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6.16.21 MOC Session #1 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  So we are going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. For some of you guys who have been part of our men's group before, the verses we're going to look at tonight will be familiar. If you guys have been in church, you guys have heard some of the direction that we're going. Our summer study for the summer is called Men of the Church. And we are excited that each of you guys are here. You don't have to be here.
• 0:26
  Right? This is extra credit. Being here on Wednesday nights is extra credit, as Danny says. You're coming after work. You guys are tired. We appreciate you guys making the effort to be here, and we hope that this summer is filled with fun, with worship, with fellowship, and with study together. As I said, if you guys have seen our announcements, you guys know that we're going to be going through Men of the Church. And while that name might not sound that profound, Men of the Church, okay, well, what are we doing? What's it about?
• 0:54
  I think that it has an incredible impact. What we're going to study is going to have an incredible impact and can really hold the keys for us as men, as believers, to what will ultimately bring us joy and fulfillment in our lives. And not to mention some awesome friendships, as well as bring us closer to our wives and to our kids. As I chose this study,
• 1:20
  because over the course of the summer, I want us to really consider what it means for each one of us to be men of the church. And I chose the word of, not men in the church. There's a difference, guys. We can be men who come to church, right? Men who attend church, who come to this building, but I don't believe that that's what God has called us to. He has not just called us to attend church, but to be about.
• 1:50
  You see, if we are men in the church, we are not active. We are only consuming. We are not leading. If we are men of the church, we are fellow soldiers. If we are men only in the church, we simply look and never engage. If we are men of the church, we stand together, engaging in the war for our souls, our homes, and our church, and our kids, and our families. If we're men in the church,
• 2:20
  we ask to be served. If we are men of the church, we ask how can we serve. If we're men in the church, our relationship with God is only surface and has little to no communication back and forth with our Heavenly Father. If we're men of the church, then we are prayer warriors, knowing it is one of the best weapons gifted to us by God to wage war against the enemy.
• 2:47
  and his forces. If we're simply men in the church, our marriages will be a struggle. Our wives will look for our leadership and find it lacking. If we're men of the church, we will serve together with our wives, leading and seeking the Lord as a team. If we're men only in the church, we'll complain. We'll struggle to build others up. If we're men of the church, we will strengthen and encourage one another in the Lord.
• 3:18
  This will be our aim for our summer study, that we would become men of the church and not men who simply come to church. My prayer through this summer is that the Lord would use this time to ignite a fire in each one of us, to dig deep and consider what the Lord might be calling us to, to ask prayerfully, what does being a man of the church look like in my life? What might the Lord be calling me to?
• 3:48
  But as we begin to set the table for this summer, as we begin to survey the battlefront, what ground must be taken or retaken from the enemy in our lives, in our homes, and perhaps in how we interact in our church, as we take stock of where we are, where we find ourselves, we see a reality that we are indeed at war, right?
• 4:09
  We take stock of our culture and what we see around us. We know there is a battle going on for our souls, for the souls of our kids, and for our marriages. We must snap back to reality and begin to stand at attention once again. The call to be a man of the church is important because we must answer the call or our marriages, our families, our church will suffer defeat. This is not a simple call, but it is an important call.
• 4:42
  As we rev up for the summer, there is a scene from one of my favorite sports movies that comes to mind as we enter into this study of 1 Corinthians, as we set the table for where we're going for the summer. If you guys have seen the movie The Miracle, it's one of my favorite movies, sports movies, starring Kurt Russell. You'll be familiar if you've seen it before with this scene. It's a really powerful scene in the movie.
• 5:06
  I'm just going to set the tone if you guys have not seen it or forgotten about it. The head coach of the U.S. Olympic team, Herb, is having his team skate lines because they just lost a preliminary game where they kind of meandered their way through and they tied the other team. Herb, as he watched them not really care what was happening, began to get more and more and more frustrated with these young men on his team.
• 5:37
  As they close out the game, they end up in a tie. He tells them not to take off their equipment, not to take off their skates, that they're not done. So I'm going to play this clip for you guys for a second. As they are skating so long, the rink has closed and the lights are off. 1 Corinthians 16.13 says, Be watchful. Stand firm.
• 7:50
  In the faith, act like men, be strong. And verse 14 says, do everything in love. Brothers, listen, the call to being a man of the church is not an easy one in terms of what we are called on to do. In these two verses, we're going to look at tonight in verses 13 and 14. They're going to be our launching point for this summer.
• 8:18
  Paul says, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. This is the theme first for the men's ministry at Highland, and it is the marching orders from our commander for what we ought to do in ministry, ought to do in our church, ought to do in our homes. In these two short verses, there are five commands, five imperatives that Paul gives.
• 8:50
  There is a singular contrast between the first four in these exhortations and the last one. The former rings sharp and short like pistol shots from the Apostle Paul. The last is of a gentler and more caring tone. The former sound like the word of a command shouted from an officer along the ranks. And there is a military metaphor running through all of these that we will look at.
• 9:19
  The foe threatens to advance, brothers, but we must keep our guards up. We must keep our eyes focused. He comes nearer. Prepare for the charge. Stand firm in the ranks. The battle is joined. Quick, you like men, us like men, strike a man's stroke and be strong. Brothers, what good is an army if it is asleep? What good is an army if it is disorganized? What good is commands?
• 9:47
  If the army is not disciplined and standing together for one cause. What I love about that scene in the miracle. As he asks, as Michael Ruzzioni stands up and says his name. He says, he asks them the question, who do you play for? Earlier in the movie, he asked them that same question. And all the guys talk about the different colleges that they had played for. Right? They all came from these different colleges to come together. And they answer that they, you know, they.
• 10:16
  played at Massachusetts, they played at Michigan, all these different colleges. And Herb just stands back and watches. And as he breaks these guys down, as they go through this difficult, difficult time, they finally connect. It's not about them. It's not about each individual. It's about the team. They knew who they played for after that time. They played for the United States of America. And we must remember whom we play for.
• 10:46
  A couple of years ago, we studied the book of James, and that series was called Uncommon. It was a call for us to be uncommon men. It takes the truths of James, and it called us to infuse those truths into our lives. As we watch that clip, Herb is wearing those young men out. They cannot stand. They're thrown up on the ice. But he knows that he's preparing them for something far greater than they can imagine. As they work, as they toil, as they fatigue,
• 11:16
  Herb has a plan. He has a purpose. He knows that in order for them to win the gold, to even have a chance, that team needed to know who they played for and needed to be uncommon in their skills, their discipline, and their conditioning.
• 11:32
  Brothers, as we enter into this summer, as we move through this year, the Lord has some marching orders for us. He has a call on our lives, on your life. Just as a man who has enlisted into the military has a call on his life, the question is, will we answer that call? Will we dig deep? Will we let go of our own self-reliance and turn to God, his word, and each other so that we can be men of the church? As we ponder this and how it can happen in our lives, let's consider
• 12:01
  what the Apostle Paul wrote. And consider these five imperatives in verses 13 and 14. And the first we come to is be watchful. Be watchful, the Apostle Paul says. As I said earlier, what good is an army if it's asleep? There is indeed an enemy. And as 1 Peter 5 tells us, he's a roaring lion seeking to devour those in his path and to destroy them.
• 12:30
  And may we at this point pull close into our minds and our souls the reality that this life, the life on earth, is not passive in our experience. There is an enemy. He is actively seeking to destroy us, our marriages, our kids, and even our church. Paul and Peter do not paint a picture of us sitting back, passively engaging in this life.
• 12:58
  Peter says be sober-minded. Paul said be watchful. Be on the lookout so the enemy doesn't sneak into your home, into your marriage, into your life, into your heart. Doesn't sneak into your kids' lives. Brothers, there is nothing about this life which is passive. There is only two military forces. There's the Lord's army and there's the enemy's army. And we're one of the two. The roaring lion wants to devour us.
• 13:28
  And brothers, may I just say to us, I think as men, one of the greatest killers to us is passivity. Taking no action. Feeling overwhelmed by the choices before us and not engaging. Not being alert. Paul says, be watchful. Be watchful. The first imperative, be watchful. The second is, stand firm. Be watchful. And he says, stand firm. If you guys...
• 13:57
  have lived here for any amount of time, I'm sure you guys have been to Waterworld. You guys have been to Waterworld, the gigantic, it's like one of the biggest in, I think, North America. Well, when I was in high school, we moved out here from the north woods of upper Michigan. Waterworld blew my mind. I grew up in the middle of nowhere. And so to see a place as spectacular as that and like Eligius was just mind-boggling. And so...
• 14:25
  As I began to make friends and I got into high school and had a little more freedom and a little money in my pocket, we decided many times to spend our entire day at Waterworld. This was before it was like $75 to go there. I don't know how much it is now, but it was pretty cheap. It was under $20 to go there. We would go spend the entire day there. And if you guys have been there, you know there's two different wave pools, right? There's the wave pool that for like five minutes, like you kind of bob up and down.
• 14:52
  Kind of fun, but it's not really that interesting. And then there's the other wave pool. And when I say it doesn't have many waves, it has a wave. It has a tidal wave. It is like 8, 9, 10 feet tall. And every, I think, 15, 20 minutes, that thing just launches out of the water in this huge pool and just comes. And it just engulfs people in tubes and everything. There's just bodies like twirling.
• 15:20
  When I was in high school, my buddies and I, because everything is a competition as guys, right? There's two sides, there's two corners to that. And what happens is that water comes tumbling over and it hits the shore, right? And then that water pulls back like a tide, except it's really, really strong because there's a ton of water coming back.
• 15:42
  And as it comes back, it's pulling people. The deeper you get, it wants to pull you back, right? Well, we found out that on these corners, the water would rush even faster because it's getting sucked around the corner, right? So me and my buddies would go there, and the game was who can stand, actually stand, by that corner and not get their legs whipped out from underneath them.
• 16:07
  We were very rarely successful, but whenever you were, it was bragging rights for the day. You know, the funny thing is, sin is a lot like that tidal wave and that current that comes back. Paul says for us to stand firm. Stand firm. Brothers, if we're not careful, if we do not train, if we're not ready for the tide, it will sweep us away. It will pull our legs out from underneath us.
• 16:42
  and take us wherever it wants to go. Paul says, stand firm. But you know, the interesting thing about that tidal wave at Waterworld is that occasionally we would decide, because we were most often not successful, occasionally we would decide, it would be three, four of us, and we would say, well, we'll lock arms together and we'll see if we can do it together and just see if we can be successful this time.
• 17:11
  And the funny thing is, is when we would do that, when we would not make it a competition with one another, and we would lock arms together and stand firm together, I had a buddy who was super scrawny. I mean, there was not an ounce of muscle. He just could not, he didn't lift. He was just a small dude. And that guy, I mean, immediately would always, whenever he tried, he'd just immediately get pulled out, right? He just didn't have the body mass, didn't have the strength to stand.
• 17:39
  The funny thing is, is when we would do that together, when there'd be three, four of us standing together, even when my buddy, when his legs would get swept out from under him, he wouldn't get pulled away because we'd be locked arm in arm. Stand firm, but stand firm together, right? Alone, we can certainly be swept away, but together we will be strong. Stand firm in the faith. These next two.
• 18:13
  Act like men and be strong. These next two imperatives are closely linked together, but not completely the same. Act like men and be strong. Play a man's part in battle, Paul is saying. Strike with all the force of your muscles. Do not be shy. As you hear this command from Paul, as he says, be strong, act like men.
• 18:40
  It reminds me of 2 Timothy 1, 6-7, where Paul says to Timothy, For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. And then he says in verse 7, For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Fan into flame. This is no passive charge to Timothy from Paul.
• 19:09
  This takes work. Fan into flames. Act like men. Be strong. Strike with all the force, all the power in you. Take action. But the command to be strong can be kind of counterproductive to some of us, right? I mean, I'm not the biggest guy in the world. You can tell me all day long to lift weights. I'm not going to look like Brian Bowen. To say to a weak guy,
• 19:41
  Gird up your courage and show strength. The dude is going to look back at you and be like, yeah, I would love to. I've been lifting for, you know, 10 years. This is the way I look. This is all I've got. But he says, be strong. But in this charge from the apostle Paul, he uses a very uncommon word. And in this word, we find the source of how to be strong.
• 20:11
  He only uses it one other time, or I think a couple other times, but specifically in Ephesians chapter 3, he says, strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. Ephesians 3.16 says that, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner man. Then is it so futile, so silly for us to tell,
• 20:42
  poor, weak guy like me to be strong? No. We have the entire riches of God at our disposal. We have the very spirit of God living in us. We are not weak men, no matter who you are. We are strong because we have the Lord. There is a call to act as a man should act, to play the part.
• 21:09
  In battle that we ought to play. To strike against the enemy. With the force. All the force and power we have. And again before you think yourself too weak. May I remind us. That if you have believed. If you have trusted in Christ Jesus. His finished work on the cross. If you have believed what John 3.16 says. For God so loved the world. That he gave his one and only son. That whoever believes in him. Should not perish but have eternal life. If you believe that message. If you believe what that verse.
• 21:38
  then we have great news. I have great news. The Apostle Paul has great news for you. You are not alone. You do not have to be strong in your own strength. In fact, if you try that, you're going to be a horrible failure. We have the very Holy Spirit living inside us.
• 22:00
  And so, according to the riches of his glory, he grants you to be strengthened with the very power of the Holy Spirit. And because of this, brothers, God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power. So act like men and be strong in the spirits. He ends with a charge to do all in love in verse 14. Let all that you do be done.
• 22:31
  In love, true manliness, being a man of the church, being a Christian man requires balance. Our lives must be governed by the Holy Spirit and doused in love. This is imperative lest our leadership become fleshly and harsh. If you guys are like me, you know those moments as a dad where you parent in your own flesh and you are harsh with your kids.
• 23:09
  We must do all we can to do everything we can do, we do in love. Leadership is firm, though. And it is black and white as it relates to truth. It's unbending in its convictions. But spiritual leadership is also to be loving and guided by the Holy Spirit. And because of this, I think often what we are actually called to in our leadership, in our leadership of our homes, leadership in the church, can often be misunderstood.
• 23:44
  Men of the church ought to be like Abraham Lincoln, who was called Velvet Steel. True manliness does not exclude tenderness. 1 Corinthians 13 shows what real leadership looks like. Real leadership is loving. Men, 1 Peter 4.8 says to us, Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
• 24:15
  Firm convictions must be accompanied by love, doing what is best for others. And even though biblical love is tough, right, is firm, we are called to live according to this book and hold our kids accountable to this book. But all must be done in love. And there must be compassion in all we do. Men of the church.
• 24:44
  Men who take on the challenge to be watchful, stand firm, act like men as they take on the strength gifted to them by the Holy Spirit. They also seek to be leaders for the glory of God and for the best of others. And to do this as they love as Christ has loved them. You know, the Corinthians, the book of Corinthians is written to the church in Corinth. Paul writes these things because the church had forgotten.
• 25:13
  to uncompromisingly battle sin, along with unconditionally loving the sinner. Paul says continually, do all you do in love. One pastor has said it this way, love complements and balances everything else. Love keeps our firmness from becoming hard, our strength from becoming domineering. Love keeps our maturity gentle.
• 25:44
  our sound doctrine from becoming obstinate dogmatism, our right living from becoming smug self-righteousness. Love is what the Corinthians needed most. They were tolerant of what they should have been strict with and intolerant of what they should have made allowances for. Where do we get this love? Where do we get this ability to love, to do all that we do in love? 1 John 4, 7 says,
• 26:16
  from God. He is the very source of it. We are only able to love because God first loved us. 1 John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us. Brothers, men of the church are watchful. They stand firm. They act like men as they play the role set out before them in battle. But brothers, we must find our strength in the Holy Spirit and in the word, and we must do all in love. We need real men.
• 26:47
  Who are really in love with Jesus. Who are really loving their wives. Who really love their kids. Who really love the word of God. Who really love his church and the things of God. Men who are not angry. Who are not violent, crude, rude, or abusive. We should be telling our wives, our sons, our daughters that we love them. We should be looking at your brothers sitting around the tables.
• 27:12
  Telling them that you love them. They are brothers in Christ. They share the same spirit as you. We are bound together by the very spirit of God. You know, I've heard it said of men. And I've heard some guys say this. The Bible, Jesus, and church is for women and children. But not here. Not at this church. Not of you guys. We know the Bible is for men.
• 27:47
  We know the church is where we should be. Here we know that Jesus is the ultimate man. You guys grew up in the 80s. You saw the wrestler Hulk Hogan, right? Do you guys remember what his name was? In the movie, I think it was Rocky III. No, it was Rocky III. Rocky IV was the Russian. Rocky III. Don't question my Rocky knowledge. The ultimate male.
• 28:22
  That was his name, the ultimate male. The world has all these ideas of what a man looks like. The Bible sets very clearly, and I think in these two verses, what a man looks like, what a real man looks like. Jesus is our example. He is the ultimate man. Jesus was compassionate. He was courageous in all he did. He was tough and tender. As we end.
• 28:54
  As you guys get ready to talk around your tables, I'm going to give you guys a few questions to go over, to think through, some challenges. As you guys think of church history and as you guys read the word of God, they are chocked full of mighty men, right? Men who stood strong. Men who really were men of the church who left it all in the line. I want to tell you guys about two guys who acted like men and stood firm.
• 29:27
  Latimer and Ridley, these were two godly men, born again preachers, who were burned alive by Catholic Queen Mary for their sound biblical faith. Ridley suffered the worst as for the first part, his bottom half is all that burned. Suffered greatly before he finally perished.
• 29:54
  being burned at the same time, Latimer encouraged his friend Ridley with these words. Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. Guys, if we stand firm, if we act like men, there's incredible things that God can do with our lives.
• 30:25
  As we consider these five imperatives from the Apostle Paul, be watchful, stand firm, act like men, be strong, and to do all in love. May I encourage you guys to take stock of the battlegrounds as we begin to look at what a man of the church would look like. We'll have some questions for us to ponder as we get ready.
• 30:48
  to go through this summer study. These next few weeks, these next six weeks, we're going to be spending time looking at some guys in the early church who were men of the church, who served alongside the Apostle Paul, who really lived their faith and asked some questions about how we can glean, what we can glean from their lives. But as we get ready for that, may I ask you guys just five things. First, will you guys accept the responsibility to lead?
• 31:20
  And what does that look like? Can I ask you guys, what does that look like in your home and in your church? Will you guys accept the responsibility to lead? Will you guys seek God's approval over man's approval? Where might you have given ground to man's approval? Where have you not stood firm on the faith? Third is, will you reject passivity and follow God's word? Can I just ask us, where have you been
• 31:55
  Passive in your home? Where have you been passive in your marriage? Where have you been passive in your church involvement? In your workplace, not standing for truth? Four, will you love God and others sacrificially? And this one might hurt a little bit as we ask ourselves, where is pride present in our lives? Where am I acting selfishly? And where does God's love need to seep in deeper?
• 32:30
  Into my life. And then finally. Will you guys commit with me. To asking the Lord through this summer. To show you. For him to show you where you can grow. Or continue growing. To become more and more. A man of the church. As we study these guys. These different people. These different guys who served alongside the apostle Paul. I think we're going to see. That God uses every skill set.
• 33:00
  No matter who you are, what you have, you have a place and a purpose in the church. But the first and most important thing is for us to take stock of where we are. To have a launching point, a firm foundation. And that's what tonight is about. It's about understanding where we are and where God might be calling us to be. Alright, I'm going to give you guys some time to discuss and to pray. You guys can get about it. Father in heaven, we ask that you would direct us.
• 33:35
  Lord, that we would hold nothing back. That if we have accepted you as our savior, your son's finished work on the cross, that we would understand what team we play for, what army we fight for. And if that is true of us, that you have a call on our lives. Since you have a call on our lives, God, there are things that we should be about. Father, I pray that you would encourage us, you would challenge us.
• 34:12
  You would make us mindful of where we are and where you want to take us to. God, we want to act like men. And we want to be strong in your Holy Spirit. That we can be lights in this world. That we can be lights in our home. That we can be lights in our church. We pray these things in your name. Amen.