Men

Good Morning Men,

This is my first Saturday meeting and I just want to say that this is strange for me to be talking to all of you on my first Saturday. But both Pastor Buzzy and Steve feel I have a interesting story to share to all of you. It all started last year with a facebook message. A guy, who I won’t share his real name, but lets call him fuzzy. Fuzzy sends me a message on what I am looking forward in life. My response was calamity, stability, and consistency. Interesting is that I have a graduate degree and I am at the end of my seminary for my Masters of Divinity. You would think I am smart, but apparently I had no idea what calamity meant, because I was hoping for a calm year in 2019. This is not what has happened. But be careful what you wish for.

A brief snapshot of what my year has looked like. First, my marriage took a huge hit at the beginning of the year. Knowing that I was going to need a lot of support I asked Buzzy if he could have some pray warriors pray over my family when I left for Chaplain School in the Army. So I was delighted that he had the whole church pray over us. However, that following Wednesday I was suddenly laid off from my job that I relocated down here for. A company that I had been with for 9 years, so whoever prayed something else The famous words of Lliam Nelson, “I will find you.” Six days after I was laid off the Army thought it was a good idea to send me to South Carolina, separated from my family for 2 months. So two month I got to worry about finances, family life, quality of life, and all the other stresses that we men get to think about. When I got back, I got another job making severely less money and I am working over 60 hr work weeks in hostile environment. By hostile I mean being cussed at, picked on, made fun of for being a Chaplain, Actually as I was writing this sermon I was being laughed at.

I’m probably different from a lot of you gents, because I don’t do well when I’m failing. I work extra hard when I’m being told I am a failure. Being told everyday for four months that I’m failing goes straight to my core. I take more on, work longer and harder, stress more to not fail.

But that’s not the point of this talk. Many people don’t know the true troubles I am going through. But the ones that do know frequently ask me how I am handling this whole situation as good as I am. I them them Because we are MEN. When I say this I suddenly have the image of Tim Allen grunting. Grunt. What I mean though is the acronym M.E.N. Being men, we find that everyone wants a piece of our time or attention. We are expected to be good at our jobs. We are expected to be leaders for our family. We are expected to be supporters and defenders for our friends. We have to wear all these hats and juggle our time and efforts all the time. So the first point I wanted to share is the M

Manage yourself according to God’s plan.

We are to be images of Jesus and by doing this we need to learn from him. Even though he was fully God, during his earthly ministry, he was fully human. He grew tired, hungry, experienced human emotions, but Jesus never took his attention away from God.

Mark 1:35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Jesus started his day talking with God, because he knew everyday brought new challenges. We have to remember that we have to carve out some time for our relationship with God. I understand that some days are harder than other. One of my bosses told me he doesn’t understand why people don’t get everything done in their 36 hr day.

When we pour out pieces of ourselves to everyone one, we have to remember that we have to give ourselves some of that time. We can’t over extend ourselves or we will experience burnout and break. We have to take time to rest. I mean even God rested and knew this was important so he created a Sabbath. We have to manage all parts of our lives; the psychical, mental, and spiritual accordingly.

If we don’t will create a small crack or hole in your fortress and the enemy is always looking for a weak spot. Which brings me to my second point. Expected attacks.

As I explained earlier I’m in the Army and I enjoy finding scriptures that I can relate to military tactics. is a perfect illustration.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

The lion doesn’t barge into a room loud and destructive. Instead it stalks it’s prey and it find the weak one from the herd. It sneaks slowly and makes a careful decision when to attack. This is the same as the Special Forces. The tactics of the Army Special Forces are to infiltrate, sabatoge, and exploit. This is the same as the Devil. He will wait patiently outside your fortress and examine your life to find a weak spot. Look at

English Standard Version Chapter 4

13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

The Devil patiently waited and specifically tempted Jesus with certain things. When Jesus was hungry, the Devil offered food. The Devil will attack you and spiritual warfare is a present modern activity. There are going to be seasons or parts of our lives that will be changed. For instance, I left being a police officer for a promotion in hazmat. 18 months on the job I was laid off. Or another story. In 2007, I was a young enlisted soldier who volunteered to deploy with my best friend. I was promoted to sergeant and I was leading a team of three soldiers. I was respected and I was eager to go. One night, I recieved a phone call that my mother was on life-support. She overdosed and I had to get home ASAP. So at 22 years old, I was forced to make the decision to remove my mother off life support because my entire family left.

Times like these, there seems like there is no hope. There is isolation, despair, and sadness. This shows my last point. No matter what, God is there.

says it best.

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

We have to remember that God allows us to go through hard times to help us grow our faith. Whenever everything is going right, it is easy to forget that God blessed us. Some of the best and hardest lessons I had to learn was during extremely difficult times. The story with my mom, I was able to use this experience to help others going through grief. Supporting other soldiers, police officers, and first responders who feel like there is no hope left. With all the bad things in life that happen, God always prevails. I bet when the disciples watched as Jesus was being crucified they felt hopeless. I bet they felt like there was no hope. But God used that to give us a Savior that bore our sins and allows us to come before God. Even if we are broken, corrupted, or hopeless, we can remember that Jesus promised us he will always be with us and he will never leave us.

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Proverbs 19:21 ESV

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

God’s purpose is bring us men into the righteousness of God’s glory. We have to remember that it is His will that will be done. Even if we have to go through some hard times on this earth, it will be nothing like standing in His glory for all eternity. Us men wear many different hats. We are supporters to our friends, protectors for our family, servants for Jesus. To do everything that we are set out to do we have to manage our lives properly, but importantly get rest. This doesn’t mean go home today and take a nap and when you get yelled at blame it on me. Remember the first rule of men’s group is don’t talk about men group.

When you think you have your life managed, remember that the enemy is lurking in the bushes waiting to pounce. He is waiting to stand in between you and God. Expect the attack by creating a part of your life dedicated to God and put on the full armor of God. Lastly, no matter what remember God is here with us. I love the song a by King and Country it says “God only knows what your going through, God only know the real true you.”

One last story. Last week I was at my breaking point with work, family, spiritually. My family couldn’t rely on me anymore. I wasn’t succeeding at my job anymore. And it felt like God was silent to my prayers. I reached out to my friend…fuzzy, he just simply told me that I was strong enough for this battle. With some simple advice from him, I realized I was aiming for the wrong target. I was sacrificing my family for work life. It took my wife taking me out on a date to realize that I miss family and serving God. I told my wife that I was going to quit my job and open a business, unexpectedly. We prayed that I could re-center my life on God and serve his will. Then I recieved a text from Pastor Steve inviting to preach on Saturday morning. A ministry I’ve trying to come to for months. So I’m here to share with you gentlemen that you all are strong enough for the storms that are in your lives. Just focus on God, pray frequently, and have faith that the storm will pass.