Concerning The Times

Authentic Manhood in the End Times

• Howard Green • Season 3 • Episode 2

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In this conversation, we discuss the reality of spiritual warfare, emphasizing the active role of Satan in seeking to destroy men, marriages, families, and testimonies. I want to stress the seriousness of this battle and the need for discernment and vigilance as we live out authentic manhood in the end times.

Show Notes:  I highly recommend books, teaching, and videos by:

Dave Hunt - Dave's teaching can be found on YouTube and at the ministry site of The Berean Call. He went to be with the Lord in 2011.

Roger Oakland - Roger is the founder of Understand The Times. His books and teachings are on his ministry site, and teaching videos are also on YouTube.

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Connect with us at: concerningthetimes.com

Howard Green (00:01.518)
Hello friends, welcome to Concern of the Times. I'm Howard Green. I'm so glad you're with us today for the video and the podcast. Today's episode is entitled Authentic Manhood in the End Times, and I have wanted to make this audio and video for a while now. We decided to do this episode because others and I feel that there's an actual war on men that's happening now in our culture and our society. And I gotta tell you,

Although much comes from Hollywood and other places, that's not where it originates. Dear friends, the war on men originates from the pits of hell, and the battle is fought by Satan himself against you, against me. So here's the thing. If you're a Christian, if you're a sister joining in, a wife, mom, daughter, grandmom, aunt,, cousin, girlfriend, or friend, stay tuned. This is for you, too, because basically, you're going to see from a male point of view what we're up against.

and what we're fighting against and how we can reclaim authentic biblical manhood in the end times.

If you're a brother in the Lord, I'd love you to stay tuned. I'd love you to stay tuned because all of us are fighting this battle at the end of the day. Whether you know it or not, we're in a battle. So here's the thing, whether you're an older man, whether you're in your midlife, late midlife, like me, late 50s, whether you're in your 40s or you're 30-something, 20-something,

You're a college-age young man. You're a high school young man. This message is for you, too. I want men of all ages to stay tuned because what we will talk about today is vital to your life and your life in the Lord. And I think that's an understatement because what we're going to talk about today has eternal implications for all of us.

Howard Green (02:03.372)
So, as we get started, please think about the war we're involved in. And by the way, before we go any further, if you're a non-Christian and you just happened upon this podcast, I'd love for you to stick around today because men of all races, religions, countries of origin, wherever you come from, there's a war on your soul too. A war against you, your soul, your family. It's a war against your life being waged against you by the...

Enemy who Satan, who wants to destroy you. He has it in for all of us, by the way, but we know as Christians as believers who generally tune into shows like this that there is an answer; there is ready help in times of trouble, a present help in time of trouble, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ so no matter what you're going through today even if you don't believe in Jesus by the time we finish this podcast I'm going to give you a reason to believe okay so let's continue.

What is this authentic manhood in the end times, and how do we reclaim it? Well, first of all, we must understand that a battle is being waged against men. And yes, it's a widespread cultural narrative, a societal narrative. Comes from the media, pop culture, and society in general.

It goes along these lines. It says that all men are the same and we all act the same way. We all do the same things. We think the same things. We buy the same things. We have the same types of marriages. We have the same desires, but that's not true. And one of the things that I want to do today is show you actually from the Bible, from scripture, why that's not true and how men,

who named the name of Jesus, men who are Christians can live differently, can think and act circumspectly in a world that is going headlong into hell and towards destruction.

Howard Green (04:00.398)
What do I mean by this? You think about, I think about the last 30, maybe 40 years. Even as a young man, I think about the culture war we're involved in. And I hate to use the word culture war because it's conscious of all sorts of wars on Hollywood and boycotts and marching against certain shows and certain things and all that. But it's more profound. It's deeper than a culture war. This is a soul-level war

against men. But you think about, I'm gonna use television, for example, the 70s and 80s when I was a young man, a boy in the 80s, a teenager, and some of the shows that were out. I'm thinking about maybe the Jeffersons or Cheers or shows like that where men were portrayed in specific ways. You think about All in the Family, different shows. All these shows,

portrayed men in a particular light. It's a very dim light, but we'll continue. And then, as we transition to the 80s, you think about shows like boy, Everybody Loves Raymond, the King of Queens, married with children. How are these men portrayed? How are these men portrayed? These family men, these married men, are portrayed really as chauvinistic, bumbling buffoons with hedonistic

habits and even sexually immoral behavior. And I used to watch some of those shows and would see Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, or Married with Children and think, in the world? And I know on the surface level that those shows were meant to be entertaining. They call them sitcoms situational comedies, and they are intended to be entertaining and even sort of spoof real life. But the problem is, as I grew up,

to become a young man, I would watch people around me, and I don't mean people in my family or church, but I would watch people out in the culture and society. And I'd talk to some of these people, these would be coworkers, these would be friends in college, friends in high school, and I would think, man, I don't see a big disconnect between the way these men are acting, these young men are acting, and what I see on TV. Like I said, hedonistic, sexually charged, immoral, know, locker room type humor. And here's the thing.

Howard Green (06:29.47)
As weird as that was, you think about the transition from the 1990s, 80s and 90s into 2000s. And what did you have then? The father and the clown was replaced with a domineering, violent, brutal man. You say, what are you talking about, Howard? Well, think about it. And shows like The Sopranos and Mad Men and Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and shows like that. went from the joking sort of weird buffoon and to men that are basically brutal.

Ruthless and just violent men. And they're betrayed as real men, the tough guy. You we're gonna go out and we're gonna get you. We're gonna find you. And this is a deal that's going down and it's bad. This whole underworld, these undertones of this underworld, I mean, I would just watch young men and men in general talk about these shows in droves. People that I knew, I've known even in church, even in Bible studies, even in small groups. Wow, I just see that last episode.

man, can you believe that show? And I'm thinking, no, I didn't, no, I don't want to. Not because I'm better, but because I don't want that type of nonsense that culture says is a real man emulated anywhere in my life. I don't have to go down that road, you know? I don't think that's what a real man is. And now we come to this time and we have shows like, I mean, what I would call is men of...

Men of seared conscience, of ruthless, cutthroat type pragmatism, and just this, it's My Way the Highway type men and shows like Secession, and maybe House of Cards, shows like that definitely sort of epitomize this type of time right now, where it's all about me.   We're in the generation of selfies, right? It's all about me, and let me tell you about

What these shows do is they really emulate the God of self. See, here's the thing. I wanna go beyond the term culture war because what I think is a lot of times as, and not just Christians, I would even say just moral people around the country and indeed around the world, they would see shows like that. And when I was a kid, here's the thing. In the 80s,

Howard Green (08:55.744)
there were these massive Christian-type boycotts against Disney just came out with this movie,e and they said this character is this. So we have to boycott Disney, and we're going to give up our season passes. We're not going to watch Disney anymore. And boy, did you hear what Coca-Cola did? And they sponsored this. We're not going to drink Coke anymore. And Pepsi Pepsi did the same thing. So now we got to drink water. A lot of these boycotts and culture wars were

Promulgated and fought by men like this is way back when by men like Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and people like Pat Robertson of the 700 Club.

Howard Green (09:38.198)
Am I saying that the motive behind some of those movements to get the filth and the garbage out of our TVs and the companies and being force-fed to our families was wrong? Or the motivation wasn't wrong? But here's a problem I have with all this. This isn't a cultural battle to win. It's a personal war to lose. And let me explain. If we go out,

and try to fight Rome or Hollywood. What you're doing is like a temporary bandage. This world is run and governed by the prince and the power of the air. People go headlong and refuse to believe the truth and go into destruction. They're the ones that are; a lot of them, by and large, are making the entertainment, commercials, ads, and things like that.

Because we will quickly say that if it's not a culture war, what is it? What it is, this is a spiritual battle because if there was somebody doing something overtly horrible, like I'm going to put pornography here in front of your kids. Well, I'm not going to support them anymore. Of course not. But if somebody who said this and somebody woke up, or somebody's this or somebody's that look, we have bigger fish to fry. And what I mean by that is it takes enough

energy and effort to live a godly, holy life, to go out and win souls, to go out and change one person at a time, to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel, and then to pick and fight every little thing that comes out of Hollywood and comes out of Washington. That's a tiring job. You're not gonna win. And I'll tell you why I say that. Because you're not gonna change Hollywood or culture. These things are not gonna change. This world is not gonna change until Jesus comes back.

It sits on the throne in Jerusalem and rules and reigns there with perfect righteousness. Amen? So, and I'll tell you why it's not going to work because if we go try to fight Hollywood, we try to fight Washington or someone else and essentially try to bring America back to Jesus, so to win the world for Jesus and change culture, and that's why we do it, it's not going to work. Dr. John Barnett, an excellent teacher and a wonderful man of God, runs a ministry called Discover the Book Ministries.

Howard Green (12:03.01)
DTBM, if you ever get a chance, make sure you check that out. It's a fantastic teaching resource and an excellent channel he also has on YouTube, but it's John Barnett. Dr. John Barnett says this. He said, trying to fight Rome, essentially trying to fight Hollywood and make this world a more moral place. It is almost like going to the Hoover Dam; there is a giant crack in there, and I'm paraphrasing, but I'm trying to find that big crack in the Hoover Dam. That's just gushing water The Colorado River, know, just pushing through it

and take in a little bandaid you put on your knee and try to put that on that massive stream of water. It's not gonna work. You're not gonna change it. Friends, our battle isn't with Hollywood, isn't with Washington. It isn't with groups of people. It's with Satan. He's the one who steals, kills, and destroys. He's the one we have a problem with. But let's continue.

So it's not really, and I hesitated before at the beginning of the podcast and video to call it a culture war, because as believers, as Christians, as people that love morality and goodness and righteousness and truth, by the way, we're not really in a cultural war. We're in a war for souls. We're in a war for individual people that are being dragged headlong, as I said before, by the prince in the power of the air towards their destruction.

But when we talk about men, and I talk about being a man, brother to brother men, I'm talking to you about what it means in this life, in this time, to fight a spiritual battle. What is the battle? Again, like I said at the beginning of the podcast in the video, the battle is saying essentially that all men are the same. We look at the same things, think the same things, behave the same way, or do the same things, and it's wrong. It's wrong. Let me give you a few examples of the nonsense that was fed by this world.

And again, my job is to organize a boycott and get all the stuff off the air. My job is to redirect our thinking and behavior toward the word of God. But let me give you some examples of what I would say the world is force-feeding us. You think about award shows in Hollywood. You think about many shows and sitcoms that are coming out now, different TV series that are coming out, and movies.

Howard Green (14:28.108)
Award shows, wardrobe malfunctions. Well, we have the Super Bowl coming up this Sunday, right? I mean, not like football; I'm into football, but here's the thing. You think about cheerleaders, you think about halftime shows, you think about wardrobe malfunctions. I'm telling you, it is not what it used to be because literally, I can be, and this is when my sons were younger; I'm almost an empty nester now; they're both essentially out of the house, but.

I'd be sitting there watching a TV show or even a Super Bowl with one or both of my sons. And they're showing this incredible touchdown, this extraordinary play. And it's like, you're like, yay, this is awesome. Then, the next minute, you see a half-dressed young woman. Or you're sitting there watching some of these cool commercials on the Super Bowl. Some of those commercials are cool, by the way. They're fun and creative. All of a sudden, they cut away to a car commercial. It has two people that are basically...

simulating sex on the TV screen, and they're half dressed, and you know the point I'm making, and you gotta you. You have to turn and turn away from that stuff. Well, I gotta tell you there's a time that I would turn away and A time that I would leave the room now. I turn the stuff off. I am NOT gonna be entertained by that if I get to go from quarter to quarter and shut the TV off, and even during the halftime show, I'll do it and again understand my heart. This isn't about

my anger against the NFL or anger against Disney or Coke or Pepsi or Waterloo, whoever fills in the blank, whatever company it is. I'm not here to fight a cultural war. I'm just here to say that we don't have to live the way most men live in this world and fill our minds with garbage because you get garbage in, you get garbage out. So, I turn a lot of the stuff off now.

And I know what we face as men. I know exactly what we face. We go, we go into our workplaces. We go into our offices. Whether you're a high schooler or a young man of college age, we go on campus. And you got a buddy or a co-worker. Like, hey, man, I got this great joke. You know what happens? So this guy walks in the bar before you know it. He's dropping F-bombs and S-bombs and GDs and all the other stuff. And listen, I know how it is, and I know how it was, especially when I was younger.

Howard Green (16:50.902)
You give the half chuckle, an uncomfortable laugh, but you know what? Why do that? We do that because we don't want to seem like we're judgmental or uncool or unapproachable.

Howard Green (17:05.506)
I thought about that over the years, and I'm thinking, why do I have to be the one to capitulate? I'm not here to be hateful to that person or down to that person, but I want there to be an uncomfortable tension. But no, I don't think this is good. It's not right. That's not what I want to laugh at. That's not what I think is cool. And if I make them uncomfortable, it's not on me but on them. Do I love them and care for them? Absolutely. But am I going to sit there and play the game and do the half giggle, and yeah, that was funny? No, I'm not going to do it.

Because the sexual joke you laugh at is no worse than the joking about someone's religion or someone's race. They're all equally worthless, and they're all nasty. We don't laugh at stuff like that.

But again, we have other situations too. Think about how many times, men, I'm talking to you, think about how many times you have walked into a job or office situation or maybe on your campus, in your high school or your college or somewhere. And the men will start talking about a particular lady in the office, a pretty lady, someone people find attractive.

Here come all the talks and the innuendo, sexual innuendo and the secrets and boy, you know, if I wasn't married, boy this, and they start approaching her, making her feel uncomfortable.

And I wonder to myself, would they act like that if their wife was there? And if they're Christians, would they act like that if the Lord was there? Because, in reality, he is there. And how does that make that lady feel? And it's the same way in high schools and colleges. You got the girl on campus, you got the girl in your class, and guys say things, locker room talk, and it's easy, it's easy. I'm not saying it's right, but it's easy to sit there, and I get it. Yeah, she's this, she's that, and boy, it's wrong.

Howard Green (18:52.928)
It's wrong on every level because what we do is we make her an object instead of God's creation, a unique woman created by the Lord, and we make her an object.

You know, I could tell you a thousand different examples.

Life-size posters in the malls, you know, magazines things on the magazine rack. You're checking out in the grocery store, and I'm not here to be hypersensitive. I'm here to warn you as a brother and as a fellow Christian that we are in a battle which satan will use anything he can to come against you whether it's whether it's sexual morality whether it's sexualized jokes whether it's

Whether it's greed or a sense of power over people, We're not just talking about sex; it could be money. I mean, I'm talking about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, right? Right out of the book of John. So, right out of the John's Epistle. So yeah, the lust of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life. That's what many of those shows, not only that, we call that not real life. This is what real life celebrates. You're...

successful, you're the man, and you have money, and you have the woman, and you do that. It's craziness that we should emulate because we're force-fed that this is what success looks like. But let me tell you, This is not a battle with Hollywood. We can't win with sheer grit. We're not going to change Hollywood. We're not going to change the world, and hear me out when I say that not the sense of this world going headlong Towards hell, and it's gonna get worse and worse by the way,The Bible says it before things get better when Jesus comes back.

Howard Green (20:41.304)
So what do we change, and who do we change? Well, first of all, we change ourselves. You can't win the battle with sheer grit. And let me give you an example. Galatians 2.2. I'm sorry, Galatians 22. The Bible says it's no longer me who lives but Christ who lives within me. You say, and Howard, what does that mean? I can't win this battle against the enemy on my own. I want to be an authentic man, know strong manhood in the end times, and full of integrity and

truth, but I can't do it on my own. Well, you're right. I can't do it alone either. We need Christ living inside us. He's the hope of glory. He's the one who's gonna help you live across the finish and move across the finish line. It's not I who lives, Paul said; Christ who lives within me. And then so, how do we do this? Do you think about what Romans? 12 to says it says do not be and listen to this very closely, men. You could probably quote these front words and backward, but listen to the power of these words

Paul says not to conform to this world but to be transformed, remade, and renewed daily by the renewal of your mind. That's sanctification. We're being transformed. Are we what we're going to be? No, we're being transformed from glory to glory. Amen. Are we what we were? Not. We're being transformed by the renewal of our mind. How does this happen? It happens through

reading our word daily, studying God's word, not giving them a good 30 seconds, and reading your verse of the day on a little piece of paper. That means getting into your Bible and reading it to see what the Lord has to say to you, to me. That means spending time in prayer, praying with the word open, seeking the Lord, asking Him to speak to you, opening it up to your heart, and see what He has to say to you. That's allowing the Holy Spirit to basically...

Live through you, take over your thoughts and habits, and surrender to the lord, saying lord, You're right. It is no longer I who live but you who live within me. You live through me. You help me resist, and you help me do this. You help me do that You help me live a holy life for your glory; by the way, It's not easy. It's not easy now is the yielding part easy It can be easy if we do yield to the lord if we allow him to live through us

Howard Green (23:00.674)
But here's the thing. You see, I don't want to get to the point where you say, Howard, good video, good podcast. I get what you're saying, man. I'm going to try harder. I don't want you to try harder. I want you to yield. I want you to give way to the Lord because, and I pick it on Mr. Rogers, but this is not like Mr. Rogers where you get up in the morning, you sit down at your, on your bench, you put your shoes on, put your socks on, put your sweater on, your jacket on.

Put your backpack on, whatever you say. By golly, I'm gonna be a godly man. I will do it no matter what because I'm gonna tell you right now: it doesn't work that way. Men, you have an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan despises you. Christian or non-Christian, he wants to kill you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy your marriage and your family. If you're a Christian, he wants to destroy your testimony. If you're a-

pastor, preacher, teacher, evangelist, whoever he wants to destroy your ministry, he wants to kill everything about you. This is not play time. We're not playing church and we're not playing religion. And that comes right out of John 10, 10, when Jesus, just as the words of Jesus, the gentle shepherd from Galilee, he said in no unspoken terms, he said the enemy, Satan comes to steal and kill and destroy. And let tell you something about Satan. He's not into compromise or prisoner exchanges. He wants to go all the way to the end of the train track with that.

Okay, so it's that bad.

Howard Green (24:29.196)
The spirit has to lead us. We're in a war for our souls, individually, and for our families.

Howard Green (24:38.892)
I hesitated to put this part into the podcast and the video. Still, I think it needs to be said because I believe in years past, some people have done some good work when it comes to men, men's ministry, sort of calling men together in the sense of iron sharpening iron and being in solidarity together for the Lord to support one another. I think that, listen, I'm all for that.

Men's Bible studies, men's groups, amen. Let's go, let's do it, right? But the problem is over the years, and hear me out, because I think the reason, not all the results, I don't see them all, but a lot of the results bear out the fact that...

Well, look, in the 90s, we had Promise Keepers. I'm not gonna speak ill of anybody that started that or people that were in that or if you went to that or I went to that, that's not it. And then in the 2000s, I would say around 2000, what was it, 12 or 13, we had different conferences like Act Like Men. I'm not saying that those conferences were inherently wrong or bad. I would say that some fruit probably came out of some of those conferences.

Whether it was promise keepers or act like men, so I'm not going against your favorite preacher, your favorite movement. Don't take this the wrong way. But I feel like, and I feel like I'm being led of the Lord to say this, that we always have to see the fruit that comes as a result of these movements. I'm sure that, and I would say that given the numbers that attended these events, that a certain number of men had to come to saving faith in Jesus. The Bible says that his word will not return void, right? So.

But we're looking at the big picture. And by and large, I remember hearing about some of these meetings and even going to some of these meetings myself and thinking, well, all the hands raised in a spotlight and were in the spotlight and sort of the pep rally mentality. After that, people go back to their churches, back to their families, back to their lives. You might have taken an unsaved and a non-Christian friend with you. Look, I I read Barna Group.

Howard Green (26:53.262)
I read polls, Christian Post, Christianity Today, all these different polls, the Barna Research, and other people do that. Look, in the 90s and 2000s, Christian men, and even up to this day, Christian men using pornography that includes preachers and teachers and evangelists hasn't gone down; it's increased. The numbers don't lie. Pornography usage in the church among men has increased. And that's the people.

And then, of course, even the preachers will admit it. It's not what's not revealed here, we don't see. And then the number of broken marriages and the number of moral failings and all these different things that come up, they're not decreasing, they're increasing. So why am I against some of these big movements? I have to say at the end of the day, what did they produce? I'll give you an example because again, I'm talking about the whole.

pep rally mentality at some of these meetings. I'm going to tell you straight up, listen, I went to the Act Like Men Conference here in Indianapolis back in 2013. Please don't quote me on the exact date. It was probably 2013. But we had many guys come into town, big-name preachers, and you can do your research; you know who they are. But I remember thinking he's always in that crowd. And you can't make this stuff up. I mean, I remember the back-slapping; hey, bro, good to see you. Hey man. And all the different preachers up there. Hey man.

And some of these guys I liked for a while. I some of these guys, I would say, well, that's a man of God, man, they're bringing it. But here's the thing: We all must be accountable to the Lord for ourselves. I'm not coming at these guys. What I'm saying is a lot of the theatrics and showmanship and the back-slapping, the good old boys club, and even the sectarianism involved in the pep rally type, know, it was weird. Then, on top of that, I got the, and I wear a leather jacket occasionally, by the way, but.

the leather jacket wearing and the chains and the cool biker mentality. And I like bikers too, by the way, and so does the Lord. It was this whole, if you're not dressing like this if you're not acting like this, act like men, if you're not looking like this, you're not like this, you're not playing the part, then you're not acting like a biblical man. And it got to one point, on one of the days of the conference, that one of the speakers, I'm not going to name the name because it doesn't matter at this point. Still, one of the speakers said, you know, talking about how we treat our families, you must quit crying, moaning, and complaining.

Howard Green (29:21.452)
He dropped the B word for complaining, drop your blanking B*******, and all the other stuff. You know, I don't have virgin ears. I lived in a military base for a couple of years and have lived in the world world, business world, and secular world. It's not that someone dropped the B bomb on me or something like that. But you know what I left with? I left with thinking, you know, with all the leather jackets and the chains and the B words and the tough guy stuff and the camaraderie and all that, I'm thinking.

If we gotta be like that to act like men, that's not the kind of man I wanna be. I can't find it here (the Bible). Am I saying go the other extreme and be effeminate and touchy-feely and not what I mean by that is like uber gentle and you're afraid of things? I don't mean that either. I don't mean a softy, but what is a true man of God? Well, the Bible's full of men who are strong and like that.

Confident, godly, humble, merciful, gracious men. Jesus is our chief shepherd, right? He's the one we should emulate. But I went away from that conference and thought, that's not what a gospel-centered, Christ-honoring, loving man is, a strong man. You can try acting like that man you'd heard about maybe at Promise Keepers or Act Like Men.

or act like men, I'm thinking, no, that's not it. Did I say there was no biblical teaching there? Of course not; there were some. But I left that and listened, the results bear this out. You could see the ministries that are destroyed, you could see the churches that are destroyed, you could see men that used to walk with the Lord. I'm talking about men in the pews, I'm talking about lay people that are no longer walking with the Lord and people that are just doing their own thing and they're floating through Christian cruise control, floating through life and it's like, that's not what this is all about.

So what changes? What changes? Well, I'll tell you this.

Howard Green (31:23.052)
Beyond iron sharpening iron, beyond your small group, your men's study, your men's ministry, your personal time with the Lord, what does this take? Men, this takes total submission to the Lord God. We don't worship God or live for God, just at a man's event, a men's sort of function or conference or church on Sunday or men's group on Wednesday night, or with our Bible study. When the conferences are over,

The Bible study doors are closed when your small group's over and your men's ministry You're apart and you're maybe you're on a business trip Or maybe you're in front of your computer at night or maybe you're alone Maybe you're in a hotel room and you decide what you're watch for watch for TV That's where the battle is Let me ask you this What sort of man are you? What sort of man are you? When you're in hotel room by yourself

when you're in your own room by yourself? When you're in front of the computer at night and people are asleep? When you're at work? What sort of man are you? And I'm asking myself this too, are you the same man behind closed doors you are out in the open that you even, that you present to your wife or your pastor, or if you are a pastor or the elders, whoever?

Young men, are you the same Christian, godly young man you are at church, at youth group, at a young man's Bible study that you are at your Christian function on campus that you are outside of those things? These are tough questions because I have to answer these myself and I have to always be aware that we're not living for ourselves, we're living for the Lord. We have to, I mean, the bottom line is this.

I even have to ask myself, and this is a daily thing as a Christian man, where do my eyes take me? Where do my thoughts take me? Now the eyes are one thing. What did Job say? Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes that won't look upon a virgin, won't look upon a young woman. Essentially you've got that whole, what do they call it? Oogling or leering with lust, like, wow, check her out, or something like that. Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes. But man, this goes beyond the eyes into the thought life.

Howard Green (33:45.206)
because I've been around for a long time, and the ability to rationalize sin is great when it comes to men. I've been out, I've worked with guys before, and you see a young lady come along and like, and the guy's like just looking, I mean, looking and looking, looking, looking, looking. He's got the big ring on his finger, and he's like, and I had one time where the guy professed to be a Christian, so I felt like I could say this to him. said, man, what's up with that? He goes, come on, Howard. He goes, "You can look, but you can't touch. And immediately, I'm thinking back and I mentioned, I'm thinking back to Jesus words. Talk about committing adultery. said, you know, talk about committing adultery. If you've looked at a woman to lust after her with lust, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. 

So it's not just the eyes, men, it's our thought life. And we talked about it a few minutes ago, right? Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And the Bible also says to take some thoughts into captivity, right? No, the Bible says to take

every single thought into captivity. What does that mean? That means as I'm thinking through my, going through my thought process, I'm deciding how I'm gonna respond, what I'm gonna do, it all has to go through the lens of this book in the Holy Spirit that I'm filled with. How am I gonna respond with my eyes and my thoughts? Not just when it comes to women, brothers, when it comes to money, when it comes to charity, when it comes to how we treat our families, when it comes to how we treat our wives, this should be

the governing factor in our life, correct? So, I had to come to the point when I quit rationalizing my sins. I dealt with this stuff, I'm telling you from all openness and humility, brothers, I dealt with this stuff for years in my past life. And then I got saved, and it was on Christian cruise control doing this whole roller coaster thing. Half in, half out doesn't work. I'm telling you, it does not work. My ability, our ability as men,

At least for me in the past, rationalizing sin, and I can still do it, is amazing. God,  he understands. He knows my heart, knows my flesh. Uh-uh. We don't want to rationalize sin anymore. We have to come to the point when we see our sin the way God sees it, only when I repented, and only when we repent and submit that part of our life, by the way, all parts of our life, to God. That's when I got freedom, and that's when you can get freedom. So...

Howard Green (36:10.348)
This is a serious issue. God doesn't want just part of our life. He wants all of our life. This goes way beyond behavior modification because, as I said, we can be a Christian version of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Excuse me, there are seven habits of highly effective people for Christians. Because a lot of men, and I'm speaking as a brother, you, me,  a lot of men, will want to be respected. They want to do something noble. They want to be dignified and well-spoken of. That's the primary motivation.

Okay, but it would not last in the long run It won't last. You have to literally surrender your whole life to the Lord; the Lord God doesn't be Lord and part of your life. He wants to be Lord all your life. That's your finances. That's your sex life. That's your desires. That's everything that makes up our provision for our families and family life. That's that's how the Lord works He wants to be Lord over all over life. Not part. He won't take any less by the way, it won't work

He will help you. He helps me as we yield to him and give all of ourselves to him. And by the way, he searches, Proverbs says, the Bible says, the Lord searches the hearts of men, the hearts of people with a lamp. He sees everything. So we're not here to play religious games. We must be the same man everywhere we go and behind closed doors. Amen. We have to be consistent. How do we do this? How do we do this?

Well, there are a lot of ways to do this. The primary way though is like I said before, we have to stay in our Bibles, read our Word, we have to pray often, pray every day. We have to be doers of the Word, not just hearers. We have to be full of the Holy Spirit. If you're a Christian, you already have that. He's living inside of you. Now it's time to yield, glorify, and honor the Lord in everything you do from work to bed, from morning to evening, the whole time.

Howard Green (38:13.59)
It's in the yielding friends; there is no other way. This battle is fought on our knees and by reading the word and by living a godly life. The Bible says, mean, all through it. Obedience, obedience, obedience. And then we hear the famous song, trust and obey. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus but trust and obey. So we talk about the, I'll do this with our lips, but we have to be men of action too and actually live out these godly lives. What are the results of living out
authentic manhood in the end times? Well, look at our wives.  They will feel valued, loved, and cherished. And by the way, they won't feel like they're a cut below the competition. You're not staring at other women. You don't have roaming eyes. You can always check out the cheerleaders on TV looking at the giant ads.

Howard Green (39:29.676)
daughters and sons and wives, does this always work out perfectly in real life? No. Sometimes you have broken relationships; sometimes you have estrangements, and sometimes you have broken families. I get all that. Listen, life's not perfect. I understand that very well. So let me say this: but what is it supposed to do in the life of your daughter? Our daughter will feel safe. That's important to me. And they'll feel loved and know the qualities to look for in a real man.

A godly man, a man that'll put them before anyone else. How about our sons? And I love this. Our sons will see what a real man is and see what a real man does. And they see that their dad, stepdad, uncle, granddad, or younger brother gets their marching orders from right here, right from the Lord. That's what a real man is, not what's shown out there and on the tube. That's what a real man is.

Howard Green (40:29.292)
Brothers, men, I want you to be equipped and be ready to live a life that's pleasing to the Lord, a life that glorifies His name, and a life, and your life, that longs to hear these words, best words you'll ever hear,  can't wait to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. That's what I'm living for. That's what I'm living for. I don't want to emulate the fake real men we see on TV.

The fake real men, the tough guys, the crazy guys, the murderers, the drug lords, or the goofy people like the Ray Romanos, or the people on King of Queens, or the dugs on King of Queens, and people like that. I want to emulate real men. You think about people like Joseph, Job, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Stephen, Peter, James, Paul, Timothy, and, of course, Jesus. These are real men who lived boldly for God's glory.

And you think, man, that was a long time ago. What about men closer to our time? Well, how about these? men like Spurgeon and Matthew Henry? And that's still a long time ago, but let's go a little closer. They have been like A.W. Tozer, people like Keith Green, right? People like Dave Hunt and Roger Oakland. I mean, I can go on and on and on.

and talk about men, some men that are still here, some men that have gone on to be at the Lord, but men that I would love for you to read some of their books and emulate. And I'll go through a few of those most recent names, men like Dave Hunt, men like A.W. Tozer, and men like Keith Green. And, of course we have Spurgeon and Matthew Henry and people like that, but these are real men to me. These are men that I want to emulate, men that I want to live like, right? So I know the battle won't be easy. I know it will get much worse, but it gets better.

Study His word, and be spirit-led because the darkness is thicker before Jesus returns. The Bible says things will get much worse and wax colder and colder before the Lord returns. But we can live out authentic Christian manhood in a world where men, in a world that's going headlong into eternity and into hell and into destruction. Very quickly, if you happen upon this podcast and you're not a believer,

Howard Green (42:46.836)
Men i'm going to speak to you all people i'm going to speak to you but especially to these brothers He's these friends that have come along I want to tell you this that that that a lot of people a lot of religious leaders over history have promised a lot of things But only one man has been resurrected from the dead only one man has come back from the grave and therefore because he said He was and is the lord of the universe because he said he was and is god and the son of god He demands my attention his tomb is empty

Jesus is alive. I would plead with you, man to man, friend to friend, to explore the claims of Jesus for yourself. If I were you, I would go into the Gospel of John, get a Bible, go to the Gospel of John, and read that for yourself. Then, I pray and ask God, if these things are true and if what Jesus said was real, make it evident to me. My friend that the Lord will not say no to is a prayer. He will respond to it. So,

Yes, the ultimate man of all times is Jesus, the God-man. He showed us what authentic manhood is. We have a chance to do this together. If you have any questions about this ministry or anything we've discussed today, please write me. Go into the comments section. You can go to concerningthetimes.com, and our tab says to contact us. So click on that tab, go down, and give us a prayer request, as well as thoughts, comments, questions, and ideas for new episodes.

Whatever you want to hear about. I would love that. And like I said, the website is concerningthetimes.com. And also, friends, if you could do one more thing before we go, before we wrap up this episode, if you remember to like,e comment,t and subscribe to our podcast, that would help us out. What that does for us, and I'm asking you friend to friend, what that does for us is it raises our ratings and the algorithms and helps us get the gospel out to more people, and equip Christians to live

in light of eternity, to live godly lives in light of eternity. So have a great week. We'll see you again in another episode of Concern of the Times in a week or so. Have a great day and God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye.