What It Means to Be a Man

It's been great to be here with you. I'm so thankful to Mr. Corbett for inviting us here. It's been a wonderful weekend, as you've heard already. Let me take a little bit of time to speak to the ladies of Tacoma and Olympia and others who are listening by webcast. We wish we would have been able to meet you during this time, and my wife, who is in Florida with a new granddaughter, sends her kind of regrets that she hasn't been able to be here, but she is very happy to be in Florida, and the next time we come by, she'll be sure to be with us. And all of the others who are on the webcast, thank you, and good to have you with us today. Thank you for the men for the special music. That was great. Very much appreciated that. I'll have to say, I'm one of the people that this is the first men's retreat I've ever been to, and it has been a very well-coordinated event here so far this morning. We've learned a lot. The presentations have been very good. And as I thought about what I would speak about today, it only seemed fitting that I would follow the trend of what we're here to talk about, and that is Becoming Men of God, the theme of the the theme of the conference here. And I'm going to talk about one thing in specific related to that, but I want to just remind us of the times that we live in, because the times that we live in have just been devastating on gender identity and who people are and what they have been born to be. I mean, we all know what's gone on in the world in the last few years and the things that we hear. We hear broadcasts to us every day and hear things about, you know, what it means to be a man, what it doesn't mean to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it doesn't mean to be a woman. No longer do people think, many people think that there's just two genders like the Bible so clearly tells us, but there can be a hundred genders or you can be whatever you want. It is a world that is just full of confusion and confusion and chaos and just uncertainty and everything.

You know, masculinity has been under attack for some time, not just the last three or four years. Think back to, you know, the times when I was growing up and before my parents came into church, we were Catholic, and there was always this image of Jesus that there was there. All of you have seen the images of Jesus and he always has been very weak and frail looking and that was the picture that you always had of Jesus and that we grew up with and that's not the picture of masculinity that Jesus Christ really would have displayed. He would have been the perfect specimen and the perfect example of what it meant to be a man. And so for a long time, masculinity and what God created men and women to be has been under attack. Never more so, at least in our lifetimes, than it has been in the recent past. And as we hear the things that go around in the country and we hear on TV, watch in television shows here, maybe people that you hear at work. You know, we have a wide variety of ages here in the room with us, you know, from elderly all the way to very young people and I think they could probably tell us a lot about what they're hearing at the work and in college and the places that they go today. That even though we may know what the truth is, they kind of sink into our minds and maybe there's some questions in some of our minds too about some things or maybe we just need to have a recap or a refresher on exactly what did God create men to be. I think we may all so need a refresher and go to the Bible and femininity, but I won't talk about that today. Maybe that'll be a sermon for another time so that women remember what the role is that God created them to be because when he created us, male and female, as it says in Genesis 1, 26 and 27, he had very specific things in mind. And as I'm speaking, I'm speaking to a group, a live group of men here, but I know there's ladies and other people that are out in the webcast that are listening to this. This is a sermon not just for men, ladies. This is a sermon for women too. Whether you're married or single, whether you have children or not, it's all our responsibility to know what God created us for, what the purpose of mankind is, what he's doing with us, because the whole church works together to have these images and these purposes in mind that God has for us. And so we're all here to learn the same thing, to speak the same thing, to deal with, to look at the Bible and see what those roles are, and to remind ourselves of that. So whether we have children or whether we don't have children, whether we're single or married or whatever we are, we all have that responsibility to help each other develop into who we want us, what we want our young people to be. And for maybe those of us who are older, remember, remember what it is that what it means to be a man and what Christian masculinity is. So let me go ahead and let's, well actually before I turn back to Genesis 1, I'm going to go back to where Mr. Parrata started as well, but let me just remind you or just say a couple things. I have way more material than I'm going to be able to cover in this in the sermon, but I'm just going to give you two things to think about that you can think, read about later. One is Proverbs 31.

I know every man in here knows what Proverbs 31 the chapter is. It's about the virtuous wife or the virtuous woman. But one thing to remember when we read Proverbs 31 is that it takes a Proverbs 31 husband to make a Proverbs 31 wife. She can't do it without the proper leadership and the proper support of her husband. When God created man and woman and people get married, he wants us to grow, he wants us to develop into who we will be to become like Christ, right? That's men and women because we all are created in his image, as we'll remind ourselves here in a minute. And so you have those working together. Remember that the bride of Christ will be like that Proverbs 31 wife that's there. And so, man, that includes us too. So as we're working with our wives and we're there together, remember we're building. Part of our job is to develop and grow with each other so that we become better and better with time. And that's what you see in Proverbs 31.

The other thing I want you to remember is the concept of Piediah. And I think you've all heard the concept of Piediah. If you don't remember what it was, it was the Greek system of developing young men. And they did it with young men at that time. And it was a well-rounded education with the purpose in every aspect, in spiritual matters, in physical matters, in all sorts of scientific matters, so that the person who went through this training program, and it was an intensive training program, would grow up to be the ideal Greek citizen. So not everyone had the same talents, and not everyone excelled at sports. In the Olympics they had those who did that. Not everyone was a philosopher and could deal into human emotions, but those who had that talent became the plateaus and Socrates of that time. Not everyone was great in mathematics, but then you had the people who developed geometry and all those other mathematical things that came out of the time of the Greeks as well. The same concept God has you and I in, to become ideal citizens of the Kingdom of God. Let me just draw your attention here to a couple verses in Hebrews 12. In Hebrews 12 and verse 5, this word chastening shows up, and it shows up a number of times in Hebrews 12 here in verse 5 in the ensuing verses. It says, you have forgotten the exhortation. That's God working with us and advising us and training us. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as two sons.

My son, don't despise the chastening of the eternal, and don't be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. That word chastening is the Greek word pia dia. God used that example in this Bible, and down here in verse 7 you see it, and in verse 8 you see it, down in verse 11 you see it, and the translators use it as chastening because it is a rigorous time of training, not everything. There's a lot of praise. God enjoys seeing the development in us, but there is also a time where we have to be corrected and molded into who we want. And that molding isn't always pleasant. That molding makes us look into ourselves, but we become stronger as a result of it. So remember that we're in a training program, and God used that model of Greek society, what they did in the pia dia, as he works with us. To become, in this case, to become the men that would be the ideal citizens of his kingdom. So let's go back one more scripture. We go back to Genesis and Luke 2.

I'm not going to use Jesus Christ as the example today because that would be too easy, in a way. We know he's the perfect model and example of masculinity, but here in Luke 2 52, we see how Jesus Christ was developed. He was the Son of God. He had the Holy Spirit from the beginning, but he was molded by his parents in a way that he became, what it says here in Luke 52. It says, Jesus increased in wisdom. He grew day by day. He was already, he never sinned, he was perfect, but he learned through life. He learned what was going on. We learn things in life so that we become wiser as we become older. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. He was a presence. He was strong. People knew who he was. He was physically and spiritually fit. He grew in favor with God, and he grew in favor with men. He was respected by everyone who he saw. They came to hate him, but they did respect him because he did stand up for his beliefs. They knew who he was. He was strong. He wasn't just a frail person who was afraid to talk about things. He was a man of God in every single way, shape, and form. So let's bear that in mind. Let's go back to Genesis 1, because you know what we learned? We learned that God gives the instructions. Everything, I often say, that we need to know we find in the Bible. Sometimes we have to dig a little deeper. Sometimes we have to bring some of the words and the events of the Bible into the 21st century so they fit the times that we live in. But we can find the answers to a lot of the, well, all of our questions, I believe. Certainly the direction that God wants us to go in is there in the Bible.

So I'm going to go back to verse 26 in Genesis 1, where Mr. Perada was earlier today. And let's read that. Let's read that again, because here as God created man, it would only make sense that he would tell man and instruct man who he was, what he would be, what is he going to grow into. Here's Adam, who would be created, and he had no idea who he was. But God is a teacher. God does instruct.

He doesn't leave anything to now and to just chance. He teaches us, too. So in verse 26, it says, God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

I just want to pause there for a moment. God did create man in his likeness.

God continues to want man to grow to become like him. That's what we've been called to do. That's his purpose for man, right? To become the image of God. In Hebrews 1, it tells us Jesus Christ is the express image of God. That's what we're supposed to be. So when God created man, we see right here in this verse what the purpose of man was to be as well. To be created, to be developed into his image. Because he wasn't created just to be a physical being here for 70, 80, 90, 100, 120, however many years of life it would be, God had an eternal purpose in mind. A development that mankind would grow into be like him in his image so that he could reign with Christ and be with him throughout eternity to do what God wanted him to do. So let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Create him and then also I'm giving him a kingdom. I'm giving him something to rule. I'm giving him something to watch over, something to develop because he needs to do that. That's part of what his planning and preparation is. He needs to know what it is. And I need to see how he's going to grow and rule over and have dominion over this kingdom. And as you read in Matthew 5, what we do with our lives, what God entrusts to us. Do we rule it well? Do we rule our homes well? Do we take care of the things that he's given us? Do we grow in that responsibility so that he can see as we develop, yes, I can entrust to this person five cities or 10 cities or whatever it is that God has in mind because what we're doing and what he's teaching us in this lifetime is preparing us for what we will be doing for eternity. And so he gives us the opportunities to develop those skills now in everything we do. So he created man and said, let him have dominion. Let him have dominion over the earth and over everything that creeps on the earth. In verse 27, he tells us what the genders are. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Just two genders, not the multiple genders that the world, you know, just kind of sillily talks about. And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Put it under your control. I'm giving you this to develop, to grow. I want you to to fill the earth. I want you, as you fill that earth, to also teach those who you produce what to do. What is in the image of God mean? What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a girl? How do the two work together to continue what God has created and what he wanted to have happen on the earth? Let's drop down then to chapter 2. And in verse 8 of chapter 2, we begin to see. We're going to spend a lot of time in chapter 2 because in chapter 2 we find out a lot about what masculinity is and what God intended man to do. There's a lot buried into these verses when we look at them and compare them to the lives that we live and what the responsibility God places on the shoulders of everyone. Everyone in this room, whether you're married, single, young, or older. In verse 8 it says, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Now at this time it was just Adam. He put Adam in the garden of Eden.

Eve, it wasn't until later in chapter 2 that Eve was there, but there's Adam in the garden of Eden, and he's there by himself as God works with him. And in verse 8 we see, you know, we see God, he's prepared this place for Adam to be. It's a perfect place. The garden of Eden, it's got everything that man needs. It has food, it has all sorts of things as we're going to see in here, and God puts them here and says, this is your domain. This is your dominion. I want you connected to this earth. Now one of the things that I see in this verse, and later on as we read through some of this, you know, God created a physical earth. I can look out the windows here, it's an absolutely beautiful creation. This area of the world is beautiful. Florida is beautiful. The hills in Ohio are beautiful. Wherever you live, God created a variety of everything. He didn't have to create the variety. He could have given us one or two foods. He could have given us one or two scenes, the world, and we would be perfectly happy with that. But I think about all the time and all the detail that he planted into this earth and the variety that we have and all the things that are around us. He created this earth for a training ground and for a purpose, and so because man was going to physical man was going to be connected to that earth. It was a few years ago that I was reading of something, and I think it was out of New York City, and the big cities where, you know, people live in high-rise apartment buildings. They don't really know much about the earth. I mean, you hear the stories about young children who really don't know that beef comes from cows or eggs come from chickens and all those things you can imagine when you're disconnected from the earth. And so as they looked at some of the emotional problems that young people were having and how they weren't being able to deal with things, they began to see that if they could connect them back to the earth, if they could go and have them dig in the dirt, if they could plant the garden, if they could do something with it and begin to understand the earth a little bit, things began to be better.

They seemed to be more solid. They seemed to be a little bit more connected to things. They were able to put two and two together a little better. And as you read that study, you know, it made perfect sense. Of course, Satan would try to disconnect man from the earth because God put him on the earth to learn things from him. And so as you see big cities and high-rise apartment buildings and no green space and people who don't have any work with the earth, there's a disconnection that's there. I know one of the things that I find, you know, one of the few things that I find enjoyable and relaxing anymore is just to go out and work in the yard. Even mowing the lawn. We were talking last night. It's just kind of a pleasure to be connected with the earth. And it can settle me, and if I can be stressed, but if I can go out and mow the lawn or do something in the yard, it just seems to settle me. And I thought about that, and I think about what God did there. And he told Adam, and he put him in this garden of Eden, a perfectly beautiful place with everything in it he needed. And what did God tell him to do there? It says, you know, in this garden in verse 9, out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So we have these two trees that we'll talk about because there were a purpose in those trees too because God was going to teach Adam there's more life than just the physical that you're going to do. So let's drop down to verse 15. It says, there the Lord God, or then the Lord God, took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Okay, Adam, this is your domain. This is where you go. Here's part of what you do. You're going to tend and keep it. This is your job.

I'm going to see this is part of what you do. You have a responsibility in life. What I give you, you tend, or I think the old King James might say dress, you dress and keep it. You make sure that you maintain it. You make sure that it's taken care of. It's your job. It's your job to see that this garden, what I give you, that you do it well. You do it to the best of your ability. I've given it to you and I'm entrusting it to you to take care of it. Dress and keep it. Now, the other word that's there is keep is really should be more guard or protect. You guard what I've given you. I've given you something pretty valuable. You guard what that garden is. So you have the concept of protection and those two little words you have when God gives us something. What does He have? The responsibility of men to be. You develop this. You make sure you take good care of it. It's your job and your responsibility. What I give you, you grow it. You develop it. You make sure your hands, that your focus is on it. And you guard it and you protect it.

Now, we can, you know, think about guarding because there's other places in the Bible that talks about guarding in a spiritual sense, right? Guard your heart. Guard your mind. Because part of what men do is guard in life. If when we, when that's, it's taking care of things, working hard, and protecting and guarding what God has given us to do. That's part of masculinity. God put man in the garden, dress it, protect it, guard it. You're the protector of this environment. You're the one who is responsible for it. And putting you, man, and part of masculinity is it's your job to do this.

You work. You make sure it's taken care of, and you protect it. And you guard it from whatever it might be that is going to happen to it or that might interrupt it. Or any such thing that might come that way. So God built this into there. And as we look at this, I want to, you know, keep your hand in Genesis 2 or your finger in Genesis 2. Because we see these same concepts in the New Testament about working. Men work. You know, we saw earlier on a slide today Ecclesiastes 9-10, one of the memory verses that my father drilled into my mind over and over, a moment with several of them, is, you know, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. Do it. Do it to the best of your ability. Focus on it and become very, very good at what you do. Find that talent and then maximize it. But here in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 8, God puts a principle that, you know, maybe several in the world don't want to hear so much anymore today, but it's a man's responsibility in part of being a man. In 1 Timothy 5 verse 8 it says, if anyone doesn't provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Those are pretty tough words, aren't they? If he doesn't provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. It's part of being a man, part of the role that God has called us to be, part of who we are, and part of who we need to be teaching our young people, our children growing up, this is what God has in mind. This is the role that he has established, provide, protect, guard. Just a couple chapters back in 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 3, and verse 10, you know, Paul has another comment that's similar, that talks about man's responsibility is to work. His responsibility is to provide. 2 Thessalonians 3, 10, for even when we were with you, he says, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

It's a man's job. Get married, provide for your wife, work hard, do the things, find that profession, find what it is that God gives you to do. He gave Adam something to do. He gives us all talents, he gives us all abilities, he gives us, find what that is, have the passion to do it, and work it hard and develop who you develop that is. We all have a passion for God's work. We all have a passion for what he's called us to. These be passion in our work that we do, that we do it very well, and we learn what those responsibilities are in our lives. That we remember it, that we teach it, that our children, when they're growing up in a world that is confused and chaotic and needs some direction and need to know who are we, what do we do, what will the kingdom be like, that we're preparing them for, that this becomes part of what we teach them in our families and in our churches.

All of us are working with one another because it is a confusing time that we live in, and we have to guard what God has given us and remember where we're going. And that's into his kingdom in this world, to come out of this world and out of the opinions of this world and the misguided direction of this world and keep the direction of God firmly in our minds, firmly in our hearts, and firmly in our everyday life and what we're talking to our children about.

So if we go back to Genesis 2, I think we've seen some things already here, and that's in verse 15. In verse 16, God shows, I mean, there's the physical work that he's talking about, you know, tend and guard and protect, work hard, whatever you find to do, do it with your might. In verse 16 and 17, he shows there's a spiritual end of being a man as well. There's the physical keeping it or dressing it, paying attention to it, and protecting it, but there's also the spiritual end.

Just like with Christ, he grew in stature with men and God. And so masculinity is growing in stature and growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And with the respect of people who you work with, who see you and realize you, you know, you've got your act together. You're doing things. No one will fault a man for doing what God has called him to do. No one will attack it.

They'll respect it because they don't know how to do that, but we have the Spirit of God. We know what God wants us to do. He will give us that strength to stand against the times and become who he wants us to become. So in verse 16 and 17, we find God giving Adam some spiritual instruction. Now remember, this is before Eve was there. This is Adam. Adam alone that God is talking to. He's created him. Adam was created first, and there is this aspect of it that God wanted Adam to know, this is who you are. This is what you're doing. This is what you must do before Eve ever enters into the picture. Okay, so in verse 16 it says, the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat it you shall surely die. That's spiritual guidance.

That's the word of God 101. We know what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is. We know what the tree of life is. And God put that in the garden and said, you can eat of every tree in the garden, but this one tree, this one tree that you cannot eat. There's only two things, really, when you look through the whole creation thing that God says are not good. One is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat it, right? That's not good. Everything else I planted is here, but you have decisions and choices to make, and you have to be spiritually discerning enough. You have to be close to God enough that you can say, I will not do that. I will not eat of that tree.

You know, Christ in Matthew 10 said, part of what we do is deny ourselves, right? We say no to ourselves, the things that are so attractive, that are so alluring. No, I won't do them. No, I won't eat at that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No, I won't look at that pornographic website. No, I won't bend the rules on this because I am teaching, I am teaching, and I am receiving the Word of God and intend to live by every word that comes from God's mouth. I will live His way, and the large part of that is learning to say no to self, just like God told Adam of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. Say no, because if you don't say no, then if you take of it, we know what the end result of that story is.

And so there's a lesson to us in that as well that God wants us to be doing those things, and God put the onus and the responsibility on Adam. I'm telling you, this is what my Word is.

Your job is to teach it. Just like you're going to tend and guard that Garden of Eden, you're going to protect this knowledge that God has given you. Freely eat, freely take of the Holy Spirit, and when God gives it to us, use it. Use it for the power that He gives, the power to say no, which is an easy thing to say. I mean, probably decades ago now, there was a thing in public schools, just say no. Remember that? Very easy thing to say, just say no. Not so easy to say no in everyday life, but just say no and mean it. And God put that responsibility on Adam. You're the one. That's part of your job. I created you first, and this is what I'm instructing you to do. You need to do it. You need to do it, and I'm holding you responsible that that's what's going to happen in your lives. And we can see that. We can see that pretty well in the New Testament. If we go to Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5. God's talking about the marriage relationship here.

The marriage relationship here in Ephesians 5, and let's pick it up in verse 23.

He says, The husband is the head of the wife. Oh, Adam's created first. God taught Adam what to do. God held him responsible. You teach it. You teach it. You guard the truth. You protect the truth. You make sure that you're growing in the truth, you and your family. The husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church. We know that analogy, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands and everything. There's this word submission that the world doesn't like to hear so much, but it isn't this dirty word that that man sometimes says and looks at the word submit and says, I'm just going to kind of issue edicts to you. No, there's this loving relationship that develops. God loves mankind. He's patient with us, and he'll teach us, and he'll guide us, because he wants us to be in the kingdom. He wants us to become pure, as it says in verse John 3.

He wants us to become that way, and a husband who truly loves his wife and is spiritually guiding her wants the same thing for her. Verse 25, husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. You see the love, you see the agape that's there. I'll die. I'll die because I want them to have life. I want them to have that gift of forgiveness. I want them to have that gift of eternal life. Just husbands the same way. Love your wives just as Christ did.

Why? That Christ did it, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.

Husbands do the same thing. Husbands do that with the family. They teach. They guide. This is the way to become pure. This is the way to become who God wants us to be, that we can be in the kingdom. That's what Christ wants. That's what God wants. As husbands, that's what we want. But we have to do it the way God does it, not with a hammer and a whip and you know an edict here and an edict there, lovingly leading by example, doing the things ourselves and having that love that we teach our families, guide our families, guide our young men and boys to the knowledge of the truth that they may have that blessing of the peace and the joy and all the good things in life that can be ours even now, but even more so when Christ returns and we are put into the positions that God has given us, but also that we're learning to live now. You know, these things, it's great to know them, but we're not going to have the opportunity to teach them in the kingdom if God doesn't see that we have applied them into our lives now. How can you teach something that you haven't done yourself? How can you teach something and convince others that it's the right way to go if you haven't been willing to follow that way in our lives now? And so, you know, we see this beautiful picture of what happens in a man's responsibility in that marriage and even if you're not married, to do that to yourself, you've got to say no. You've got to follow God's lead.

Verse 27, he does it that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives. That's the way. That's the responsibility for man to love their families and their wives in that way and lead them, guide them, teach them in principle to the kingdom of God. We have to live that way our way now. And I'll repeat it again as I've been saying, you know, often lately, parents and everyone. We live in times where we should be in the Bible every single day and our young people should be in the Bible every single day remembering what our calling is. There is, I mean, what's going on in the world. We're getting inundated daily by all the ideas of the world and all the false concepts and really the deadly poison that's out there of the world that can misalign us. We better have our eyes in the in the in the word of life here and making sure our young people and making sure us and making sure that we are leading our homes exactly the way God says and not just leaving it for chance and thinking, oh, we know all that. It's daily, you know, daily refreshing that we have. God, you know, God, you know, God gives us the word of God. And in Ephesians 6, I won't turn there, you know, where the where the the weapons of our warfare are. The one offensive weapon that God gives us is what? The sword of the Spirit, which is what? The word of God, right? This is our this is this is what we do. This is how we this is how we attack the world and attack the concepts that come into our mind because this this along with all those other weapons are extremely extremely you know what we what we need to do. So we go back to Genesis 2, you know, building on that, you know, we have we have God talking about this tree of the knowledge of good and evil and showing Adam this is your job.

Say no, say no to the tree. There's a spiritual element to it. And in verse 18 then, as we go on, he comes back to he comes back to then what man in physical life is. And God does everything in perfect order, right? He's got all these elements in what he's teaching us here. In verse 18 of Genesis 2 says the Lord God said after he tells this to Adam, he says and he says it's not good that man should be alone. The second thing, not good that man should be alone. Now people that are single would think, oh no, if I'm single, that's a bad thing. No, I mean, it's not good that a man should be alone. Sometimes when we're left to ourselves, we can imagine things, we can go through all sorts of things. Paul wasn't married. Jesus Christ wasn't married. Many people of the church aren't married. But it's not good that you be alone. You can be with people of like mind.

Paul was always with people of right. He was, if he was just gone up by himself and never talked to anyone or whatever, it's not good that man be alone. We need each other. We need to be exhorted. We need to be encouraged. We need to be told, hey, you're kind of off base here a little bit. Or we need the pat on the back that says, you know, life is tough, but keep going. You're going in the right direction. So it's very helpful. It's a great blessing to have a wife or a husband, if you're listening in and you're a wife, to have a husband in the church that has like mind. But you can do it. There's plenty of examples in the Bible that say it's good. Just give yourself to God. I'm going to just reference 1 Corinthians 7, 32, I think it is, where it just says, give yourself to the church. Make the church your life. Make that your time. Dedicate yourself to the service that God wants us to have. There are plenty of opportunities to do that.

But here God says, it's not good that a man should be alone. I will make him—that's going to happen here later on in chapter 2—I will make him a helper comparable to him. And out of the ground, it says then, the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every bird of the year, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. So here we have God again drawing back Adam to the physical creation. He's already said, I've given you this garden. It's got everything you want in it, everything you need in it. You tend it, you dress it, you maintain it, you work hard, you protect it, you guard it. And then he brings these animals to him and says, Adam, you name them. You call them whatever you want. So Adam, one by one, as they came for him, he gave them the names. So Adam had ownership of what God gave him. Just like if we have things that we name, right? Things that we buy, the little dogs and cats and other animals that we have in our homes, they become part of our families, right? We give them names and they bring a lot of joy into our lives. You know, I've, you know, we've had animals die and I've been struck by, you know, some who have lost animals who are alone. And I understand that there's, it's like losing a child to them because they are, they are such blessings from God and they bring a lot of, a lot of joy to people. But here's Adam doing this and God telling him, you name them. This is in your domain. This is in your territory. This is what you're doing. They are yours. I've given them to you. They're part of your dominion. I want you to care for them and take care of them because they are a gift and a blessing from God. And you know, we learn, we learn things from every, the physical creation around us and the animals around us. We learn some pretty valuable lessons. You know, when we look at, when we look at some animals and we look at how dogs are so loyal to their masters and so happy when they come in, we learn something about, something that God built into those animals, something about us. We can look at the creation around us and we learn. And the more we learn about the intricacies of what God created, we learn some spiritual lessons about ourselves too. That's why God wants man to appreciate what he's created, what he has put out there. If we ignore creation or don't pay any attention to it, we are missing a big part of our lives. Let's go to Job 12 for a moment.

In Job, you know, the book of Job, we often think of, you know, what happened to Job and the ending chapters where God reveals that there was a weakness in Job that he needed to learn through all the trials that he went to. But through the chapters throughout Job, there's a lot of truth that's buried into those. Here in Job 12, in verse 7, you know, Job is responding to his friends that are making these accusations about him. And in verse 7, Job 12, he says this, he says, now ask the beasts and they'll teach you, and the birds of the air and they'll tell you. What is he saying there? Ask the beasts of the field. Look and see how they're taking care of. Look and see what they do. They'll teach you. And the birds of the air, they will tell you.

Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. And the fish of the sea will explain to you.

Who among all these doesn't know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind? Look around. Appreciate it. Learn some of the lessons that God has built into this universe that help us to understand more of our lives, more of the character, and more of the traits that he would have us be. And appreciate, appreciate who he is and what he's done. There's a very telling, very telling verse in Romans that so well defines what's going on in this world today. In Romans 1, now verse 20. Because God's built some of himself—I mean, this is his creation. This is out of his mind. This is where, what he's given us to learn, to dress, to keep, to guard, to protect.

Verse 20, Romans 1, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen. Where are they seen? Well, we can see it in the beauty around us.

As David would lay on his back when he was shepherding in the fields at night, he would look at the heavens, and he wrote the Psalm in 19 that says, the heavens declare the glory of God. He saw God in the creation. And so it inspires us, too, and we know God is there by what is done. Since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Being understood by the things that are made.

If we divorce ourselves from the world, if we live in high-rise apartment buildings, never come out of our house, if our days are just consumed on watching TV, going to work, doing whatever we do, but not ever connecting with the world at all or doing any things, what are we missing out on?

Being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhood, so that they are without excuse. The answers are there. The inspiration is there.

Use it. Don't deny yourself from it. If we have children, get them involved. Have them understand the earth. Let them feel the soil. Let them feel what's going on there so they can feel the miracles that are there all around us that God created and built into this land. It helps. It connects. Don't let them just spend their days on video games and everything else. Get them outside a little bit. And men, we need to be outside a little bit, too. God did put man outside to dress and keep his garden. And so God says in verse 20, he really lays a lot of what's going on in this world to the fact that people had divorced themselves from even looking outside because he says they're without excuse. Everyone could go outside. Anyone could go out and look at the stars at night. Anyone could look at the grass, the trees, the animals that habitate or inhabit the earth. In verse 21, although they knew God, they didn't glorify him because they didn't even look at his creation. They didn't do that. And so what did the world do? The rest of chapter 20 or chapter 1 in Romans is pretty explicit as to what happened when men didn't do these very same things that we just talked about when they didn't pay attention to the world and got further and further out of it exactly what Satan is developing this world to be. You look at the communist nations, right? Russia, the Soviet Union of old China. You see a lot of you see a lot of blah landscapes. You see a lot of apartment buildings. And part of what the sociologists say is that is all by design. If we can depress people and keep them away from everything else, if we can depress them and subdue them, we can control them. One of the beautiful things about America is we all have land, right? We all have homes. We all have lawns we can go out to. The rest of the world wishes that they had the opportunities that we have. But sometimes, even in this country, we just don't use them. We don't use the advantages God has given us.

You know, Michael 4-4, what does it say? We'll be in the kingdom. What is God going to give everyone in the earth at that time? He says everyone will sit under his own vine and fig tree, right? Everyone will have land. Everyone will be able to enjoy nature. That will be part of the kingdom, part of life that's there, part of what we need to be looking at as well.

So Adam named the animals. God gave him that, and he said, this is yours. Tend it, keep it, learn lessons from it, see the invisible attributes that are there by which you will get to know me better, and the love and the concern and the future that God has, because he's given us this physical earth, and we know that for those who love him and become the first fruits, 1 Corinthians 2-9, you know, says, eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, hasn't even entered the hearts of man the wonders that God has prepared for those that love him. So as wonderful as this earth is, God already has planned what is going to be for those of us who follow his principles, live his principles, teach those principles, make sure that they're enacted in our lives.

We can't even imagine it, just like none of us could have imagined the beauty of this world before we were born into it. That's what God has prepared. That's what he is doing with mankind. That's what he's doing with men and women. We'll talk about women another time. But let's go back to Genesis 2.

And so we come down to where God then has a deep sleep come upon Adam. And that's in verse 21.

And then God takes or creates Eve from the rib that he took from Adam in verse 22. And Adam said, verse 23, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Time and life, where there's a different priority in life than mom and dad. They're still important in life. They're still the fifth commandment. As we heard, honor your father and mother. But there's a time when a man then is, well, God is always the first priority, right? God is always the first priority. But then wife is, you join. Now your job is to protect, provide, spiritually and physically for that family. And if you're by yourself, to make sure that you're following the spiritual principles and doing the physical principles as well.

So then there's Eve. So then there's Eve. All of a sudden there's Adam and Eve. And in chapter 3, you know the story, Satan comes along. He cleverly and cunningly, like he does today, somehow convinces Eve, forget what God said, do what I say. Just follow me. She didn't have the strength to say no. She let herself believe the falsehoods that Satan did. She wasn't firm in that faith. But it was her who took it. And her who took the fruit.

And then God showed another principle of how responsible man is by what he says at the end of chapter 3. Adam, you remember, comes along later. What have you done, Eve? I took the fruit. It looked really good. It looked really appealing. So I did it. And so Adam followed her.

Adam followed her, and he took the fruit as well. God specifically told him, don't eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't do it. My command, first command, you put God first. What did Adam do? He put Eve first. Violated the first commandment.

Eve. Okay, I'll follow what you did. You did it, so I'm just going to follow along as well. He had the spiritual responsibility to say, no, you shouldn't have done it. I'm not going to do it. We need to go to God and see how this is going to be resolved. But Adam followed. Men don't follow sin. Men follow God. Men put God first. Matthew 10. Let's turn to Matthew 10. I'm not sure when I got started, but I'll, let's read a couple verses here because it's all fits together, and it's man's responsibility, masculinity, Christian masculinity, demands that we do this, that we put God first. Jesus Christ here in Matthew 10 and verse 37. Verse 37 says this. This is the chapter where he's sending people out two by two, and he's giving them the instructions. In verse 37, he said, who who loves father or mother more than me isn't worthy of me.

How do we show God what's more important? Him or wife or mother or father or child or employer or friend or whatever. How do we show God who's more important? We choose what he says and say no to the ones who would have us do something apart from God's law. That's just saying no to them and yes to God. That's man's responsibility. Masculinity, strong in the faith, says no. I choose what God says. You may be mad at me.

You may not want to talk to me for weeks and months. We're doing what God said first. That's man's responsibility. He who loves father or mother more than me isn't worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me isn't worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me isn't worthy of me. Those are... God means what he says when he says those things. And he puts it on my shoulders. He puts it on your shoulders. We need to teach our children when they grow up.

This is the way it is. The man is the spiritual head of the house. He is responsible for teaching and seeing and guarding and protecting and leading the people and leading his family in the way they should go.

Eve sinned. Adam followed her. He sinned. It's a different sin than Eve. Down in verse 17 of Genesis 3, notice what God says to Adam. You know, he says to the serpent what's going to happen. He says to the wife. And then he comes to Adam and God said in verse 17, because you heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, because you listened to her, you didn't do what I said.

You followed her. You put me or you put her above me. It's a different sin. And they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. They lost what God had given them. It's a pretty, pretty tough punishment. But a responsibility on man. Follow God. He's called us all. He's given us the promises of eternal life.

He's given us the promises if we follow him. But if we heed the world or heed a friend or heed an employer or heed a wife or a son or a daughter or whatever it is, or the beast power, as we look ahead to any of those, I mean, do we want to be stripped of the promises that God has given us? Do we want to be the ones who would issue ourselves out of the Garden or usher ourselves out of the Garden of Eden?

Adam paid a steep price. We could pay that steep price too if we're not aware of what we're doing. Let's turn. I'm just going to briefly introduce this because, you know, there's a lot there in Genesis 2 about what Christian masculinity is, but the Bible is full of instructions of what a man is and what a man of God should be and what we need to be reminding each other, teaching our children in our homes. Don't discount Deuteronomy 6. Read Deuteronomy 6. You know, put it into practice in your life every single day.

We are going to be getting some things out and helps in assistance, little things from the home office to help people understand the importance of daily Bible study with your family, with your kids, teach them and train them in the way to go. If you don't offset what's going on in the world around, you will lose them. You will absolutely lose them, and we all have to be part of that to guard the godly offspring that God has put in all of our churches and that he blesses us with. So let's go to, let's look at just for a minute on King David because there's some just some fascinating verses there.

First, let me turn to Psalm 78. We know that David is a man after God's own heart. We know all the attributes of David, faith. I mean, he learned, he learned, so faith in God, even when he was a young man, that when the lions and the other beasts would come out of him when he was a shepherd, he just trusted in God. And God, God took care of them. And so when Goliath was there, David had the faith and trust in God. He will deliver. He will provide the strength. He had to do, gather the stones, but when he did that, he knew God would deliver the same faith that we need to be delivering.

That's another story. We also read about David when he sinned. He did commit that sin, and he was in denial for a number of months the whole time that that baby was being developed in its mother's womb. He was in denial. He was in denial. It wasn't until the prophet came and painted that picture story from him. But when David recognized what it was, what did he do immediately, he immediately repented. He didn't make excuses. He didn't blame Bathsheba. He didn't say, but this and but that. He immediately repented. Part of his training was, we repent. When something's brought to our attention, men, godly men, masculine men, acknowledge and they repent. They turn to God because they remember, I'm here to learn, and I make mistakes, but I'm here to learn. And so I admit, I repent, I purpose in my mind, going at God's way, and go through. But let's look at Psalm 78 verse 72. I always appreciated this verse here because, like Luke 2, 52, it shows how David lived his life. He shepherded them, it says in verse 72, he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart. He was an honest man. He was a man after God's own heart. He understood the spiritual end of it. He built it into his life. He became who God appreciated. He shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and he guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. He had those physical traits. He worked hard at what he did. He became a good shepherd. He learned all the things. See, everything he did, he did with his might. The same thing that God would have you and me do with your might. The physical jobs that you do, the passion that you have for him, that you become the best employee you can be to your supervisors, and also the integrity of your heart. It has to go hand in hand, the physical and spiritual. Just one more scripture here. 1 Kings 2, and this will give you something to read later, and maybe at a later time I'll build on this because I have some thoughts on that as well. But here in 1 Kings 2, 1 Kings 2 and verse 1, David's near the end of his life here, as Solomon is about to take over for him.

And it says in verse 1 of 1 Kings 2, the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth, be strong therefore, and prove yourself a man.

Prove yourself a man. And then David gives him some parting words.

He says in verse 3, keep the charge of the eternal your God, walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. And he goes on and on and on. If you read through chapter 2 and chapter 3, and then build in some of the things and the lessons we learned from what Solomon didn't do, the things he didn't say no to, and how he lost so much of the service attitude that God had given him. Because through all that account there, we learn about service. We've talked about that in the sessions we've had today. You learn about meekness, right? Meekness, not just gentleness, but the strength under the control of the master, which is what meekness is when you look at the prāhus form of the Greek word. You look at the whole life of Solomon, and you add more principles into what Christian masculinity is.

It's a great study. God gives us all the things that we need. We just need to remind ourselves, we need to remember them, and we need to be people who would say in our houses and in our homes, and collectively, collectively in our church home and the home that God is building, that He's going to return to the words that Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.