WEBVTT 00:00:03.440 --> 00:00:10.620 The shorter series and series in the past, but it's about manning up, and the reason I find it significant is because with within 00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:16.379 the church today, you typically find an average of more men or women who attend than men. 00:00:16.580 --> 00:00:18.080 And that's not just the case for our church. 00:00:18.260 --> 00:00:18.980 It's with every church. 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:22.400 And it gives this ideal for young children. 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:23.190 Being raised in our church. 00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:30.480 Is that following after Jesus is a woman's thing and not a man's thing, and which is totally ungodly. 00:00:31.880 --> 00:00:38.970 In fact, when you read Scripture, you see that the Bible encourages the man to lead his household and to be a man without fear, 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:44.180 guiding his wife and his children, his community and people around him towards God. 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:51.920 And so when we talk about manning up today, ladies don't feel bad because a lot of these principles we're going to apply still works in your lives as well. 00:00:52.440 --> 00:00:54.140 And you'll notice in your bulletin you've got a man up card. 00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:56.860 You can just write woe in front of that, okay. 00:00:57.640 --> 00:00:59.040 And it will apply to you as well. 00:00:59.180 --> 00:01:01.340 And I'll explain what those cards are in just a little bit. 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:09.960 There's a quote that says many men desire to seek God at the 11th hour, but tragically, most men die around 1030. 00:01:12.800 --> 00:01:13.650 Hahahahaha. 00:01:19.900 --> 00:01:23.470 You know, I read in Scripture in the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter three. 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:27.760 It describes for us where sin began. 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:35.980 And I got to think, when we start a series like this, man, one of the things I don't want us to feel is guilt towards what it means about manning up. 00:01:35.980 --> 00:01:38.280 Okay, what it means to be a godly man after the Lord. 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:45.580 Because this is what I believe is that God wants to do some incredible things in your life and rather than feel guilty about this stuff, what I want us to do is look at it and encourage us 00:01:45.580 --> 00:01:47.460 to pursue God in our lives. 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:49.060 And ladies, the same thing with you. 00:01:49.940 --> 00:01:57.660 What does it mean for our families, our lives, our community, the people around us to get serious about our relationship with God and wo man up or man 00:01:57.660 --> 00:01:58.620 up in that sense? 00:02:00.800 --> 00:02:08.120 There's a quote that says, when mama ain't happy, nobody is happy, and when dad isn't happy, nobody cares, right? 00:02:10.660 --> 00:02:15.100 The Bible wants to tell us as women, this is for you guys to encourage you as well. 00:02:15.160 --> 00:02:21.240 Ladies, what we don't want you to do when you walk away from this series today is to go home and immediately start nagging your husband. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:23.040 Actually, don't even nag your husband about this series. 00:02:23.440 --> 00:02:25.020 Don't go home and say do not quote this. 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:26.590 Did you hear what Pastor Nathaniel said? 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:28.240 Did you hear what he said today? 00:02:28.420 --> 00:02:29.280 You are not doing that. 00:02:29.660 --> 00:02:30.300 You know, that's. 00:02:30.320 --> 00:02:30.680 I'm sorry. 00:02:30.700 --> 00:02:32.640 If that's not my woman's voice, I'm sorry if that would be a little. 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:34.180 But that's not what we want. 00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:35.880 We want to accomplish today, okay? 00:02:36.450 --> 00:02:43.500 Nagging men is about the worst thing you can do to encourage a man towards living a godly life or living a godly life. 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:47.080 But guys, it works the same way for the ladies as well. 00:02:48.500 --> 00:02:54.170 Nagging your wife is about the most discouraging thing that you could do to encourage them to pursue God in their lives. 00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:58.280 In First Peter, Peter actually talks about that. 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:06.020 He begins writing to the ladies and in verse one, I always love about when we talk about marriage in the Bible, it always seems that God talks more 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:07.140 to the ladies and to the men. 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:08.920 He's got to keep it simple for us. 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:12.880 But he explains, he explains in the first few verses it says verse one. 00:03:12.880 --> 00:03:15.300 In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husband. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:21.460 Then, even if some refuse to obey the good news, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. 00:03:21.580 --> 00:03:25.920 They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives. 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:34.360 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is so precious to 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:34.600 God. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:43.820 God's encouragement for you to hear and as we pursue this topical series together is if you're really concerned about men in our church 00:03:43.820 --> 00:03:51.020 and the men and the godly examples they set forth, and maybe even think of young children in our church that godly men would raise up and be examples for them. 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:57.470 The concern that you should have is not to nag them about the concern that you should have is to begin to pray for them and love them. 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:05.520 So the tendency is with even in our own marriages, this shouldn't happen, but it does cause a lot of times we'll as ladies, you can pursue God in your life and maybe your husband 00:04:05.540 --> 00:04:06.620 doesn't have that same heart. 00:04:06.880 --> 00:04:08.760 And so you build this bitter attitude towards them. 00:04:08.760 --> 00:04:12.310 And so you'll say to them, you can go do whatever you want, but I'm going to do this over here and live for Jesus. 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:15.720 And we separate the relationship between husband and wife in that sense. 00:04:15.880 --> 00:04:19.820 And God is saying exactly the opposite of this passage of Scripture. 00:04:19.820 --> 00:04:23.520 He's saying rather than separate yourselves with this is what I want you to do in a loving way. 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:27.840 Speak to your husband's heart out of your lifestyle. 00:04:28.260 --> 00:04:33.700 Demonstrate to him the beauty of what it means to follow after Jesus and out of his need in his life. 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:37.400 You should seek to pray for him and godly wisdom and guidance. 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:46.300 Today, what we find in the church is that there are generation, and in this world there are a generation of boys that have no idea what 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:47.200 a real man looks like. 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:50.340 40%. 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:52.520 Up to 70%, depending on where you live. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:58.220 The statistics say that 40 to 70% of homes grow up without the influence of a biological father. 00:05:00.100 --> 00:05:04.580 And in America today, especially, there are a few examples of what a man looks like in the home. 00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:11.540 I like the quote that one guy placed upon it he called men today ban rather than a man. 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:19.500 What he emphasized was that rather than be becoming a man, what we find today in our culture is that we prolong adolescence and rather than be a man, they 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:21.620 are banned, which is a combination of a boy man. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:30.040 Today, if you study statistics, it says the number one consumer of video games are men between the 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:31.880 ages of 18 to 40. 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:39.740 Rather than devote time to the development of young children, family, wives, they devote three hours a day to video games. 00:05:42.140 --> 00:05:47.260 So the question I want to ask for this morning is, what kind of man guys do you want to be? 00:05:47.260 --> 00:05:48.300 Maybe even to the ladies. 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:50.430 Ladies, what kind of woman do you want to be? 00:05:51.880 --> 00:05:57.300 Bible says in Joshua chapter 24 and verse 15, it comes at a significant point in the book of Joshua. 00:05:58.680 --> 00:05:59.460 Joshua was just going in. 00:05:59.460 --> 00:06:01.220 He's conquered the entire land of Israel. 00:06:01.580 --> 00:06:04.140 He's come into this new land after Moses has died. 00:06:04.140 --> 00:06:08.020 He's the first to bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land that God told them about. 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:15.800 They separate and divide into the 12 tribes and disperse themselves, and while they're dispersed, the goal that's been given to them is they need to wipe 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:19.810 out the rest of the civilizations that are going to tempt them to follow after false gods. 00:06:19.900 --> 00:06:27.060 But what we find, we get to the end of the book of Joshua is that the nation of Israel was disobedient, and they allowed the pagan people 00:06:27.060 --> 00:06:30.800 with their pagan gods to begin to influence the nation of Israel. 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:35.140 And towards the end of Joshua's life, he makes this statement. 00:06:35.140 --> 00:06:42.980 He says, if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether 00:06:42.980 --> 00:06:49.380 the gods which your fathers served, which was were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. 00:06:49.460 --> 00:06:53.200 But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:07:02.360 The statement comes to Joshua at an age probably well over 100 years old at this point, and he's looking up at the 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:05.420 nation of Israel that is floundering in their relationship with God. 00:07:05.440 --> 00:07:06.940 And he's saying, man up. 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:10.880 He's saying to them, get serious about your relationship with God. 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:12.630 You can't even tell what God you're worshiping. 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:18.100 Do you want to worship the gods of old, that the false gods that they worshiped in the Babylon with Abraham? 00:07:18.400 --> 00:07:21.220 Do you want to worship the false gods that we've come into when we saw this land? 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:26.540 Or do you want to worship the real God who's helped us to conquer the nation of Israel and provided for us as people? 00:07:27.640 --> 00:07:35.200 As for me and our house, the decision that we're making is to man up, pursue that relationship 00:07:35.200 --> 00:07:40.320 with God, to grow up and to be what God has called you to be. 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:46.140 Bible tells us in Genesis chapter two that God created us to be fruitful and multiply. 00:07:46.200 --> 00:07:46.360 Excuse me. 00:07:46.460 --> 00:07:47.130 In chapter one. 00:07:48.380 --> 00:07:49.400 Ephesians chapter two. 00:07:49.400 --> 00:07:51.360 You were created in Christ Jesus for good works. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:55.700 God made you for a purpose, to live it out in him and through him. 00:07:57.340 --> 00:07:59.620 Interesting thing happened in my house this week. 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:01.540 It happened because my wife had read an article. 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:06.420 Apparently this article said at 18 months old, you should cut your child off from a bottle. 00:08:06.840 --> 00:08:07.670 I don't know where it came from. 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:09.840 So in our house we made the decision. 00:08:10.280 --> 00:08:11.100 Grayson's right. 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:13.140 At 18 months old, he no longer has a bottle. 00:08:14.440 --> 00:08:15.300 He's growing up right. 00:08:17.290 --> 00:08:20.900 The Bible kind of paints a picture of a young child as it grows up. 00:08:20.900 --> 00:08:22.510 In Corinthians, Paul wrote to the Corinthians. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:29.860 He said, chapter three I gave you milk to drink, not solid food for you, not able to 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:30.780 receive it. 00:08:30.820 --> 00:08:33.179 Indeed, even now you are not able to receive it. 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:39.400 First Corinthians 13 he says, when I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. 00:08:39.419 --> 00:08:42.539 When I became a man, I did away with childish things. 00:08:43.980 --> 00:08:44.860 The picture for a moment. 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:47.440 Your child. 00:08:47.540 --> 00:08:50.660 If you've ever had a child or held a child, know of a child. 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.020 Just the beauty of a baby, right? 00:08:54.020 --> 00:08:54.240 So innocent. 00:08:55.640 --> 00:08:57.400 Smells so stinky half the time. 00:08:58.520 --> 00:08:59.040 Cries. 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:00.460 You feed it, it's happy, right? 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:02.610 It's beautiful just to have a little kid. 00:09:02.800 --> 00:09:07.440 As they begin to grow up and your feet get to hold them in your arms, feed him a bottle, nurture that child. 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:09.280 Picture this for a moment. 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:11.020 That child is now 30 years old. 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:13.540 You're still changing its diaper. 00:09:14.520 --> 00:09:16.060 You're still feeding it a bottle. 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:18.360 You're still burping it on your shoulder. 00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:24.580 I don't know about you, but when Grayson turns 30 years old, my plan is to not be doing that for him. 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:24.680 Right? 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:27.720 Matter of fact, that would look gross, right? 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:33.920 A grown man changing the diaper of another grown man when he's capable of doing it on his own. 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:34.360 There's just. 00:09:34.700 --> 00:09:35.360 It's just not right. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.200 But the Bible gives the same picture for us as people and our spiritual maturity. 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:41.920 Paul is saying, how disgusting is this? 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:43.900 You think about this when you were a child. 00:09:44.020 --> 00:09:47.720 Yes, you were supposed to behave like a child, but you've been following after Jesus for quite a while. 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:49.760 So it's about time that you begin to grow up. 00:09:49.800 --> 00:09:54.540 And rather than take and take and take, you begin to feed other people and provide spiritually for this world as well. 00:09:56.020 --> 00:10:02.940 And Joshua, in between Joshua and Corinthians, we get a diversity of expectation of what is supposed to be there in the believer's life. 00:10:04.660 --> 00:10:06.140 Joshua was saying, man up and grow up. 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:08.300 And Paul saying, listen, if you don't, it looks disgusting. 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:10.700 Picture that in your mind. 00:10:12.400 --> 00:10:16.680 You'll notice in your bulletins today you've received there's two things I want to make you aware of. 00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:19.520 One is the man up card throughout this series. 00:10:19.520 --> 00:10:21.680 This is the challenge to us as people, as ladies. 00:10:22.040 --> 00:10:23.790 You can take this as well as men especially. 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:25.460 I want you to look over this card. 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.900 There are only two points you come up with here every year. 00:10:28.920 --> 00:10:32.940 It's a good opportunity for us to challenge ourselves in the relationship with God. 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:39.260 Just as Joshua got to the end of his life and challenged the nation of Israel, it's good for us as people to challenge ourselves and our relationship with God. 00:10:40.640 --> 00:10:44.540 The point is, here is, what do you want to challenge yourself with before your family? 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:53.660 Maybe there's a couple of things you've been thinking about you want to do to encourage your family and your relationship with them, to encourage your family 00:10:53.660 --> 00:10:55.480 and your relationship with the Lord. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:01.060 You can write some of those things down this on this number one and number two, put it in your Bible. 00:11:01.260 --> 00:11:05.260 Remind yourself, put it on your fridge, remind your family, hand it to your wife for accountability. 00:11:05.780 --> 00:11:06.600 Right? 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:08.470 Or your spouse or to someone that you trust. 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:16.460 Whatever it is, the desire that God has for us is that we become examples for community, friends, family, to those around us to challenge 00:11:16.460 --> 00:11:22.240 ourselves, to grow that we recognize the importance of mania. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:30.680 The second is this here at Alpine Bible Church, man, we take the shepherding of families 00:11:30.680 --> 00:11:31.120 seriously. 00:11:32.560 --> 00:11:36.640 The separating of our church family, the shepherding of individual families in the place that God has put us in. 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:41.300 We're always looking for ways to encourage us in our relationship with God. 00:11:42.100 --> 00:11:49.160 And if parents, if you've been made aware of this, but we've begun a new series in our children's church about a month ago, and it's walking your kids 00:11:49.160 --> 00:11:52.160 through the entire Bible in a year to understand what it's all about. 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:56.960 And with that comes every every week they get a take home card. 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:02.320 It's the opportunity for you as a family to shepherd your children to what they're learning in Children's church and reiterate that. 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:06.540 So if you're ever interested, they're usually in the children's church room or on the entry table. 00:12:06.580 --> 00:12:07.640 You can grab one and take it home. 00:12:07.900 --> 00:12:11.920 As a father, as a mother, you can encourage your kids to be that way because it's important to us. 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:19.960 It's important that we see our responsibility not for the church to disciple our kids, but for you as families to disciple 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:21.180 your own children as well. 00:12:22.460 --> 00:12:27.510 God has called you first to be that example to your kids, and then for the church to aid in that and not in the reverse order. 00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:34.980 Bible challenges us to think to ourselves every year, every day. 00:12:35.900 --> 00:12:38.400 How can it be more like the Lord in my life? 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:39.740 How can I live more like Jesus? 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:41.320 An example to those around us. 00:12:42.380 --> 00:12:46.160 So the question I want to ask this morning is what is a real man? 00:12:48.060 --> 00:12:49.060 What is a real man? 00:12:50.140 --> 00:12:56.100 Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 30, when past went past the field of a sluggard. 00:12:56.920 --> 00:12:59.340 Past the vineyard of someone who has no sense. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:01.940 Thorns had become up everywhere. 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:05.220 The ground was covered with weeds and the stone wall was in ruins. 00:13:06.300 --> 00:13:09.860 I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. 00:13:10.520 --> 00:13:13.360 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arm. 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:14.300 The hands to rest. 00:13:14.800 --> 00:13:16.960 And poverty will come on you like a thief. 00:13:17.300 --> 00:13:19.580 And scarcity like an armed man. 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:26.340 A real man, according to this passage of Scripture, is one that rejects passivity. 00:13:28.160 --> 00:13:34.670 It's easy to become passive, according to what this verse says in Proverbs 24, to sort of check out on our families and our relationships. 00:13:35.800 --> 00:13:38.340 But a real man rejects passivity. 00:13:39.180 --> 00:13:43.100 It tells us in the very last verse that passivity results in poverty. 00:13:44.280 --> 00:13:46.760 Choosing to do nothing is doing something. 00:13:47.800 --> 00:13:55.040 There's a quote that tells us it says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that godly men do nothing. 00:13:56.920 --> 00:14:02.100 It's not about what you don't do, but it's about the fact that you choose to do nothing. 00:14:03.940 --> 00:14:08.720 A real man rejects passivity, and it says by rejecting that, you walk away from poverty. 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:13.380 And when the Bible talks about poverty, it doesn't always have to just be financial. 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:21.620 When we talk about leading families and being an example to friends and those around us, poverty doesn't just have to be financial, though. 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:23.560 Poverty can exist in financial disaster. 00:14:25.520 --> 00:14:33.020 Poverty can also exist in physical poverty and spiritual poverty in 00:14:33.020 --> 00:14:34.630 relational poverty. 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:44.260 God's desire for you is to be intentional in life, in pursuing relationships, for him to 00:14:44.260 --> 00:14:49.880 be intentional in life towards not only your own spiritual growth, but the encouragement of your family as well. 00:14:51.800 --> 00:14:58.860 You know, as a man, I've got to be honest, one of the most difficult places for me to be a godly example sometimes is with my 00:14:58.860 --> 00:14:59.080 wife. 00:15:00.760 --> 00:15:01.440 It's all day long. 00:15:01.460 --> 00:15:07.060 I get the opportunity of people coming to me with different needs and praying for those needs and encouraging people throughout Scripture. 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:09.640 But my wife knows me better than anybody. 00:15:11.880 --> 00:15:18.940 She knows my pitfalls and my shortcomings, and the humility it takes sometimes for me to come before her 00:15:18.940 --> 00:15:19.410 and say, you know what? 00:15:19.620 --> 00:15:20.180 I was wrong. 00:15:20.880 --> 00:15:22.060 And let's just pray together. 00:15:23.380 --> 00:15:28.220 Let me be the encouragement that you need in your life and forgive me for where I mess up. 00:15:31.160 --> 00:15:38.200 The Bible desires for you as individuals to not be passive, but intentional for what God desires for your life and those around 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:43.800 us to engage your relationships for the better good of God. 00:15:45.160 --> 00:15:51.660 Your kids are always being influenced, and the question we have to ask ourselves is whose voice do we want them to hear? 00:15:53.340 --> 00:15:59.080 I heard of a young man once reflect that when he was a boy, his dad took him through the book of Proverbs and he hated it. 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:02.320 He hated just studying that with the Bible. 00:16:02.540 --> 00:16:02.930 In the Bible. 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:03.420 With his. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:04.160 With his father. 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:11.260 But, the book of Proverbs was written as a father to a son, for a son to understand how to live in this world and to walk in a godly way. 00:16:12.260 --> 00:16:19.460 And he reflected as he became a teenager, the moments that he had going through the book of Proverbs in his life, as he heard what the world wanted 00:16:19.460 --> 00:16:24.620 to tell him, and the disobedience towards walking away from God that existed in this world, rather than listen to it. 00:16:24.680 --> 00:16:31.760 What he would often hear is the voice of his father telling him to live a godly life, and to reflect on those proverbs in 00:16:31.760 --> 00:16:34.540 which he had learned to the point that he became a man. 00:16:35.520 --> 00:16:37.880 And those proverbs were ingrained in his life. 00:16:39.060 --> 00:16:46.160 The point for us as people is that we engage our culture, that we be intentional about the relationships that we 00:16:46.160 --> 00:16:51.320 seek, to be intentional about your relationship, even with your children. 00:16:54.140 --> 00:17:01.220 I think fathers, what God has called you more than anything in this world is to love your lives, your wives, with all your heart, and to be 00:17:01.220 --> 00:17:05.740 an example to your children to show your daughters daughters. 00:17:05.740 --> 00:17:11.480 This is how a man should treat you one day to get there before that snobby teenager, right? 00:17:12.920 --> 00:17:14.869 To set the expectation and the bar high. 00:17:14.900 --> 00:17:17.720 That way she just doesn't seek love and fall into any arms. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:21.000 But she learns what true love is and how to look for that godly mate. 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:28.520 To teach your young men or your young boys how to become men. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.500 It's funny, we were at home a couple of weeks ago. 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:33.320 We had this young lady. 00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:37.400 She's in college learning about her relationship with the Lord, and she came to our house and she hung out. 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:40.840 And turns out college girls, they talk a lot. 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:41.970 So we found a lot. 00:17:42.560 --> 00:17:49.580 Not only to talk about Lord, but we found out a lot about her life and she kept sharing this one thought all she wants to do, she wants to find the right 00:17:49.580 --> 00:17:55.580 guy in her life, and she wants to be a stay at home mom, and she wants to take care of her family and love her family, which is it's a great goal. 00:17:56.080 --> 00:18:08.000 But we asked her, how 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:20.900 are you going 00:18:20.900 --> 00:18:30.720 to do this? 00:19:08.860 --> 00:19:15.860 What's your plan here 00:19:16.080 --> 00:19:20.220 was her plan. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:29.320 She goes to the library at 00:19:29.320 --> 00:19:36.500 college and she goes to the very highest, highest floor in 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:36.500 the library because she knows that's where the nerd of all nerds study. 00:19:37.340 --> 00:19:45.480 Her goal was we asked her, what kind of man do 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.060 you look like? 00:19:48.220 --> 00:19:57.680 Or do 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.550 you look for in life? 00:20:20.220 --> 00:20:28.820 And she said, I 00:22:47.820 --> 00:22:49.480 don't. 00:23:24.740 --> 00:23:25.430 I don't care if they're ugly or not. 00:23:26.060 --> 00:23:31.040 I just want to be able to provide for my family. 00:23:34.560 --> 00:24:18.700 So the point is, for you young guys, no girl is going to turn down a young man who gets a job and supplies an income and walks up to her one day and says, I want to marry you. 00:24:22.280 --> 00:24:22.780 I've already got my house taken care of. 00:24:22.780 --> 00:24:22.780 I already owned my car. 00:24:22.780 --> 00:24:22.780 And here's your engagement ring. 00:24:22.780 --> 00:24:22.780 Okay? 00:24:22.780 --> 00:24:22.780 Pursue taking care of a family. 00:24:22.780 --> 00:24:22.780 It's. 00:24:22.780 --> 00:24:44.740 It's a godly thing, 00:24:57.300 --> 00:24:58.340 all right? 00:24:59.700 --> 00:25:35.020 A real man rejects 00:25:35.020 --> 00:25:36.020 passivity. 00:25:36.320 --> 00:25:39.240 Dads, it's our goal in life to train young men how to reject that man. 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:40.400 It's the goal in life to train young men how to love young ladies in a godly way. 00:25:41.560 --> 00:27:19.580 Do we 00:27:19.580 --> 00:27:20.040 see that in our culture today? 00:27:20.040 --> 00:27:20.940 Most of our culture idolizes sex and taking advantage of each other for our own personal gain. 00:27:24.570 --> 00:27:27.220 It's not about truly giving yourself away. 00:27:30.220 --> 00:27:31.270 It's about getting everything that I want from the relationship. 00:27:33.520 --> 00:27:34.080 A real man. 00:27:36.340 --> 00:27:37.770 In addition, the Bible says a real man accepts responsibility. 00:27:41.280 --> 00:27:47.080 It says in Ecclesiastes 910, whatever your hand finds to do it with all your might. 00:27:47.480 --> 00:27:55.480 For there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. 00:27:57.950 --> 00:27:58.620 She holds an Old Testament word. 00:27:59.180 --> 00:27:59.180 Let me just say in a condensed sense it means the afterlife. 00:27:59.180 --> 00:27:59.180 Okay. 00:27:59.180 --> 00:28:00.000 And what he's saying to us in Ecclesiastes, this comes from Solomon. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:00.000 It says to us as people, you've only got one shot. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:00.000 Some of us are way behind the curve in understanding our responsibility and our families. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:11.420 What God has called us to 00:28:24.800 --> 00:28:28.560 do above and beyond everything in those relationships. 00:28:38.800 --> 00:30:11.320 He's saying, 00:31:31.280 --> 00:32:16.100 you've only got one shot in this world, but you need to understand the importance of activity and planning and understanding and preparing to guide your family. 00:32:16.100 --> 00:32:17.940 Colossians 317. 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:20.860 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. 00:32:22.120 --> 00:32:30.460 When we reject our burden in this world, we're causing 00:32:30.460 --> 00:32:32.080 it to become someone else's responsibility. 00:32:32.080 --> 00:33:04.000 When you reject the purpose for which God has created you in the position in which God has placed you are casting your burden as to someone 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:49.520 else's responsibility. 00:33:59.820 --> 00:34:07.020 Can I tell you maybe as a place of frustration, you'll take this in a godly way because 00:34:07.020 --> 00:34:07.020 you guys are very encouraging people. 00:34:07.020 --> 00:34:22.940 But, in churches I've dealt with in the past, a lot of times what families have sought, especially with their teenagers, is for the 00:34:22.940 --> 00:34:25.580 youth pastor to take the place of a father or a parent in a home. 00:34:25.980 --> 00:34:28.199 I'll tell you, one of the most unhealthy things for you to do is to allow the youth pastor to take the place of the Or. 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.440 The parents role should be in the home. 00:34:30.500 --> 00:36:18.900 God doesn't 00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:51.680 desire for us to be passive, but accept our responsibility. 00:36:51.680 --> 00:36:54.380 In addition to that, he wants us to lead courageously. 00:36:54.380 --> 00:36:56.860 As written for in chapter ten of the Book of Ezra. 00:36:56.920 --> 00:36:56.940 Ezra had to deal with a very difficult subject with the nation of Israel. 00:36:56.940 --> 00:36:58.720 He comes before some of the leaders in the nation of Israel, and this is their advice to him. 00:37:41.340 --> 00:37:42.440 Arise. 00:37:42.660 --> 00:37:45.200 For there is matter in your responsibility, but we will be with you. 00:39:00.300 --> 00:39:02.348 Be Be courageous and act. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's not saying you have to be a professional and be able to do this, but what it's saying is we understand there are things in this world that look fearful, things in this world you may not know exactly how to understand or how to how to handle it, but do something. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Ask the question, God, what would you want me to do? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And then make an attempt at doing something? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's better to attempt and fail than not to attempt at all, right? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Sometimes in this world, we don't plan to fail, but we fail to plan. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 So in Ephesians five, Paul lays this out for us as husbands, we lead courageously. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He says in verse 25, we saw something to the wives in first Peter three but to the husbands he says, husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's unconditionally, sacrificially. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 We don't love because they're loving. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 We love because love has called us to love. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Love is about giving itself away regardless of what other another person would do. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And because she is your spouse, you have promised before God that above anything else, you would choose to love her regardless of how she might respond to you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 That's God's calling you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And so it says in verse 26, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless, points a husband's in that passage of Scripture. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He's describing for us how the love of Jesus has made us as people, beautiful in the eyes of God, as God has lavished his love on him. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The Bible tells us we love him because he's first loved us. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the more Jesus loves us, and the more that we respond to that love, the more beautiful and sanctified we look as people. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And so he's saying to men, the more that you choose to love women in the godly way, and especially your wife, the more beautiful she becomes each and every day to you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Godly man rejects passivity. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He accepts responsibility, and he leads his family courageously. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Some guys might say, well, I have, I have loved my wife. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But right now in our marriage, she feels more like more like she's distant, more like a neighbor than than a wife or a friend. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And I will say, that's okay. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The Bible says love. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Love your neighbor too, right? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The Bible also says, no matter how much she may feel like an enemy at certain times, the Bible says to also love your enemies. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 First Timothy chapter three describes for us what godly leadership is all about. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It says in the church that you are to appoint elders to lead the church. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But when the. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 When it describes how to discover those elders that are which are appointed to lead a church, it says that you are to find godly men who love their families. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Godly men who have proven in their own character, in their walk with God what it means to lead a family. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And as they lead a family, they identify themselves as individuals who are also capable of leading the church, because the church is a larger form of the family. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 When it talks about the leadership in first Timothy three and all the things that emphasizes in first Timothy three, 90% of the passage of a of a of a leader in a church deals with his character. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 What is he like in difficult situations? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Who comes out? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Doctor Jekyll and Mr. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Hyde, right. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 What kind of individual does it become when pressure is placed upon him? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Last I would say this a real man. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 A real man desires to be with God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Matthew chapter six Jesus has given his sermon on the Mount. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He says in verse six, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Verse 33 he says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 A moment of pause for us as man and his people to ask the question, how often do you seek the face of God? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If we took it a little deeper and said, how often do you seek the face of God on behalf of your family? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 How often do you pray for the needs of your children? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Pray for the needs of your spouse or your marriage. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The relationship that you have connected to your church, family, or community. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 How often do you take the time and the quietness of your heart to intercede on the behalf of others? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Let me ask another question. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It says in verse 33 that we seek the kingdom of God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 A man or maybe women by watching your behavior. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 What would your family say is your greatest reward in life? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If your kids kids catch on everything, don't they? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If your kids were able to examine your life, who would they say that you love more than anything in this world? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Or what would they say that you love more than anything in this world? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Maybe that would be something for the comment card this week on Man Up. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Take the time when you leave church today to ask your kids, kids, who do you think that I love more than anything in this world? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 They'll be honest with you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 They'll say it so bluntly without thinking about it might cut straight to the heart. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 God has called you to desire a relationship with him more than anything. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 This is what we believe in that relationship, that as you begin to pursue it, God teaches us to love more deeply and care for the needs of others more personally than for our own personal needs. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 So we look at all that together, and we answered the question of really, what is a godly man about? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And there's more that Scripture would tell us. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And we get to this point. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the reason I want to stop here is we're going to study this in weeks ahead. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But the question I ask now is, now that we've been pummeled and guilted and all that's been thrown on us, where do we start? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 That's good for us to stop and recognize. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 You know what? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 I've been falling short. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Wives who've come with your husbands today don't go home and beat them up, okay? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Because we've learned right now, there's a point in our lives where we have fallen short. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Ladies, as we look, we need to draw ourselves to the attention of, you know what? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 I do need to always challenge myself in my relationship with the Lord and seeking after God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And what does God have me here for? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 What's the most important thing that God's called me to do? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 How in the world do I start at this point in my life? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Because I think one of the most important things for us to learn is, number one, we learn to control our passions. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Do you know that your passions will bring you destruction if they're bad passions? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But not only that, your passions will also bring you great success if your passion is in the right thing. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And it says in Proverbs chapter 16, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Saying, those guys, when God calls you to lead, when God calls you to lead as a lady in any position, wherever you are that God calls you to lead, the one of the worst things that you can do. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And in discovering God's will for your life and following after that path is to allow anger to control you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Because in those moments now anger is in charge of the situation rather than God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Listen to this in Proverbs chapter five. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 For many men, lust becomes a passion for us that takes takes guys out of control. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But it says this as a as a father written to a son in Proverbs chapter five and verse one, my son, pay attention to my wisdom. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Listen carefully to my wise counsel. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Then you will show discernment, and your lips will express what you've learned. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But in the end she is a bitter. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 She is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double edged sword. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Her feet go down to death. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Her steps lead straight to the grave. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 For she cares nothing about the path to life. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn't realize it. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 So now my sons listen to me. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Never stray from what I'm about to say. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Stay away from her. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Don't go near the door of her house. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If you do, you'll lose your honor and you will lose merciless people. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 All who have achieved strangers will consume your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 In the end, you will groan in anguish. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 When disease consumes your body, you will say, how I hated discipline. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If only I had not ignored all the warnings. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But in verse 18 he says this let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 May you rejoice in the wife of your youth. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 An evil man is held captive by his own sins. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 They are ropes that catch and hold him. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He will die for lack of self control. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He will be lost because of his great foolishness. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The Bible calls us as individuals to control our passions, to be serious about our relationship with God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And in the seriousness of that relationship, he calls us to develop a godly character. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Micah six says this know old people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Some translations say to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Humbly means this, that we admit God's authority over us and the fact that we can't meet our needs on our own. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The fact that we can't do it on our own. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Recognizing the importance of men or women. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 That when we fail before our families, when we fail before our friends or before anybody, that we have the willingness in our humility to walk before that individual and confess that we messed up thinking about our own personal relationship and the health of that relationship with God that we are to live humbly. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But he also says that we are to love justice and mercy, or that we are to do what is right and to love mercy. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 I love this about being a dad. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Is that, Grayson has this mean growl. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Now, we've learned how to be a cat for long enough that he growls. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He'll run after the house and growl after everything. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He attacks everything right now because he's at that age. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 But God's goal in my life for him is to teach him how to do justice and love mercy. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Meaning we don't take advantage of the weak, but we attack those who are robbing the world. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Meaning, when Grayson gets old enough to carry a sword and wield that around the house, I'll pretend to be the bad guy to teach him how to bring justice and mercy on those who are evil, and to love and care and bring mercy on those who need it. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Bible tells us to love the widows and the orphans, to love everybody. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It tells us to do justice and to love mercy, to learn to tak the things that are wrong and to live rightly for the things that deserve it. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 To be that example to our young people in the last is this accept your responsibility. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It says in first Timothy five eight but those who won't care for their relatives, especially in their own household, have denied the true faith. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Such people are worse than unbelievers. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Bible saying this. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If you say that you know Jesus and you have a family and you have neglected the care of your family, I remember we looked at poverty. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's not just financially, it's spiritually. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's relationally. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's physically. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It's every area that your family might have a need if you are purposely rejecting that you hate Jesus. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 What God has called you into this world is to be that example for him. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 More than any responsibility that you carry. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 If you've taken on a family, that is where God has called you to lead, guide and direct. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The church is only as strong as its families as they pursue God and more than anything, what God desires for you in this world is to pursue him and direct your family. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 There is a story of two men who went hunting. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It was a father and son. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 They were elk hunting and the father had prayed before they left that day he said to God, God, let my aim be accurate. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Let my arrows shoot. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 True. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 They go on the hunt. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the sun was the first to kill an elk. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And so to help his father kill an elk, he went off into the bushes a little bit of a ways. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He began to call in another elk so his father could shoot it with his bow. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 He begins to get one in, and he draws closer to his father, so that way he could begin to take aim and to shoot this elk. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And he was excited because it was a large bull elk, and all of a sudden, out of the thicket, this elk just darted out of nowhere and fled the scene. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the son thought, how strange that elk would leave, and all of a sudden he stands up in the thicket. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 When he begins to stand up, he notices why the elk ran, and standing right before him is a grizzly bear. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And as he stands up and he sees this grizzly bear, the grizzly bear begins to take charge of this young man, and the father sits there, counting the moments as he saw this grizzly bear running to his son, and he was so far away that he was helpless to meet the needs of his son. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And it tells us in the story that the grizzly bear grabbed the son by the arm, and it flung him over the shoulders and began to shake him around like a rag doll. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The only thing the father could think to do was that he needed to just draw his bow, and to take aim and shoot this grizzly bear. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the whole time he's worried that when he when he lets go of this era, that rather than hit the bear, he's going to hit his son and he lets go of this arrow and he shoots it at the animal, and the animal continues to ravage on his son and he has no response to this air. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the father thinks that he missed the bear. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And so he runs up to the bear, and he takes a stick, and he begins to beat the bear. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Eventually the bear lets go of his son, and he's maimed, but he's alive. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And the bear begins to walk off. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And it takes a few yards forward and it collapses and it dies. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 The father helps the son up, and they walk over to the bear, and they dust, dust themselves off, and they roll the bear over, and they notice that the arrow had hit the bear directly in its heart. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 A lot of times, as fathers and as mothers when it comes to raising children, it feels like we don't have the answers. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 It feels like when your child becomes a teenager that you no longer have control, that they're beginning to make decisions on their own. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And our prayer for us as men and for women, for your children, is God. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Let my aim be accurate. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 God, let my arrows ring true. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 God has called us to protect our kids from the garbage of this world. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Men, God has called you to protect the virtue of your daughters. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Out of your young boys. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 To call out the man that God desires them to be. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 A man who teaches his daughters about true love and how to be loved by someone who will not take advantage of them. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 All week long, people are going to influence your kids and pull them from you and your relationship. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 All week long, things are going to pull from you in your marriage and the desire that God has for you and your spouse to become one flesh. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 God's desire is that men would man up to draw to God and protect them as a family. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Men, when you let when you mess up that you would ask for forgiveness before your family. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Maybe we should ask today that if you were to die, what would your legacy be? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 As you think about your relationship with your children, your wife, and your community, when you come to the end of your life, what would you desire for your legacy to be? 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Here's what I understand in Scripture that regardless of where we are, we can be who God wants us to be. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 We can let go of the past and live in the moment in our relationship with the Lord. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 Joshua looked at the people of Israel who had walked away from a relationship with God, and they came to a crossroads in their life. 00:39:02.348 --> 00:39:02.348 And where God said to them, listen, choose this day whom you will serve.