Man Up This Summer

I'm so glad for you to be here today. It is summer, summer of salt. And since it is Father's Day, I wanted to give a little bit of a man up message today for men. I want you to man up. Can some of our men man up today?

Man up, because I want to encourage you up. I don't want to put you down. I want to man you up today. And that's what our message. We're going to do a summer, a man up this summer.

We're going to man up this summer. We're going to get ready for the summer. We're going to man up this summer. because my question is where are all the men? Men are missing.

Men are missing and women have had to step into the gaps where the men are missing. A lot of fathers are not in homes. I believe if we return the father to the home, we'll see a big change in society, a radical change in society. And I can't tell you how many times, how many churches I've been. I've been in church most of my life.

My dad's a pastor and I grew up in church. And there's a lot of seats missing that need to have seats missing that need to have men in them. The men are missing in the church. The men are missing in the family. The kids are missing fathers.

And there's some startling statistics out there that show that if a man is missing, a father is missing in the family, a child is four times, there's a four times greater chance of poverty. There's two times greater risk of infant mortality. They're more likely to go to prison. They're more likely to have behavioral problems. Seven times more likely to become pregnant as a teenager.

Two times more likely to drop out of school. The suicide rate goes way up, especially in men that don't have a father bigger, don't have a man in their life, don't have a spiritual father, don't have a mentor in their life. So my question is, where are the men and how can the men come back into this picture? As we're thinking about Father's Day today, we need godly men. And there's a lot going on in the world today about gender and gender identification and men and women and where they meet.

But the day's message isn't necessarily about the difference between men and women. It's about the difference between boys and men. That's what I want to talk about today. Because I know 45-year-old men that act like teenagers emotionally and spiritually. And I know 15-year-old boys that are men because they have integrity, they have courage, they make sacrifices.

It doesn't matter the age. It's about the way a man lives. So I want to be a little raw today. This message is for men. Women, you can actually get something out of this message too.

But here's what I would ask you not to do is to nudge your husband or nudge your boyfriend if you hear something. That's you right there. You need to fix that. Let's not do that today. Let's encourage them.

Let's encourage each other. Let's learn together. Learn a little bit about men and what they need to be and what you're looking for. If you're single today and a woman or a single and a man, you need to learn how to be a man and what you're looking for as a woman. So I'm going to look at the five marks of a man.

Brian Tome is the writer of a book called Five Marks of a Man. And I'm going to use his material for the most part today and add a little bit of my own flavor to it. But I think these are excellent points. You can grab the book if you want to and you'll see a lot of the information from the book in there. You can get it on Amazon anywhere if you're a man and you're ready to be a man.

Okay, you're ready to be a biblical man. And what he suggests is there's a primal code that every great man in history aggressively pursues. A journey to biblical manhood. Biblical manhood throughout God's word. In fact, our anchor verse is going to be 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14.

It says, Be watchful. Stand firm in faith. Act like men. We need to act like men and be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

So acting like a man. Acting like a man is a spiritual calling. It's a high calling to act like a man. But in our culture, men are mostly portrayed as buffoons, right? I mean, we see it on TV.

You know, the Homer Simpson. I'm going to eat my donut and drink beer and, you know, barely wander through life. And I'm stupid. I make stupid decisions all the way. I feel dumpy.

Modern family, you know. I'm just, I have no clue what's going on. And the women are smarter than me. And everybody else is smarter than me. And it makes us look like buffoons.

But the traits we are looking for and the traits I see in Scripture, in this Scripture, are what I desire and the people that I see as godly men have and what I hope my child, my son, will have one day, that I can train him in this way. Men I respect hold these values. Because age doesn't matter when a man becomes a man. It really is about the way they live. Amen?

So be watchful. He says, be watchful. A man has a vision for his life while a boy lives day to day. A man has a godly vision for his life. He has somewhere he's going.

He's walking with God. And he's making that happen. And he's aggressively seeking that. Stand firm. A man stands firm.

They aren't afraid of going against the popular opinion of the culture. They stand against the grain. They work towards their values. They believe in their values. And they stand firm.

They act like men. They're plural. That's not singular. They walk together. They do it together.

They're not long wolves. They run with a pack. They encourage each other. They build each other up. And it's done in love.

Men are protectors, okay? They're not predators. Boys pray. Men protect. And real men are protectors and willing to lay down their lives like Jesus laid down his life for us, laid down his life for the church.

And I'm not talking about toxic masculinity, machismo. You know, yeah, look at my muscles. Look how long I can grow my beard and how many tattoos I can put. You know, that has nothing to do with biblical masculinity. Biblical masculinity is from God's perspective about a good father.

And we are looking at Noah. Noah was a man's man. Noah was the man. And we can learn a lot from the life of Noah. Hebrews 11, 7.

If you're with me and you want to turn to your digital notes on the YouTube YouVersion Bible app, you can go there, connect to the events, and pull it up. Or if you just have, if you do it the old-fashioned way, pull out your Bibles and take notes and put it on paper here. You can even write it on your connection card. Some people put it on their connection card there. That's great.

It says, See, what we have here in Hebrews is God's hall of fame, the faith hall of fame. And this is an example of a man, and there's many men in this particular scripture that prove authentic manhood. And Noah is one of those. He lived 1,000 years before Jesus. And y'all all know the great flood.

You know, the ark, the great flood. The animals had to go and gather the animals and this and that. And the animals came to the ark. And we know the stories, especially in Sunday school. Even if you didn't grow up in church, you know about the ark and the animals and Noah and whatnot.

But there were two floods actually happening in that time. The flood that was really happening before the great flood, the water flood, was there was a flood of evil across the entire earth. People were not good. No one was righteous. Everyone was doing wrong.

And God had. Enough. He was ready to restart. Control-Alt-Delete. Let's start it all over again.

Let's do this differently this time, and I'm going to start it all over. He was done. I'm going to start it all over, but he saw one man, and his name was Noah. It says in Genesis 6-9, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. He was different than the people of his time, and he walked faithfully.

He stuck with God. He walked with God. He walked it out with God. And when you walk with God, God is walking with you. When you stand with God, God will stand with you.

He has your back. He has your side. He wants you to walk with him. Walk with God. When you walk with God, God walks with you.

But he wasn't perfect. Noah had some issues as well. In fact, one time he drank a little too much wine. He lost his underwear and ended up embarrassing himself in front of his family, okay? One of the worst things, embarrassing things you probably could have done.

But so we're not going to be perfect, but what it really means is that you're trying to please God, that you're trying to walk with God. You're trying to please your Father, and you practice integrity, and you walk with honor, and you do the right things. And he walked by faith, even though his faith may have not been perfect at times, and our faith isn't perfect at times, we have a desire to walk out this godly masculinity, this biblical masculinity like Noah did. And God was taking him somewhere. God had a vision for his life.

And that leads us to our first point, be watchful. Men have a godly vision. Boys live day to day. Men have a godly vision. They have something set up.

They're walking towards. They're seeing a goal, something that God has given them, something they want, something bigger than themselves. They walk that direction. They live life aiming in that direction. Boys, they just wake up, and they hope for the best, and what's easy, and they, you know, day to day, and what tickles their fancy for that time.

I'll just spend all of my money if it does it all that. And maybe the money's not there. I'll just throw it on the credit cards and spend it on the credit cards, you know, and then I'll pay it back later. But men, they have a godly vision. They set up their lives to walk forward, while boys, they just kind of use different activities to kind of take their focus off the vision.

That they really should be aiming for, whether it's hobby activity, or there's nothing wrong with those things. Maybe video games, you know, like, I've got to work, but you know what? I'm going to play video games right now. I'll get to that research project later on, or I'll get to work later on. I'll be a little late, or whatever.

Let me say this. The average American male plays 10,000 hours of video games in their lifetime. 10,000 hours. That's the amount of hours it takes to master a level, a high-level expert skill. Did you know that?

That if they would take that time and put it into a skill, that they would be a high-quality, high-expert skill. That's how long it took Mozart to perfect a concerto, and it took Steve Jobs with the iPhone 10,000 hours to accomplish that. See, men invest time in things that matter. God's grander vision for their life is what they aim for, while others put their time and energy in the things that don't really matter and just for their day-to-day. So the question for me to all the men in here, and this can go from women, too, what is the vision for your life?

What vision do you have for your life? It doesn't have to be world-changing. It doesn't have to invent the electric car or the iPhone or whatever that greater thing that looks like a big accomplishment is. It could be simpler things. Maybe you just want to start a business that does more than just make an honest living, but it helps others be employed and makes a better life for other people.

Maybe it's just raising a family. You know, one of the visions for my life is I just want to raise my family in a godly way. I want to be a godly husband, and I want to pastor a church and grow the kingdom of God. That's a vision for my life. What is that vision for your life?

What is that vision for your life? Maybe it's to start a nonprofit and do something to change the world or maybe make a difference in something, or maybe it's to join a nonprofit. Maybe that's your goal is to be a part of something that's bigger than yourself. Or maybe it's even simpler than that. Maybe you're like, I don't know another man in my family that made healthy choices.

I don't know any in my family, and I want to be the first in my family to make healthy choices. I don't know any man in my family that stayed with one woman their entire lives. And I want to stay in my marriage. I want to be the first one. Maybe that's the vision for your life, to have a healthy marriage and to be the husband to only one wife.

Noah was righteous. He was blameless, and he walked with God. And there's lots of ups and downs on the road to life. We get that. But if you have a grander vision, real men, boys don't have a vision.

They just kind of go here and there. But men have a grander vision, and it's not self-seeking. It's not about I want, I need. It's about God and others, and it goes past. Is it about me or is it about God is the question.

Is it all about me? It's not a self-serving dream. Mark Twain said it like this. The most important days in your life are the days you were born or the day you were born and the day you find out why. The day you were born and the day you find out why.

Because God's purpose is long-term. Why are you here? Why do you exist? Is it simply just to live day-to-day on the couch and just barely get by and make enough money to buy a pack of beer on the weekend and just barely make it through life? Or do you have?

See, men are not built to just be day-to-day people. They need a vision for their life. And God placed that in us on purpose, a godly vision for our life. And this is what made Noah different. Noah had a godly vision for his life.

He was aiming for that vision. And it made him so different that people mocked him. People didn't see him as normal. He looked like an odd guy. He walked faithfully with God.

And when you walk faithfully with God, you dwindle down to one. It will be one person. Look, Genesis 6-5 says it like this. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. And then the Lord regretted.

He regretted that he had made humans on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground. For I regret that I have made them. Remember, all the world was going to hell in a handbasket in this day, okay? And God was so heart sick.

He didn't know what to do. But he turned and looked at one person in verse 8 and he says, But Noah found favor in the eyes of God. I want to be a Noah. Noah, do you want to be a Noah, man? That when all the rest of the world is heading one direction, you're going to head the next.

What leads me to my second point, men take a minority position while boys follow the crowd. You can be like the crowd. You can be like the world. That's what boys do. They just, they go with what's popular.

They go with what people like most. But men stand up and stand out against what isn't consistent with their value system. They stand up in culture. They stand out in culture. And in Noah's day, there was rampant sexual immorality.

There was perversion. There was violence. There was corruption. There was lying. There was dishonesty.

There was a lack of integrity. It was... Living in the days of Noah is a lot like today. We kind of live in the days of Noah and Noah was blameless and you will see over and over and over again in the Bible, men who are used mightily by God, the mighty men in the Bible, are those who are different. Those who stand up and stand out against popular culture.

David, Potiphar's wife, seduced him and it would have been easy for him to go into that bedroom and everybody would have said, that's just a normal thing to do, you did the right thing, you're a man, right? But he says, I will not dishonor her and I will not dishonor my master and I will not dishonor God. He was a man who stood for his values. Moses stood up the powers of Pharaoh, a corrupt system of power. He was willing to stand up and stand out regardless of his insecurities, regardless of what people thought about him.

Even his own people didn't think he was the leader that was going to do it, but he stood up and he stood out. It's because godly men stand up for what is right and aren't afraid to suffer for it. They aren't afraid to suffer for it. Boys are afraid to suffer. They want to be comfortable.

They want to sit back. They don't want to say anything. They don't want to do anything. But men say, I'm willing to suffer. I'm willing to hurt for what's important, what's most important, what's beyond and above me, something bigger than me.

Men are willing to stand out. And Noah was a weirdo. He was different. He found favor in God. He was willing to be a weirdo and stand out for what he believed in.

And for some of you here and some of you out there that are watching and some of you that are watching later on this week as you're at your coffee tables and in your living rooms or at your coffee shops or at your restaurants or wherever you're listening to this sermon, some of you are probably even in your workplace and you're sitting there and you have a lot of pressure in your environment. You have a lot of pressure in your workplace. You have a lot of pressure in your culture. And when you try to be a Noah, you get canceled, you get mocked, you become the odd moll. There's a lot of pressure there.

So here's what I would say. Let's say that you were accused at your work or your place of business of being a follower of Christ. Would there be enough evidence to find you, to convict you and find you guilty? Would there be enough evidence in your life? Because Noah was crystal clear who he was.

It was crystal clear that he was blameless. He was a follower of Christ. It was crystal clear. Is it crystal clear where you are in your environment, in your workplace, in your culture? Would you be found guilty of being a Christian?

Are you walking close enough to God to even hear him? Because there's a lot of noise in this culture. Are you walking close to God, blameless? Are you able to hear him? Because he's speaking, man.

He's speaking to you. He's giving you vision. He's giving you something to stand up and stand out on. Are you even listening? Are you drowning out the noise of the culture?

Because Noah asked me, and Noah heard God. And he said, you know, he asked him, actually, what do you really want me to do? I'm sure Noah, as he was there, he was blameless and living his life. And he was seeking God. And God, really, what do you want me to do?

And you know what God said? You're going to build me an ark. You're going to build me an ark. There are no tech or power tools in this age, I might add. Build an ark.

What does that look like? Number three, men work hard. Boys waste time. Men work hard. Boys waste time.

We are built to work hard. We want to work hard. And when we're not working hard, we're depressed, right? But boys waste time. Men, I'll work hard to build a godly vision for my life.

That's what biblical manhood does. I will work hard, not just for anything, not self-serving, but for a godly vision for my life, to be able to leave more in this world, in this earth, for the kingdom of God than I came in with. I want to work hard for that. Now, think about Noah for a minute. A hundred miles away from any type of water, and he'd probably never even seen water the way he was getting ready to see water.

And God tells him to build a boat. Now, that sounds crazy, because... And it was so insignificant, too. I mean, come on. I mean, what do I start doing?

Chopping wood. Chopping wood? Come on. I'm a blameless man. You know, I'm going to save the entire world.

I'm going to preserve the entire world. But he had to start somewhere. Let me ask you this, men. When is the last time you put in some hard work? Because it's easy not to do it, right?

I mean, you can... I'll be honest with me. Being in the air conditioning and being able to work on a computer and sit in a nice, comfy area, not to get out in the heat and swing an axe a little bit, it works, right? And I'm not even talking about manual labor. Just work hard.

Just putting something in. Put some time. Like, we all have more time than we think we have. We all have more energy than we think we have. We think we're all so tired.

We're so tired. I've been in front of the computer all day. Yeah, because your eyes are drained, you know, from looking at numbers all day and things like that. So, when is the last time you put in some hard work? Some of you, you work really hard, and I get that.

But for a lot of people, it may not. I mean, that's why these tough mudder events. How many of you have done a tough mudder? A tough mudder, you know, where the men get together in teams and they do these mudding events. Nobody in here has done that?

Oh, man. I think I've got one little hand raised over there. I had a few in the volunteer service that raised their hand. I mean, is it a man that get together and they just get in the mud and they move tires and they jump over walls and they go through barbed wire and they get all, I mean, just really, really, really tough, you know. And sometimes the women participate, too.

But the marketing, the chief creative officer, just great marketing here, it is designed for 25 to 40-year-old men who need something tough. They're tired of working in the office. They're tired of the white collar. There's something inside of them that says, I've got to get raw and I've got to get dirty and I've got to do something. And that's what they market to.

And what they ultimately want to do is these men, and this is where the marketing genius comes in, they want to give these men what they really want, something tough, pull out that inner man because, you know, the TPS reports just aren't doing it, right? It just isn't working. And I love how the CCO describes it here. He says, those roller bag, minivan, white collar guys who want the inner tough guy to come out, right? Now, let me be clear, okay?

Let me digress a little bit, pull back a little bit. Some of the most manly men I know drive minivans, okay? There's nothing wrong with driving a minivan. My dad drove a minivan for years. I think he still has a minivan in his backyard.

He calls it his work van, and he does. He likes his little work van there. Don't fall for that stereotype that men have to look a certain way. They have to have a four-wheel drive truck. They have to have a long beard.

They have to have tattoos all over their body to be a min. They've got to be able to swing an ax. Don't stop, don't, don't, don't, don't fall for that. None of that really defines a biblical man in the eyes of God. The common thread from boys to men is that boys are passive and men are not, and they take intentional action with their lives.

And it can be anything. They can roll up their sleeves and get dirty on anything. It doesn't matter what it is, where they're called to, what they're called to do. And Noah's vision went against the grain, and he put in the work. 120 years.

Jewish tradition says this. The reason that it took 120 years to build the ark is because he had to plant the trees. He started from ground zero. He had to put seeds in the ground. That's so insignificant.

But 120 years, nothing happens overnight. It's not Amazon one-click culture, okay, guys? It's going to happen tomorrow. Men stick it out. Men stick it out.

Men stick it out. Men stick it out. Men keep grinding. Can keep moving. They expect it's probably going to take 120 years to get to fulfill the vision that God has called us on.

We don't give up. Real men don't give up. Boys give up. And they give up quickly. And they give up easily.

And they run away. But men, they move forward. They pick up the axe. They begin chopping. They put the seeds in the ground.

And they work because they realize a vision in my life takes longer than a day. It takes longer than a week. Sometimes it takes longer than years and years and years. It's a lifetime pursuit for vision. It doesn't happen overnight.

Number four, men are team players. Boys are lone wolves. A better way to say it is men running a pack. Boys are lone wolves. They do it themselves.

They're team players and not VIPs, you know. I'm going to take the game on myself. But culture tells us, you know, as men, right? I bet you better man up, right? The definition of man up is get along, get isolated, and figure it out.

Don't let other people see you. Don't let people hear you say that. Just work it out on your own because we're man, right? We're man. We got to get...

That's what culture is. Suck it up, men. Get it... You know, but wolves don't thrive well alone. If you understand how wolf packs work, they don't thrive alone.

In fact, they don't live long outside of a pack because wolves hunt together, they live together, they work together, they huddle together for warmth. And when one is exited from the pack, they don't live very well, they don't thrive. And men need each other. And relationships even impact how we treat women. Did you know that, men?

When you're not with men, if you don't have good friendships, if you don't have people to spur you along to help build you up, women feel vulnerable when men live their lives alone. We need to be better husbands. We need to be better protectors of our family. And it's best that we do it together. We are meant to run together.

It's good to get with men. It's good to have a best friend. Your best friend doesn't have to be your wife. In fact, the writer of this book says, I tell people, this kind of blew me away. I don't even have this in my message.

I wasn't even planning on saying this today. But it blew me away to read this. He says, when people ask me, is my wife my best friend? I say, no, she's not my best friend. I have a best friend.

She's one flesh. We are one person, but I have a best friend. And it's a red flag. He says this in his book. I quote him.

It's always a red flag to me when men tell me that my wife's my best friend. It means they don't have any other men in their lives. I know that's shocking and crazy. We think it's an attribute or a virtue to say, my wife's my best friend. No, she's you.

You can't be best friends with yourself, right? Because you're one flesh, biblically. It's powerful. Because men need men. Men need to grow together as men.

And men don't do relationships well. We don't. We're terrible about relationships. We think, you know, we don't even like to touch each other, you know, much less hug each other, you know, and pat each other on the back. And women, they can get together.

They can chat. They can get around the table anywhere and just, you know, they have a great time and talk it out and stuff like that. Men, we do different. We do relationships different. We do it together as a pact.

We have a mission, a common goal, a common attribute. This is why military bonds are so big, especially those who've been in war or been off or worked as a crew for years and years and years. You build those friendships and relationships, and that's the most important part of being in a military command. There's a common goal, there's a common mission, and you're working on that together, and you've got each other's back, and you courage each other. And activities draw us together, too.

If we enjoy the same activities, whether it's motorcycling or surfing or hunting or camping or building or racing or music or creativity or whatever it is, men, when they have a common goal, they come together and they work together, and out of that blooms friendship. It blooms laughter. It blooms encouragement, counseling, accountability. All those things come out of men just being together. So, men, why are you alone?

Get together with people. And Noah had three sons, you know? We forget about those three sons, and we forget that Noah was 600 years old when he built the ark. So these probably weren't little kids. These were grown men, okay?

And they did this together. And Sham, Ham, and Japhon, I know, Sham, Ham, and Japhon, I don't know. They weren't very creative, Sham and Ham. I mean, they could have changed the name a little bit, right? They were with him, and he didn't build it alone.

They had a common goal, and I'm sure Noah raised those kids and mentored them and shared values with them and made them men of God because they were along the ride. They were found, because of Noah, they were found blameless as well. Jonathan and David, they shared a common activity of military combat. They were both great fighters, and they worked together. C.

S. Lewis said this. In thinking about his friend who wrote Lord of the Rings, J.R.R.

Tolkien, they were best buds. He said this. You will not find the warrior, the poet, the philosopher, or the Christian by staring in his eyes as if he were a mistress. Better fight beside him, read with him, argue with him, pray with him. Boys reject authority, men respect authority.

Men tend to hate authority. We just do. There's something about being, you know, against authority, you know. I'm my own man. I can make up my own rules.

And maybe some of that's the abuse of authority or misuse of authority. Some is good. And when it's good, it's good. And when it's bad, it's bad. There's no in-between, is there, when we learn about authority.

And also this. In marriage, there's this statement that the greater potential for intimacy, the greater the disappointment, which is why marriage is so hard because we can get disappointed with our spouse because we're so close to them, the closer the intimacy. And maybe this is true for men as well. When we get intimately close to a man, maybe there's a greater expectation of disappointment rather than encouragement, you know. And we've all been there.

But what shapes us as men is authority figures in our lives. It's mentors. And I can tell you I've been around the table with a lot of pastors. I've been in conferences with a lot of pastors. And you know what one of the common goals or common hungers in pastors' hearts who pastor people all the time?

They don't have spiritual fathers in their lives. They're spiritually fathering so many people, they don't even have a spiritual father. They don't have anybody that they can go to and be encouraged and be corrected and be held accountable in a lot of ways. And this happens in peer-to-peer interaction too, being accountable to each other and peer friendships and mentorships. Men who think they are calling the shots, I'm calling the shots.

It's all my... Really, in reality, you're submitting to authority of this culture. Did you know that? In reality, you're submitting to the authority of this culture. You're just like the culture.

True freedom thrives under the authority structure of the only one who provides freedom, and that's God. That's where real freedom comes from, and he provided an authority structure. So we respect authority. Men, real men respect the authority. And our best relationships, the ones that make us better and stronger in whatever we do, are those that provide authority and provide accountability.

That's why Psalm 141 says it like this. Let the righteous man strike me. That is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. That is oil on my head.

Wow. Oil on my head. Boys make each other uncomfortable. There's a little bit different. You can tell them how to actually figure it out.

I mean, play an answer to the question. There's a little bit different. As well, Bill, as a little bit different. Thank you. Men make each other better, or others, excuse me, boys make each other comfortable, and men make each other better.

Boys tear each other down, men build each other up. Boys hold back emotions, men are affectionate. This is a really hard one for our culture, because we don't like to be affectionate. We were raised in a culture where we're not affectionate as men. And you go back to the early 19th century, and you see a lot of pictures coming out these days, and you see men holding hands, and men, I think there's a few pictures where men are kissing each other and stuff.

And popular culture said, oh yeah, that was homosexuality, that was, but they're flat wrong. Intimacy in that day was a lot different between men than they are now. They actually were very affectionate with each other, because they had a bond, and now it's looked as weird. Now I'm not telling you to go out and kiss anybody. Alex Rubio is not here today.

He's probably online right now. He would walk up to me, and he kisses me on the mouth when he greets me all the time. He's Hawaiian, so he can get away with it, okay? But I'm not telling you to do that, because, you know, the culture may be a little weird. But we've got to take steps for being affectionate with one another.

We need to be closer. We're missing out. I mean, David and Jonathan had this bond. I love how it says in Scripture, David rose from beside the stone heap, as he's talking about Jonathan and her relationship. And he fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times to Jonathan.

And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. We all need a little healthy friendship touch. Can't be alone. We're meant to be with each other, to touch each other. Boys live to play.

They have no vision. They just live to play. I can make money and blow it all, and the next thing, the next surfboard, the next house, the next car, the next boat, the next trip. They do that. But men play to live.

They use play differently. We play so that we can do what we're called to do. We can honor that godly vision because you know what play does? It stokes vision. It purges unhealthy desires.

It pleases God, which God, he richly blesses us with all of this for our enjoyment, right? So we don't look at play as a bad thing. We don't work all the time and never play. But we understand what play is for. Play gets us healthy.

It gets us to a place where we can pursue what God has for us. And then lastly, the fifth point is men are protectors. Men are protectors. Boys are predators. Do it all in love.

It's the scripture in 2 Corinthians says it ends with love. All in love. We are doing it all in love. Why? Noah sacrificed.

He was selfless. When God called him to do that, he could have been selfish. He could have said, you know what? But he protected his family, and he was a type of Jesus Christ. When we look at Noah in scripture, we see Jesus.

We see the typology taking place of Jesus Christ. He was the salt of the earth in that time. Y'all know the theme of this church. A little bit of salt goes along. It always makes a difference.

And what we understand about salt is salt is a preservative. And God was ready to take out the entire earth, but he saw Noah, and Noah selflessly gave and sacrificed and worked and had a vision that God gave him and honored that vision and worked towards it so that you could be here today. He honored that. He thought selflessly. He took care of those who were weaker than him and less fortunate than him.

Men are physically and spiritually wired to protect. We are called to protect. And this isn't about flexing or bulking up or anything. Oh, I'm a protector. Look at my biceps.

Look at this. You know, I go to the gym so people can be scared of me. That's not godly. That's not godly masculinity. Real men fight for justice.

William Wilberforce, slavery, went against the grain, everybody else, and gave his life to fight. Diedrich Bonhoeffer gave his life to stand up against the evil regiment of Hitler. Todd Beamer, 9-11, United Flight 93. He and a few others gave their lives to save many. Over the radio, you hear the last statement where he leads a small group in prayer and utters the word, let's roll.

Men protect their families. That's why Nehemiah says fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. Hey, protect your families. Man, you've got to protect your families. You don't run from your families.

You don't, you're not absent. You're present. You're there. You protect them. Real men love their wives as Christ loved the church.

1 Peter says it like this. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel. You have a mandate to protect, since they are the heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. In dating, boys think about the pleasures of the day. Men think about the woman's tomorrow.

I want you to imagine a 16-year-old walking up to your door and saying, Hey, you don't have a clue who they are. You're just meeting them for the first time. Can I borrow your car? Can I borrow your surfboard? Can I borrow your golf clubs?

What are you going to say? No, I don't know you. Oh, yeah, that's not happening. You know, who are you? But yet, we do that all the time with our young daughters.

Boy comes up to the door. We don't even ask questions. We don't sit them down and see what their intentions are. Oh, Savannah's going to get, boy, she's going to hate me because I'm going to have, I'm already developing my list of questions. When she dates somebody, we're going to sit down and I'm going to ask who this guy is and we're going to lay out some things, you know, before.

I'm going to have my gun over, you know, on the counter. Scare them a little bit, you know. Hey, think about the woman's tomorrow. Single man, not boys, don't live by if I can, I will code. They actually consider the person they're dating and her potential partner in the future or potential husband in the future.

They consider that. Like, this may not be the person I marry and I don't want to bring any baggage into their future marriage. I'm thinking about their husband in the future. I'm thinking about her in the future. And I'm thinking about myself and my own marriage.

Even if you're moving forward in this relationship, you're thinking about what you're going to bring into that relationship, even among that relationship. That's what men do. Men think about those things. And then lastly, most importantly, boys passively watch others' spirituality. And men proactively lead others to true spirituality.

Boys, just passively, just spirituality is out, you know. Let's not talk about it. Let's, let's, I love this, listen, in this, and we're going to be ending in this in a second, okay? But, but Penn Gillette, if y'all are familiar with him, he's a famous magician. Vegas, he's an atheist, outspoken atheist.

A man came to him after one of the Vegas shows and handed him a Bible. Very, he said, he's a very kind man. He wasn't crazy, he wasn't weird, like he suspected Christians to be, you know. And he started sharing with him, you know, his faith. And he was just, he was just really encouraged by it.

This man, he talked about how, how kind, how, how good of a man he was. And he said this, he said this, I've all, I, and get this, this is an atheist. I have, I have to tell you, you know, I've always said I don't respect people who don't proselytize. Now, now, when we think of the word proselytize. Proselytize.

We think of a man up on a box, you know, like yelling and throwing stuff. I'm not saying that this is what he's talking about here, okay? But we think that's a bad word, right? Proselytize. I'm not proselytizing.

I'm not proselytizing. But this is what he says. I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect them at all. If you believe there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell and not getting eternal life or whatever and you think it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward, how much do you have to hate someone to not proselytize?

This is an atheist. This is a guy who doesn't believe in God. How much do you have to hate someone to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? He went on to say, I tell you, he was a very, very, very good man because he cared. He was a protector of the kingdom of God.

He was a protector of the word of God. He was a protector. He not only cared about possibly his family, he not only cared about his church, he cared about the kingdom. And it was super important to him that they, that, that, that, it should be super important for us men because we, we clam up. We get quiet when it's time to really, I know who you hang out with.

I know who you're around all the time. And sometimes you, you can't help it. You do business with these people. You're around them all the time. And you've had opportunities to share the gospel, but what, why haven't you?

Why haven't you taken the opportunity to proselytize to them? Oh, well, they may not like me anymore. Well, Noah was blameless in his day and people didn't like him. And he saved the entire human race. I love how David's words to his son were, and you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father to serve him with your whole heart and the willing, in a willing mind.

For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. These are his last words. And if you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Remember, men are spiritual protectors.

And it's clear and simple. It's the truth. That there is a God. Number one, there is a God. Number two, it's not me.

It's not you. And we all need grace. And Jesus' sacrifice, the ultimate man's man, Jesus' sacrifice provides, he provides all that we need. This is the five marks of a man. Are we ready to man up and be the biblical man that God has called us to be?

It really starts with a small group of people saying, you know what? It's time. It's time for me to be a man. It's time for me not to sit in the background. It's time for me not to look over, practice this fake spirituality or whatever it is.

It's time for me to really be a blameless, stand out of the crowd, stand up for what's right, raise my family, respect others, respect women, respect people of other races and cultures. And the weaker that have not been privileged. We are people who stand and that is our biblical mandate. Amen. Let's do this, right?

Let's roll. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just pray over this place. Every man in this room and every woman as well. Challenge this, God, in your word. If your word, man, if your word wasn't like this, where would we be, God?

Because it shapes us and defines us and refines us and makes us more like you, God. Today, we're asking you to pull our hearts towards you, all men in this room. All men who are hearing this message, all men out there. So we're heading to Father's Day and we're thinking about men, men, men, men, men. What kind of man do I want to be?

I want to be a godly man. I want to be a man of sacrifice. I want to be a man, God, I want to be a man like you. I want to be a man that stands up for you and honors you like a good father would, Lord. Today, we surrender and we submit, Lord, to what your word says and not what the culture says, but what your word says and what you say to us that will drown out all the noise of this culture and we will fully embrace what it really means to be a biblical man.

So, in turn, we can change this world. We can change this society. We can change this nation. We can change everything, Lord, because of who you are in us, not because of what culture says, but what you've called us to be and what you've called us to do, a godly vision for our life. For some here today, they're pulled towards you and with all heads bowed and eyes closed.

There's somebody here right now that Spirit is speaking to and says, you know what, I haven't even made a step to know God, much less follow him and be like him and be this godly man. That's the Spirit of God speaking to you because all that noise is drowned out right now and he's speaking to you and he's asking you to be a follower of him. And you can make that decision today if you just make that commitment. There's nothing magic in what you say or do. It's about your heart because God looks at the heart and your heart's being pulled to him.

He's pulling you to him. So today you can make that decision by simply confessing and believing and submitting to Jesus Christ and making him Lord of your life. If you'll just pray this with me. Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin and I give my life to you. Today I walk with you from this day forward.

I no longer want to live the way I once did. I surrender to you and I walk forward. I'm trusting you with my life. I'm trusting you with my family. I'm trusting you with everything that I have, God.

God, because I know I've tried it all the other ways, but I'm giving this to you today. Change me from the inside out. Make me new in your name.