C. Owen Compton First Baptist Church

Senior PastorOregon, Missouri

15 October 2006

A Man of God

Base Scripture:

11But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.12Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.13I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, andbefore Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate,14that you keepthis commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing,15which He will manifest in His own time,He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,16who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whombe honor and everlasting power. Amen. I Timothy 6:11-16

Introduction:

Today we are going to talk about a subject that tends to ruffle a few feathers for men. It has to do with being “A Man of God.” We are going to talk about Biblical Husbandry, Biblical Manhood, Biblical Fatherhood, being a man of God, and being a man after His own Heart. Now ladies, don’t start celebrating to early yet because you haven’t escaped me. Next week we will discuss being “A Woman of God.” I promise this isn’t about cutting anyone down, this isn’t about discouraging anyone, what this is about is getting us to think about how we are performing in our individual male and female roles and to get us to be men and women of God on purpose; as well as Biblical Parents on purpose. What this and next Sunday’s sermons are going to be about is about being a family after God with intentionality not by accident. We have to be disciplined, balanced, and intentional about our relationships with God, family and friends and so it is with out Christian lives. They don’t happen by mere coincidence, chance, circumstance, or on accident. They happen as a result of going forth intentionally to complete the work and calling God has given each and every one of us. First to be a Christian and follow Him, to be a husband or wife in direct line with His spoken word, to be a father or mother in direct line with His spoken word, to be a friend to the believers we interact with in the body in line with His word, and to evangelize the world in accordance with His great commandment and great commission.

  • Biblical Husbandry
  1. “25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,26that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,27that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.28So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lorddoes the church.”Ephesians 5:25-29 NKJV
  1. In “Disciplines of a Godly Man”R. Kent Hughes writes about the decision of Robertson McQuilkin, former president of ColumbiaBibleCollege, and his wife, Muriel, who suffers from the advanced ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. In March 1990 Dr. McQuilkin announced his resignation in a letter with these words:

My dear wife, Muriel, has been in failing mental health for about eight years. So far I have been able to carry both her ever-growing needs and my leadership responsibilities at CBC. But recently it has become apparent that Muriel is contented most of the time she is with me and almost none of the time I am away from her. It is not just “discontent.” She is filled with fear – even terror – that she has lost me and always goes in search of me when I leave home. Then she may be full of anger when she cannot get to me. So it is clear to me that she needs me now, full-time.

  1. Hughes asserts that in marriage men have several disciplines they need to practice on behalf of their lovely brides. He moves that in practicing these disciplines lies a happy marriage awaiting any man of God ready and willing to perform them with sacrificial love and joy. He states that suffering, intercession, sanctifying love, self-love (loving them as you love yourself), commitment, fidelity, communication, elevation, deference, time and romance.
  1. Remember guys, you need to romance your bride sometimes so she knows that you love her everyday, not just most of the time.
  1. Here’s a story for you: Years ago in the Midwest, a farmer and his wife were lying in bed during a storm when the funnel of a tornado suddenly lifted the roof right off the house and sucked their bed away with them still in it. The wife began to cry, and the farmer called to her that it was no time to cry. She called back that she was so happy, she could not help it – it was the first time they had been out together in twenty years.
  1. In 1986 Psychology Today did a survey of 300 couples, asking them what keeps them together. One of the major “staying” factors was time spent together. Make sure you maintain this priority. Your calendar reveals what is important to you, so write her calendar into yours. Schedule weekly times together that do not just “happen.” Be creative. Date! Surprise her. Be extravagant!
  1. In this day and age when as many marriages fail in the church as outside the church, approximately fifty percent of all first time marriages with the percentage of second, third, and further sequential marriages failing we need to be on our toes on this one.
  1. Write her a note, sing her a song, tell her that you love her. Men, when was the last time you opened the door for her….said “I love you”…..complimented her…..sent her flowers…..”dated her”…gave her extra-special attention?
  1. Whenever I first got married to Nicole I had a seriously hard time telling her all the time that I loved her. I assumed that since I said it once every few days that was enough to sustain our marriage. I was sadly mistaken. This was nowhere near what she needed from me to feel loved and it became an issue in our marriage.
  1. I couldn’t figure out why we were having trouble connecting and relating with one another. I called up a friend of mine, Tim Woody the Senior Pastor at CaringChurch, and asked him what I was doing wrong. He said, “Make two daily appointments in your palm pilot to call your wife and tell her that you love her. Just call to tell her that and nothing else. Don’t ask her to do something for you, just call her and let her know that you love her and was thinking about her.” I put this into my calendar on my palm pilot for eight weeks and after that I found that I had made the habit and call her now at least twice a day to just let her know that I love her.
  1. Men we have to choose our words and our activities wisely. We have to reserve time for our wives and we have to give them the words of encouragement they need in order to feel loved.
  1. We also have to be willing to help them out with everything they do. When Tracy Allen was recovering from pneumonia, Ron stepped up and started doing the laundry. Since then he has done the laundry for his bride because he wants to show her how much he loves her and is willing to do something he might not otherwise enjoy to prove it.
  • Biblical Manhood

1.26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, overall the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”27So God created man in Hisown image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.Genesis 1:26-27

2.In this passage we have God creating man in His own image. We have God creating man with dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the air, the cattle, over all the earth and everything that creeps on the earth. God made man in a manner that would give him authority over the earth in a stewardship capacity.

3.It wasn’t that God gave everything unto man and said here you go, this is yours now. It was that God created man and placed man within His greater creation of the land, sea, air, earth, solar systems, and galaxies and said this is for you to take care of. This is my creation and because I love you I want you to take care of what I have made in an authoritative capacity.

4.In this day and age we see mankind abusing his stewardship capacity and trashing the very things that God created. With further globalization we see man destroying more and more every day. Man has abused his authority given by God, his rulership if you will through greed and self benefit.

5.We then must move on to the work side of mankind.

6.“8TheLord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.9And out of the ground theLord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of lifewas also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.15Then theLord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Genesis 2:8-9, 2:15

7.Where here in this text does God say that work is bad?

8.Before the curse of work being fruitless, work was a blessing. Because of sin and the curse God wrought on man’s work and it being fruitless man has associated work with evil and bad. The deal is this, we men are made to work. We were created to work and have dominion. God created us, placed us in the garden of Eden to work and take care of His creation, have dominion over all the animals of the land, and serve Him continually. The work of man will remain fruitless as he continues to work outside of fellowship with God. Men, your work is not a curse it is a blessing. You are going to feel like it is meaningless if you are not working for the Lord your God. Paul says, “Do everything as you do unto the Lord.”

9.This is a no-brainer. Do your work for God. Serve Him wherever you go and step up to the plate.

10.There is also a too much to this issue as well. Workaholic disease is a major problem as well. Men, work to provide for you family and in this way obey the commands of the Lord your God. But don’t rob your family of your time with them and your love by only working and abandoning them. And remember that your family is your priority.

  • Biblical Fatherhood
  1. Trying to manage your children during family outings can be a real challenge. But what often happens is that we as parents have good experiences, and, although we may not know it, our children are probably having great experiences. Example: Charles Francis Adams was a grandson of the second president of the United States, a successful lawyer, and ambassador to Great Britain. Although he had little free time, one day he took his son fishing. In his diary, he wrote “Went fishing with my son today. A day wasted. On that same day, his son wrote “Went fishing with my father today, the most wonderful day of my life.”
  1. Men we have a calling to be good fathers to our children, to raise them up in a Godly manner, to love them on this earth second only to their mothers, and teach them the ways of life which follow the commandments of the Lord our God.
  1. While we fathers may be thinking our children aren’t enjoying what we are taking them to do, they will never forget it for as long as they live and they will cherish it later in life; even if they don’t enjoy it now.
  1. Some of the fondest memories of my childhood I have were spent with my Dad. Whether it be hunting, fishing, walking, shooting blue rock, shooting black powder rifles, shooting high powered rifles, shooting pistols, or traveling; I will remember those experiences for all of my life.
  1. Case in point; when I was eight years old my Dad had been teaching me to shoot my pellet rifle and thought it was time for me to learn how to shoot a high powered rifle. We drove out to the country to a friends farm, we were living in town at the time, and Dad handed me his Ruger M-77 6mm rifle which would later be my first deer rifle. I threw a fit and didn’t want to shoot the big gun. I told him I wasn’t ready, that I didn’t want to do it, that I wasn’t going to do it, and that I was mad at him for making me. He told me that I was ready handed me the rifle and commanded me to shoot. So I did. Guess what? I loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. I attribute my love for firearms and hunting to my Dad pressing me to what he knew I could do, for loving me enough to devote time out of his busy schedule to target shoot, and for his never giving up on me even when I wanted him to.
  1. Paul gives us a specific command in raising our children. He says: “4And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4
  1. Do not provoke your children to wrath. The NIV uses the word exasperate. What the great Apostle is talking about here is not breaking your children’s spirits. Do not be so hard, harsh, and negative with your children that you break their loving, fragile spirits. Harsh words are no way to talk to your children. Just ask fathers who in later years spend their time making up for and apologizing and begging forgiveness from their children for the harsh manner they dealt them. Remember men, this also deals with your boys too. They have a spirit that is breakable as well. You need to be showing them that you love them. Because if you don’t, someone else will and whomever that may be (a good person or bad one) they will then seek to perform for and please them.
  1. Children are going to mess up, they are going to make mistakes and they are going to have problems that we don’t want them to go through. They are going to make bad choices, they are going to disappoint us. I once heard a very wise man say when asked how he dealt with his children: “I use a lot of grace. My father dealt with me the same way and did not use harshness as his method of operation.” When you break a child’s spirit the damage is irreparable. They will always remember when and how it happened and will carry the scars for life. Patrick Morley said it best in “Dad in the Mirror”when he said: “When disciplining or admonishing your children the message of love must be at the forefront. Yes I love you and no you can’t have your way.” This Godly discipline manifested in the life of a father will reap a harvest of righteousness for years.
  1. Solomon writes. “6Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 Now mind you Dads, this is not a covenantal promise given directly from the mouth of God. This is a wise saying that Solomon gave to the Israelite fathers attempting to impress upon them to raise their children in the paths of the Lord so they would stay on that path. Nowhere in this chapter do you hear the oracle of the Lord expressly promising that if you have a child in church through their childhood that they will stay in church or that if you attempt the raise them right it will be promised that they stick with it.
  1. Those fathers out there who have had children rebel and not come back know exactly what I mean in this. This passage is still the word of the Lord, but taken in context brings whole new meaning to the text. Solomon gave this proverb as a wise saying for parents to keep in mind while rearing their children so they would grow up knowing the Lord and in this the parents wouldn’t have to worry about the path their children would later live. If they were raising them in the way all their life and their children didn’t ever know any different, there was no worry for them. Think about this one for a second, what I am saying is that we fathers need to be raising our children in the path of the Lord, pleading with them for their souls so they may know the Lord, living an example for them upright and submitted to the leading of God before them, and training them how to live out those lives.
  1. How many of you Dads have heard: “Do as I say, not as I do”?
  1. This phrase is a lie. Our children are going to imitate us, they are going to talk like us, they are going to act like us, the are going to live like us, and they are going to be like us when they are older.
  1. Example: When I was a little boy about three years of age, I drove my little tri-cycle in to the ditch in front of our house in Hamilton. My mother was outside with me and heard me profanely swearing out my tri-cycle for this debacle I had gotten myself into. Of course I got in to trouble for using those explicit words. Guess where I learned them at the age of three? It hadn’t been to school yet, I hadn’t been socialized into society yet, I learned them from my Dad. Men, your children are watching, listening, and learning from you.
  1. Another note, Men how you treat their mothers is how they are going to treat their wives. Are you teaching them to love, honor, cherish, pray for, sacrifice for, and love with all your heart? Are you teaching them to treat them like the best thing that ever happened to you next to salvation? Or are you teaching your boys to treat their wives like a doormat? Men, treat your wives the way God wants and commands you to!
  1. Love them with the sacrificial love that Jesus exemplified for us on this earth. Give up yourself for them. Die to yourself for them. And if need be die for them to keep them safe! In doing this you will truly raise a man of God in your home!
  • A Man of God
  1. When a boy becomes a young man and then a man there is in sense a right of passage passed from age to age. The right of passage is that the boy, young man, and then man will develop, mature, and live life in a manner fitting his age.
  2. Paul talks about what happens and how men should live as they grow and mature.

11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.