But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and confessed the good confession before many witnesses. (LIV)
“It is not great talents nor great learning nor great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God-men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it. These can mold a generation for God.”
E.M. Bounds, Men of Prayer Needed
Sometimes we hear things which hurt us, because we know that we fail at what is stated. I know that this is true in my life, it seems like I know how I am supposed to live, but I don’t live it – I struggle to even want to do what I should at times . More than anything, I hope that in some way that we would be changed by what God is saying to me. I hope that it is a challenge to live a life of devotion to our Lord.
Well, I cannot simply come to you with a ten point “here’s what’s wrong and here’s how to fix it” kind of message. I know that it would possibly be effective, but it would not share my heart… and my heart is that you would be MEN OF GOD… not just in name or by practice, but by ACTION and by PURPOSE. I could ramble on and on about the problems that come against us in the world we live in. A world which has successfully disillusioned us from what it means to truly live a Godly life. I could lecture about secularism, relativism, and feminism; I could discourse about all of the men who have fallen from the calling that God had placed on their lives. BUT, I want to come tonight and be real with you, I want you to come away knowing that I mean what I say and that this is a topic of very serious consequence.
I know most of us have just been coasting through life simply letting whatever comes happen to you, it is time that we stop, and it is time that we decide who we serve. There is a great need in our world, a need for Christ, a need that can only be modeled and affected by the Church. We need to be like Christ, we need to stand for what is right and lead others in righteousness. We need to keep others who claim to be Christians accountable for their actions. We need to be BOLD in the circumstances that arise which challenge and defy our beliefs. There is a war waging and even if you don’t see it the cost of losing is higher than most of us understand… it will cost our families, our marriages, our kids, our brothers and sisters, literally everything that we supposedly stand for as Christians. If you don’t believe me look at the nation we live in. Because our fathers and grandfathers have not been men of God (and I’m not saying that some of them are not), men united in their resolve to affect a world for God, we have lost ground to the enemy.
We have decided that it is more important to keep up with the Jones’ than to chase after God. We have placed our trust and our desires on worldly things, not all bad things mind you, but not Godly things and have lost sight of God. Sure, we go to church on Sunday and have Bible study on Wednesday nights, but does it make a difference in the way we live? We may even read our Bible and pray every once in a while, but if we were consistent about it imagine the change that would happen in our lives. We need to be men who are so concerned about Godliness that we will be vulnerable and yielding to others who are hurting and in need, but sound enough in faith and prayer that we are unshakeable to those who stand to challenge what we believe.
We need to be PURE, and seek purity in those around us. This is huge guys, and probably where we need the most help ladies, I know this is true for me. We need you to constantly remember that we struggle with lust and impure thought lives. No matter how much we desire to have clean thoughts we can’t do it on our own. Yes, God helps us, but we need so badly for our sisters, OUR SISTERS IN CHRIST, to stand up and not care about what the world says about fashion and trendy clothing, but to think about how that will cause us to think about you…. I tell you the truth, I was traveling on a Greyhound bus a couple of weeks ago coming back home from New Mexico. I was holding my daughter and looked around to see how evil and corrupt a world we live in, and thought about the fact that there are so many men out there – probably even some of you – who if my daughter was wearing something revealing, and she were a little older, would be having impure thoughts about her. And you know what, NO MATTER WHAT I DO, NO MATTER WHAT I SAY, I CAN NEVER EVER HOPE TO KEEP HER FROM BEING DEFILED IN THAT WAY. Every single girl, I don’t care what you think about how good or bad you look, you have been defiled in the mind of some lad and probably because of the way you dressed or flirted, or acted. And I am not suggesting that you uglify yourself, that is not true Godliness. I am saying this because you need to know the extent of our struggles so that you can understand how to be our HELP MATES. TO BE WHO GOD MADE YOU TO BE, and to help us be who God made us to be.
GUYS, this does not take the burden off of you. On the contrary, if they are making an effort – even if they are not – we are called to be HOLY, like God is Holy, and THESE ARE YOUR SISTERS. DO NOT continue to sin in this way, you are tearing at the very fabric of what we should be as the BODY of Christ. And I am just as guilty as all of you so don’t think I am just pointing fingers your way!
Men, we need to be protectors – protectors of those who cannot protect themselves. This means we need to see a little chivalry, and a little care and concern for those around you, I don’t care what the other “guys” might think… you have been called and set apart… START LIVING THAT WAY. So, someone is tired and weary, offer yourself as a living example and sacrifice a part of your day or your energy to show Christ to someone through service. Is it really that hard?
Lastly, and this is hard. It is time to start living in such a way that we are ABOVE REPROACH. Living above reproach means that you live in such a way that no one could find an area of your life which would bring you shame or disgrace, and in the body of Christ that says a lot. A man above reproach is a man who consciously keeps himself out of positions which might compromise his integrity. A man above reproach is a man who puts things in place which hinder him from making poor choices in matters of righteousness. It means that we cannot place ourselves in situations where we are alone with the opposite sex, that we must bring people and plans in place all around us so that we have to decision to make which could compromise our integrity, that we have to be conscious of where we struggle and honestly assess what makes us fail or could potentially cause us to sin and make a strategy to eliminate these things. It means that we have to be real, we have to be honest, and we have to place obstacles to our nature in place so that we can be Godly. IF WE FAIL IN THIS, we will fail to be men of God, we will be bad examples to those around us (and don’t fool yourself everyone is looking), we will not affect change in our church, families, and culture; and we will not be doing what God has called us to do.
It is not okay for us to be indifferent about what is happening in the world around us if we are men of God.
1Timothy 6:13 -14
I charge you before God […] that you keep the commandment spotless, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ
