Act Like Men

Gideon

Regarding courage, John Newton once said,

“If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, his arm over us, his ear open to our prayer; his grace sufficient, his promise unchangeable. Under his protection, though the path of duty should lie through fire and water, we may cheerfully and confidently pursue it.” (John Newton*John Newton and Richard Cecil, The Works of John Newton, Vol. 1 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 645–46.)

Young men, we are living in a time when the culture has lost its mind. The thoughts of your peers and our leaders are so ridden with arrogant pride that they have the audacity to rearrange and redefine the boundaries that God has set in place for his image bearers. God has defined men and woman by both biology and disposition; meaning that men are born with a biology that outwardly shows them to be male, and a disposition that thinks and feels differently than a woman. God has wired men to work hard for and protect their families. Men’s bodies build more muscle naturally and your mind and heart desire to provide and protect, naturally. You feel the responsibility to care for your family and be the first line of defense against anyone of thing that would come against your family. God has made you, young men, responsible for not only physically caring for your family, but being the spiritual leaders of your home.

This was Adam’s calling in the Garden of Eden. God commissioned him to work and protect the Garden (Genesis 2). He was commanded to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or else he would die. Adam failed by not protecting his wife and future family from the evil of serpent. He was passively watching her be taken advantage of, and God called him to account. Even though it was Eve who first ate the fruit. God called Adam first (Genesis 3:8-15). God holds the man responsible for his family. Adam’s sin of not protecting his wife and family had sever consequences on all of his children and grand children, for though Adam all of us sin. Because is your sinful nature you struggle to balance these responsibilities. In Adam, you have a tendency to either be toxic and abusive in your masculinity, or you become passive and aloof, providing no leadership whatsoever, much like Adam did in the Garden. Both conditions have contributed to the evil we are seeing today. Furthermore, our godless culture has some right to rebuke the men of the church for either espousing toxic masculinity or excessive passivity. But their rebuke is not godly or good for you. It’s not a rebuke for correction toward the Lord, but comes from a desire to redefine man in its own image. Make no mistake, men, our culture is intentionally trying to take your God given masculinity away from you it at least three ways.

They take your masculinity away by lulling you to sleep by entertaining you to death.

Hollywood spends billions of dollars a year making movies and T.V. series that invite your imagination to escape reality for hours on end. Think about the movies and shows you watch? Now consider how many hours a day on average you will watch Netflix, Hulu, You Tube, Prime? Think about how these shows portray men? Also consider how an overwhelming majority of these shows portray a godless reality. The more time you spend engaging your heart and mind this false reality, the more their image of what a man is becomes your reality.

It’s not just Hollywood. Its also the gaming industry. Young men like yourself will spend on average 6 hours of video games a day. Video games give you the impression you are doing manly things, things you are wired to do, but without the risk. For six hours a day you get to pretend to be a man. Its empty worthless for your soul and your family.

Then you have the allusion of social media, the platform that allows you to lie about yourself on an hourly basis. More pretending with no reality, accept for its consequences.

Between Hollywood, Social Media, and gaming, your heart and mind as a man made in God’s image is being distracted at the very least, and its worst being conformed into the culture. All this comes through the medium of entertainment. The culture is robbing you of your God ordained manhood by entertaining you to death.

They take your God-given masculinity by shaking your courage through persecuting your faith.

The culture is making it known that faithful God honoring, Christ exalting, Spirit-empowered, Bible saturated men are toxic to society as a whole.

Christian men, especially white Christian men, are vessels of hate. The culture says that we nationalists (people who have a deep love for their nation) who are racists, that we hate women, and that hurt people to maintain power at societies highest levels.

Because of this, there is an active persecution of Christians by our federal and state government (ex using hate speech to keep preachers from preaching God’s design for marriage and gender) and my groups as the Southern Poverty Law Center who labels orthodox Christians as an extremist terrorists. You are being told to sit down and shut up. Your voice is not aloud to speak at the table. Furthermore, if you continue to hold those beliefs and proclaim them, there will be consequences; even legal ones-you might loose your business because you are a godly man.

In fairness, it would be foolish to ignore that men, in the name of Jesus, have acted wickedly toward different ethnicities and toward women. That, however, is not Christian.

Christian men take seriously God’s command to first, love him with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength, and then secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. Genuine Christian men, who love Jesus and neighbor, take seriously Jesus command to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. God demonstrated his love for you that while you were a sinner Christ died for you. He did not die for you to be a chauvinist tool to your wife or a hateful racist toward your neighbor. He died for you to manifest his glory by loving your enemies, even giving your life for them to know Jesus.

They are taking your god-given masculinity by judging your actions with contempt souring your love for your neighbor.

When a godly shepherds his wife with love and care, the culture calls you a misoginist. When a godly man parents his children with Christ infused confidence, he is called and authoritarian. When a godly man stands on inerrant and fully sufficient truth, the culture calls him an extremist. When a godly man speaks truth in love, the culture redefines truth and love.

In the eyes of the culture, you will never be able to love your neighbor enough to be free from the guilt of your forefathers. You will never be accepted as a good father or friend. Through the lens of skepticism you will be judged and not allowed to judge back. Everything you do will be judged with contempt, and if your heart is not centered on Jesus, your love for your neighbor will sour, and you will become everything they hate about you.

Young men, God is calling you to correction. You need rise up and accept the challenge to be the godly men God calls you to be. Furthermore, you need to understand because you are the old Adam, you cannot do this on your own will. Religion by itself will not make you a godly man. You need the New Adam, that is you need Jesus the perfect Adam.

Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, provide everything you need to be a godly man. He lived a perfect life, obeying all of God’s commands becoming the righteous man Adam was supposed to be. He died an atoning death on the cross, providing a perfect sacrifice that covers all of your sin. On his cross he takes your sin and receives God’s wrath in your place. He in turn gives you his righteousness so you can be justified before God. God accepts his sacrifice as sufficient and raises Jesus from the dead, sealing the atonement forever. Jesus ascends into heaven where he then pours our his Spirit on all who call upon his name by faith to be saved. Every young man who accepts Jesus as their Savior by confessing their sin, repenting of it, and by faith trusting Jesus everyday, has the power and courage to be a godly man.

Men who are empowered by the Holy Spirit must be alert, persevere in the faith, and courageously lead their church, community, and home in a spirit of love.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 ESV

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Young men, you must be alert

Young men, you must stand firm in the faith.

Young men you must be men of courage.

Young men, you must do everything in love.