Mens Breakfast

What do you want

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Introduce Self

Vision

We are a group of people who want to learn what it truly means to love God and love People

We believe that anyone who is willing to hang around here, with the help of the holy spirit working in them and through others, will grow to be the men that God created us to be.

Three different ways

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Next Breaky is Nov 16th

Mens Conf in Feb

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Not doing this alone

Brian is the guy

Really any of us

What do you want?

Thanks again for being here gentleman. I want to dial up briefly something that Brian, myself, and some of the other staff pastor’s have noticed God doing in our community with you.

We just recently finished a sermon series that looked at all the different questions that Jesus asked and how underneath all of those questions, there was a single question.

We see Jesus ask this question to some of the first people that started following him in John 1:35-38 “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

That questions right there, what do you want, is underneath so many of Jesus’s other questions. What do you want

As myself and some of the other pastors have been talking we’ve noticed that this particular question has struck a chord with a lot of the guys in our community. We’ve gotten more feedback from guys in this sermon series than we have in a long time.

I know for me personally it’s hit me sideways. What do I want. I’ve never really taken the time to think about it. But, I like to try to practice what I’m preaching so I took a little time early in this series and started thinking, what do I want.

First thing that came to my mind, I want to be a good Dad. I’ve got two little girls at home that mean the world to me and I want to be the best Dad I can be for them.

I figured my work with Jesus was done! Look at that God, I came up with the right answer. Selfless, honoring, other’s focused, I win this sermon series.

But man, guys I got to tell you, God has been using that answer in so many ways.

I’m sitting on the coach and Clara asks me to play cops and monsters with her, that’s her new favorite game. I’m tired, I just need to sit for a moment. And she’s asking me to play with her, and I feel the voice of the holy spirit say, hey, remember when you told me you wanted to be a good dad. Right now that means you get up and play with her.

That ones easy

I’ve had the opposite happen.

She wants me to throw her up in the air, and I’m nursing a bum wrist. She says “Daddy, throw me up in the air” and I go to toss her because no stupid wrist is going to stop me from making my daughter happy, and I feel the Holy Spirit say, Clint, being a good Dad means that you have to module what it means to be a human with limits. Tell her you have an owiee and can only throw her a couple of times.

That one was difficult.

And guys I could name dozens of ways in the last couple of weeks that God has used that question and my answer to move me to a deeper place. A place where I am forced to confront the things in me that I would rather bury.

I heard this quote from Dallas Willard. We’ve shared it a couple of times, but it’s so good I have to read it again. Dallas writes

“the intention of God is that we should each become the kind of person whom he can set free in his universe, empowered to do what we want to do. Just as we desire and intend this, so far as possible, for our children and others we love, so God desires and intends it for his children. But character, the inner directedness of the self, must develop to the point where that is possible”

Friends, I think this is what God is doing in our Community. He wants to refine our character, he wants to deepen our relationship with him, so that we can do all the things that he has put on our heart.

So what does this look like for you. What refinement is God inviting you into

Maybe it’s in your family, the way you interact with your wife, your girlfriend, your kids, or how you interact with your parents. Where is he inviting you to step into growth, healing and trust, not just for your sake, but for their sake.

As I was getting ready to share this morning, I really felt like one of you needed to hear this, so if this isn’t for you, that’s fine have another pancake

But God wants to tell one of you today that you aren’t your dad. He didn’t create you to be like your dad, and that’s okay. Part of what you are feeling right now, the crushing weight on you, is because you are trying to walk around in someone else’s skin.

God has made you to be you, and that’s better than you trying to be your dad. So ask Jesus to help you be who he actually created you to be.

So, for some of us this refinement process, this developing our character is happening at home, for some of us, it’s in our jobs.

As I was praying into this, the verse that kept coming back to my mind, that’s often how God will speak to us is by bringing bible verses to our mind, comes out of Matthew 10. Jesus is sending the disciples out to do the stuff and he says to them in Matthew 10:16

Matthew 10:16 NIV

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

And before you get all like “Yeah man, I work with some real wolves” the part that I think God has for is in that last part, we are to be as innoncent as doves.

That phrase has a couple of different meanings. In one sense it means to be unharmed in the face of opposition, like a city wall that holds up during a seige. It also was used in talking about following God when we come up against obstacles.

I think there are some of us, when Jesus asks us what we want, the thing that is on our heart is to be a good representation of him in the workplace.

You want to see the love of God shine through you and your coworkers come to know Jesus

And yet, you can feel your heart hardening. Maybe your job is tough and your short staffed, or maybe your co-workers just get under your skin, but you can feel yourself begin to wall off your heart.

Maybe you feel stuck in your job. You don’t love the actual work but you don’t know what else you would do. What if God wants to breath new life into your job. What if he has you there for more than getting a task done.

What do you want? Do you want to try to protect your heart, or do you want to trust that the more you let God move through you in the workplace, the more your heart will be filled.

Some for some of us there is this invite into God refining our character in the workplace, but as I sat with this question of What do you want, I kept thinking What kind of man do I want to be when nobody is looking.

And certainly this means all the things we talk about often, our thought life, and the types of media we consume, but I think it’s deeper than that.

The other day I was in the car alone, and I saw a guy with a sign. You know the friends I’m talking about “struggling veteran, anything helps” and I had this thought, “awww, it’s too bad that the girls aren’t with me, because this would be a great opportunity to show them that we are a compassionate family that helps out when we can” and I felt God nudge me and say “So you can only be compassionate when you have your girls with you”

And that got me wondering, what other ways is God wanting to work on my character when nobody is looking, when we don’t think it matters.

There is an invitation for each one of us to become the men that god has created us to be. And God does that by asking each of us “What do you want” and then providing a way to refine our character enough so we can become the men that he wants us to be.

Closing

Alright Gentleman, so let’s finish our time together with some talk around the tables. Part of the reason we gather together like this is to get to know each other, to affirm the things we see God doing in each other, and then encourage each other towards this higher way of living.

So lets spend some time at our tables talking about where you feel like God is inviting you into more. It could be with your family or friends, in the work place, when your alone, whatever, but spend some time talking about where you feel like God is refining your character, and then pray for each other.

Stick around as long as you can, eat the food and enjoy each others company. Thanks Guys