0:00 Good morning. If you have your Bibles, please meet me in the book of Isaiah chapter 56. Isaiah chapter 56 verse 10. This is not our main text this morning. This is just gonna create a framework for where we're going.
0:22 And I am fully aware that we're breaking bread today, but we're gonna take our time with this message. We are not going to rush in this message. Isaiah 56 verse 10 tells us, his watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all silent dogs.
0:40 They cannot bark. Dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. This is one of the indictments that God had declared over the leaders of his people because they were not fulfilling their roles as shepherds, more specifically in protecting and providing for his people. And God is specific in this judgment by calling his watchmen, who were called to stand on the horizon and to see the looming threats that were coming towards the community of saints, silent dogs, the watchman was called to have discernment, to possess a knowledge of being able to see potential threats, identify it, and then turn towards the people and help them respond in a God prescribed manner. But they didn't.
1:40 Isaiah's day with his leaders were mute like dogs. Meaning what? Well, a dog by nature barks, and he barks usually when he is in a mode of alertness concerning the presence or the potential presence of something or someone dangerous that is approaching the premises. When a dog barks at an alarming rate, what is that dog trying to do? Bring awareness to the owner and the home that it represents that, hey, there's something coming, there's something that is here.
2:16 I'm not sure what it is, but it's worthy of your attention, and he alarms. That is a call of a preacher sometimes. And the judgment here is that the preachers in Isaiah is they were not doing that. They weren't alarming. They weren't bringing to notice.
2:32 They were not trying to get the attention of the people concerning a potential danger. And I bring this verse to our attention this morning because I wanna take the time to talk about a current crisis. I'm sure we've heard that word week after week after week, crisis, calamity, dilemma, pandemic. But I wanna speak on a specific crisis that I believe is not getting as much coverage as it deserves. It is a crisis that we are currently experiencing.
2:56 It is a crisis that is growing, and it is a crisis that I believe and I'm sure you believe that is a contribution to much of the societal dilemmas that we are experiencing today. The specific predicament that I have in mind for us in this morning message is the spreading epidemic of intentional fatherlessness. Intentional fatherlessness. I say intentional because fatherlessness can be the result of many things and some things that are outside the control of the will, including death. I'm not speaking about fatherlessness.
3:34 I'm speaking about more in the line of the scarcity of men, the failure of men walking out the biblical mandate of what it really means to be a man. My goal is not to make this a social studies message. It can become that very quickly. My prayerful intention is that we would at least bring to mind, let's bark a little bit today, bring to mind the spiritual significance and value that God has concerning his ordination of the role of a man in society, and how when a man fails to walk out a man I'm not talking about there's a difference between man and woman, by the way. We're gonna learn that.
4:19 I know that's gonna be shocking to our generation, but it's coming. A man, I'm talking about a man, when he does not submit to biblical manhood, the implications and the consequences, like many other sins, do not just remain with him. His choices or lack of choices undoubtedly is connected to how many institutions in society either flourish or wither, including the institution of the local church. This is hardly disagreed by those who might have an array of disagreements on every level, including political ones. It's very difficult to hear what I just said and say, I don't know if that's really the case.
5:18 It's agreed upon in the general sense. And I want to give you a quote to consider today to make that point more clear. Here's a quote: Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty, five times more likely to live in poverty, and commit crime. Nine times more likely to drop out of schools, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves, and the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.
6:03 Some of you know who gave that quote. If you don't, it's Barack Obama. Barack Obama, back when he was a senator, gave that speech in his Father's Day speech here in Chicago when he was expressing his concern of the African American community. Some of you know that when we had the freedom to go to the rehab center on Thursdays and we had the chance to sit down with young men between the ages of 14 and 18 that were there mostly on court order to to get set free from drugs and who a majority of came from a gang background, 14 to 18 years old. I wanted to put this to the test whenever I had the chance to go there.
6:48 And so oftentimes, because they would cycle with different people coming every other week almost, I would I would introduce myself and I would have them introduce themselves, and then I would eventually, I I this is the question I wanted to ask right off the bat, but eventually, I would warm up to this question, and I'll never forget the day that on my way to that rehab center with a person that was visiting this church and wanted to see what that ministry was all about, I had been telling that person how the common denominator amongst these young men is fatherlessness. And so I wanted to prove to them how that was the case when we got there. And so once we got to sit down with these young men and they were expressing themselves and they were rowdy and they and they were all excited and they were talking to each other, and I eventually brought up the question. I just, before we start our Bible study, I want to ask, how many of you in this room grew up without a dad, not because your dad died, but because your dad made a choice to abandon you at a young age?
7:43 I cannot express how the moment I asked that question, the entire atmosphere of that room changed. It's like I pressed a button because all you had to do was look at their demeanor. All you had to do was look at their face, and something was switched on to the point where a couple of them were mumbling to themselves saying, I'll never become like my dad. I'll never do it to my kids. You're talking about 16 year olds, 17 year olds who have kids.
8:13 I'll never do that to my kids. And as much as they have expressed and you can just see the pain in their face, you can see the wounds even now. And as much as they express their determination to to not become like the very thing that their father was, oftentimes they cannot help it because they have not been given an example otherwise. And so as much as they give verbal confession and verbal affirmation of who they will be like or what they will not be like, The statistics tells us otherwise. Here's a scripture, Proverbs 20 verse six, many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find.
8:56 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find. This simply means that there are many men who who find great ease in declaring and verbalizing the uprightness of their commitment. Character and choices. It's not hard for men to do that. They convince themselves of their own righteousness.
9:16 They convince themselves that they meet the standard of commitment that they are called to as men, but this verse points out that society is not lacking in men confessing that. What society is lacking is men who live like that. A faithful man who can find. And this ancient proverb has found its way in giving clear commentary of what we're experiencing today, is it not? The boast of charity, the boast of sacrifice, the boast of loyalty, it does nothing if it's not backed up by faithfulness.
9:53 And it's no wonder that Proverbs 26 is followed by this verse: The righteous, verse seven, who walks in his integrity, blessed are his children after him. Blessed are his children after him. So, so here's the idea: The man who walks in integrity, meaning to live out, that's what it means to walk, to live out becomes a source of tremendous blessing, and the blessing he experiences is not reserved to himself. Blessed are who? The children who come after him, meaning the blessing of a man of integrity is multigenerational.
10:34 Is multi generational. In fact, his children are the ones who are directly affected by it. So when a man goes beyond trumpeting that he is a true man, that he is truly good, that he is truly kind and faithful, when he goes beyond trumpeting and truly dies to himself and allows Christ to dominate his heart and shine through him, that's when blessing comes to a home. But here's the issue. You can take this verse and turn it to the negative and it would still apply to biblical principle.
11:09 If it's a blessing for a man to walk in integrity, specifically for his children, then what is the equation if a man fails to walk in integrity? All you have to do is figure out what the opposite of blessing is. What do we mean by integrity? Moral uprightness. Commitment to biblical convictions, courage in the face of trials and temptations, enduring suffering and sacrificial love.
11:45 Listen, fatherlessness cannot be equated to somebody that's calling in sick for a job. Fatherlessness literally ushers in cursed realities to the next generation. Why do I bring this up today? Because the church has an opportunity to respond to it. The church can respond to it.
12:13 You say, well, how did this church respond to this kind of crisis? We preach the gospel, right? Sure, we preach the gospel. But it's more specific than that. Because why would people wanna hear a gospel from people that that gospel is not proven to change the people who proclaim it?
12:30 I argue that the answer to the warped view of what masculinity is defined by society is that the church produces godly and holy men. If we wanna see something of this rapid rate of abandonment of husband responsibilities and fatherly roles, then the church has to produce what the world is lacking. We have to understand that for the church to be the salt and light, we have to broaden our application to that. It's not just you and I preaching the gospel because the world doesn't wanna hear the gospel. It's not talking about faithfulness merely to doctrine and delivering it.
13:19 Being salt and light includes this, living out the biblical principles in such a way that we can invite the world into those specific realities and say, look what happens when you live under God's blessing, including the family. Now I wanna make this case. Fatherlessness, the absence of the presence of a father is detrimental. It is serious. But let's not limit it limit it to that because there's another serious reality, and it is not the absence of the physical presence of a father, but a father who is present but absent in so many other ways.
13:59 So this doesn't just apply, though it is a degree of seriousness when there's a lack of a presence of a father. There is still repercussions to the presence of a father who is not living according to the God ordained call of what it means to truly be a father or a husband. Now, this is important because we have to admit that the crisis that we see in this world concerning fatherlessness, it's not just wreaking havoc in the world. It's bleeding its way into the church. It's bleeding its way into the evangelical church.
14:39 And though this is a potential threat in every generation, including biblical times, there seems to be, please pay attention this morning, there seems to be a growing breed of underdeveloped men in the evangelical circles. What do I mean by that? Men who hold on to boyish habits and mentalities even when they're long past getting married and having babies. That is a crisis in itself. This is not a personal worry, by the way, merely.
15:14 This is the concern of many men, women, and church leaders across the Western world who understand what biblical manhood is, but is looking across the congregations from east to west and north to south and realize that there is a lack of this biblical manhood at the rate that it should be, and it is not coming up to that rate. In fact, this is a concern of a man who wrote a recent article called The Church Boy Who Never Grew Up. I don't know who Darren Roberts is, the author of this article, nor do I know where he fully stands theologically, but what I do agree with is his assessment of the current case in the general sense of young evangelical men. This man is a college pastor, and he writes after years of observing within different circles of churches that he served in, I'm assuming, because that's what he's saying generally, being burdened and grieved of how over the years young evangelical men are not growing up into biblical manhood. They still remain into boyish habits.
16:24 And so with that burden, one afternoon he began to write the reflections concerning this, and the article is nothing short of sharp and shocking and, dare I say, almost prophetic in its precision. I'm not gonna read the entire articles because that would take me at least five to ten minutes. I'm gonna read a portion, and the portion I believe will be enough for us to receive language of what seems to be a growing reality. The church boy who never grew up, quote I'm gonna read this, so it's gonna require you to pay attention because I'm gonna be looking down more than looking up. Okay?
17:06 Let's all pay attention now. Quote, he wakes up each morning later than he planned because of his lack of discipline the night before. He opens his eyes unprepared for the day and immediately hits snooze. He looks at his responsibilities and leadership opportunities that each day could bring as obstacles to his happiness rather than opportunities to grow in God. He is known for doing the bare minimum, constantly hitting the status quo, but never pushing forward to excellence.
17:44 When others are watching, he can put on a show. But when only the Lord sees, apathy, inactivity, and the love for comfort are his idols of choice. He lives for hobbies and for his own downtime. He can't wait to come out from under pressure. He works for the weekend rather than God.
18:08 He thinks with no urgency. He ignores the long term impact of current habits. Nothing awakens him to his need for preparation and conviction building for future battles. He figures he will cram when he needs to be spiritually minded but sees little need to get too intense just yet. His excuse is, God is sovereign.
18:35 A theological smokescreen to veil his sluggard heart. He is lazy on every front except in crafting excuses. When sin brings consequences, especially when it threatens his precious reputation, he sprints for a season. But his zeal fades as his consequences become less intense. When worldliness shows up in his hobbies, he ignores the warnings of his conscience.
19:04 He craves to be able to sin like the world, but since too much sin would bring exposure, he finds subtle ways to feast on worldly morsels under the disguise of Christian liberties. His self orientation plagues his life in the local church. He attends regularly but he does not love the bride of Christ. When questioned about his lackluster approach to church life, he replies with, I'm committed but I'm really busy this season. Self sacrifice is eclipsed by selfish ambition.
19:42 Listen to this, he takes no initiative. He'll serve in the body if you push him, but often with a grumbling spirit. And when smiling on the outside during service opportunities, he is usually standing up within. His friendships consist of sparring about unimportant things and brief moments of shallow biblical generalities to relieve his guilt ridden conscience. He treats people as resources to consume rather than precious souls he can serve.
20:20 He gravitates towards relationships that cost him little and hovers around people who don't meddle in his character weaknesses. Sure, he is as chatty as a soccer mom with her latte when discussing his favorite hobbies, his job, or his political views, but the moment deep discussion about Christ and his word is the topic, he turns his face on screensaver mode, smiles and nods. He wastes his late teens and twenties and is a husband and a father now. He wants the benefits of marriage but without the cost. His wife suffers under this neglect.
21:08 She married a a boy in a man's body. She tries to prod him, but he has nurtured self love for too long to listen to her burden, please. He is full of excuses of why he can't lead like the way she wants him to. He thickens more smokescreen to hide his heart of hypocrisy. She wonders where the guy went who seemed to be striving for holiness while they were dating, but now rarely talks with her about the truth.
21:44 His mask is now off at home, though this does not stop his quest to protect his reputation in church. The church boy who never grew up. If you felt the razor blade truths from these statements, realize that it has been dulled because I left out a lot more remarks from this article. Here's the sad truth about this commentary. It speaks about many evangelical young men in America today.
22:17 And now we can summarize the language that this very powerful article demonstrates in one simple word. Ready? Selfishness. Examine all of it, and what do you come down to? What does it funnel down to?
22:30 One reality, selfishness. And that is dominating men. And the awful description that is presented that was just declared from this pulpit this morning, you know what it should cause us to feel? This is what it should cause us to feel. This cannot, by any means, be the description of the majority of young evangelical men in our day.
22:52 It cannot. See, it it can't be a rare thing to step into a local church, look around, and not see the majority of young men being reliable, hardworking, trustworthy, hungry for the things of God, Christ loving, and visionaries for the kingdom of God. That should not be a rarity. What I just read should be the rarity. The Bible presents that what was just presented should be the rarity.
23:23 But the script has flipped. What I just read is what is most common. And what we have is a handful of men that prove to be growing in leadership qualities. And it's so rare that when we see it, we almost say that they are all called to ministry. As though if you're a man that loves God, loves his word, wants to be serious about God at a young age, that is a sign that you're called to a full time ministry.
23:55 No. That is a sign that you're a Christian man. Now, how did we come to this point? How did we come to this point? I wanna present at least three reasons.
24:12 They're not limited to these reasons, but I'm gonna, hopefully by the word of God, show us why. Number one, lack of biblical models. Ephesians six verse four. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Listen, the inspiration towards young men becoming biblically in their pursuit of manhood is primarily found in two types of people.
24:43 Number one, fathers. Number two, the elders of the church. Primarily coming from the father, secondarily coming from male eldership. Paul, a church planter. Paul, an apostle.
25:00 When it came to the discipleship of young men and women, but we're talking about masculinity here today, When it came to the the raising up, the instruction in the Lord towards young men, he did not say, Bring your kids to church, and the young pastor in the youth group is going to do that for you. Fathers, you raise up your kids. You train them up. You pour into them. The blueprint is that dads with intentionality invest in the formation of their children's convictions and characters.
25:41 First by example, most importantly, and then from heart to heart discipleship. Heart to heart discipleship. Now I know that there's so many things that are rising on people's minds even at this point, and I wanna get to those things hopefully, but let me just make mention of it now. We almost feel, because they're possibly in this room right now, people who did not grow up with fathers, godly wives that did not have godly husbands and walked out on them. Listen.
26:08 There are wonderful, hopeful truths given to those who have grown up in such circumstances, but what I'm presenting today is God's plan a, his plan a. Fathers, bring them up. Here's a danger that many fathers fall into, and many even young men who are planning to become fathers, this is what they were gonna fall into. Ready? They have limited the responsibility concerning fatherhood down to one thing, material provision.
26:43 And so what you have, especially from people who've come from different countries immigrating to America, or people who have grown up from within with that grew up with economic limitations, what do they do? What's their number one goal? I'm gonna give my kids what I didn't have. I'm gonna work. I'm gonna save up.
26:59 I'm gonna seek that promotion. I'm gonna come home late. I'm gonna wake up early for one sole purpose, to give my kids the joys and the comforts that I didn't have when I was a child. Happens all the time. And from a good heart.
27:15 It's not an evil thing. It's a good heart, but here is the danger, that they have limited the responsibility to that alone while neglecting so many other crucial things that a father must invest in his children. And so in that pursuit, they're emotionally disconnected. There's no sense of sense of awareness of what's going on in their son's life. And here's the thing, a son needs to comprehend and witness his father's godly convictions.
27:49 He needs to draw wisdom from his dad who has experienced life and walked with God longer than him for future battles ahead. Do you realize that the framework of the book of Proverbs is not just random sayings? It is given to us in the framework of a father speaking to his son. My son, my son, my son, my son. He needs to be exposed to his father loving his mother, loving Jesus, loving the local church, loving the world that he interacts with, that needs to be an exposure.
28:32 Now, that is clear for the home. And mind you, today we are just skimming the surface. We can dive into one of these things for a series. That is the home. The home is the primary place of discipleship.
28:44 We have come to a place where we've made the youth group and the youth pastor the primary discipler of children and youth and teenagers. Wrong. It's the fathers. Anything else is supplementary. Now that's clear for the home, but there's a responsibility from the church.
29:06 There is a responsibility within the church, and here's one of the dangers within many churches. In many churches, assemblies are designed to separate age groups. That's okay. You have Sunday school, you have youth group, and then what we can call real church. Right?
29:25 That's real church. That's stuff that's real church. When you come to the main sanctuary, that's real church. And with good intention. Right?
29:34 What What do we want? We want children to obviously grow at a certain level with their understanding. We want young people to be with other young people so that they can relate. But here's the danger of that practice, of that kind of a structure long term. You ready for this?
29:47 Here's the danger. That you, you do not include interaction between men and young men in that. You strip away the interaction that is desperately needed within the community of faith when you structure your church in such a manner that it can run apart from the main assembly. Because what needs to happen is multi generational relationships within the church. Titus two proves that.
30:16 We're gonna get there in a moment. Older men, older women. Younger women, younger men. There's a interaction. Notice that Paul never wrote a letter to the youth group in Corinthians.
30:34 And so what is the danger of that exactly? Because we think that's that's fine. I'll tell you a potential danger. This is what it is. So you have lack of discipleship from a father in the home.
30:46 And then when you come to church, you have little to zero interaction between young people and older people who walk with God. So what are young people succumb to? What are they left with? Here's what they're left with. They're continually and and consistently surrounded with people their own age.
31:04 Saying, what's the problem with that? Here's the problem with that. You have young people who desperately need to receive from older people, and all they do is hang around with other young people who also desperately need to receive from older people, and they are just surrounded with each other, let me ask you this. Is there gonna be much training in that kind of frame of relationship? Is there gonna be much challenge from that kind of frame of relationship?
31:29 Is there gonna be much investment and reflection upon the seriousness of life? No. What you have is packs of young people that only surround themselves with other young people that are equally unconcerned about the future of life and have no desire to even inquire from older men. It's dangerous. Let me put it this way.
31:56 I can remember even in my my own life. I did not have a perfect Christian life, by the way, so I'm just giving this as an example. I remember when I first got saved, for some reason, one of the cravings I had when I was in a specific local church, one of the cravings I had was to find people with gray hair after the service. I wanted to know what it was like to walk with Jesus for sixty plus years. I wanted to know what what was it like?
32:22 What did you see the Lord do in your life throughout those years? What advice do you have? And And I remember in one particular season for a stretch of time, there was this a a particular gentleman every time and it was I'm not saying be best friends with older people. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that you have to have some kind of interaction.
32:40 And it would literally be five to ten minutes after the Sunday service just talking about, I'm shutting my mouth. I want to hear from this gentleman. And I can pull out the nuggets of gold to this day from that simple interaction. I remember talking to a friend who has a similar demographic to this church in a different country. And when we were talking, this was many years ago, we'd asked each other, what what do you wanna pray for?
33:07 What do you wanna what's your prayer request? So I gave my prayer request and then he gave his prayer request and it shocked me. His prayer request was, because he's a leader in that church, would you please pray that God would send more older people to our church? I'd never heard that because up to that point all I've heard was, we need young people. We need young people.
33:23 We need young people. We need both. And I asked them, older people, why aren't we trying to get the younger people? He goes, no. You don't understand.
33:32 We need wisdom. We have a lot of young adults in our church, a lot of start up families, and we need those who have walked with God to invest in our lives even on a simple interaction level. Lack of biblical models. And when we are in a situation where the demographic is relatively young, you know what that's gonna have to do? All the more pull out manliness from you.
34:00 To be more disciplined and aware of pitfalls. Not just lack of biblical models. Number two, an attack on the distinct gender roles in our day. The only threat No. There's more threats to the church concerning biblical manhood, and there's a brew brewing storm in evangelical Christianity today, and it is the onslaught on the distinct roles that God has for men and women as prescribed in the Bible.
34:31 What is that attack exactly? It is the attempt to redefine the responsibilities that are solely given to men and say that women have the right to operate in those same roles. I'm speaking to a crowd that I'm sure has heard more than one occasion how there is a distinction in roles, though there is an equality of value and worthiness concerning both genders. But what's happening is major evangelical leaders Here's Isaiah 56, here's dog barking. Ready?
35:08 Many evangelical leaders, and you'll see this happening more and more, will totally dismiss what the Bible describes, the role of a man in the home and the role of a man in the church, and say women have every right to operate in those same categories of responsibilities. And it is disguised in the advocacy of women's rights. Let me tell you what it actually is. It's an attack on the word of God. And not only is it an attack on the word of God, it is an attack on the next generation.
35:46 Why? Because the head of the house is called to be a man and male eldership in the church are called to be men. And those are the platforms of examples for younger men to see what true masculinity looks like. And when you rob men of those positions, you rob the training process of young men knowing how to be men. This is not some light thing.
36:12 This is a serious thing. And the danger is we again remove the influences by replacing a woman can't teach a man how to be a man. Yes, there is an element of discipleship, but listen, we can talk about over and over how even honest mothers and honest children can say, A mother can only go so far in teaching a young man how to be a man. First Timothy three four and five, this is the qualifications of elders in the church. Verse four of first Timothy three, he must manage his household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.
37:03 For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? What does that mean? When a father with his son walks into church, you know what he's supposed to see? He's supposed to come to elders that's another word for pastors who have their own families, and these men, this relationship between a man and a son, are coming to witness what? How a pastor raises a family, how a pastor should be a father.
37:38 And what is the son going to do? He's going to see the children of that pastor and say, That is what an example of a child of God lives like. When you replace male eldership with woman eldership, what kind of confusing message are we sending to homes? When a father has called me the head of the house and he's coming to the church to see not just sermons preached but lived out examples from a plurality of pastors within the church who have their own families and are raising them and are trying to live out what it means. That father is supposed to say, Hey, listen.
38:16 Eldership, the qualifications of an elder doesn't mean that pastors are more spiritual than you. Every qualification that you see for a pastor is for every Christian. So why does God have those qualifications? He's calling for men to show the congregation that this is how you live out the Christian walk. It's a matter of reflecting it, not a matter of you being superior in your spirituality.
38:41 So when a father comes in and he sees that, he goes, I'm gonna bring that, imitate that in my own home. You've completely removed that possibility when you attack the role and you redefine it. And that's just one of the many dangers of this coming movement that is trying to blur the lines. Lack of biblical models, an attack on the distinct gender roles within the church, number three. It's easy for young men to realize that their own lack of pursuing biblical manhood is the result of outside lack of influence.
39:19 Right? Yeah. The reason why I am the way I am is because I didn't grow up with a father. The reason why the way I am is because I go to a specific church that teaches this. That's easy to do.
39:29 But number three, this is one of the strongest ones. The reason why we are seeing that description of majority v evangelical men, there is a delay on personal development. A delay on personal development. What will it require a man who does not have those examples in his his life? There's something required of him.
39:54 Because fatherlessness or the presence of a father that does not live out their biblical convictions consistently, that is not a hopeless case. We can't hear that this morning and say that's a death sentence. No, because we have a powerful gospel, and we have a God who is a father who has given us his word, and he's a father to the fatherless. And so it will require something from that type of a young man. And this is what it's gonna require.
40:31 Go to Proverbs six verse six and nine. Does having an example in a godly father and elders help? Absolutely. Does that mean that a boy can't become a man because he doesn't have it in his own life? Absolutely not.
40:49 Consider this proverb, you probably read it, and understand the implications of it. Proverbs six six to nine. This is a father speaking to his son. Go to the ant, oh sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise.
41:07 Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long would you lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? Notice what is being told to the young recipient here. There is an appeal from a father to study ants.
41:27 Come here, boy. Come here, son. I need you to do something. I want you to go look at that pile of ants right there. And as you're looking at those pile of ants, I'm gonna speak some truth into your ear.
41:37 Come. And here's the truth. Do you see how they're gathering those pieces of bread from down the road? Do you see how they're gathering all those different types of food in harvest time? Yeah, dad, I do to see that.
41:48 I want you to realize something. You know ants? They don't have a chief. They don't have a ruler over their life. They don't have an officer.
41:56 You know what he's trying to say? Ants do not have somebody above them telling them to work, yet they still know that they need to work. And it's an appeal for a sluggard, a lazy young man, to realize that one of the evidences of laziness is that you continually need to be told to work, and laziness is not becoming of a Christian. You would be shocked to know how much New Testament emphasis is given to practical Christian living, including the removal of any lazy habits. The ants don't have a king over them that's saying, it's harvest, go work.
42:45 They know it. Now if an ant knows it, how much more you? A true man of God will have that intuition. He will grow in that. He will know that it's important to work, to get busy, to provide for himself, and the future to provide for others.
43:02 He has wired his mind to think this way. I don't need to be constantly bothered or shook to initiate and to walk out my call to be provider. And I say all this to make a point. Whether we have examples or not, this is one amongst many proofs that we are called to personally develop, whether we have somebody telling us how to do it or not. And here's the thing, as that article said, many young men find themselves to be lazy in everything except in one thing, making excuses.
43:48 They're really good at making excuses. And not just excuses, but weird strategies. And and there's strange strategies on this, and here's one of them, that they they know that they will get to this certain point, but only at a certain season of life. So it's a delay. And here's one of the delays.
44:07 Once I get married, bro, once I find her and I realize she's a godly woman, then I'm gonna get serious, then I'm gonna walk out what it means to be a man, and I'm gonna stay like that after I get married too. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. Bad idea. Let me tell you why it's a bad idea. Because habits can't be broken off so easily.
44:32 And you can't turn on, like a switch, spirituality, maturity, and a sense of responsibility. It's something that you train yourself in. It's something that you're continually training yourself in and you're gonna stumble along the way. You're gonna make mistakes as you figure out how to do practical things. You're gonna get tired.
44:51 You're gonna get weary. You're gonna feel like you want to give up, and you're building your muscles in those years as you are preparing yourself to be that man. You don't turn it on when you see a woman and you say, That's the one I want, so I'm gonna start getting serious. That doesn't work like that. It's a bad strategy.
45:08 You prepare yourself. And that's why Solomon is saying here, How long will you lie there, oh sluggard? Like, what are you waiting for? When will you arise from your sleep? See, because many people don't believe what I'm about to say.
45:26 They spend, Their habits are out of control, their spending habits. They don't see the necessity of battling against their sexual sin now. They don't invest in iota and understanding biblical truth for themselves. There seems to be no sense of preparedness. And you're saying, well, what's the benefit of it?
45:54 Well, let me tell you this. It'll make your experience as a father and a husband a lot more successful than attempting to walk in your own wisdom and say, once I get there, then I'll get serious. No. Let me tell you what's gonna happen. Once you get there, you're gonna be overwhelmed.
46:12 Overwhelmed in such a way like this. Listen to what he says here in verse 11 of Proverbs six verse 10 rather. A little sleep, a little slumber what? I'm gonna just delay a little folding of the hands. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get serious now, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.
46:29 You're gonna be surprised how things are gonna just creep up on you. You're gonna be shocked. I had no idea that it was this serious. I had no idea that this was the responsibility I had to get myself into. Now, let's be careful of another extreme, thinking that you have to be perfect before you come to that point.
46:47 No. But you have to be aware. You have to be serious enough to think about it. And that's why he says, how long will you stay in that state of carelessness? How long will you just think that you don't have to develop your personal well-being and provision not just for your own body but your soul and your mind?
47:06 How long? Twiddling your thumbs. Literally investing all your time and energy that contributes nothing to your manhood, but all the more your boyhood. Does manhood mean that you're gloomy all the time? Does manhood mean that you're dead serious all the time, that you don't smile, that you don't have a sense of humor, that you don't think of life as a joyous thing?
47:31 No, the scripture doesn't present that and the article that I read doesn't present that. It's an attitude. It's an attitude of selfishness. Now, if these are some of the causes of the deterioration of biblical manhood in our day, what should the church do? Here's what the church does.
47:54 Eventually, one generation needs to get up, open the Bible, look into it, and gladly submit and say, my life will be whatever this book says I must do to honor my God as a man. Somebody has to get up and do it eventually. Because here's the reality, if we don't, it's gonna have multi generational effects. I heard a preacher say about a young man that wanted to approach his daughter, and he had asked him about his walk with the Lord. And he had made the statement, he had said, if that young man did not qualify as just a Christian who's serious about God, he says, I would not have him even come near her on a friendship level to my daughter.
48:41 You know why he said that? You think that's a little harsh, man. Here's what he said. He said, because this young man wants to be the future father of my offspring, and I'm not just gonna let anybody be the future father of my legacy. Where are men like that today?
49:03 Where are men like that today? The church must have elders who will have the backbone to preach the uncompromising word of God. The church must have exemplary men in leadership that will declare everything this word says, including what it means to be a man. And the leaders must exemplify it and then multiply it through discipleship into the congregation, and the congregation must be willing to embark on the journey to say, let us be in partnership to build godly families through godly men. So then what does a biblical man look like according to the word of God?
49:49 Oh, we can spend the next hour and a half talking about it. Right? We can spend the next series talking about that. Where do we go to? Do we go to Genesis two to see what the man, the model of a man was before the fall, including work, including obeying and knowing the law of God?
50:04 Yeah. There was there was a command before the fall. Don't eat of that tree. Including commitment to family? Should we talk about that?
50:13 Or should we look to Jesus, the ultimate man? Well, Jesus, I mean, he was God in the flesh. No. He said, follow me. Reflect me.
50:22 Well, Jesus was single. No. Jesus is engaged. He's engaged to his church and there's a wedding coming one day. What what should we look to?
50:33 Should we look at all the men in the scriptures to see examples of godly men and the failures of men who did not live up to what God called him? Should we? We can today, but what we will do is look at a simple, straightforward, prescriptive text that speaks about what a young man should look like and what an older man should look like. Join with me in Titus chapter two quickly. Titus two.
51:12 Titus, a pastor, an elder, is receiving instruction of how not just elders should be ordained, but how lay laymen should live. And I want us to just quickly look at verse six. He he gives instructions towards older men, older women, younger women, and then he comes to younger men. And look what he says in verse six, likewise, urge the younger man to be self controlled, full stop. Urge the younger men to be self controlled, full stop.
51:42 Why would that be the point of emphasis? Now here's the mistake. We think that that's all that's required of a young man. No. This is the point of emphasis of a young man in a certain season of life, particularly when he's in that stage of life where temptations are being discovered and all these different things are raging within him to be pulled into a lifestyle of a lack of self control.
52:04 Why would the Bible at this point in history say, urge them to have self control? Because it wasn't just for that culture, it's for our culture. And everything in our culture concerning young men, everything that's being pushed into their minds through music and media and everything else, live whatever you wanna live. Like, if it feels good, do it. As long as it's safe.
52:26 As long as it's safe. That is the message that's being declared to young men. Boys will be boys. Right? Boys will be boys.
52:34 No. Boys will remain boys if you don't teach them how to be men. And so if it feels good, do it. Wanna sleep with her? Go sleep with her as long as you're safe.
52:49 And I can tell you just in my experience of being, guess what, in a Catholic high school, two of them, seeing not just what was being taught in the faculty, but but what was being taught from the the parents of pagan families. I can tell you that before I was saved, I was hearing, and I I we come I come specifically from a culture that whether you're saved or unsaved, this is not something that's promoted, at least in some circles. I mean, maybe I can't make that as a general statement. But I remember that even when friends would come over, parents would encourage drunkenness. And you have fathers sitting with their high school boys getting drunk with his boys because that's what boys do.
53:33 And I can remember sitting in grade 10 at a Catholic's high school a special day where they brought in somebody to teach us about sex. What do you think they taught us in the Catholic school about sex? The beauty of sex and how God had designed a specific way for sex to be experienced and that if you honor that, you will know the maximum protection and maximum pleasure of it? You think so? No.
53:57 This is what it was. You're gonna have sex, have sex, and they lined us up, and on our way out, there was a bucket of condoms, take as many as you need. That's what the culture is preaching to young men. So what does the church need to do? Urge the opposite.
54:17 Be self controlled. Be self controlled. You don't have to give in to your impulses. You don't have to give in to these temptations. The world around you will.
54:26 And what you have is when you come to the house of God, when you go home, you have a father that will teach and have these conversations with you and will help restrain the temptations in your life. But we don't want to do that in the church, right? We want to just tell everybody how awesome and happy you can be and how wonderful life is. We don't want to get real and gutsy. And then they go most of their day into schools and unashamedly they're being taught by their teachers and friends, and on their way there the music they're listening to and the videos that they watch, everything except what this verse says, be self controlled.
55:06 I like how the New King James puts it, likewise, exhort the young men to be sober minded. Sober minded. Sober minded includes self control, but it's broader in its application. What does it mean to be sober minded? It speaks about being healthy in your thinking.
55:24 Healthy in your thinking. You interpret life with a proper understanding. And young men are what? They're to be trained in a way to think critically and seriously about life. That's the conversation that needs to happen with young men from fathers and pastors.
55:45 That mean they can't have fun? Is that being communicated here today? I hope not. I don't think our issue today is that we have too much or not enough fun. Paul had this one in mind because that's foundational, but Paul didn't just have that in mind.
56:04 Notice the word likewise implying that the things that were being taught before apply to the young man, but this is something that you have to just establish on the forefront. Be self controlled. When you come to Titus two two, you see the instructions for older men. And what does it say? Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
56:31 Here's the mistake we can make with this verse, that those qualities just apply to older men. What do we mean by older? Men who are more advanced than yours probably who have families, most likely. And not just those who have families, even those who have been called to singleness, but those who have been walking in life much longer. And here's the mistake we can make, that this just applies to older men, and the only thing that young teenagers or young adults in their twenties have to be worried about, just make sure that you don't get out of control with your decisions.
57:00 You know why that's not right? Because younger men will eventually become older men. That's a simple truth. So what does that mean? That as a younger man, you are pursuing the very things that describes an older man.
57:15 As a younger man, you've laid the foundation of sober mindedness, of thinking critically and seriously about life. And from that place, you see what defines an older man, and as you grow in years, you are pursuing the very things that Paul told older men to possess. That makes sense? And there are six things, and we are not gonna go through all six. But let's look at the last three under the category of soundness.
57:39 The word soundness means healthy. The word soundness means whole. The word soundness means proper. And what is an older man to have? What is a young man supposed to pursue?
57:54 Three things, to be sound in faith, to be sound in love, to be sound in steadfastness. Number one, to be sound in faith, to have a healthy, proper, complete understanding of your faith. Now notice that is something that's given to older men in the church. Let me make a very bold statement today. Unfortunately, what you have is many men who have been walking with God supposedly for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, and they've learned almost little to nothing about God.
58:36 They're not sound in faith. And what does it mean for old men to be sound in faith? You should be at a place in your in your walk with the Lord, not to be a theologian or pastor. This is not the qualifications of a pastor. It's for a man.
58:49 That a younger man can come under you, ask you questions, not the deepest theological questions, just simple practical questions about the faith. And as a man, you can give them sound answers. But it's become normal in the evangelical church today for you to walk with God for thirty, forty, fifty plus years and know the same amount of theology and practical church life and Christian life like when you were first a Christian. That cannot be, and that's what Paul is saying here. Be sound in your faith.
59:29 And a young man should pursue soundness of faith. Now if your call is to be a protector in your home and you can't even find and muster up the desire to know who God is, there is no way that it's gonna translate in your family life. I know you think you're gonna get motivated when it comes, but trust me, it's just not gonna happen unless you're first motivated for yourself. Please understand that. Soundness and faith.
1:00:01 Soundness and love. The same love that we've been talking about for the past two weeks. First Corinthians 13 love. Sacrificial love. God like love.
1:00:09 A love toward God. A love toward his people. A love toward your wife. A love toward your children, a love toward the the people at work, your neighbors, a love. Be sound and whole in love.
1:00:19 You have an ambition in your life to pursue that kind of love and grow in that kind of love. So patience will increase in the man of God. Arrogance will be subdued as he grows in years. Insisting in others and their way above yours will be a self growing virtue, Sound and love. See what marks a young man is selfishness, but as he grows, that is being replaced with a first Corinthians 13 kind of love.
1:00:50 In sound and steadfastness, Older men and younger men who are pursuing to be a biblical man, you know what they're pursuing? A concrete attitude and to be able to exhibit it before others that demonstrates total commitment through trials, difficult circumstances. They don't shut down easily when things get tough. They don't just throw up the white flag and surrender. And as they grow in years, guess what you're gonna discover?
1:01:28 That life is not so easy. Things are gonna happen. And in my mind is burn the image of men who have now passed away, but men who I've seen committed to God in their eighties even though they have lost their wives to Alzheimer or car accidents or even if for some reason the enemy has taken hold of one of his own offspring, you see a steadfastness. They come and they sit in that chair every week, and they worship God, and they have a Bible in their hands, and they walk around praising the steadfastness. Men are not called to be weak in life.
1:02:12 Nobody's called to be weak. But particularly men are supposed to show and display as an example to others of how to faithfully love God even when things don't go your way. And as you grow in years and as those challenges come with those years, they show those around them that God is still worthy of our love. Sound and steadfastness. You know, we read something like that and we go, I'm not really there.
1:02:42 It's not the point. The point is that your heart is set on that. If you want to know if you are on the trail of biblical manhood, all you have to do is look at these kind of descriptions, not limited to this, but look at just this verse, just Titus two two and ask yourself, do I want this to be real in my life? Am I pursuing this? Do I surround myself with friends that wanna pursue this?
1:03:08 Do I fight the idea of living life as comfortably as possible and as less requirement of me, the better? Am I fighting that thought? Listen. It's not just about you because your family will depend on it, your church life depends on it, and the world that needs salt and light, even and especially in manhood, desperately needs it. And so this, as strong as it was this morning, Isaiah fifty six ten, is a call that by the grace of God, what seems to be a growing trend will find no room in this place.
1:03:52 Because we will have men and women sorry, ladies, if you felt left out today. But let me say this. Why is this important for women to hear? Because woman, young woman, my sisters, you need to know what a godly man looks like. You need to know what a godly man looks like.
1:04:11 And you shouldn't compromise for anything less. You don't deserve a boy. You deserve a man because the Bible says, but if you want a godly man, guess what that's gonna require of you? To be a godly gal. And what you can offer this congregation, what you can offer this generation is the prayers because you look in the Bible and God seems to really honor the prayers of women.
1:04:32 Powerful. And so I say all this to say, whether this is your home church or not, as for this house, by the grace of God, even with the circumstances that we are faced with, maybe younger demographic, sure, we will pursue biblical manhood and womanhood Because we will realize that that is where true joy last, that is where true gospel power comes from, and that is, amongst the many things that we've been hearing week after week, is what the world needs. It's what the world needs, men, not boys. May we now seek him who came in the flesh and displayed to us what a true man looks like as we break bread together. Let's bow our heads.
1:06:44 Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we hear clearly the mandate, at least one of the mandates for our day today. We see, Lord, that there's a great need. There's a great attack upon manhood, different fronts. But, Lord, we pray that as we strive to be salt and light, that you would raise up godly men, that you would revive men to be godly men, to be serious men.
1:07:21 Oh, Lord, may the message today not be mixed with this idea again that manhood means that there is no joy in life, there is no lightheartedness in life. May we not confuse manhood with monkish mentality. Help us realize that spirituality is very practical. And as even biblical men, there'll be a call to love your wife and take her out, and love your kids and play with them, and to provide for them, and for them to experience things. But Lord, help us understand your word, your blueprint.
1:08:11 And, Lord, as we take of your cup and take of your body, help us realize that Christ died and opened up the way to empower us to live like him. So we reflect and we we think about our own lives. We thank you that we don't have to perform even in our manhood to inherit the kingdom of God. You've made it all for us. We reflect on your grace, your empowerment, your love.
