Act Like Men, Part 1

You know, having spent the last three weeks with my family together and being able to sit and watch and evaluate my family and asking God what is it that I desire for my family. Looking at my sons and realizing as they're all together, I want my sons to be strong men of God. Looking at my sons-in-law, I want them to be strong men of God. Looking at my granddaughters, I want them to be able to marry strong men of God. I have one grandson up to this point. I'm sure I'll have more, Lord willing, as time goes on.

But I want Henry to grow up and be a strong man of God. I want to be a strong man of God. And I was able to sit and watch my sons interact with one another, with their wives, with their mother, their sisters. I was burdened. I was burdened for the men of our church, for the men that you will grow up in the church, that you will father and parent. I began to realize that we need to act like men. And so many times in the church, we don't, but we need to, because the Bible tells us to. Paul would say to those in Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse number 13, he would say be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Act like men. Well, what a powerful statement. Only time it's used in the New Testament. Act like men. I wonder what the men at the church of Corinth thought when they read that letter from the Apostle Paul. Paul would derive that word from the Old Testament. He would derive it from the book of Deuteronomy, for in the book of Deuteronomy, the 31st chapter, Moses is giving his last words to the nation of Israel. And he wants them to understand their responsibility as they would embark in the land of Canaan.

Moses is 120 years old. He's been used by God in a mighty way. He was a man of God. And he would say these words in verse number 6, be strong and courageous. Be manly. Play the man and be strong. Do not be afraid or tremble at them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the city of all Israel, play the man. The Greek Septuagint translated that way, play the man, act like a man, be strong, courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them.

You should give it to them as an inheritance. The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Moses would say that to the nation. Moses would say that particularly to Joshua. And then over in the book of Joshua, the fourth chapter, a couple of pages over, God now speaks to Joshua. Moses is dead. It's now time for Joshua to take over the leadership solely over the nation of Israel. And the Lord says to him, verse 6, play the man, act like a man, be strong.

Joshua, you have no choice but to be the man. And that manliness is described by being strong and courageous. He says, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you, play the man and be courageous. Moses, do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So Moses says to the nation, act like men. Moses says to Joshua, act like a man. God says to Joshua, be manly, be manly.

David, David in 1 Kings 2, charges his son Solomon, verse 1, as David's time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son saying, I am going the way of all the earth, be strong therefore and show yourself a man. Be strong and show yourself a man. Manliness is always associated with strength and courage and yet so many times we see today's modern man the direct opposite of that. He's not strong, he's weak, he's timid, he's sheepish, he's shy. I like it when people say about their children, oh they're just shy, really, I don't think so.

I think that we need to train our children to be a certain way. We are to train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, we are to train them in the way of righteousness, we are to train our young men, our children, our boys to be and act like men. Be manly. Show yourself the man. Paul would derive a statement from those verses. He says, you need to be confident, you need to be courageous, you need to be mature. It's a word that speaks against the immaturity of the day. What does a man do?

A man acts with maturity. A man is strong when his children who are immature are weak. So he trains them to be strong by the strength he conveys to them. He trains them to be courageous when they are timid, because he himself is the mature man who is courageous, therefore when his children are timid, he teaches them how to be courageous, how to have courage in times of difficulty, in times of fear. Act like a man, be mature, be the grown-up, be the adult, be the man, step it up. Step it up, step out and be the man.

We need those kind of men in the church. We need those kind of men in our families. Strong, confident, courageous individuals who do not shy away from their responsibility. Who do not shy away from fulfilling what God has called them to do, but truly act like men. Now, how are you going to do that? Well, that's my task, to explain it to you. And I'm not going to give you everything, because that would take us years. And that would just prolong our study of Hebrews. And I guarantee you, I will not finish it today.

So just to forewarn you, and you will say, well yeah, what's new, right? This is very important. It's important for the men of our church. You know, one of my purposes behind our Wednesday evening studies, in the characters of the Old Testament, is to help the men of our church. Why do we study Nehemiah? Because Nehemiah is all about leadership. Men need to lead. So we go through the life of Nehemiah. Why do we study guys like Elijah and Elisha? Because they're the consummate prophets. And men, as leaders, need to be prophets in their homes.

And so you study men like Elijah and Elisha, because you want to be the prophet today. To speak the truth. Elisha was called a man of God over and over and over again. So much so that when he walked into Damascus, the capital of Syria, everybody knew he was a man of God. Well, how did they know that? Because that's who he was. And everything he did exuded manliness. So he knew that he was a man of God. One who represented God in a clear and concise way. So we study Elijah and Elisha. Why do we study guys like Gideon?

Because we did. Because Gideon was a man who would be taken from obscurity and be used by God in a mighty way. Because God can use anybody at any time, anywhere. Why do we study Samson? Because he was the world's weakest strong man. Of all the individuals that should exude strength, it should have been Samson. Of all the men that God could have used in a great and mighty way, it would have been Samson. But he had so many weaknesses that just consumed him. So we helped you understand those things.

You see, there is a method to why we do what we do. We want the men of our church to understand the men of the Bible, so they can begin to emulate the character qualities of those men to live in that way. I study them for my own purposes because I want to be like the men of the Bible. Why do we study David? King David? Because he was the consummate king. Yet there are many frailties in his life. And we learn about repentance and how to be a man for God's own heart. Just think back over all the years that we have studied the men of the Scriptures.

And now we are going to study the life of Lot in the fall. And look at all the loss in Lot's life. Because his life was filled with loss. Because he did not act like a man. He was not strong and courageous. And he would compromise at every turn. And we will learn how not to do those kind of things in studying his life. And then we will go into the new year looking at the life of Samuel. And then the first king Saul.

You see, there is so much to learn. Just the study of those men alone should revolutionize the way you live your life as a man. And they just should. And so I am burdened for the men of our church. Burdened on how they lead their families and how they lead the church. So my preaching is geared toward men. And so today, and Lord willing, I will finish it next week. I want to talk to you about how that man of God lives. Okay? That is all introductory. That only took 16 minutes. That was pretty fast for me.

Okay, here we go. Are you ready? Very simple outline. We all begin with the letter P. To act like men, you must live purposefully. You must live purposefully. That is, you must have as your ultimate purpose. The honor and glory of the king. That is your purpose. That is your only purpose. To live for the honor and glory of the king. The Lord God said in Isaiah 43, 7, Everyone I have created for my glory. That includes you as a man. You have been created for the glory and honor of God. God says I have created everyone for my beauty.

And so there is only one thing, gentlemen, that you can control in your entire life. Only one and nothing else. You can't control your children? You've tried. Can't do it. You can't control your life? You've tried and failed. Can't do it. You can't control how much money you make? You can't control anything in your life. There is only one thing you can control and that is the choice to give honor and glory to my God in every situation and in every circumstance. You can do that. That's totally up to you.

You will choose to honor God in this arena, in this situation, in this argument, in this confrontation, in this situation. I choose to put God on display to beautify His name in this encounter. You can do that. And that's your purpose. For the glory and honor of God. Six months ago we began the year with what? Anybody remember? It's not a bookmark. It's a great day to be great. Remember that? Now you remember.

Oh yeah, now I remember that. It's a great day to be great. How can every day be great? Because you glory in His person. You glory in His person. You put Him on display. It's all about the Christ. So in every situation, in my marriage, in my workplace, as a father, I want to make sure that Christ is on display. And every one of us in this room can say, you know what? I have failed at doing that at some point in my life. Because none of us are perfect. But yet, we have as our purpose to make sure that somehow, someway, I can beautify the name of Christ in this situation.

Paul said it this way, 1 Corinthians 10.31 Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Whatever you do, do it for the purpose of putting God on display. Whether it's eating or drinking, something as mundane as that. Whether it's in your parenting, or in your life as a husband, or in your workplace. You put God on display. That's what you do. You want to honor Him above everything else. That's your purpose. I want to lift up the name of Jesus. I want to honor Christ in everything.

Now if you're with us on Wednesday, we showed you Eli, the priest, who did not do this. Because he wanted to honor, listen, his family above God. And men, this is where you're going to fail. When you seek to honor someone else or something else above God, you will disobey His word. Therefore, be unable to display the King of the Universe. And Eli was the priest who honored his sons above God. Because he did not rebuke them. He did not discipline his sons when they committed immorality with the women of the temple.

And God said these words. He said very clearly in 1 Samuel 3. I have told him that I am about to judge his house, that is Eli's house, forever. For the iniquity which he knew. Because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. God says I'm going to bring a curse upon this man.

I am going to bring this man down and his family because he honored his sons above me. How do we know that? Because the prophet, a man of God came to him and says these words. You've honored your sons above me by making yourselves fat with the choices of every offering of my people Israel. Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares, this is chapter 2 verse number 30. I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord declares far be it from me for those who honor me I will honor.

And those who despise me I will lightly esteem. In other words you did not honor me. You honored your sons above me. Therefore you're going down Eli. You want to make sure your life is on a downward spiral. You honor your family above God. And you will be down fast. Real fast. We have a lot of men who do that. A lot of women too. We just love the relationship so much that we're willing to compromise the truth of God. And to compromise our walk with God. So somehow I can preserve a relationship that probably is not going to last anyway.

Because I've compromised the truth. And sure enough Eli's relationship with his boys did not last. Because they mocked their father. They were killed. He was killed. Just like God said. He who honors me I will honor. Those who dishonor me are going down. It's as simple as that. And you have one purpose. Just one. That's to honor and glorify the name of your God in every situation and every conversation. In every workplace. In every relationship. In all you say and do. That's what you do. Act like a man.

Live purposefully. Live with this purpose in mind that this is how I'm going to live my life. This is how I'm going to react in life. This is how I'm going to be the man that God wants me to be. To be strong, confident, and courageous. To play the man. This is what needs to happen. I need to honor and glorify God in my marriage. I need to do it with my children. I need to provide the model for my children. And how to do it amidst adversity. Amidst conflict. Amidst disappointment. How do you model displaying God in those arenas?

That's imperative. You must do that. Live purposefully. Don't honor anyone else above God. Don't do that. Because whenever you do, you value relationship over truth. And whenever you do that, you compromise truth every single time. Every single time. We want to preserve family so much. Like Eli. We want to preserve family so much. And the unity in our family so much. We will take truth and set it aside and say, Well, it doesn't really matter. God will forgive me anyway. Yeah, God does forgive. He does do that.

But that never negates the consequences of your sin. It does not. And we have relationships in the church that we value so high that we're willing to set aside God's truth to preserve a relationship and compromise the truth of God's word. That's not acting like a man. That's acting like an immature child. And Paul says, Be vigilant. Be on the alert. Be strong. Act like men. That's what God's called us to do. Live purposefully. Have as your ambition to honor, to put God on display through your life in everything you do.

Number two. Live proactively. Live proactively. Don't live reactively. Live proactively. Oh, by the way, do not live passively. But live proactively. Men, by nature, because God created them this way, are leaders. Whenever a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, whenever he leaves, according to Genesis chapter 2, he leaves in order to lead. If you're not ready to lead, you better not leave. But you leave in order to lead. And leaders are defined by their ability to take the initiative.

To take the initiative. To be proactive. To be a decision maker. Not to be passive and wait for others to make a decision. Live proactively. Remember what God said to Daniel in Daniel chapter 11? The people who know their God will display strength and take action. Wow! The people who know their God display strength. So listen.

Listen carefully to what I'm going to say. If you are not strong in any situation, it's not because you're male or female, young or old, it's because you simply do not know God. Do not pass off the fact that, well, you know, I'm not that strong in those kind of situations. Well, you know what? That just tells us you don't know God. God said, those who know me display strength. They don't display weakness. They don't display timidity. They don't display sheepishness. They display strength. Because they know me.

And that ties back to what God said to Moses and Moses said to Joshua and God came back and said to Joshua and David said to his son Solomon because God would always say, the Lord your God is with you. Well, why can't you be strong and courageous? I'm with you. I'm the Lord of armies. I am the Lord of hosts. I am the value warrior. Why would you ever think you were weak when I am with you, God says.

So therefore be strong and very courageous for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So when you come to the New Testament in Matthew 28, God says, go into all the world and make disciples.

Well, I'm not very good at that. That's just not my area of strength. And what does God say? Lo, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Why? Because the Lord of hosts is with you. Why can't you? That's why he says as you go, make disciples. In your going process, disciple others. The strength is related to the presence of God. Those who know God display strength. And then what? They take action. They take action. They don't sit on the sidelines and wait to be asked. They do. They're doers of the word.

They are doers in life. We have so many men who sit back and just wait to be asked to do something. Don't wait to be asked. Do it. Take action. Your inability to serve in the church has nothing to do with your lack of giftedness, with your lack of expertise, or your lack of education. Everything about your service in the church has to do with your lack of knowing who God is. That's up to you. That's up to you. Because those who know their God display strength and they take action. They take the initiative.

They're proactive. Live proactively, not reactively. Live proactively, not passively. Live because your purpose is to glorify and honor God in every situation, and as you do, you will take the action necessary to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished. For instance, you will take action when it comes to rebuking your brother. Remember way back in the book of Leviticus, the 19th chapter? The Lord God says to Israel these words, verse 17, You shall not hate your fellow brother, your fellow countrymen.

Don't hate them. Well, how would I know I hated my fellow brother? How would you know? How would you know you hated somebody? He tells you. You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You must surely rebuke him. Wow. That says, if you know your brother's in sin and you do not rebuke him, you hate him. You hate him. If you know your children are in sin and do not rebuke them, you hate them. You don't love them. You hate them in your heart. He says, You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart.

You may surely reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur sin because of him. Listen, if you don't rebuke your neighbor, listen, you are part and parcel to their sin. That's exactly what God told Eli, if you were with us on Wednesday night, when the man of God came to him and said, You've incurred their sin. Eli didn't commit immorality with the women of the temple, but because he did not rebuke his boys, he incurred their sin. He was responsible because he didn't rebuke them. This is so powerful.

And I know this isn't a popular message, and I know you're saying, I'm not going to come back next week because I don't want Lance beating us over the head with all this stuff. Let me tell you something.

You've got to be a man to hear this message. You've got to be a man or want to be a man to hear this message. You don't want to hear this message, you're in trouble. Let's go see it like it is. You've got to be willing to hear because I'm speaking to me as well as I'm speaking to you. I've got to be proactive too. I've got to be proactive to forgive or to ask for forgiveness. That's part of being proactive. If I've done something wrong in my marriage, I have to be proactive, not reactive. I've got to not be passive.

I've got to go to my wife and say, You know what, honey? I was wrong. Please forgive me. That's leading proactively. That's playing the man. That's being the man. I was wrong. Please forgive me. My attitude was horrible. Please forgive me. That's manliness. That's manning up. Admitting your mistakes. Admitting your wrong. Asking for forgiveness. Dealing with your sin in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord because in that situation, you want to put God on display. And so you live purposefully.

You live proactively. See? You do it with your children. You live proactively by taking the initiative to engage in the discipline of your children. You do that because your children speak to us about how you parent. We know how you parent by watching your children. It tells us so much about you as a father and a mother. We need to be proactive. We need fathers to be more proactive. I as a father need to be more proactive in the lives of my children. I'm not very good at that. So I'm speaking to myself.

Don't think I'm just kind of speaking to you guys and saying I'm up here doing all this stuff at home. No, I got a lot of things to work on. Just ask my wife. Maybe you better not ask her. I don't know. Ask my kids. I'll tell you. So much to work on. Live proactively when you go to work. When you go to work. And you go to evangelize. You go to share Christ. You go to talk about the Lord. You go to live for the Lord. See, you know, I'm the kind of guy that if I have to hold your hand, I told Patrick when we hired him, if I have to hold your hand, I'm going to fire you in a week.

Because I need somebody to take the initiative, be driven, be proactive, get things done. If I got to hold your hand, just will do it myself. If I can do it myself, I'm going to take your salary with it. So make sure you get it done. See, that's awful harsh. That's what I taught to people. He works for me. He's on staff. Told Tim the same thing. If I got to tell you what songs to sing and how to sing them and where to sing them, just will do it myself. Don't need you. So be proactive. Take the initiative.

Be driven. Get things done. You see, that's what men do. But so many times, we sit passively on a sideline, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for someone to ask us to do something. And we exhibit passivity more than proactivity. And we need to be the initiators. Getting things done. So important. In your church, you need to be proactive. Proactive in your church. With all the men we have in our church, we should never, ever have an empty, empty slot of ministry. Never. Never. But we do constantly. With all the men in our church, we should never lack for children's teachers.

We should never lack for parking lot attendance. We should never lack for ushers. We should never lack in any ministry in our church with all the men that we have. So I'm saying, gentlemen, live proactively. Don't wait to be asked. Step into the arena. Step into the battlefield. Don't we marvel at soldiers who go to war and lead the way in the battle? We watch movies about those guys, and we say, wow, that man's a mighty man of valor. Boy, that man had courage, and that man had strength, but he was willing to take the initiative into the battlefield of life.

We need to take the initiative into that battlefield, whatever it may be. I'm not saying your church is a battleground. I'm just saying that there needs to be the initiative taken on the part of men that say, you got a need? I'll meet that need. I'll meet that need. I'll do that. I'll step up. What do you need? That's men in us. Act like a man. Be mature. Be strong. Be confident. Be courageous. Live purposefully. Live proactively. Number three, live prayerfully.

Live prayerfully. The Bible says, men ought always to pray and not to faint. That's just a powerful statement. Because if you're praying, you won't faint. But if you're fainting, you're not praying. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5.17. The first one was Luke 18.1.

1 Thessalonians 5.17. Pray without ceasing. Do not faint. Be a man of prayer. The Bible says in Luke 22 about Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

When He went off to pray, it says He went off to pray as was His custom. That's what He did. That's why the disciples came to Him and said, Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. Why? Because every time we see you, you're praying. When we can't find you, you're praying. Teach us to pray. It is the only thing the disciples asked Jesus to teach them. They never said, Lord, teach us how to do a miracle. We want to do a miracle. Teach us how to do a miracle. No, they never asked that. Lord, teach us how to preach.

We've got to be preachers of the Word. We want to preach like you. Teach us how to preach. Teach us how to exegete the Old Testament. Teach us how to alliterate the Old Testament. Teach us how to preach the Word. They never asked them that. But they asked Him to teach them how to pray. Because they saw Him praying all the time. We want to be like Jesus? We've got to live prayerfully. Because that's how He lived His life. On His knees. Before the throne of His Father in Heaven. Lord, teach us to pray.

And the Lord would give them the disciples prayer. It's not our Lord's prayer. It's the disciples prayer. He gave them a pattern on how to pray. Because this is how He prayed. God and His glory. Then man in his knees. It's all about the glory of God. Our Father who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. It's all about the glory of the Father. So He taught them how to pray. That they might have a pattern on how to pray as was their custom.

Because it was His custom. And this is where you live. You live prayerfully. You live dependently. Because you can't do anything on your own. You must depend upon God, the power of the Spirit. And so you live a life of prayer. That's why when the disciples couldn't cast a demon out of a boy in Mark 9, they asked the Lord why couldn't we do this when we've already done it before. And Christ says these things only come out by prayer.

You forgot the one essential element in your ministry. You forgot to come to me before you did anything. And we get back and put it in the modern day. And we say Lord why is it my wife is this way and she is not doing what I've asked her to do. And the Lord says because these things only are done by prayer. You tried to change your wife and you can't do that. You tried to change your children and you can't do that. You need to live prayerfully. You need to bring them before the throne of grace. You need to give them to me.

You need to trust them with me. Instead you're trying to do all the work yourself. And look how that's working out for you. Not very well. We're like the disciples. But we've done it so many times before. Why not this time? You forgot life's most important lesson. You must live dependent upon me for everything. A life of dependency. When you live prayerfully you are saying God I need you. Lord I need strength. I need your grace. I need your mercy. I need the patience that only you can give me to work through a situation.

Lord I need you to enable me to say it the right way. Lord I need you to calm me down. Lord I need you to work in my heart that I might be the man I need. The man I need to be to my wife, the father I need to be to my children. The Christian I need to be at work. And the saint I need to be at church. I can't do it Lord without you. So you live prayerfully. And that's what it means to begin to act like a man. And what you can do is evaluate your own life. Evaluate your own life. In fact, when we're all said and done.

And by the way I have 12 of them. Just looking to let you know. Three done this week. That means I got to do how many next week? Good, nine. I have a hard time counting when I'm preaching. I got to finish nine next week. Write them all down. And then do this. Sit down next to your wife and say, Babe, this is what I want to do. I want to live purposefully. Do I live this way? Is God glorified and put on display in my life? Can you show me the times recently where it hasn't been that way? Wow. That's courage right there man.

That's courage. And then say, Honey, I want to be proactive in our relationship. Am I? Am I taking the initiative spiritually? Am I taking the initiative financially? Am I taking the initiative in our marriage to lead the way? Can you help me understand where that's not happening so I can begin to work on that? And just be ready for what you're going to say. Be ready. Live prayerfully. Be ready. Now you're acting like a man. Now you're on the runway. Now you're getting ready to taxi. But you're not yet ready to take off.

For that, you got to come back next week. We'll deal with that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. I am truly convicted that I, so many times, don't live the life I need to live before my children, before my wife. I know I need to be more proactive in many areas. I need to be on my knees more than I am. Tafris was a man in Colossians 4 who fervently prayed. I want to be a man of fervency in prayer. In my prayer, Lord, for the men who are here today, that that would be their desire as well. That truly we could look at 1 Corinthians 16 and 13 and look back at Deuteronomy 31 and Joshua 1 and 2 Kings 1 and say, I need to show myself a man.

Be strong and courageous. Wake up every day with that as my mantra for the glory and honor of the King. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.