Part 2 (Evening session)
This morning we talked about our predicament as men; primarily we centered on two issues.
One issue is what we face because of our inheritance from Adam in the sin nature and Adam’s abdication. The other is a bunch of cultural baggage from which we have an extremely difficult time extricating ourselves.
So, what we have inside us and what we have all around us leave us in pretty sad shape when it comes to being men -- and godly men -- and men who want God to work in us and through us.
We began with our predicament. We ended our time with the prospect of a higher calling.
This evening I want to raise in your minds a vision of what I’m calling Our Promise.
The promise is of Authentic Manhood (1 Samuel 17:12-58)
One of my favorite accounts in the Bible is the one about the boy David, being sent by his father with food and provisions to the battle lines where his brothers were serving in King Saul’s army. It’s there, of course, that he has his famous encounter with the giant Goliath.
Notice I said David was sent “to the battle lines” -- because there was no battle.
Turn to 1 Samuel 17 with me. Let me read just verse 11 to start with. 1 Samuel 17:11 says when Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope. (1 Samuel 17:11). There are words in that verse that ought to create huge contradictions in your mind. Troops -- heard words -- terrified -- lost hope.
Think about it: these are battle-hardened troops of a nation which has conquered vast amounts of territory to become the people and nation of God. You see any self-contradiction in those words? They heard some words and now they’re terrified and they’ve lost all hope. Why is that? Of course, it’s because of a big ugly Philistine named Goliath.
The account, from verse 20 to verse 30 is of David being sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers at the front. He arrives, he leaves his load with the baggage keeper and goes off to seek his brothers.
That’s when we’re introduced to Israel’s encounter with Goliath. Apparently, one of the customs, to spare bloodshed, was for each army would choose a champion -- then each of the champions would come to the middle ground between the two armies -- and they would fight to the death. That one-on-one contest would determine the outcome of the war. If your man lost, you became the slaves of the nation whose champion won.
Goliath has come out. And for 40 long days, the text says, he taunted and trash-talked Israel’s troops, Israel’s nation and Israel’s God. But no one will go out to fight him from all of Saul’s mighty men. Now, Saul has offered treasure, tax-free living, even his own daughter in marriage -- but yet, no one will respond; no one volunteers. And big King Saul won’t go himself.
Enter the boy -- if you stretch things -- the young man, David. David exhibits what I want to hold up to you as the qualities of a real man -- an authentic man of God. Notice right off the bat, David didn’t resemble Arnold, or Mel Gibson, or even any of the so-called “real men” in his day. He’s never been in battle. Later, when he tries on Saul’s armor, he practically falls out of it -- he’s so small compared to it.
His brothers, we read, laugh and scorn -- even get ticked off over his suggestion that he fight the giant. They even question his motives for showing up at the front lines. When David goes out into the valley where Goliath has been raging, the giant curses and shows his fury because Israel has sent a boy to fight with him.
Here’s what we need to observe: it wasn’t the qualities you could have seen on the outside -- real men don’t have a look, or a physique or a sports prowess -- it’s not what you might have witnessed externally -- it’s not even what David had to offer in terms of experience.
What‘s vital to see is that inwardly David was a man -- and on this one day he’s going to be transformed in people’s eyes -- from a ruddy little handsome kid to a valiant warrior whom God has destined to rule Israel.
Robert Lewis has helped me more than any one to define manhood from a biblical perspective. Like we talked this morning, our contemporary models fall woefully short. Neither the Church nor the culture can help us much to answer the question “what’s a real man?” We’re tempted to run in one direction or the other -- like I said, either to men as dominators or passive men. We need to be convinced that neither of those is biblical nor satisfying.
Robert Lewis suggests four characteristics which I can largely find in David’s character and conduct here in 1 Samuel 17. I’d like to offer them to you for you to consider and apply as you see fit in your life and situation.
The first characteristic: 1. Authentic men reject passivity.
We saw this morning that passivity is a significant facet of manhood which we inherited from Adam’s silence and Adam’s sin. As men, we’re tempted to withhold, to hide, sometimes to completely back off; we hide, we go into a self-preservation mode.
Adam was passive when he should have been active. Again -- who received God’s commandment? Adam did, not Eve. Who was it therefore who had passed on a partial or faulty version of God’s command to his wife? Again -- Adam.
So when Satan came slithering in, instead of grabbing a hoe and chopping the snake’s head off, Adam stood quietly and passively by, while the devil lied to his wife, distorted God’s Truth and enticed her to sin. Adam stood guilty because he alone had heard God’s instructions about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Instead of instilling a precise and clear Truth from God into his beloved wife, he allowed her to believe lies about what God has said, and lies about God, and that made her an open target for Satan’s temptation. When Eve bit, Adam followed meekly along. He stood by in silence and passivity while evil invaded Paradise.
Men were designed by God to lead and protect, to jettison fear and to engage in the battles of life. We were not designed to follow meekly along, to allow ourselves to be meekly led in wrong ways. It doesn’t matter what feminism, or the culture or our natures whisper in our ears, God’s design and call hasn’t changed. His assignment for us is leadership not passivity.
Let me tell you something more -- from lots of interactions with people over the years.
It doesn’t matter what the culture tells you, there are godly women out there just waiting for a man like you to step up the bat and stop being passive. I’ve read about several studies that essentially ask the same question of women: what do you really want from men? Even secular studies return the same result -- most women want men who will step up and lead in authentic ways.
Caving to passivity won‘t allow that. David heard Goliath’s taunting, he took a look at this incomprehensible situation of an army being cowed by one man and he found the situation intolerable. He couldn’t believe that not a single man had accepted Goliath’s challenge.
He simply couldn’t stand by and hear the army of God’s people, and God, maligned.
The status quo is usually good enough for the passive man. The passive man’s favorite proverb is: “don’t rock the boat.“ It’s, “what we have now is better than the risk of going after something better“.
Passive people are risk averse. Let me ask -- are you content to take life as it comes?
Do you wait for things to happen, do you wait for others to take the lead? Do other people usually determine how you spend your free time? Do you let things like entertainment just kind of wash over you and begin to determine how you think?
What about your approach to your own maturity? Are you just hanging around? Just sort of waiting for something to happen to move you ahead spiritually? Do you have a plan for your own growth?
Do you go out of your way to take advantage of opportunities to get trained or be exposed to good solid people? A few years back someone at our church annual meeting asked me about my use of time. She said, “you spend time with men in discipleship and mentoring --
how do you decide who you’ll spend time with?” I said, “well, for one thing, I spend time with guys who ask for it.” Do you ask spiritual leaders to get together? Do you pursue someone building into your life? Are you making certain you’re growing?
Authentic men reject passivity.
The second characteristic: 2. Authentic men accept responsibility.
Kenny Luck writes: “Crises call for redeemers -- [redeemers are the kind of] men who will step in and convert otherwise hopeless situations into ones of value, opportunity and power.
Crises require forces for good -- men made of good stuff who will give away what’s inside
for God and for people.”
Crises demand men of truth -- men who are authentic, not just sympathetic and shallow. Crises need real beliefs and convictions that provide hope. Hope -- the thing Saul and his troops had lost listening to Goliath instead of to God.
You know what young David understood that no one else in Saul’s camp understood?
He understood the consequences of doing nothing. The others didn’t. He simply took on responsibility to do something about a situation he found so intolerable. What is it about our culture, or the environment you inhabit that’s intolerable to you? What do you sense God calling you to do about it?
There was something else in David: he valued the welfare of others over his own safety.
There’s a nation at stake. An army would be trounced and Israel would become slaves to the Philistines if someone didn’t act. David just had to do something! No one else was willing to accept the responsibility to do what was needed so David accepted the call.
The Bible says, the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the whole earth, to find a man whose heart is fully His. 2 Chronicles 16:9
God was looking for His man that day. The Bible tells us that. When God spoke through the prophet Samuel to Saul and told him he had lost the throne, he said.
14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command." 1 Samuel 13:14
God was looking for a man after His own heart, and His eye and choice landed on David.
Are you moving more and more to accept responsibility?
I’m talking tomorrow about the 12 spies that Israel sent into the land before they went in to conquer it. Two came back and said, “let’s go for it“; 10 came back and said, “we can’t handle it.” Men who don’t take responsibility, like those 10, forget the past -- they forget the magnificent miracles of God. And they are satisfied with the present -- the non-volunteers in 1 Samuel 17 probably were thinking: “we can get used to being the Philistines’ slave”. They also fear the future: what if I die trying to kill that giant.
Let me ask you again: are you moving to accept more and more responsibility?
When your staff members are looking for men to step up and lead a Bible study, are you there? Can people count on you to do what you say you’ll do? One of the guys from Trinity who was here this morning came early, and he made himself available to me. He served me, and he served you behind the scenes. He said he’d be here and he was here. Men like that are rarities. Are you becoming one of them?
The third quality: 3. Authentic men lead courageously.
If you’re familiar with the account, maybe you’ve asked yourself, “what in the world made Saul agree to let David fight for Israel?”
Obviously Saul must have recognized that David had the courage of his convictions -- the courage to lead. John Maxwell says, “Leaders lead.” They don’t just point out the problems, they don’t just suggest alternatives, they don’t stand around and play Monday Morning quarterback and critique the efforts of people who are in the game:
they go out and they get their hands dirty and they get their spears bloody. They lead.
Someone wrote about 1 Samuel 17, “inwardly, the throne changed hands that day“.
Saul wasn’t a leader -- even though he had the official title -- he wasn’t a leader because he was just like his troops; fear had immobilized them and him and he lacked the courage to lead.
Real men lead with courage. They’re willing to stare down risk. Are authentic men afraid?
Of course. That’s not the issue. The question is not, “are they afraid?“, it’s, “does fear hold them back?”
What moved David? Like I’ve already said, this was an intolerable situation. But there was something more. He told Saul, “I’ve been in the battle“. Verse 34: I was out guarding my father’s sheep, and along came a bear and then along came a lion. Those ferocious enemies stole a lamb -- and I went after them -- I rescued the lamb, when they turned on me, or rose up to attack me, I grabbed them by the beard and struck them and killed him. End of story.
He told Saul, your servant has killed both the lion and the bear -- this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of those.
Here’s the secret: David’s full of courage because David had experience with God.
He knows he’s no match for a giant, but he also knows that the lion, nor the bear, nor
that pagan giant are any match for God. Your experience with God is always your source of courage.
Have you learned to take risk? Take some steps of faith -- in leading people? Are you seeing God do some miracles in using your life? We talked this morning about that whole issue of advancing the kingdom of Christ. I’ve been reading a book called Risk. It’s all about how God builds into men and use them. The author describes how God used him to lead a Russian guard to Christ back in 1985 during the old Soviet empire. God did that in response to a simple prayer: two words -- “use me”. Use me God.
There are men around you, in whose lives God will use you. Each of us could list 10 or 15 men right now, men whose lives are connected with ours, men whom God wants to touch, if we’ll pray that prayer, and move out and lead courageously. Some need to be led to Christ. Some need to be get going spiritually. Some just need to be led in life. Authentic men step out, and step up and lead.
The fourth characteristic: 4. Authentic men expect a greater reward -- God’s reward.
I said earlier today that there are a couple of extremes we go to as men: One of course is we become passive. The other is we become domineering.
You should realize that with either of those unbiblical extremes, there are certain earthly rewards. Passive people avoid conflict. They think that’s the way to go. They quietly let life happen and usually don’t know what they’re missing out on. Domineering men get their way.
In our account, David asks his brothers and the soldiers a question before he offers to take on Goliath. He says, what will be given to the man who slays this Philistine and takes away Israel’s reproach? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?
It’s hard to tell from the passage what David’s interest is in the rewards Saul had offered.
But when you hear him scoffing at how this beast of a man maligns God and God’s people, you realize there’s more that motivates David than what Saul’s rewards.
Robert Lewis says, real manhood was designed by God to be liberating and a means of great reward. Listen: God’s not interested in your comfort. If it’s comfort you’re after, it’s passivity you want. And God’s not often interested in immediate rewards. Domineering men get their way, but they don’t get what they really want. God is in the business of rewarding men who step up, but the rewards will be long-term, not short-term.
Jesus set the example as the truly authentic man. He embraced all the Father gave Him to do -- he had a will to obey, a work to do, he even had a bride -- His Church to love. What moved Him? The reward He anticipated.
Listen to the description of Jesus in Hebrews 12:1, 2: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What kept Jesus in the race? A great internal motivation. The joy set before Him. Great reward. That pressed Jesus to finish strong. Every one of us needs a long-haul perspective if we’re going to make it.
Men, I don’t know where you are today? Most of you I never saw before today. But I know the kind of stuff we’ve all experienced, inheriting what we did, and living in this culture.
I know the simplest thing for you would be to take everything you’ve heard today about manhood, leadership, purity, commitment -- all of that -- and chuck it in the trash as soon as you get back to where you live.
That would be the simplest and the easiest. But most of you won’t. Because God’s been working overtime on you. He’s reminded you of some things: Who He is -- and who you are -- and how He wants to move in your life and through your life to do something that’s rare.
I had the privilege of sitting under Professor Howard Hendricks when I was in seminary. Prof Hendricks used to tell us, “a man asked me once, ‘how many men do you know, over the age of 50, who are moving out and making a difference for Jesus Christ?’” Prof said, “sadly, not that many!”
Picture this: you’re 50 years old. And you’re one of those men. Moving out, growing strong, and making a difference for Jesus Christ. Fighting battles -- and winning -- still rejecting passivity, still taking on responsibility, in the family, in the church, in the community. Leading courageously -- still winning other men to Christ, still populating heaven and depopulating hell -- and looking forward -- ever forward to a greater reward.
Men, picture that. And then tell me -- at least tell yourself: what will it take to get you there?
Who do you need to spend some time with this week yet? What do you need to make right? What sin is there that’s got you in its clutches? What relationship is taking you in a wrong direction?
And where do you need to take a stand? Will you stand with me right now and let God do some examining? No one needs to know what business transpires between you and your God tonight -- but I would wager that there’s not a man in this room who doesn’t need something to happen. Let it.
I’ll pray for us. If you need to talk to someone when we’re through, grab someone and talk. But let God have His way, and let him begin to build you into a man, a godly man, who leads His people.
Sources: Tony Evans, No More Excuses; Robert Lewis, Raising a Modern-Day Knight; Larry Crabb, The Silence of Adam;
Kenny Luck, www.everymanministries.com
