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.

Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Daily Blade, and I am here to disappoint you as your guest host. This is uh my name is Josh Howerton, and I am uh a friend of Pastor Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson and an occasional Daily Blade listener. And so it is my incredible honor to hop in with you and begin our time in the Word every day for the next five days. Um, let me explain um what we're gonna do for the next five days is uh Pastor Joby and uh Kyle, they asked me to talk about manhood and speak to men. And so we're gonna spend the next five days deep diving on one verse that has become a theme verse for my life since it captured me many years ago. Now, let me lead into it because we got some specific callings that come out of this. Uh, but let me lead into it like this. I want to give you a warning. Um, I think listeners to this podcast are gonna be okay with this, but I'm about to say a few things that are not politically correct, but they are biblically correct. And very frankly, I'm assuming that's why you're here. Um, if you wanted to hear politically correct, you'd stay home and watch the morning news. You open up this podcast because you want to hear what's biblically correct. So here's what we need to understand before we read this verse because it is specifically addressed to men. What the Bible teaches and what society proves is that where men step into their callings, things flourish. And where men refuse to do that, things burn. And when I say things, I mean everything. Um, years ago, when I was in middle school, my dad took me to Promise Keepers because my dad was a good dad. And back then, a young Tony Evans walked out on stage and he preached what I think may have been one of the most earth-shattering messages I'd ever heard. And he addressed men and he began his sermon. You could have heard a pin drop in the stadium. And Dr. Evans looked out with those steely eyes at this stadium full of tens of thousands of dudes. And this is the first thing he said, I've never forgotten it. He said, if you want to change the world, change a continent. If you want to change a continent, change a country. If you want to change a country, change a state. If you want to change a state, change a city. If you want to change a city, change a neighborhood. If you want to change a neighborhood, change a family, and if you want to change a family, change a father, change a man. Now, it is for that reason that 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14 that Joby just released a book on, by the way, that we have in the Howerton House that I encourage on this verse, 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14. And this is the verse that I want to spend the next four, the next five days today and four more, breaking down specific commands to men of God. And here, there's five of them. You're gonna hear them when I read them. It commands the men of this church, it says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love. Now, we started by saying that where men step into their callings, things flourish, and where they refuse, things burn. Let me explain. Like this verse literally proves exactly that. So, like this in New Testament church, by the way, as pastors, um, I'm sure Joby would attest to this as well. It always kind of cracks me up when people grab me in the lobby and they say, Pastor, I just wish we were more like the New Testament church. And I'm always like, oh man, you want to be more like the New Testament church. Well, which one? Do you want to be like the one where the guy was sleeping with his mother-in-law, or the one where they were doing like overt heresy, or the one where they were like trying to circumcise everybody in the in the halls? Which one do you want? No, no, we just want to be a Bible church. Okay. Well, this was one of the early churches where everything was not good. So in Corinth, it was like Christians gone wild. If you read this book, this book, you got divisions in the church. Like different people are like, oh, I like that guy. I oh, I follow the worship guy. I follow the teaching pastor. Well, I'm a senior pastor guy. And there were people Jesus duking everybody, oh, well, I follow Jesus. You got a guy that was apparently sleeping with his mother-in-law, no comment. You got church members that were suing each other in the church. You have, I am not kidding, you had people in this church who were literally going, married people going and visiting prostitutes, and then being like, was that wrong? Should we not have done that? Because I thought the only thing that mattered was like what we did with our spirits. Was that wrong? You get to chapters 12 through 14, and it was like a charismaniac, like American idol for prophecy and tongues. People were like walking into actual services, and they were like, I guess this is my chance to exercise my prophecy and tongues gifts in front of the whole church. So it was just going crazy. And then you have people getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. Now, like, can I just say something? My I pastored a church called Lake Point in the Dallas area. And listen, man, we this bunch of sinners up in here, we got problems. Can I just say something? We don't have people getting drunk on Lord's Supper wine. Okay. So, like, there were problems. I personally have a theory that the reason this is the only epistle where the Apostle Paul addresses the men and says, You men, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all you do be done in love, is because where men step into their callings, things flourish, and where they refuse, things burn. And I think the men in this church were abdicating their callings. And as a result, the church was burning. So each day for the next four days, today and four more days, I want to focus on one of these commands. Today, I want us together as men to go, okay, what does the Lord mean when he gives you and me a command? You man, you are called and commanded by the living God to be watchful. It right begins there with be watchful. Now, let's Bible nerd for about 30 seconds. We're gonna nerd out. The Apostle Paul has this thing throughout all of his epistles and when he's talking to the book of Acts, where he uses this language about being watchful. So he says it right here. He says, Be watchful. When Paul hangs out with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, right before he begins his death sequence from Acts 20 to the end of the book of Acts, it's like Paul endgame. Like he's like knows he's heading to his death and he's gonna trade his life for the salvation of the Roman Empire. And he uses, kind of draws on some of this same language. And he's like, hey man, you know, I've been watchful. And he says, I am innocent of the blood of all of you. And then scattered throughout the rest of the epistles, he's always like, watchful, watchful, watchful, innocent of blood, innocent of blood, innocent of blood. Well, for you Bible nerds, this is what's happening. Paul is hearkening back to a prophecy from the book of Ezekiel. He's drawing on Ezekiel chapter three. Now, Ezekiel was Ezekiel was a dude. Uh Ezekiel was like ripped from Yellowstone, like walks out of the wilderness, crazy eyes, hair, like sword out of his mouth, fire in his eyes, you know, all the things. And God sets him up as a prophet. And then in Ezekiel chapter 3, now when I read this, like as men of the word, be listening, because when I read this, I want you to identify why the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16 says that men should be watchful. All right, so here's Ezekiel chapter 3, starting at verse 16. It says, At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, Son of Man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel. And that watchman language is military language like a literal a watchman. Okay. So hear the word I speak and give them a warning for me. Now listen real close. God says, When I say to a wicked person, you will surely die, and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will still die for their sin. But you will have saved yourself. Now, so the example he's using, like in the military, if there's a watchman and there's an enemy coming, and the watchman sees the enemy and sounds a clear wake-up call, but the enemy still breaks through the walls and kills all the people. Well, then all the people are dead, but the watchman did his job, so he's not going to get court-martialed. But if there's an enemy that comes and the watchman gets scared and runs away without sounding a clear warning, and the enemy comes in and kills all the people, the people died. But the watchman is the one that's guilty because he didn't do his job and he is subject to a court martial. So when the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 says, I am innocent of the blood of all of you, because I did not shrink back from declaring in public and from house to house everything the Lord has told me. And then in 1 Corinthians 16, when he looks at you and he looks at me, man of God, and he says, Your first thing I'm commanding you to do is he's saying, Be watchful. He's saying that in the same way that God set Ezekiel up as a watchman over the people of Israel, that God has set you, man of God, up as a watchman for some certain things. Now, I want to get real practical. The reason I want to get real practical is because when somebody's drowning, they don't need the Greek Greek word for life jacket. They just need you to throw them one. So I just want to get like real, real, real practical. As a man of God, God has set you up as a watchman, and there is blood that you are responsible for over a few things. Let me do them real quick, and then we're gonna we're gonna get real practical and prayer away into our day so that we can do it. God has set you, man of God, up as a watchman over your heart, your family, your church, and your culture. Your heart, your family, your church, and your culture. Okay. Now let me let me just explain a theological category, and then I just want to get real practical, one thing on each of these for us to move forward as spirit-filled, Jesus-loving Bible men. In the Bible, there are three institutions that God has uh well instituted for the advancement of his purposes and the ordering of the world. Um, theologians call this the creation mandate from the book of Genesis. The institutions that God has designed are the family, the church, and the state. And every man has a God-given role in those three things your family, your church, and our culture. And in addition to that, you have a responsibility over yourself. So let's just talk one thing about each of these things. And while I'm doing these, maybe you just whisper a prayer, like literally right now, Holy Spirit, show me where I'm called to step forward as a watchman today. Okay. So number one, you are called to be a watchman over your own heart. So, like the Bible says that sin is like a a prowling lion. It is crouching at your door and it desires to have you. And so every single day it's like sin, death, and the devil, the world, the flesh, and the enemy are like an apex predator creeping up to try to snatch something and pounce in your heart. And so, number one, you need to be watchful in your heart. What is the sin that so easily entangles you? What's the thing that you right now are afraid to do, but you are uncomfortable having not yet done for the glory of God? What what's the area of your heart that you're finding you are keeping in the dark because there's a sin that's growing in yourself? And the Bible says, above all else, guard your heart, for from it flow the well springs of life. So right now, maybe you just pause and you pray along with David in the Psalms. Search me, O Lord, and try me and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So, number one, be watchful over your heart, be quick to repent of sin. Number two, be watchful in your family. If you're a husband and you're a father, then what it means, part of what it means to be a man in your family is that not everything in your family is your fault, but everything is your responsibility. You choose to make it your responsibility. So, as a man of God, what you need to do is take responsibility for your family and say, man, if the dragon wants to try to devour my wife and my kids, he can try all he wants, but I'm not gonna go down, I'm not gonna go down without swinging. And so ask yourself the question like maybe as soon as this pod ends, you just think through your wife and your children, one sentence prayers by name, and just go, man, how is the enemy trying to get my wife? How is the enemy trying to get my kids? And you are gonna resolve not to be a man that stands idly by and lets Satan devour your wife and your children. Why? Because you're a man that's gonna be watchful, you're aware, you're not ignorant of the devil's schemes. Number three, as a member of a local church, so we are not podcastions, we're people who want to be members of the local church, like we have the example in the New Testament. Be watchful in your church. So, like maybe ask yourself this question like right now. Where is the greatest need in my church? Where is the opportunity my church could seize if I hurled myself into the purposes of God as someone who was watchful in my church and aware of what ground needs to be taken? So be watchful. Where is the need? And then I'm gonna be a man, just like uh somebody in battle that runs into the breach. I'm not gonna run away from the breach, I'm gonna run into the breach, be watchful in your church. And then last one, be watchful in our culture. This is a whole different podcast, but again, Dr. Tony Evans gives the example that God has designed the local church to be the immune system of a culture. And whenever the church or whenever Christians uh they are silent or they're passive in the face of oncoming evil in a society, it's kind of like society has AIDS, is the example Dr. Evans uses. And it's like what Dr. Evans says is that AIDS has never killed anybody. What HIV, what AIDS does, is it takes out the immune system, and once the immune system is down, then the body can die of anything. Well, if Christians and if the church are silent in the face of oncoming evil in society, it's like society has AIDS and any evil idea or ideology can advance unchecked and can kill that thing. So what we need to be as men of God is we need to be watchful for uh encroaching evil, uh lies of the enemy in our culture. And then when we see those things, just like Elijah in the Old Testament, we need to become the troubler of Israel, is what he was accused of being, because he was someone who unflinchingly stood for what was true, right, and good in the face of evil in his culture, and they accuse him of becoming a troubler of Israel because he would not let the evil advance without troubling it. And so maybe you need to ask that question. Now, where in our culture is evil advancing? I'm gonna be watchful of that, and I will not stand idly by as it moves forward. So those four questions, man of God, and I'm praying them with you today. Lord, I want to be watchful in my heart. Would you please search me? Lord, I'm gonna be a man that's watchful over my family. Where is the enemy trying to devour my wife and my children? And I'm gonna hurl myself in that direction. Be watchful in your church, where is there the greatest need, and be watchful in your culture? What is the evil that needs to be opposed? But today, day one, I'm excited to be for with you for the next four days. Man of God, be watchful.

Amen. 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.