While I am recovering from the concussion I suffered from
the wreck, and while I am sitting around not really doing a whole lot, I have
been reading and contemplating on several subjects that the Lord has brought to
mind. One of those subjects has been the state of men in our culture today. You
see times have drastically changed in our nation and the role of men has
changed so much. Look in any direction you want to and you will that men are no
longer the role model for their children they once were. You will see many
children being raised in one parent homes, or raised in abusive homes with dads
who would rather hit the child than hug them. We see women as becoming the
spiritual leaders in many churches, because there either aren’t enough men
involved in the church, not enough attending the church, or not enough that
actually care. This is the biggest issue I see with men today, because I firmly
believe that if the men in not only America
In John
3:3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that “unless a man is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” There is no way around
it, if a man is to be the man that God has called him to be, he must first
acknowledge that he is a sinner and repent of those sins and invite Jesus into
his heart and life as Lord over everything. This is the biggest issue we have
with men today in our homes, our businesses and our churches. Men today don’t want
to acknowledge they need help. We don’t want people to see us as weak. We let
our pride stand in the way of our relationships, not just with our families,
but with God himself. Let me give you a good example.
There is a
couple that my wife and I know that is currently separated. Now this couple
attended church locally, but the wife went more than the husband, imagine that.
Now when the gentleman is around the church and the pastor, he is pretty much
good as gold, but once they leave the church and are home, he pretty much became
a different man. At times he could be classified as mentally and verbally
abusive, I never saw any physical abuse so I cannot speak to that end, all I
know is this lady told me wife that things got pretty rough and she did not
want their child to see that and be raised in it, so she felt she had no choice
but to leave. Now before she had gotten to the point of leaving, she had been
praying, as had others, for this situation. She had spoken to her Pastor, only
to have her husband convince him, as well as others, that it was all her and
their situation was not bad at all. When she left, she even had to change
churches as her husband said he was not going to stop going to the church they
attended.
Now as I said I
have been around this couple and I have heard some of the things that have come
out of this mans mouth, and I can tell you this for a fact. This man needs a
touch from Heaven. He needs to get down on his knees and ask for Gods
forgiveness for the things he has said and done. But this man has the wool
pulled over many people’s eyes, and his worldly view of what a man should be,
along with his “pride”, are stopping him from being the man that God has called
him to be in my opinion. Now don’t get me wrong, the wife is not perfect and
never will be, she has many flaws herself, but I can sit here tonight and say,
she has tried and prayed and sought the will of God, but the “pride” of her
husband will not allow him to open himself up to the spirit of God. It will not
allow him to walk an aisle, get down on his knees and cry out to a living God
and beg for forgiveness. It will not allow him to be the husband, father and
Godly man that he is being called to. What it will do is allow him to harden his
heart to the word of God and the movement of the Holy Spirit. It will also
allow him to sit on a pew, listen to the word of God yet ignore it, and slip
deeper into Hell with every waking minute. This brother’s and sisters is what is wrong with men today.
Why, you
ask. I will tell you why. The church for too many years has been afraid to
upset the apple cart. We have sat back and let the world creep in and tell us
what the definition of a man should be, rather than preaching directly to men.
We have turned men’s ministry into nothing more than a passing phase. We have
spent so much time planning the next fish fry or breakfast for the church that
we have forgotten to plan the next devotional gathering. We have been so busy
repairing the toilets we have let our prayer lives stop up. We have spent so
much time trying to raise money for the next addition; we have let our
spiritual bank accounts get overdrawn and closed. We have been so busy during
the week, that we use Sunday as a catch up day around the house. When our
brother is absent, we text him and tell him we missed him rather than getting
off our backsides and go visit him. When we find ourselves facing financial
difficulties, we would rather holler at our wives and children instead of
calling the men of the church to help pray about it. We would rather sink into
a TV show than get into the word of God.
Now I have to
tell you, I am preaching to myself harder than I am to anyone else, because you
see, my time at home with my family while I recover has taught me something. As
much as I hate to admit it, I am as guilty as anyone else. We all are. It is so
easy to get caught up in the affairs of the day that we say, well I will read double
tomorrow night because I am so tired tonight. We tell ourselves that we have
all the time in the world, but in reality brothers, WE DON’T!! We are not
guaranteed the next minute, let alone tomorrow. Let me tell you, when you wake
up to find yourself in a vehicle that is upside down and rolling over and over,
mortality and our time on this earth, slaps you right in the face and makes you
realize that eternity is only a split second away. All the time you DIDN”T
SPEND with your family, or that you DIDN’T SPEND in Gods word or with God in
prayer, comes to haunt you. All those times you said, I will do it tomorrow,
come back to you and you realize there may not be a tomorrow.
The only hope
we have for changing this pattern in our churches and our worlds is to preach to
and teach the young men of today what it means to be a man. We have to stand on
the word of God and introduce Jesus to all those we come in contact with. We
must be examples for those who do not know the way. We must hear the words of Paul
in his letter to the church at Ephesus
Psalms 1:1-3
says “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor
sits in the seat of scoffers; but his
delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that
yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does
not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” I don’t know about you my brothers, but I want to be like that
tree whose leaf’s do not wither. My goal is that when I leave this world,
either by rapture or by death, to hear the words of the master as he says ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You
have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy
of your master.’ Matthew 25:21
I pray that if you
have not made that decision to follow Christ, and repented of your sins, that
this message will touch your heart. I also pray that if you are as I was, so
busy that you overlooked what God was telling you, that this message will help
you to set that straight. I am available to all who need me. If you have
questions, or need prayer, please, send me your contact information to cntrydadof3@gmail.com, and allow me to
speak with you and pray with you. Jesus said “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it
will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:19-20
God bless and good night my brothers and sisters. Until
we meet again on this side of paradise or the other, may you always be in the
presence of the almighty.
Brother Bill Roy
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