We have 7 in ’11 tomorrow, Saturday April 9th, at 7AM at the church.
We continue our series on the seven deadly sins and how they are fought with the Gospel by hearing Kevin Evenson teach about Lust. We will keep our basic format of brief breakfast and fellowship time, followed by teaching and prayer. Join us.
There were a couple of great resources on the web yesterday on manhood and issues related thereunto…
The DG Live Interview with Darrin Patrick, author of Church Planter
Also, the Art of Manliness have posted their holiday gift guide. Lots of fun stuff there.
From Tullian…
He offers these for the men of his church “to understand and embody the life-giving power of the Gospel in their daily lives.”
Do you rejoice in position, power, accomplishments, entitlement, control, degrees, knowledge, status, authority, numbers, and rank?
Or do you rejoice in service, mercy, sacrifice, pastoral care, love, prayer, prudence, grace, relationships, and repentance?
Are you proud or humble? Do you put others before yourself?
Do you find your daily security and significance in your own accomplishments or in Christ’s accomplishment for you?
Do you seek first place or last place? Do you boast on yourself or on Christ? Do you talk about yourself a lot? Are you prone to envy and do you get defensive easily?
Do you weep with those who weep? Do you love people and look for opportunities to serve and shepherd them? Do you revel in self-confidence or self-sacrifice?
Do you have people in your life that you confess specific instances of sin? Do the people in your life find it easy to correct you?
This is what true Biblical manhood looks like. Examine your heart and where it is found lacking…REPENT!
Answered by Mark Driscoll…
(HT: Z)
Related to yesterday’s sermon, watch this video and here Alice Cooper talk about how to love your wife. The 2:00 minute mark is when he answers that question in particular:
(HT: Challies)
Today’s sermon, Lordship for Husbands, from Colossians 3:19 is now online. The sermon sought to flesh out the implications of Jesus being Lord for the husband. It seems that the compelling vision of Colossians 3:17 where we read that whatever we do in word or deed, we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus is actually meant to be applied to husbands in their role as well.
So, the sermon was pretty simple with 2 ways a husband honors Jesus as Lord:
1) … by loving their wives
and 2) … by not being bitter toward their wives
To help with application, we got special permission from Focus Publications to copy Stuart Scott’s chapter The Husband’s Responsibility: Love from his book The Exemplary Husband. If you didn’t get a copy and are interested in one, let me know.
Hope you have a great week living out Christlike love for your spouse.
This morning, I opened my email inbox and had minutes from the latest Men’s Ministry meeting. One thing they seemed to be burdened about is the need for men to be discipled, a need that, no doubt, exists and they are seeking to intentionally serve.
I was reminded of this helpful free E-book online at The Resurgence. The book is entitled Fight Clubs by Jonathan Dobson. It is a fairly easy read (I read it in about 30 minutes) full of what practical discipleship looks like in the local church. The book is a free resource and here’s a blip of what they write on their site:
If you’ve struggled to follow Jesus by veering away from the gospel into duty-bound legalism or moralistic indifference, then this book is for you! Fight Clubs is a radical call to fight the fight of faith in the strength of the gospel. Jonathan Dodson calls us to join the fight against sin, legalism, and license by looking to Christ and His gospel. Fight Clubs equips us to fight the fight of faith by exposing the fleeting promises of sin and drawing us into the grace-saturated promises of God. Displacing defective forms of discipleship, Dodson keeps the gospel central by tapping into various layers of biblical motivations that promote joyful obedience to Christ. The book also provides a strategy to fight sin as the church—small fighting communities called Fight Clubs. Read this book; form a fight club; and start fighting in the strength of the gospel.
I commend this to you for your consideration.
Thabiti tipped me off to these marks adapted from an article by Al Mohler:
1. Spiritual maturity sufficient to lead a wife and children.
2. Personal maturity sufficient to be a responsible husband and father.
3. Economic maturity sufficient to hold an adult job and handle money.
4. Physical maturity sufficient to work and protect a family.
5. Sexual maturity sufficient to marry and fulfill God’s purposes.
6. Moral maturity sufficient to lead as example of righteousness.
7. Ethical maturity sufficient to make responsible decisions.
8. Worldview maturity sufficient to understand what is really important.
9. Relational maturity sufficient to understand and respect others.
10. Social maturity sufficient to make a contribution to society.
11. Verbal maturity sufficient to communicate and articulate as a man.
12. Character maturity sufficient to demonstrate courage under fire.
13. Biblical maturity sufficient to lead at some level in the church.
I really benefited from hearing Mark Driscoll’s sermon “The Biblical Man” this morning. I was tipped off to this, when I saw that Tony Reinke had produced a worksheet to coincide with the talk. Good stuff on both ends.
Mark Driscoll has written a book entitled, Pastor Dad. Enjoy! Evidently the book is targeted to fathers being the men and leaders God has called them to be. If I didn’t mention it, the book is available for free online.