BE A MAN!
I Kings 2:1-4
BACKGROUND:
David is the King of Israel; Israel at the time is the greatest nation on the face of the planet. There is no competition.
ILLUS: similar to America after World War II – Our economy and national pride were booming. We had just set off a nuclear bomb and were therefore the undisputed most powerful nation on earth. Our enemies were utterly defeated and in some cases completely destroyed. Our allies, on whose soil the battles were fought, were also in pretty sad shape. But America stood atop the heap and enjoyed a period of prosperity that has not been rivaled since.
Israel was in a position that few other countries in the world have enjoyed in history. Their enemies have mostly been defeated and they are enjoying a glorious time of prosperity. David, as King, is the most powerful man on earth.
And in this passage of scripture, he is about to die.
These are David’s dying words to his son, his successor on the throne -- Solomon.
“I am going the way of all the earth. (I am dying.)”
Now… Question:
What do you think this leader of the greatest nation on the earth is going to say to his son, the next king?
They are enjoying success at every turn, but there are more enemies out there.
There’s always more land to take.
And within the king’s house, there had been challenges to him, evil men with great ambitions, power-hungry people who had threatened David before.
What’s David going to say?
What would you expect him to say?
· Make sure you keep an eye on _______________. He has caused me nothing but trouble.
· Be sure and utterly defeat ___________________. They are a dangerous people.
· I’ve always wanted to expand the kingdom to the south...that’s some nice land down there. Take your forces and bring glory to my name and to the city of David.
· Take revenge for me on __________. Kill him and his entire family. He cursed me and tried to hurt me, to cause me to fail.
·
·
WHAT DID HE SAY?
“THEREFORE, be strong.”
O.K. That’s a good start. Be strong, son. Your old man’s not going to be around any more. You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to show the other nations that you are just as strong as I was. Be ruthless and powerful. Be strong! That’s the way all men should be...
Another Question:
What does it mean for a man to “be strong?”
· “Like a rock...” (Chevrolet pickup commercials) -- strong, immovable, stoic, stalwart, the Marlboro man, that kind of image?
· commanding power: “you do what I say when I say it ‘cause I’m your father! I wear the pants in this family!”
· Some men feel no power -- they don’t even control the TV remote any more. Watch most any popular TV show and you’re going to see Dads / Husbands depicted as selfish, lazy, irresponsible...and the wives are the ones that make things right by the end of the episode.
· WANT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING GUYS, REAL STRENGTH IS NONE OF THAT. AND IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LOST ALL POWER IN YOUR HOME, IT IS SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN EXERCISING THE WRONG KIND OF POWER; KEEP LISTENING.
Let’s move on...What else does David say?
“BE A MAN!”
Yeah, be a man. Solomon. Like I said, Destroy our enemies. Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out.
Again, a question.
What does it mean when someone says, “Be a man.”?
· no crying aloud.
· John Wayne – or these days, Vin Diesel
·
· Are they fighting words?
· Don’t be a wimp, a pansy, a loser...
·
·
What does David mean when he says to Solomon, “Be strong. Be a man.”?
And observe what the Lord Your God requires:
WALK IN HIS WAYS,
and keep His (statutes) decrees, His commands,
His ordinances (laws), and His testimonies (requirements),
according to what is written in the law of Moses,
1. Being a REAL Man REQUIRES being a Christian man.
· “The Lord Your God” -- Learn how to Approach God. I CAN NOT CALL THE LORD “MY” GOD UNLESS I HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. BEING A REAL MAN MEANS HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS; IT MEANS BEING SAVED.
AND BEING SAVED MEANS...
Admitting the fact that you are a sinner, that your wrong choices have separated you from God and have made it impossible for you to get to heaven
Believing the facts about Jesus – that He is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do and believing those facts with…
Conviction, such that you make a conscious
Decision to turn your life over to Him and begin living out
Evidence of your changed heart.
IF THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFE, THEN YOU ARE NOT SAVED AND YOU WILL NOT GO TO HEAVEN NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU THINK YOU ARE, HOW MUCH BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE YOU MAY BE, HOW MANY GOOD THINGS YOU’VE DONE, HOW MANY TIMES YOU WALKED A CHURCH AISLE, ETC...
AND YOU ARE NOT A REAL MAN IN GOD’S EYES.
YOU ARE A LOST MAN IN GOD’S EYES AND HE LOVES YOU WITH MORE POWER THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE AND WANTS YOU TO BE SAVED.
2. BEING A REAL MAN REQUIRES FOLLOWING GOD.
· “Walk in His ways.”
Being a REAL Man means being a Godly man, a Godly example for your wife and children.
“I can follow God my own way. I believe in God. I can follow God my own way....”
That is a load of the same stuff you try to step over when you’re hunting.
Last time I checked, “following God” means actually doing something in imitation of Him. What I’m saying is, you say, “I believe in God. I can follow Him without doing all that religious stuff.” What? I believe you can follow God in your own way...but are you? The things you do when you tell someone, “I’ll follow God and believe in God my own way...” are they Godly? Are they something you can find in scripture as relating to being a Godly man? Are they following God? Or are they following your own selfish desires and masking those with religious language?
3. Being a REAL Man requires being a man of the Word.
For Example:
· “Submit to one another in the reverence of Christ...Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord...Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church.” -- Eph. 5:21-25
· You need to be here at church. “Let us not forsake our own assembling together.” -- Heb. 10:24 -- The word “forsake” is a military term also and it means to abandon, to leave behind without a care, to cease to care, apathy, ignore!
The churches are full of hypocrites...Yep, that’s right. So what?! There’s hypocrites where you work, but you still go to work. “Well, I need to go to work...” You NEED TO BE HERE OR IN SOME WAY GROWING IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. There’s hypocrites that work at the grocery store, but you don’t stop buying food. If what you mean by a hypocrite is someone who tries hard to be a Godly person and fails, then yes, the church is full of hypocrites. If what you mean by hypocrite is someone who tries hard, fails, and then tries to hide it, then yes, the church is full of hypocrites. If what you mean by hypocrite are those who say they believe one thing and quite often practice another, then yes, the church -- AND EVERYWHERE ELSE -- is full of hypocrites.
Besides, if you believe the church is so full of hypocrites, then why don’t you be man enough to show the rest of us how to live Godly lives?
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4. Being a REAL Man REQUIRES being strong -- in Godliness
The absence of power in many men’s lives is a reality.
Some men feel no power -- they don’t even control the TV remote any more. Watch most any popular TV show and you’re going to see Dads / Husbands depicted as selfish, lazy, irresponsible...and the wives are the ones that make things right by the end of the episode.
HOWEVER…
HEART Surgeon ILLUS: You don’t have to go to school for 6 or 8 or 10 years to be a heart surgeon. As husbands and Dads, you hold the hearts of your children and wives in the palms of your hand every day of your lives and many of you don’t realize it! They CARE what you think -- or at least they at one time did. You hold their hearts and can do with them whatever you want. Every day of your life, you reach into your wife’s heart and you either tenderly hold it and do whatever is necessary to keep all of her life energies flowing or you don’t. You may lightly scratch it, you may pierce it, you may rip it from her chest and stomp on it. Or... you may nourish it, grow it, and be the instrument of God’s choosing to powerfully influence it and allow it to radiate intense beauty.
THAT IS POWER!
The Bible says that we are to present our wives to the Lord in splendor. The spiritual choices we make effect them.
THAT IS POWER.
YOU ARE THE SPIRITUAL HEAD OF YOUR HOME!
THAT IS POWER!
Last Question:
So, what good does all this do me?
“that you may SUCCEED IN ALL THAT YOU DO
and WHEREVER YOU GO,”
And the benefit doesn’t end there...
...that THE LORD WILL CARRY OUT HIS PROMISE which He spoke.”
And very simply that promise was that as long as David’s descendants followed God, they would always sit on the throne and be in power.
And after this time, every king that sat on the throne was compared to either David or to Rehoboam or to Jeroboam (who although they sound like they ought to be related really weren’t.)
The point is that the direction the children went was, in most instances, determined by the direction their father pointed them. David pointed them toward God; and the Godly kings pointed back to David as the source of their Godliness.
1 Psalm 127
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain...
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat -- for he grants sleep to those he loves.
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
Like an arrow, our children will go places we have never been – but they will more than likely go in the direction we point them.
AND THAT IS POWER!
BE A MAN!
CONCLUSION:
Note: When I delivered this message in our church some 5 years ago, I handed each father in the congregation a small, cheap compass to keep in the pockets as a reminder that they are “pointing” their children in a direction and to make sure it is the right direction. I also gave them a laminated business card with a picture of a compass and the verse this message is based on. “Be strong and show yourself a man. And keep the command of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways… that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn so that the Lord may carry out His promise.” Some of our men still carry their compasses; many others still carry the card.
