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Men, Be Relentless in Everything You Do · Sacred Men

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What's up, man? Here's a question I've been
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thinking a lot about. When did Christian men come to
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believe that being faithful and forceful were two different
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categories? When did we decide that being a
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godly man at your job meant being a nice one?
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Polite, pleasant, passive. The guy who never makes waves.
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The guy who shows up, just does what's asked, goes home and
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calls that righteousness because no one complained.
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Brothers, today I want to push back on that really hard.
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Here's the reality. You should be a problem.
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A good problem, but a problem all the same.
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You should be a hard charger. You should be a freaking force
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to be reckoned with because Scripture doesn't put weak and
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soft men on the highlight reel. The Bible puts men like Nehemiah
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on the highlight reel. The Bible puts men like Paul on
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the highlight reel. A man who said I worked harder
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than any of them. And then in the same breath he
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said, though it wasn't I, but it was the grace of God with me.
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And of course, the Bible puts Jesus on the highlight reel.
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And Jesus was a man who caused a ruckus wherever he went and
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eventually sweat drops of blood for us.
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That's the man we're going after today.
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Not a softer version of you, a sacred version of you.
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A man who is relentless for the right reasons, by the right
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power towards the right ends. Well, let's get into it.
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Well, welcome back to Sacred Men.
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I'm Pastor Justin Dean from Sacred City Church.
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And this is the show where you want to encourage, teach, and
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train strong Christian men to be virtuous in a weak and
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effeminate culture. Today's episode is about being
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relentless men, and I think this is going to be a good one.
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I'm pretty stoked about it. I I love how God pulls
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influences together. In the last week, I've been
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reading through the book of Acts and my morning devotions, and
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I've been taking my junior high students at New City Classical
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Academy through the book of Nehemiah in the afternoon.
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Then a buddy recommended a book called Relentless to Me by Tim
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Grover. If you don't know this book,
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many of you probably read it, some of you haven't.
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I don't read this kind of book anymore, but he he recommended
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to me, I picked it up. It's an easy read, a quick read.
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Grover was the trainer who worked with Michael Jordan, Kobe
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Bryant and Dwyane Wade. And it's all about basically the
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mentality of the best of the best, what he calls cleaners,
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the mentality of relentless men. And of course, this is not a
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Christian book, so you got to chew the meat and spit out the
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bones. But all three of these books,
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all three of these influences have came together to kind of
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form my thoughts around this podcast because they're all
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about being relentless in our vocation.
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So by the end of the podcast, I want you to walk away with 1
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clear conviction in your chest. The man who follows Jesus has
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more reason than anyone alive to be relentless in his vocation.
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Not less, more. All right, so listen, I don't
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know what you're doing. Grab your coffee, grab your
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energy drink, whatever you're doing, and let's get after it.
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So the first thing I want to do is I want to start with a
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diagnosis. Because before we talk about
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being relentless, we need to talk about why we aren't.
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Here's what I see in the church. I see a generation of Christian
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men who have confused rest with retreat, who have confused
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contentment with complacency, who have confused humility with
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mediocrity. And we've built kind of a whole
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vocabulary around it. We say things like, I'm just
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trying to be faithful. And what we really mean is I'm
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trying really hard not to get fired.
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I just want to fly under the radar.
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I just want to be a cog in the machine, take my get my
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paycheck, go home. We say things like I don't want
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to make an idol out of my work. And what we really mean is I
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don't want to have to work 60 hours a week.
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We say I want to prior prioritize my family.
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And what we really mean is I'm going to clock out at 4:59 and
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resent every man around me who's still grinding because clearly
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he has his priorities wrong. Listen, there is a time for
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rest. There's there's a time to go
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home early to be with your family.
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There's a time to take a vacation.
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There really is. And we're going to get there by
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the end of the podcast. But somewhere along the way, the
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Christian man started believing that the goal of the gospel was
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to make him easier to manage, quieter, smaller, less.
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I know I've thought these things in the past.
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Here's the problem with that. The Holy Spirit does not make
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men more insignificant or easier to control.
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Just the opposite. When we bow our knee to Christ,
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when we fear Him above anyone else, we begin to live under His
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control. But he makes us more passionate
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for truth, more relentless to do good, more desirous of truly
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beautiful things in this world. And that makes us a problem,
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right? That makes us a real danger to
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those who live by lies, to those who deal and half truths and
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political sophistry, who want to do evil things and destroy that
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which is beautiful. See, the Spirit of God did not
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raise Jesus from the dead. So you could be a nice guy ruled
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by morons. He raised Jesus from the dead
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and put that same spirit in you so you could bow your knee to
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him and then you could put your hand to the plow that he set in
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front of you and never look back or let anything stop you as you
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pursue his calling on your life. So if you've been telling
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yourself that the Christian life is mostly about playing it safe
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and keeping things tidy, I'm here to tell you that's bull
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crap. That's a counterfeit
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Christianity. That's a domesticated
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discipleship, and it's killing your manhood and it's killing
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your vocation. Now, before we get any further,
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I want to define my terms real quick because we've already
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covered this in previous podcast.
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What do I mean by vocation? Vocation comes from a Latin
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word, vocatio. It means Our Calling, a
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summoning from God. It's the voice of God, assigning
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you through his Providence to a place, a role, a piece of work
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in his world. Vocation is not the same thing
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as your job, though. Your job is a part of your
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vocation. Your job might pay you, but your
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vocation is what God has entrusted to you, right?
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So it's it's if you're a husband, it's part of that is
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being a husband, being a father, your workplace, a Christian man
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as a part of a church. All of that is part of your
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vocation. But every Christian man has a
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vocation and every Christian man is accountable for what he does
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with it. We're accountable to God to how
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we man that post that God's put us at.
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OK, so diagnosis on the table, vocation defined.
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Let's get into the word and see some relentless men.
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I told you in the cold open that the Bible has its own highlight
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reel of relentless men. And we aren't going to leave
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today without watching at least two of those clips.
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We're just going to take a a snippet of these two men.
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The 1st is Nehemiah, one of my favorite dudes in the Bible.
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And if you don't know who Nehemiah was, Nehemiah was the
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cupbearer to the king of Persia in the 5th century BC.
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He was a Jew in exile. He was working in the palace of
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Artaxerxes, who I think is also Darius.
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And in chapter 1, his brother walks in from Jerusalem and
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tells him the wall of the holy city is torn down, It's rubble.
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The gates are burned with fire. The city isn't in a bad state,
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right? So the covenant city, the city
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where God's presence literally dwelled and the temple, all of
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that is destroyed, all of that is in ruin, right?
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So what we, the, the, the chapter begins with Nehemiah
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getting bad news, right? Getting bad news.
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But watch what Nehemiah does here, right?
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He doesn't freak out, he doesn't get angry, nor does he shrug his
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shoulders and say, what does it have to do to me?
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You know, I'm, I'm out here, I'm not in, that's not my city.
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I'm not there anymore, right? The text says what he does when
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he gets his bad news. He sits down, he weeps, he
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mourns, he fasts, and then he prays before the God of heaven.
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And he does this for several days.
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Now, what's going on here? This is God putting a burden on
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his back, OK? This is God calling Nehemiah to
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a new vocation, a different vocation, right?
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And brothers, this is where this is like the first move of the
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relentless Christian man. Before Nehemiah makes a plan,
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before he lifts a stone, before he leads leaders, he draws near
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to God. That's the first thing he does.
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Your relentlessness better start on your knees or you're going to
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end up on your back, right? We want to throw ourselves into
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whatever it is that God has called us to, but we cannot take
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on every burden. We can't change the whole world.
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If we try, we'll burn out for sure.
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So the first thing a relentless man does is we pray, we seek
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God, we find clarity, and then once we find that clarity, we
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pursue that purpose with relentlessness and intensity.
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So the next thing he does, he gets up, he approaches the king,
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which is a risky move. He could be killed for this.
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You can't look sad in the King's presence.
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And he does. But Nehemiah here has already
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counted the cost. He says, if I die, I die.
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I'm going before the king. God's placed this burden on me
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and if I die, I die. I'm going to go before him and
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and I'm going to put this vision that God's placed in my heart.
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I'm going to put this before the king and see how the king
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responds to it. So what does he do?
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Nehemiah makes bold requests. He asks for time off.
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He asks for letters of safe passage.
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He asks for timber from the King's forest.
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He asked for the king to pay for this thing.
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And the king does it all. Why?
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Well, Nehemiah tells us. Why?
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Because he keeps saying this over and over through the book.
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He says, because the good hand of my God was upon me, God's put
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this burden on me. God's favor is with me.
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I've sought his favor. I've sought his pleasure, I've
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sought his will. And now the wind at my back is
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God's pleasure, right? So what does he do?
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Grabs his people. He goes to Jerusalem.
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And this is interesting. He doesn't show up with a lot of
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fanfare. He doesn't announce himself.
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He waits three days, then at night, but by himself, but
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really with a couple other dudes, he he rides around and he
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surveys the walls. He's counting the gaps in the
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walls. He's measuring how broken it is.
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He's thinking about how long this is going to take us to do.
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How many men do I need? What's the best way?
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So he what basically what he's doing, he's he's creating a
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plan, right? He's creating a plan.
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And then he stands up before the leaders of the city and he says,
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men come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no
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longer suffer derision. So now he's he's casting this
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compelling vision. He's recruiting men to come help
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him. And what happens next is one of
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the most relentless construction projects in history.
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Now, no construction project happens without obstacles.
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We're not who if you're, if you're building a sandcastle,
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nothing. You know, it's not going to take
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a lot. There's not going to be a lot of
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difficulty there. But if you're building something
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that matters, if you're doing work that matters, you're going
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to face opposition, you're going to face roadblocks.
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It's not going to be smooth sailing.
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Think about Michael Jordan winning 6 championships.
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Think about the flu game. There's always stuff that's
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going to come up and make things difficult for you.
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So what happens here is Nehemiah starts this construction project
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and immediately opposition arises.
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He's got haters who want to stop him.
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Sambalat mocks him, Tobiah mocks him, Geshem mocks him.
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They start saying who's going to restore this wall?
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Who's going to build it? Even if they build it, a fox can
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go up on it and break down the wall.
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See, that's that's all like chapter 4.
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The relentless man gets mocked. The relentless man needs to
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expect opposition and keep going.
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Well, they ratchet up their attack and that mockery begins
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to turn into threats. They start plotting to attack
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him. They start plotting to destroy
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him. So what does Nehemiah do?
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This is man, if you're pushing, if you, if you've got a calling
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from God and you're pushing forward, there are going to be
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people that want to stop you. There are going to be the enemy
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wants to stop you, people don't like you, want to stop you.
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People that are jealous of you are going to try to stop you.
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And many people, when they hit that obstacle, they just give
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up. Right now there's a roadblock.
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Maybe it's not God's will. Well, that's not what Nehemiah
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does. Nehemiah, when he hears all
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these attacks and he hears all these stuff going on, he plans
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for it. He posts armed guards around the
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workers, and then he tells the workers that he wants them to
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build with one hand and hold a weapon with another hand.
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Brothers, that's a sacred men image right there.
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A trowel in one hand to build and a sword in the other to
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defend. Building and defending at the
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same time. That's what vocation looks like
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in a fallen world. Like we're not going to stop
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just because we have opposition. Mocking's not going to stop us.
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Threats aren't going to stop us. And by the end of the book,
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Nehemiah, literally, he threatens to put hands on
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people. That's his.
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That's literally the scripture. And then he does it.
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He actually gets into fights. He has to fight people who are
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trying to stop what God is doing.
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That is relentlessness. Then they try to distract him.
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Mocking didn't work. Opposition didn't work.
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So now they try to distract him and they send four different
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messages saying Nehemiah, come down off the wall and have a
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meeting with us. Let's talk about this.
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And Nehemiah sends back and you got to memorize this verse, man,
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Nehemiah chapter 6, verse three, he says, I am doing a great work
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and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I
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leave it and come down to you? That's the verse of a relentless
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man. I am doing a great work and I
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cannot come down. In other words, I am on mission
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from God. I have a vocation.
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I have a calling in this world. I know what it is and I'm
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pursuing it with relentlessness. And I'm not going to come down
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to have some pointless meeting with you.
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See, when the world wants to pull you off your post, to pull
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you off your wall, when the distractions and the meetings
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and the noise and the algorithms and the small drama want to pull
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you off the wall that God has called you to build, you say
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what Nehemiah said. I am doing a great work and I
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cannot come down. You don't come down for fear.
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You don't come down for flattery.
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You don't come down for anything.
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You stay at your post, you stay on the wall.
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And the text says that the wall went up in 52 days.
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So they, they, they accomplished this crazy construction project
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in 52 days. And when their enemies heard of
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it, they were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for
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they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the
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help of our God. See, that's the goal, brothers.
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Relentless men doing relentless work that makes the watching
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world say only God could have done that.
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So that's Nehemiah. He's a dude.
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And now Paul, if Nehemiah is the relentless man on the wall, Paul
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is the relentless man on the road.
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This man could not be stopped. 2nd Corinthians 11 Listen what
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it says here. This is from Paul.
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Five times I received at the hand of the Jews the 40 lashes.
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Less. 1/5 times he had been beaten with 39 lashes.
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Dude beat to an inch of his life. 5 * 3 times I was beaten
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with rods. Once I was stoned.
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And of course this means they threw rocks at him, right?
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Didn't get high here, right? Once I was stoned.
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Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day.
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I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys and danger from rivers,
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danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from
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Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger
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at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship,
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through many a sleepless night. In hunger and thirst, often
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without food, in cold and exposure.
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That is relentlessness. You study the book of Acts.
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Nothing could stop Paul. Look at all this stuff.
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Look at how they tried to stop him.
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Nothing could stop him. He would come in, he would
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preach to a city. A riot would happen.
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He would shake the dust off of his feet.
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He'd go to the next town, Right? Brothers?
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I want you to read that text to yourself out loud this week and
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then look at the things you call hard.
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Look at the things you call roadblocks.
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Look at the things you say are stopping you from pursuing the
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vocation with this kind of intensity and relentlessness.
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Relentlessness. Look at the season that you call
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brutal, right? Look at the week that you say
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almost broke you. Then read Paul's resume again
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and remember that the man who wrote most this man who wrote
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most of his letters from prison, right?
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Nothing could stop him. He wrote about the joy of Christ
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from prison. How, how, how does a man do
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that? Well, in first Corinthians 15
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verse 10, this is what Paul says.
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By the grace of God, I am what I am.
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And his grace toward me was not in vain.
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On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was
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not I, but the grace of God that is with with me.
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See, Paul's relentlessness was fueled by the grace of God.
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That's the engine brothers, he says.
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I worked harder than any of them.
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I was relentless. Though it was not I, but the
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grace of God within me. See, Paul refuses to believe 2
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lies in the same breath here. He refuses the lie that says I'm
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just a passive victim. I just sit here and let God do
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it. And he also refuses the lie that
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says I'm a self-made man. I did it all myself.
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I did it all through grit he says.
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So we're not talking about a David Goggins style
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relentlessness here. We're not talking about a
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Michael Jordan style relentlessness here.
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Now, those are all great. They can, they can help you be
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mentally strong. But we're talking about
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something supernatural, right? He's saying I was relentless
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because I was a recipient of the grace of God.
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By the grace of God, I am what I am.
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By the grace of God, I'm relentless.
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That's the Christian paradox. It's the only paradox that
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produces both a relentless man, but without producing a monster.
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Like you watch documentaries on Michael Jordan.
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You, you, you, you listen to David Goggins.
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Those guys are monsters. They, they, they've done
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outstanding thing and they're also impossible to live with.
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They've also got a trail of broken relationships around
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them. They, they, they're not loved by
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those closest to them. See, only the the only the grace
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of God can make us relentless without turning us into a
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monster. And then in Philippians 3, Paul
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beat down in jail again, says this, Forgetting what lies
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behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
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I pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of
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God in Christ Jesus. Paul here, after going through
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everything he's going through, he's still straining forward,
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right? He refuses to coast.
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He's not retiring, he's not phoning it in.
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He's still straining. He's still moving forward with
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relentlessness. And then finally, in Second
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Timothy 4, Paul's last letter, when the chains are around him,
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the cell is cold and honestly, the executioner is sharpening
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the sword. He says this.
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I fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
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I have kept the faith, brothers. That's one sentence that I once
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spoken over my casket. He fought the good fight, he
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finished the race. He kept the faith.
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That should be the Christian man's epitaph.
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That's what we're aiming for. So look at these two men
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together. Nehemiah on the wall, Paul on
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the road. 1A Layman, one, an apostle, one in the 5th century
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BC, one in the 1st century, 80, one holding a trowel and a
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sword, one holding a pen. Same spirit, same engine, same
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relentlessness. The God who made Nehemiah
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unmovable is the God who made Paul unstoppable.
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And brothers, that is the God who lives in you.
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You think you don't have it. You think you don't have it in
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you to be that kind of man. That's not my personality.
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Well, you're right. It's none of our personalities.
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We don't have that in US, but the Spirit who raised Christ
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from the dead has it in him. And he, if you're in Christ,
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lives in you. So when the world tries to get
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you off your mission, when the noise tries to drag you off the
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wall that God put you on, you say what?
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Nehemiah said. I'm doing a great work and I
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cannot come down. When someone says, why are you
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so relentless? You don't say I'm just mentally
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tough, I'm just a bad man, a jammer.
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Now you say by the grace of God, I am what I am.
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His grace is the engine for my relentlessness.
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Then we get to Colossians 3 verse 23 and 24, and Paul says
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this. Whatever you do, work heartily.
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Ask for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord
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you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
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You are serving the Lord Christ. I want you to notice three
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things from this really quick. Number 1, He says whatever you
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do, he's not dividing the world into sacred work and secular
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work. He doesn't say if you're in
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vocational ministry, work hard. The rest of you take it easy.
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He says whatever you do, the Carpenter, the accountant, the
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truck driver, the dad coaching Little League, the student
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grinding through finals, whatever you do, it's all meant
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to be done unto the Lord. Second, work heartily with a
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full heart, with all your soul. The Greek word there is psyches
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out of the soul, not out of obligation, not out of guilt,
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not out of your fear of getting in trouble, but out of the
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deepest part of who you are, where the Holy Spirit lives.
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Brothers, this is where we work from.
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Now, when's the last time you brought your whole soul to a
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Tuesday morning meeting? When was the last time you
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brought your whole soul on the job site with you?
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And you're going to. I'm doing this for the Lord.
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That's the third one. As for the Lord and not for men,
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that's where Paul kind of levels the whole thing.
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He says basically what he's saying is your boss is not your
25:40
real boss. Your client is not your real
25:44
client. Your inspection is not your real
25:48
inspection. Your review is not your real
25:50
review. Actually, there is one ultimate
25:54
audience. There is one ultimate master and
25:59
that's Jesus, and he's not just looking at what you produce, but
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he's looking at how you produce it, how you do it, the effort
26:08
you put into it. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 9
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verse 10, he says whatever your hand finds to do, do it with
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your might, do it with all your might, for there is no work or
26:21
thought or knowledge or wisdom and she'll to which you are
26:24
going. I want you to hear that Solomon
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writes that with urgency, an urgency that most Christian men
26:33
that I know don't feel. He says do it with your might
26:37
because you're going to die. That's the logic.
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The grave is coming. You don't get this Tuesday back.
26:45
You don't get this Sunday back. You don't get this quarterback.
26:48
You don't get these years with your kids in the house back.
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So whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.
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Proverbs 2229. Do you see a man skillful in his
27:01
work? He will stand before kings.
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He will not stand before obscure men.
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God built the universe. So that skill with relentless
27:11
labor, right and and blessed by faithfulness typically gets a
27:19
hearing, right? That's not a prosperity gospel,
27:23
that's just Proverbs. If you are relentless in your
27:26
work and you're good at your work and you're faithful to God,
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he's going to put you before people that can promote you.
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That's a proverb. And Paul says again, First
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Corinthians 9, do you not know that in a race all the runners
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run but only one receives the prize?
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So run that you may obtain it. Notice this.
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He's not saying just be a runner, he's saying win the
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freaking race. Be the fastest guy.
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It says every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
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They do it to to receive a perishable wreath.
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But we an imperishable so and we we we're doing this for eternal
28:04
rewards. So I do not run aimlessly.
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I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body
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and keep it under control unless after preaching to others, I
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myself should be disqualified. He's relentless for a purpose,
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an eternal purpose. Brothers, that's not the
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language of a man who's trying to maximize his time off, who's
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trying to clock out at 4:59. That's the language of a man on
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a mission so total that he'd rather collapse and die than
28:38
coast. Paul is training here.
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He's training for heaven. He's disciplining his body.
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He's running for the prize and he wasn't doing this to earn his
28:52
salvation. He was doing this because of his
28:55
salvation. He wasn't running to be loved or
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running to be accepted or running to be forgiven.
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He was running because he was loved, he was forgiven, and he
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was accepted by God. You see the difference?
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See David Goggins and these guys and Grover, these guys say be
29:11
relentless so you can become someone, right?
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The gospel says because Christ has made you someone in him.
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Now you can be relentless for him.
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You're not striving from a deficit.
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You're actually striving from a fullness that God provides.
29:30
See, that's the engine. That's the engine that doesn't
29:34
eventually burn a man up. Hebrews 12/1 and two says this.
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Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so
29:43
closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set
29:47
before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our
29:51
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
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cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of
29:59
the throne of God. See.
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Look at what Jesus did here for the joy that was set before him.
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He was relentless. The cross did not stop him.
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The mockery did not move him. The grave itself did not contain
30:11
him. He had his face set.
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He had his mission set, and he went all the way through it
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because he loved his Father and he loved us.
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The most relentless man, whoever walked this dirt was the Lord
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Jesus Christ. And he's the one we follow.
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He's the one whose spirit is now in us.
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So when somebody tells you that being a godly man means being
30:37
soft, quote them. Hebrews 12, Remind them of
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Nehemiah, Remind them of the apostle Paul.
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That's our model. I'm reminded of Abraham Kuyper.
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He was a Dutch Reformed minister in late 1800s.
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He he was actually the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and
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he was a theologian. And he gives us this quote.
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He says there is not a square inch.
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And the whole domain of human existence, over which Christ,
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who is sovereign over all, does not cry.
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Mine hear that? Every square inch, Christ says,
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is mine. Well, your home is an inch.
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Your office is an inch, Your work site is an inch.
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Your cubicle is an inch, your delivery route, your patient
31:33
charts, your sermon notes, your sales calls, your line of code,
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your shop floor. Every square inch belongs to
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King Jesus, and every square inch is a place where you can
31:44
plant the flag of His Lordship by how you work.
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So let me let me bring all this together.
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Here's what I want you to leave with #1 your vocation is sacred.
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Whatever it is, if it's lawful and you're called to it, it's a
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post, a sentry post assigned to you by God.
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There is no, you know, Tuesday. You just go to your job.
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No, you go to a sanctuary where you serve the Lord Christ.
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Treat it like that. Walk in tomorrow, like Nehemiah.
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This is your wall, right? This is your wall.
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And you know whose name is on the building because Jesus owns
32:30
it all #2 half effort is a theological problem, not just a
32:37
personality trait. When you give half effort, when
32:41
you back down, when you hit a roadblock, you are saying with
32:45
your hands what you would never say with your mouth, that the
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God who bought me with his blood isn't worth everything.
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I've got brothers. That's not humility, that's not
32:59
balance, that's betrayal. The Christian man does not half
33:05
ass his calling #3 relentlessness without the
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gospel is a furnace that eventually consumes the man.
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I've seen many men, even Christian men I love, burn
33:21
themselves to the ground trying to be relentless in their own
33:24
strength, whether that's performing for a father who
33:29
already loves them or trying to earn what's already been given
33:32
to them, Trying to prove what is already been proven by the cross
33:37
brothers, If your relentlessness is fueled by fear of being
33:41
insufficient, you're gonna you're running on the wrong
33:44
fuel, and your engine's eventually going to explode.
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The only fuel that makes a man relentless without destroying
33:52
him is the finished work of Christ applied by the Holy
33:55
Spirit to a man who already knows he's loved and accepted by
33:59
God. Grover can't give you that that
34:03
fuel. David Goggins can't give you
34:05
that fuel. Michael Jordan can't give you
34:07
that fuel. Only the cross can #4 Sabbath is
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part of being relentless. Now.
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I told you we'd come back to rest.
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Listen, the man who never rests is not relentless.
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He's brittle. He's probably running on
34:27
adrenaline and caffeine and pride, and he is really one bad
34:31
week away from destroying it all.
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The Christian man obeys God and rests hard right?
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We work 6 days and we rest on the Sabbath.
34:44
We rest on Sunday. We join with the Saints at
34:48
church. We get on our knees and confess
34:51
our sin. We listen to the sermons and and
34:54
receive from the word of God. We enjoy and take and benefit
34:59
from the sacraments. We've got our Bible open, right?
35:02
We got our phone off. We got our family by our side.
35:05
And we do this because we intend to leave this place when we're
35:10
sent out of this place. We intend to leave this place
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and work our butts off for sick for the next 6 days, right?
35:18
Sunday is meant to be the recharging station for the
35:23
relentless man. If you skip it, you're
35:27
sabotaging the very thing that you say you want.
35:30
You can't be relentless without being.
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You can't be relentless in the Christian way, without Sabbath
35:38
thing, without resting, without worshipping #5 and the last one.
35:45
Your relentlessness is meant to be for someone else.
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Your relentlessness is meant to serve your wife, your kids, your
35:56
church, your neighbors, the widow down the street, your
36:02
boss, the new guy at work who's drowning.
36:06
The Christian man is not driven by pride.
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He's not relentless for his own resume.
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He's relentless because his love is a real active love that does
36:19
not coast. Look at your wife and ask what
36:23
does it mean to be relentless for her this week?
36:29
Look at your kids and ask what does it mean to be relentless
36:33
for them this season? Look at your church and ask what
36:37
does it mean to be relentless for her this season?
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That's the question. Not how do I become a relentless
36:44
man, but who needs me to be relentless for them in Jesus
36:49
name. That, brothers, is a sacred
36:52
relentlessness. And that's what we're after.
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I'm going to end this one a little differently.
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I want to pray for us, OK, I'm going to pray for us.
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Let me pray. Let me pray right now.
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Father, we come to you in the name of your Son Jesus, the most
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relentless man, whoever walked this earth, the man who set his
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face towards Jerusalem and did not flinch, the man who endured
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the cross for the joy that was set before him.
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And part of the joy that was set before him was us, was these
37:24
men, was these brothers. Listening right now, Father, we
37:28
confess that we have often settled for less.
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We have called it humility when it was really just cowardice.
37:38
We've called it balance when it was really just laziness.
37:42
We've called it boundaries when it was really just self
37:45
protection and comfort. Forgive us Lord, forgive us,
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Lord, give us grace. And Lord, by your spirit would
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you raise up a generation of Christian men who refuse to
37:59
coast? Make us relentless, Lord.
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Men who work heartily As for the Lord and not for men.
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Men who treat every square inch of their vocation as yours.
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Men who run the race set before them with endurance, looking to
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Jesus. Make us relentless, Father, not
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for our names, but for yours. Not from fear or insecurity, but
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from joy. Not in our own strength, but in
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the strength of Christ in us. For your glory.
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Lord, we ask all of this in Jesus name, Amen.
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Well brothers, this was a blessing to you.
38:41
I pray that you would share it with another brother you would
38:44
like us. You would subscribe.
38:46
Channel's growing. I appreciate it.
38:48
We've had some technical difficulties in the last few
38:50
weeks, but I am grinding and trying to put out at least one
38:52
of these a week. So I will see you next week on
38:56
sacred men. Until then, get after it and go
38:59
act like men.