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December 10, 2024 37 mins

In this episode of The Manhood Tribes Show, Don explores the true purpose and impact of following Jesus beyond just the promise of heaven. 

He challenges the traditional view that being a Christian is solely about salvation and going to heaven, arguing that it’s more about creating a union with God. 

He discusses the importance of sacred spaces in the scriptures and how men can live out their faith in a way that resonates deeply with them. 

Don also shares practical steps, including daily reunions and spiritual disciplines, to help men connect their hearts to God and live out their faith meaningfully.

00:00 Introduction: The Purpose of Following Jesus
01:01 Manhood Tribe Show: Resources for Men
01:35 Series Overview: The Way of the King
01:54 Challenges of Modern Christian Men
03:13 Defining a Masculine Faith
03:43 The Epic Story of Faith
04:12 Purpose and Resilience in Faith
08:41 The Role of Sacred Spaces
13:26 Jesus as the New Temple
16:30 Union with God: Theosis
20:34 Practical Steps for Daily Reunion
28:55 Spiritual Disciplines for Engagement
30:45 Spiritual Disciplines for Disengagement
36:18 Conclusion: Building a Daily Reunion

💪 Want to know how you measure up as a man? Take our free quiz, called How Manly Are You? and learn how you can get better at being a man. Download for free at manhoodtribes.com/manly. 💪

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Ross (00:00):
What do you think that following Jesus should do to a
person?
Or maybe said another way.
What's the point of being aChristian?
Now for many of you, you mightbe tempted to answer that
question with a phrase thatyou've probably heard a lot.
If you've been around the churchat all, which is that.
It should allow us to be savedso that we can go to heaven when

(00:22):
we die.
And that that's kind of thewhole point.
And while that's not exactlywrong.
It's not altogether, right.
Either.
It's time for us to take alittle bit better, have a look
at what exactly is the point.
Uh, following Jesus and what itshould do to us.
Let's talk about that today onthe manhood tribe show.

(01:02):
Guys want to know how youmeasure up as a man?
I've got a great resource foryou.
It's called how manly are you?
And it's a free quiz that youcan take to figure out how you
stack up against what it meansto be a man.
And when you take the quiz,you'll also get some free
resources to help you figure outhow you can get better as a man
in the areas where you wouldlike to grow.

(01:24):
So go to manhoodtribes.com/manlyto download your free.
How manly are you quiz today?
That's manhoodtribes.com/manly.
Men welcome to the manhood tribeshow.
My name is Don.
I'm your host.
And today we are continuing ourseries that I'm calling the way

(01:45):
of the king, because this seriesis really all about learning to
follow Jesus in a way that worksfor us as men.
Because I think if we men arereally kind of honest,
especially those of us who arehere in America or more broadly
in the west.
And maybe have grown up aroundthe church or been around the
church for some part of ourlives.

(02:07):
Or even just kind of beenexposed to people in the church
and kind of have an impressionof it.
A lot of us would say.
I'm not really sure that thiswhole Christian thing works for
me.
Like I just see the way thatChristians act, the things that
they prioritize, the choicesthat they make.
I'm not really sure that there'sa whole lot to it that interests

(02:28):
me.
Or if I'm honest, I'm not surethat there's a whole lot to it.
That's actually different thanthe way that anybody else lives.
So, you know, what's the point.
Or maybe you're somebody who hasbeen around the church for a
long time and just kind of feltlike.
Ah, I show up to this church,but it's like, Nothing about it
ever really feels like it'srelevant to my life.
I kind of just go because I'msupposed to, or because my wife

(02:52):
or my kids want me to, or I feellike I should for their sake,
but when it comes to being aman, like nothing about this
whole Christian thing reallyseems to have any relevance to
the rest of my life.
So I'm not really sure why I'mthere other than it's probably
good for me in some way, but.
I'm having a hard timeconnecting the dots.

(03:13):
So I am trying to, in thisseries, help us as men to be
able to figure out what amasculine faith would really
look like.
And a masculine faith doesn'tmean that it's exclusively for
men.
It just means that it's a faiththat actually is relevant to and
resonates with men.
As men that it's something thatwe can kind of go, yeah, this,

(03:34):
this, this makes me feel like aman.
This makes me believe that I ama man.
And as a man, I feel good aboutliving out my faith in these
ways.
And I've said that there'sreally three things that need to
be true of a masculine faith.
The first is that it needs to beepic.
It needs to be part of a bigstory and a grand adventure.
Men love grand epic stories.

(03:56):
Those are the kinds of moviesthat we love to go see.
We love being caught up in talesthat feel like they're a big
adventure.
And so we need the story of ourfaith to feel like it is a big
adventure that we are not thecenter piece of the story, but
there's really more to it thanjust our day-to-day lives.
But our faith, if it's amasculine, faith does need to
feel purposeful.

(04:18):
It needs to feel like we as menhave a part to play in that
story.
And it's not just the role ofbeing a nice guy.
It needs to feel like it's amanly part to play.
We need to feel like we havesomething to offer as men going
back to our five marks ofmanhood that we have talked
about here on this show all thetime, we need to be able to
offer things like strength andcourage in the way that we live

(04:40):
out.
Our faith.
That will help us as men to feellike we have a purpose in
whatever our masculine faithlooks like.
And then lastly, it needs tofeel resilient.
So epic, purposeful, andresilient and resilient just
means that it needs to stand upto the hard things in life.
Our faith needs to be somethingthat doesn't just get knocked
down when difficulties comealong, or maybe only addresses

(05:03):
some part of our life, butdoesn't address the rest.
And so we're kind of left tofigure out things for ourselves
in some areas.
It needs to really have someresilience to it that it can
address all the things in ourlives.
Especially the difficult thingsand really hold up to
questioning and suffering.
And you know, it can take abeating to say the least.

(05:23):
So we want to really figure outhow can we pursue a faith that
actually does look like thosethings.
The past couple episodes, we'vereally kind of explored the idea
of the whole story of our faithand especially the idea that
Jesus is the centerpiece of thatfaith as king, that the story of
our faith is really focused onthis idea of Jesus becoming king

(05:46):
of the whole creation and thatwe are meant to give our
allegiance to him.
There is an epicness to thatstory.
There is a purpose for us as wechoose to follow this king.
And today I want to talk abouthow it's meant to have a little
bit more resilience to it.
I asked the question at the topof the show.
What's really the point of beinga Christian or what should

(06:08):
following Jesus actually do to aperson.
Now a lot of us in the Americanwest have been kind of fed the
story that, uh, being aChristian means that you will
have your sins forgiven so thatyou will be saved and go to
heaven when you die.
Now.
Those are good things andthey're not terribly inaccurate.

(06:29):
And the way that theycommunicate some truths about
the Christian message.
But they are unfortunatelywoefully incomplete.
They really aren't the wholestory of what it really means to
be a Christian and especiallynot the story of what's the
point of being a Christian?
What should it do to you?
If all that, the story is, isabout making it so that we go to

(06:50):
heaven when we die.
There's no resilience to that.
What does, what does that haveto say to the whole rest of our
lives in the here and now, youknow, great that maybe I've
given my allegiance to Jesus,but between now and when I die
and get to be with him, likewhat happens then?
And what does my faith have tosay to any of that?
I think that's the question thata lot of men end up with is

(07:14):
what's the point of doingsomething like going to church.
If I kind of checked the box onthis whole Jesus thing, and I
know I'm going to heaven, like,why do I need to do or be all
these other things that we gettalked to about in church?
That's a great question.
And I think the fact that wedon't have a good answer to that
question really kind of showsthat we're actually trying to

(07:35):
like, go about it the wrong waythat it doesn't have enough
resilience to say that our faithis just about.
Going to heaven when we die,there is a bigger point to being
a Christian and it should impactus all in very different ways
than just our eternaldestination.

(07:56):
Now, let me say, and I've hintedat before.
We're going to talk a whole lotmore about that eternal
destination thing a little bitlater on in the series, but for
now, let me just say there'smore to that story and we're
going to get there.
But today, I want to talk alittle bit about the kind of in
the present.
What does a faith in Jesus andallegiance to Jesus actually

(08:16):
have to do with my present day,with my nine to five with my
Monday through Friday 24 7.
You know, apart from the Sundaymorning church hour, like what
is being Allegiant to Jesusactually have to do with
everything else.
And that is really where we getto the question of what does
being a Christian actually meantto do to a person.

(08:40):
To answer that question.
I want to try to begin bytalking about the idea of sacred
space in the scriptures.
Now that may seem like a littlebit of a detour, but just follow
along with me.
I trust, trust me.
We're going to get there.
In the scriptures, we get somevery clear pictures of what
would be considered sacredspace.
And by that, I mean, those arethe places in the scriptures

(09:03):
where heaven and earth kind ofintersect.
Right.
We've talked about that heavenis really kind of the spiritual
realm.
It is a place where God dwells.
But all the other spiritualbeings dwell there as well.
God created the spiritual realm.
And he also created the physicalrealm, what we call earth, which
is where humans are meant tolive and to rule on God's

(09:25):
behalf.
But there are a few places whereGod allows those two realms to
overlap and his presence comesto be part of our realm.
And those places are calledsacred spaces.
Now that's not really a biblicalterm necessarily, but it's
appropriate for us to call itthat.

(09:45):
We see the first sacred space inthe very beginning pages of the
scriptures.
When we see the picture of thegarden of Eden, that this is a
place where God dwells with man,and it is a sacred space.
Our relationship is special.
It's unique.
We get to spend time physicallyand intimately with God in this

(10:06):
place called Eden.
Heaven and earth literallyoverlap.
In the garden of Eden, and thisis our first picture of a sacred
space.
And this one in particular isreally important because it
becomes something of anarchetype for every other sacred
space in the scriptures.
Every other way of understandingwhat it looks like for God to be

(10:27):
with men in a physical location.
Has something to do with thepicture of the garden of Eden.
We see it later on in thescriptures.
When we get the idea of thetabernacle, the tabernacle was a
tent that the people of Israelwould put up in their days of
wandering and God would come andmeet with the people there
within the tent.

(10:48):
He would dwell literally in thetent.
And whether it was Moses or thehigh priest or some, you know,
appointed people within Israelwould come and meet with God
there.
But the whole people would beable to visibly see that God's
presence was dwelling therewithin this tint known as the
tabernacle.

(11:09):
Now when the people of Israelmoved into the actual land of
Israel into the promised land,and later on built a temple, a
physical temple that didn't movearound, like the tabernacle did.
The temple became the placewhere heaven and earth
overlapped.
And the presence of God actuallydwelt in the center of the

(11:29):
temple, a place called the holyof Holies.
It was the most sacred space.
And that was where God'spresence.
Resided.
And everyone in Israel knew thatthis is where God chose to be
and to meet with his people.
Again, the high priest.
Could go once a year into theholy of Holies.

(11:49):
And would meet with God andatone for the sins of the people
of Israel.
But at one point after many,many years of rebellion and
disobedience on the part of thepeople of Israel.
God's presence actually left thetemple.
We read about this in a book ofthe Bible called Where we see

(12:10):
that.
Uh, God had chosen for hispeople to go into exile and he
left the presence of the templebefore that exile actually
happened.
Now the people of Israelactually come back to their land
at one point in time after theIsrael, uh, after the exile.
And when they do that, theyactually go about rebuilding the

(12:31):
temple.
But an interesting thingshappens.
The presence of God does notcome back to the temple.
So there's something aboutsaying that the temple is not
really just the place that Godforever is meant to dwell.
We're getting after that pictureof Eden that happened in the
very beginning pages of theBible.

(12:51):
Now the temple was built in alot of ways to look like the
garden of Eden.
You see depictions of trees andall these just kind of beautiful
sort of garden imageries.
You see spiritual angelic beingsthat are.
Ah, carved into and built intothe walls and the fabrics of the
temple design in the same waythat there were spiritual

(13:12):
beings.
In the garden of Eden, thetemple was meant to look like
and reflect this idea of Eden.
But it wasn't Eden.
It was something different andGod's presence did not return
there.
God's presence actually did notreturn to earth until we get to
the new Testament and we see theperson of Jesus.

(13:34):
And this is where we get ourfirst picture of God.
Uniting with humanity.
In the form of one person, thisman, Jesus.
And we see that his presence isactually dwelling in this one,
man, that God's presence has nowbecome an innocence.
The temple has now become Jesus.

(13:58):
Jesus was coming as a man to beable to show us what it looked
like for the presence of God tobe that closely United with man.
Now Jesus lived his lifedemonstrating for us what it
looked like to live as a man whowas perfectly in allegiance to
God who was able to fulfill thatcalling of ruling on God's

(14:21):
behalf, here on earth, and todemonstrate for us what that was
really meant to look like.
He had power over rogue,spiritual beings.
He had power over creation andwas able to give commands to the
winds and the waters.
But he was full of compassionfor people as well.
And out of that compassion, hedid great miracles driving out

(14:42):
sickness and even death.
He was Lord over everything.
And that's really what we weremeant to be.
And he was showing us how to beable to do it.
Then through his death, hisresurrection and his Ascension
to go back to the father, heopened up the gates of the
kingdom.

(15:02):
And for those of us who chooseto give our allegiance to him
and to come into his kingdom, avery cool thing happens.
The holy spirit actually comesto reside in us.
And it is through him that thepresence of Christ is in us.
And so now we, the newTestament, the kind of latter

(15:25):
part of the Bible that's comesafter the story of Jesus.
We those who follow Jesus becomethe new temple.
And so the place where heavenand earth overlaps.
He is now in the hearts of everyman and woman who chooses to
follow Jesus.
We are the new temple.
We are the new garden of Eden.

(15:47):
But what is happening there isthat God is moving ever closer
to uniting himself to humanity.
And that is the picture that weget of what will happen.
When the new age comes whenJesus, his kingdom is fully
realized and death and sin arefully defeated and our spiritual

(16:08):
enemies are cast out in this newage to come.
Humanity will actually be fullyUnited with God.
That is our destination.
And that is what being aChristian is meant to do to a
person.
It is meant to create a union.
Between a man and God.

(16:30):
Now that might sound reallydifferent than anything that
you've ever heard before, butthis is actually something
that's been a part of churchhistory for forever.
And the Orthodox church, theyactually have a term for it.
It's called theosis.
And it means the idea of mankindbecoming one with God.
Now that is something differentthan mankind becoming God.

(16:51):
And that's not what thescriptures teach.
But they do teach that we, forthose of us who follow Jesus
will become one with God.
So there is something really,really cool about our destiny.
That includes more than justgoing to heaven when we die.
It actually includes being fullyUnited with God, being one with

(17:12):
him and heart and body and mindand soul so that we know
everything that we can about himand the way that he desires for
us to rule this world on hisbath.
We will be one with him andenjoying every good thing that
there is to enjoy by being apart of his creation and being
United to him and enjoying it.

(17:33):
But what does that have to dowith the here and now?
Like why.
Uh, great.
That that's our eternal destinyand okay.
That sounds really cool.
Maybe a little hard to grasp,but what does it mean right now?
Well, it means that right now weare meant to be working on that
union.
We are meant to be working atbecoming more one with God, even

(17:56):
now.
We are working at trying to getmore of his presence.
In our lives in a way that itshowcases itself, that the
presence of God flows through usand out of us into the world,
instead of just living,according to the best designs of
the world around us, we aremeant to live out of that union

(18:16):
with God.
But now to do that, isn'tnecessarily the easiest thing.
We don't have a whole lot of,you know, teaching on what it
looks like to be United with Godthat's just easily accessible to
us.
And so we have to really kind ofwork at figuring out how we do
that.
The scriptures do tell us a lot,but we've got a lot of examples

(18:38):
from other men and womenthroughout the history of church
who have pursued this as well.
And we can look to them tolearn, what does it look like?
To live in union with God and topursue that.
So I want to try to give yousome ideas.
Of what it can look like todevelop that union with God.
How do you go about becoming thekind of man who is full of the

(19:00):
presence of God, who is able to.
Who is able to deeply live outhis purpose because he is so
closely connected.
To his God.
How do we do that?
Well, the first step as wetalked about last week, if it's
not something that you've donealready is that you need to give
your allegiance to Jesus.

(19:21):
Union with God is only open tothose who are a part of Jesus's
kingdom.
Now it, that is available toeveryone.
So there's nothing exclusiveabout this.
No one is inherently excludedfrom the offer to become part of
Jesus's kingdom and to becomeone with God.
It is a free gift offered toeveryone.
We just have to respond to it bygiving our allegiance to Jesus.

(19:45):
By surrendering ourselveswholeheartedly saying that he is
our king.
And if that is not a choice thatyou have made, I would encourage
you to go back and watch theprevious video, where I talked
about the gospel to get anunderstanding of what that
choice is really all about andwhy you might choose to make
Jesus your king.
But if that is true of youalready, if you have chosen for

(20:06):
Jesus to be your king, andyou're trying to figure out how
do I become more of a Kings man?
How do I become more like himand the way that I live so that
I can live out the purpose thathe has given me?
How do I pursue more of thisunion with him?
What I want to say to you isthat it's going to take some
time, but there are somespecific things that you can do

(20:29):
over time to help you practicebecoming more like Jesus.
So I want to say that one of thefirst things that you want to
develop is what I would call adaily reunion.
Uh, daily reunion.
It's just a simple time.
Usually at the beginning of yourday, it can be 15 minutes.
It can be an hour.
It can be however long youreally have to be able to give

(20:50):
to it.
Probably the more time, thebetter, but start with something
simple.
But the point of this time is tolike any good relationship,
reconnect you to the personyou're trying to relate to.
Think of it almost kind of likegoing on a date with God.
You're trying to reconnect yourheart.
To his heart.

(21:11):
In the same way that you would,if you're married, you might go
on a date with your wife becauseyou want to spend good time with
her.
You just want an opportunity toenjoy her apart from the
busy-ness and the craziness andthe hecticness of everyday life.
You want some time that's carvedout for just making her feel
special and making thatrelationship a priority.

(21:33):
You need the same thing withGod.
And that's what I call a dailyreunion.
You need some time every day toreconnect your heart to the
heart of God.
So, how do you do that?
What does a daily reunion looklike?
Well, honestly, it can look likejust about anything.
Here's the freedom.
Many of you probably have beentold that you need to do

(21:55):
something called a quiet time ora daily devotional or something
like that.
And usually what that amounts tois spending some time reading
some scripture and then prayingsome prayers and going about
your day.
Now, look, there's nothing badabout that.
In fact, that can be very, verygood.
I definitely recommend thatscripture reading and prayer
should be a regular part of yourdaily reunion, but it doesn't

(22:18):
necessarily have to be aneveryday part of your daily
reunion.
The point is not to just dospecific behaviors.
The point is to connect yourheart to the heart of God.
And in many ways.
Prayer and scripture readingshould help you do that.
But at times it might not.

(22:39):
And for some men it might helpmore than it does for other men.
And that's totally okay.
You are in a relationship withJesus.
It is your relationship.
It is personal to you and tohim.
And so in that regard, you needthe freedom to be able to say, I
need to do whatever it's goingto take to connect my heart to

(23:02):
the heart of Jesus.
Now.
Ways to be able to do that caninclude all kinds of things.
Scripture reading and prayer area great foundation, but there's
anything and everything possiblethat you can imagine.
That you would enjoy.
That's going to help you connectto him.
Now, if you don't know muchabout Jesus, I do recommend
starting out by reading thescriptures.

(23:24):
You need to get familiar withthe story that I talked about in
the first episode of thisseries.
Just being able to say, what isthe story of our faith?
What do I know about the Bible?
What does it teach me aboutJesus?
How can I come to understand thestory that I'm living in and the
part that I'm meant to play, youdo need to learn all of those
things.
But you're not just trying tolearn them for the sake of

(23:45):
knowledge.
You're trying to learn them forthe sake of understanding who is
Jesus, who is this God that I'mconnected to?
Who am I actually in union with?
How do I get to know him betterand enjoy him and love him so
that I actually look forward tospending time with him.
And then you might want sometime in prayer as well, but it

(24:06):
is prayer that is meant to beshared between your heart and
the heart of God.
How do the two of you together,pray through the things that
matter to you, but also thatmatter to him.
How do you prioritize the thingsthat are important to him?
And ask him to prioritize thethings that are important to
you.
That's what connecting yourheart to the heart of God can

(24:27):
look like.
But it might look like someother things as well.
You might want to spend sometime listening to music that
helps you think about andconjure up high images of who
God is, so that you better knowhim and love him.
You might want to take some timewalking, outdoors, or just
spending time in nature so thatyou can connect to God through
all the amazing things that hehas done in his creation to be

(24:50):
able to see him in a waterfallor a cricket or a flower bud or
anything else that you canimagine in creation, learning to
be able to acknowledge that Godis Lord and creator of all, that
is an amazing way to help youconnect to his heart.
It also can just be throughthings that you love.

(25:11):
Maybe you really love working oncars and you want to, for one of
your daily reunion times, inviteGod to work with you on.
Repairing a car.
It's a really fun thing to do,and I'm sure that he would enjoy
doing it because he enjoys youand he would enjoy spending time
with you.
If you can imagine him beingpresent with you as you are

(25:34):
going about doing your thing,that's a great way to spend time
with Jesus and to connect to hisheart because you're inviting
him to connect to your heart aswell.
Okay.
So all of these are really greatthings.
I want to give you as well.
Just some additional things thatyou might be able to think about
as ways that will help youconnect your heart to the heart

(25:54):
of God.
Some of these things might bethings that you would do on a
daily basis.
Some of these things might bethings you would do on a
entirely different basis.
Maybe you do them weekly.
Maybe you do them every quarter,or maybe you just do them, not
on a schedule at all, but justas you find Mead for them,
Again, the point is about yourheart.
The point is to be connected toJesus.

(26:17):
You are United to him nowbecause of his death,
resurrection and Ascension.
And so in that union, you wantto be building up that
relationship.
So do whatever it takes.
There are some things that havehistorically within the church
been called spiritualdisciplines.
And these disciplines have justbeen ways that people who follow

(26:38):
Jesus have found helpful inbeing able to stay connected to
him.
They have been things that havebeen good practices, ways to be
able to, uh, get to know Jesus,to prioritize him in our daily
lives, to be able to engage withhim or maybe to help us
disengage from the world so thatwe can better pay attention to

(26:58):
God.
There's all kinds of differentpractices that can be used.
But as I give you thesepractices, what I want to really
draw attention to.
Is that the goal is not thepractices.
In the same way that you mightlearn a skill like playing the
piano or trying to be a reallygood basketball player.
You're going to learn somefundamentals, like playing your

(27:19):
scales on the instrument orlearning how to dribble
effectively so that you can getdown the court or learning how
to shoot a free throw so thatwhen time comes for you to do
that in a game, you can do itreliably.
These are all things that wemight call fundamentals and
they're really important, butthe point is not the
fundamentals.
The point is to be able to beexcellent at the skill, but you

(27:42):
need to develop the fundamentalsin order to be excellent.
It's kind of the same thing withthese spiritual disciplines.
The point is not to be good atthe disciplines.
The point is to connect withJesus and the disciplines might
be ways that would help you beable to connect with Jesus.
And to the extent that they arekeep doing them, get better at

(28:02):
them, make them a regular partof your life.
To the extent that they aren'thelpful, or maybe they aren't
helpful at the moment.
Feel the freedom to set themaside.
The discipline is of no valueother than in the way that it
connects you to Jesus.
So don't feel the pressure tohave to be good at or to, you
know, be an, be an expert orsomebody who is just really like

(28:24):
mastered at doing some of thesethings or feels good about the
fact that you do them regularlyand consistency.
There's no benefit to that.
Jesus, isn't looking forsomebody who just fasts all the
time for the sake of fasting orsomebody who gives generously
for the sake of just being ableto say that they gave a lot of
money.
He's looking for people who dothose things, because we love

(28:46):
him and we want to use thosethings to help us connect to
him.
Okay.
I think I've made the point.
Let me try to name some of thesedisciplines that will help you.
Let me talk about a few thingsthat would be called disciplines
of engagement.
These are things that we wouldactively do.
Uh, to help us engage with theheart of God.
Some things that are reallyimportant for just being able to
kind of directly connect to him.

(29:08):
And we've talked about some ofthem already, things like
reading and studying thescriptures, things like prayer.
Things like worship.
All of those are really goodexamples of disciplines of
engagement.
But there are some otherdisciplines like that as well.
That can be equally helpful.
One of them might be what wewould sometimes call communion,
or depending on your tradition,you might call it the Lord's

(29:29):
supper or the Eucharist.
This is an important disciplinefor helping us be able to
regularly take part.
In a meal or a feast.
Or some kind of partaking ofbread and wine.
That helps us remember Jesus andhis sacrifice for us.
And to connect to his heart.

(29:50):
For the sacrifice that he madefor the forgiveness of our sins
and for the new life that wewould be able to have in him.
Now, depending on your churchtradition, you might celebrate
that every day, every week,every month, every so often.
It's hard to know.
But look to your church to helpyou be able to find out when are
the best times to be able tocelebrate communion and how can

(30:11):
it help you to connect with theheart of God?
Related to communion is the ideaof community.
Community is a great way ofengaging, not only with the
Lord, but with others as well,being in a spiritual community
where you are talking about thethings of God and the way that
God is at work in your life isan incredible way to build each

(30:32):
other up and to build yourselfup, you can't help, but come
away, loving Jesus more andbeing connected to his heart.
These are fantastic ways ofbeing able to engage with the
heart of God.
Now, there are also somedisciplines of disengagement and
these are ways of being able tokind of.
Step back from all of thecraziness of life.

(30:55):
From the things that aredistractions and hurries from
the things that are temptationsand vices from even the people
who might be just a normal and agood part of your life, but at
times can hold you back fromconnecting with God, because
you've got so many obligationsto being with them and doing
things for them.

(31:15):
So disciplines of disengagementmight be things like solitude
and silence.
How can you get away and just beon your own with Jesus.
I recommend that your dailyreunion time try to be a time of
solitude as often as it can,even to the point that you don't
do it in places like coffeeshops or bookstores or anywhere

(31:35):
that you would have to putheadphones in in order to be
able to be alone.
Try to actually be in a placewhere you are alone, where
you're away from the noise andthe distraction where you're not
alone in a crowd, but actuallyalone.
Be alone and be with God.
Solitude is a great way of beingable to help yourself, let go of

(31:57):
all the other distractions.
Silence is another one thatcomes with that.
How can you just reduce thenoise in your life?
Can you go a whole day withoutnoise?
Ha.
That's really hard to do.
in our world, it will probablyrequire you to get away from
your normal, normal, dailyroutine to be able to do that.
But some time without all thenoise of modern living can

(32:20):
actually help you find a quietplace in your heart to be able
to connect with the Lord.
The scriptures are full ofexamples of how quiet is
necessary for hearing the voiceof God.
And so being able to do that isgoing to be really important for
disengaging from the world toconnect your heart to God.
Another really importantdiscipline of disengagement is

(32:42):
called fasting.
Fasting is just a season whereyou give up something for the
sake of being able to betterconnect with God in the absence
of that thing.
Now the thing that you're givingup, typically isn't going to be
something that's sinful, right?
If there's something sinful inyour life, you need to give it
up.
Period.
But often there are, you know,things that are not sinful that

(33:04):
can just take up space in ourlives in a way that becomes
inappropriate or just simplydistracting.
They are things that can justdraw us away from God, because
they force us to pay attentionto them.
Traditionally fasting has beenabout food.
Food is a good thing.
We, as humans are dependent onfood and we need it.

(33:24):
But it is also something thatcan get a place in our lives
that is bigger and moreimportant than it really should
be.
And so there might be times whenyou need to give up food
altogether for a short season,or you might need to give up
things like dessert or snacks oralcohol or any kind of other
thing that you just sort of overconsume, or that becomes a real

(33:47):
temptation for you forconsuming.
You might need a season whereyou give that up for a while.
As a way of being able to say, Iwant my love to be for God and
not for this other thing, thatcan be a source of comfort and
distraction for me.
A huge one in our world today isanything related to digital
technology.
For most of us, that's oursmartphones, but it can be any

(34:09):
other form of technology aswell.
Maybe it's binge TV or maybeit's video games, or maybe it's
just social media in whateverform you consume it.
All of those things are majordistractions.
So I do regularly recommend forall people who are following
Jesus.
That you take a fast fromdigital media on a regular
basis, maybe for a day, probablylonger than that has a way of

(34:32):
just disconnecting from thecraziness of the digital world.
And hopes of being able to helpyour heart kind of come up for
air and find a space to be ableto connect with Jesus.
All of those are good examplesof fasting of just taking
something that has occupied morespace in your life than it
really is meant to andsurrendering for a time so that

(34:53):
you can better connect to Godduring that season.
There are other disciplines aswell.
And like I mentioned, all kindsof things can be helpful.
You might want a discipline,like journaling that helps you
be able to remember all the waysthat God is at work in your
life, or you might want adiscipline, like Sabbath that
helps you do a better job ofresting and finding peace and

(35:15):
time to recover from thecraziness of your world.
Whatever it is, the disciplinesare mint again, to help your
heart be able to connect withthe heart of God.
They are meant to help you comemore close into the union.
That you have with Jesus.
You are meant to be United withGod fully and completely, but

(35:35):
until that day, It is our job tokeep working at growing that
union in this time.
To get as much of God into us aswe possibly can.
Jesus modeled the way he becamelike us so that we might become
like him.
And in this season and this erathat we're in right now as being

(35:56):
men who are Allegiant to him,but not yet completely United to
him.
We want to continue to try tobecome as much like him as we
possibly can.
And I hope that all of this hasgiven you some ideas on how best
to do that in a way that bothfeels masculine and like it can
actually be effective andsomething that you would want to

(36:16):
do.
So I want to challenge you withthat.
As I leave off on this episode,I want to challenge you to think
about how you can put a dailyreunion into practice with one
or two disciplines that willreally help you connect to the
heart of God.
What are the things that youthink would most help you be
able to do that based on whatyou have heard in this episode?

(36:39):
If you're watching this in aspace where you can leave a
comment, put a comment down thatsays, here's what I think I'm
going to do.
Or if you're just listening toit, feel free to send me an
email@infoatmanhoodtribes.com tolet me know how you're
processing this and what you'rethinking about doing for your
daily reunion time.
I hope that it helps you be ableto connect better to the heart
of God.

(37:00):
I look forward to talking to younext time here on the manhood
drive show.
We'll see you then.
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