A Beautiful Design - Week 2: Biblical Manhood

Week 1 Recap - Men and Women were created in the Image of God for the purpose of glorifying God.

Because God has created this world He has the authority to create how it should also work and operate.

Men and women were created flourish on the earth under certain criteria.

There’s a specific way a pizza is made, there is a specific way people thrive.

Today we’re going to hone in how God has created MEN to thrive!

What is a man’s purpose, and what are the issues that keep him from this purpose?

First - A word to the girls.

Ladies, this topic should matter to you. Why?

Because my hope today is to raise the bar for what we all see as a biblical, godly man. And when you yourself raise the bar for the men around you, history shows us that guys will reach for it.

When there’s a low bar, men don’t have to try hard. And when men don’t have to try, they become lazy and complacent. Meaning their pursuit of you will be cheap and you will not be valued on the level that you were created to have.

Raise your bar, raise your standard, raise your expectations, and only the best of the best of men will be able to rise up.

Hopefully you will see the value having biblical godly men in your life this morning.

Biblical and Godly Men are Needed for Human Flourishing.

When you look at history, where men breakdown, families breakdown, and when families breakdown society breaks down.

“Where men fill the purpose and design of men as the Bible has outlined humanity flourishes. But where men refuse to step into the space that men are called to fill the world burns.”

In Scripture we see this word used to describe the role of men in the world: headship.

Headship in greek = where the brain is.

The head/brain, does not treat the body with contempt, it actually takes care of the body and ensures its health.

Headship = is the unique leadership of the man in the work of establishing human flourishing.

What is mans work in establishing Human Flourishing?

Genesis 2:4–15 CSB

These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation. At the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. But mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed. The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. Gold from that land is pure; bdellium and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

2 Tasks for Men

1. Work and Keep the garden - God created men to WORK!

Were men everywhere to ignore the things that matter little or not at all and give serious attention to the few really important things, most of the walls that divide men would be thrown down at once and a world of endless sufferings ended.4

A. W. Tozer

2. Expand the Garden - Cultivate humanity through making a chaotic world orderly for the glory of God! Don’t contribute to it’s disfunction, cure it!

Cultivation of the garden and subduing the earth are not the same tasks.

Michael S. Heiser

How do men work, keep, and expand the Garden?

Ephesians 5:25–31 CSB

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

A mans headship and dominion is expresses in sacrificial love…

To married men - to his wife.

To single men - for others.

As single guys you need to be sure that you are serving others, not yourself.

What are the biggest issues men will face trying to be men?

1. Passivity and Laziness

When boys refuse to put the controller down and simply do what there responsibilities are, the world around them crumbles.

The world needs men who are able to work and speak life into situations that need life.

2. Sexualizing Women

It is natural to be attracted to someone, but it is unnatural to sexualize a person. The battle begins in the mind, where uncontrolled thoughts are allowed to move into lustful desires.

June Hunt

When men are passive and lazy in their pursuit of God, the natural sinful inclinations of our flesh seep through and we become that which we were not created to be.

Serving, protecting, and honoring all people especially women will mean that you do not engage in the perversion of our time.

A word about masculinity: God did not create men with feminine sides. Men do not need “to be in touch with their feminine side”.

“WOMEN NEED TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THEIR MASCULINE SIDE…”

That’s what the world says because the world has falsely defined manhood.

Men ought to be gentle, and kind, and soft. BUT THAT’S NOT FEMININE. That’s human!

To be a man means that we can be those things in the way that God has called us to lead out in the world.

Closing

“Pretending to be more of a man than you are makes you less of a man than you are. - Matt Chandler”

Being a biblical man means pursuing the interests of others because you have sought the heart of Jesus.

When you get married that word others gets replaced with your wife.

Being a man is not easy, but it is worth it.