Silent Men

eeeeeeeeee eokay are weready youready good morning and happy Sabbath ifwe could all find our seats again we'regoing to start with a song servicewe're going to start with number 523 myfaith has found a restingplace 523my faith has found a resting place notin amanadeCreed I trust theever living one that he for me he willplead I need nootherevence I need nootherpleas it is enough that Jesus died androse again forme enough for for me that Jesus savesthis ends my fear anddoubt a sinful soul I come to him hewill not cast meout I need noallevidence I need nootherple it is enough that Jesus died androse again forme my soul isresting on the word The Living Word ofGod[Music]salvation in my savior's namesalvation through hisblood I need nootherevidence I need nootherpleas it isenough that Jesus Di died and rose againforme the greatphys heals the sick the Lost he came tosave for me hispreious blood he shed for me his life hegave I need nootherevidence I need nootherplee it isenough that Jesus died and rose againforme amen praise the Lord Lord that herose again forus now let's sing number457 I love to tell the story and wouldyou please stand with us this morning asour Minister enters and Elders[Music]enter I love to tell thestory of unseen things[Music]above of Jesus and Hisglory ofJesus and hislove be I love to tell thestorybecause I know is trueitsatisfies mylonging as nothing else cando I love to tell thestory will be my theme inglory to tell the old old storyofJesus and hislove I love to tell thestory morewonderful itseems than all the goldenfanies of all our golden tream[Music]I love to tell thestory it did so much forme and that is just areason I tell it now tothee I love to tell the storywill be my them inglory to tell the old oldstory ofJesus and hislove I love to tell thestory is Pleasant torepeat whatseems each time I tell it morewonderfulsweet I love to tell thestory for some have neverheard the message ofSalvation from God God's Own holy[Music]word I love to tell thestory will be my theme inglory to tell the old oldstory ofJesus and hislove I love to tell thestory for those who know itbestlonging andthirsting to hear it like therest and when in SE ofGlory I sing the new newsong will be the old oldstory that I have loved solong I love to tell thestory will be my theme inglory to tell the old old storyofJesus and hislove bow our heads and we'll Close OurEyes HeavenlyFather we come today into yourpresence as Sinners needing your graceand yourmercy I pray father that you will stillthe voices of the world outsidedi you'll quieten the worries of ourhearts and you will fill our heartstoday with the peace that passeth allhumanunderstanding father descend upon thisplace with your HolySpirit answer the queries of ourhearts bring hope where there isfear peace where there isstrife and joy where there issorrow father send your angels who excelin strength to watch your around thishouse ofworship I pray father that any Spiritnot of your kingdom be banished fromthis place rightnow and father in all that is said anddone today in the hearing of your wordin the raising of our voices in prayerin the uh pouring out of our hearts toyou in all that is said and done may yoube glorified today we ask this Mercy injesus' name amen and please be seatedgoodmorning what a beautiful Sabbath morningwehave I'm uh blessed to be here I hopeall of you are as well um lookingforward to the uh looking forward to theday the programs that we have for you Ijust had a few announcements I wanted tomake um first off I just want to welcomeeveryone here thank you for coming todayum we have had a a wonderful time thisweek we've had some great meetings umwe've had uh Barbara O'Neal for the uhfirst part of the week and then we hadother speakers as well um Larry Lasherand Greg vatistas and it's been it'sbeen a real blessing uh I hope uh I hopemany of you have been able to make it touh to some of the other meetings as wellum I want to turn your attention alittle bit to the um little handout thatyou may have gotten as you came in thisis the program for today um we have uhif you were to follow along you can seethat uh uh today we have um a fellowshiplunch um that's going to be right afterthe uh the service today all is welcometo stay and um we're going to pray theLord multiplies the food I believe hewill I think we have plenty of food foreveryone um and uh let's see um Liz youwant to come up you have anyannouncements you want to make about theFooda in mytina where's mytina at she'scoming she's comingokay so Liz yes what are we doing forlunchtoday so for lunch today is an Adventisttradition many of you may be familiarwith it it's basically taco salad but wecall it Hy Stacks because you start withyour chips which look like hay and thenyou add beans and cheese and rice ricerice olives onions lettuce tomatoes whoknows what everybody brought but it'sit's a group effort and I believe wehave enough to feed everybody you'll befull and um we're excited about it so wehave a lot of people here more thanaverage service right it is more thanaverage our church the most our churchcan hold is about 110 and so yeah it ismore than average so do you think wemight need a little extra help you knowwhat we're going to do so we're going tohave it ready we'll have we'll have theblessing here after the service we'llhave it ready for you to come throughline but we need eight dedicated peoplewho get to go line through line the veryfirst and then get to serve everyoneelse a tip is do not put your chips onwhen you go through line just grab thoseat the end because your chips will besoggy by the time you serve people butwe need eight servers and a few otherpeople to help keep the keep the tablestocked yes and to keep things movingright oh yes yes we've got so if youdirect your attention right over herewe've got four lines so first thingyou're going to do is grab a plate we'regoing to give you your chips your riceyour beans your cheese sauce then it'sthen it's multiple choice you get to goto the next table and choose what othertoppings you want and you can refusesome toppings even from the beans andrice table if you know if you don't likebeans hm you may be a little out of luckfor this meal but we'll we'll give youextra rice and um yes we want to keepthings moving because we have moremeetings that we want you to enjoy amenand it's easier to enjoy meetings with afull stomach oh that's right rightafterwards we're going to take a walk sonobody falls asleep during the 3 that'swonderful we should take a digestivewalk right didn't we learn somethingabout this week so sounds good for ourservers enjoy the service as soon asthey're singing the closing song ifyou'll come right over to the Pavilionwe'll put you to work so thank you somuch church family we appreciate it andwe're excited to have all of you herethank youeverybody thankyou okay a couple other things umat 3 this afternoon we will have anothermessage by Dr Conrad Vine so pleasestick around for that there's also goingto be children's meetings they'll bedown at the chapel so if you have uhkids you want to send down there they'rewelcome to go down they've got somewonderful children's meetings going onthen this evening at 5:30 we haveBarbara O'Neal again she will speakuntil 7 and then at 7:30 to roughly 8830 8:45 we will have a panel discussionup here with um with Barbara O'Neal uhConrad I think it's going to be maybeall of our speakers we'll have up hereum uh so uh we have the questions uhpeople can write down put on a card Ithink they've got some cards in the backif you have yep uh right over here ifanybody needs one put their hand up umwe'll put those in a box and we'll we'llhave a little panel discussion up hereand we'll read people's questions solooking forward to that um I think thatoh oh one other uh one otherannouncement I wanted to make is thisevening after uh after Sundown the um uhthe booth will be back open for sellinguh um uh books and supplements uh breadproducts things like that there's also afood truck coming in this evening thatwill be selling uh vegan food they havedelicious food so um uh that will becoming in this evening as well afterSundown I uh let's see um a couple otherquick announcements I want to make um wehave a fall festival coming up inHarrison Park here in Denton November3rd from 10: to4: um if you are volunteering we uh weask that you show up at 8 um that is awonderful event that we do for thecommunity so um I hope that anybody thatcan please come and be involved in thator uh or just come um let's see here Danis Dan olon aroundhere ah there he is Dan come onup Dan is a is a good friend of mine hecomes from the mountains from um HopeInternational and I wanted you to uhtell us a little bit about uh about Hopeand the efforts going on in WesternNorth Carolina the things that areeverybody has heard about that's uh justuh if I can do it without anyway hopefor health my wife and I run this smallMinistry out in the mountains ofMarshall North Carolina um we've got allnatural herbs she's a natural uhnaturopathic doctor my daughter's anherbalist she's going to be innaturopath too um your catalogs are upthere if you want to get one one of thethings that we do is not only this is umwe go out to the community we take wetry to take care of the elderly peoplepeople that don't have fire wood we gofirewood for and we build ramps we doall kinds of different things but whenthis thing hit I've never seen anythinglike it you guys itdevastated thousands of people just gonehouses are gone my son my grandson and Ispent all week last week taking treesdown we cut thousands of trees and buildroads and fixing roads for people canget out and then the worst thing aboutit we're at this community and trying tohelp them and this old man comes drivingdown his driveway on a lawnmower myhouse is on fire good grief really isthat not enough and it house burnt rightto the ground before the fire trucks Ksaid he couldn't get there it took us wewere going to a friend of ours house toget there and uh we left Monday at like10:00 we didn't get there till the nextmorning because the roads were that badwe couldn't even we had to go all kindsof different ways ended up going all theway up to Johnson City turn aroundcoming all the way back to unicy goingup over the mountain it wasthe the pictures don't do it justiceit's something that is it's biblicalthis is it's unbelievable thedestruction the people that lostabsolutely everything a little town ofMarshall that we go to that we live byis gone the river just destroyed itripped it out of the ground all thebuild most of the buildings are gone thebridge is gone um the friend's housethat we went to to go help they have alittle bridge that they go over to getout it was a culvert 6ot wide covertjust gone washed it away um so theycouldn't get out and none of the peoplefrom up there could from up their housecould get out so we built them a littleroad to go through the ditch uh to tryto so they could get out through thecreek um their main road out front thecreek or the water had come around andand just cut a destroyed it there's noRoad there anymore so we had to go inand build a mini road for them to getdrive back and forth so uh the effortsare unbelievable there's a lot of peoplethat are coming forth and helpinghelicopters coming in from all over theplace and this is all these are allprivately owned helicopters that aredoing this that are bringing the food inthe food and the water and the thedrinking water and the non-potable waterbecause people don't have water theentire burn swn of Burnsville has nowater no sewer no nothing so they can'tthey can't function at all it's going totake a months to rebuild thatinfrastructure of the water so uh anykind of help you guys can can do praythat that people will God will continueto send people to help because it'sdevastated little town town of IrwinTennessee I went through that to get towhere I was going it's it's gone therethe hospital there is literally that thewater came in and just ripped it outfrom the bottom from underneath of itthere's it's it's bad it's really reallybad I've never seen anything like thatall my life so I think that's about hellyou wanted me to do right yes thank youthank you Dan um part of the reason Iwanted him to come up here is so wecould hear a firsthand experience fromup there in the mountains thisevening if uh for those of you have comeuh come to this event we haven't been uhwe haven't been passing the bucket wedidn't want this to be about money butthisevening we are going to take up anoffering for the WesternCarolina um uh uh things that are goingon up there and just to help out as muchas we as we can so remember that thisevening we'll be taking up an offeringforthat all right let's see um one lastannouncement I want to quickly make isjust kind of a housekeeping announcementwe are so thankful for the Denton Farmpark for opening up this facility for usit's been an absolutely amazing blessinga beautiful place I uh do want to pointout there's a lot of Machinery old uhold equipment and stuff around so justbe careful with your kids um watch outfor them um for you know keep them offclimbing on some of the old equipmentand things of that nature and also umtake a look at the Farm Park some of theevents they have throughout the yearit's really interesting they've got somesome really nice programs go to theirwebsite or you can grab one of theirFlyers uh as you come in they have somereally great family uh family fun uhstuff that they do so I think that isall of our announcements thismorning we will uh go to our openingsong yes we're going to sing oh brotherbe faithful number 602 and would youplease stand with us give you one moretime to stretch before the sermon[Music]oh brother be faithful soon Jesus willcome for we have waited solong soon we shall enter the ground glorhome and join in the conersong Oh Brother be faithful for whyshould we prove unfaithful to him whohasshown such deep suchunbounded and infinite love who died toredeem us isown oh brother be faithful for City ofGold prepared for the good and the[Laughter]blessed is waiting its portals of pearltounfold and welcome thee into thyrest then brother be faithful for longshall we stand inwe here and forL time's Dark Night of Sorrow is wearingaway we haste to theGloriousM oh brother be faithful he soon willdescendCreationsomnipotentKing while Legions of angels his charotattend and palm of Victorybr oh brother be faithful[Music]for the savior of the Glad wordwell done faithful[Music]Ser toenter the joy of theLord oh brother be faithfuleternity's years shall tell for ThyFaithfulnessnow when Bright Smiles of gladness[Music]thy tears acoron GLE onthy oh brother be faithful the prois waits for the faithful andTR to reain with the ransomedimmortal and pure and everwith[Music]Jesus amen you may beSE we are going to take up one offeringduring this service as well and that oneis for the camp uh for the uh Doo Campthat has put on this whole event and uhso if if you uh if you can umand you would like to see this continueto go forward we're already planningnext year's we already have BarbaraO'Neal lined up for next year we'vealready locked down the Farm park fornext year so we are super excited we'repraising the Lord that that was able towork out but it does take money so weare um we are going to ask for if you uhif you feel impressed to um donate alittle something to help out in the uhin the preparation for this camp meetingwe want to continue to make it betterand better each year so um I'm going tohave the uh deacons uh take up theoffering now at this this time thankyoueee eall right let's bow our heads for a wordof prayer real quick Father in Heaventhank you so much for the money that hasbeen raised Lord I pray that you'll takethis money that you'll multiply it Ipray that you'll help us to use it whereit can be utilized best I pray that thiscamp meeting can be a blessing andcontinue to be a blessing as it as weplan the next one and that um your namewill be glorified in everything that wedo we just thank you we praise you inJesus nameamen all right I think we have achildren'sstory have my a slight change of namesis uh my wife Elizabeth is going to dothe uh children's story this morningif you are 12 or under make your way tothe front let's sit right here on the onthe front right here crisscrossapplesauce I need all my kids upfront right here sit down on sit downright here everybody sit down nice workthere you go come on up we've got astory for you and as a side note anyone12 or over that's singing with the kidsclub for our special music go ahead andcome on up so you're uphere welcome boys and girls it's good tosee you this morningmorning if you're taller sit toward theback so the little kids can see okay butmake sure they're not so little thatthey don't need an arm around them sothey don't fall off we don't want anyonegetting hurt thismorning welcome guys good to see youall okay so I was in the children'smeeting this morning and I heard someyoung people people singing so loud sowhat I need you guys to do this morningfor me is I need you to say happySabbath but I need you to say it so loudthat all the way to the back of theMusic Hall they can hear it can you dothat for me are you ready one 2threehappy oh that's awesome that iswonderful did you know that you are ourchurch every every single one of you areour church you see we're getting old andwe need lots of help and you are ourpeople that we're going to count on I'mso proud of you I've got a story to tellyou today about a little boy he had aslingshot didn't you ever ever have aslingshot or do you know what aslingshot is yeah so you pull it backlike a big rubber band and you putsomething hard in it and then you letthe rubber band go and the hard thinggoessomewhere well this guy went out in thewoods and he was trying to hit a knot ina treejust went beside the tree and he wastrying to hit this and it just it wasgone man I can't hit anything with myslingshot he came back he wasdiscouraged I I can't hit anything thenyou know what happened he was stayingwith his grandma and his grandma's petgoose walked by well he hadn't hitanything all day long and sometimes whenwhen we don't think we're just like ohhe didn't think he put something hard inhis slingshot he pulled the slingshotback and he hit the duck he hadn't hitanything all day long and he hit theduck he hit Grandma's favoriteduck what am I gonnado what is Grandma gonna say this isawful so he went and grabbed the duckhe's like I can't tell Grandma have youever felt like that have you ever donesomething you're like I can't tell mymom I can't admit to my dad that I didthis so he grabbed that duck and he ranto the wood pile and he put the put theduck down and he put wood on on top ofit he's like they won't find the duckthen he turned around and he started tocreep back toward the house and you knowwhat happened he looked up and he saweyes his big sister was watching him andshe didn't say anything she just lookedat him one of those siblings looks andyou're like oh no what am I going to dowell he went in for lunch and he triedto act happy and he tried to eat hisfood and then after lunch grandma saidSally will you help me do thedishes oh no Grandma Bobby said he wantsto do the dishes for you remember theduck yeah yeah Grandma I want to do thedishes foryou and so Sally went and off and playedand Bobby what did I call him tell mehis name David okay David had to watchthe dishes and then as he was finishingwashing the dishes Grandpa came throughand said does anybody want to go fishingwith me yeah yeah oh I'm sorry dear butI asked Sally to help me with supper Ineed help oh Grandma David said hewanted to help with supper tonightremember theduck yes Grandma I I want to help withsupper tonight and so Sally went offfishing with Grandpa and David stayedhome and helped with with supper do youknow what Sally didn't just do like aone afternoon thing every day Dave Davidgot to do Sally's chores and his choresand Grandma must have thought he wasreallyhelpful unless this grandma was reallysmart finally after several days he justcame into Grandma he said Grandma I'm sosorry I I I wasn't trying to but Ikilled your duck and I'm so sorry andgrandma looked at him and she saidDavid I was watching out the window Isaw it happen I knew that it happenedand when I saw it and I knew it was anaccident I forgave youI just wondered how long you were goingto let Sally make you aSlave oh do you know that's what happensto us Satan wants to make you a slaveyou do something wrong and he's goingonto come back and go don't you rememberyour mine because you aren't being goodyou've been disobedient you weren't niceJesus says I already forgave you youneed to claim that power of forgivenessthat gift of forgiveness I want you tobe my child I will give you power tolive better but you got to ask me if youjust keep going oh oh Satan is justkeeping me no you don't have to beSatan's slave you can be the servant theslave of God because he loves you somuch that he would never ask you to doanything that wasn't for your absolutebest just like that grandma she knew sheknew what was happening to David shejust wanted to see when he would bebrave enough to come and say I'm sorryand how long he was going to let hissister just bully him so guys let'sremember when something wrong happenslet's go and tell our parents let's goand ask for forgiveness let's go andclaim the Forgiveness that God can giveyou don't let anybody make you a slaveexcept for Jesus he's the only Master wewant so let's let's work on thatprinciple everybody bow your heads withme and let's ask Jesus into our heartsJesus we just thank you so much for thissabbath for this Camp please be with usplease help us please forgive us andhelp us to live as your boys and girlstoday in Jesus name amen now if youpractice with us during the morningmeeting just stay right here if youwould like to sing with us even if youcould only smile you can stay right hereas well what I do need you to do isstand up so everybody can see you and Ineed my little people in the front ifyou can't see around people you need tocome forward and Miss jinny is going tointroduce Our Song ForUs good morning happy SabbathI was not asked to speak to the adultsthis week but I was asked to speak tothe children I've been the uh children'steacher this week uh in the chapel andwe prepared a song for you guys um nowwe drove my son and I Ruben he's the onepassing out the music we drove fromFlorida uh earlier this week and we werein the direct path of the hurricane sowe uh at 1:00 in the morning we had 140m per hour winds going over over ourhouse and we were sitting in the diningroom just praying that God would be withus and then I heard about what happenedin North Carolina and my heart justsinks for the people there andso just before the storm came to us uh afriend sent a text and it was the wordsto a song and it's the song that we'regoing to sing to you this morning andit's called till the storm passes overand you know we all have storms in ourlifeand I just pray that the words to thesesongs will help you to this song willhelp you to remember that God is alwayswith us he will always be with us nomatter what happens and as Psalm 46tells us the Lord is my refuge and mystrength even though the mountains bemoved he's always with us and we cantrust in that so are you guys ready[Music]my[Music]my keep meSt[Music]darkthethe over[Music]I[Music][Music]by[Music]the[Music][Applause]is egood morning happy Sabbath everymorning our scripture reading for thesermon is found in Genesis 1:27 and it reads so God created man inhis own image and the image of Godcreated he him male and female createdhe them may the Lord add a blessing tothe reading of hisword uh good afternoon or good morningeverybody it's a privilege to be withyou let me just see if I can set thisthing up before we canbeginso I don't often come down to NorthCarolina but it's a privilege to behere and to uh spend some time with youall I come from um if you if you werehere for the Sabbath school and brotherGreg was speaking about the AmericanConstitution and so forth and so forthI'm one of the bad guys guys in thestory allright because I originally come fromEngland not from Michigan and uh it'sbecause we are so evil you have all thebenefits you havetoday so you can thank me afterwards uhbut I bring greetings from my wife Ihave the husband of I'm a husband ofwhat one wife and we have two twochildren and um my son's at Southern mygirls at Andrews and she's studyingbiomedical laboratory science so I tellher she's going to be the next Doctorand anony fouchy and that joke kind offell flat in our household when Icracked that joke so anyway it's aprivilege to come and share with youhere today um up at the front here justdown there um I've got some books hereone's called the possibility of beliefit's written by a very thoughtful friendof mine and it talks about thepossibility of finding hope when you'vebeen raised in a philosophy of Despairwhich is most of our young people todayso I've brought about seven copies justpick one up if you want they're free ofcharge just on the front here I don'twant to take home with me to Michigan soplease take it if you want it all rightum because many of our young peopletoday are raised in the philosophy ofDespair and then I have some AdventFrontier magazines down there I don'twant to take any home with me so pleasepick up one and read through it and I'dlike to encourage you to um sign up forthe magazine and start praying for twoor three of those missionaries every daybecause mission is the story of answeredprayer and when we pray we see Godmoving in Mighty ways so be prayerwarriors here in North Carolina whichdevastate you call home and please pickup those magazines down there at thefront so our service our sermon sayentitled silent men somebody asked me ifI was going to preach about silenced menI said no no I'm just calling thissilent men and um so it's going to becalled silence men and let me see if Ican get this up on the screen here Ijust noticed that you just see my screensaverand um let me just one secondhere it was up there thismorning all right can you see that nowthat's my front yard when a storm camethrough a whileago and um we don't get storms like youhave downhere but we do get snow storms there weare silent men all right so it works andcould we possibly put the screen on atthe front here would that be possiblethank you so uh I'm not going to talkabout women today because I do I getinto trouble um I'm going talk about menand um if you're a man or you are themother of a man or the wife of a man oryou one day want to marry a man um thenthis is a sermon for you but I'm notgoing to talk about women um because uhyou're going to accuse me of misogyny orsomething if I talk about ladies todayso um but I'm talking about ment todaybecause manhood is underattack and it's leading to a generationof Silentmen and our institutions are falling oneby one as is our nation thank youbrother because we have silent men andwomen who will not speak up for truthwhen truth comes underattack so we're going to be uhdiscussing today the question of Silentmen and what has God created men to beum in his creation order so before webegin I invite you to Bow your headswith me and we'll invite the presence ofthe Holy Spirit HeavenlyFather we thank you that we are createdin yourimage we thank you Father that yourpurposes for us are from Everlasting toEverlasting that there's nothing we cando to prevent you from lovingus that you C put may you cause the sunto shine on the righteous and on theunrighteous and you are merciful to usall we're gathered here today in yourhouse father because we would hear aword from theLord so father speak through me and forme May my words be taken from yourthrone of grace may they take root inthe lives the hearts the homes themarriages of those present and thoseonline and father may you be glorifiedin all that is said and done thismorning in the name of Jesus I pray amenso I have a young son he's 22 years oldand I sometimes discuss the question ofmarriage with him and I discuss it withsome of his friends what I've discoveredis that there are many young men todaywho are really not that interested inmarriage they're not that interested inmarriage and when I ask when I say tothem but when you're a young man livingat home it's like living in Egypt it's aLand of Plenty but a land ofslavery and then you wander through youryoung adult years those the Wildernessyears when you subsist on Subway in TacoBell and one day you went to thepromised land known as marriage wouldn'tyou rather get into the promised land assoon as possible and their response iswell no because if we divorce my wifetakes the kids to home and everythingand I'm reduced topoverty and we have these socialphenomena going on in America today wehave things like passport Bros have youheard of passportBros passport Bros are guys wholiterally fly to Southern hemispherecountries to find a wife who is notprone todivorce we have a social phenomena knownas men going their own way men checkingout of society men not wanting to engageum with at a singles event so you havesingles events today where you havemaybe 10 or 15 young women to everyyoung man present men are just not thatinterested in dating anymore becausethey in their attitude it leads in theiropinion leads to so much pain we see umtraditional manhood decried in the mediaas toxicmasculinity and Alpha men are now to beum mocked and beta men are to becelebrated in society all of our sitcomon the TV portrayed women as smartindependent and leaders and the men arebumbling idiots and it's this commonportrayal of men across Society wecelebrate when girls do well we say heygo girl and then we end up with in ourcolleges today maybe 60% of all collegegraduates are female and men arechecking out of the academic spheres aswell and it's harder and harder to finda Godly God-fearing man who whom you canbuild a familywith so this is is not so much areligious liberty talk I'll talk aboutthat this afternoon another topiccompletely but I do want to talk todayabout God's original purpose formen and if you want to reach out to meyou can see on the screen there um I nowpost my sermons on Twitter becausethey're a free speech Bastion right nowand YouTube I've got a channel thereit's not monetized you won't see any anyads as far as I as far as I'm aware andthen there's a bunch of otherconnections there if you want to reachout to me but uh this is our journeytoday we're going to look at theoriginal purpose that is Adam in theGarden of Eden it's very interesting wethen going to look at the example ofAbraham the father of the faithfulfaithful then we're going to take adeeper dive into our scripture readingthis morning when it says God createdman in his own image male and femalecreated to them we're going to focus onthe word male and what the word maleactually means and the implications forus today and it's a word that hasincredibly deep meaning and then we'regoing to come to our conclusions fortoday so are you with me on this journeytoday many you interested in this ladiesare you interested in this those who oneday hope to marry are you interested inthis I hope so yes I I I I I can tellI've I've been um married 24 and a halfyears and our 25th anniversary is thisDecember and it's it's imprinted in mymemory cuz I forgot it once and neveragain um I learned about the theunforgivable sin when I forgot a weddinganniversary it was on our 19th year andI said to my wife well I've onlyforgotten it once in 19 years thatthat's not so bad is it and she said yesbut not on the year that you forget itso um this is our journey today so theum the original purpose for us in theGarden of Eden for men in the Garden ofEden so uh today I think you'd agreewith me that that masculinity seems tobe under attack would you agree with meon that men are mocked they they'rederided we celebrate girl power and boyswho are naturally Boys in school getmedicated on Rin sent to the schoolcounselor I was sitting on a anAdventist School Board once we werediscussing two little boys that had analtercation in the in in in the duringthe um the break between classes and oneof them had pushed the other to theground and I thought well good on youyou stood up for yourself and it was anall female board other than myself andthey were saying well well well we needto get a school counsel we need apsychological assessment and may youneed to put him on rlin or medicat himor something and I said just introducesparring during the during the physicalSports exercise classes just give themboxing boxing um head uh the outfit onthe head the gloves give them the glovesgive them the and say you've got 30seconds to smash away at each other andafter they've done that for 30 secondsthey may you know bruise a lip orsomething they'll be best of friends andyou don't need to medicate them andpsychologize them and make them feellike they're somehow wrong and somanhood is under attack in our WesternSociety so let's go back to the Gardenof Eden to God's original purpose in theGarden of Eden um and we're going tolook not first at Genesis 1 we're goingto look at Genesis chapter 2 the veryfamous verse it says the Lord God tookthe man and put him in the Garden ofEden to till it and to keep it Genesischapter 2 and verse 15 so there are twoverbs that God gave to Adam in theGarden of Eden this was before he hadcreated Eve okay so before Eve comes onthe scene God gives Adam two roles andthe first is to till the land now thatword the Hebrew word and every time Iuse a Hebrew word today I'm going to putthe strongs number up there that's whatthose numbers mean if you have strongsconcordance so you can go and check itout for yourself okay we want to bebereans we want to check out what thepreachers say so the Strong's word is5647 albad is the verb it means to tillit means to work it means to serve thismeans that God placed Adam in the gardento be in a dynamic and a productiverelationship with God's natural creationto produce food on an ongoing basis thiswas before before Eve or any childrenenter the picture so one of the firstthing purposes that God gave to man wasthat we are to beproviders we are to be providers and thecloser your provision can get to Naturethe more in tune you are to be with yourcreator the second thing that God gaveto Adam in the Garden of Eden is theverb shiaa he strongs concordance 8 104that means to hedge about to guard toprotect to be circumspect to to takeheed to to reserve to regard to watch asa Watchman so the first purpose that Godgave adam in the Garden of Eden was tobe a provider the second thing that Godhad gave in the Garden of Eden was thatman was to be aprotector before his wife comes alongbefore his children comes along GodGod's purpose for Adam and for every mantoday is to be a provider and aprotector of that which God G blessesyou with providers and protectors and inthe next verse gen2:16 we have theinstructions got given by God to Adam itsays there and the Lord God commandedthe man you may freely eat of every treeof the garden but of the tree of theknowledge of Good and Evil you shall noteat for in the day that you eat of ityou shall die now God gives Adam theseinstructions do you think he intendedfor Adam to keep those instructions justto himself no no he intended for Adam topass on God's will to the family thatGod was about to give him so that meansthat man is not just to be a providerand a protector he is also to be apriest in the family to be a priestmeans he represents God and His God'swill to his family and he also as we'regoing to see in the life of Abraham heintercedes with God on behalf of hisfamily and leads them in the worship ofJehovah God so men are providers theyare to be protectors and they are to bepriests this verse here tells us we aremoral beings with freedom of choice thatwe are to understand God's revealed willwe are accountable to our creator forhow we respond to God's created will weare not the top of the evolutionaryperiod um um pyramid accountable tonobody we are moral beings accountableto a Creator and when you live your lifewith the understanding that you areaccountable to God for every word andevery deed that you ever say or do itchanges how you treat people today amenand if you do not believe that there isa final judgments and you do not believethat you are Mor a moral being and youdo not believe that you're morallyaccountable then you can treat otherpeople as animals because we are reducedto the state ofanimals so we are to beprovidersprotectors and Priests we see that inthe Garden of Eden before Eve came alongnow Adam was a happy man because he hadno mother-in-law theonly the only married man in history tohave no mother-in-lawbut anyway um that he was an unfallenman so he had no mother-in-law Fallenmen have mothers-in-lawso we're going to switch on from that tothe story of Abraham Abraham the fatherof the faithful now have you heard thatAbraham was the father of thefaithful okay so where do we get thatfrom in scripture well on the on theleft there we have a quote there fromRomans 4: 11 and verse1 17 whichdescribes um Abraham um before he wascircumcised and the faith that Godrecognized in him it says that God Paulspeaks of Abraham it says he receivedthe sign of circumcision as a seal ofthe righteousness that he had by faithwhile he was still uncircumcised thepurpose was to make him the ancestor ofall who believe that is the father ofthe faithful without being circumcisedand who thus have righteousness reckonedto them as it is written I have made youthe father of many nations thenGalatians chapter 3 picks up on thistheme and and it says there just asAbraham believed God and it was reckonedto him as righteousness so you see thosewho believe are the descendants ofAbraham So based on these two verses wehave the common phrase in the Englishlanguage today Abraham was the father ofthe faithful and we ask ourselves didAbraham exemplify the roles of ofProvider of protector and of priestswithin his family did he actually livethis out in his own life and we're goingto see that absolutely yes he did thefirst let's just uh for uh just take umjust look at the life of Abraham for afew moments here we're going to pick upthe story in Genesis 11 it says therewhen tra had lived 70 years he becamethe father of Abraham nahor and harannow these are the descendants of tra Tiawas the father of Abraham nahor andharan and haran was the father of lotharan died before his father Tia in theland of his birth in ER of the caldes soAbraham was raised near modern day thecity of B azra on the Persian Gulf inthe ancient city of er of the caldes andjust so that we are are aware of thefact they were not people living incaves we know from archaeology they hadtwostory buildings they had runningwater and functional sewage systems theywere connected to a global tradesNetwork they spoke in multiple languagesjust to give you an idea of thecomplexity of what what they had intheir society in the English language wehave two voices active and passive I seeyou is active I am seen by you ispassive the French language has like amiddle voice where they say Jal thatmeans I wash myself and the Greeklanguage in the time of Christ had threevoices active middle and passive but ifyou go back to the time of Abraham theyhad six voices in their language nowwhat does that mean well does any of youhave a teenage kid in thefamily yes you are blessedand you will notice that teenagers tendto communicate via text message is thatright and 5 years ago they communicatevia text message now they communicateviaEmoji okay and what's happening is thatour our our capacity and our Precisionof expression is decreasing with everygeneration and so we have two voicesactive and passive in the Englishlanguage in the time of the Apostle Paulhe had three voices in the Greek you goback to Abraham they had six voices inthe ugaritic language so those clayuniform tablets we think look realprimitive they had a capacity for aPrecision of expression that far exceedsanything we can imagine today they werenot Shepherds scratching themselves inthe dust in the Middle East they were ahighly sophisticated society and Godcalls Abraham out of this Society to goto Canan which was the proverbialBadlands Acts chapter 7 stevenhdescribes this on trial before the Sanhedrin and he's talking about the callof Abraham and he said brothers andfathers listen to me the god of Gloryappeared to our ancestor Abraham when hewas in Mesopotamia before he lived inharan and said to him leave your countryand your relatives and go to the landthat I will show you and so the commandto Abraham was to leave your country andto leave your family and go to a placethat I'm going to show you now Abrahamleft his country but he didn't leave hisfamily he was in a saving relationshipwith God but he was not yetperfect we all can grow in our walk withGod God said leave your family and leaveyour country and Abraham took his familywith him even though they were all PaganIdol worshippers he was taking them withhim to the promised land which was notGod's purpose the story goes on inGenesis 11 tra took his son Abraham andhis grandson lot son of haran and hisdaughter in-law Sarah his son Abraham'swife they went out together from her thecalines to go in land of Canaan whenthey came to Haram they settled therethe days of TI were205 years and so they they move fromSouthern Iraq up to Northern Iraq andnear the modern day city of of of mosulthey settle down and they're not goingany further and God had said to AbrahamI want you to go from ER the caldes uparound the fertile cresant and down intomodern day Canaan or Israel or Palestinewhatever you want to call it but as theywere halfway through that Journey theystopped the theystopped and Abraham stayed there untilhis fatherdied he stayed there until he was 75yearsold he stayed there until he thought hewas past his childbearing years with hiswife God had called him to go from ERall the way around to Canaan and he gotstuck halfway on thejourney and he waited there until hisfather diedhe stuck there he had no land of his ownhe had no Heritage to pass onto childrenthat he did not have as yet he had notaccomplished his main goal or purpose inlife as revealed to him by God he' lostthe energy of Youth he was stuck inharan both honoring his father whilewaiting for his father to die so hecould move on with his own purposes inlife so how did Abraham respond to whathe might call his midlifecrisis well the first thing we read isthat he provided for his family sayAbraham went as the Lord had told himand lot went with him Abraham was 75years old when he departed fromHaram he was a provider for his familyhe took care of his elderly father untilhis fatherdied and he probably recognized hiselderly father could not make the restof that Journey so he waited and waitedand took care of his father and madesure that he was comfortable as a paganman all all way through unto his deathhe provided for his family it was acomplex family Genesis 20:12 tells usthat Abraham was married to his halfsister Tia's Daughter by another wifesays there she is indeed my sister thedaughter of my father father but not thedaughter of my mother and she became mywife that means that Abraham's fatherTia was simultaneously his father-in-lawit was a complex family Not only was ithad some complex inter relationships itwas an intergenerational family traAbraham and lot were three generationsdo any of you today live in amultigenerational family it's achallenge yes there are Joys and thereare sorrows and there arecross-generational tensions when youlive in a cross-generational family andthe older generation doesn't alwaysunderstand the younger generation andthe younger generation is chafing at abit because they think the oldergeneration just doesn't know anythingaboutlife you find that with teenagers someof you are smiling you don't knowanything dadI said to my boy before he went tocollege David you need to get somethingcheap and reliable like a Prius Dad I'mnot going to drive a Prius all rightokay he got himself a GolfGTI then the first rep repair bills hitand he sold it so Dad where do I find aPrius you know this is the way of theworld with every generation and soAbraham provided for his family um itwas a spiritually divided family notjust a cross generational family becausetra and nahor worshiped other pagan godsbut Abraham still managed to live atpeace with his spiritually dividedfamily and he must have been respectedfor them by them for they willingly leftthe sophistication of ER in southernIraq to move with him to haran andhopefully to the promised land to Canaanlater in Genesis 12 20: 10 we read howAbraham was willing to provide for hisfamily says there now there's a faminein the land so Abraham went down toEgypt to reside there as alien for thefamine was severe in the land and hetook his family with him on this journeyand there are many people in our worldtoday who are what we call migrantworkers they go to another country inorder to send money back to their familyit happens all around the world it'shappening in America today when I usedto work in Central Asia many tajic andafghanis go to Moscow they work therethey live on almost nothing they sendback a couple hundred a month that'stheir profit to provide for theirfamilies back home Abraham tookseriously his respons responsibility toprovide for his family and he waswilling to move to Pagan Egypt where hethought they wanted to kill him to takehis wife because he know he knew hisfamily needed food so he was willing totake a risk for his family to be aprovider likewise each one of us todayhas familycommitments despite the fragmentation ofour Western society and our westernfamily each one of us has elderlyrelatives maybe we have children andmaybe we've been blessed withgrandchildren it's all too easy inAmerica today to walk away from yourfamily to wash your hands of yourfamily to think they're just my troublesand relatives I'd rather forget aboutthemcompletely but we demonstrate our walkwith God and how we relate to ourfamilies no matter how complex howcross-generational or spirituallydivided they may be Abraham honored hisPagan father by looking after him untilthe day he died he witnessed hisfather's slow Decline and eventual deathwe also in our chapter of life wewitness our parents slow Decline andeventual passing and it's tempting towish for the next chapter of life tohurry along but to care for your elderlyparents to show respect for them to lovethem particularly in their decliningyears is a manifestation of our faith inGod and it is living in obedience to thefifth Commandments that you honor yourfather and your mother so when we are inthat position of life we're not stuckgoing nowhere there's a time in lifewhere God calls us as men to be a Pillarof Strength around whom those who areweak in their faith or those who arephysically weak they can find shelterunder the pillar that we erect and theshade that we provide for ourfamilies so guys God is calling us to bePillars of Strength at a certain stageof life not rushing off to play with ourboys toys but being a Pillar of Strengtharound which the elderly and the infirmand the spiritually weak and thespiritually growing can find safety andshelterthe next thing Abraham did was he was apriest now it's interesting in the storyofAbraham that um he we read repeatedlyhere's a passage here about him in thispassage here has Abraham building twoaltars to God says there in Genesis 127-8 the Lord appeared to Abraham andsaid to your Offspring I'll give thisland so he built there an altar to theLord who had appeared to him from therehe moved onto the Hill Country on theeast of bethl pitched his tent withbethl to the west and AI to the East andthere he built a what an altar to theLord and invokes the name of the Lordnow the point about this is that thereis no record of Abraham building analtar to the Lord when he was know ofthe caldes and there is no record ofAbraham building an altar of the Lordwhen he was stuck in haran waiting forhis father to die it's only when he hasforward movement in his life and he'sfulfilling God's purpose for his lifeand he's moving towards the promisedland then in Genesis 12 and 13 Abrahamis leaving a trail of altars wherever hegoes and he's Gathering his family forfamily worshipsat this stage of his life he was beyond75 years of age and no offense to thosetoday who are over75 but once you were Beyond 75 back inthose days where life expectancy was 30or40 he and Zarah were getting old theyhad nochildren but they didn't participate inany of the Pagan fertility rituals toencouragechildbirth the promise of being havingchildren becoming a great nation did notcome until his father had died when hewas 75 but Abraham was was faithful toGod's call in his life trusting that Godhad a purpose for him which appeared tobe going nowhere while they wereseemingly stuck in haran and Sarah lefther childbearing years behind Abrahamhad to learn during that time in haranthat God's timetable is not necessarilyour timetable God's purposes are notlimited by our human frailties or ourlimited understanding of what ispossible and what is necessary to anygiven time Abraham's trust and obediencein God were shown by the fact that as hejourneyed to the prop Promised LandBeyond his childbearingyears and having a promise he would bethe father of many nations he leftaltars to the worship of Jehovahwherever hewent likewise for men today when itappears that you are stuck maybe in amidlife crisis going nowhere fast inyour career it may be that as withAbraham God is inviting you to a deeperlevel of trust and a deeper walk withhim it is a mistake to think that justbecause things are going well in lifethat things are going well with God andand it's a mistake to think that justbecause things are going badly in lifeit seems on the surface that things arewrong between us and our heavenlyfather if you think the time in yourlife when you grew the most spirituallyit wasn't when you had a million dollarsin the bank and everything was goingwell with your business the time yougrow the most spiritually is when youhave a cancer diagnosis when you'regoing through a bankruptcy when yourmarriage is on the rocks and you have achild in hospital that's when you growthe mostspiritually and so there is no record ofAbraham building altars to being stuckin haran but after Haram they appearregularly he grew during his time inharan and so may we when we sense thatour lives are stuck as adult men andthey're not moving forward in thecareers that we hope that they wouldwhen we were muchyounger so the question to ask in thisstage of life is not Lord why is thishappening to me better question is thisLord what are you teachingme how do you want me to growspiritually how do you want me to putdown deeper Roots spiritually so I canconquer the next challenge that comes myway in life there's a really helpfulwebsite I encourage you to check outit's from the general conference it'scalled back tothe al.org it's a reallynice program promoting family worshipsthere's a lot of resources up there andas Abraham LED his family in FamilyWorship he let he built Alters whereverhe went so men of the men of thehouseholds here today build an altar inyour family and if there's one thing Ihear from women above anything else is Iwish my husband would call the childrenfor Family Worship every dayI hear that from women almost everywhereI go I wish my husband would be thepriest of our family I wish my boy had apositive spiritual role model within ourfamily why is it that the lady has tolead the worship and the boy thefather's taking the boy to the Ball Gameboys need to see men who are spiritualmen who love the Lord men who submit tothe word of God and men who will trainthe Next Generation to walk in the waysof Jehovah and so Abraham is a model forus in this area he was a provider forhis family and he was a priest for hisfamily and he was also aprotector as God gave um Adam theresponsibility in the Garden of Eden ofprotecting his family so Adam when hewas stuck in haran and he had a largehousehold over over a thousand people itappears and in that household were 318men young enough and strong enough forbattle and Abraham didn't sit aroundwith them and have like Mutual therapysessions he trained them forwar he told Tau them how to field stripan AR-15 and a Glock 19 that's themodern parli he taught his men how tofight because they were entering the badlands of Canaan Canaan back then was achaotic place with about seven peoplegroups there were multiple city statesmultiple Kings multiple alliancesconstant battles and multiple pagan godsAbraham knew he wasn't just entering aland flowing with milk and honey he wasentering the proverbial bad lands and heknew what what was coming and he knewthey would be fighting and he knew thathis people would be attacked so hetrained his men in the Arts ofWar Abraham understood in a deeper sensethe American Constitution we talk aboutthe right to bear arms in America theSecond Amendment well as Christians youdon't have you don't just have a rightto self-defense as men you have aresponsibility of self-defense is aresponsibility before God to watch overthose he's entrusted to your care now mylittle girl when she graduated fromelementary school um they had thisElementary graduation program and whenshe stood at the front each kid getslike two minutes to say thank you Momthank you Dad for whatever you done forme as I gone through elementary schooland they and they stand up and say thankyou Dad for taking me fishing thank youMom for taking me shopping all that kindof stuff my girl stood up there and shespoke at length for at least 1 minuteand 58 seconds on hermother and I was sitting there withbaited thinking what is she going to sayabout me like when is she going to talkabout me like wasn't I in these last 13years or not and when she had about twoseconds on the clock she says Dad shesays thank you for keeping me safe amenand as a dad that all I needed to knowthat my girl recognized I did my utmostto keep her safe cuz we live in aviolent Society sexual assault isrampant and all too many girls are beingassaulted in their teenage years todayif not before she says thank you Dad forkeeping me safe she understood and Iunderstood and she didn't need to sayany more than that thank you Dad forkeeping mesafe our responsibility asmen sometimes when our life appears it'sstuck and going nowhere is to preparefor the next chapter of life becausethere always is another chapter of Lifethere will always be Giants in the nextchapter that the Holy Spirit writes forus God may be giving you the time todayto build savings for unexpectedexpenditures to invest for yourretirement to rest and recover your mindand your body from the phonetic rat raceof our careers to recover from the abusewe put our bodies and our minds throughthrough years of self- neglect he'sgiving us as men time to be spirituallyready financially ready emotionallyready physically and intellectuallyready not just for the next chapter oflife but for the final crisis beforeJesus Christ comesagain and guys we are to be Protectorsof our families not just physically butspirituallywe are to know what our children arewatching we are to guard what goes intoour children's Minds we can't just leaveit up to our wives all the time and toplay the bad cop we have to be thatPillar of Strength that says this iswhat is acceptable in our family this isthe spiritual diet that my children aregoing to and and dwell um feed on on ona daily basis we're going to set spirspiritual and physical boundaries intowhich Satan cannot enter in our familyso men we have three responsibilities tobe providers to be protectors and to bebe priests but it goes deeper than thisI want to go back to our scripturereading here there's a deeper purpose inbeing a provider protector and a priestand we find it in Genesis 1:27 a veryfamous verse is what we read in ourscripture reading it says so God createdman in his own image in the image of Godcreated he him male and female createdhe them and I'm not going to talk aboutfemale today because I'll probably belambasted if I do I'm just talking aboutmale what does the word male actuallymean and it doesn't mean biological maleas opposed to biological female itdoesn't mean how many chromosomes you'vegot or what kinds of chromosones In thispassage here the word male is zai isfrom the Strong's word 2145 that's thenumber for it it means the one whoremembers the one who remembers uh theword for female doesn't have that kindof profound spiritual significance youcan go look at up for yourselves but theword male means the one whoremembers it's taken from the verb 2142zaka which means to remember to makemention of to be mindful of to bring toremembrance or to remind or to make amemorial and so we ask ourselves what isit that men are to remember what did Godgive Adam to remember well after Godputs Adam in the Garden of Eden inGenesis 2 the first thing that God toldAdam was about the tree of the knowledgeof Good and Evil remember we just lookedat that a few momentsago when Satan questioned what God hadsaid and hear this carefully it wasAdam's responsibility to speak forth andsay this is what God told us in theGarden ofEden and he and he wassilent when Eve brought that forbiddenfruit toAdam in that moment he could have saidthus saith theLord and he wassilent when good men aresilent even evil comes into this planetevil comes into your home when good mendo not remember and speak forth God'swill on a certain matter they allow thatevil to run unchecked through theirfamily we are created by our heavenlyfather men sitting here today and thosewatching online we are created by ourheavenly father to know the will of Godand to speak up for the will of Godwhenever the will of God is challengedin our families or in our communities orin our churches or in our nation that isour responsibility as men Edmund Burkewrote These famous words on the left hesaid this when bad men combine the goodmust associate else they will fall oneby one an unpitied sacrifice in acontemptible struggle through that in1770 this has evolved over the years toa simple phrase that says the only thingnecessary for the Triumph of evil is forgood men to do what do nothing okay sowhen good men do nothing what prevailsevil when Eve was tempted by the serpentin the Garden of Eden Adam was silent hewas a good man he was an unfallen manbut he chose not to speak God's will heknew what God has said about that treeand in his silence comes the fall of thehuman race with all the suffering andwoe that goes along with it when goodmen are silent evilprevails we are not called to be silentmen we will not be silenced as men amenby our society or our institutions weare called to speak up and speak outwhenever the will of God is challengedwhen there is a clear Revelation fromGod as to his will in that situation andit doesn't matter if it's popular orunpopular we were created by God withthat purpose in society and when goodmen say nothing societies decay in frontof our eyes and our churches decay infront of our eyes and our marriages fallapart in front of our eyes when good menum are not willing to stand up and speakout this is God's Will and it's not justI'm telling you what God's will is intelling you what God's will I'mreminding myself what myresponsibilities are as a husband as afather as well and I am also subject tothe will ofGod this is a Biblical concept Proverbs24 11-2 describes it thus it says if youhold back from rescuing those taken awayto death those who go staggering to theslaughter if you say look we did notknow this like if you turn a blind eyeto evil insociety does not he who weighs the heartperceive it does not he who keeps watchover your soul know it and will he notrepay all according to their deedsamen so Christian men men who speak upthey know the will of God we are not toturn a blind eye when there is evil insociety in our families we are to speakup and we are to speak up for thevoiceless and the defenseless and thosewho have been trampled upon we are tospeak up for those who have no platformwe are to speak up for those who societywould ignore or diminish or denigrate oror say these are worthless in oursociety Society is blessed whenChristian men stand up and say thussaith the Lord and it is wrong to treatour fellow citizens our brothers andsisters in this way and god holds usaccountable as Christian men when we seepeople being oppressed in this mannerand we look the otherway and it's all too easy to look theother way is it notall too easy to look the other way uhone of my favorite writers lady calledEllen White wrote this in the bookPatriarchs and Prophets page 578 shesays those who have too little courageto approve wrong or through insolence orlack of Interest make no Earnest effortto purify the family or the Church ofGod are held accountable for the evilthat may result from their neglect ofDuty do you hear that will be heldaccountable by God for the ne theirtheir neglect of Duty we are just asresponsible for evils that we might havechecked in others by exercise ofParental or pastoral Authority as if theacts had been our own that's anastonishing statement yes that whenthere is an abdication ofresponsibility when in the home I do notstand up for that which is right when inthe church I'm not willing to stand upfor that which is right when in societyI'm not willing to speak out and saythese are Lies We are being forced tolive with and these arewrong then that Society fa falls apartthat marriage falls apart that homefallsapart and God sees this and he holds usto account for it asmen she goes on to say in the book Actsof the Apostles page 431 and 432 shesays all who in that evil day wouldfearlessly serve God according to thedictates of conscience will need couragefirmness and the knowledge of God in hisword for those who are true to God willbe persecuted their motives will beimputed their best effortsmisinterpreted and their names cast outas evil and I can say to you from mypersonal experience that's absolutelytrue in a world that is happy to livewith deceit and lies when everybodywants to get along so they just go alongwith everything to speak the truth inthat kind of society means you arerejected by that Society even withinyourchurch and yet God has created me he'screated every man in this room heretoday he has created you as somebody whowill stand up and will speak out whenevil is abroad in the land or in thechurch and when you dothat you do that because you do not seekthe pleasure or the or the approval ofmen you seek the approval ofGod and we are accountable to God forour actions not to our fellow men and ifyou do stand up and you are true to theLord you will be persecuted your motiveswill be or have that people will castaspersions on your motives you will bemisinterpreted you'll be misinterpretedwillfully deliberately intentionallymisrepresented and your names will bespread around on the internet as if youwere Ain to Lucifer a cancer on the bodyof Christ or Satanhimself but God has called us to speaktruth God has called us as men to havethe courage why because there is a finaljudgment and we live in recognition ofthat final judgment we're going to cometo that final judgment in a few momentsumwhat do I do there all right James 4:17puts it this way anyone then who knowsthe right thing to do and fails to do itcommits sin this verse is a reminder tous today that merely being aware ofInjustice or wrong doing is not enoughwe have a moral obligation to act uponour knowledge and work towards positivechange to restore the will of God inthat givensituation and so I thank God for the theministry that we sh showcase todayhelping the suffering people ofNorthwest Carolina right now I thankLord for those who involved inanti-human trafficking activities Ithank the Lord for those who look afterthe homeless and those who feed thehungry these are people who stand up andsay this is not the will of God that hischildren go hungry homeless or loseeverything indisasters and sometimes standing up andspeaking out doesn't involve preachingit means lending a a helping hand toyour neighbor in the hour ofneed but we are called to stand up andspeak out and reveal God's will in aDying World the parable of the GoodSamaritan I won't go over it here Lukechapter 10 reminds us that whilereligious leaders passed by withoutoffering assistance to the injured man aSamaritan considered an outcast bypolite Jewish Society he stopped to helpthat man bandaging his wounds andensuring he received the proper MedicalCare this Parable emphasizes theimportance in the eyes of Jesus oftaking action as Christian men to helpthose in need regardless of socialexpectations or personal biases orprejudices we are to transcend thebiases and prejudices and bigotries ofthis world because we represent God tohis children and everybody in need is achild of God so men we don't just helpthose who like us we don't just helpthose who going to pay us back we don'tjust help those who going to applaud uson social media we help and bless thosewho despitefully use us and who wouldpersecute us and would cancel us in ourmodern day Society that's what it meansto help those in need not just those whoare going to pay you back the ApostlePaul described it thus in Acts chapter20 or sorry the signs of the times saysthis and this is again sister white shesays it may be a difficult manner formen in high positions to pursue the pathof undeviating Integrity whether theyshall receive praise or censure yet thisis the only safe course all the rewardswhich they might gain by selling theirhonor would only be as the breath frompolluted lips as dross to be consumed inthe fire those who have moral courage tostand in opposition to the vices anderrors of their fellow men it may bethough of Those whom the world honorwill receive hatred insult and abusivefalsehood that is absolutely true todayas it was in the day when she wrote thisshe goes on to say they may be drawndown from their High position becausethey would not be bought or sold becausethey could not be induced by bribes orthreats to stain their hands withiniquity everything on Earth may seem toconspire against them but God has sethis seal upon their work can you sayAmen to that God sets his seal on thosewho stand up for the will of God nomatter the consequences they may beregarded the quote Goes On by theirfellow men as weak unmanly unfit to holdoffice canceled that is but howdifferently does the most high regardthem those who despise them are thereallyignorant and then the ApostlePaul spoke about his what he did didwith the church of Ephesus and before heleaves the Church of Ephesus one lasttime he gathers all the elders on thebeach there and the boat is waiting forhim the elders come down to meet him andthe Apostle Paul he explains to themwhat his ministry among them looked likeand listen to what he says to thoseelders and as he was leaving to go toJerusalem and he never saw those Eldersagain he says and now I know that noneof you among whom I've gone aboutproclaiming the kingdom will ever see myface again so Paul was saying this is ityou're never going to H hear me preachor teach again he goes on to saytherefore I declare to you this day thatI am not responsible for the blood ofany of you why because I did not shrinkfrom declaring to you the whole purposeofGod had Adam declared the purpose of Godto Eve we might not we might not be inthe mess that we're intoday Paul took seriously his spiritualresponsibility as a pastor as amissionary as a church leadertwo he did not shrink from declaring tothat church the whole purpose ofGod he didn't sugarcoat the truth hedidn't tell them the half of the truthhe told them what they needed to knowthis is the will of God why because yoursouls are precious to God and I want youto be saved I don't want to sa anythingin my life or in your life that wouldcome between us and a holy God in thefinal judgment and therefore I'm willingto risk my friendship with you to revealto you this this is what God hasrevealed to me about what's going on inyour life or in my life I'm going toreveal these things to you and sharethese things with you and I'm going tobe willing to risk this friendship inorder that you might be saved and havethe Assurance of eternal life this iswhat it means to be aman to be willing to risk friendshipsandrelationships so that people might besaved they might hear the full will ofGod and we live in a society today wherethis is notpopular this is notcelebrated if you do this you're trickyyou're difficult you're you're obstinateyou're divisive let me tell you thiswherever truth is preached there isalways Division division is not causedby the preaching of Truth division iscaused by the rejection ofTruth and so when we speak forth truthas men in our societies as men in ourmarriages as men in our families yesthere may bedivision but we do it for the benefit ofthe Next Generation and that nextGeneration we see this story in Judgeschapter 2this is a tragic verse after Joshua diesand all his generation so Joshua andCaleb and the people they saw the exusfrom Egypt then that the generation thatlived through the 40 years in thewilderness and they see the conquest ofof Canaan under the guidance of God andthis tragic verse says this it saysmoreover that whole generation who sawthe Exodus who saw the wanderings in thewilderness who saw the manner who sawthe fall of Jericho who saw theallocation of the land to the 12 tribesthat generation was gathered to theirancestors it means they died and anothergeneration grew up after them and lookat this words in red who did not knowYahweh or the Lord or the work that hehad done forIsrael what does that tell you it meansthat the generation that saw the Deedsof God did not pass that on to the nextGeneration they didn't pass it on theydid not lead the Next Generation to theworship of Jehovah God and they did nottell them what God had done for them intheir family'shistory and so there arose a generationwho did not know God who did not knowhis work for them on on on their behalfand because they did not know Jehovahand they did not know the blessings ofJehovah they they almost immediatelywent into the worship of pagan godsmen fight for the NextGeneration when we are male we are theones who remember we speak forth thewill of God we are to speak forth thewill of God to our sons we're not justto teach our boys how to play ball fishor hunt we're to instruct our sons inthe ways of God we are to teach our boyshow to hear God for themselves we are totell our boys and our daughters this iswhat God has done in our family's lifeand this is how God has blessed us theseare the answered prayers in our familylife and when you are the leader in thefamily you're going to be trusting inthe same God and because he's providedfor us and he's intervened for us in thepast you have the Assurance he will dothe same thing for you as you arefaithful to him in your generation menwe have a responsibility not to do thisto our children as you see on the screenwe have responsibility that our boys ourgirls know the Lord and know what he'sdone for us in our family lives and thelife of ourchurch this takes time andintentionality I recognize what I'msaying here is noteasy it may require a repr prioritizingof ourtime butmen if you want to see your boys inHeaven fight for themtoday fight for your boystoday listen to them do you know theepidemic of mental health disease in ouryoung men today depression anxiety panicattacks disillusionment withSociety it's out there our young men aregrowing up in a world that kind ofdemeans them and diminishesthem be providers and protectors foryour boys and for your girls teach themthe ways of the Lord let them know whatGod did in your family'sexperience because then they willrecognize when God does the same forthem in theirgeneration don't be so caught up in thetoys ofAmerica the um you don't have them downhere but you know SC snowsnowmobiles jetskis guns and fishing foreign holidaysand cruisers they're all nice things Iget that but my first priority in lifeis my boy and mygirl and that's who God entrusted to meand I want to discharge myresponsibility before God to see that mychildren in the kingdom of God whenJesus comes again is that your prioritymen today is that your priority if it'snot we can't change the past but we canchange tomorrow amen we can change todayand be the men that God has asked us tobe now I like putting charts upon thescreens you've seen these in mysermons so I'm going to put up a chartstart with fiveverses but just dig a little beep deeperinto that verb to remember and what itmeans for men the ones who remember whatit means to be created the image of Godthe first thing is this Isaiah 43:25says this I I am he who blots out yourtransgressions for my own sake and Iwill not what your sins remember it'sthe same verb that is used I will notremember your sins this verse tells usthat God the one who remembers choosesnot to remember the sins of Fallen butpenitent Humanity so the one whoremembers does not remember our sins isthat good news yes that's good news andif we are created in the image of Godand we are the ones to remember thatmeans we as men reflect God's image inour society and our families by choosingnot to remember but by choosing toforgive the sins of those who sinnedagainst us we choose to not remember wechoose to forgive because God choosesnot not to remember our own sins asfathers and heads of our ownhouseholds next thing about Remembrancein the character of God is Genesis9 I won't read the whole passage herebut the bit in yellow there in themiddle of the screen is where God makesa covenant with Noah and God says I willremember my Covenant which is between meand you and every living creature of AllFlesh and the waters shall no morebecome a flood to destroy all F AllFlesh this verb in this passage it's thesame verb as made them male and femaletells us that God is a covenant makingand a covenant keeping God he entersinto Perpetual covenants with FallenHumanity After the flood and God actstoday in faithfulness to his people andto Fallen Humanity because he ends intoa covenant with us after the flood ofNoah and we today as men are invited toreflect God's IM character in our ownlivesby entering into and keeping the NewCovenant Jesus spoke about that inMatthew 26 on the screen I've given youJeremiah chapter 31: 34 31-34 the NewCovenant experience has four Provisionsin the book of Jeremiah number one inJeremiah 31:33 God promisessanctification that is theinternalization of the law of God thatis restoring God's image in brokenHumanity the second provision of theCovenant we enter into with God is foundin Jeremiah 31:33 it meansreconciliation I will be their God andthey shall be my people means Godpromises to heal our estrangement fromhim the third promise of that newcovenant is Mission that God will makeknown his character through the worldthrough the loving witness of Born Againmen and the fourth promise of that newcovenant is the gift of justificationthat God promises a right standing forfallen yet penitent Sinners before himhow does this apply to us as men todaymen Jesus is inviting you into a newcovenant with him we celebrate that inthe Lord's supper and Lord's Supper isoften the Sabbath service where peoplejust disappear is that not rightattendance always goes down at Lord'ssuppers but God wants men to be Covenantmaking Covenant keeping men to be acovenant keeping men means that we keepthe Covenant of marriage not just theCovenant with our heavenlyfather and if you're struggling in yourmarriage todaymen God's asking you today to be acovenant Keeper in yourmarriage and if you want to know howyour attitude to your wife should be goback to the day when you stood at thatAltar and you watched your wife walkdown the aisle and you realize that inthat moment in the Joy on herface that she was placing all her hopesand dreams for life in yourhands and have you honoredthat have you sought her joy ahead ofyour own have you sought her fulfillfulfillment ahead of your own have youbeen faithful to your promise to lovehonor andcherish to be created in the image ofGod to be male means that we enter intocovenants and we keep those covenants nomatter what happens because God enteredinto a covenant with sinful Humanity inthe in the Covenant with Noah and thatCovenant is still in effect today thereis still Sunshine heat and Cold Springand harvest day in our planet God isfaithful to his Covenant to usGod is asking me as a man of God to befaithful to all the covenants that Ienter into if I rent a condo I need tobe faithful to that Covenant to not givetrouble to my landlord if I buy a car Ineed to be faithful to those payments orI have a mortgage I need to be faithfulto that because that is a covenant thatis a covenant that I sign off on thosecontracts men of God are known to are tobe known as Covenant Keepers we don'tjust enter into Covenant for temporaryFinancial benefit we keep thosecovenants even if it's to our financialloss because we represent God to abrokenworld the next passage three more textshere remember the Sabbath day to keep itholy there you have I've put in theHebrew there Hebrew 2142 zakiah it's thesame word as male when God created themale andfemale so God's moral law is areflection of hischaracter that is men today reflectGod's image by upholding the TenCommandmentsor the morallaw we are to uphold The TenCommandments that's what it means to bemale because the remember the Sabbathday is the same the same word there inHebrew um as as the word male we are touphold thedecalog then Psalm 1377 two more textshere remember O Lord the children ofEdom in the day of Jerusalem who saidraise it raise it even to the foundationthereof this passage here teaches usthat God remembers the wicked ofindividuals and All Nations and God willbring all Humanity into a final judgmentwith there where there are Eternaloutcomes and that word remember in inbold on the screen in yellow it's thesame word as you have male he createsthe male and female what does this tellus if we are created in the image of Godand this verse reveals an aspect ofGod's character it tells us that Godlymen remember that there is a finaljudgment that we are morally accountablefor how we treat our brothers and oursisters and that means we are called tothe high highest standards of moral andethicalBehavior men also recognize theinjustices that they havesuffered and rather than seekingVengeance in Endless cycles of vendettasand revenge we give final judgment overtoGod if you read the imprecatoryPsalms oh daughter B Babylon how happyshall they be who Dash thy infants headsagainst theRocks it's a powerful verseyes in all of those imprecatory psalmsthe psalmist says I have been hurt andI'm angry but I'm going to give thefinal judgment into God's hands and whenmen have that attitude that God willhold every man accountable it means Idon't need to enter into cycles ofVengeance and revenge and vendettas Ican break the cycle of violence todaybecause God's going to take care of itin the finaljudgment and the final text I want toshare with you here on the concept ofremembrance is Malachi 32627 says then those who revered theLord spoke with one another the Lordtook note and listened and a book ofwhat remembrance was written before himof those who revered the Lord andthought on his name they shall be minesayith the Lord of hosts my specialpossession on the day when I act and Iwill spare them as CH as parents sparetheir children who serve them what doesthis tell us about God's character ittells us that God remembers his ownthere in a book of remembrance and he'scoming again for them and those thatword remembrance the book of remembranceis the Hebrew cognate it's the relatedword to male and female it's the wordmale there and so God has a book ofremembrance and he's coming for his ownthis passage tells us that to to revermeans to fear God all right so those whofear God and anticipate the secondcoming of Jesus Christ respondpositively to the Three Angels messagesof Revelation chapter14 they refuse to accept the mark of thebeast they eagerly wait for and work forthe second coming of JesusChrist God remembers his own and his ownremember him and his own follow the lambwherever he leads rather than bow to themandates of this Fallen World God iscoming for those who remember him whofear Him who give honor and glory to himwho do not receive that mark of thebeast but who receive the Seal of Godhmch Richards wrote a kind of like apoem maybe some of you are familiar withthis I just want to share part of itwith youhere talking to men says keep about yourwork keep about your work that God hasgiven you do not flinch when the lionroars do not stop to Stone the devil'sdogs do not fool away your time chasingthe devil Devil's rabbits keep aboutyour work let Liars lie let corporationsresolve let the devil do his worst butseeds that nothing hinders you fromfulfilling the work that God has givenyou keep about your work he has notcommanded you to get rich he's neverbidden you to defend your character hehas not set you at work to conlictfalsehoods about yourself which Satanand his servants may start to Pedal ifyou do these things you will do nothingelse you will be at work for yourselfand not the Lord let your aim be assteady as a star keep about your workyou may be assaulted wronged insultedslandered wounded and rejected you maybe abused by foes forsaken by friendsand despised and rejected of men but seeto it with steadfast determination withunfaltering Zeal that you pursue thegreat purpose of your life and object ofyour being until at last you can say Ihave finished the work you gave me to doso men keep about your work we are to beproviders we are to be protectors we areto be priests we are to be the ones whoremember and who upholds the will of Godin our dying Society so what do we sayin our conclusions today to go back toEdmund Burke the only thing necessaryfor the Triumph of evil in America todayis for good men to do nothing I want tochallenge you today men to be silent mennomore no more are we silent men what hasbeen is in the past we cannot changethat God offers us full forgivenesstoday as men when we confess ourshortcomings and ourfailures what can be begins today andGod offers his holy spirit to every manpresent here today and he offers towrite the next chapter of your life whenyou Covenant with God that you will beone who remembers you'll be one whostands up you'll be one who speaks outyou'll be one who actually knows thewill of God so you can share the will ofGod within your family within yourcommunity and within our nation mentoday and those watching online God iscalling us to be providersthose who provide for their familiestemporal needs in so doing you will findpurpose here on Earth God is calling mentoday to be protectors those who standwatch over those God has entrusted tothem both physically and spiritually inso doing men you will find meaning inlife God has called men to be thepriests of their families those whorepresent God to their family and thosewho lead their family to God and in sodoingyou will find a part of your life has aneternal significance because you'relaboring for The Souls of your your wifeand your children and your grandchildrenproviders find purpose protectors Findmeaning and Priests findsignificance to be male means toremember men who Faithfully remember whoFaithfully represents the image andcharacter of God who stand up who speakout and who pass on to the nextGeneration the will the works and thecharacter of a lovingsavior I wondered how am I going tofinish this talk today thissermon I want to say this men be silentno more amen what's done isdone but from today on you can changeyour future you can be the men that Godcreated you to be my prayer for us isthat in our generation May each one ofus be found fre faithful fulfillingGod's purpose for us it's a famous songI think many of you know it by SteveGreen we're pilgrims on the Journey ofthe narrowroad and those who gone before us linethe way cheering on the faithfulencouraging the weary their lives astirring testimony to God's sustainingGrace surrounded by so great a cloud ofwitnesses let us run the race not onlyfor the prize but for those as thosewho've gone before us us let us leave tothose behind us the heritage offaithfulness passed on through Godlylives oh may all who come behind us ourchildren our grandchildren may all whocome behind us Find Us Faithful May thefire of our devotion light their way maythe footprints that we leave lead themto believe and the lives we live Inspirethem toobey and after all our hopes and dreamshave come and gone and our children siftthrough all we've leftbehind May the clues they discover andthe memories they uncover become thelight that leads them to the road thateach must find oh may all who comebehind us Find Us Faithful May the fireof our devotion light their way may thefootprints that we leave lead them tobelieve and the lives we live Inspirethem toobey oh may all who come behind us FindUs Faithfulmygreat-grandfather was a dock worker onthe south coast ofEngland he became an Adventist justbefore World WarI and the Adventist Church in Britaintook a position of conscientiousobjection he spent four years in a hardlabor camp because he wouldn't fight inWorld WarI he was released his body was damagedand then my grandfather became apreacher and he was preaching in Londonduring the Blitz of 1940 1941 when allof Europe was under Hitler's Jack bootand my grandfather was preaching everyweek in Evangelistic series and inchurches that the prophecy of Daniel 2says that Europe will never be Unitedagain until Jesus comes so Hitler willnot win this battle and that's what hepreached during World War II then myfather saw that example of faithfulnessand he too entered 42 years of thePastoralMinistry and my father made sure in mylife that there was all always a morningand an evening Family Worship he madesure that every Sunday we spent timetogether as father and son we we umsailed together we fished together wewalked together he smacked me from timeto time I knew about his discipline butI knew he loved me and he made sure hepassed on the greatest treasure in hislife and that was his faith in JesusChrist my job my calling in life beforeI'm a preacher or a president of AdventFrontier missions is is to pass on to myson my faith in Jesus Christ amenmen be who God has created you to be youwill find meaning you will find purposeyou will find significance you will bein the great controversy like neverbefore but if God be for you who can beagainst you let God write that nextchapter of your life as men of God todaymay God bless you may he guide you asyou walk life's narrow way may you sensethe spirit giving you wisdom every dayto Faithfully represent the image of Godin your sphere of influence amenam and so we're going to come to ourclosing hymn thismorning um I'm not sure what itis uh oh what is it Brave stand like thebrave all right so if we can to standlike the brave we invite our musiciansforward and we will sing this hymtogethernumber 610 stand like the brave[Music]ohChristianawake is the Master'scommand with helmet andShi and a sword in thyhand to methe B temp gofearlesslygo thenstand like thebrave with th face tothe stand like thebrave stand like thebrave stand like thebrave with thy f tothe the cause ofthy with figdefend Be watchfulbe and fight to theendwhereever he leads the govalant gothenstand like thebrave with thy face tothe stand like thebrave stand like thebravestand like thebrave with thy face tothe press on it everdoubt th Captain isnear with grace tosupply and with Comfort tocheer his love like a stream in thedesert willflow thenstand like thebrave with thy face to[Music]stand like thebrave stand like thebrave stand like thebrave with thy face to[Music]the as our eyes are closed our heads arebowed father we live in a world wherethere is a roaring light seeking whom hemay devour but we thank you that Jesusis also the lion of the tribe of Judahand he fights those battles for hischildren that they cannot fight forthemselves Lord may we not be men whosit on the sidelines and watch thebattle taking place around us may we arein our own homes our marriages ourfamilies may we stand like the bravewith our face to the Foe for Jesus youare the captain of the armies of God andwe are in your army and we are yoursoldiers so father in the battles thatwe face in the coming week whatever theymay be whoever they involve May each oneof us as men of God Faithfully representthe character of the one who loves uswho died for us and is coming soon forus and now as we separate for our lunchfather we thank you for this food wepray your blessing upon those whoprepared it with the strength it givesus may we bring honor and glory to youand now may the Lord bless you and keepyou the Lord make his face to shine uponyou and be gracious unto you the Lordlift up his countenance upon you andgive you peace this day and forever moreamen