Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' 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.

All right, welcome to day three of this deep dive in Genesis chapter three, when we try to understand what went wrong with man himself. All right, in the context here, again, by the time you get to chapter 3, verse 6, what's happened so far in the Bible is that God creates all is good. The devil comes in to corrupt, and the devil is talking to Eve, Adam's wife. And what is Adam doing? And the answer is nothing. Genesis chapter 3, verse 6, the Bible says, So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, again, that's the lust of the flesh, and that it was a delight to the eyes, that's lust of the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, that's called the pride of life. We talked about those three yesterday. She took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. This is the most damning preposition on manhood in all of the Bible. That literally in Hebrew, that phrase with her means elbow to elbow. You see, the problem with manhood from the very beginning is not necessarily that Adam did something wrong. The problem with manhood is Adam didn't do anything at all. He did nothing. He abdicated his responsibility that God had created him as the man, the head, the provider, the protector. And yet here is a serpent, a snake, the devil of hell, talking to his wife. And he just does nothing. Fellas, I mean, jot this down if you need to. But if you see a snake trying to trick your wife, you don't just stand there and do nothing. You stomp the head of the serpent until it is dead. Listen, boys, we need you to get into the game. A very famous quote means a lot to me. We did an entire series here at 1122 about fights of the Bible called In the Arena, and it's by Theodore Roosevelt. The quote is this: it is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs but comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Gentlemen, one of the things we see here from Adam, who does this poorly, is that we need to get in the game. Do not abdicate your responsibility. As a Christian, get in the game. Are you a part of the Great Commission? Are you pushing back darkness? Are you praying like the world depends on it because it does? Are you sharing your faith with people that are lost and far from God because they need to hear the gospel? As a dad, are you in the game? Don't let your whiny kids beat you down. You have to fight for their little hearts. You see, this world wants to steal, kill, and destroy them. You cannot abdicate your responsibility. As a husband, fellas, you got to get in the game. You've got to pursue the wife of your youth. You've got to pursue her heart. You got to chase after her. As a citizen, you don't get to just tap out, sit on your couch, and yell at your cable news network while you're not doing anything about it. Get in the game and do something. You see, David's tragic downfall in the Old Testament. Everything's going great. David is known as a man after God's own heart. And then what happens? The Bible says when in the springtime, it was time for the kings to go to war, David sat on his couch. He abdicated his responsibility, and the next thing you know, he is an adulterer and a murderer because one lazy step leads to one evil step. Fellas, get in the game. I'm going to give you one very practical way that you cannot abdicate your responsibility for your wife and your kids. I want you, I've said this before, to start praying out loud over your wife every day and praying over your kids out loud every day. You pray against the devil of hell. When those little whispers start creeping into their precious little ears, I want them to know that they have a husband and they have a dad who doesn't stand by when the enemy is trying to whisper lies to them, but by prayer and supplication, he is stomping the head of the enemy in prayer. Fellas, get in the arena.

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.