Defiance with Paul McDonald and Dustin Oprea
This week on the Men at the Movies podcast, we breakdown the movie Defiance. In this time of busyness and chaos, how can we find freedom? How do we avoid becoming like the people around us, chasing, striving, and grabbing for life? The problem has been we’ve been using the wrong fuel. When we connect to the proper energy source, we can find joy in the chaos, light in the dark, and life from death. In a word, we can live defiantly. Join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
We can become like the people who are attacking us.
If you’re using the wrong fuel, it feels like death to go without it.
The problem with going on vacation is that I go with me.
Sometimes when my wife is looking me in the eye and talking slowly, I need to listen, because it is God speaking.
The impact of our lives extends beyond the years of our life.
Our fight, our act of defiance, is to choose life.
Themes
“Our revenge is to live.”
What fuel are we running on?
Every day freedom is an act of faith.
“Just because we are hunted like animals doesn’t mean we should act like animals.” -
Culture wars: If we want life, we have to go grab it.
We become like the people we are “fighting” against. Might makes right.
“Take back the gift of our holiness.”
There are moments where we feel like we can’t do it any more.
I get tired of being me.
“What better way than by bringing life into a world of death?”
Many times life feels like more of a burden.
The mother heart of God brings a sense of self-worth.
Resources
“And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.” -Romans 7:18-23 (NLT)
“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” -Proverbs 14:12 (NLT)
“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” -John 10:10 (NLT)
Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Troubling Times by John Eldredge
Questions
How are you like an animal?
How do we live and look like Jesus in a world that treats us differently?
What fuels your life? What makes you feel successful, worthwhile, validated?
What are you deathly afraid of? What feels like death?
Where are you asking God to take back His gift, to remove His hand because it’s hard?
Where are you tired of being you?
How is joy an act of defiance?
How can you make a generational impact?
How do you bring life into a world of death?
What brings life into your world?
More info
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Edited and mixed by Grayson Foster
Logo and episode templates by Ian Johnston
Audio quotes performed by Britt Mooney, Paul McDonald, and Tim Willard, taken from Epic (written by John Eldredge) and Song of Albion (written by Stephen Lawhead).
Southerly Change performed by Zane Dickinson, used under license from Shutterstock
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