Sermon Tone Analysis

So, this week, my wife received a certain amenity that came in the mail from the Heart Quest event that she attended a couple of weeks ago in Oklahoma.

Now, I am not supposed to go into any detail about what she recieved or what they did on the event, as this is something that they want every person to experience with no preconceived ideas or expectations when they attend this event.

I can say that the prime goal with this outreach, is get the people, INDIVIDUALLY and as a group, unplugged from the world and plugged into Jesus the Christ!

I am also going to let you know that I will be attending the men’s version of this, which is simply called Quest, in November.

The organization that heads this up and runs it, is called The Fellowship of the Sword and they are doing an amazing job from all that I have seen and heard first hand!

Anyway, back to Desirae and the item that she recieved.

At the end of the women’s event, they are met by other ladies who have already attended before they head back to wherever they live, and they all come together as one (UNITY) and they yell out, “CHAYIL”, several times in a row!

This is a Hebrew word and actually there is an entire phrase that they have, that is, “ESHET CHAYIL”, which means, “woman of excellence”!

Now, I was originally going to talk about wisdom today, explicitly, and then I was reading yesterday in a book that I am into right now, entitled Wild At Heart, by John Eldredge.

This is an amazing book, so far, and as I was reading it, it struck a chord within me that made me look to some specific verses within the Bible, and VOILA, here we are this morning!

This book that I am speaking about, Wild At Heart, also has a men’s DVD study and I am seriously thinking about starting a men’s study from it!! ( It was written, like 10 years ago, and this is the updated version, where the author goes back and revisits some of the material as over a decade has come and gone since he first wrote it.

Anyway, as I was reading within the book and of how the author was reflecting back upon what being a boy was like and then becoming a man, it really got me thinking about the subject of manhood and of how it portrayed today, in society.

I was thinking back to my own childhood and of how BOYS are and the way that most of us probably grew up.

I grew up hunting and fishing, playing baseball (both backyard as well as for a team).

I had an imagination that was long and endless as the universe itself!

ELABORATE ABOUT CHILDHOOD!

(rappelling, fishing, camping, making guns and swords out everything, CLIMBING everything!, etc.)

Ask any of the men to share about a certain childhood experience.

The point with this, is that this is the way that God designed and created the male and the man to be!

Boys and men were not created and designed to be these little soft, tender and frail beings!

And yes, I understand that some guys are more subdued and quiet and not as daring and outgoing as others and that is fine!

(Look at Jacob and Esau!)

Boys and men are naturally adventurers and curious and looking for the untamed and wild to become the conqueror over it, AMEN?!

This is why, coming from my generation, video games became so off the charts popular and addictive with young men and grown men as well.

Through these video games, boys and men can continue playing war and having battles, as they fight with other men all over the US and even the world, ONLINE, and testing their skills and having their bragging rights as they vanquish and conquer!

Xbox did a survey this past year and found that the average age range for their console market, was between 25 to 44 years of age and even then, there were many on both sides of that age spectrum!

So, you have grown men acting out their childhood love for guns and war on video games and you have grown men acting out these same scenarios with paint ball and laser tag and the like.

This why women have the saying that men are are just, “boy with bigger and more expensive toys”!

So, through my reading within this book and thinking about what it means to be a boy and ultimately a man, I came to conclusion.

If you want to see what a “manly man” looks like all grown up, well, (STEP FORWARD FROM THE PODIUM wait for laughter and then continue over to someone else and ask them to stand!)

Seriously, look at what movies and magazines and tabloids and the music industry have done to the male image and the portrayal of what being a man is supposed to look like, for all of the young men growing up in this generation!

(ELABORATE!)

Boys today are being raised in a society that embraces, more than ever, feminism and homosexuality and what they refer to metro sexuality and every thing that is a deviation from just strong, God ordained masculinity!

Then comes another major issue that is the hyper opposite of the effeminate male; the men that grew up trying to prove their masculinity through brawn and roughness and rude, crude gestures and treating the opposite sex like second rate life and most of this coming from either fatherless homes, or homes with men who are not godly role models for the boys!

These polar opposite portrayals of “men” are neither one what God designed or wanted for men.

The Bible tells us that God created man and woman in His own image.

And since we know that God is not a physical being, (, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.”)

but He is a spirit, ( For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."),

then if we are in His image, then the image and actions of a man are not based upon physical images and ideas!

That is, a man’s masculinity is not confined to and defined by his physical strength and brawn and ability to chop down a 260 sequoia redwood tree with his bare hands!

True masculinity is more within the very heart and soul of the man!

Now take that thought about what a man is supposed to look and act like and then pair it alongside of the phrase that I mentioned for the women at the beginning, the “eshet chayil” and what do we get?

We get something that you find in numerous passages within the Bible, one of which, that is a more familiar one, is seen within book of Judges, in chapter 6.

IN , we find a very popular and familiar account about one of the great OT judges, names Gideon.

In the story of Gideon, at the opening, we find Gideon hiding in the winepress and beating out some wheat, instead of doing so, on a large scale within the wheat field as was common and much more practical.

Why was this the way that we find Gideon/

Simple; Gideon was afraid of getting caught my the Midianites and them taking his wheat from him, or worse!

In verses , we read (HAVE SOMEONE READ THIS PASSAGE)

Did you see it?

Did you see what the Lord called this man hiding in the winepress?

And I say Lord, because commonly, we refer to the phrase, “the angel of the Lord” as a theophany, that is, the Lord took on a fleshly appearance and came to man.

Many assume this to be the Lord Jesus within the OT, which is called a Christophany!

He called Gideon a “mighty man of valor”!

A man hiding and too afraid to caught gathering some wheat and down in this press and yet he is called mighty!

When you watch an action movie, who do find to be the MIGHTY MAN of the movie and who you want to be like.

Is it the brawny and tough action hero, or some nerdy and weaker depicted character.

(Do you want to be Batman or Robin, Super man or Clark Kent?

I was talking this week with Alex Tasca and we discussed briefly two movies that we both agreed were men’s movies, because they had men’s men within them: Braveheart and The Patriot!

Would you have found Braveheart as compelling and desirable to watch, if William Wallace, the hero of the movie, was found hiding from the English, instead of going out and picking a fight with them to let them know that he was leading Scotland in a revolt against English tyranny?

It was William Wallace who stirred us in our hearts in the movie, with such lines as, “Every man dies.

Not every man really lives”, or, “Aye, fight and you may die.

Run, and you'll live... at least a while.

And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!”

Now those lines come from a “mighty man”, who is resolved to fight, even when he knows that the odds are completely against him!

But not some dude hiding in the winepress, because he is afraid that some guys may steal his grain from him!

So, again, why did the Lord call him a “mighty man of valor”?

We could understand more so, if the Lord showed up and called Samson a “mighty man of valor”, because, Samson ,even though prideful and rebellious, was a fierce fighter, as a judge of Israel!

We can see and understand why David had those whom were called his mighty men.

Guys who were well seasoned and battle hardened warriors who didn’t lose and who never backed down from the enemy!

Guys like, Eleazar, who stayed on the battlefield when other warriors fled and he kept killing Philistines until his hand was stuck clenched around his sword.

Josheb-basshebeth, who killed 800 men in one battle with a spear!

These are definitely mighty men, by anyone’s standards.

BUT WHY DID THE LORD SHOW UP AND PERSONALLY CALL GIDEON THIS?

In fact, Gideon, himself admits that there must be some mistake with what he was called.

Look at verses

Gideon, first questions God about where He has been (like so many of us; we question God and His ways), and then he says the obvious, about the natural, physical state of things, “how can I rescue Israel?

My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least (smallest/youngest) in my entire family!”

The Lord spoke to Gideon and called him, in the Hebrew, an “Iysh-Chayil”, a “mighty man of valor”!

When you hear of that title, “Iysh-Chayil”, a “mighty man of valor”, does not scream to you, a man’s man; A REAL MAN?!

And yet what made Gideon, this “man of valor”?

The answer comes from the Lord Himself in verses 14 and 34 of the same chapter, (HAVE SOMEONE READ EACH VERSE)

verse 14, “Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites.

I AM SENDING YOU!”

verse 34, “Then the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon with power.”

This is what made Gideon a “mighty man of valor”; he was empowered with the calling and authority of God and clothed with, sealed with, the Holy Spirit to do all that God was commissioning him to do!

With the very first Judge listed in the book of Judges, Othniel, you see this same occurrence and source of power and ability, , “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel's judge.

He went to war against King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram, and the LORD gave Othniel victory over him.”

The great and mighty judge Samson, the fierce warrior that he was, had the exact same link to power as Gideon (the fearful winepress boy).

There was nothing special about Samson, except as we see in these verses: “At that moment the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands”.

“Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him.

He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings”,.

“But the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists.”

What was the very thing that made Samson mighty?

RIGHT......Holy Spirit came upon him!

Othniel, Samson and Gideon had the exact same source of strength, but each one was given a unique and special gift from that source to accomplish what God wanted!

Now, flash forward to the closing of Jesus’ earthly ministry and look at what He said to His disciples and to the birth of the church in ,

Do you see that the exact same empowering presence that allowed Gideon to lead 300 men to battle with horns and lanterns and still defeat thousands and thousands of Midianites and that also allowed Samson to single handedly defeat thousands of Philistines, has empowered you and I as followers of Jesus Christ?

You are called, as Jesus said, “I chose you” and you are commissioned with authority, as Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God!