Sermon Central
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The Making Of A Godly Man
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Apr 16, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: The church, the family this society needs Godly Men who are willing to be made in the image of their Creator God. How about you? Do you have the courage to be apart of God’s Army and face the greatest adventure of your life?
The Making of A Godly Man!
Video Clip – From Promise Keepers in 1997, “ The Making of a Godly Man!” promo video.
Texts:
12When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” 14The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15“But Lord,£” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
Harness the horses, mount the steeds! Take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears,
put on your armor!
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Thesis: The church, the family this society needs Godly Men who are willing to be made in the image of their Creator God. How about you? Do you have the courage to be apart of God’s Army and face the greatest adventure of your life?
Illustration of Jesus like Uncle Sam I want you for my army!
Introduction:
Society has over the last 20 years sought to change the purpose and plan for man. The sad fact is our society cannot make up it’s mind on what man is and isn’t. As a result we have a lot of frustrated men in our society. These men are angry, some lifeless, some bored, some absent in their positions. Our society has tried to tell us that tame, nurture type men are the right kind of man. Stu Weber states, “We know we have lost something. We know we’ve lost our masculine souls. We don’t know all that means, but we do know men are confused, hurting, and angry. It is no wonder that six times more men than women are arrested for drug abuse, that 88 percent of drunk drivers are men, and that 75 percent of all suicides in the United States are men. An article in Psychology Today summarizes: Buffeted by the women’s movement, constrained by a traditional and internalized definition of masculinity, men literally don’t know who they are…what women want from them, or even what they want from themselves. Well, men, we’ve endured twenty-five years of dismantling confusion. It’s time to restore our masculinity. It’s time to learn to be men again” (46). Men are one of the only groups in America that is politically correct to bash. Especially Christian men.
The Christian church has done no better than secular society on making up its mind on the role and character traits of its men. The church has in a sense tried to tame the adventurous heart of men. They tell men to be careful, cautious, docile, quiet, nurturers, and don’t take risks. In essence the suttle message to men in the church today is you need to be nicee-nicee. Don’t do anything dangerous, don’t go off to battle, don’t do adventurous things.
They have wanted little boys to be soft and cuddly but not masculine. No battles to be fought, no maidens to rescue in distress, no outback adventures, no exploring the unknown charts of their neighborhood.
So today we have men and soon to be men who are the TV junkies of this society. We have a bunch of men in the church and in society who are bored lifeless men with no hope for adventure and purpose in their lives. Men are suppose be created in the image of God as well as women are too. It takes both men and women combined to create a picture of God. Each one has a definitive role assigned to them from God. This does not make one better than the other, only different.
