1. Men ARE from Mars and Women ARE from Venus – Communication Issues
a. I heard a story that seems appropriate to the subject. A woman visited an attorney and was fed up with her husband and wanted a divorce, and she says to the attorney, ‘I wish to file for a divorce’. He says, ‘do you have grounds?’, and she says ‘approximately a quarter of an acre’. He says, ‘no, I mean, do you have a grudge?’ She says, ‘no, but we have a carport’. He thought for a moment and says ‘well, let me ask you this – does your husband beat you up?’ She says, ‘no, I am always the first one up every morning’. Finally and frustrated he says, ‘well, why do you want a divorce?’ She says, ‘my husband doesn’t understand me’. Sometimes we communicate but we don’t really understand what we are saying.
b. Men’s Thesaurus
(Men don’t always say what they mean) – ladies, please allow me to translate for your future benefit:
• When a man says “IT WOULD TAKE TOO LONG TO EXPLAIN” He means: "I have no idea how it works"
• When a man says "TAKE A BREAK, HONEY. YOU ARE WORKING TOO HARD’’ He means: "I can’t hear the game over the vacuum cleaner"
• When a man says ’THAT’S INTERESTING DEAR.’ He means: "Are you still talking?"
• When a man says: "IT’S A GUY THING" He means: "There is no rational thought pattern connected with this, and you have no chance at all of making it logical"
• When a man says "CAN I HELP WITH DINNER?" He means: "Why isn’t it ready yet?"
• When a man says ’I CAN’T FIND IT.’’ He means: "It didn’t fall into my outstretched hand, so I’m completely clueless"
• When a man says “I HEARD YOU.” He means: "I haven’t the foggiest clue what you just said and I am hoping desperately that I can fake it well enough so that you’ll not spend the next 3 days yelling at me."
• When a man says "I’M NOT LOST. I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE.’’ He means: "No one will ever see us alive again."
• If your husband says, “honey, what color is this?” He means: ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. I have no idea what “taupe” is.
2. Tough job to be a dad today
a. Not really a new thing – Adam; Abraham; Eli; David
b. Today’s challenges
• Undermining of values – culturally (remember Rome and other pagans)
• Destruction of homes
• Economic difficulties
• Stresses of Job; Home; Church and balancing them all
3. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Ezekiel 22.30
4. God is looking for men to:
I. Lean on the LORD
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. Proverbs 3.5
A. For Salvation – Ephesians 2.8-9 (always has been grace)
1. Men like to be in control – God is
2. His Control is transforming – “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18.3
3. Reliance on Heavenly Father
B. For Sanctification
“Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy. Leviticus 19.2 (1 Peter 1.16)
1. Set apart for God
“In January, 1995, according to an article written by Gary Thomas, J. Robert Ashcroft had fewer than forty-eight hours to live, but he was holding on to life, hoping to see his son, John Ashcroft, sworn into the U.S. Senate the following day. [John Ashcroft, as we all know by now…is a former Attorney General]. As family and friends gathered in Washington for a small reception, J. Robert Ashcroft asked his son to play the piano while everyone sang, ‘We Are Standing On Holy Ground.’”
“After the song, the frail old man spoke some powerful words: ‘John, I want you to know that even Washington can be holy ground. Wherever you hear the voice of God, that ground is sanctified. It’s a place where God can call you to the highest and best.’”
2. #1 Place of service – the home
a. Love wives
b. Train children
c. By following the instruction manual
[Want to know what the bible has to do with your life? Follow its teachings and see!
C. For Strength
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40.30-31
1. Pressures Can Bring us down – little by little
2. God supplies our strength –
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man; 11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Psalm 147.10
3. One day at a time – Matthew 6.25-34
D. For Supply – Philippians 4.19
1. Physical Necessity – 25 I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread. 26 He is ever giving liberally and lending, and his children become a blessing. Psalm 37.25-26
2. Spiritual Necessity – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. James 1.5
II. God is Looking for a Few Good Men to Lead Like the LORD
A. In Daily Lives
1. Spirit-Led – 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Galatians 1.16-17
2. Flesh-Ending – Galatians 2.20
3. “Lead our flesh or our flesh will lead us.”
B. In Circles of Influence
1. Family as a Priority – For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Ephesians 5.23
a. Headship is not control or domineering
b. Headship is loving leadership – as God leads
c. A Real challenge
1) Eli could run the tabernacle but not his sons (1 Samuel 3.13)
2) David could plan military campaigns and run the government of Israel – not his children – 1 Kings, 1.5-6
2. Friends and Acquaintances
a. Influence comes with a key quality – Blameless
1) Influence among unbelieving
2) Keep word?
b. A Key impact on people
1) Lead people to Yeshua (Jesus)
2) Naomi and Ruth – where you go I will go
III. God is Looking for a Few Good Men to Learn to Love as the LORD
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13.1-3
A. Learn to Love God (Matthew 22; Deuteronomy 6)
Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer who led an expedition to the Arctic Ocean in a search for the North Pole. He took his ship in very deep water and, as part of his studies; he would drop a sounding line to check the ocean's depth. Since the line was too short to reach the bottom of the ocean, he would record the date, time, location, length of line, and a final note of "deeper than that".
He then lowered a longer line with the same result and notation, "deeper than that". Another attempt, still "deeper than that". Finally, after lowering his longest line, the logbook received the final notation of so and so length of line and "deeper than that".
I want to suggest to you that that's the way God's love is. No matter how we may try to measure it, his love is deeper than that. John tells us in I John 4:8 that "God is love," but I feel rather overwhelmed and challenged by the task of trying to explain this incredible doctrine.
B. Learn to Love Neighbors (Good Samaritan in Luke 10)
1. People to help
a. In Pain
b. Eternally lost (many types of salvation)
2. A Love to Families – tempting to make second place
A man was talking to his wife after she had done something he did not approve of. He said, “How can you be so beautiful and stupid at the same time?” She straightened him out – “God made me beautiful so you would love me; God made me stupid so I would love you.”
3. Love fellow Disciples – 1 Thessalonians 4.9
But concerning love of the brethren you have no need to have any one write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another;
C. Learn to Love Self Appropriately
1. Not self-serving
2. Not arrogantly
3. Doing best things for self – walk with God in complete commitment
1. God’s Search
I heard about a man who was drafted into the army. While in the army he developed a very strange habit. As he walked along each day he kept picking up pieces of paper, saying to himself aloud, "That's not it!" He would pick up one piece of paper after another and say, "That's not it. That's not it!"
This went on for about six months. His bizarre behavior was finally brought to the attention of his superiors. They ordered him to report to the base psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked, "What is wrong with you? What is the problem?"
The man had a baffled expression on his face as he said, "What problem? I don't have a problem."
The psychiatrist said, "Well, there's got to be something wrong with you. It has been reported to me that you keep going all over this base picking up pieces of paper and saying, 'That's not it, that's not it!" So, tell me, just what is it you are looking for?"
The man said, "I don't know. I just don't seem to be able to find it." The psychiatrist consulted some of his colleagues, and then told the man, "I think your problem is serious, and I'm going to give you a medical discharge from the Army."
When the psychiatrist handed him the discharge papers, the man jumped up and shouted excitedly, "This is it! This is it! This is what I've been looking for!"
2. God is looking for a few good men who will step up and Lean on God; Lead like God; and Learn to Love as God
3. Does not stop with Men – women; children
