Participants:
Series Code: TDYFW
Program Code: TDYFW200028S
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00:02 I want to spend my life
00:08 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:19 Removing pain 00:24 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:35 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:46 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people. 01:09 Hello, friends, and welcome 01:11 to another edition of 3ABN Family Worship. 01:14 We've got the fellows on the set today again. 01:17 We're going to be talking about 01:18 what it means to be a man of God. 01:21 This is Men of God, part 2. 01:24 And so if you haven't seen the first one, go on YouTube, 01:27 go online and find it just find 3ABN's YouTube channel, 01:31 and you'll just simply type in the search box, 01:33 3ABN Men of God. 01:35 And you can watch the first part of this 01:37 because it was a blessing, I had fun. 01:40 And I know we're going to have fun again, 01:41 we're going to have 01:42 a spiritual blessing again today 01:44 as we're talking about 01:45 what it means to be a man of God. 01:47 And so, again, we just want to thank you 01:48 for joining us from taking time out of your busy day 01:50 because we know you could be doing 01:52 whatever you want to do right now, 01:53 but you're joining us here on this program 01:55 and it's a blessing. 01:56 Thank you, as always for your love, 01:58 your prayers and support of 3ABN ministry 02:00 as this message is going all around the world right now. 02:04 And that gospel is being preached. 02:05 And we know that Jesus is coming soon. 02:07 That's why we're here, right fellows? 02:09 Amen. Praise the Lord. 02:10 Well, before I go any further, 02:12 I guess I should go ahead and introduce 02:13 these fine gentlemen that are joining me today. 02:16 I'm going to start on the far side over here. 02:17 We have Mr. Jason Bradley. 02:20 You're the general manager of 3ABN Dare to Dream Network. 02:24 And it's always a blessing to have you, Brother. 02:25 It's great to be here. 02:27 Looking forward to diving into this topic, 02:29 Men of God. 02:30 Praise the Lord. 02:31 And we have from last time, my brother was joining us, 02:33 he couldn't be here today. 02:35 But, you know, it's always good to have wisdom and experience 02:38 and, Brother JD Shelton, excuse me, JD Quinn. 02:42 I don't know why. 02:43 You could fit into the Shelton family 02:45 while you've been in here. 02:46 I could. 02:47 But JD Quinn, let me make that correction. 02:50 It's always a blessing to have you, Brother, as well. 02:51 Thank you. 02:53 There's wise men and then there's wisdom. 02:55 Shelton's got lots of wisdom. 02:57 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 02:59 Amen. 03:00 And, of course, on this far side of the table, 03:01 we have the two Lingle Brothers. 03:03 We have Ben and CJ Lingle. 03:05 And, Ben, it's good to have you. 03:07 It's good to be here. 03:08 We have a good panel, 03:09 so I'm excited about the discussion. 03:11 Praise the Lord. 03:12 And, of course, your older brother CJ. 03:13 CJ, how are you? I'm good. 03:15 Glad to be here. Amen. 03:16 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 03:18 So this is technically your guys' is, 03:19 was this the second one? 03:20 It'll be the second... 03:22 You've been on the second program. 03:23 So it's a blessing to have you guys. 03:24 Again, we're talking about 03:26 what it means to be a man of God. 03:27 But before we go any further, 03:29 we're going to probably do a quick review 03:30 here in a second, just take a couple of minutes 03:32 just to talk about, 03:33 you know what we talked about in the first one 03:35 without going into too great of detail. 03:37 But let's go ahead and have a quick prayer. 03:39 Brother JD, 03:40 why don't you say a prayer for us? 03:42 Most certainly. 03:43 Father, as we come before You today in the name of Jesus, 03:44 we want to thank You for this opportunity, Lord, 03:47 to be able to share Jesus. 03:49 Father, just be with each one of us, Lord. 03:51 Father, just we give You permission 03:53 to be in charge of our minds 03:54 and what comes out of our mouths, Lord. 03:56 So, Father, just bless us, 03:58 bless those that are hungry and thirsty, Lord, 04:00 to know more about You, 04:01 that whatever we say, Lord, 04:03 will hit a point in their life 04:05 and, Father, we believe in ah-aha moment. 04:08 And, Father, that this will be one of those times. 04:11 Thank You for the guys, Lord. 04:13 Be with each one of us, 04:14 we ask this in the name of Jesus. 04:15 Amen. Amen. 04:17 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 04:19 As we were preparing this lesson on what it means, 04:23 what the Bible teaches 04:24 as far as what it means to be a man of God. 04:27 You know, you make, 04:28 you know, you put these outlines together 04:30 and you create your content, thinking that, 04:33 oh, this is plenty of content for one program. 04:35 And it certainly proves to be that. 04:37 In fact, that's why we're on a part two, 04:39 because I think we only got two pages into our notes 04:41 as a group here 04:43 on what we were going to talk about and discuss, 04:45 and we still have three more pages left. 04:46 So here we are in part two, 04:48 but I would like to just go through quickly, 04:49 just as a quick reminder, 04:51 a quick review as to what we talked about 04:53 is what it means to be a man of God. 04:55 And there were a couple of texts 04:56 that we read kind of as our theme text 04:58 to kind of kick us off in this subject and it comes... 05:01 The first one comes from 1 Timothy 6:11. 05:04 Again, this is 1 Timothy 6:11. 05:08 And the Bible says, "But you, O man of God, 05:12 flee these things 05:13 and pursue righteousness, godliness, 05:16 faith, love, patience, and gentleness." 05:20 Of course, much of that list is we find right there 05:23 in the fruits of the Spirit, in the Book of Galatians. 05:25 But again, 05:27 if we're going to be men of God, 05:28 we need to pursue righteousness, godliness, 05:30 faith, love, patience, and gentleness. 05:33 And I also read this other scripture, 05:35 which I really liked the ESV version, 05:37 the English Standard Version of this particular text 05:39 coming from 1 Corinthians 16:13. 05:43 Again, 1 Corinthians 16:13, and I like this, very simple, 05:46 but it says, "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, 05:51 act like men." 05:53 Act like men, be strong, right? 05:56 And so, you know, 05:57 we kind of talked a little bit about, 05:59 you know, in the world that we live in today, 06:00 you know, there's just this different variety of opinions 06:03 of what it means to be a man of God. 06:06 But it seems like in our world today, 06:08 you know, it's for some guys, 06:10 it's really, really important to just first be a man, right? 06:13 Just learn to be a man, you know, I had my dad, 06:15 and some of the people growing up would tell me, 06:16 you know, son, be a man, right? 06:18 You know, and so we definitely, 06:21 you know, we strive to be the man that we need to be. 06:24 And, of course, in this case, 06:26 you know, what does God want us to be 06:27 as a man or a woman of God, 06:29 it's the same principles, 06:31 I just want to state for the record 06:32 can apply to any person, man or woman. 06:35 So again, this is entitled Man of God, 06:37 or what it means to be a Man of God. 06:39 But these principles can apply to anyone. 06:41 We talked about some good examples, 06:44 and we looked at some biblical examples 06:46 of who are some good examples of men of God in the Scripture. 06:50 And we came up with names like Joseph, 06:52 and Caleb, and Daniel, and Paul, and David, right? 06:57 King David came up quite a bit, you know, 06:59 'cause you kind of think of them 07:01 the manly men of all men in Scripture. 07:02 You know, David was that warrior, 07:04 he was that that man of God, and He certainly fit the bill. 07:08 We talked about 07:10 how even within the person of David, 07:12 in his writings he often emphasizes 07:14 what it means to be obedient to the Lord. 07:16 So therefore, a man of God should be obedient, right? 07:20 He should be an obedient person to the Lord. 07:22 And we also looked at 07:24 how God deals with these men of God 07:27 whom He has called to be men of God, 07:29 even when they stumble, right? 07:31 In fact, I just want to kind of recap that one 07:33 because we didn't spend too much time on it. 07:36 But Psalm 37:23-24 says this, get this. 07:41 So the point we're making here is, 07:43 you know, you can be a man of God and have stumbled, 07:47 that does not disqualify you as a man of God, right? 07:51 Now we don't want to do 07:52 is we don't want to stumble and stay down, right? 07:54 And we're going to emphasize that 07:55 in just a moment by a text, but Psalms 37:23-24. 08:01 I love this text here. 08:02 It says, "The steps of a good man 08:04 are ordered by the Lord. 08:07 And he delights in his way, though he fall, I love this, 08:12 though he fought, 08:13 he shall not be utterly cast down, 08:16 for the Lord upholds him with his hand." 08:19 And David was certainly a great example of that, right? 08:21 I mean, think of King David and what he went through. 08:24 I mean, he started out, 08:25 he was the anointed called man of God. 08:28 But he came to a point in his life 08:29 where he took his eyes off God for a moment. 08:32 And it caused him to commit some serious crimes, 08:36 some serious sins against the Lord 08:37 and against his fellowmen. 08:39 And you would, 08:40 many people have had this misconception that, 08:42 you know, it's a horrible sin, you know, you've fallen, 08:44 you're no longer can be used by the Lord. 08:47 You're cast down, you're done for, 08:49 but we see the mercy of the Lord 08:51 on David in this story. 08:53 I love Proverbs 24:16 as well, which we have, 08:56 we have talked about as well, 08:57 "For a righteous man may fall seven times, 09:00 and rise up again." 09:02 I got to emphasize that. 09:03 He falls seven times and what does he do? 09:05 He rises up again, 09:06 but the wicked shall fall by calamity. 09:08 So what's the difference between a righteous man 09:10 and an unrighteous man? 09:11 An unrighteous man 09:13 is going to fall and stay down there. 09:14 But a righteous man will fall and he will get right back up 09:17 because the Lord is leading and guiding him. 09:20 Absolutely. 09:22 So that's kind of a quick little review 09:23 of what we, 09:24 you know, a very juiced version 09:26 of what we talked about in the previous part one 09:28 of our Men of God, Family Worship. 09:30 But now we're jumping in to another question here. 09:33 And that is, you know, we often use David, 09:36 we've been using David. 09:37 I think David's a good example. 09:38 And, of course, this also goes 09:40 for many of the other men of God 09:41 that we see in Scripture. 09:43 But what is the importance of the relationship 09:46 between being a man of God 09:49 and being a man of the Word of God? 09:53 Is there a Word, 09:55 is there a prerequisite or a requirement 09:58 for a man of God to be in the Word 10:01 or to know the Word of God? 10:03 Absolutely. 10:04 I mean, 10:05 how else are you going to learn about God 10:07 if you don't study His character, 10:08 if you don't learn about who He is. 10:10 You know, you can't be like somebody 10:12 who you know nothing about. 10:13 And so, if you look all throughout the Word of God, 10:16 you see His character, 10:19 you see His character throughout the Word. 10:20 And so we have to study. 10:22 By beholding we become changed. 10:23 So whatever we're filling ourselves up with, 10:26 we're going to become like that. 10:28 So if we're studying the Word of God, 10:30 we're going to be more like God. 10:33 A work in progress. 10:34 I'd say us all being a work in progress. 10:36 That's something that if... 10:38 How are you doing today, CJ? Well, I'm a work in progress. 10:41 And so, when you're talking about a man of God, 10:44 man, I'm just sitting here, since I missed the first one. 10:47 I'm just sitting here just circling. 10:50 This is what I want to be. 10:52 And I'll just review a second time. 10:55 Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, 10:58 patient, gentleness, be watchful, stand firm. 11:01 Act like a man. 11:02 Boy, that's as old school as you can get. 11:04 I mean, that's old school and that's new school. 11:07 Stand up straight, act like a man. 11:11 Do justly, love, mercy, walk humbly, pray for wisdom. 11:16 Boy, that reminds me of a story. 11:17 My father, we had morning worship 11:20 every day of our lives. 11:21 And he prayed basically the same prayer every day, 11:23 'cause that's all he knew. 11:25 But he always asked for wisdom. 11:27 Right. And he was a very wise man. 11:31 I picked up early in life, 11:33 Lord, please increase my wisdom. 11:34 I'd like to be a wise man. 11:37 And I've been told that I do have wisdom, 11:39 has nothing to do with what I, it's what we pray for. 11:41 That's right. 11:43 That's part of being a man of God, 11:45 man of God, wisdom. 11:47 And so, I just think 11:48 this is quite a wonderful, wonderful stories. 11:51 We can talk about His mercy, His grace, how He loves us. 11:55 And then if we consent, if we surrender, 12:02 well, then we can be like Him. 12:04 He is, He wants us to follow in His footsteps. 12:08 So I just think this is a great start 12:12 of a great, great, great topic. 12:14 Absolutely. Absolutely. 12:15 So in taking that concept of wisdom 12:19 you were just talking about, 12:21 and applying it to a man of God being a man of the Word. 12:25 And, Jay, you made it a... 12:27 You brought it out very clearly. 12:29 The Word of God reveals God's character, right? 12:33 And so, if we're going to have God's character, 12:35 we have to be men of the Word, right? 12:37 So I'm going to pass it down here to the Lingle section. 12:41 What does it mean to be a man of God 12:44 in reference of also being a man of the Word of God? 12:48 Well, I think something that's really important, 12:49 especially being a man of the Word, 12:51 is that, literally, as we study the Word, 12:54 and we become more engaged with Christ 12:56 and learn to become more like Him through His Word, 13:00 we become very impressionable with people around us. 13:03 And, you know, 13:04 something that's so amazing is that 13:06 I've witnessed many times, not to say I'm, 13:08 you know, the most scholarly of the Bible 13:11 or anything like that, 13:12 but just like learning things for myself from the Word. 13:15 And being around people, 13:17 I've seen people hearts be changed. 13:19 And so, I think being a man of God, 13:22 being man of the Word is so important, 13:24 because we can help bring other people 13:27 into that fold, you know. 13:28 Absolutely. 13:30 I would piggyback on what Jason said earlier. 13:33 You know, how can you be a man of anybody 13:37 if you don't know the person, 13:38 and how we're supposed to know God except through His Word. 13:41 God has revealed Himself through His Word, 13:43 through Jesus, through His prophets. 13:46 So if you're not studying the Word of God, 13:49 then you're not going to reflect God 13:50 because you're not going to know 13:51 what He expects of you. 13:53 Because He's not going to drop 13:54 a giant stone tablet from the sky, 13:56 saying, "This is how you're supposed to behave." 13:58 No, He gave us, 14:00 you know, some people call it a love letter, 14:02 the Word of God. 14:04 He gave us this book that tells us about Him 14:08 and how He wants us to act. 14:09 You know, you go back to, again, you go back to Paul, 14:12 and we see what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, 14:15 where he describes the kind of actions 14:17 a man of love will take. 14:18 So a man of God who loves God, 14:20 who knows God will act in this way. 14:23 Absolutely. That's beautiful. 14:24 You know, I think of guys like, you know, prior to Moses, 14:28 you know, guys like, 14:30 you know, Abraham, and Jacob, and Noah, 14:33 you know, even, you know, Joseph 14:37 and some of these main characters 14:39 that we think of prior to the time of Moses, 14:41 because if you think about it, 14:42 we don't really have the Word of God, 14:43 the written Word of God until the time of Moses, 14:47 but those guys still had to trust 14:50 not just on the Word of God 14:51 but, you know, an audible 14:53 or an impressionable Word of God, 14:56 not in written format, you know... 14:59 Abraham, this is your God, 15:03 leave this land and go this way, 15:04 I'm going to bless you abundantly. 15:05 What? 15:07 You know, he had to have faith, he had to trust in that Word. 15:09 And so, you know, we have to 15:11 in order to be a man of the Word of God, 15:13 we have to be able to trust in God's Word. 15:15 I think that's a good point to make 15:17 is because many people know the Word, 15:18 they have the word, 15:20 but do they trust in this Word to tell them what it says? 15:24 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, I had to read this one. 15:28 Because this is one of our, 15:29 was the key scripture where you're talking about 15:31 the significance and importance of the Word of God. 15:34 2 Timothy 3:16-17. 15:36 And, Jay, while I'm about to read this, 15:38 why don't you take Matthew 4:4, Matthew 4:4. 15:43 And, CJ, why don't you take Psalms 119:11. 15:49 And, Ben, if you could be prepared to read 15:51 2 Timothy 4:1-5. 15:54 Notice what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says. 15:58 Again that famous verse that Paul writes. 16:00 He says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 16:04 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 16:09 for instruction in righteousness, 16:14 that the man of God," 16:16 I like that, 16:17 "that the man of God may be complete, 16:20 thoroughly equipped for every good work." 16:23 So just by reading this text here, 16:25 can we deduce or take away from this, 16:27 that a man of God cannot be fully complete 16:30 or thoroughly equipped to be that man of God 16:33 unless he has first spent some time 16:35 in the Word of God? 16:37 Can we conclude that? 16:38 That's what it says. 16:39 It's exactly what, 16:41 and I was breaking down and listen to commentary 16:42 to see exactly what does that mean, 16:44 profitable, reproof and correction, instruction? 16:49 Wise unto salvation... 16:51 All right. 16:52 Here it is again, wisdom. That is. 16:54 You know, that you're available sincere 16:57 for our improvement. 16:58 I love this, 16:59 the correction for our improvement. 17:02 It allows us 17:04 and those who have studied their Bible at all can, 17:07 you can really appreciate there's that recreation. 17:10 We don't just stay 17:12 in the first-grade level all the time. 17:14 The first time you read the Bible through 17:16 you may, you know, wow, wow, wow. 17:18 Then say five years later, you read it again. 17:21 And it's like, you'd never read it, 17:23 because it means so much more. 17:24 Recreated 17:26 and then the best word in the world is transformation. 17:29 It transforms us. 17:31 We have now gone from childhood, 17:33 to adolescence, to manhood. 17:37 And then whenever you become this man of God, 17:41 now you've got a direction 17:42 because now you can duplicate what you have learned. 17:49 And as you're raising your own children, 17:52 you know, it's kind of like, 17:53 it's not just a matter of do it. 17:56 Why, Daddy? 17:58 Because I said to do it. 17:59 I mean, 18:01 I'm not going to go back to my childhood. 18:03 I did hear that a lot of time, I tell you. 18:05 Daddy said, "It's good enough." 18:07 But why? 18:09 And I know with your personality, 18:11 that's very important to you. 18:13 Why does this happen? 18:16 And so here, 18:17 not only will he just say, here's the answer, 18:21 but if you'll come back 18:23 and say me a second time, Brian, 18:25 I'm going to be able to add to it. 18:26 Absolutely. 18:28 It comes back to that trust aspect 18:29 that I was mentioning. 18:31 You know, I too often heard my parents say, 18:33 you know, I'd go to my parents and say, 18:35 "Mom and Dad, you know, 18:36 little Jimmy's invited me over to his house this weekend. 18:39 You know, can I go stay with him?" 18:41 And I would remember many times my dad or mom would say, 18:44 you know, "No, son, you can't?" 18:46 And what's my follow up question? 18:48 Why? Why? 18:50 And the answer would be, "Because I said so." 18:53 Now, 18:54 that didn't always sit well with me. 18:56 Because again, I'm a why guy, but why, 18:59 you know, I would keep pressing, why? 19:00 Because I'm your dad and I said so. 19:02 But I don't understand why. 19:03 But, you know, and it all comes down to, 19:06 you know, there's times in our growth 19:07 and then I love how JD brought that out. 19:09 We're growing, we're learning where, 19:11 you know, God is taking us from one level 19:13 of Christian character development 19:14 to the next. 19:16 And it's powerful to know 19:17 that sometimes if God always gave us the why, 19:20 we may not be ready 19:22 or equipped to fully understand the why until down the road. 19:25 And that's the beautiful thing, 19:27 because now I look back as a grown man, 19:29 I look back at my childhood 19:30 and all the times that mom and dad said no, 19:33 because I said, 19:34 and I didn't like to hear it then. 19:35 But you know, 19:37 and now I trust the fact 19:38 I know that they had a good reason. 19:40 And they wouldn't, it would have been 19:41 a little bit more difficult for me to understand it. 19:43 Oh, well, we're doing it to protect you 19:45 because we don't really want you 19:46 to go into that house 19:48 because we've heard things about 19:49 what goes on in that house. 19:50 We don't want you exposed things 19:52 happening in that particular home 19:53 and I wouldn't have understood that 19:54 because, you know, in your innocent little mind 19:56 you're thinking innocence is fun, right? 19:57 And that's just an example or an illustration of, 20:00 you know, as we spoke of, 20:02 you know, Abraham, and Jacob, and Joseph, 20:03 and all those guys, 20:04 you know, they didn't have the written Word of God, 20:06 but they had learned how to trust. 20:08 Now, we've got the written Word of God. 20:10 But does that mean 20:11 that the trust aspect's not there anymore? 20:13 No, now we have to learn to trust Him. 20:15 In fact, I love that famous verse, 20:17 John 3:16, 20:18 "For God so loved the world 20:19 that He gave His only begotten Son, 20:21 that whosoever believes in Him." 20:23 And if you look in the original Greek there, 20:25 I always wondered why, 20:26 well, Lord, it seems like You're, 20:27 it seems like you're just saying 20:29 that if we just mentally accept you, 20:30 you know, Jesus died on a cross for my sin, 20:32 I believe that. 20:34 Oh, I'm a Christian, I'm saved. 20:35 You know, it goes a little deeper than that. 20:37 If you go to the original Greek, 20:39 the word in the Greek there is pisteuo, 20:40 which means to trust or to put trust in. 20:43 So essentially, what Jesus is saying 20:45 is those who believe in Me 20:46 in the sense that they fully trust Me 20:49 to be who I am to do it, 20:51 you know, to believe in what I say I'm gonna do. 20:53 That's what it comes down to 20:54 and a man of God is of no exception. 20:57 And so, Jay, you're in Matthew 4:4, 21:00 this is Jesus being tempted by the enemy 21:03 in the wilderness 21:04 prior to going into His full-time ministry. 21:07 He's about to enter His earthly ministry. 21:09 What does Jesus say to the enemy there? 21:11 Well, He says, 21:13 "But He answered and said, 'It is written, 21:15 man shall not live by bread alone, 21:17 but by every word that proceedeth 21:20 out of the mouth of God.' " 21:23 And you know, was, 21:24 you were talking about the trust aspect, 21:27 just a minute ago. 21:28 And I think the key thing too is that, 21:31 you're not only a man of, 21:34 you know, being a man of God 21:36 will not just be a man of the Word, 21:38 but he'll act on the Word. 21:40 So it's not enough to just be a hearer of the Word, 21:42 but you have to be a doer too. 21:45 You know, when you trust somebody, 21:46 or when you love somebody, 21:48 it motivates you to act on that love. 21:51 Yeah. Amen. Amen. 21:52 You could explain this. 21:55 This young man right here, 21:57 he certainly has a lot of word in him, 21:59 has a lot of wisdom. 22:01 Because I've noticed that sometime people use this. 22:05 But I, but by every word 22:08 that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 22:10 So in other words, there is context, 22:13 but there are people that will pick a word here, 22:17 and they'll make a ministry out of it, 22:19 or they'll make, you know, so... 22:21 Excellent point. 22:23 How does that work? 22:24 I mean, number one, we certainly know 22:26 that all Scripture was given back 22:28 that there was God breathe, 22:30 there was God inspired, so we take man out of it. 22:34 So now do you believe in God? 22:36 Is God the Creator? 22:38 Hmm, I like that. 22:39 So I mean, so but he, I mean, this is so ingenious. 22:44 He said, every word has been inspired. 22:48 I didn't slip a little word in there 22:50 that somebody could come in and misinterpret it. 22:52 That's right. Absolutely. 22:54 So you can't pluck some of the fruit 22:56 without getting the whole plant. 22:57 I guess that's a good point. 22:59 You know, good point. 23:01 Good illustration of this is I grew up in a church. 23:03 And again, this is just me using an illustration, 23:05 I grew up in a church that taught me 23:07 that in order for you to have the Holy Spirit, 23:09 in order for you to be a saved man of God, 23:11 I'm just going to use it in that way, 23:13 that you have to show forth the evidence 23:16 that you have that Holy Spirit, 23:17 and the evidence of speaking in tongues. 23:19 And so, you know, when you look 23:21 at the abundance of information in Scripture, 23:24 as to where they find that. 23:25 There's only three texts in the entire Bible 23:27 where someone is found speaking in tongues. 23:30 And so, this is to your point, 23:31 you know, everywhere we have to, 23:33 we have to take the content, 23:35 we have to read within context, 23:36 we have to study within the context 23:38 and the harmony of the entire Word. 23:40 And to be a man of God, 23:41 a man that is truly of the Word of God, 23:44 you're not going to go through here and isolate 23:45 and pick and choose 23:47 what it is that you feel is necessary, 23:49 what you feel is important, and build a certain, 23:52 an entire movement or entire doctrine 23:54 off of one text or a few words here and there. 23:57 You have to take the Word of God for what it is. 23:59 You have to take it in harmony from front to back. 24:02 And so, you know, as we will study on probably 24:05 and we mentioned this and it was, 24:07 we have already mentioned this actually, 24:09 is that, you know, to be a man of God 24:10 means to be led by the fruits of the Spirit, 24:12 be led by the true Spirit of God. 24:14 You have to have all the fruits of the Spirit. 24:15 The evidence that a man of God is a man of God, 24:18 or that he's being led by the God of the Word 24:21 is that he has the Holy Spirit 24:23 and the only way you can tell if a person has the Holy Spirit 24:25 is if they show forth the fruit of that. 24:28 And so that's a good point that you made there 24:30 is that, you know, by every word 24:32 that proceeds from the mouth of God. 24:34 A true man of God 24:35 is someone who is going to take in harmony, 24:39 the whole survey of the Word of God 24:42 and allow the entirety of the Word of God 24:44 to speak to them rather than, 24:45 you know, picking and choosing and saying, 24:47 well, this passage applies, but this passage doesn't. 24:49 You know, we have to study in context, 24:51 but be responsible as students of the Word. 24:53 Absolutely. Absolutely. 24:55 CJ, you're in Psalm Chapter 119. 24:57 This is that famous verse. 24:59 But what does it say here? 25:00 It says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart 25:03 that I might not sin against thee." 25:07 And what's important here 25:09 that David's strength drive home is, 25:11 it's not like when you're looking at this, 25:15 this kind of poetic kind of language 25:16 that David uses, 25:18 it's not literally David take, taking a word, 25:21 and then put it in his head. 25:23 It's talking about the spoken word 25:26 or the instructions of God. 25:29 And so when he says, 25:31 "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, " 25:33 the heart is not this, it's the mind, 25:36 "that I might not sin against thee." 25:38 This is kind of like 25:39 what we see in Matthew Chapter 4. 25:41 We see Jesus doing pretty much the same thing. 25:44 He's hidden the word of His Father in His heart, 25:45 because you got to remember that Christ was not only God, 25:49 but He was also man. 25:50 So He had to memorize His own Father's words. 25:52 And He was able to bring them to memory 25:54 by the power of the Holy Spirit and use them against the devil. 25:57 And that's the point that David is making here. 25:59 Use the Word of God as a weapon. 26:02 That's why in the armor of God, 26:04 and I was watching 26:05 kind of a silly video yesterday, 26:06 I was trying to make an important point. 26:10 So this guy was reading the... 26:12 He's trying to read about the armor of God. 26:14 And he got to the point where it said, 26:16 the sword of the Spirit. 26:17 And so the whole skit was that 26:19 he was convinced by the bad, 26:21 bad version of himself to actually carry a sword, 26:24 to walk around actually carrying a sword. 26:25 And then his friend 26:26 who actually was explaining the context, 26:28 told him that the sword is the Word of God. 26:31 And it's the only offensive weapon, 26:34 offensive weapon in the armor of God, 26:36 everything is defensive. 26:37 And so when you're attacking the devil, 26:39 when you store up a quiver of arrows, 26:43 a large sword comprised of the Word of God, 26:47 you can bring these things back to your memory 26:49 by the power of the Holy Spirit, 26:50 to say, like the devil's trying to tempt you 26:52 to do this or do that. 26:54 God, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:13 says 26:59 that with the temptation, he'll make a way of escape. 27:02 That's right. Oh, I love that. 27:03 Amen. 27:04 I mean, that's, I mean, it's such a good point, 27:06 because like, 27:07 especially hiding the Word of God in our hearts, 27:09 because, you know, it talks about in the Scripture 27:11 that there will be times 27:12 where the Holy Spirit will remind us of things 27:16 from the Word of God. 27:17 And I've had many situations in my life 27:19 where I may not remember the exact reference. 27:21 But somebody asked me a question about 27:23 whatever it may be. 27:24 And the Holy Spirit reminds me of a passage 27:28 or something that refers to that 27:29 and you're able to help others when we study the Word 27:33 and hide it in our hearts. 27:34 I really liked that point you just made. 27:36 And I'm going to toss this out there just for, 27:38 just for some conversation here. 27:40 How many times in your walk with the Lord or in life 27:42 do you find yourself in a situation 27:44 where the devil is tempting you? 27:46 Or you find yourself in a tempting situation? 27:50 But immediately the Word of God comes to your mind. 27:54 Does that ever happen to you? Oh, yeah. 27:56 Where it's like, you know, because again, 27:57 the Bible says that the spirit of truth 27:59 will bring all things to your remembrance. 28:00 Okay. 28:02 So you look at John Chapter 14, and John Chapter 16, 28:04 Jesus is talking about the spirit of truth, 28:06 and now He will bring all things to our memory, 28:07 He will lead us and guide us into all truth. 28:10 I often find myself, you know, as a Christian, 28:13 as a professed Christian, someone who, who, 28:16 I want to believe in little word, 28:17 I want to live my life according to the Lord. 28:19 And I'm in this walk with the Lord. 28:21 Does that mean that the enemy is going to lay off of me? 28:24 No, he's going to try and attack harder. 28:26 How much more 28:27 does the devil attack a man of God 28:29 versus someone who's not a man of God? 28:32 Yeah. 28:33 It could be no more than just a game to him. 28:36 Oh, he didn't. 28:37 He didn't go for this. 28:39 Put it behind door number three. 28:41 I bet he didn't pick the three. 28:44 But I mean, no, you're exactly right there. 28:47 And I think that most people probably say 28:49 this happens daily. 28:52 And I think that one thing that we probably should do 28:55 is activate that. 28:57 Whenever you have that, 28:58 if he bring something to your mind, 29:00 it doesn't hurt to verbalize that. 29:03 Just to make sure, just to make it firm, 29:06 that you can call on this. 29:08 Thank You, Jesus, 29:09 you know, but thank You for Your Word for this. 29:12 Absolutely. 29:13 The one thing that we have to share 29:15 is our testimony. 29:16 That's right. 29:18 And, boy, when we can get excited, 29:19 because let me tell you what happened yesterday. 29:22 I saw the enemy scampering off. 29:26 Now, and the reason being is because of ABC, 29:30 because I got to use the Scripture. 29:32 Wow. 29:33 That's amazing. I mean... 29:35 Yeah. Men of the Word. 29:37 You know, going back to Matthew 4:4, 29:40 when as you're talking, 29:41 we're talking about like 29:43 every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, 29:45 I think about the time when Jesus was tempted, 29:48 and what Satan will do is he may give you 99.9%, 29:53 but he'll throw in . 01% of that twist in there. 29:57 If you're not on every word 29:59 that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, 30:02 then you can get twisted up. 30:03 Wow. That's a good point. 30:05 So that's crucial. 30:06 Yeah, you know, if I took, 30:08 you know, that's not a lot of water there. 30:10 But I mean, that's at least a couple of gulps for me, 30:13 if I took just a small drop of cyanide, 30:18 would that be safe to drink? 30:19 I don't think anybody would drink that 30:21 even though if you were to do 30:23 the ratio between water and cyanide, 30:25 it would come to probably 99.9% is water 30:28 to that . 01 percent of whatever of cyanide. 30:32 No one in their right mind would go... 30:34 I just watched you put cyanide in it 30:35 and I'm not drinking that. 30:36 But yet how often, 30:38 just to go further on your point here. 30:39 How often do we settle 30:42 for the 99% of truth 30:46 along with the . 1% error? 30:50 And you know what? 30:51 Sometimes that 99.9% of truth comes with comfortability 30:57 because we don't conform to the Word of God, 31:00 rather we try and conform 31:02 the Word of God to our lifestyle, 31:04 and that's you know. 31:05 Which now brings us to Ben's scripture. 31:09 Ben, why don't you read 2 Timothy 4:1-5, 31:12 because we're about to get into Paul being, 31:15 you know, what can we learn from Paul, 31:17 about being a man of God, 31:19 but in this case, Paul is writing, 31:21 and he's telling us on how important truth is 31:24 or how important the Word of the Lord is, 31:26 in reference to being a man of God 31:27 or applying that, so read that. 31:29 This is 2 Timothy 4:1-5. 31:31 Says, "I charge you therefore before God 31:33 and the Lord Jesus Christ, 31:35 who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing 31:37 and His kingdom: 31:38 Preach the word! 31:40 Be ready in season and out of season." 31:42 I like the King James Version says be instant in season, 31:45 I like that. 31:47 "Convince, rebuke, exhort, 31:49 with all longsuffering and teaching. 31:51 For the time will come 31:52 when they will not endure sound doctrine, 31:54 but according to their own desires, 31:56 because they have itching ears, 31:58 they will heap up for themselves teachers, 32:01 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, 32:03 and be turned aside to fables. 32:06 But you be watchful in all things, 32:09 endure afflictions, 32:11 do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." 32:16 So before we dive into this, 32:18 the significance of this passage is it, 32:21 this is Paul writing to Timothy. 32:22 This is almost like 32:24 his final farewell statement to Timothy. 32:28 Timothy's young, he's growing into, 32:29 he's been kind of shadowing Paul. 32:31 Paul's been teaching him 32:32 and leading him and guiding him. 32:34 I kind of think of, 32:35 you know, mine and JD's relationship here. 32:37 You know, JD will come into my office sometimes 32:39 and he'll just share things with me. 32:41 And he'll tell me a story and then walk out. 32:44 And then I'll be sitting there for 20 minutes, 32:46 just contemplating those deep thoughts and words. 32:48 You know, Paul was a teacher to Timothy. 32:50 And this is kind of his farewell address, 32:51 kind of his, you know, 32:53 he's put the cherry on the ice cream type, 32:55 type address. 32:56 And in his farewell he's saying, 32:58 Timothy, above all things, let me tell you, 33:00 always be remembered in 33:02 or be reminded to preach the Word, 33:04 be instant in season and out. 33:06 What does that mean? 33:07 What is he saying when he's saying 33:09 be instant in season and out of season? 33:11 Or in this case, 33:13 and this is the New King James Version, 33:14 where he's saying, 33:15 be ready in season and out of season. 33:17 So what does it mean? 33:18 What does it mean to be ready 33:20 or to be instant in season and out of season? 33:22 Well, you would assume that's not a good word. 33:27 But, that you need to be prepared at all times, 33:31 you need to be a good scout. 33:33 You know, if you're Boy Scout, Cub Scout, 33:36 if you're a Pathfinder Adventurer, 33:39 be ready. 33:40 Know that you know that you know who you are. 33:43 And if you don't know, 33:44 I do know somebody that does know, 33:46 and I knew know that 33:48 that person will put it on your heart. 33:50 And then to me, 33:53 one of, boy, this is not a prop. 33:58 This is not heresy and it's not hypocrisy. 34:03 Some of the best news that I know 34:05 is that He will bring back to my remembrance 34:09 things that I need to know at the right time. 34:11 So not only is He saying, JD, you be ready in season, 34:15 out of season, 34:16 because I'll be ready in season and out of season. 34:20 And so there's where, oh, Lord, I'm counting on you. 34:25 You know, I'm, you know, 34:27 sometimes you'll make a deal or whatever, 34:30 you know, and you make the deal in faith. 34:32 And just hope that, 34:35 you know that this that that shared, 34:38 but basically be ready. 34:40 Absolutely. 34:41 Well, I was going to say, 34:43 you know, working in production, 34:45 there are various times, 34:47 almost every day it seems 34:48 something unpredictable happens, 34:50 whether it's during a program or before a program 34:52 or after a program. 34:54 And so, we have to be adaptable, 34:56 and be ready to, 34:58 you know, address those problems 35:00 or those things that may come up. 35:01 So it's the same thing with the Word of God. 35:02 We got to be ready 35:04 every single minute of our lives 35:05 because there may be a situation 35:07 that the Holy Spirit wants us to, 35:10 you know, help someone with something. 35:12 So we got to be ready to speak truth to people. 35:15 Is there a time of the year 35:17 where the Bible 35:18 is more appropriate than others, 35:20 other seasons? 35:22 It's relevant year-round, every day, every second, 35:27 every minute of every hour. 35:29 You know, and talking about this, 35:31 I think about Acts Chapter 8, 35:33 and where Philip had an opportunity to witness. 35:38 Let me see if I can find the verse here, 35:41 Acts Chapter 8 and let's look at... 35:44 You're talking about the Ethiopian. 35:45 Yes, the Ethiopian. 35:48 And so let's look at verse 29. 35:50 "Then the Spirit said to Philip, 35:52 'Go near and overtake this chariot. 35:54 So Philip ran to him, 35:55 and heard him reading the Prophet Isaiah, 35:57 and said, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' 36:00 And he said, 'How can I, unless someone guides me?' 36:03 And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.' " 36:07 And then, so, they start reading, 36:09 you know, they read the Scripture, 36:10 he goes through it, it ends up in baptism. 36:14 But what if Philip wasn't ready? 36:16 What if Philip wasn't prepared? 36:18 What if Philip wasn't in season and out of season 36:21 ready to share his faith 36:24 to defend his faith and to share it, 36:27 and help the Ethiopian understand 36:30 what it was that he was reading. 36:32 I like Acts of the Apostles where it says, 36:34 "An angel guided Philip 36:35 to the one who was seeking for light 36:37 and who was ready to receive the gospel. 36:40 And today, angels will guide the footsteps of those workers, 36:44 who will allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify their tongues 36:47 and refine and ennoble their hearts, " 36:50 as found in Acts of the Apostles, 36:52 page 109. 36:54 I mean, we're going to have opportunity, 36:57 we have opportunities, we had opportunities 37:00 and we'll continue to get these opportunities 37:02 where we can be a witness, 37:04 but we need to be in the Word ourselves. 37:07 I personally use the word divine appointment. 37:10 That was a true divine appointment. 37:11 This was set up 37:12 before the foundation at the time. 37:15 And we had those opportunities daily that are set up, 37:19 sometimes, oh, I don't, I don't know, Lord, 37:22 I'm not going to do that because I'm not ready for. 37:24 I couldn't do a Bible study. 37:25 And he'd probably asked me a question I wouldn't know, 37:28 rather than just take a step of action, 37:31 and allow the appointment to be fulfilled. 37:34 That's right. Yeah. 37:35 It helps you learn too, like, 37:37 if somebody asks you something that you don't know, 37:40 you go find the answer. 37:41 Now you have it for the next time. 37:43 Amen. Amen. 37:45 One thing I want to, it's kind of related, 37:50 because when I was actually studying for this, 37:51 I misread, I misread the title, 37:54 where it says a man of God will be a man of the Word. 37:57 I read it as a man of God would be a man of His word. 38:01 And I think that's very important. 38:02 That is very important. 38:03 So I wrote down two scriptures here 38:05 that I thought were very important. 38:07 First is Exodus 20:16. 38:11 And this is in the New King James Version, 38:13 it says, "You shall not bear false witness 38:16 against your neighbor." 38:17 So a man of God will be a man that does not tell a lie 38:22 for any personal gain or anything. 38:24 So one, one wonderful story that I heard this morning, 38:29 as we were on our way to work was from your story hour, 38:32 and it was the story of a family 38:34 who was on vacation or something 38:36 and the son found a wallet with $1200 in it. 38:40 So I guess at the time, that was a lot of money, 38:42 like, that's a lot of money to some of us. 38:44 But the dad was trying to figure out 38:48 whether or not he should keep the money, 38:50 lie about it, or give it back. 38:52 And you hear the whole conflict, 38:55 you hear the devil telling him to keep it, 38:57 it's yours belonging, and you hear the spirit. 38:59 And then what happens that dad gave the man 39:03 who lost the wallet, the wallet, and he was blessed. 39:07 So when we try to lie 39:09 and try to gain certain favors and stuff, 39:12 it's not as sweet as wonderful as actually telling the truth. 39:18 And then God may reward us for our truthfulness. 39:23 But another thing is, what it says in Matthew 5:37, 39:28 this is a very important one, 39:29 because I think a lot of us don't think about it often, 39:33 but it needs to be thought about. 39:34 Where Jesus says, 39:36 "But let your yes be yes and your no, no, 39:40 for whatever is more than these is from the evil one." 39:44 So sometimes we, 39:47 you know, we say that we'll do something 39:49 or, you know, maybe ingest will say, 39:51 Oh, yeah, if something happens, blah, you know, XYZ. 39:57 So, if we're not, 39:59 if we're not going to make a promise to do something. 40:01 First of all, we should say 40:03 that, we shouldn't say that we're going to do it, 40:05 first of all, 40:07 but if we say, we're going to do it, 40:08 we best be doing it, lest we go, 40:11 we step out of that 40:13 and enter into the work of the evil one. 40:16 So it's very important that we're not liars 40:20 and that we're always truthful about what our intentions are. 40:23 If we intend to do something like, 40:25 let's say that a man intends to marry a woman. 40:27 If he says he's going to do it, he best be doing it 40:29 because if he doesn't, he's a liar and he's not, 40:32 he's made a promise that he wasn't willing to keep. 40:35 Okay. That's a good point. 40:36 In fact, all of it, you said so much to say there, 40:39 we could probably do a whole program 40:41 on everything you said. 40:43 But I want to respond 40:44 to what you just said there at the end, 40:46 talking about a man who's going to marry a woman. 40:49 Let's talk about a man who has married a woman. 40:53 Will a man of God be a godly husband? 40:57 And what does that mean? 40:59 Let's go to Ephesians Chapter 5. 41:01 Ephesians Chapter 5. 41:05 I have heard so many horrible stories. 41:08 And I don't want to go into those stories 41:10 to bring the mood of this, this wonderful program down. 41:13 But you know, I've heard so many stories. 41:15 What makes it very hard 41:17 for a lot of people is when somebody, 41:19 when a man is claiming to be a man of God, 41:22 he may be a pastor, he may be an elder, 41:24 he may be a deacon, he may be a minister, 41:26 he may be in the ministry of some kind, 41:29 but the man you see outside of the home 41:32 is different than the man in the home. 41:35 And this goes for not just, 41:37 you know, husbands for their wives, 41:39 but for anyone, even husbands and their children. 41:41 But for the sake of illustration, 41:42 talking about a man of God, 41:44 who has a wife will be a godly man, 41:47 and he will be a godly husband. 41:49 Ephesians Chapter 5, notice verses 23 through 25. 41:52 The Bible says, 41:53 "For the husband is head of the wife." 41:56 Now let's... 41:57 I want to come back to this and explain this in a moment. 42:00 A lot of wives these days have tried to avoid this text 42:03 because they don't like what they assume 42:05 that it means when in reality, 42:07 you just let the Bible speak for itself 42:08 and it tells you. 42:10 So here it is, "For the husband is the head of the wife, " 42:12 and then notice the correlation, 42:14 "as Christ is head of the church, 42:17 and He is the savior of the body. 42:21 Therefore," I love this, 42:23 "just as the church is subject to Christ, 42:26 so let the wives be 42:28 to their own husbands in everything." 42:30 But my friends don't miss this next part. 42:32 Verse 25 is key. 42:34 All of what we just said 42:36 falls under this next banner here. 42:38 Verse 25, "Husbands, love your wives, 42:42 just as Christ also loved the church 42:45 and gave Himself for her." 42:47 I don't often read this text, because for obvious reasons, 42:52 there may be someone watching this right now. 42:54 And it's like, Ah, you know, 42:55 my husband is not going to be the head, 42:57 you know, you're not going to be my boss, 42:58 you know, and we kind of look at it 43:00 in this worldly twisted way where, 43:01 you know, in recent times past in some cultures, 43:05 in some ways of life, to be, 43:07 you know, for the husband to be the head of the wife 43:08 meant for the husband to be the boss, 43:11 and woman go make me a sandwich. 43:12 And I know this because I actually lived with, 43:14 I actually had family, not lived with them. 43:17 But I actually had family in my, in my, 43:20 one of my sides of the family, where I saw this often, 43:23 and it happened to be, 43:24 this person happened to be a minister, a pastor. 43:27 And he would say things to his own wife, 43:28 the pastor's wife. 43:30 He would say things like, 43:31 "Woman, get in there and make me a sandwich." 43:32 Things like that. 43:34 And so when we read, 43:35 you know, many people have a sour taste 43:36 in their mouth for this particular text, 43:38 because they're looking at it 43:39 from the perspective of some people 43:41 who misuse and abuse what this is actually saying. 43:44 When you read it 43:45 from the perspective of verse 5, or 25, 43:47 excuse me, "Husbands love your wives, 43:49 just as Christ also loved the church 43:51 and gave himself for her." 43:52 How does Jesus treat His bride? 43:55 For one, He doesn't force. 43:57 Right. 43:58 Yeah, He doesn't force. 44:00 Out of love, you know, we love Him 44:01 because He first loved us. 44:03 Right, absolutely. 44:04 And so, you know, when it says 44:06 that the husband is the head of the wife, 44:07 I don't see that as in, you know, God is saying, 44:10 "Look, he's the boss of you. 44:11 And he's the boss." 44:13 I don't think that that's necessarily 44:14 what's being said here when you read it 44:16 from the perspective of verse 25. 44:17 You know what? 44:18 You praise God, I'm going to love my wife, 44:21 as Jesus loves, as Jesus loves the church. 44:24 I'm not her boss, 44:25 you know, we're equal on the same plain, 44:28 and praise the Lord 44:30 because I love her and I treat her the way 44:32 that Jesus treats me. 44:34 The relationship works out just right, 44:37 so that my wife will oftentimes come to me as, 44:40 as you would expect a wife would to her husband, 44:43 and she asked questions and she wants, 44:45 she wants my leadership. 44:47 She wants my guidance and I feel humbled by that, 44:49 not in I'm above you 44:51 and you're down here kind of way 44:53 but, man, praise the Lord 44:54 that my wife trusts me to be the man of God 44:56 that God has called me to be in the head of the household, 44:59 not from this, you know, slave perspective, 45:01 like, "I'm the man, I'm stronger than you, 45:02 bigger than you, better than you, 45:04 more powerful than you." 45:05 And Jesus has given me permission 45:07 to run over you remember, 45:08 you know, God didn't take Eve from the foot, 45:10 he took her from the rib, right? 45:12 We have to remind, 45:13 a man of God will be a godly husband. 45:16 I think some husbands can learn a lesson or two from this. 45:20 You know, a lot of women will fall away from the faith 45:23 and not be the godly women, 45:24 that they should be 45:26 because the man who claims to be a man of God 45:28 is not being the man of God that He should be. 45:31 Well, and that's why it's so important to know 45:32 biblical truth 45:34 and what that actually means 45:35 when you're reading specific verses 45:37 because Scripture is not to be used 45:39 in a way to manipulate people or to make them feel bad. 45:42 It's to be used in the way God meant it to be, 45:44 which is to show who Christ is. 45:48 So I think it's, I mean, 45:50 that's another aspect of it 45:51 is that's why we have to be studied up 45:53 and make sure we fully understand 45:55 what is meant by some of these verses. 45:57 Absolutely. Absolutely. 45:58 Again, fellows, we have just a little over 10 minutes. 46:02 I want to dive deep 46:03 as we're closing out this study here. 46:05 I want to dive deep 46:06 into probably the question of the hour. 46:10 We've covered so much great material 46:12 in these part one and part two. 46:15 But I want to ask the question, what can we learn from Christ, 46:20 about being a man of God, right? 46:22 If there was ever a man of all men, 46:26 who was a man of God more than anyone else, 46:29 it is the Son of God. 46:31 He was the greatest man of God. 46:33 And as I was preparing this lesson, 46:35 I found and I know this, again, we're not limiting, 46:38 you know, all of these points to just nine points. 46:41 But I found about nine central points 46:43 that we can learn from the teachings 46:44 in the life of the ministry of Jesus 46:46 about what it means to be a man or a woman of the Lord 46:50 or a person of God in these last days. 46:52 So I'm going to kind of just go through this quickly. 46:54 I'm going to give up some scriptures here. 46:55 We're going to read these points 46:56 and go through them 46:58 because I think Jesus has the most powerful lessons 47:00 as to what it means to be a man of God 47:01 in these last days. 47:03 So, Jay, why don't you take... 47:04 Jason, why don't you take Luke 9:59-62. 47:09 Brother, JD, we're going to jump over. 47:11 Why don't you jump over to Luke 14:26. 47:16 CJ, we're going to take John 6:66-69. 47:20 And if, Ben, you could be preparing 47:22 Mark 1:35. 47:26 So let's go back up to our main, 47:27 our first point here, 47:29 and that is that a man of God will commit 47:32 to following a greater authority. 47:35 Okay, that's a very important one. 47:37 So, Jay, take us to Luke Chapter 9. 47:39 And tell us what Jesus says there. 47:40 All right. Luke 9:59-62. 47:44 "Then He said to another, 'Follow Me.' 47:46 But he said, 'Lord, let me first go 47:48 and bury my father.' 47:50 Jesus said to him, 47:51 'Let the dead bury their own dead, 47:53 but you go and preach the kingdom of God.' 47:55 And another also said, 'Lord, I will follow You, 47:58 but let me first go and bid them farewell 48:00 who are at my house.' 48:02 But Jesus said to him, 48:03 'No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, 48:08 is fit for the kingdom of God.' " 48:11 So it's powerful that God calls us often, 48:14 and sometimes some, 48:17 some circumstances and in situations 48:19 that we may not want to be called from, 48:21 but we have to be willing as a man of God 48:23 to submit to His authority as the great leader that He is. 48:26 Appreciate you reading that, Jason. 48:29 Brother, why don't you take us to Luke 14:26. 48:32 And the point we're making here is that Jesus tells us, 48:36 He calls us, a man of God 48:38 will commit to sacrifice all else 48:41 in the shadow of discipleship, okay. 48:44 So you have to bring about a sacrifice in your life 48:47 to be a disciple of Jesus. 48:48 Luke 14:26. 48:51 Well, first of all, 48:52 this talks about being selfish or unselfish. 48:55 One means that do you know 49:00 that you know that you know 49:02 that what you're doing is right. 49:04 And then in following that, "If anyone comes to Me, " 49:07 that's with the capital M. 49:09 "If anybody comes to Jesus 49:10 and does not hate his own father and mother, 49:12 wife and children, brothers and sisters, 49:15 yes, and his own life, he cannot be My disciple." 49:20 That doesn't mean 49:21 that He's turning His back on us. 49:24 This just means that for his life, 49:27 I give my all. 49:30 And here we go back to his yes, yes, his no, no. 49:35 Let's don't step out because look at me, guys, 49:38 I'm crossing the line. 49:40 This is truly decision time 49:43 because you, He has a plan for your life. 49:47 That's right. Amen. 49:49 And if he has a plan for your life, 49:52 boy, aren't you fortunate 49:53 that you realize what it is and you can step out in faith. 49:57 That Jesus is saying, "I want to be your foundation." 49:59 That's right. Yes. 50:01 Oh, I like that. 50:02 When we make Christ our foundation, 50:04 He takes care of everything else. 50:05 That's right. That's right. 50:06 I love that. That's so good. 50:08 Point number three, 50:09 a man of God commits to determined 50:11 joyful obedience, so an obedient person. 50:14 And so, CJ, you have John 6:66-69. 50:19 And it says, "From that time many of His disciples went back 50:22 and walked with Him no more. 50:24 Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?' 50:27 But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? 50:32 You have the words of eternal life. 50:35 Also we have come to believe and know 50:37 that You are the Christ, 50:38 the Son of the living God.' " 50:41 And it's sad what you're seeing here, 50:43 because you have all these people 50:46 who are following Him, 50:47 but they're following Him for probably the wrong reasons. 50:50 Some of them were thinking, 50:51 because if you look at the Jewish Messiah 50:55 was meant to be in their minds, 50:58 some kind of great political military leader 51:00 to just like, take down the Romans. 51:03 You know, you think about, you think about 51:04 how the Maccabees tried to fight, 51:06 you know, the Greeks and the Romans, 51:08 and that was fine. 51:09 But then, then the Romans came in 51:11 and just took over everything. 51:13 And, you know, they wanted the Messiah 51:14 to be somebody 51:16 that was going to save them physically. 51:19 But that's not the purpose 51:21 like, yes, Christ can heal. 51:22 Christ can do all these physical things. 51:25 But His whole purpose, when you look at Matthew 1:21, 51:31 Gabriel tells Joseph, his name is going to be Jesus, 51:33 for He shall save His people from their sins. 51:36 And so we see that in Peter's declaration, 51:39 Lord, to whom shall we go? 51:41 You have the words of eternal life. 51:43 It's all about salvation with disciples. 51:46 It's nothing more than complete commitment 51:49 because He can save them. 51:51 Amen. Praise the Lord. 51:53 I like that point. That's a great point. 51:55 Mark 1:35, 51:56 I'll let you read it, and we'll make the point. 51:58 Right. 51:59 "Now in the morning, 52:00 having risen a long while before daylight, 52:02 He went out and departed to a solitary place, 52:05 and there He prayed." 52:07 So the point number four, based on that scripture, 52:10 man of God will commit to spiritual discipline. 52:12 Jesus often isolated Himself to go away and pray, right? 52:15 And we see that example that we should also be, 52:18 we should be disciplined in our walk with the Lord, 52:21 that You know what? 52:22 Sometimes we just need to break away. 52:23 We need to get away from all the chaos 52:26 and all the busyness of life and the busyness of the world. 52:29 We just need to break away and spend some time 52:31 alone with the Lord 52:33 and that's what we're seeing here 52:34 with Jesus, you know. 52:35 I love that before daylight, before all the, 52:38 even the chickens were crowing, right? 52:40 Jesus is spending time with the Lord. 52:42 Well, and I remember a sermon. 52:44 I won't say who preached it. 52:45 But there was an individual 52:47 who preached this beautiful sermon 52:48 on this verse. 52:49 And it was so amazing, 52:51 because he was showing that 52:52 even Christ who was the Son of God, 52:54 even Christ who knew Scripture, 52:56 and basically wrote the Scripture 52:57 and all that, 52:59 even He needed time to spend with His Father. 53:01 So if He needed time to spend with His Father, 53:03 think how much more time 53:04 we need to spend with the Father. 53:06 Right, right. 53:07 So I thought, man, 53:08 that's just a powerful, powerful point. 53:10 Beautiful. I love that. I love that. 53:12 Our fifth point here, though, again, learning from Christ, 53:14 what it means to be a man of God. 53:16 We learned from Jesus 53:17 that a man of God commits to abide 53:19 in the word of truth, 53:21 which we've kind of established that already 53:22 but for the sake of this, I'll read John 8:31-32. 53:26 It says, "Then Jesus said to those Jews 53:28 who believed Him, 53:30 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 53:33 And you shall know the truth, 53:35 and the truth shall make you free." 53:37 I like that. 53:38 Jesus is the way the truth and the life. 53:40 So we will be committed to the Word of God 53:42 if we are men of God. 53:44 Also point number six, 53:46 He commits to growth and production, 53:48 especially spiritual fruit. 53:51 Jason, why don't you read John 15:8 there? 53:53 Sure thing. 53:54 "By this My Father is glorified, 53:56 that you bear much fruit, so you will be My disciples." 54:00 Absolutely. 54:01 So again, we need to bear the spiritual fruit. 54:03 And we cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit 54:06 if we're not humbled and being led 54:08 and guided by the Holy Spirit. 54:10 So again, we need to make sure 54:12 that we are growing and producing spiritual fruit 54:15 for the Lord. 54:17 Brother JD, Matthew 28:19-20. 54:20 There's a lesson we can learn here. 54:22 Let's read that. 54:23 "Go therefore and make disciples 54:24 of all the nations, 54:26 baptizing them in the name of the Father, 54:28 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 54:29 teaching them to observe all things 54:32 that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, 54:36 even to the end of the age." 54:39 Wow, that's telling us exactly what to do. 54:42 Number one, you are special. 54:44 I have created you. 54:46 I have teached you to observe all things. 54:48 And if you're going to start the race, 54:49 I want you to finish the race. 54:51 I don't want you to get out there and decide, 54:54 well, this is not what I want to do, 54:56 because we can call upon Him. 54:58 He will empower us, 55:00 He will infuse His inner strength into us 55:01 to get through the race. 55:03 That's right. 55:04 I love that 55:06 because a man of God is going to commit 55:07 to God's mission and finishing His work. 55:10 And I love what Brother JD just said, 55:11 you know 55:12 if you're going to start the race, 55:14 finish the race, right? 55:15 Praise the Lord. 55:17 CJ, point number eight, 55:18 He commits to love others faithfully, 55:21 John 13:34-35. 55:23 I'm ready. 55:24 "A new commandment I give to you, 55:25 that you love one another, 55:27 as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 55:31 By this all will know that you are My disciples, 55:34 if you have love for one another." 55:37 So we have to have love. 55:38 You cannot be a disciple of Jesus, 55:40 you cannot be a man or woman of God 55:42 unless you produce the fruit of love. 55:45 And I love that when it list the fruit of the, 55:47 fruits of the Spirit there in Galatians. 55:48 It says the fruit of the Spirit is love. 55:51 And you could just put a colon right after that. 55:53 Love colon 55:54 everything else behind that describes love, right? 55:57 We have love for one another, 55:58 then yes, we are His disciples, we are men of God. 56:00 And let me say this real quick, that all will know. 56:05 That's what you've been with Jesus. 56:08 That's right. Amen. 56:10 I mean all will know. 56:11 It's not, hey, 56:12 that guy's a little weird over there. 56:14 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 56:15 Coming down to our, 56:17 little over a minute here we have left. 56:18 Ben, why don't you read Hebrews 10:24-25. 56:21 We'll make our final point. 56:23 All right, "And let us consider one another 56:24 in order to stir up love and good works, 56:27 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together 56:29 as is the manner of some but exhorting one another. 56:33 And so much the more 56:34 as you see the day approaching." 56:37 I like that. 56:38 And point number nine to be a man of God. 56:41 We learned from the Word 56:42 that we that a man of God will commit 56:44 to brotherhood and community, my friends. 56:46 That's what we're doing here. 56:48 That's what Family Worship, 56:49 what's 3ABN Family Worship is all about. 56:51 And we hope that that's what the family worships 56:53 in your home is all about. 56:55 It's all about coming together, 56:56 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together 56:59 and just diving deep into the Word of the Lord. 57:02 And to be there to encourage each other. 57:04 Amen. Praise the Lord. 57:06 Fellows, I've had a good time. Good time. 57:08 We have ended our study 57:11 on what it means to be a man of God. 57:13 We thank you so much for joining us 57:15 and taking the time out of your busy day again 57:17 to dive deep into the Word of God. 57:19 We encourage you to continue to study the Word of the Lord, 57:21 be a man of God. 57:23 God is calling you to be a man and a woman of the Lord. 57:26 Get in the Word. 57:27 Allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you. 57:29 And, of course, until next time, 57:31 we hope God blesses you abundantly each and every day. 57:34 Have a good day. God bless. |
Revised 2020-10-17