Modern Mighty Men

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Guess what my wife asked me. Where are all the mighty men? Well, I’m going to tell you where they are in the next More Faith, More Life podcast.

0:00:09 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray, and this is the More Faith, More Life podcast. This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises and their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, nonprofit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse. When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more.

0:00:37 – (Steve Gray): More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

0:01:09 – (Steve Gray): So if you’re ready to do more, subscribe to More Faith, More Life and hear an unfiltered biblical truth every week. It’s time to be and experience more.

0:01:21 – (Steve Gray): Hello, everybody, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast. So glad we could be together today, along with my wife Kathy, who’s joined us. I don’t know what episode, you know, I think it was last week or one of the times we did. I did the 100th episode of this one. And that doesn’t include the podcast I’ve done before. This set of More faith, more life, 100 of them. And I don’t know what number we were on now

0:01:45 – (Steve Gray): I’ve really enjoyed having you on here and it’s just so great to have more conversation. So anyway, thanks for being here today and all those other ones. And today, folks, Kathy picked whatever we’re going to talk about, so Kathy’s going to lead the way. And you came up with some ideas that you wanted to talk about today. And so I’m just going to shoot it over to you and you take it and let’s go.

0:02:07 – (Kathy Gray): Okay, well, you know, I’ve been reading and rereading your book, your new book written with by you and J.D. king called “Mighty Like Gideon”. And there’s a lot of might in this book, There’s a lot of goodness in this book. And then you can get it at bookstores or on Amazon, places like that. But you know what else? If you go to https://stevegrayministries.com, you can also purchase for just $1 this great study guide that accompanies it so you could do a Bible study with a group or on your own. So get “Mighty Like Gideon”. Go to Steve Gray Ministries (https://stevegrayministries.com) and get that.

0:02:46 – (Kathy Gray): So now today, Steve, in “Mighty Like Gideon”, the Lord said to Gideon, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. And then I think of mighty men all the way through the Bible that God was with like David and his mighty men. And they fought against the enemy and they won. And they were mighty and strong in the Lord. They didn’t have fear, they had courage and boldness and they moved with the power of God. So I was wondering if you would tell me where have today in this culture, where have all the mighty men of God gone? If they could be that way in the Bible and fight mighty battles and win where are they today?

0:03:30 – (Steve Gray): So I like it because the Bible actually calls David’s men mighty. The angel of the Lord and God called Gideon mighty. We don’t get to hear that. Where are. Yeah, I mean when we go to our churches and this has nothing to do with who women are. I don’t mind having mighty women, powerful women of God, of course, but the weakness seems to be in most churches and I would like to say how blessed I am. And we are at Revive Church, our church, that we’ve got some mighty men. I mean we’ve got men really active up front worshiping God.

0:04:05 – (Steve Gray): So that’s great. But most places that’s not seen. Okay. So anyway, yes, we need mighty men and we’ve lost that through. And I’m not the only one. There’s lots of people that are starting to wake up to that and lots of men are starting to wake up. I think there was a book I saw maybe on the news or something like that. They advertised like the feminization of men or something like that. It doesn’t matter. But.

0:04:30 – (Steve Gray): Well, here’s what I think and I want to refer mostly I have, I have to refer since your example was Bible examples. Right. So I’m going to put keep myself in the kingdom of God, church realm, religious Jesus people, you know, realm. I’m not going to step out of that. So what we miss in men today is we don’t understand the role of men and women. And it’s so confusing. Okay, so here’s what I believe works and I believe will work and the women Will love it.

0:05:00 – (Steve Gray): Okay? Men need to be leaders. Okay, now let’s think about that a minute because if you take men husbands, let’s start with husbands, men husbands and you say okay husband, you’re to be the leader. Then immediately you might have the women rise up and think well you know, he’s going to be the boss. And the old way, you remember when we first got saved there, it’s still there today. Strong, strong teaching that women are supposed to submit to their husbands in everything now, but nobody defines everything.

0:05:34 – (Steve Gray): Is everything really everything or is everything only everything in a closed bound thing like in everything of the kingdom of God. So you do not have to submit to me because I want to watch channel, whatever or I want to go to this or I want to do that and I’m the husband. But that’s what they taught submit everything and it just knocked them down and down and we go backwards. Because when Paul began, Paul in the Bible has a bad rap because he’s like in some circles he’s like anti woman because he talked about not speaking in church and all that kind of stuff. But they don’t understand that the women before Paul weren’t invited to church. Paul pulled them in G equality.

0:06:26 – (Steve Gray): But the reason that they weren’t able to participate fully is because you have to imagine bringing women in, they couldn’t read, they couldn’t write, they didn’t know the Bible, they had no idea, they never heard the law. Well, they may have had it read to them at home, but they never participated in services. And especially what we now call Christian. They weren’t really called Christian then, they were just Jesus believers.

0:06:51 – (Steve Gray): All the activity and signs and wonders and miracles and speaking in tongues and you bring a woman that can’t read, can’t write. Never been in a synagogue? No. In an active, they had their own section but they never got to participate. Right. So Paul’s saying slow down here a little bit, come in, but learn, get trained and understand. Now that’s sort of the same way. But what we need today is to have leaders.

0:07:17 – (Steve Gray): Now let me explain this to you. There’s a lot of women that go to work and they have jobs, okay? And when they go to their job they have a person they call the boss. But yet you don’t go to work and you’re intimidated and you’re angry. Why? He’s the boss, he might tell me what to do. He’s going to lead the. No, you go like we got to have somebody so you have a boss. I’m not saying it’s a Man. But I’m using that as an example. Let’s say you got a man as a boss.

0:07:45 – (Steve Gray): But you know what? We accept that because somebody has to do the role so we get home or in relationships like that, somebody has to be a leader. Now a leader, if you’ve been one, if you haven’t ever been one, you think, wow, that would really be great. A leader, a true leader is not a fun position. It is a gifted position that unifies sacrifices, gives, takes care, right? So what the role that I think is missing, why it’s not mighty is because we’re trying to plug in mighty men who are not willing to lead or they’ve never been told to lead or they have a partner that won’t let them, doesn’t want them to lead.

0:08:30 – (Steve Gray): And men today back down and let somebody else lead. So the joy of relationships and being around men is to see men who have accepted the call to lead. It is not glamorous, it is not being the boss and it is not taking over and having you submit to me in everything, everything. But if I am trying to lead kingdom of God things, if I’m trying to get you to see and to understand, now you’re an educated person, you’re a smart lady and did great in college and made great grades.

0:09:06 – (Steve Gray): So it’s a little bit off to put you to me throw scriptures on you as though you’re uneducated. You can’t read or write and you don’t know anything. You’ve read the Bible longer than I’ve read the Bible if you want to put years to it. But that doesn’t mean that now we’re going to have two leaders or that you should lead. We can’t have two leaders. We can’t have a two headed relationship. We’ve got to have some leaders.

0:09:32 – (Steve Gray): The leaders are going to have to take responsibility. It’s not a fun role. Now I’ve found that men become mighty when they decide. Like Gideon, who was threshing in the winepress. God says, you’re a mighty man and I want you to start being a leader. And I want you to lead. I want you to lead this nation into victory. But we can take it down. I want you to lead this family into victory. Lead. Don’t throw up your hands.

0:10:02 – (Steve Gray): Don’t shift everything over now. Almost 100%. I’ve found that most wives and women really feel safer and secure when they see men who are men that are willing to lead and take some responsibility.

0:10:19 – (Kathy Gray): Very good.

0:10:20 – (Steve Gray): Being responsible is not a boss. You’re trying to lead in a way that makes us successful and happy and it makes children and women feel more secure. That doesn’t mean women can’t lead. But then if you’re going to lead and I’m going to lead, we’re not going anywhere. We’re just going to spin our wheels. So what I would ask of you in our relationship is, Kathy, would you help me develop as a leader and a mighty man of God?

0:10:53 – (Steve Gray): If I make mistakes, you can say that was the dumbest thing you ever did. That doesn’t mean I’m perfect. I don’t know everything, but I’m going to feel weak, I’m not going to feel strong. Cause God, in my opinion, put something in us that men want to be mighty. We think in mighty, but we don’t live in mighty, right? When we watch a movie about mighty men doing great men, great things of valor and you know, we’re living it in our minds, but it’s a false sense. Imagine this, Kathy.

0:11:25 – (Steve Gray): A man who’s not a leader and who’s not mighty watches a lot of movies and he loves action packed movies where men are climbing mountains and slaying giants and all that. Do you know what that plays? There is a lying spirit in that which is not anybody’s fault because the man is lying to himself on the inside. Because he’s living, he’s living that moment. He’s watching that guy climb the mountain, right, and ford every stream, right?

0:11:55 – (Steve Gray): But he’s not. And his brain, his emotions, his mind, his will and emotions are living it. So it’s triggering that in him. But then once the movie ends, he gets up and just lazes around, you see what I’m saying? The conflict is there. Cause on the inside he’s triggered leadership. He’s triggered mighty by watching it. And instead of saying, that’s who I’m going to be, he’s saying, okay, next movie, I’m going to go watch the next one and pretend. So there’s that.

0:12:25 – (Steve Gray): We’re pretending on the inside. And in the Bible days, you know, they didn’t have movies, they didn’t have tv, they didn’t have the internet and all that stuff. So they didn’t have that pretend. The best they could do is they could see a Roman soldier go by or whatever and say, I want to be like that, I need to be mighty. Or they’d try to be mighty and they’d throw them in jail, you know, or something like that, and in prison.

0:12:47 – (Steve Gray): So there’s where it begins to be mighty is to say, I need to lead. I need to lead in the principles of God. I don’t need to lead in where we’re going to eat because a leader doesn’t care. See, a real leader doesn’t care. If you want to go there and the kids want to go there and they want to go, I don’t care. I care about leading you in character, in principles, in understanding, so that you understand why I believe we should go this way.

0:13:17 – (Steve Gray): I don’t want to tell you to go this way. I want to help you understand the why I want to lead you. You see, a leader can. Can oftentimes take the hand a leader doesn’t have. A leader doesn’t get behind and crack a whip. That’s not leading. A leader steps out in front. A leader gets hit first. A leader falls in the hole first and then says, hold it, stop. I got to fix this hole. A leader climbs a mountain and says, I think this is too high for my kids.

0:13:46 – (Steve Gray): Hold on, kids, I’m going to lower this mountain down just a little bit. Let me knock the top of it. And I’m going to take. A leader takes by the hand and says, come on, go with me. And if we’ll lead, we’ll feel mighty and we’ll be. Well, we are mighty because we’re leading. But it includes sacrifice, it includes thought. But so many men today, they’re great leaders in entertainment and they’re great in understanding sports and entertainment, everything outside the kingdom of God.

0:14:18 – (Steve Gray): They might understand and have lead and great thoughts, but they don’t know the kingdom of God. And then they lead that part up mostly to women or the wives. So as we go down that road, then, as you know, most men feel like their wives are more spiritual than they are. You know why? Because it’s probably true. And most women believe they are more spiritual than husbands or just men. You know why? Because it’s probably true.

0:14:47 – (Steve Gray): So what would change a marriage or a church or community or children or influences or if you’re a school teacher and I’m talking to men again, is to become a leader. Leaders pay a price that followers don’t. But do you know what people want to have a leader? People want the Jews, the Hebrews. In Jesus day, we get the idea that they were anti Messiah. They didn’t want a messiah, so they crucified him.

0:15:21 – (Steve Gray): That’s not true. They wanted a messiah. You can go back and study what they said in the scriptures and all that. And even today they wanted a messiah. The problem is when they got one, they didn’t want to follow that one. They weren’t followers. If they had been followers, it would have been okay. So what happened was they said, we want a leader. We want a leader. And then when God gave them one, they found out that they did not want to be followers of that kind of leader.

0:15:48 – (Steve Gray): But they still, even today would like to have a leader. Everybody needs leaders. Everybody. Leaders need leaders.

0:15:54 – (Kathy Gray): Leaders need leaders.

0:15:56 – (Steve Gray): And so it’s really a snapshot. It’s bigger than this. But just you take a snapshot and say, Steve, give me one thing that we can say about that is I think you’ll find guys and gals, if men, if you would take on the role of lead and if you don’t know how to lead, I’d love to teach you. Or there are things to teach. Just take on the role. Read your Bible, how leaders act. And how did David’s mighty men act?

0:16:24 – (Steve Gray): And they were so honorable to David. And David then would not represent a man if we read it. Let David kind of represent a Jesus figure because that’s what he was. A picture. A picture of how Jesus is. Because it says Jesus sits on the throne of David. But his mighty men were so honorable and respectful. They weren’t leaders that were sassy. They weren’t leaders that were know-it-alls. You know, they were honorable.

0:16:54 – (Steve Gray): They were great because they honored God, they honored David, they sacrificed. They knew that it was worth throwing myself into because the kingdom at that time needed new leadership. Cause they didn’t need King Saul and his leaders anymore. New leaders were coming in. And if they’re going to get the job done and they’re going to allow David to be that example that Jesus can be said to sit on his throne, they’re going to have to honor him, help him, lift him up, encourage him, fight with him, and sometimes fight for him.

0:17:28 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah. Fearless. Fearless. When I think of you, I think of someone who is extremely fearless. And you are not afraid. You do not back down. And there’s a lot of pressure on you all the time that no one really knows or understands. I don’t even understand it, Steve. But there’s that spirit of fear is so strong in the world and it’s strong at people outside of the kingdom, but inside God’s church, you know, our men, of course, you say they follow you.

0:18:04 – (Kathy Gray): They follow and take after your characteristics. And one of your strongest ones is you’re fearless. And that means you stand up for what is right. You stand up for what is truth. And you take the arrows first. Of course, if they’re following. They’re going to get some arrows, but you take it first. And honestly, I think of that as I look at our nation today. Also, there’s some fearless, mighty men who are trying to work salvation, you know, and they’re. They’re taking the arrows, too.

0:18:38 – (Kathy Gray): But how much more great it would be.

0:18:43 – (Steve Gray): Being fearless because. Okay, because of our culture. We were driving in the car the other day and I said to you, the problem is Christians, and we’re in that realm. Believers are more familiar with fear and adjusted to it than they are faith. Anybody. If you can fear, you can have faith, because fear is an invisible power. Fear is not. Something’s happening to me. Fear is some. I’m afraid something is going to happen.

0:19:13 – (Steve Gray): Right. It’s invisible. It has. Faith is an invisible power of belief. Fear is an invisible power of belief. So if you can fear, you can have faith now. Because I grew up in the world, too. You grew up in the world too. Yet I can go into fear just like everybody else. And sometimes things happen and you can feel that panic or that. And sometimes I like to think there’s a difference, Kathy, of being scared because you just.

0:19:43 – (Steve Gray): I don’t know what’s going to happen. So I’m a little scared. I’m just a little nervous right now. And I tell. This is what I thought of the other day. If you’re scared, okay, follow him scared. Follow Jesus scared. See, I’m just kind of scared. Well, follow him scared, but follow him. But as one said and I’ve said and others, there’s things like courage and there’s things like faith, and all of us can fall into fear.

0:20:11 – (Steve Gray): But the difference is what I see. You know why I can do it is because there’s something here more important than my fear. I can feel it. Like you could feel it. It’s there. It could be there, but I don’t allow it to make decisions for me. You know why? Because there’s something more important than fear going on here. So we are kind of raised in fear. We’re not really. Most of us are not rooted in great faith.

0:20:39 – (Steve Gray): So I understand it, how easy it is. You get in a situation, click, you go over to fear. But think of it for a minute. Yes, but there’s families and people and nation and all that. There’s something more. There’s the. The kingdom of God is at hand. God’s kingdom is at hand. And that’s more important than our fear. So we just adjust what’s going to influence us. We know it could be there it can be there, but I don’t respond to it.

0:21:05 – (Steve Gray): And so that’s how I. So instead, I try to. Brave and courageous and. Let’s use the word mighty, be mighty and not let fear make a decision for me. So you see how important that is? Yeah. What else we got?

0:21:22 – (Kathy Gray): That’s it. I think, you know, as I watch your life and as I watch the men in Gideon’s life and in King David’s life, they weren’t born strong and mighty and fearless, but they grew in it. And they grew as they followed a leader and as they submitted to the Lord and his kingdom, they grew in that. That fearlessness and full of faith. And it’s a good thing to do.

0:21:49 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. So just as you look forward, guys, gals, all that, and women, too, this is not just for men. Women, you’ve got to. Oh, man, you’ve got to get delivered of that fear, too. And so when you look at your kids, you say, you know what? I could be afraid. I could be nervous. I could be worrisome, I could be neurotic, all that. And I could be fearful. But then look at your kids and say, but you know what? There’s something more important than fear here.

0:22:13 – (Steve Gray): And they need my faith. They need my strength. They need my love. See, I can look and have fear. But wait a minute. There’s a lady sitting right here. I’m married to. She’s more important than fear. I got kids. They’re more important than fear. I have a church to lead, and it’s more important than me jumping in the fear pond and just soaking in fear and worry about what’s going to happen. Because if I can fear, if I can walk in fear, I can walk in faith.

0:22:42 – (Steve Gray): And if you walk by faith, as we say, you’re going to get what? More faith means what? – More life. Till next time. Bye.