United To Lead

United To Lead

Men’s Day Message 3/24/2013

Scripture: Ezekiel 22:30-31; 1 Peter 5:1-3; 1 Timothy 4:12

Introduction:

I am honored and blessed to be here today as the guest speaker for your Men’s Day program. Your Men’s Day theme is “Men of GOD united, called to step up and lead by example in Church and Community.” As I read your theme the question that came to my mind is “Are you?” Are you men who are united and know you’ve been called by God as you lead by example in your Church and community? My message this afternoon will focus on four words of your theme: united, called, lead, and example and I want you to think about being “United to Lead.” Although the message is applicable for everyone, I will be speaking to the men specifically today as it is their Men’s Day service.

We do not live in a vacuum, but in a community. Our communities consists of our families, friends, church members, co-workers, and even the strangers who may not know anything about us but see us outside in the larger community from time to time. Because we do not live in a vacuum but within communities, we have the ability to impact other people. One ways in which we are to do this is through sharing Christ with other. This is accomplished directly when we are witnessing (sharing our story) to others about Christ and the goodness of God. It is also accomplished indirectly in how we walk in our faith on a daily basis. Men who are walking with God are constantly placed in a position where they must decide between walking in their faith and living in this world and according to the world system. You see, our world does not value the things of God and when we take a stand for God through decisions we make, those decisions often become a testing point for us. Our lives whether we recognize it or not, are on display for the world to see. Our enemy loves nothing more than for men of God to show up, mess up and then try to cover up. Our messes are often paraded through the news media, if we are well-known, or through our network of friends, co-workers and our communities at large. You know a man has messed up whenever you hear someone who knows him make the statement: “I thought he was supposed to be such a good Christian!” These words are not used when we get it right; but come out when we get it wrong. So as a man, it costs something to be called by God for service – any and all service. And in case you have not figured it out yet, everyone under the sound of my voice, male and female, child and adult, have been called by God into service for Him. It will vary depending on the person, but what you have been called to do is important to God because He called you. So let’s begin with the first word of the afternoon, united.

I. United

The definition of the word united is: to be made one; being in agreement. Its means unity – being of the same mind and purpose. Men of God should be united in our goal (serving God) and in how we execute that service. It should not be about the glory or who gets credit, but about getting the job done. The Gospels record an incident when Jesus was casting out demons. The religious leaders, who should have been rejoicing at what He was doing because they believed in the same God that Jesus did, took offense. They accused Him of casting out demons by the prince of the devils. Jesus asked them how Satan could cast out Satan. He then told them the following as recorded in Mark 3:24-25: “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” You can substitute “kingdom and house” with words like “church; family; men’s group; husband and wife; you name it. Where there is no unity there can be no strength or power. Our kids understand this concept. How many times have they played one parent against another in order to get what they wanted? Sometimes it takes a parent a little while to catch on to what they are doing before they start asking the key question: “What did your mom/dad say?” Before they realized they needed to do this they would give their answer which the child would use to get the same answer from the other parent. In order for a parent to raise a child, there must be some level of unity. The same applies to everything we do that involves relationships.