What a Man is Not - Biblical Manhood Part 1 - Paul Washer

[Music] let's go the Lord in prayer father I come before you the name of your son father I pray then through your word through your spirit that these men will be helped they will grow in Christ they will grow in integrity they will grow according to your creative order of things they would assume the place that you have given them father I ask this in Jesus name Amen all right just to get started let's just take a look if you have a Bible take a look at proverbs 13 ok proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 he who walks with wise men will be wise but the companion of fools will suffer harm now here's what I want you to see all throughout the book of Proverbs we have certain terms that seem to indicate the same person a fool someone who is naive a simpleton and a youth and here's what we need to see even though it might ruffle our feathers a little bit the Bible assumes that if you're young you do not have wisdom and the real I the reason it assumes that is because wisdom is not something you're born with as a matter of fact you're born with just the opposite Bible teaches us that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and so what you need to see is that in youth in being young comes with it the idea of foolishness of not possessing wisdom of not knowing how to act now if you go into many places in the world especially tribal areas if we could get in a time machine and we could go back in time we'd see something very different from what we see today very very different and we would see men training boys we would see boys not being with boys hardly ever being with other boys we would hardly ever see a young man with young men was considered basically a taboo was wrong why this passage it would promote foolishness a fool plus a fool does not equal a wise man and so when you get a bunch of fools all together going in the same direction you just have absolute foolishness to the nth degree now even outside of biblical cultures you can see this now why do we put young men together today I mean from the time they're in preschool to the time even post college young men are with young men and the greatest influence in a young man's life other young men why do we do that and not only do they do it in a secular world they do it in the church for example you go you're four years old you go to church they put you in a sunday-school class with other boys your age usually led by a woman when you reach teenage years they put you with other teenagers as a matter of fact you can go through the entire Christian culture in the West and never have a man influence you why is that it's because we have been warped by unbiblical principles and it would be enough if those unbiblical principles were just in our culture but the fact is the church is more influenced by the culture than the culture is the church as a matter of fact we've even come to the point where we try to build churches around culture instead of building churches around the Bible so that they can stand against culture now let's just look at a few things first of all many of you probably heard this terminology generation gap generation gap that comes out of my error even a little bit before my air this is early 60s it's a generation gap up to that point no there was no such thing as a generation gap started in the 50s with what we call youth rebellion the Marlon Brando type the James Dean this conflict between the younger generation and the older generation to the point where it evolves now where if you look at media a movie or television not only do you see a separation between the adult and the young but the adults always appear as foolish as not knowing anything and the young people are the ones who end up instructing the adults completely the reverse of Scripture now if you want to not be Christian and you even want to stand outside of secular history and you want to go with that flow that's your prerogative that's your choice but what you need to know is it's not Christian and societies were never built on such things today the child the boy leads the man now I want to talk for a moment about just the generation gap what is it built upon actually it's built upon the theory of evolution that what we see in a macrocosm of a development of from species to species has been put into a microcosm in it that's the way children are developed the fact is its founded upon theory it's not founded upon fact and even if you accept evolution as fact which I don't it's still a major jump to go from there to the microcosm of just the development of a human being now our educational system has been developed by certain names as probably you're familiar with Dewey Rousseau people like that now what did they believe well first of all they were anti-christian from the word go they were Pro Evolution from the word go they were anti family to the point where Russo he didn't even know the gender of his last child because the moment a child was born into his family he turned it over to a government institution which is exactly what's being done today public education public institutions we have two parents chasing the American Dream and so the moment the child is born after six weeks or so or six months the mom goes back to work the child goes to what pre care preschool and stays within the arms of a government institution until it graduates from college and so we have literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours of formal education and everything secular and anti-christian not to mention media in which the child may watch three hours or more of media every day of his life and then you wonder why as our culture gone bad now I want you to realize something I'm not talking about somebody out there I'm talking about you and I'm talking about myself something that I had to fight out of and still must fight to remain outside of it that we are a product of our culture we have turned our children over to Caesar and therefore we have followers of Caesar within the church there's no difference we do the same thing now another reason for that is not just our educational system but there's something that seems a bit more mundane something not quite as bad but actually it is when when my dad came out of World War two okay he was a child of the depression he lived through the depression you know 10 years old selling newspapers on the streets of Detroit just to buy food then he goes into World War two he fights takes on an empire sees most of his friends die comes back and because of the prosperity that the war caused economic prosperity then what was it I'm going to give my children things I never had and so what happened we lost our fathers in their passion to give their children things that they never had and we lost our mothers because see our mothers all went into the factories to build bombs and airplanes and everything else while our fathers were fighting over in World War two the problem is when the war was over our moms didn't come home and so what basically has happened is this we have been raised by an anti-christian public or government institution we have not been with wise men but ever since we were little we were thrown into a group of collective fools and we look at our examples and they're the same ages that we are and we grow up in that all our life to the point where you have men who are 30 34 years old and they still get together and their big thing is playing video games or some kind of NFL fantasy game or something you see and so you've lost manhood now let me give you an example there may be some of you who can say no this isn't true with me so praise God if that's the case but most of you spent more time with young men your own age than you did your own father most of you after a few years in the public school system as a matter of fact your mother and father and especially your siblings your brothers and your sisters just got in your way you were only in how so long enough but but to eat and sleep but you wanted to be with your friends that's all you wanted to be with and even now when you maybe in your 20s it's the same thing just want to be with your friends so we have sitcoms that are very very popular friends just be with your friends and so you're with your friends there's no family the home becomes something like a condo where people just come to it eat go to their room sleep play video games remove from the rest of the family and then go out to see their friends and so what we have seen is literally the destruction of our civilization when I was a my first year first year student in political science we were taught that there were certain institutions didn't matter if you're liberal conservative whatever there are certain institutions that must exist in order for a society to exist and if you want to destroy that society you remove those institutions that's all you have to do and one of those institutions as a matter of fact one of the most important is family you destroy the family so we live in an age right now where even though mom and dad may stay together if you look at what the family is it's not a family compared to Scripture now let me give you another example the Bible says that fathers are to be the greatest influences in the lives of their sons and daughters in every shape form in fashion and will maybe talk about that later but the Bible also says that in church the people who are to minister to every individual in the church are elders these are men who meet certain qualifications according to first Timothy chapter 3 Titus chapter 1 they are mature men of God they're men most of you never came in contact with one you went to Sunday school you went to children's church there were no elders you went to youth group and it was just a young guy a little bit older than you with mousse in his hair great personality who didn't know anything do you see and so the main influence in the family is to be the father that was removed from you the main influence in the church is to be the elders and you probably never even saw one and so what do we have we have removed everything manhood is something that is taught manhood is something that is learned by imitation but they've taken all the men out of your life probably for some of you the most memorable man in your life is your coach because he was the only one who acted in any way with a masculine Authority in your life so now you say and here's the sad thing you're going to go back to church and this is just going to continue on unless some great changes are made we have lost men in the West a few weeks ago I was talking to a good friend of mine you may know him bode baucom and he called me sis wash he goes man this this article just came out I don't know if his in Time magazine or what it was I want I got to send it to you he hasn't sent it to me yet but I've been out of the country but he says even the secular authorities now are saying there's no men that America has no men it's a crisis it's a crisis now there are a lot of things that are your fault but in this case I can honestly say because of a lack of knowledge on a part of a whole lot of people your lives are not what they could be real manhood and that's what we need to talk about today now the problem is is it's going to take more than two times tonight and one time tomorrow morning and I'm going to get started on some things but these are things that you're going to have to pursue you're going to have to realize something that I realized several years ago not from an epiphany or some vision just by studying the scriptures one day it just hit me everything is wrong and it's not a case of just tweaking the system that's the problem it's blowing it to pieces starting all over again now that kind of language is very dangerous that's why cults get started but let me share with you something it's a principle of biblical hermeneutics and I want you to understand this biblical hermeneutics is the science of how do you study the Bible and there is a principle in biblical hermeneutics that states this you should always do your theology in the context of church what does that mean it means if a guy like me stands up and says everything is wrong right now with regard to family young men everything and we've got to change it if you ask me the question why do you say that I say because that's what the Bible says but if you ask me and how do you know the Bible says that because everyone else is just happy with what's going on so what right do you have to say that the Bible contradicts our Western Way of doing Church well I appeal to history see that's why they don't want you to study history if I appeal to history and I look down through 2,000 years of Christianity and I see that there there are theological and doctrinal trends that this is the way they did things this is the way they interpreted the Bible and then I come til today and I recognize that today the church today contradicts 2,000 years of Christian history who's wrong see I can appeal to history and say we're just wrong or just wrong in many of the Puritan churches you could actually as a man be removed from the membership publicly disciplined if you did not Khattak eyes your own children if you were not the primary theological doctrinal religious teacher of your children you would be admonished before the church for failure for being a derelict father but now I want you think of something if I walked into a typical church today and I said ok how many of you men are consistently let's say four times a week at least and for half an hour hour each time that you are teaching your children the Scriptures almost no one would raise their hand now that's a bare minimum and almost no one would raise their hand and no one would have a problem with it but if I then stood up and said and as the new pastor I am going to cancel youth group we're no longer going to have youth group we're no longer going to have sunday-school we're no longer going to have children's church what would they do to me they'd fire me immediately wouldn't they I mean there would be such a battle going on they would say that man hates children that man hates youth we'll look what we have jesus said you annul the commandments in order to carry out your traditions nowhere in Scripture our fathers commanded to turn over the religious education of their children to a church but all over the Scriptures fathers are commanded to disciple their own children to disciple their own wives to pour their lives into their family for the cause of Christ so we will keep our traditions and we will kill anybody that comes up with Scripture and says you're wrong you see how easy it is just to be following a tradition and not following the scriptures well this is the way we've always done it yet it is in your generation and it's wrong it's wrong just the idea of what we have here in proverbs 13:20 where it says he who walks with wise men will be wise and what else does it say but the companion of fools will suffer harm now I want us to go I've brought some notes here and what I'm going to do instead of just trying to hit the best things I can hit I'm going to just start theologically ploughing some ground with you if we don't even get close to finish we don't get close to finish but I want you to know I'm willing to come back and do this again any time but we are going to look at a lot of things that at first you're going to say I don't know if this applies it does because I can't just jump over here to what you need without laying a foundation first okay now the first thing I want to do is we need to look at our reality as people we just need to look at our present reality now in order to start this off let me just give you an illustration from my past I I studied theology of course have my master's in theology studied Greek Hebrew logic all kinds of things philosophy in the university now several years ago a friend of mine sent me a book from British colonies in British Columbia and he sent me a book and he said read this it was unlogical and I read the first chapter and I read through the first chapter three times I said okay I understand the terminology I understand the definitions he's put to the terminology and now I can dialogue with this person it was higher logic than anything I had studied in the university well after reading that chapter I closed the book I went in the kitchen to get me something to eat I came back and I happened to look at the cover of the book and it was like an ink sketch drawing on the cover of the book and I thought we'll that's unusual because it had what looked to be eight nine year-old children standing in a line with a schoolmaster over them drilling them I thought why would that be on the front of the book so I opened up to the preface started reading it was the logic primer for grade school children in the colonial period you need to let that Sikh sink in to your head in your heart and I don't want to be offensive I'm going to include myself in this and I've been fighting my way out of this for years we are in ignorant people we are in ignorant people if I went back only 200 years I could probably sit down with many many 10 and 12 year olds and discuss theology that probably many of us have never even heard we are theologically and doctrinally ignorant people we are technically advanced but historically philosophically logically no I was once talking to someone in a university on the matter of genetics after a lecture that I gave and someone said to me afterwards they said what do you do do you just study all the time and how did you talk to that guy said if you notice I didn't talk to him well yes you did I said no I asked him questions yeah but he left mad I said yes he did and they said well how did you do that I said I don't know anything about genetics but what do you know about I said I know logic I know one simple principle that defeated many of the things he was saying the law of non-contradiction something cannot be something and not be something in the same way at the same time if I were to go to your generation and I would have say with a microphone what do you think about the war in Iraq you'd say all kinds of things most of it would just be parroting what popular media says but you would say all kinds of things I'd get all kinds of opinions at your university but after someone gave their opinion and I said what is the basis of your opinion what works have you studied on Middle Eastern politics well nothing what have you studied on economics in the Middle East and I think the theory of war what have you studied and I could just keep going I say could you quote primary sources you see the fact is we're a people who are quick to give our opinion but usually it's only to jump on the bandwagon of what everyone else is saying because we long for approval and see what I want you to see is we're a culture like this again technologically advanced I think there's more stuff in a calculator a Texas Instrument calculator then they had to put the first man on the moon we are technologically advanced but we don't read we don't know history we don't question ourselves about the big things that really matter and as a culture we're just following one another let me give you just one more example now I am NOT against swimming ok and I'm not against going to the beach necessarily it's just that some beats just so you will have to be blind if you're going to go there but here's something I want you to just think about what a Christian in your youth group would wear to the beach now and everyone would be ok with that 75 years ago if someone went out in public like that the secular authorities would have had them arrested and either find them put them in jail or send them to an institution to be examined that's 75 years now I'm not saying right or wrong I just want you to see something what Christians totally approve of today only 75 years ago unbelievers thought it was either illegal or insane shouldn't that make you think man what on earth where are we going to find some ground to stand on if all this is shifting so fast and everything is changing what do we stand on we stand on God's Word we stand on God's Word now I want us to look at our present reality I'm just going to quote some verses to you what I can do is I can give these notes to Doug Doug can print them off or whatever so you don't have to be writing like crazy but I just want to read some verses to judges 17:6 and those days there was no king in Israel every man did what right in his own eyes there was no king it means there was no authority and when there was no standard authority cross the board authority everyone just did what is right in their own eyes let me give you an example just in church life how many of you have heard the argument of the regulative normative principle probably probably no one and yet that was one of the that's been one of the greatest arguments down through the history of the church and the question is this the regulative principle says we can only do in church what God specifically commands normative principle says we can do in church anything that God does not specifically prohibit do you realize that today no one even argues about it why because every sort of thing is done without even asking the Bible what should a church look like as a matter of fact churches are built today by going out into the community finding out what they want in a church and then giving it to them and calling it a church so you see we have no authority if you believe that the Scriptures are infallible or they are inspired you have only fought half the battle only half the battle the second question is this are they sufficient do I have to go out side of scripture to find what God wants for his people for my life for faith for morality well the teaching Scriptures absolutely not but you see you probably are recognizing even right now almost everything that we do as a people is done without Authority almost everything done in the church is done without authority you just live your life basically the way that you think you ought to live it this was the Puritan genius now I know that a lot of you've heard a lot of bad things about the Puritans but I would challenge anyone to give primary sources on the matter but the Puritan genius even though I wouldn't agree with him in all things was this they asked the question how do I apply Scripture to every aspect of my life we don't ask that question anymore let's go on Hosea sick for six my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge it's true I could take you out into the Amazon a way in the in what's called the Monty or the Outback as far from the rivers as you can get because the farther you get away from the rivers the more jungle it becomes all right you will die in a matter of a couple of days unless you're with someone who knows what he's doing that's the only reason I've been able to be in so many bad places it's not because I'm Bear Grylls it's because I'm always with Indians who know exactly what they're doing and I follow them in everything they tell me you see but when you don't have knowledge about a certain thing and you're not following someone who does then you're destroyed for a lack of knowledge Isaiah one four through six it says this alas sinful nation people weighed down with iniquity offspring of evildoers sons who act corruptly they have abandoned the Lord they have despised the Holy One of Israel they have turned away from him where will you be stricken again as you continue in your rebellion the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it only bruises welts raw wounds not pressed out or bandaged nor softened with oil that's our society and that's the church or what's called a church today what's called a church today why because we have turned away from the Word of God now I want us recognizing what we're in I want us to recognize what we're supposed to be doing we must be convinced now if you're not Christian and you've decided that that Christ and all of this is a hoax and you desire to live according to your own wisdom you have that prerogative but if you are going to call yourself Christian then you have to make some serious decisions first of all we must be convinced that everything we do is to be for the glory of God absolutely everything we have first Corinthians 10:31 whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do do all for the glory of God absolutely everything for his glory everything and you cannot do it for his glory apart from knowing what he commanded okay we have cases all throughout scripture where people did things that would work that were wise in their own eyes thinking it would abound to the glory of God only to recognize they were fighting against God also 2nd Corinthians 10:5 we are destroying speculation and every lofty thing raised against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ not only are we to glorify God and every deed were to glorify God and every thought my thoughts are to be held captive are to be brought into obedience to Christ now let me just say something here someone might argue well you know that sounds like slavery it sounds like the end of free thinking and all these different things well you probably don't remember this singer but there was a guy by the name of Bob Dylan several several years ago back in my time who said things like you got to serve somebody you are going to serve somebody you are going to be a prisoner to someone's worldview it's just going to happen I'm sorry and what's funny is the people who most boast about breaking free from everybody else's worldview they gather together with their own worldview and in that they try to please each other it's absolutely amazing and we talked about free will you need to understand something theologically there's only one person who's free and that's God there's only one who makes decisions without being manipulated oak or oak or coerced you don't met you don't have free will almost everything you do is coerced or manipulated by the people around you by the trends around you by the ideas around you even the way you dress everything has to do with what do people look like today how do people dress how do they talk how do they walk how do they wear their pants all of it is in in your life by somebody else so the question is not do i trade autonomy or my my personal freedom for submission to some declaration of how I should live that's not the question you do do that the question is to whom are you going to submit to a culture that is changing every moment or to something more stable more eternal now also second Timothy 3:16 and 17 all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped equipped for every good deed now man of God here isn't necessarily someone who preaches we are all to be men of God and what it is telling us is that everything we need to be what we're supposed to be is found in the scriptures and if we're memorizing the scripture if we're renewing our mind in the scripture then the scripture will teach us reprove us and train us and correct us but if we're out there just imagine for a moment someone who is out in the world 16 hours a day a couple hours a day television a couple hours a day or an hour a day with video games he's surrounded by a worldly atmosphere he goes to classes on a secular campus and everything else and then he has a 15 minute quiet time yeah you're going to change the world no you're not you're going to be conformed to the world you're just going to throw a Christian t-shirt on your back you see it's going to take a lot guys to break free the big nut prep the big problem nasa has is gravity it's just a really big problem you ever do any mountain climbing your pick problem is gravity old age your problem with your body's gravity and it takes a whole lot of force to break free from that gravity the same way it takes a whole lot of force to break free from your culture more than just 15 minutes a day you have to realize this is wrong you also have to realize young men listen to me you are going to one day totally influence the life of a woman either for good or for Destruction you are going to influence the life of children either for good or for Destruction you just need to realize that unless you're just going to remain single and hanging out in bars all your life you are going to have a tremendous impact for good or for evil okay now I want us to go into some things this is about parents and you're saying why are you talking to me about parents because I want to show you the way it's supposed to be first of all to be a parent my number one responsibility as a man as a husband as a father is to know the Scriptures it says in Proverbs 29:18 where there is no vision the people are unrestrained but happy is he who keeps the law so many pastors will use this you know where there is no vision the people perish we have to have a vision we have to go in a building program we have to do it that's not what this verse means we have a Hebrew parallelism here the first phrase is defined by the second and what is it the first phrase where there is no vision the people are unrestrained but happy is he who keeps the law what is the vision a vision of the law in order to be a parent my number one responsibilities and know the law of God also in Hosea again my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge I need to know the Word of God because I'm going to influence a woman and I'm going to influence children and I cannot lead them in the of this world I cannot do that I know the hell I've been through I know the terrible things I've done prior to coming to Christ I do not want that for them now I must also strive to be a biblical example so as a man my primary responsibilities and my family is to know the Word of God it is not to give my children everything I didn't have but it's to give them a father even if it means living in a small house and driving old beat-up cars where you use a roofing screws in order to keep the panels on the side of your car which is what I do why I don't care about new cars I'm a follower of Jesus Christ I don't care about buying my clothes at Walmart I am a follower of Jesus Christ I don't care about money I care about a wife a woman I care about my children I care about my brothers and sisters in Christ it's the things I did not have that made me the man I am it's not the things that you that you get that make you a man most of the things that you get are the very things that destroy you so after being a man of the word I must be an example Paul says in 1st Corinthians 4 15 and 17 through 17 for if you have countless tutors in Christ yet you would not have many fathers for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel therefore I exhort you be imitators of me you see that in 1st Corinthians 11:1 he said be imitators of me just as also I am of Christ 1st Thessalonians 2:14 for you brethren became imitators of the Church of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea that's the positive side of this my primary responsibility is to be a man of integrity so that those around me they see an example they see in it's costly it's costly because when you set yourself to do that the devil himself will hand you the world on a silver platter and you've got to make some hard decisions and those hard decisions are going to cost you command I know down in Florida walking with Christ he's serving in a church that was struggling loving his wife his children everything he's offered a job twice what he was making twice he went to his boss turned it down why because the the money is going to require me to work this much more it's going to require me to move away from a church that's struggling the guy said are you absolutely out of your mind we're talking about twice the money he said my family doesn't need money my family needs food on the table they need a house to live in so that they don't get wet hopefully safe enough but what they need my wife needs a man my children need a father and my church needs someone who's going to stand up because it's struggling tough choices but let's look at the negative example Matthew 23 2 through 3 the scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses therefore all that they tell you do and observe but do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them deciding I'm radical for Jesus going to take a lot more in a Christian song to make you radical for Jesus one of my heroes in the faith is two girls in Indonesia I don't even came tell you where they're at Sethi and Ernie Sethi decided to follow Jesus Christ heart cry my mission supports her now she was captured by her family she was imprisoned in her home her mother was an invalid who couldn't eat SETI was required to stay in that room and the only thing SETI was allowed to eat was what her mother threw up and that's how she survived when we finally got to her she had escaped because her parents were had decided to kill her after a certain wedding or a certain party and the sister found out and couldn't bear with the fact that her sister was going to be killed by her parents and so let her out the door and she escaped now she works as a missionary pitiful little girl who is working in an area with her friend Ernie is another girl and the only reason they're working there alone because there's not a man brave enough to go into that village that is radically following Christ not that you and I should feel bad because we've not been put in that situation but what I want you to know is giving up a little income or not being cool on campus that's a very small price to pay okay let's go on also parents must strive to love teach and govern biblically now again why am I telling you this because I want you to see that even though I'm sure your parents many of them really tried took you to church and everything else I want you to see we all grew up in this culture where parents thought they were doing right just by taking their kids to Sunday school they thought that they were fulfilling the command raise up a child you know in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it they thought that meant taking them to church no it means investing your entire life in your children so that if it's a girl she grows up in pure Christian femininity and beauty if she's a if it's a man if it's a young boy he grows up in a solid biblical christ-like masculinity that's not been done for you that's not been I didn't even start asking these questions myself until I was 39 years old and I got news that my wife who had had a brain tumor for eight years and we couldn't have children and I found out I was going to have a boy I was going to be a father and I remember I've been I've preached in jungles to men who wanted to kill me everything you can imagine but I fell down on my knees that day and I realized when it comes to family when it comes to marriage when it comes to children I'm a pagan I'm a saved pagan what do the scriptures say what does it mean to be a man because now whatever I do is going to influence another young man another young girl now so I must strive to teach biblically to govern biblically to love biblically listen what it says in Genesis 18:19 about Abraham God says for I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him this is a man from whom that the Messiah was going to come I mean his descendants were going to be like the stars in the heavens but look at the emphasis here it's on his children that he would command his children that his whole life would be raising up a godly heritage unto the Lord goes on this is one of my favorite passages in the Bible Deuteronomy 6 5 through 9 listen now this is the responsibility of a father of a biblical father this is his responsibility you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets post of your house and on your gates that's responsibility of a biblical man that's what you were supposed to have received every day of your life a man standing before you constantly teaching you what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and notice many people get this wrong they think that what what is being said here is that you're supposed to teach your kids a whole bunch of principles well Christianity has principles and it has commands and it has a specific morality but that's not what this is talking about it's talking about through your teaching and your life example your children would see what it's like for a real man to love the Lord is God with all this heart soul mind and strength not just someone who can teach principals or run a household based upon some legal system but be passionate about Christ your wife is going to need the same thing it doesn't matter how spiritual your future wife is she was not designed by God regardless of what Christian feminists say today she was not designed by God to be everything she could be alone she will never be everything that she could be unless you assume the rightful place in her life and pour into her so that she becomes everything God wants her to be now Joshua 4 5 and 7 and Joshua said to them cross again the Ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel let this be a sign among you that when your children ask later saying what do these stones mean to you you shall say to them because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord when it crossed the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off so these stones shall be a memorial to the sons of Israel forever what does that mean you're to be a man of God who fights God's battles and when you see God do tremendous things in your life and through you you write them down you set them down you remember them so that when you go to your children you can say I saw this God did this God delivered me here God was faithful here God changed me here you say guys this is all about God and this is all about eternity it's not about your best life now it's all about him every last bit of it it's all about him now if even 6 for fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord he's not commanding this to Sunday School teachers youth leaders or anything like that it's the father's primary responsibility my primary responsibility as a man is to know Christ after that it's my wife it's my primary responsibility after that it's my children after that it's the ministry and that's that that's the way it goes it's why it has to be now you may not be in the ministry when you graduate from college but it's going to be the same thing for you if you think that you have done well because you have provided financially for your family you have no clue what the scriptures say as a matter of fact guys this is way it's going to be if you're going to be biblical you're going to work and work and work and work and when you come home at 5:00 in the afternoon and you're completely wore out guess what your job just began then you're going to pour your life into your family until you go to bed at 10:00 or 11:00 o'clock at night you are not going to sit down and watch TV you're not going to go out with your buddies and do all kinds of things you are going to pour your life into your wife and your children and you are going to go to bed tired and you're going to get up again and you're going to do it all over again this is the Christian life not hanging out with your buddies not doing all this no it's that and it's enough it's enough but then also realize this a man so dedicated to his family there'll be a time like for me I love to hunt and things like that my wife will just come to me and say here here's your bow here's your arrows here's your treestand go out have a good time kill something because they know they know he's poured out his life and she will learn as you have given your life to bless her she will learn to give her life to bless you instead of you fighting for your territory and your free time and she fighting for her territory and her free time it'll be one of servanthood of blessing of blessing now it says in 1st Timothy 3 for he must be one who manages is talking about a pastor to superintend preside over to be a protector or guardian he must be one who manages his own household well keeping his children under control with all dignity do you realize that if you cannot handle your wife and your children you you can't you can't even be in the ministry if you can't pour your life into them you can't even be in the ministry now I want to go on from here and I want to look at I know you're not children but I want you to see the way things are supposed to be children must be convinced of their parents role they must be a parents role is ordained by God and is the first law governing man's relationship to man if you look in the Ten Commandments you see the verse six the first four have to do with God the next six have to do with man and the first of those six is the family and this is what it says honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you so the Lord does not kill you prematurely but it means much more than that Israel you don't obey this the land will vomit you out no culture can be sustained where the children are not honoring their father and their mother no culture can exist guess what you know cultural experts are saying we're on the brink of just disaster we are why scripture is true the Scriptures turn it's just true and so it all begins with that I used to work in a street ministry when I was in seminary even lived for a while down with the street people and I'd I kind of do kind of an impersonal kind of informal a questionnaire that I would give them and I found out that the rebellion of every one of those street people began at home being at home against their parents sometimes their parents were not worthy they were not dignity dignified they were horrible but that's where it began you see and you have been raised in a culture where the absolute opposite is not only taught it's seen in almost every avenue of media I mean if you could just see there was a time when I was a little boy where if you saw like a sitcom father knows best or Leave It to Beaver the boys were always running wild getting themselves in trouble foolishness and father would come in and straighten the situation out now it's just the reverse father and mother idiots and the young people know every way it's supposed to go or you'll see an entire sitcom with nothing but teenagers in a high school and you never even see the parents I'm telling you guys what what the Apostle John tells us in first John this whole world lies in the power of the evil one and the whole thing is designed to circumvent to destroy everything that God would be doing but here's the problem now this this this just true and I've said it when many of them were present the problem are the supposed men of God pastors and preachers in our land instead of being men who know God who walk with God who spend time in prayer with God who feed upon God's Word newsstand encourage their little boys running around trying to find the next key to making their church big and because of these things these things are never taught you see we need men who spend more time with God than they do in some church growth manual men who are not concerned so much about whether or not the people's checkbook is balanced but how will their soul do on the day they stand naked before God and they're judged the big questions of culture and what's happening it is very probable that the world as you know it is going to dramatically change so you can even see this in a microcosm let me just kind of shoot off here for a moment like when I talk to immigrants whether they be Spanish immigrants immigrants from India or whatever you know what they'll tell me because all of us basically came here as immigrants one way or another this is what they'll tell me I was talking to I was in a hotel few years ago and an Indian family owned the hotel and and I was they from India and I was talking to him and telling them how much I admired because they will buy a hotel the whole family will live in the hotel they'll make sacrifices they'll do all these things in order to build up something for their family and I was telling the lady who was working the front desk how much I admired their dedication and she said yes but the only problem is she goes it doesn't get passed on and I said what do you mean she goes our children they came they care more about expensive tennis shoes they don't know how to work all they want to do is have cool clothes play video games and they're just like the people in the West they're just like you're young people and she goes so this will not be sustained we're losing our children you see I come from a generation of men who worked around the clock now they did not do so biblically but they were men who starved when they were kids they were men who went to war they were men who were happy to flip burgers 12 hours a day if it just meant they could eat but then there's a problem what is that problem the next generation comes and it's more prosperous and more spoil and weaker and it's involved in extracurricular activities and games and entertainment and then that was my generation then your generation comes behind that guys this isn't new this happens all the time throughout history I would I would venture to say that our society will not be able to sustain your children that at that point we become so weak effeminate that we will not be able to even hold together as a society and we will be taken over you see government functions this way big government when people are willing to surrender all their rights because they no longer want to assume responsibility for themselves then they are people ruled over by a tyrant you see you're living in an age great men are born out of horrible crisis you're living in an age where you can rise to the top where you can decide you're not going to live for yourself you're not going to live for entertainment you're not going to live to get your best life now you are going to live for eternity for something much larger than yourself to save people's to save kingdoms my little boys I remember when when Ian was about 5 years old he knew I always travelled into strange places whether is Nepal or Peru or or England or just somewhere I was always somewhere he was like Daddy what do you do and I said oh I said you wouldn't believe me he said no really what do you do I said you wouldn't believe me if I told you he said no daddy what do you do said I fight dragons and what is what am i saying son there's a war going on there is a dragon and he's worse than anything you could ever imagine and every day hundreds of thousands of people are being killed every day nations are crumbling every day families are falling apart every day tens of thousands of children are starving to death all of it because of this dragon and I have given my life to fight him you have to decide what you're going to do with your life this is very very important now I want us to take just for a minute a deeper look at and we'll we'll finish here we're just going to run down through a few things and then we're going to get to and the next one we're going to get to the idea of you and a mate but I want us to look just for a minute a deeper look at Ephesians six one through three children obey your parents the word means to listen to to hearken to of one who on hearing the knock at a door comes to listen who it is the duty of a porter it's someone who lives in obedience to someone else now you are no longer children there's a heresy out there that says children obey your parents in the Lord and it means they say if you're 45 you should still be obeying your dad that's not true you should still be honoring your dad but you're a man in your own right or you're supposed to be you to be making decisions but here's what you need to understand that whole time that my children are under my house they're in my house under my roof I am to pour my life into them I am to sacrifice for them I am to teach them the scriptures I'm going to lead them by example and their responsibility is to honor me to obey me to hearken to my voice and that's a terrible responsibility on my side because if my children do obey me then everything that falls will be accounted as my responsibility on Judgment Day if my children are doing with their supposed to be doing obeying me then I am going to be responsible on the day of judgment for the way that I have led my children now in the Lord it says obey your parents in the Lord in the context of the Lord's Authority I don't don't just with a whim command my children to do certain things no I let my children know that I am under authority and I am sharing with them the same Authority that I'm under that means that that it's this isn't my game I'm not King I'm someone under Authority God's Word and since I have to obey this word and this word has brought such blessing in my life in my house they will obey this word they will obey now for this is right it's righteous it's observing divine law it's pleasing to God honor your father and your mother see them is as valuable extremely valuable that's what it means to honor something to give it weight to give it worth you say well my father is an unbeliever my father is a drunk that may be true but whenever you can and as much as you can you must seek to honor him even ask his own ask his opinion want to know what he thinks to go to him first of all doesn't mean you'll agree every time it doesn't mean you do what he says all the time now that you're men but it means that you will honor your father you will show value to him you will show value to your mother which is the first commandment with a promise so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth a reference to a blessed life without fear fear of divine judgment you see you can dishonor your mother and your father and that can have effects upon the entirety of your life not only that it can affect your children and your children's children and on down do you realize that that your rebellion can be carried through down through the ages can you imagine some Solomon coming to his dad King David I'd say Solomon's 15 he says dad I've been been noticing that girls are pretty David goes well Solomon that's that's good you know they are it's a good thing it's a manly thing it's something that you ought to do that that's wonderful he said yeah dad I got a lot of questions how did you meet mom can you imagine how did you meet mom well I was walking out on the palace roof top one day and I looked over and I saw her bathing well I'm sure dad that she covered herself up and you turned away well actually no I didn't turn away I called for her to come over to the palace yeah but I well I you know dad I guess that's okay I mean after all you know she's single and you're two well actually no she was she was married well dad you know I'm sure I you know when you saw that you must have you know knew she had a husband then well no I killed her husband and so look at Solomon after him how many concubines how many wives you see what we do has a tremendous impact on those who follow us a tremendous impact now also in this obedience with our parents we want to move beyond obedience to honor Leviticus 1932 you shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged and you shall Revere your God I am the Lord you know one of the things that I hear men say is they're blown away I'm blown away sometimes when someone even knows how to shake my hand when a young guy under 30 even knows how to shake my hand or even knows how to to honor me see we come from an age of no honor oh he always just cracks me up sometimes you know if I talked to John MacArthur I say dr. MacArthur I say yes sir and then I hear all these you know 19 years well I was talking to John the other day I just want to slap him where's the sense of honor where's the sense of honor to honor the agent I've been told that Susanna Wesley who raised John and Charles Wesley that in order to teach her children how to honor an adult that she walked in and out of the room one day I think it was something like a hundred hundred and fifty times so that when she got up out of her seat they stopped playing and they stood up and looked at her until she left the room and then they went back playing and then when she came in the room they would stand up stop playing and look at her see I know that this may sound just absolutely asinine to you but we are people who no longer honor anything and and it's very very very sad very sad we've lost so much now I just want to look at the divine penalties for a second of disobeying Authority Jude 1:6 the angels who did not keep their own domain keep our stay within their own position of authority but abandoned their proper abode he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day God has set structures of authority and apart from the violation of the human conscience we are to obey that authority and that has to do with our parents and every time I say that some kid will go what if my dad tells me to build a bomb and blow up the Empire State Building I always ask him I say when was the last time your dad asked you to do that your problem with your father is not some unethical thing he asked you to do your problem with your father's when he tells you to take out the trash clean your room you see we're always looking for a loophole of not submitting Deuteronomy 21:18 through 21 if any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother and when they chastise him he will not even listen to them then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of the city at the Gateway of his hometown they shall say to the elders of his City this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey us he is a glutton and a drunkard then all the men of the city shall stone him to death so you shall remove the evil evil from your midst and all Israel will hear of it and fear now you say that is just insane I mean obviously scripture does not care about human life okay let me ask you a question since we allow absolute just rebellion in the family rebellion against Authority how many people have died as a consequence of that I submit to you infinitely more not that we should be doing this this was under a special economy of God a special dispensation a special thing going on but at the same time you need to see this is a crime that will destroy society and yet it is the very crime that is promoted in our society in our culture today ok now when we come back what we're going to talk about is this whole idea of you being a young man and the idea of a mate of a future wife of things that that may help you understand biblically where you ought to be all right let's go to the Lord in prayer father I thank you for this this time and I thank you for these young men who are here Lord strengthen them and bless them Lord that that they would come into truth in the application and obedience to truth much earlier than the one speaking to them that they would not waste their lives with that they would become a man in the image of Jesus Christ it's his name we pray amen you

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 385,736

Rating: 4.8779774 out of 5

Keywords: paul, washer, biblical, manhood, man, family, marriage, boy, child, husband

Id: 1U-JmgBnFHk

Length: 69min 29sec (4169 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 26 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/ConformingToTheWorld]

Even though this is from a Christian perspective, he is right...

[u/mikelieman]

OVER AN HOUR? Comments Disabled?

Here's my judgement. Fuck you.

[u/DallasJDaDJ]

Thanks for this amazing video no matter what others are saying considering they didnt watch it. I even got to show this to my dad, thank you.

[u/Zipwang5555]

Sorry, I only made it to 0:00:05. Hell me.

[u/pedopopeonarope]

Christian propaganda.