POLICE OFFICER.
Fathers & Spiritual Fathers raise sons
LION MEN, HANG WITH LAMB MEN
LAMB MEN, HAND WITH LION MEN
TOGETHER, WE LEAR TO BECOME BOTH LION AND LAMB
MEN… THE WORLD WANTS YOU TO DISAPPEAR
1. Education wants to (AND – DRAWG – OH – NIZE) androgenize you
2. Media wants to deceive you
3. Culture wants to castrate you
4. Advertising wants to addict you
5. Government wants to TAKE FROM you
6. Feminists want to neutralize you
7. Woke Christianity wants to soften you
8. BUT GOD… GOD WANTS TO MAKE YOU LIKE HIS SON… TO PROTECT HIS PEOPLE, WITH A FURIOUS RIGHTEOUS ANGER… AND SOFT TENDER CARING HEART..
HE WANTS YOU TO BECOME A MAN… WHO IS WILLING AND ABLE…
TO SLAY THE DRAGON…
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