The Second Coming of Man!
Speaker: Andrew Brown
Key Passage: Job 29
Date: 6 Sept 2009
I want to begin today by saying “It‘s good to be a guy!” I mean this is Father’s day, so we can say these kinds of things! Men, who thinks it’s great to be a guy?
Just recently I came across a list of reasons why it’s good to be a guy. See what you think of these? It’s great to be a guy because: Phone conversations only last 30 seconds. Bathroom queues are 80% shorter. You can be showered and ready for work or church in under 10 minutes. You know really useful things about tanks and aeroplanes. You never have to clean the toilet. If someone forgets to invite you to an event, they can still be your friend, and if another guy turns up at a party wearing the same clothes as you, you might even become lifelong mates. PTL -the same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe even decades. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. In fact the general rule is one wallet, one pair of shoes, one colour, all seasons! Guys don’t have to shave below their neck. They never need to worry about other people’s feelings. Besides flowers fix everything. They can also admire Clint Eastwood without having to starve themselves to look like him! And chocolate well it’s just another snack. A well-delivered burp is okay and even expected. Christmas shopping for 15 people can be completed on Christmas Eve and all in 45 minutes, and best of all, the remote control is yours and yours alone! Well I hope you can laugh along with those, even you ladies.
But let’s also admit that there has been quite a long time in NZ when we have been unsure if it’s a good thing to be a guy. In New Zealand at least for the last few decades there’s been a lot of uncertainty about what it really means to be a man. You see when I was growing up in ‘Smallville’ in the 1960’s things were very simple. (We’ll need some volunteers. Can I have a man and a woman please?). This was woman [apron and frying pan] and this was man [rugby jersey and beer jug]. But then somewhere along the way something changed [women swaps pan and apron for briefcase]. Women went out to work. Women’s roles changed from homemaker to [sheepishly hand back pan] super-woman. After that men weren’t too sure who they were. I mean, what were they needed for? As one feminist even stated, “A woman needs a man in the same way that a fish needs a bicycle!” It left many men wondering [scratch your head] ‘what does it mean to be a man?‘ So the men changed too in response to women. We saw the emergence of (can we have two more guys) family man [car wash brush and soccer ball], the wild man –also known as ‘the outdoors guy’ [wheel & helmet], and the metro-sexual [picture of David Beckham]! The good news, though, the good news is that just in the last few years’ men have been finally breaking free of these stereotypes and are figuring out who they are for themselves! Men are felling free to say “That’s not me either.” Some men are entering a new era of understanding of who and what God has called them to be, and I call it the second coming of man. (Thanks guys –you can have a seat. Let’s give them a round of applause).
You see what I think many men are just beginning to wake up to is two things. The first is that every man is a mixture of many different things. We are actually one part family man, one part wild man, one part David Beckham (maybe), one part Brad Pitt, and so on and so on. Men were never meant to be put into boxes. After all boxes are just ruts with the ends hammered in. Men are actually a ‘quality’ blend of many different things. For example, to help you know what I mean, how many of you struggle to fill in a census form? If you are South African born Indian living in New Zealand for thirty years, which box do you tick for ethnicity? If one parent is English and the other parent is Fijian, does that make you Pacific Island? Just because you have Maori blood, do you automatically have to tick Maori background? Or is it easier to simply tick all of the above? We are used to operating on different levels, managing multiple identities depending upon who we are with and what we are doing at the time. It’s the same thing with men. We are multi-talented individuals, not monochrome. The big question is only ‘what elements will you add into your distinctive blend?’
The other thing many men I think are discovering is that men need to see the big picture. Men you need to know where you stand in the grand scheme of things. Do you define yourself by your relationships to women, by your relationships to other men, to society or to something larger? I don’t know if it’s just me, but as I’ve said many times before, I don’t want to go to yet another funeral where they say, “He was a good family man.” Yes, we need good family men –men who look after their parents, men who care for their immediate and extended families, but isn’t there more to life than just preserving or passing on your DNA? Shouldn’t there be days that you will one day look back on when you knew that you were truly alive? Job knew those days in verses 1-3, and even Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4).
Rick Johnson talks about this issue in the Christian Post. He recalls how in the movie, ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, a young widower blacksmith meets his father for the first time as his Dad travels to Jerusalem to defend it during the Crusades. The father asks forgiveness for never having been a part of his son’s life, and, with nothing to keep him in his village after the death of his wife and child, the young man follows his father and trains to become a knight. In the short time that they spend together just before his father’s death, the young man matures under his father’s guidance and follows in his footsteps to become a man of honour. Throughout the movie the young knight relies upon his father’s inspiration and example.
In one powerful scene near the end of the movie as he is preparing the city of Jerusalem against attack by overwhelming forces, he makes all the city’s commoners swear to become knights by repeating the same oath that his father gave him: “Be without fear in the face of your enemies, Be brave and upright that God may love thee, Speak the truth even if it leads to your death, Safeguard the helpless. That is your oath!” However the local high priest soon afterwards berates him, “Who do you think you are? Can you alter the world? Does making an ordinary man a knight make him a better fighter?” The young knight looks him straight in the eye and boldly tells him, “Yes!” Look these men who have accepted this challenge to greatness. They are now swelling up with pride and determination. Exhortations and expectations of greatness do make a man more than he could ever be without a knowledge of God’s vision for his and every man’s life. As men’s writer Edmund Cole often says, “Being male is a matter of birth, but being a man is a matter of choice.” Sometimes men need to fight for something larger in life (like a Kingdom)!
So what does ‘man’ look like? What does a real man look like? Where are we now headed in this new day as men? Well obviously if you are a follower, then it’s towards Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate male. All of you will one day look like Him (maybe minus the beard), but since this goal might be little too high, a bit too ideal for most of you today I want us to have a quick look at Job 29. You women will be familiar with Proverbs 31 –‘A Woman of Noble Character.’ That’s where you can turn for a picture of a woman at the height of her powers, but Job 29 is there for the men, and I just want to sketch for you a few brief details of what it takes to be a truly formidable man.
1. The first thing is that a mature man walks with God (v1-3). A man in the prime of his life cultivates an intimate friendship with God. It has been this way before. It will always be this way. You see what you sometimes see in western men, a somewhat lax lack of interest in God, is a cultural anomaly, an abnormality, and a blip on the radar of history. Instead men have worship God on mountains, men have worshipped God in mines, they have worshipped God in the deserts, they have worshipped God on the seven seas, even in outer space. On the first flight to the moon the astronauts took the Lord’s Supper as we did today. Men have frequently been the leaders when it comes to spirituality –worshipping God, pioneering new mission fields, writing the books and building the cathedrals, filling the monasteries. Spirituality is at the very core of what it means to be a guy!
You can see this in Job’s life –that this is the source of his strength. What is it that enables Him to lead and to guide His family? What is it that gives him the confidence and guts to face every day? What is it that sees him through the storms of fear so that when the clouds have passed he and he alone remains? It is his sense of being intimately connected with God. Job knows God’s presence and blessing in his life.
Psalms 1:1-3 says, “(1) Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. (2) But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. (3) He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. (4) Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
I wonder, do you know the depth that knowing God brings into your life? You men, have you experienced the joy of close friendship with this world’s Creator? Have you ever had one of those moments when God suddenly speaks to you out of the pages of the Bible and radically transforms something significant in your life? Do you know this God?
You can know Him. You can know God today, if you want to. As St Augustine once said, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest our Lord in you.”
2. The second thing is that a mature man mentors his family (v4-6). He watches over them and guides them in the right way. He is a pathfinder and a shepherd and a help and a resource to the family in which God has placed him. He takes responsibility for them.
For example, men, do you know who is the most significant voice in your child’s life? Some voices will tell you that it’s their teachers, or their peer group, or TV and video games, or rock music. You might be thinking now my kid’s a teenager or older, there’s nothing left for me to do. Men wake up. Fight for your families. Fight for the sake of your children. Do you know what the research says –father’s are by far the biggest influence on the values and views of the children. Now I don’t want to take anything away from Mums. Mother’s and wives have their own special role to play, but how many of you will have heard of a survey conducted in Switzerland in 1994? They looked at the impact of parents’ church attendance on the subsequent church attendance of their adult children. The results showed the radical impact of a father’s example.
For instance, if both father and mother attended church regularly then 33 per cent of their children became regular churchgoers, a further 41 per cent irregular attendees and about a quarter not practising at all. If the mother was a regular church attendee but the father irregular then only 2 per cent of their children (that’s one in 50) became regular church attendees, 59 per cent irregular attendees and 38 per cent non-attendees. But the big surprise was that, if the Dad is a regular church attendee, regardless of the practise of the mother, at least one child in three would become a regular attendee. In fact amazingly the less regularly the mother attended church, the greater the likelihood that the kids would attend in the future! (But I won’t encourage you to follow that example)
-The point though is not about church attendance. The point is that you men, you have influence, so use it wisely for whatever you value. Mentor and lead your family where you want them to go. Make intentional choices about where you lead. Look I know it sends shivers up and down the spine whenever you hear it, but little eyes watch you wherever you go. -And not just your kids, but your nieces and your nephews, your grandchildren and beyond. You got the power men! Make the most of it now!
But a good father will not only lead his own family.
3. He will have some kind of civic involvement (v7-10). He will demonstrate some kind of social concern (v11-17). Maybe this is a factor of age. Our consciences often become more developed as we get older, but in James 1:27 it says that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Isaiah 1:17 (NKJV) says, “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.“ Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).”
I think Bill Hybels in his book ‘Holy Discontent’ really gets to the guts of this. He asks, what is that gets you really wound up in life? What is it that causes you genuine concern? As you look at the world around you, which issues cause you the most holy discontent? What’s the single focus of your frustration? Because it might be that where God is calling you to be. It might be that it’s your mission –to feed the hungry, to care for the poor, to protect the abused, to house the homeless, to rescue refugees, to reconcile races or to intercede with God for the nations. The prophet Jeremiah said, “But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot (Jeremiah 20:9).” What is it that you can not ‘not do?’
You see authentic men are passionate, fierce, and noble -they care. In fact, they are a little dangerous, but it’s a good kind of dangerous. You might not see the passion on the outside, but bubbling under pressure just beneath the surface, is a spiritual longing for adventure, for a battle to fight that’s bigger than themselves, for significance in life, and like modern-day gladiators they stand in the ring facing the challenges of life with courage and passion. I’m not sure if I’m make myself clear, but followers of Jesus are not meant to be nice kids. We’re not made to be nice. We’re made to change the world. So next time instead of getting angry at your teacher, or your boss, or your neighbour or the kids, try getting that anger white-hot about something that’s major and use that as fuel to fix it!
4. And finally in special way men are there to mentor and to encourage people (v18-25). That’s part of your role. Men, you are there to help the young men to discover what it means to be a man, and for the young women to discover what it means to be treated right by a man. Only you men can do that. Strange as it sounds a woman can’t teach a man what it means to be a man. A woman can’t teach another woman how to be treated right by a man. Only good men can do that. Certainly, men teach other men what code of honour they will live by everyday.
So men, who are you mentoring? How well are you mentoring? How well are you teaching others? Who do you relate to, and are you encouraging them?
-Because you have so much power in your words. There is wisdom, experience, guidance and advice that you have gained over the years. What do they cost you to give away –nothing or very little. But what might your words be worth to a young person, or even to an older person that you speak to? Everything! Your encouragement might be priceless to them. So if could encourage you to do anything this Father’s Day, men, it would be to use the power of your words. Go to your sons or the young men that you relate to and tell them “You have got what it takes.” Speak to the women that you are responsible to and who look to you, say, “You are a wonderful person. You are someone special in God’s eyes.”
C. And men, before I do finish I really want to say ‘Thank you.’ Thank you for who you are. You make all the difference in the world.
So have fun discovering who you are and all God is calling you to be. You were made for fun and adventure so accept this opportunity to discover what men were made for.
Today we have looked at some of the characteristics of what it means to be a guy in the Bible. I hope it’s got you out of the goldfish bowl and helped you see that there are other alternatives. You can write the script for your lives.
Have a Happy Father’s Day and remember it’s great to be a guy!
Would all the guys stand?
God of earth, wind and fire, of ages past and of all eternity
God Almighty, our God and Father through the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again and ascended into heaven to sit at your right hand as the head of your Church
Send your Spirit upon these men today making them mighty in the Lord.
Grant them the heart of David that worship would flow from their spirits to the very throne of God, that their passion would be to touch Your heart, and that Your desires would become their own –make each of them a man after God’s own heart.
Bless them with the Wisdom of Solomon that their business will be fair and their judgments will be just. Give them an inherent knowledge of what is right, and what steps to take. May you prosper them because of the wisdom you give them.
Gift them with the mind of Christ so that love would flow from their lips and compassion would be seen in all they do, so that anyone who comes in contact with them will sense the love of Christ coming towards them from within. May Truth will be their standard and Righteousness their path. May they serve God and the right so that in their homes and this nation will become a haven of peace and a centre of spiritual growth.
God bestow on each of these guys here a courageous spirit so they will lead diligently where-ever they are so that evil will not flourish nor the gates of hell prevail while good men do nothing and may the Kingdom that you long for soon be fulfilled upon earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name.
Amen.
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