Into the Fire: Powered by Dream City Church
In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego stood for truth in a culture, and against a government that was hostile to their values. They were willing to go into the fire if necessary. God didn't spare them the FROM the furnace but He was with them IN the fire. In today's culture, standing for truth may be challenging. The world around us is hostile to the Word of God and to biblical values. But we are called to be salt and light. (Matthew 5: 13-16) God has placed us at this time in history on purpose and for a purpose. Join us as we get better equipped to address civics and culture from a biblical worldview.
Into the Fire: Powered by Dream City Church
Make Men Manly Again w/ David Weaver
This week, Debi and Sam are joined by David Weaver, volunteer leader at Dream City Church
David, Sam and Debi talk about David's journey of coming to know the Lord in his 40s. He talks about how other men in the church modeled
what it means to be a father and a husband, something he had never really seen before.
David, Sam and Debi also talk about the term "toxic masculinity" and why we need strong, godly men in society. We need men to be a strong presence in homes, with children and in society or society becomes unbalanced. But, those men must be sanctified by spending time with God and in healthy relationships with other Christian men.
To Find out more about Dream City Church https://dreamcitychurch.us
Please follow Into the Fire podcast on your favorite podcast platform, give us a 5-star rating and leave a review!
Hey everybody, Pastor Luke Barnett here, and I want to just invite you all to be part of our Easter trilogy this year. This year is going to be off the charts. It's the greatest year that we've ever put together. Week one of our Easter trilogy on April 6th is called The God of the Second Chance. If you know people who just need a second chance at life, invite them to come with you. Week two of the trilogy is April 13th, and it's called The God of No Regret. If you know people who are living, being weighed down by great regret. This is a weekend for them. It's also our big Easter egg hunt and just a wonderful, wonderful weekend. And then finally, on the April 20th is Easter Sunday, and it's a brand new illustrated sermon called The God of the Cave. God does some of his greatest work in caves. Now, the Friday before that's our big Good Friday service, and if you've been to our Good Fridays you know that it is absolutely spectacular. About 2,500 people outside underneath our shade structure and beautiful music and a time of reflection upon the cross. So, hey, what do you say? Come join us this year for the Easter Trilogy. It will change your life. God bless you guys. Love y'all.
SPEAKER_03:Today's topic is make men manly again. We're joined today by our special guest, Dave Weaver. Thank you for being here with us. Thank
SPEAKER_02:you for having me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So can you just introduce yourself a little bit and tell us a little bit about yourself?
SPEAKER_02:My name's David Weaver. I am married. Most of you guys might know my wife, Monica, around this campus quite often, six, seven days a week. Two children. We've been together 25 years. We've known each other 25 years this month and been married 21. And yeah, it's been a great journey.
UNKNOWN:I mean,
SPEAKER_02:Creeping up on 10 years that we've been hanging out here.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. And how old are your kids?
SPEAKER_02:Michael is 16. And Hannah will be 21 May 1st.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. Amazing. And how long have you guys been at Dream City?
SPEAKER_02:We're creeping up on... Nine, 10 years. Nine, 10 years.
SPEAKER_03:That's awesome. And what ministries have your family been involved in since you guys have been here?
SPEAKER_02:All of them.
SPEAKER_03:All of them.
SPEAKER_02:All 887 of
SPEAKER_03:them. We have quite a lot here. I think Sam and I probably are that way too. Pick a ministry, yep, been there.
SPEAKER_02:We joke we live here. So the children's ministry when they were younger, the youth, the high school, now the young adults. Micah's part of the women's ministry. I'm part of the men's ministry. We're both part of the marriage ministry. If you come here any particular day and you get a coffee, those are probably my kids in the cafe.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. That's awesome. So very integrated. But we were talking before, and that always hasn't been your life, right? Your day-to-day. No. Right. And which I... think is something so powerful, your testimony, and so I'm really excited to get into that. Can you tell us what kind of prompted you to, I guess, walk into the Dream City doors? Or what led you to
SPEAKER_02:come to that? Yes. So where should we start, really?
SPEAKER_03:Wherever you want.
SPEAKER_02:You know, probably... the sadness and the hatred in my heart, and I needed something different. You know, in 2010, Monica and my family went through a pretty devastating business failure. You know, at the time, I didn't realize that God was putting me through a seven-year tribulation because that's how long we fought it. And it wasn't a criminal or anything. It was... I got wrapped up into a business deal, and I knew or I should have known what the other people were doing. So after that long battle, I'm sitting in the courtroom, and behind the court, behind the judge, there's the Arizona placard. And my dad had just passed away, and I had a stone and a prayer card in my hand. And to that point, never been to church, wasn't raised in church. You know, parents... Monica didn't come from a great background either. Her mom's fantastic. You know, some issues there with fatherlessness. And I was a fatherless home and she was a fatherlessness home. So we really never had a great example of what a father looked like. Or
SPEAKER_03:what a marriage looked
SPEAKER_02:like. Or what a marriage looked like. My mom was married... Three times, two different men. One disappeared, the other one was an alcoholic, an abuser. So when we grew up, that stepfather image was not any better than the vision of what I had of my dad being gone. So anyways, long story. I had made amends with my dad. The crazy thing is my mom and dad remarried 20 years old from first grade to like 19 years old. I saw my dad, my real dad, maybe three times. And then I moved to Arizona from California and just some little fortuitous meetings. I kind of, you know, ran into my dad and he, that whole thing regenerated. And it was really good to do that because it gave me the peace to realize it wasn't really my dad. 100% just leaving. There was more to that story. And he was really a good guy and did the right thing afterwards. But anyways, I'm sitting in the courtroom and behind the judge, you've got the Arizona placard that's in God we trust or in God riches. And I just, it was probably the first time I remember praying. I didn't even know I was praying at the time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I was like, dad, buddy, if it's real up there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, like I need you right now. And I walked out of there, and there was no winner in this case. I didn't win, they didn't win, but we didn't lose either. Nobody won, nobody lost. It was just finally over. The door was shut on that. And every time I'd hike after that, I would hike, because we had a house across the street from the church, and I would hike Lookout Mountain. And every time I'd hike, I'd have this overwhelming, what I know now to be the Holy Spirit, And it wasn't a voice. It wasn't a visual. It was just this, you said that if I got you out of there, you would seek my face. So, you know, Monica and at the time, obviously, you know, at the time we were creeping up on 15 years at this time, you know, yeah, close together. And so I said, Monica, we got to try something different. You're not happy. I'm not happy. I mean... My mom's been divorced. Your mom probably should have been divorced. My, both my brothers have been divorced. I'm like, I don't know that that's where we have to go, but we didn't know anything else. So we show up to a couple of different churches. We both said not the compound across the street, which happens to be this place. It's so busy all the time. And it was like, really? So we went to a couple of churches around here and then you see, um, you know, a guy with a guitar and then he would read some scripture and then kids are looking for pages in the coloring book and that wasn't working. And so anyways, we show up, we decide, let's try Dream City.
SPEAKER_03:At
SPEAKER_02:the time, it was kind of the Dream City, first assembly flip into Dream City. You know, Luke hadn't been long after taking over. Adam had just started. Pastor Franklin was kind of coming back around. But anyway, so I show up and we walk in. And you see this worship team. And you see this guy, you know, like as manly as they get with his hands up, screaming from the mountaintop, screaming Jesus from the mountaintop. And I'm like, I love that guy. And my kids still tease me because I got a man crush on Adam Rainey. They're like, oh, you're going to see Adam, right? So anyway, so I'm like, all right. So that seed was finally planted, right? Well, I think the seed was probably planted planted when I prayed.
SPEAKER_03:And
SPEAKER_02:then I kind of answered that call on the mountain. So anyway, so we came back. And within a couple messages, Pastor Luke does a sermon on dumb rubs. If you hang with dumb people, you're going to do dumb things. And he talked about how he hung with the baseball team and he went, jumped the fence at Disneyland, ended up in the Anaheim Jail Center. I remember that story. Guess who grew up in Anaheim? Guess who's about the same age? Luke and I are about the same age. I'm like, this guy's saying this from a stage. He's telling them it's okay because I have this savior. I'm like, who's the savior you got, right? So all right, so I want to know more about this guy. And then on the screen during the video news, it was Pastor Franking doing a men's breakfast. And it was Robert Owens. Seven marathons, seven continents in seven days.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm like, this isn't some teenager on a 10-speed knocking doors. These are real dudes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Right? These are real guys. Yeah. And the guys I'm with, like, hey, bud, let's go have a beer. Yeah, let's go have a beer. And the happy hour turns into an all-nighter, into an all-weekender. And that wasn't good. And that was what we were trying to get away from because that's the only thing we knew. So anyways, I show up to this men's breakfast. You got Robert Owens, Franklin. Never seen these guys before in my life. And... I'm like, this is a pararescue guy that's out there saving souls. Holy smokes, this guy's fantastic, right? And Michael was little at the time. He was only 6'2".
SPEAKER_03:He's huge now.
SPEAKER_02:So I made a decision that I was going to hit every single one of... That might be exaggerating. I've hit 90% of... The men's breakfast. Yeah. And then they were starting the men's Bible study Monday morning. I start hitting those things. And I'm sitting there. It had to be a couple of years. I just sat there and stared at Pastor Franklin going, all right, I don't trust people, but this guy's earning my trust. He's teaching on integrity, the net worth of character.
SPEAKER_03:So you just go for a few years is what
SPEAKER_02:you're saying? So in this morning– Bible study, you got Franklin, you got your dad, Robert, you got Gilbert, you got Tommy Robertson, and you're walking, I'm looking around going, I'm really not that manly anymore, am I? These guys are like, you talk about the bravado that the world thinks of. These guys have that bravado, but they got Jesus in their heart. And you're like, wow, that's amazing, right? So, you know, then he's, Start talking about, you know, the world's only 6,000 years old. And I'm like, dude, I've seen the Grand Canyon. It's not six. And then he starts telling me why. And the Great Flood and this. And then how the Holy Spirit, you know, breathes into a virgin. I'm like, I know basic biology, man. So when you're talking about faith and you don't have any kind of faith like that, you've never seen that. It was a long journey to pick up a Bible at 44 years old and be like, okay. And then to have this faith, what is faith? I don't, you know, I've never seen anybody healed.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. What
SPEAKER_02:is faith? I've never seen, you know, anything mended. I've never, but then you go 10 years later and you're like in 2022, I was supposed to have back surgery and you have people at the church praying for me and anointing with oil. And now I don't have back surgery and I don't have pain in my back and I can, I can wrestle and I can run. And you're like, Oh my God, you don't even know he healed you, but you were faithful and obedient and kept coming. He's like, boom, you're healed. By the blood and the stripes of Jesus, bam, gone, right? So you're like, these things have just happened. The restoration in my marriage, I didn't see it day one. I didn't show up and go, well, I didn't feel that every day. I just was obedient and kept showing up and showing
SPEAKER_03:up.
SPEAKER_02:And the next thing you know, it's like, now my marriage is restored. Now I have this relationship with my kids. Now I have this relationship with my wife. Now I have mentors. Like the first father figure that ever really sat down and said, this is the way you treat a woman was the visual that Pastor Franklin gave me the way he treats Lisa. Yeah. I mean, other than that, I, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Never seen it. Never saw it. Never saw it. Right?
SPEAKER_02:So anyways, through this whole thing, now I'm like really excited. close with Pastor Franklin and Pastor Lisa. In fact, Monica and I have been married three times, never divorced. But the first one, we did it because, I don't know, it was the thing to do. We
SPEAKER_01:were young. The second
SPEAKER_02:time was our tenure, and we decided, listen, let's give this a real shot. A year ago, we renewed our vows. under God with Pastor Franklin and Lisa. And that was our third marriage. But we went through every fire together and never filed papers on each other. It wasn't that we always loved each other. We always loved each other, but it's not that we didn't always like each other. So through this, we've built this marriage ministry with Franklin and Lisa. I mean, I don't want to take any credit for it because it's his vision that he gave to Franklin and Lisa. We just help out. The men's group, and we have this Forge thing now. So if you walk around the church and you start seeing these men wearing these Forge hats and the Forge sweatshirts and the Forge t-shirts, and they're starting to infiltrate this church, right? Because we have manly men, like some of the men that I've talked to
SPEAKER_03:about
SPEAKER_02:stepping up going, hey, listen, We're not gonna just show up on Sunday. We're not just gonna show up on Sunday. We're gonna show up on Wednesday and we're gonna show up on Thursday nights and we're gonna show up to the wellness, right? And we're gonna, you know what? We're gonna take some classes that are uncomfortable that Dr. Cole can get commissioned as men. And we're gonna carry that big sword and hopefully we don't have to unsheathe it, right?
SPEAKER_03:And
SPEAKER_02:these things just kind of just naturally organically took place through just showing up,
SPEAKER_03:you know? And I think it's great. I kind of want to touch on how you were realizing that your version of what you thought a manly man was wasn't like, I guess... It changed. It changed how you view a real man changed, right? Like what the world sees versus like how God sees a man. Yeah. Well, and I think too with that, I just want to add a little thing to that too. It's like you get this perception that... you know, being a Christian, I mean, the world, I think, has a perception that Christianity makes you weak, right? It makes you weak. And then there's like the toxic masculinity that the world talks about. And neither one of those is correct, right? They're not... Right. And so it's taking that and putting it in the right perspective of what does it mean to be a manly, godly man.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Well... I mean, the first thing is the world thinks the bravado of this, how big of a beard you can have, right? How fast can you chug a beer, right? Can you beat another man just because he lipped off to you? Well, that's a manly trait, I guess. I mean, I'm totally into training and that kind of stuff, but the truth is, can you get on your knees and repent? Because we have those sins, whether they're sinful thoughts or the sinful actions. Can we get on our knees and repent and apologize to the person
SPEAKER_03:that
SPEAKER_02:we offended? And then can we not, can we forgive? Can we not hold an offense for something that somebody else has done and accept that apology when somebody apologizes to us? And I think, you know, Today's men have lost a lot of courage. They don't stand up when they need to and they back down from worldly things or things that society tells you are the cool things.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's a lot there. That's a deep subject.
SPEAKER_03:And I was going to say, how have you seen that impact of men falling silent in our culture today? Yeah. impact the world.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, look at the, the wokeness that goes on. I mean, to the teachings, to the hanging of the flags in the classroom as a father, you should be in there and be like, it didn't take a government action to say, Hey, listen, men are an executive order to tell men you can't compete with women.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Some father should have walked in there and punched that guy right
SPEAKER_03:in
SPEAKER_02:the face. Right. Proverbs 18.6 says, loops, lips create strife and your mouth invites a beating. I would just say Jesus told me to do it.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:And I think now they're starting to realize,
SPEAKER_03:oh,
SPEAKER_02:it is okay for me to speak up. And men are starting to speak up.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And yeah, I don't know, man. I didn't have to deal with that. You know, Hannah swam all through her younger ages and through high school. I think she was kind of the beginning of that, and then Michael's kind of the middle of that, and I think now you have that group that's circling back,
SPEAKER_03:right?
SPEAKER_02:Right. It was definitely too long, but it was a short term of
SPEAKER_03:these
SPEAKER_02:men not stepping up. Because, yeah, if you had, like, Riley Gaines, I mean, she's just a superstar. Oh, she's awesome. And she deserves every bit of the things that she's had to go through to bring that to surface.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm, yeah. But it's true, yeah. Yeah, and there, I mean, you can see, too, and it's interesting because things swing in a pendulum, right? You've got too much, you know, one direction and then too far. But, I mean, even in just the way that, I mean... some of the things that like the original feminists were trying to fight for, you know, fair treatment for women and things like that, that those were some of the, there were valid concerns that they had about the way women were being treated, the way single mothers were being treated or title nine, right. Title nine, all those things. And then it swings so far to where it's like, okay, you know, we've got to feminize all the men and women are in control and boss girl or girl boss and all of the toxic masculinity and all of that stuff. And so then you don't want it to swing way forward. far again on the other side where it's you know going back to we need to be at that okay everybody in their right place and being that's where the church comes in right that is exactly right that's where we're supposed to say hey so we can say okay men and women are different right we each have roles that we're supposed to fulfill we don't need to compete with each other or not like each other for
SPEAKER_02:the things you can do I can't do
SPEAKER_03:right right
SPEAKER_02:like bear a child right I don't care what anybody says
SPEAKER_03:yes
SPEAKER_02:I can't bear a child right there's these chromosomes and x y
SPEAKER_03:x google says something else. Chat GPT. We were talking about that earlier. Chat GPT probably will tell you that men can have a baby.
SPEAKER_02:But I know in chapter one, in chapter one, it tells me the truth.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, exactly. And I think this is what you said is a very valid point, Sam, is that this is where the church is important for the church to step up, right? So because the world, if left to its own devices, goes crazy and swings back and forth and and it's just not sanctified. So it's important for us to show those examples. And you were talking about having not seen a godly marriage or fatherhood and that kind of thing until you were here. And I think that's a really important point because right now there's so much, I don't know the exact number, but fatherlessness and unmarried childbirth and childbirth cohabitation and all of those different things are huge. And it does affect kids and their ability to, because again, you were saying you grew up in kind of a tumultuous environment and you didn't know what that looked like. So how many other kids are growing up and the numbers are higher now than they used to be of kids that are growing up in homes like that where they've never been to church, they've never seen a real marriage, they don't know what a father is supposed to look like. It's either a bad example or no one at all. And so this is really a place where the church can and should step in and define what those things are and model it and train.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I think the church has a worldly connection to the people that haven't been or have been to the wrong church, a bad stigma, right? But when you get in there and actually get involved with a church that speaks the truth to their men, and those men are out, and you start getting involved with those guys, you'll start seeing that there are great examples everywhere. Yeah. We can go through a list of great marriages. It hasn't always been perfect, but they're great marriages.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:You know, some of these guys, they're just so soft now. Things go sideways, and they're like, oh, that's it, file a photo of ours. Like, really?
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:She was late from work. Is that jealous?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, like, throw a little trust out there. Are you going to fight a little bit harder?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, well, I think it's funny that you brought that up because there was another topic I really wanted to talk about on, not necessarily this episode, but just in general, was the lack of resilience that people have so much now. It's insane. Just thinking about that today. Because this has come up a bunch, right? We're talking about, you know, whether it's young people with a job or anything goes wrong, right? Whether it's people with their marriages, they just give up, right? Something doesn't happen. It's just like, oh, let's just quit. Let's just not. I can't deal with that. And I'm really... Like, I've thought a lot about this and I don't know what the answer is, but like, where did that happen? Because you look back at like, okay, we were talking about the depression earlier, the Great Depression, not clinical depression, but the depression. Yeah, the Great Depression, 1938. Yes, 1930. But the Great Depression or World War II or whatever, I mean, it was difficult times and people, I mean, literally they're, you know, making their own shoes and going across the country and, you know, things, everything hung inside of their car and there was a resilience that was there, that we've had in America from the founding of America. I mean, we couldn't have had this country without resilient... people, bold men, and women who are willing to follow those men and do that. We couldn't have had that, but like somewhere along the line, and I'm not sure exactly where it happened, all of a sudden we've got like a bunch of wimpy, you know. Pansies. Pansies. I was giving you the opportunity to throw that. So the
SPEAKER_02:pansies, right? So they're, you know, it's not my phrase, and I don't know whose it is, but it says tough times create tough men. Yeah. Tough men create men. Easy Times, Easy Times, Create Weak Men.
SPEAKER_03:Oh,
SPEAKER_02:wow. Right? Yeah. It's good. And then it's going to cycle back.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So somewhere from these, our great-great-grandfathers to our grandfathers to our fathers, right? The GI generation raised the boomers.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:The boomers were the first ones to start mom and dad working. And then now we've got... So we had the last key, these latchkey kids, they're like, we never had anybody home. You're like, you're hungry? Drink from the hose. Drink from your hose. The cockroach generation, that sounds, we can't be dead. Can't unalive us as the Bible says. Throw
SPEAKER_03:them in the backseat, the back window
SPEAKER_02:of the car. Yeah, we'd slide back and forth. Then all of a sudden it was like, oh, they invented, not that they invented seatbelts, but they made seatbelt laws. Like, oh, that's probably a pretty good idea. We used to
SPEAKER_03:lay in the backseat, the back window of the car and drive on, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And then-
SPEAKER_03:from rusty metal swing sets. Yeah, and then you have the
SPEAKER_02:boomers, which to us, and now you have these kids, kids that are having kids that are like helicopters. Like, hold on, move everything. They're going to get hurt. And I'm like, my dad was like, stick that screwdriver in the socket. Watch what happens. You won't do it twice. You're not going to do it twice. It's
SPEAKER_03:going to touch the fire. You'll find out. It's hot. Yeah, right? Yeah, live and learn. I think that analogy is good about this. And again, it's that pendulum, right? We were talking about it a minute ago, where the pendulum swings.
SPEAKER_02:So hopefully we're back up on the way. I think it's crested and it's coming. I'm hoping it's swinging
SPEAKER_03:back. Yeah, hopefully. Because it really is. It's amazing how... I mean, it's not necessarily their fault that they've just never been taught it. They haven't learned how to be... They haven't had the opportunity to learn to be resilient. And I don't know where that... Like I said, somewhere in there that that happened. And I think a lot of it is that... The video games. We rode bikes and they played video games. Well, that's what I was going to say. I think sometimes we overlook the impact of technology and how now we live in the instant age and now I can know every Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The softness comes from that. Let them go play baseball. Let them go rub dirt on it. If they trip and fall, you don't need to go to the ER. I promise. It's just going to scab up and be fine. Rub dirt on it. Let's go.
SPEAKER_03:Which again, I think is important where fathers come in and they do that more so than mothers do, right? So if there's an absence of fathers, then you don't have that, oh, you're fine, go rub some dirt on it. Like the phrase of that. But I think that is a lot of what men bring into the equation of that. That may be part of it too. That's true.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's all connected.
SPEAKER_03:It is amazing how that works. Right. One of my last questions is, how have you experienced God at work in your life as a result of you saying yes to what he's called you to do or showing things?
SPEAKER_02:So I'm self-employed. So the best part of that is the time freedom. And that time freedom allows me to continue to tell him yes to the things he calls us to, whether it be ministry. And I'm certainly not, I don't want to say minister. I'm a minister, but I'm like, you got the pastor, Luke and Tommy and those kind of, you know, the order of pastoral. And then you got the bottom feeders down here. We just come drag other men and go camping. So, you know, April 2010, we lost everything. We had very large civil forfeiture, seizures, everything, and we had to fight that. Saying yes to him, not only did it restore my marriage, my family, my heart from the bitterness and the hatred, but he's restored to finances as well. Life's pretty good. I'm not where I was, but I don't want to be where I was.
SPEAKER_03:So
SPEAKER_02:he's trusted me and given me back some of what it is. And although finances is part of it, but he's given me a lot of time for you to come and share testimonies or to
SPEAKER_03:hang
SPEAKER_02:out with my kids, be around. When I see kids, like you've been to my, you know my kids. I got my two kids, but then all you guys are my kids. Everybody's at our house all the time.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and allowed you to be a blessing to other people too, right? Like even me, I think of when I got to use your house
SPEAKER_02:for a
SPEAKER_03:party. I threw a baby shower or a bridal shower. But yeah, blessings on blessings.
SPEAKER_02:To be open enough or comfortable enough for the other young adults to be, hey, listen, I don't even know why I wasn't invited. Yeah. It was a bridal shower
SPEAKER_01:or a baby shower? It was all women. A bridal
SPEAKER_02:shower or a baby shower?
SPEAKER_03:Bridal shower. Bridal shower.
SPEAKER_02:So she says, Monica, I have a bridal shower for one of my friends. We'd love to use your house. And Monica and I are never telling God no again. It's 100%. It's yours. We just get to steward it. So whatever it is that...
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, and whether it be you or Olivia or Alyssa or...
SPEAKER_03:To all our listeners, you know...
SPEAKER_02:Listen, I mean... You have open reign of the Weavers. It's funny because we've always had the gatherings.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The difference is we still have a... bunch of gatherings, they're just not ragers that last all night.
SPEAKER_03:Right? It's so much more fulfilling. I'm with you because I was the same way, right? So I was like,
SPEAKER_02:I've been to your house. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_03:My house is crazy. No, but I'm saying, I mean, you came to know the Lord later in life than I did, but our journey was kind of similar in that I was not raised in church, you know, was leading kind of a wild lifestyle and did the same thing. Ask God to prove himself to me. And I'm telling you, you do that and you're willing to follow that, he will prove himself to you and he will show you. And again, just led, you know, it's those little obediences of saying yes and being willing to say yes to the things and to whatever God asks you to do and see where he takes you. And it's an amazing journey.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I'll tell you one more thing, like not being saved and being saved, worldly view versus non-worldly view. Like my worldly view is, of something that I know is near and dear to your heart is the abortion. Like to me, until I was educated about what it really was, to me, I was like, ah, it's a woman's right thing. So now to knowing that within very short time, seed, egg, light goes off, the light of God's going off into where, how, I mean, that thing was 10 weeks old and it would, you had,
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:A model in my hand. And I was like, it brings tears to my eyes now. And it was because I didn't know.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And now I'm looking. Thank God I've never had to make that decision. Right. I mean, for the ones that have, I mean, that's got to be it. That's so good that what you do with the restoration and let them know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But that was just a worldly thing. I didn't know any different because— I heard what the rest of the world. Like, oh, it's women's right, reproductive rights. Reproductive. Don't be saying you can't reproduct.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:It's like, come on, let's call it what it
SPEAKER_03:is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And Hannah at one time, she says, if you get in a car accident drinking and driving and the woman is pregnant, it's a double homicide.
SPEAKER_03:How is that not murder?
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah. Yep. That's true.
SPEAKER_03:Some
SPEAKER_02:serious thought right there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. She's a smart cookie. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. But that just shows you that the church has to be louder than the culture. Yes. Right? And that's when it's so important. Yeah. for speaking up and standing up and doing what's right. Yeah, that's so good. That's really good. Because they call the devil the father of lies, right? And then again, if the culture, if that voice is louder than what's coming out of the church, the big C church, just the body of Christ in whatever arena we're in, then that's where we get all of the things that are happening and people not knowing the difference between right and wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Or men
SPEAKER_03:and women and pick a topic. It
SPEAKER_02:took the big C, Dream City Church, and our pastor's stance on that
SPEAKER_03:for
SPEAKER_02:us to understand. Because other than that, we just, you know, Planned Parenthood, it seems like a pretty good organization. And you're like, whoa.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Well, was I wrong?
SPEAKER_03:Right. Yeah. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we just had someone tell us that last night too. We did an event, but someone said she was raised in Chicago and it's all she ever knew. And it wasn't until she came here to this church that she realized that she and her husband, and they're in their 20s, but that they should be applying their faith to church. their political views and to their stand on things and just being informed. And I think so many people, because the church has largely been silent, that that is where you have all of that confusion and people being led by the culture instead of being led by the word of God.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And, you know, I think this, even the political climate right now, although I don't think every, anybody really agrees with everything our president said, says, but I think we agree with his heart. He's not a politician. He's not a polished speaker. So he doesn't have that golden tongue like some previous administrators that are like, oh, administrations, and they can say it and make it sound perfect. He's just rough around the edges speaking, but nobody can deny his heart and the courage that he has to stand up. And that's for the American people because it's not... Right. Benefiting him. Right. I bet he's 75, somebody. I mean, he could sit in Mar-a-Lago and just sit there and watch the show. Right. And he's decided to actually put
SPEAKER_03:his
SPEAKER_02:money where his mouth is. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:To stand up and be a man because that's what standing up, he knows that it's important for us to stand up for what's right, right? Because he saw that. Well, and it's interesting that you say that because then there are a whole lot of, there's been a new wave of like conservative young men. And I think that it takes someone standing up. And again, it takes a man standing up showing you what it means to treat your wife the right way or a man standing up showing what fatherhood should look like.
SPEAKER_02:A man standing up? Like Charlie Kirk and going to the campuses. That's courage. You know he's really good at it now. But that first time, I'm like, he's probably sitting around going, what am I doing? But I can do this. And that's when you had to lean on God for your words because now he's got it. And most of these kids go say stuff to him knowing they're going to get it.
SPEAKER_03:Tongue-lashed. Yeah. It's funny to watch. It is. Yeah. Do you have any other questions? That was my last one. So thank you so much for joining us. This was amazing. See, it wasn't nearly as crazy as you thought it was going to
SPEAKER_02:be. If we did touch any men here and you're looking for men to hang out with, we have the Forge Group here at the church.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Come see us. We have a monthly breakfast. And we have a... monthly ForgeX where we'll have some kind of competition, bench pressing or the manly man stuff. And the messages are always great. We'll have some worship. Find somebody that has one of these hats on and you can ask, find where we are or find one of the leaders, which is Robert, Franklin, myself, Gilbert. We're all here, so.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. That's great. And if you were listening to and you want to know more about having a relationship with the Lord as well, reach out to us on social media, come to the church website, come visit us at Dream City Church. So thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you for listening to Into the Fire, powered by Dream City Church.
SPEAKER_00:You can listen to this podcast on Apple and Spotify and follow us on social media. Find all the info on the show notes. To learn more about Dream City Church, visit our website at dreamcitychurch.us Thanks for listening.
