Men Leading in Christ's Mission

In Acts 1 Jesus reminds the distracted apostles of the MISSION:

"So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'" Acts 1:6-8, ESV

Later they were distracted again when Jesus ascended into heaven, and 2 angels refocused them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?" (v11). They went on to say that Jesus is coming back. Implication: Get to work on the mission he just gave you!

Jesus reminds us of our mission! And since men are called to lead, it is the job of men to lead in the mission, AND to lead in reminding others and refocusing God's people on the misison of taking the gospel out as witnesses to the ends of the earth.

1. Men need to LEAD in the mission-focus of Jesus.
A. Lead by Example - by being individual witnesses.

B. Lead our Families in the mission-focus. Here is where we will focus, because this is simply not being done by most men. Men, does your family understand its mission-purpose? Does your family understand the inward purpose of building up the church, and the outward purpoes of being a witness of Christ? Have you as a man communicated this to your family? Do you constantly remind them of our goal and purpose?

Here are some ways we can do this, men:

• Family Prayer Time Focusing on Missions. Include the whole family, cultivating in each member a heart for Jesus' mission. Use a map of the world. Use the evening news (if it is reported that 100 people have died in a nation with little or no gospel witness, then it is likely that 100 people have passed into judgment without Christ. Pray for that nation as a family, that God would send his gospel to those people). Use church mission reports (read them to your family and pray over them).
• Family Giving for Missions. Let your children know that you are giving part of your money so people can hear about Jesus. Give locally and abroad; both supporting the work of your local church AND being sensitive to the needs the Spirit of God brings before you as a family.
• Family ACTION in Missions. The gospel deed and the gospel word in action. Invite non-Christians into your home for dinner. Then include the whole family in preparation for the meal by praying together that God would work, working together as a family to prepare the meal, clean the house, etc. Invite co-workers, neighbors, etc.

Application Questions (watch out, these may hurt!)

• Are you including your family in your ministry, men, or running off and leaving them behind?
• Does your wife feel that she is an important part in the family's ministry and mission? Have you communicated this to her and told her how important her role is?
• How are you doing in the gospel deed? The gospel word?
• What would our wives and children say if asked what our family's mission is? What would they say our family's PLAN is concerning missions? Have we communicated this to our family clearly; are we reminding them of the mission, praying about it together, sacrificing to see it happen, working together towards it? OR would our family have to answer that our family's mission - what we're living for - is money, stuff, pleasure, entertainment, our job...or NOTHING at all?

Missions should be a family adventure, with everyone in the family working together! Our family should understand that we are building blocks of our local church, doing our part in the larger community of faith, on mission for Jesus.

C. Leading in the Church. Men should lead the refocus effort towards Christ's mission in the church as well. The church should be reminded of our mission by men other than the pastors! Give praises, testimonies, reports, exhortations, public prayers in church meetings, etc that point the church to Christ's mission!

2. Men Need to Encourage Each Other in the Mission. Meet together, pray together, love each other, take interest in each other, ask each other missions-focussed questions, stir each other up towards love for Jesus and for people, etc.

3. Sadly, Most Men are NOT Leading. Here are some statistics from the Barna research group:

• In churches across America on Sundays, 61% of attendees will be female, 39% male.
• On any Sunday there will be 11 million more women in church gatherings than men.
• 75% of volunteers in the church are women. 90% of boys check out of church by age 20.
• The average ratio of men to women in Christian colleges is 1 male to every 3 females.

Women are:

• 100% more likely to be involved in discipleship.
• 57% more likely to hold leadership in the church.
• 54% more likely to participate in a small group.
• 39% more likely to have regular devotional time.
• 33% more likely to volunteer.
• 29% more likely to attend church gatherings.
• 29% more likely to read their Bible.
• 16% more likely to pray.

Men, let us REPENT of our lack of leadership. Let us look to Christ in faith, who gives us his resurrection power and life through the Holy Spirit! Let us serve Christ in his mission, and lead our families and local churches in the mission-focus of Jesus!

Men: Heart-Guardians of the Family

The following are the notes from my teaching at Conway Celebration Church's 2009 Marriage/Family Conference:

Text: Genesis 19. Lot’s story has much to teach about the job of men to walk in personal holiness and to protect their families from treasuring anything but Christ.

I. Progressive Sin. Lot’s backsliding:
Ø Moved tent as far as Sodom (Gen 13:12)
Ø Dwelling in Sodom (Gen 14:12)
Ø Sitting in the gate in Sodom (Gen 19:1)
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2

II. Men Affected. Lot is described as a righteous man, who does show some good works as proof. But his life is clouded with a lack of wisdom and good judgment that affect him negatively. He wasn’t affecting the culture; the culture had affected him and, therefore, his family.
...and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
2 Pet 2:7-10
A. Righteous. Lot showed hospitality (just as Abraham did in Gen 18) to the strangers,
and even attempted to protect his guests from the lust-crazed mob.
B. Affected By Personal Sin. Lot’s actions reveal dulled senses and lack of spiritual
wisdom:

• Offered his 2 daughters to the violent, perverted mob (v8). (ESV Study Bible footnotes call this “a shocking, cowardly, and inexcusable act [even if he intended this only as a bluff, or expected the offer to be rejected]”)
• His future sons-in-law didn’t take his warnings seriously, showing a general lack of respect for him (14). Do we joke around too much, as fools, to the point that we aren’t taken seriously or respected as men of God? God has not called us to be fools, or “Homer Simpson Dads,” fulfilling the world’s stereotype of men – lazy, foolish and unworthy of respect.
• When told to take his wife & daughters out of harm’s way he “lingered,” showing his love for the worldly environment and a general disregard for his family’s physical and spiritual well-being (15-16). Amazing! We see the error in Lot easily; what about us? Do we linger with the things of God to the spiritual ruin of our families?

III. Families Affected. A man’s sins don’t just affect him, but negatively affect those around him (especially his family).

• Future sons-in-law stayed behind and were killed.
• His wife looked back and was killed; she started the escape but did not have the grace to finish. Lot had led his wife to this ungodly place and had not prevented her from falling in love with it. He had not stood guard over her affections, directing them to the Lord.
• His daughters escaped to safety, but revealed ungodly practices in the cave, and a lack of trust in God for their future.

Other examples of men’s sins affecting others: Adam, Eli & his sons (1 Sam 3:11-14).

IV. Sovereign Mercy of God. V16, vs21-22. 2 Pet 2 – “the Lord knows…”
We praise God for this care! But our goal should not be to escape by the skin of our teeth into heaven; lingering and losing loved ones along the way.

V. Men Protecting Their Families.
A. Wives. Husbands washing wives with water of the word. (What Adam failed to do)

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Eph 5:25-27

B. Children. Children are arrows to be aimed. A warrior skillfully aims his arrows;
To aim is to set the direction:
“to position or direct (a firearm, ball, arrow, rocket, etc.) so that, on firing or release, the discharged projectile will hit a target or travel along a certain path.
2. to intend or direct for a particular effect or purpose” (dictionary.com)

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Ps 127:3-5
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:4
For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 1 Thess 2:11-12
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deut 6:6-9
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Prov 29:15

C. Protect From What? Men must protect their families from treasuring the world system; protection from Idols and Ideas! Discern what is shaping their minds and affections. Protect, shape, cover; don’t leave exposed!
· For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ 2 Cor 10:3-5
· Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect Rom 12:2

D. What Will Result if We Fail to Protect? What will we treasure if we don’t treasure
Christ? The world system: pleasures, riches (Babylon – Rev 18 & 19).
· For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt 6:21
· For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matt 12:34
Men need to be heart-guardians, not legalism producers! Morality is not the goal; Treasuring Christ is the goal.
· Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23

E. Treasuring Christ! Raise up hearts that delight in God and his glory.
· And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matt 22:37
· Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. Jer 15:16
· Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26
· And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Col 1:18
· So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God 1 Cor 10:31

1. We must MODEL this before our families, confessing when we make idols; show
our families hearts after God.
2. We must realize that this is an impossible task apart from God’s grace. He alone
can give our family members (and ourselves) new hearts that treasure him alone.

Godly Women: Making Their Men Great

We've all heard it said that behind every great man is a woman.
God created woman "for man" (1 Cor 11:9), as a "helper fit for him," since it "is not good that the man should be alone" (Gen 2:18). But sin came in and marred the roles of men and women. In Genesis 3 Adam did not lovingly lead or protect his wife from the words of the serpent, and Eve did not look to her husband. Our race was thus plunged into depravity, and part of the resulting curse was that women would resist their godly role to help and submit to their husband, and men would likewise resist their role of loving their wives as they lead them: "Your desire shall be for (or 'against') your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Gen 3:16b, ESV).

But whenever God's grace is at work in a woman, he enables her to fulfill her role to his glory. What an exceedingly beautiful thing to behold a godly woman helping her husband be great!

We men need the help of our wives! We need God's grace shown to us through our wife's ministry of help. What could men do or be without godly women in their lives? Godly mothers, sisters, and wives helping us, encouraging us, giving us crucial aid?

We see this shown in the life of Moses, with the women in his life. Moses was one of the greatest men of God who ever lived. THE leader of Israel, called by God to bring his people out of Egypt, mediate between them and God; God spoke to Moses! He gave him the law on the mountain, showed him the blueprints for the tabernacle, and listened to Moses' prayers for the people. Moses was a great man of God!

But Moses would have died in infancy if not for the faith of his mother! In Exodus 2 we read of Moses' mother putting him in a basket in the Nile river rather than killing him in obedience to the king of Egypt. She saved his life. Moses could not have been the man of God he grew to be if not for his mother who feared God more than man.

Moses also had a sister! Miriam stood at a distance to see what would become of her baby brother in the basket-boat. When Pharoah's daughter found Moses, it was Miriam's quick thinking and boldness that led her to approach her superior and suggest finding a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. So she ran and got she and Moses' mother, who was able to save Moses' life (again!) by nursing him before he was handed over to be raised in Pharoah's house.

Moses also had a wife! In Exodus 4, Moses has returned from meeting God in the burning bush. He leaves Midian with his wife, Zipporah, and his sons, headed for Egypt in obedience to God. But Moses' obedience was only partial. He had not circumcised his son in observance of God's covenant with Abraham! Was this a serious matter before God? God came to kill him!!! But Moses' helper acted quickly on Moses' behalf: "Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin" (Ex 4:25, ESV). Zipporah saved Moses' life!

Praise God for godly women who embrace their role as unto the Lord, and help their husbands! Praise God for helpful mothers, sisters, and wives! Praise God for godly women who help their men be great for God!