The Making Of A Man

The Making of a Man.

I. Introduction

As we look to Mother’s day, we find it in the Bible that not only is the wife to honor the husband, but the husband must also do the same for his wife.

(Ephesians 5:33) However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

In Genesis 23, we are presented with some very good counsel and advice by the patriarch Abraham. And, as Abraham has done before, he does again in these scriptures by providing us an example of good counsel and advice through actions, rather than words. For some of us, this counsel and advice will pierce right to our hearts if we are not doing them on behalf of our wives.

Relationships are a two-way street. And on a two way road there is traffic going both ways. Not only do you have traffic coming in, but there is traffic going out as well. A relationship is no different. You must have traffic going both ways for a relationship to exist. A one way relationship will only go in one direction!

Before we get into The Making of a Man I would like to compare two sets of scripture. When we put these side by side we are merely comparing and looking at the stark contrasts that they present.

Our first set of scripture:

(Ephesians 5:25-30) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--30 for we are members of his body.

Our second set of scripture:

(1 John 2:9-11) “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”

Love is kind and is a supreme benefit of being a Christian. Without love, how can we say that we are Christians? Without love how can we even get married, much less have children.

The science books say that the universe is slowly running out of steam and that it will all end or disappear someday. That is highly probable, since it says so in scripture. But, as Christians, I believe that is the least of our worries. Closer to home, closer to our own existence from day to day, I believe we have an even bigger problem. I believe that love is slowly trickling out of the world, like the air slowly leaking from an old balloon. And, like the deflated balloon, there is nothing to replace the air. There are too many physical relationships and not enough relationships based upon Ephesians 5:25-30. It has become too easy for married couples to separate or to divorce one another for the slightest of reasons.

I believe that with love trickling out of the world, that people are, like it says in 1 John, walking around in the darkness and groping from one relationship to another.

As we mentioned before, our scripture passages for today indicate that Abraham was a man of action. He demonstrates before us in these passages, The Making of a Man of God.

A true man of God will:

• Provide Comfort

• Provide Love

• Provide Intercession

• Provide Respect

• Provide Security

• Provide a Name

All of these, in turn, will formulate a loving and amiable relationship with your wife, which will then produce an environment favorable to raising children of God.

II. The Message

A. Provides Comfort

23:1 “Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. 2 She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan…”

When a man establishes a house apart from his parents to begin his family, he is, in a sense, establishing a refuge, a sanctuary, where comfort should exist more than discomfort or distress. It not only should be a place where he can’t wait to get to, but, it should also be a place that he shouldn’t want to leave, or run away from.

Our scripture tells us that Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old! How can a spouse that is uncomfortable, or distressed live very long? They can’t! If someone is always living under the dictatorship, the thumb or the rule of someone else, life becomes painful and unbearable. They begin to experience health issues, both physically and mentally. But, remember, though, you can’t contribute all health issues to an abusive, belligerent spouse, just most of them.