Men Of Character

Turn to Genesis 1:26-31 (READ)

There is an emphasis on leadership and dominion in these verses. How many of you know when God repeats himself, he is trying to get something across? God wants us to have leadership and dominion. I want to speak this Father’s Day on men of velvet and steel, a phrase Carl Sandberg used to describe Abraham Lincoln.

How many of the men are waiting for me to pull out a message on dominion from Ephesians 5, "Women, submit to your husband."? Men, say Amen. Now get ready, for I am setting you up, for when you are the head of something, you are responsible.

We have a crisis in our homes because we have failed. If things are going well in our business, who gets the credit? If you go into bankruptcy, who’s head rolls? When things are going well, everyone gets the credit, but when things are not going well, the coach’s head rolls.

The one to blame for the home going bad is the man, not the woman. Today, men are allowing women to have the authority that was given to them. 100,000 men walk out on their home each year, and many of them never say good-bye, leaving over 1 million children in single family homes.

Church, we have a call to father the fatherless, to be big brothers and sisters. What happens when we fail, well, in LA today, the largest numbers of prostitutes on the streets are teenage boys.

The family is important, because weak homes build weak churches, and weak businesses, and week nations.

Men, I hope you are hearing me today. I want to share with you characteristics of what makes men of steel and velvet. I am planning toward July and into August of doing a series on the family and today on Father’s Day I want to address men with some thoughts as I did to the women on Mother’s Day.

Here are some characteristics of Men of Steel.

#1 They are committed. First, they are committed to God, then to 3 specific things after God. 1. They are committed to providing for the family. And this is not just physical things. It is emotional things as well. It is being the leader in spiritual things in the home. 2. They are committed to protection. Men are the umbrella of the home. 3. They are committed to pointing God’s Way. It should be the fathers who lead their sons and daughters to Christ.

2. A second characteristic of steel, is Men should be men of conviction. A man of steel studies what he believes and can tell the family why he hold the beliefs that he does.

3. He is a man of courage. Too many sons see weak fathers. Are you a man who stands for right even if it means you will not get ahead? Be fearless. What I have seen is that men don’t like to make decisions because they are afraid of failure. Remember, we can fail with Jesus. Yet, how many times in the home do we hear children ask if they can do so and so, and the response is, let me think about it when we know the answer should be no. What we are doing is teaching our children to make their own decisions because we won’t. "Let our yes be yes, and our no be no."

4. A man of steel is a man of character. Masculine character. We need men to be men and women to be women. To talk like a man, to act like a man, to be a man. A man of moral purity, for what you do in moderation, your kids will do in excess.

5. A man of steel is constructive. He is always building up, not tearing down. There is a way to be critical by building up. To pull our kids close and say we appreciate them. How do you come home at night? All day you have been Mr. Personality, then you walk into the house and kick the dog, or the wife, pick up the newspaper after walking by the wife and kids, and bury yourself in the newspaper? We need to be constructive. A constructive man knows his wife. Some men never take 5 minutes to read a book to learn about their wife, it is no wonder marriages are falling apart. God has given us dominion, leadership, and we need to take it an run with it. Proverbs says, "Train up a child in the way he should go." We need to know the gifts and talents God has placed in our children so they go right.

6. Men of Confidence. Self-esteem, a sense of belonging, confidence. We need confidence in God; you need to know this about yourself, You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Confidence in family, to trust the wife and kids, to be proud of them.