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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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Welcome back to the Daily Blade. This is our fourth day in a deep dive on John, chapter 11. And men, we need to talk about this one emotions. Kyle's talked about this a lot. I talk about this a lot and I think most men, and even some really smart ones, are way off on how men ought to handle their emotions. We'll pick it up in verse 28.

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And the Bible says this when she said this, she went. That's Martha. Martha went and called her sister, mary, saying in private the teacher is here and is calling for you. And when Mary heard it, she rose quickly and she went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. And when the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. This is what I told you earlier in the week. This would be like the crowd of people that would go and mourn with the person who had lost somebody they love Verse 32.

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Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet. All right, this was not a polite bow at his feet. All right, this was not a polite bow. She falls down on her feet at what? She falls off of her feet onto her face, at the feet of Jesus, and she says to him it's more like she cries out to him Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved the word is splagizomai moved from the gut and his spirit was greatly troubled. And Jesus said where have you laid him? And they said to Jesus Lord, come and see. And then you get John 11, 35, the shortest verse in the whole Bible, and Jesus wept Now. 35, the shortest verse in the whole Bible, and Jesus wept. Now. This actually means like snort, like it's kind of an angry cry kind of thing, but Jesus wept.

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Jesus displays the appropriate emotion in this very, very sad scene where Mary and Martha have loved their brother that not only they love deeply, but Jesus also loved. And so the Jews said see how he loved him. But some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? All right, let's talk about emotions. A lot of men aren't good at emotions, but I need you to know that emotions are a gift from God. Emotions make a terrible God, but they help us navigate this life that God has called us to live in that if you look at Ecclesiastes 3, there is a list of all kinds of emotion. It says that there is a time or a season for everything under heaven. There's a time to laugh, there's a time to cry, there's a time to sing, there's a time to mourn, there's a time to live, there's a time to die, there's a time to dance and there's a time to cease from dancing. And what I have noticed in my 32 years of ministry is that when people go through sad times and don't allow themselves the appropriate expression of that emotion and they don't allow themselves to cry when it's time to cry, then they don't have the ability to laugh when it's time to laugh.

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Listen, I don't know who made this up. Like if you go to a funeral and somebody says you know what? You got to be strong, and someone equated withholding emotion to strength. That is not what strength is. Jesus is the strongest man who has ever lived and he cried. Listen, jordan Peterson is wrong about this. I don't know if he was just off that day, but with being the one person at your dad's funeral that doesn't cry, that doesn't equal strength. Now you do need to be the anchor, you need to take responsibility. You can be the rock, but I hope that you were strong enough to cry. I hope that you can be strong and be a man and cry. I cry, I cried this week. I was praying for one of our elders who has a grandchild with some severe physical needs, who was just born, and we wept and wept as we prayed for that child. And I know I'm not weak.

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You see, what Jesus is going to do initially. He's initially going to sympathize with Mary before he ever tries to solve the problem, and this is something that we can often do. You see, oftentimes, when we are ministering to people who are in great need, we're always trying to look for the right words and, honestly, sometimes words won't help people. Sometimes you just need to sit with them for a while, put your arm around them and cry with them. This is what Jesus does. You see, the name of God is I am, that I am that god is the eternal present, and what I want you to know is that god is eternally present with you in every situation that you are in, even though he knows the end and the outcome. I mean, think about this.

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The bible says god weeps with those who weep. And even though jesus knows that in just a few sentences he's going to bring lazarus out of the grave that's what we're going to talk about tomorrow even though he knows what in 30 minutes, 45 minutes the Bible doesn't say how long that this thing is going to end in a party, but in that moment he knows that what he wants to do, the incarnate Christ is going to put his arm around Mary and just weep with those who weep. So don't feel the pressure to say something awesome. When you're ministering to someone in pain, you just put your arm around them, say I know, I love you. And when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, just know that we serve the kind of God that sends his son, the kind of God that gets dirty and that weeps with those who weeps. So, men, I dare you be strong enough to weep with those who weeps. So, men, I dare you be strong enough to weep with those who weep.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.