The Kind of Men We Need

The Advance Conference recently took place in Raleigh, NC to help train Christians all around the world to have both a "faithful & fruitful" ministry in their daily lives. You can listen or watch all the sessions from the conference here.

John Bryson's session was on the kind of men we need today. I have had the pleasure of listening to a lot of talks on biblical manhood, but this was honestly the best I have ever heard. John Bryson is so good at getting to the heart of men by both convicting and encouraging with the grace of God.

Below are some brief notes I took from his session on men. Please check out his 30 minute session below. It is well worth those 30 minutes. Men, those 30 minutes might change the rest of your life. Invest eternally.

 

8 Realities of Men Today

1.) Men are confused

There is no pathway from boyhood to manhood. When do you become a man? We don't know and thus manhood is reduced in our culture to boyish behavior (when you turn 18, can drink, can drive, have sex for the first time, etc.), instead of an authentic call and vision for life from God.

2.) Men are experiencing a general disappointment with life

Men, generally, thought life was going to give them more opportunities and be more fulfilling as they got older. Men aren't sure what to do with this disappointment. Purpose is drained out and adventure and vision is all but gone.

3.) Men are in pain

This is a pain that's not resolved. Men don't talk about this pain and their hurts. "What is your deepest hurt?" is rarely asked and men are thus wounded and unsure where to take this pain that seems to never go away.

4.) Men are lonely

This one is a little strange with all the communication and technological advances in the world today. However, as technology has increased, intimacy has decreased. The typical American male "knows" everyone, but is not known by anyone.

5.) Men are drifting

Men because of the confusion, pain, disappointment, and loneliness have no internal vision for their life. Men continue to react to life as it comes. They are at best playing defense, while no offense is occurring.

 6.) Men will turn to escapes to numb these realities.

Men go after things to numb their confusion, pain, disappointment, and loneliness in order to stay away from these realities. That's why men are workaholics, sports fanatics, indulge in excessive alcohol, angry, and easily drawn to pornography over and over again.

7.) Confused men cause problems

There is nothing more dangerous than an insecure, ungrounded man set adrift in this world. Gender, alone, is the single greatest predictor of crime in this country. All of societies problems can be rooted back to what's gone wrong with men.

8.) Without a Gospel centered vision of manhood, men will settle for less and less in life.

God has wired men to make a difference. To take initiative for the benefit of others. Men are wired to be givers, not takers. Everywhere Jesus went in the gospels, things got better, as it should be with men today. So many men are aggressive and ambitious in all the things that don't matter, and completely flat lined in all the things that do .

The standard in our culture for men has been set at: give your family a roof over their head and food on the table. Even Possums do that. We need better men.

The world needs men who:

a.) reject passivity

b.) accept responsibility

c.) lead courageously

d.) Invest eternally

The only way we can do this is not just looking at the example of Jesus, who did all of this for us when we couldn't, but also allowing Jesus to work in and through us. Jesus isn't just a good example of manhood, he is manhood. Without him, we will be boys, no matter what our age, accomplishments, or successes. 

Boys take. Men give. Boys create problems, Men solve them. Boys complain.Men figure it out. Boys pout. Men endure. Boys blame. Men own. Boys wish. Men do. Boys start. Men finish. Boys stiffen their neck. Men bend their knee to their savior.

Holocaust, Abortion, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

If you haven't seen this movie yet, please check it out. It will absolutely take your breath away.

How to Preach the Gospel to Yourself Every Day

"Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?" (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

"No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to yourself more than you do." (Paul David Tripp)

"Every day, we are faced with 2 simple choices: we can either listen to ourselves and our constantly changing feelings about our circumstances, or we can talk to ourselves about the unchanging truth of who God is and what He's accomplished for us at the cross. The cross centered life starts with cross-centered days." (CJ Mahaney)

 So how in the world do I preach the gospel to myself?

The following is adapted from Joe Thorn's book Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

When we preach the gospel to ourselves we are essentially denying self and resting in the grace of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection. But this means we have to know how the gospel addresses our current spiritual state, whether happy, sad, afraid, broken, proud, weak, or self-righteous. 

Jesus is Your Righteous (His Life)

The life of Jesus offers hope to the broken, to those who recognize their inability to keep God's law, and to those who are frustrated with their fallings and failings. The gospel is the life of Jesus for sinners. His righteousness is our righteousness, and this give us hope and confidence before God (2 Cor. 5:21)

Jesus is Your Forgiveness (His Death)

The death of Jesus offers hope to those who are overcome with guilt by offering cleansing and acceptance. Though we are sinners, God will not count our sins against us (Rom. 8:1) because of Christ's substitutionary death on the cross for us.

Jesus is Your Victory (His Resurrection)

The resurrection of Jesus offers courage and strength to persevere because his victory over sin and death is ours both in this life and the one to come. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, sanctifies us, and empowers us to follow Christ and serve the mission of the church. 

Preaching to yourself demands asking a lot of questions, both of God's Word and especially of yourself. You will have to ask and be honest about you motives, struggles, and needs. You will need to clarify to yourself what God's law means, but also what it requires specifically of you. You will need to ask how the gospel meets your needs and heals your brokenness. To preach to yourself is to challenge yourself, push yourself, and point yourself to the truth. It is not so much uncovering new truth as much as it is reminding yourself of the truth you so often forget. 

 

Jesus Doesn't Regret Saving You

Enjoy this sermon jam from Matt Chandler and remember His grace that is lavished on you, even now in your darkest of sins.

4 Mistakes I Hope You Don't Make

As I approach graduation in May, there are a lot of things that I wish I would have known throughout my college days. These 4 common mistakes in our culture would have been extremely helpful to know in my journey. I hope they help you in whatever journey you are on.

The following post is adapted from John Piper's message from a college graduation delivered May 13, 2007.



"I don't feel excited when I hear a question like: "You want to be a firefighter? Why are you in college?" "You want to be a homemaker? Why are you in college?"

So I'm here to try to share a little wisdom and and I could care less -- as long as it's not sin -- what vocation you use this wisdom in.

Mistake #1 : Big is better than small

God uses little David-like people to accomplish huge Goliath-like things because he is jealous to get the credit.

Mistake #2 : New is better than old.

Read old books. You need the wisdom of the ages to combat the folly of the present.
In school, it doesn't matter what you major in. Just find the wisest teachers and take everything from them. When great changes happen, its not from new ideas. the reformation was a great leap forward precisely by going backward.

Mistake #3: Having is better than being.

There's no correlation between the fullness of life and the muchness of having.

Don't reduce you life to acquring things. Study, make decisions, and live to become and behold, not to be rich.

Mistake #4 : Visible is better than invisible.

The most important things are not visible. God is invisible and he is the greatest reality of all. If you structure your life around sight, it will be out of touch with reality.

Be not be much interested in outward appearance. Be interested in inner realities.

If God is God -- and he is --small with him is better than big with anybody. His old things are bettter than anybody's new things. Being his child is better than having the world. And better to be blind with the invisible God than to see everything without Him.

Cause I Gotta Have Faith

Faith is a word that is used constantly in the Bible and in our daily lives, but rarely explained and hard to define. The Bible defines it as "the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1), but that is also hard to understand and think about. We know we need faith in Jesus for salvation, so this is a word we not only need to know about, but also be able to build our life on it.

This is the best definition of faith I've ever heard and it comes from my boy J.C. Ryle and his insight from the theme of faith all throughout scripture:

'Saving faith is the hand of the soul. The sinner is like a drowning man at the point of sinking. He sees the Lord Jesus Christ holding out to help to him. He grasps it and is saved. This is faith (Hebrews 6:18).'

'Saving faith is the eye of the soul. The sinner is like the Israelite bitten by the fiery serpent in the wilderness, and at the point of death. The Lord Jesus Christ is offered to him as the brazen serpent set up for his cure. He looks and is healed. This is faith (John 3:14).'

'Saving faith is the mouth of the soul. The sinner is starving for want of food, and sick of a sore disease. The Lord Jesus Christ is set before him as the bread of life, and the universal medicine. He receives it, and is made well and strong. This is faith (John 6:35).'

'Saving Faith is the foot of the soul. The sinner is pursued by a deadly enemy, and is in fear of being overtaken. The Lord Jesus Christ is put before him as a strong tower, a hiding place, and a refuge. He runs into it and is safe. This is faith (Proverbs 18:10).'

"It is not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that actually saves you." (Tim Keller)

"If we are faithless, he remains faithful -- for he cannot deny himself" (2 Timothy 2:13)

The Fullness of Life

"For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace." (John 1:16)

"In our lives and churches today we don't have the gospel wrong, really. We just have it shallow. We see the gospel as the ABCs of salvation, but not the A to Z for all of life. We like that the gospel gets our sins forgiven and gives us a ticket to heaven, but we're not sure of its functionality in our lives every day. We're content to keep the gospel at an elementary level, assuming that we graduate from it, and the sad result is we thereby deny the 'grace upon grace.'The further into the gospel we go the bigger it gets. We can not wear it out. When Jesus came we got all of him. Not a bit of him was held back from us." -- Jared Wilson

We love the idea of living a full life, eating a full meal, or experiencing a full day. We're scared of one bit of our lives being empty so what do we do? We fill it with finite things that can never fill the infinite gap of eternity in our hearts (Eccl. 3:11). The gospel of Jesus Christ is so much bigger and so much more filling that we are seeing it as right now in our churches, in our bible studies, and in our day to day lives. We need a bigger, grandeur view of the Gospel.

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." (Isaiah 55:1)

In this passage, Isaiah compares the gospel of Jesus Christ to three different drinks that we use for all of life. In doing so he's announcing to the people, "the Gospel is everything we ever need and more." 

1.) Water (quenching your thirst)
When you are most thirsty, most desperate, and most dehydrated, its water that you want and nothing else.

2.) Milk (quenching your weakness)
When someone is grasping for life, you give them water. But when you want a little baby to grow day after day, you give it milk again and again. God is not just for emergencies and mountain peaks. He is for health, strength, and substantiation in the long haul. He invited you not only to come alive with water, but also to be stable and strong with milk.

3.) Wine (quenching your boredom)
Everyone wants to live and not die. No matter how serious, unemotional, and laid-back we may seem to others, there is a child inside everyone of us that God made for joy -- shouting, dancing, singing, playing, skipping, jumping, and laughing. God is not after your begrudging submission, but rather your joy in all of life.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:2)

Why are we not full of the Gospel? We choose to spend our time trying to find fullness in the fleeting pleasures of this world that leave us far more emptier than we could ever imagine. We don't see God's "steadfast love as better than life" (Psalm 63:3) because the newest reality TV show is on, or UK plays at 9, or twitter is demanding all my attention right now. Listen to C.S. Lewis and the Word of God and come home to the fullness of life and the fountain of pleasures in God forevermore.


"Indeed if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. " (C.S. Lewis "The Weight of Glory)