MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
A. Today is Father’s Day - the day we honor our fathers & think about masculinity & manhood & all those good things. So the subject of my sermon this morning is "God’s man."
Now I realize that you can be lots of different kinds of men. You can be a "professional man" or a "lazy man" or a "woman’s man" or a "music man", or you can add almost any other kind of "man" to that list. But I suggest that if you are God’s man, then you’re a real man, even though there are a lot of people who think that if you’re a follower of Jesus you’re something less than masculine.
But I’m convinced it takes a real man to follow Him. Therefore, if you’re a real man then I hope that you’re also God’s man, & that’s our subject this morning.
B. Can you remember when men were men & women were women & you could tell the difference? Can you remember when men did the wrestling & the boxing & bragged about how much they could bench press, & women wore makeup & earrings, & we liked it that way?
ILL. I was at the mall one day & a couple walked by. Now I saw them from the back at first, & I honestly couldn’t tell which one was which. You see, he had the longer hair & had on earrings, & she didn’t.
Can you remember when men initiated the relationship & made a life long commitment & created an atmosphere of stability & security? I’m not talking about the Rambo type who walks into a room & demands respect because of power & authority & fear. I’m not talking about the Archie Bunker type who sits in his living room & barks out orders & demands respect by intimidating his wife.
I am talking about a real man - God’s man! The kind who is not ashamed of his masculinity, & is willing to be God’s man, whatever the situation might be.
C. So let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12. This passage doesn’t really deal with family or mothers & fathers. Rather, it is Paul dealing with the church in Thessalonica.
But notice that in vs. 7 he says, "We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children." Then down in vs. 11 he says, "For you know we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children."
What Paul is saying is that his ministry with the church in Thessalonica was very much like being a mother & a father to them. Think about that. We are brothers & sisters together in the church. And our relationship within the family of God is very similar to the relationship within the home.
PROP. So with that in mind, from this passage of Scripture I want us to see five characteristics that should be evident in God’s man.
I. GOD’S MAN IS LOVING
A. First of all, in vs. 8, Paul says that God’s man is loving. He says, "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well." A real man, God’s man, is not afraid to be tender & loving.
ILL. Fathers, do you remember the first time you held your first child? Back when mine was born, fathers were considered unclean & therefore kept as far away from the baby in the hospital as possible. In fact, we were only permitted to look at our children through the nursery window. We were never allowed to touch them because we might infect them with something. So it was not until after we took them home from the hospital that we even had a chance to hold our new baby.
And do you remember how nervous the women around us were about that? I mean, they were very careful to tell us just how to hold the baby - that the head was always to be supported, & that we needed to be sure to cradle the baby’s body in our arms just right. It was kind of rare back then for a man to be seen as a loving, cuddling parent.
ILL. A preacher in Dallas went to the hospital to visit a little boy who was seriously ill. When he walked into the room he found the boy’s parents with him.
He says, "We talked for a while. They had just received some news that was not encouraging & they were deeply concerned about their little boy. You see, he had a tumor removed from his brain two days before, & they had just been told that the tumor was malignant. Long periods of treatment loomed before them & no one was sure what the end result would be.
"So it was a very difficult time for them. But as we stood there together & talked & cried a little bit & prayed together I think the most beautiful thing that I had seen in a long time just kind of unfolded. The little boy, partially sedated, would open his eyes on occasion & whimper a little bit, & his dad would reach over & stroke his hand & touch him & speak gentle words, & he would go back to sleep again.
As the preacher got ready to leave, the boy’s father said, "You know the hardest part of this has been the other three children at home. Someone else has to take care of them most of the time. We are so torn. We need to be here with Dane, but we feel like we’re neglecting the other three."
He said, "I went home the other night & showered & changed clothes to come back to the hospital. The other three were crying, `Dad, don’t leave. Stay here with us.’ I had to take each one of them & reassure them that we would all be together again soon as a family.’"
That is something really special - to see a dad who cares that much about his kids. And I think that is exactly what Paul is talking about - this bonding experience that can take place between a father & his children.
II. GOD’S MAN IS TRANSPARENT
A. In vs. 8, Paul talks about preaching the Gospel of God. Then he says, "We...shared with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."
Fathers, it is important for us to communicate the love of God in the way we show love to our children. But it is one thing to tell our children that we love them, & another to show it in the way we live. Because the one place where we are real is at home, isn’t it?
You can be one person when you go to work, & another person when you come to church, & another person out in society. But when you go home & take off your necktie & kick off your shoes, you become whoever you really are inside.
And you become transparent whether you want to or not. I wonder, what do kids see when dad just becomes whoever he is inside?
ILL. After the funeral of an elderly man, a couple of his friends from the church were sitting around the kitchen table, visiting with his four grown children. One of them asked, "What do you remember most about your dad?"
All four began telling some of their memories, but do you know what all of them mentioned first? They remembered their mom & dad kneeling beside the bed & praying together every night. That was memory #1.
One of the men said, "Do you realize how special that is? There are so many children who never, ever, see their parents kneel & pray together." What they saw in their father when they looked inside was a man who not only talked about God, but who walked with God a man who left that legacy for his children to pick up on, & to adopt in their own lives, & pass on to their children as well.
B. Now transparency means that our children can see not only the good things about us, but also some of the negative things as well. It is important for them to see that, because all of these are learning experiences.
So a man who is transparent to his family is a man who allows them to see him laugh when he is happy, & cry when he is sad. It is not unmasculine to do that. They should see us deal with stress & anxiety in life because our world is filled with that.
They should see us agonize over decisions that we must make because they will have to make those same decisions some day. They will learn how to relate to the opposite sex as they watch us relate to our wives & their mother. How else will they learn that if not at home?
They’ll learn how to handle failure, & how to handle finances. They will learn how to handle all of the things of life simply through the transparency of their parents. So a real man, God’s man, is a man who is transparent.
III. GOD’S MAN IS HARD WORKING
A. Thirdly, God’s man is a hard worker. Listen to what Paul says in Vs. 9, "Surely you remember, brothers, our toil & hardship; we worked night & day in order not to be a burden to anyone..."
ILL. My most vivid memory of my father is of a man who didn’t have a lazy bone in his body. He was never afraid of hard work. Above his desk was a sign that read, "You can get anything done IF you don’t care who gets the credit." And he really didn’t care as long as the Lord’s work was being done.
I look back over those years after my parents were released from the Japanese prison camp, & I count 6 Bible Colleges & at least 36 churches that he started almost on his own. And he did a lot more than just that. My father was not afraid of hard work!
I must confess that there were times when I didn’t see him much. But in this day & age as I read more & more about irresponsible fathers & lazy fathers & fathers who won’t assume the responsibility for their families, I pause for a moment & thank God that I had a father who taught me how to work, & who passed on a legacy that is valuable & precious.
IV. GOD’S MAN IS AUTHENTIC
A. Fourthly, God’s man is authentic. Listen to what Paul says in vs. 10, "You are witnesses, & so is God, of how holy, righteous & blameless we were among you who believed."
Now all of those words are spiritual words. Paul was saying, "When we were with you, we were holy. You couldn’t find anything that wasn’t holy in our lives. We were righteous. We taught you the truth. We didn’t teach anything that was false."
"And we were blameless. You couldn’t point at anything we did & say that it was wrong, or we didn’t do what was right." They were holy & righteous & blameless. All of those words deal with spiritual attributes.
I am sure, fathers, that you realize that God has given to you the responsibility of being the spiritual leader in your home.
Now, sad to say, many of us have not fulfilled that responsibility. We have turned that responsibility over to our wives. Therefore, it has become a feminine responsibility instead of a masculine one. But I’m here to tell you that doesn’t change what God’s Word teaches.
B. God’s Word teaches that as men we are to be the spiritual leaders of our homes & teach our children about God. Many of us would have to hang our heads & feel a little guilty about that because we have probably failed there more miserably than in any other area.
V. GOD’S MAN IS TO HAVE POSITIVE INFLUENCE IN HIS HOME
A. Finally, God’s man is to have a positive influence in the home. Listen to what Paul says here. He talks about treating children as a father deals with them & then in vs. 12 he says, "...encouraging, comforting & urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom & glory."
Those are all positive words. Did you hear them? He says, "We are going to encourage you. We’re going to comfort you, & we’re going to urge you." Those are plus words, positive words.
Is it possible, dads, that we could accomplish a lot more by being a positive influence in the home rather than always being negative about things?
ILL. Charlie Shedd in his book "A Letter to Peter" tells about the time that he wrote to his son, & made this promise, "Peter, I will never say `no’ to you if I can possibly say `yes.’"
Now there are times when we must say "no." But if it is possible at all, it is much better to say "yes," to be positive rather than negative.
SUM. So I think Paul is saying to us as men, God’s men, we need to be a positive influence in the home.
B. What do you call your father? Do you call him "father?" Whenever I hear the word "father" I think of my father & of how I loved & respected him. Whenever I hear "pop" or "dad" I think of him drying our tears when we cried, being there when we hurt, & being a constant source of encouragement.
God’s the same way, isn’t He? Sometimes He is our father, high & lifted up. Sometimes He’s "Poppa" & He dries our tears & mends our broken hearts. Hopefully, a whole lot of the time He is "Dad" being there to encourage & lift us up, to mold & fashion us into the kind of people He wants us to be.
C. I think it is time for fathers to become real men, but more than that - to become God’s man - to become a man who is not ashamed to love his children - to be genuine & transparent before them - to work hard - to provide for them - to be authentic - to be holy & righteous before them - to be the spiritual leader in the home.
But more than that, to be the kind of positive influence that would set their feet on the right path & cause them to be the kind of people God made them to be.
ILL. The Barcelona Olympics of 1992 provided one of track & field’s most incredible moments. Britain’s Derek Redmond had dreamed all his life of winning a gold medal in the 400-meter race, & the dream was within sight as the gun sounded in the semifinals at Barcelona.
He was running the race of his life & could see the finish line as he rounded the turn into the backstretch. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain go up the back of his leg. He fell face first onto the track with a torn right hamstring.
"Sports Illustrated" recorded the dramatic events: As the medical attendants were approaching, Redmond fought to his feet. "It was animal instinct," he would say later. He set out hopping on one leg in a crazed attempt just to finish the race.
When he reached the stretch, a large man in a Tshirt came out of the stands, hurled aside a security guard & ran to Redmond, embracing him. It was Redmond’s father. "You don’t have to do this," he told his son. "Yes I do, " said Derek. "Well then, we will do it together," said the father. And they did. They finally made it across the finish line.
Derek didn’t walk away with the gold medal, but he did walk away with an incredible memory of a father who, when he saw his son in pain, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race.
That’s what God does for us. When we are experiencing pain & we’re struggling to finish the race, we can be confident that we have a loving father who won’t let us do it all alone. He left His place in heaven to come alongside us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. "I am with you always," say Jesus, "to the very end of the age" [Matthew 28:20].
CONCL. This morning we extend to you God’s invitation. Our Father in heaven loves all of us so much. He has created us in His own image, & this morning He wants to be your Father & Jesus to be your Savior.
If that’s not yet true for you, then we give you the opportunity in this moment to accept Jesus as your Lord & Savior, to repent of your sins, to be faithful to Him in Christian baptism, & to be raised to walk in the new life in Jesus. We give you that opportunity as we extend the Lord’s invitation. And we pray you will respond to it as we stand & as we sing.
