Turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 16, First Corinthians
16. Now tonight's little study
together I'm calling what kind of man are you?
And this is both what kind of man are we now, but also what
kind of man is God transforming us into.
Some of us are young in age, some of us are older in age.
Some of us are young in the Lord, even though we might be
older in age, but the Lord is transforming us and what a, what
a blessing that is. Sometimes, what a challenge that
is the right, sometimes transformation can be, can be
hard. 1st Corinthians 16, we're actually just going to read 2
verses together. It's verses 13 and 14.
Now this, this, this portion is right in the midst of Paul's
final instructions to the church in Corinth.
And it's where he gives his greetings to to the people in
Corinth from different people that he's ministered with.
And right in the midst of that, we get these two powerful verses
of exhortations for us. And my prayer is that it'll,
it'll hit you as it hit me this week.
I'm going to read it for you. And then we're going to pray as
we come to the word 1st Corinthians 16, starting at
verse 13. Watch, stand fast in the faith,
be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with
love. The Heavenly Father, as we come
to your word this night as men we ask you, Lord, that you would
challenge us, that You would encourage us if we need
nurturing. Lord, that you would nurture us.
We ask this night that each one of us that you would speak
something into our hearts and into our lives tonight from your
word. We pray in the Lord Jesus Christ
name and all God's people said Amen.
So I want us to imagine a reality and I'm not being
fanciful here, but imagine a reality where where actually
these verses are true. Watch.
Stand fast in the faith. Be brave, be strong.
Let all that you do be done with love.
Imagine a place where all the people of God are actually doing
those things. We're watching.
We're standing firm in the faith.
We're being brave, we're being strong.
We're doing all things with love.
I don't know about you guys, but sometimes within the church,
even we're not very good at loving each other well.
And that's a real challenge, especially when conflict arises.
But if we did these things, what would our families look like?
What would our church look like? What would this church look
like? What would our communities look
like if we were genuinely doing those things as believers?
But instead, when we look around, what do we see?
I'm going to read to you Matthew 24, verse 12.
I'm going to jump around a little bit.
Don't feel like you need to follow in your Bible because we
are going to keep coming back to that verse that you've got up.
So stick with me there. But I'm going to read to you.
Matthew 24, verse 12 says this. And because lawlessness will
abound, the love of many will grow cold.
This is the character of the the age of the tribulation period,
but it honestly, it's the character of this age we're in
now in the lead up through that love within within our country,
within our towns, within our communities, and sadly at times
even within our church is growing cold.
Don't know if you guys feel that Two Timothy 31 says this, but
know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come
for men. Doesn't matter how old you are,
but this is you and me for men. And I want you to try to see who
you are in this because we're all a little bit broken.
And God, God reaches in where we're at.
But I want you to be real with yourself tonight.
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boasters, proud blasphemers. Have you seen yourself yet?
I've already seen myself disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without
self control, brutal despisers of good traitors, headstrong,
haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having
a form of godliness but denying its power.
And from such people turn away. Did you see yourself in those
verses, men? First Corinthians 11/3 I want
you to know that the head of every man.
This is totally the opposite of what I just read to you.
First Corinthians 11/3 I want you to know that the head of
every man is Christ. You aware of that?
That the head of you is Christ. You're no longer your own
anymore. You're not in control of your
life. Christ is.
The head of every woman is man and the head of Christ is God,
man. Just as we are under Christ's
headship. In the same way you are the head
of your family. If you don't have a family or
you're too young to have a family, one day you will be the
head of your family. For the young ones among us, up
the front and up the back. This is who the Lord is calling
you into as a man. We are called to be spiritual
leaders of our families and we're called to be spiritual
leaders of the family of God. That's really important that we
understand that. So let's let's start with this
together. And this is a little bit odd
even for me, but we're going to, we're actually going to start
with the end 1st. And you'll see as as we go
through why I'm doing that. But let all that you do be done
with love. Let all that you do be done with
love. Turn with me to Matthew 22 verse
36. If you've got your Bible,
Matthew 22, verse 36. Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the law, Jesus said to him, You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and
with all your mind. This is the first and great
commandment, and the second is like it.
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
We are called to love God with all of ourselves, and we're
called to love our neighbours as ourselves.
So let's look at this together, because what we just read, men,
is that we are called to be the spiritual leaders in our homes,
in our families, in our churches.
This starts with yourself. You see what that says there in
in Matthew 22? We are to love God.
That's the first, that's the great commandment.
We are to love God. So that's about your spiritual
relationship with the Lord, if I can put it that way.
This is loving the Lord your God.
But then after that man, we're called to love and spiritually
lead our wives, and then after that spiritually lead our
children and then after that spiritually lead our family of
God, our church. I would argue in that order very
clearly, very plainly. So let's start with your own
spiritual growth to start with your, your loving the Lord your
God. What does that look like?
Because you can't lead anyone to somewhere that you haven't gone
yet. That make sense?
If you haven't gone there, you can't lead anyone there.
And Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord
your God. So I've got some questions for
you tonight and I'm going to leave you with some of those
questions. I'm I'm going to answer some of
them, but I want you to sit with some of them.
The first one is this. Are you personally?
And I don't want you to answer me.
OK? So don't embarrass yourself or
anyone else. Just think it in your head.
Are you personally pursuing A deeper relationship with God
through His Word? Is that something that you're
doing? Are you doing that?
Does your family see that you're doing that daily?
Are you seeking God daily in His Word and through prayer?
Why is that such a hard thing? Who here, and this is a genuine
thing, show of hands, Who here has struggled with that at some
point in their life, at some point?
Have a look around, guys, keep your hands up, have a look
around. This is a real struggle.
We all struggle with this, but why is that?
It's a struggle, isn't it? I want to challenge you guys
tonight and ask you this question.
Do you give your first fruits to the Lord?
When you wake up, think to yourself, what is the first
thing that you do? And if the first thing you do is
pick up your phone and check Insta or whatever it is that you
do. If the first thing you do is go
and get a cuppa, sometimes a cuppa with the word of God is
nice, but are you giving God the first fruits of your day?
That's the first challenge for you.
We should be starting our day with the Lord first before
anything else. I'm going to read to you some
lyrics Who he has heard of Josiah Queen.
Some of the young fellas might. Yeah.
OK, everyone note the hands came from the back corner.
Josiah Queen. He he sung sung a song called
Dusty Bibles says this. I've been struggling to find
some Peace of Mind. It's the problem of our nation
and in our generation. We're too.
We're too busy and can't find the time.
Are we busy or is it all a lie? We got dust on our bibles by
brand new iPhones. No wonder why we feel this way.
We walk with our eyes closed, blind leading blind folks and
I'm done with these idols and dusty Bibles.
You only get this one life. I don't want to sit and watch it
pass me by. I'm so done being complacent.
There ain't no replacement. How true is that in our lives?
Sometimes the phone never gets dusty, does it always gets used
but the Bible a little more so I want to encourage you guys.
I, I did this at, I did this last year and I was horrified
when I did it. You will be equally horrified.
Do a screen time audit on your phone, maybe tomorrow, not when
you go home tonight. Do a screen time audit on your
phone. You're going to be horrified by
how much time in a given day do you spend on that phone.
When you extrapolate that out to a year, it'll be days that you
spend glued to that screen, days in your year, not just hours,
but days. The question is, can we say the
same about God's Word? Genuinely?
Two Timothy 316 says all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God, that's you and that's me, may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work because we can't do
anything apart from God, we can't do anything.
Psalm 100 and 19105 Your word, we know this one.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a lot to my path.
My question is, have you snuffed out that light or is the word of
God truly lighting up your path? Which is it for you?
Does your family? As a man, I'm talking about the
older men here, and as a young man, I'm talking about who you
growing to be. Does your family see your
relationship with God being your highest priority?
If you're young, you don't get a free pass here, all right?
And if you're old, you don't get a free pass here either.
Does your family, whatever stage you're at, see your relationship
with God being your highest priority?
Do they see you actively owning and putting your sin to death,
even if it means admitting it, confessing it, repenting of it,
asking for forgiveness? Men, until we own our own
spiritual growth, until it's a priority in our lives, we're not
going to be able to lead anyone else.
And honestly, it starts and ends to a certain extent in the word
of God. Till we abide with God, we can't
do that. We can't leave lead others
spiritually. So what about for those who have
wives? What about our wives now?
Because after loving God, what's the next thing that we have to
do? Not rhetorical.
Love God with all that you are. And then is anyone awake?
What's the next thing? Love your neighbour.
OK, For the men that are married, there's no closer
neighbour than your wife. No one is closer than your wife.
My question for you is, are you pursuing her?
Are you pursuing your wife? Do you know what's going on in
her life right now? Her cares, her victories, her
concerns? Do you know what's wrestling for
ground in her heart and her mind right at the moment?
Do you know those things? Are you leading her to God's
Word to encourage her? Are you leading her to prayer to
navigate and wrestle with the concerns but also the victories?
Are you initiating that with her?
Ephesians 525 Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved
the church. If you're not married, guys,
this is what you're working towards.
Verse 28. So husbands ought to love their
own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves
himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and
cherishes it, just as the Lord does the Church.
Many of you nourishing and cherishing your wife.
Are you giving yourself? Are you sacrificing of your own
wants and needs? A good friend of mine said to me
one time and I, I've latched onto it.
He said to me one time, Mike, when I get home, he's got a big
family. He has a number of kids, five I
think, maybe 6. Whenever he walked, whenever he
got home, before he walked through that door, he would take
a deep breath. You try and lay aside all of his
stresses, all of his concerns from the day because as soon as
he walks through that door, he has no idea what his wife's been
going through today. She may need to just thrust the
kids upon him because she's had a rough 1.
He would take a deep breath and walk through that door ready to
take on whatever the Lord had before him.
Are you doing that kind of thing for your wife?
Are you sacrificing your own needs and wants for your spouse?
And I want to say before your kids, before your work, before
your ministry, before your church ministry starts with your
wife, then your kids. But it doesn't end there, and
we're going to get to that soon. Next comes your kids, and for
the more mature among us, your grandkids also.
We have a foundation that we set when we love the Lord, when we
love our wives. If we're doing that, that lays
an incredible foundation to then love our kids, to raise them up
in the ways of the Lord. I'm going to read a few verses
to Ephesians 64. And you, fathers, do not provoke
your children. My son frequently references
this verse to me. Do not provoke your children.
He forgets the next bit, which is classic.
Do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the
training and the admonition of the Lord.
Is that something you're doing with your kids?
The blessing and curse of parenting is that you've got to
be consistent. It's not rocket science, but
it's consistent, consistently training and and admonishing
them in the Lord. Deuteronomy 66 And these words
which I command you today shall be in your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk
of them when you sit. Now listen to this.
This is amazing. Deuteronomy 6-7 we're at now.
You shall talk of the commands of the Lord when you sit in your
house, when you walk, by the way, when you lie down and when
you rise up. That's quick.
Who did that? How does that happen?
That's amazing. Does that not cover every part
of your life? When you sit, when you walk,
when you lie down, when you rise up, those are all the times we
are to speak of the commands and the ways of the Lord with our
children. Proverbs 22 Six.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he
will not depart from it. Are you praying for your kids
regularly, men? Sometimes we're like, oh, my
wife's, my wife's praying for, for our kids.
That's enough, right? Are you praying for your kids?
Kids. Are you praying for your dad?
Yeah, awesome. Because we need your prayers
just as much as you need our prayers.
Are you teaching your kids, your grandkids, the truths of God's
word? Are you asking them how they're
doing in their spiritual walks? We're we're very good.
I love my brother, but we talk a lot about the weather, a lot
about football, a lot about basketball, and not nearly as
much as I'd like about the Lord. Are we asking each other about
our spiritual walks with the Lord, how we're travelling?
We've talked about brotherly love here tonight.
When was the last time you went up to a brother in this
sanctuary right now and said, hey, how are you going with the
Lord right now? I want to challenge and
encourage you to do that at the end of this night.
Seriously, don't just do it for, for, you know, just for kicks.
Actually be serious about it. Are you having hard
conversations when with your kids about sin in their lives?
Are you teaching them how to handle their sin?
Are you having family times that include His Word and praying
together? Are you prioritising?
You ready for this church attendance and church
involvement? Are you prioritising those
things? Are you involving your children
in serving the Lord? This is all what it means to
love and to do all things in love towards our children.
And of course, this leads us to the next step and that's being
spiritual leaders of the family of God.
And we here are brothers in the family of God because it is
critical that you are plugged in to our solid Bible teaching
church and praise God you have that here.
Not everyone can say that the the back story of our fellowship
in Busselton is that there was not a a solid Bible teaching
church in Busselton. Sadly.
But you know, so many of us don't know about you guys, and I
pray that it's not the case in this church, but so many
Christians and I can see it from here.
Keith can see it. Israel can see it.
When you're standing here, we can see it in your face, your
resting face. Man, this guy is ready to leave.
Oh, that guy looks angry. So many people want the in and
out worship experience. You with me.
So many people want that experience.
Get in, get out so that you can get on with the rest of your day
like churches and inconvenience. Oh man, some guys that come
through our fellowship irregularly, I'm sitting there
and even the amount of time that they sit in that back row, I
know they're not listening and they're only sitting in that
back row for half the time. They just want the in and out
experience. Almost like as I said, it's,
it's just a an inconvenient part of their day.
What's interesting is the thought of what if God was like
that with us? What if God just wanted the in
and out experience with His children?
When we call out to God in the trial that we're going through,
the sickness, the persecution, the grief, the heartache,
whatever it is that we're experiencing, imagine if God
said, man, I'm with you son, but only for the next hour.
After that you're on your own. Imagine if God did that with us.
I want to challenge and encourage you guys to be so
thankful to the Lord for this body that you call a family in
Christ. It is such a gift from the Lord
and I want to challenge you and ask you, does your family men
see you serving this body with joy?
Do you serve together as a family?
And guys, I'm not just talking about Sunday either.
You know, you come on Sunday and the job of a number of people in
this fellowship, their job is to equip you for the work of the
ministry. The equipping in part happens on
Sunday. When does the ministry happen?
In part on Sunday, but it also happens on Monday and Tuesday
and Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you
get in the picture. Are you serving the Lord every
single day of the week? And that because that looks like
different things for different people at different times.
There's no one size fits all. But are you serving the body of
Christ that you're a part of? I was having this conversation
earlier around the fact that what does it, what does it look
like to serve the body? And part of that is, hey, let's,
when is the one time that for whatever reason, we've set up
that we all come together and gather as a body?
We do that on Sunday, right? Typically that should be our
baseline. That's where we start serving
the body of Christ. But that's that's only one day.
I want to ask you if you celebrate your local church or
do you tear it to shreds? Do you show your family that you
really value worshipping the Lord as you stand and sing, as
you follow along with the sermon, as you prioritise
serving the body in humility Sundays and all the days?
Because if we don't fully commit to the local church, fully
commit to the local church, how then do we deal with a whole
stack of verses in the Bible? I'm going to give you a few.
Let's see how quickly they come up.
First, Peter 410. It was a little lagging that
happened there first. Peter 410 As each one has
received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of
the manifold grace of God. OK, let me ask you this
question. If you're not fully committed to
the body of Christ, of being with the body of Christ, being
alongside the body of Christ, how then do you minister your
gift to one another if your pastor's gift was not used to
minister to you on Sunday? If he decided, you know what, I
don't want to minister my gift today, what would that look
like? But your pastor's gift is only
one gift. We've all got gifts.
And when you exclude yourself from the body, the body loses
out. You lose out because you lose
all the gifts, but the body loses out because we lose your
gift. You each, no matter your age.
OK, who's the youngest in our fellowship here?
How old? 6 Anyone younger than six.
No. OK, anyone older than six.
Who's the oldest in our fellowship here?
No pressure. How many, Keith?
Fair bit. Fair bit.
It doesn't matter the age. We all have gifts.
Like I just moved on there, Keith.
Well played. We all have gifts that we need
to use to minister to one another.
It's so important Romans 12/4 for as as we have many members
in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.
So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members
of one another. Having them gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us.
Let us use them men. Let us use the gifts that God
has given us. I was speaking to a man earlier.
Ian. Where are you?
Ian. Yes, Ian is the groundsman here,
Are you not, Ian? Guys, doesn't matter what your
gift looks like, you've got to use it for the Lord.
He decided to use his to beautify what's around here.
How are you going to use yours for the body at the moment?
There's so many verses in the Bible that refer to command us
to use our gifts for the body, to build up the body, to
minister the body. Therefore, therefore, my
brothers, 1st Corinthians 16 verse 13, watch, watch.
It means to wake up or stay awake, to live, to give strict
attention to, to be cautious, to be on God lest you be led to
forsake Christ or fall into sin first.
Peter 58. Be sober, that is self
controlled. Be vigilant, that is watchful,
because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Acts 20, verse 29. I, Paul speaking, know this,
that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you,
not sparing the flock also from among yourselves.
Men will rise up, speaking perverse and misleading things,
to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not
cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Watch Christian, Be watchful, be on guard, be self controlled, be
disciplined in your walk with the Lord.
Watch. Stand fast in the faith.
That means to stand firm, to
persist, to persevere in godliness and righteousness.
And in the faith is a strong belief in Jesus Christ as
Messiah, through whom alone we obtain salvation. 2
Thessalonians 215 Brethren, stand fast and hold the
traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our
epistle, how hard it is for us to stand firm on the commands of
God when the world washes over us with all of their ways and
pleasures that they do. Christians, stand firm.
Persevere in your conviction of the truth.
Persevere in your fellowship with the Lord.
Watch. Stand fast in the in the faith.
Be brave. That word brave means to make a
man of to show oneself a man, to act manly.
Notice that the Bible intrinsically links that word
with men. It is described as a masculine
character trait. Now this doesn't mean that women
don't have it. It just means that men should
have it. We're inbuilt with it.
Now I just want to pick two things alongside each other.
So you get it. Bravery means boldness or
fearlessness. Courage means doing something
even though you know the risk. Even though you may be fearful,
you're doing it in spite of that fear.
Bravery is a fearlessness. Courage is doing it even though
you fear. Both typically work hand in
hand. Bravery is more spontaneous.
Typically boys have that thing. How often have you seen a a nine
year old girl climb a tree and jump out of it and do dumb
stuff? It doesn't happen that often
because 9 year old boys have a fearlessness about them.
That's bravery and sometimes it's stupidity, but that's what
bravery is. There's a spontaneousness about
it, but notice what the Lord uses.
He, he, the word he uses is bravery.
It's not courage. Be brave, be fearless, be bold
for the Lord that is so important.
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave.
That is, be fearless. Guys, we have nothing to fear.
Psalm 27 One, the Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
Romans 831 What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
We have nothing to God has put in us this fearlessness that he
nurtures as we grow in the Lord. Men, show yourself a man.
Be bold for the Lord. Be fearless.
No matter the consequences that may come, no matter the pushback
from your peers, no matter the pushback from your family.
Be brave. Watch.
Stand fast in the faith. Be brave.
Be strong. We're almost finished, I
promise. Be strong.
It means to strengthen, to be made strong, to grow strong, to
be strong. Ephesians 610 Finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
The words be strong there doesn't mean in and of your own
strength. It means to be strong in the
Lord. We must be empowered.
We'll be strengthened by God. Our strength comes from Him, not
from ourselves. Not be strong by the Lord of the
Lord, but in the Lord. Our strength comes from being in
Him, which comes full cycle back to the start.
Abide in me. We've got to abide in His Word.
John 15-4 Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in
the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit.
For without me you can do nothing.
All right, pop quiz. Let's see who's listening up the
back there. Apart from Christ, what can we
do? Shut it out.
Nothing. We can't do anything apart from
Christ. Nothing.
I was chatting to a mate a while ago.
He wrestles a lot with the Lord. He we had a laugh one time
because he came to this realisation that this, this
skill that he had, he was really good at something.
He's not really good at a number of things, but he's really good
at this something. But he came to the point where
he realised that that something was actually from the Lord.
He's actually not good at anything apart from the Lord,
and that was a sad realisation for him.
But that's the reality of our lives.
Apart from God we can do nothing.
And you know what, it's actually encouraging as well.
You don't have to try, you just have to abide in Him and he's
going to do it with you, in you, through you.
True Christian strength comes from recognising our utter
dependence on God. Philippians 413 I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me.
Notice the opposite. I can't do anything apart from
God. I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. To be strong in the Lord means
to abide in Christ. What's the best way to abide in
Christ? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Every day, guys, every day. Pick up the word of God every
single day. You won't always understand
everything that you read. That's OK.
I pick it up every single day. Abide in Christ, be strong in
the Lord. I can't remember what verse out
of Samuel you read earlier, but I'm going to read 1 right now.
Two Samuel 1012. Be of good courage and let us be
strong for our people and for the cities of our God.
As men, we are called to be strong for God's people.
That's Our Calling. That's the calling upon your
life from as young as 6 to as old as many.
That's the calling upon our life.
Watch, stand fast in the faith. Be brave, be strong.
Let all that you do be done with.
Love everything guys, everything that you do, your words, your
actions, the love of Christians towards Christians.
We get this horribly wrong, but it's our witness guys, John 1335
and we're going to close here by this all know that you are my
disciples. If you have love one for
another, How are you going with loving one another?
How are you going with loving your wife, your children, your
grandchildren? How are you going with loving
your brothers? Brothers sharing with each other
how we're going? That's not a natural thing for
us, is it necessarily? But it's required of us to love
one another. A level of vulnerability is
required of us. You saw all the raised hands
earlier about how we all struggle with how often we pick
up God's Word sometimes. It's no different for all the
other struggles that you're experiencing.
There's a bunch of brothers here that are struggling with the
same thing. We just need to open our mouth,
make ourselves vulnerable, and love one another in all that we
do. Men, as we close, watch, This is
your challenge this week. Excuse me, this is your
challenge this week. It's your challenge for your
within your family, within this body of Christ.
Here, take this challenge seriously.
Watch. Stand fast in the faith, Be
brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with
love. Let's pray together now, the
Heavenly Father. Thank you so much that you love
us, that you've forgiven us, that you're so patient with us.
Lord, we don't deserve your patience.
We don't deserve your mercy and your grace, but you gifted to
us, Lord. Lord, we pray that you would
strengthen us with your Holy Spirit because we can't do these
things apart from you. We we just read that we can do
nothing apart from you, but we can do all things through you,
Christ who strengthens us. So Lord, strengthen us this
night. Lord, our witness is our love
one for another. Help us to do that.
Well, Lord, help us to be the spiritual leaders of our homes,
of our families, of this church, of our friendship groups.
Lord, what would it look like for each of us to watch, to
stand firm in the faith, to be brave, to be strong, and to do
all things with love? Lord, that is the charge for us
today. And I just ask here, Lord among
us, that you would strengthen us for that challenge, that you
would encourage us every time we fail, whether you'd pick us back
up and we'd keep charging towards you in all the things
that we do and say. Thank you, Lord, for this time.
As men, we commit it into your hands in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And everyone said Amen, just to
know you.