Wild At Heart Chapter 8

1. Wild At Heart Chapter 8 • A Battle to Fight: The Enemy • “Enemy-occupied territory- that is what this world is” C. S. Lewis • Thomas A Kempis quote 139 • Luke’s Question 140 • “the early death of a man’s warrior keeps the boy in him from growing up” Robert Bly • If this is true so then is the opposite

2. If we can reawaken that fierce quality in a man, hook it up to a higher purpose, release the warrior with-in, then the boy can grow up to be truly masculine. • Blaine’s picture • “Every man is a warrior inside. But the coice to fight is his own” Blaine Eldridge • The warrior is not the only role a man has to play, but it is crucial in our movement towards masculine integrity and it is hardwired into every man.

3. The Warrior Heart 141 • Major Sullivan letter 141 • A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission to his life that involves yet transcends even home and family. He must have a cause to which he is devoted even unto death. • That is why God created you- yes you- to be His intimate ally in this great battle. • You have a specific place in the line, a mission that God made you for.

4. That is why it is so essential to hear from God about your true name, because in that name is the mission of your life. • “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial” Winston Churchill on leading the British in WWII • The same is true of you; your whole life has been a preparation. • “I would love to be William Wallace, leading the charge with a big sword in my hand”, “but I feel like I am the guy in the fourth row with a hoe”

5. That’s a lie of the Enemy • He says “your place is really insignificant, that you really aren’t armed for the battle anyway” • But the truth is in your life you are William Wallace, who else could be? • There is no other man to replace you in your life, in the arena you have been called to. If you leave your place in the line, it will remain empty. No one else can be who you are meant to be. • You are the hero in your story… not a bit player…not an extra… but the main man.

6. After our wounds are healed, God calls a man forward to the fron lines to develop and release in us the qualities that a warrior needs: • 1. A vision to a cause greater than self-preservation Mark 8:35 • John’s mercenary story 142 • 2. A warrior must be cunning, he knows when to fight and when to run. He can sense a trap and never charges blindly ahead, he know what weapons to carry and how to use them. • 3. A keen awareness of the enemies we face; the world, the flesh, and the devil. • A sort of unholy trinity

7. The Traitor Within 143 • John Owen passage from “Sin and Temptation” • Ever sense Adam gave away our true strength many of us men do not want to speak up unless we know it will go well, and we do not want to move unless we are guaranteed success. • What scriptures call the flesh, the old man, or the sinful nature is the part in every man that wants the easiest way out. • Examples on 143-144 • To put it blunt your flesh is a weasel, a poser, a selfish pig.

8. But your flesh is not you. • Did you know that? Do you act like you believe it? Your flesh is not the real you!!!! • Paul write in Romans 7 • Sin is not us, it is not our true heart • Remember your heart is good “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…” Ezekiel 36:26 • That is a big lie in the church today that you are nothing more than a “sinner saved by grace” • You are a lot more, you are a new creation in Christ.

9. The new testament calls you; • A saint • A holy one • A son of God • In the core of your being you are a good man • The war waging in us is a civil war, not between us and God, but between the traitor within us and our true heart fighting alongside the Spirit of God in us. • Romans 8:2-3, 9-11 • The real you is on the side of God against the false self. Why is it important that we understand this?

10. Because the man who believes his heart is nothing but sin cannot have the will to fight • How do we win this battle against the traitor within, your flesh, the false self, the poser, this model of cowardice and self-preservation? • To crucify it • Not your heart, or the true man within us. Not getting rid of the desires for battle and adventure and beauty, but to shoot the traitor. • But how? • Choose against him every time you see him raise his ugly head…

11. Walk right into those situations you normally run from. Speak right to those issues you normally remain silent over. • If you want to grow in true masculine strength, then you must stop sabotaging it.

12. Sabotage 146 • Rich’s story • He deliberately chose to push down his true strength and live the false self. • If you do that enough you won’t believe you have any strength. • John’s boss story • Sabotage happens when we give our strength away.

13. Masturbation is sabotage, it is a selfish act that tears you down, so does sexual involvement with a woman you are not married to. • Carl’s story 146-147 • “A Man must strive long and mighty within himself, before he can learn fully to master himself” Kempis

14. The Real Thing 147 • When you start choosing to live out of your strength you will discover that it grows each time. • Rich’s story revisited • Begin to taste your true strength and you will want more. • Something in the center of your chest feels weighty and substantial. • We must be willing to let our strength show up, many of us are unnerved by our own masculinity.

15. Gordon Dalby story • John’s dream • Our strength is wild and fierce, and we are nore than unsettled by what may happen if we let it arrive. • A man’s addictions are the result of his refusing his strength. • “let people feel the weight of who you are, and let them deal with it” Brent Curtis

16. The World 149 • What is the world? • It is not a place or a set of behaviors. • It is any system built by our collective sin, all of our false selves coming together to reward and destroy each other. • The world is an carnival of couterfiets; • Counterfeit battles • Counterfeit adventures • Counterfeit beauties • Battle your way to the top and you are a man says the world

17. If this was true then why is it many of these men are often the emptiest, most frightened, prideful posers around? • Counterfeit adventures-inappropriateness with hobbies. • Counterfeit beauties- golden haired woman- porn • The world offers a man a false sense of power and a false sense of security. • Where does your false sense of power come from? • How pretty your wife is? • How many people attend your church? • Your your knowledge/Degree? • Your position or title?

18. What happens inside when I suggest you give it up? • What would happen if tomorrow you lost everything the world has rewarded you for? • Where am I deriving my strength from? Ask this of yourself often. • Jesus warns us about anything that gives a sense of false power. • When you walk into a a church function, He said, take the backseat, chose a path of humility, don’t be a self-promoter, a glad hander, a poser. • Climb down the ladder and look to be the servant of all

19. If you want to know what the world really feels about you, just start living out of your true strength. • Say what you think • Standup for the underdog • Challenge foolish politics or policies • The world will turn on you like sharks • Jerry McGuire clip? • Pastor confrontation story • The world of posers is shaken by a real man.

20. They will do what ever it takes to get you back in line • Threaten you • Seduce you • Undermine you • They crucified Jesus for it • But it did not work, did it? • Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and the sheer force of His presence. • Let the people feel the weight of who you are and let them deal with it.

21. The Devil 151 • John’s soccer game story 151 • Change the characters and the setting and the very same thing has happened to you. Only you thought the whole thing was your own mess. • I am sure the devil has a place in your theology but what about in the daily events of your lives? • Has it ever crossed your mind that not every thought that has crossed your mind comes from you? • We are being lied to all the time

22. We never stop and think • Who else is speaking here? • Where are those ideas coming from? • Where are those feelings coming from? • Saints before us took the enemy seriously shouldn’t we? • “We are not aware of his schemes” 2nd Corinthians 2:11 • Chaldeans Job 1:12-17 • Woman Luke 13:16 • Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5:3

23. We see it clearly in scripture Satan’s ways and his heart towards us but do we think of him… • When there is a terrorist act? • When we have a headache that keeps us from praying or studying scripture? • Or in a fallout in a ministry or trouble in the church? • Who was behind the brutal assault on your strength and those wounds you have taken? • “It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell, it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons” William Gurnall • There is a whole lot more going on behind the scenes of our lives than most of us have been led to believe.

24. Christmas story revisited Revelation 12 153-154 • Philip Yancy on Christmas 154 • Spiritually speaking this is no silent night. It is D-Day • “As a Christian I believe we live in paralell worlds. One world consists of hills and lakes and barns, and politians and shepherds watching their flocks at night. • The other consists of angels and siinister forces and the whole spiritual realm” • Christmas story continued 155 Revelations 12:17 • Behind the world and the flesh is our deadliest enemy that we ignore and do not recognize

25. We live right now on the front lines of a fierce spiritual war that is to blame for the casualties you see around you and most of the assault against you. • Matrix movie clip • Yes, Luke there is a dragon. • Here is how you slay him… • Chapter 9 A Battle to fight: the strategy