Preacher: Josh White

I’m glad the breakfast burritos made their way up here or were made up here but you know Dan A real man could have made coffee without any power.

Just getting I’m sure there’s a way anyway.

Yeah I mean either I learned many valuable lessons when I was in high school I’m sure you did as well but one very valuable lesson I learned was Be careful who you are for. I worked in a restaurant called zips and I was doing a good job and so my boss promoted me to supervisor which means I had a couple extra responsibilities and and I had this really good friend in high school as a name is Tony Dolly kind of a fun last name I was like saying by Dolly and Tony Baaja Dolly he was a snowboarder and we were good friends I mean I think he was complaining that he didn’t have enough money to buy a snowboarding you Gary and equipment and so I said Hey why don’t you come work at zips and so I talked to my manager I said hey I have a friend he’s a great guy can can he start working exists as well and my manager says well if you think that he’ll be a good employee go ahead and so we hired him on and guess what he was not a good employee he was so frustrated because whenever his shift started he thought that that was like a suggested time to arrive and so he would always come late in and some of it I think he pretty much showed up for every shift he may have missed one or two and he was it was a while ago I can’t remember all the details but I also remember while we were working I think he felt like that was his time to go talk to all the girls you know it’s like Tony you have a job to sit here and in do your job and it was getting very frustrating and he was not a good worker and so my boss said OK Josh you’re the supervisor you’re going to do one of two things your friend Tony you’re either going to have to fire him or you’re going to have to give him a warning and you’ve got to be kidding me he’s my friend I’m going to fire my friend and so I thought you know I can’t do that so I said Tony you know the boss gave me a choice I can either fire. Right now or if you’re going to have a warning you have to you have to work at work and you have to show up on time and I was really nervous you know how’s he going to respond to this and it will Fortunately after I talked to him he even admitted you know what I’ve been a slacker I haven’t been doing my job and so for the next few months he didn’t work there for a long time but for the next few months he was he months he really worked hard and I was really glad that it worked out that way but it made me think you have to really be careful if you’re going to recommend someone for something right have you ever recommended someone for a job and it made you look bad because they were Tony budget dolling just leave that last name with me bhaji Daal you’ll like it to bodge is kind of rolls off the tongue first service they didn’t get that but you’ll get that.

I had something just like the exact opposite happened to me in college I worked at I hop Yes I served pancakes all through college and I got my roommate Corey her a job there and I got another guy John Lauder who’s a pastor in Michigan he got a job and by the time we all graduated we graduated pretty much the same time and when we left I remember telling the owner I said you know thanks for giving us a job and he says oh no thank you if there’s any students from Grace Bible college you need a job you just send them here and I will hire them on the spot and so just based on our example you know he gave him a really good impression of the work ethic hopefully that some of the students from Grace Bible College were how well why does an employer look for in an employee you know just right now for a minute I want you to imagine that you are either the owner of your own company and some of you are or you are a manager and you are you’re supposed to hire different people what are some of the things are the qualities of the traits that you’re looking for someone that you going to hire and obviously it depends on what you do right you might work for a company or have a company where someone needs a certain education or degree or certification but if all things were equal and you had five or ten people sitting in front of you and they all were qualified and certified to work for you. Would you pick a person who has proven themselves to be responsible or you pick someone who you’re constantly going to have to babysit and manage and remind them how to do their job so it’s kind of obvious right you would pick someone who is responsible because that is a great quality for someone to have in the workforce Well today is the first day of Man Month and this month we’re going to talk about what it means to be a real man and a real man doesn’t make coffee in the pot with power without power but we’re going to talk about what a real man does and I want to give you kind of the history of man month the reason why we’re doing Man Month is to really promote and encourage godly male leadership in the church in the home and really give some guys you know I guess maybe kind of a boost you know a while ago probably seven or eight years ago I read a book called Why Men hate going to church and remember seeing it on the shelf and boy that’s a that’s an interesting title I got me I bought the book so I read the book and it was really interesting it talked about it and this is not all men but some men have this perception of some churches again not all churches but some men will look at the church and think you know church is kind of it’s boring everyone is so passive in church they’re always talking about loving and sharing and all these things and and some men might even look at some churches again not all churches and think that church is too feminine because in the heart of a guy he wants a challenge she wants some kind of an adventure and so I read the book and I thought you know for one month let’s let’s do that let’s really challenge men to engage in the battle that we have all around us and so this year we’re going to have a theme or we have a theme every year and this theme is simply going to be this for men to live out our calling in life to be real men and ladies even though you’re here today applies to you too but I’m going to emphasize this to the men and real is an acronym. OK And so today we’re going to talk about the letter R. I’ll tell you what that is in just a minute next week we’ll look at what the letters stand for and then the third week we’ll look at the letter L. and in the fourth week the last week in March guys are going to be preaching in the first Sunday in April the guys are going to switch services and then we’ll have our our chili competition cook off and only the mailing list of men will enter that So if you’re a manly man you can you can enter that but today we’re going to begin with the letter R. in a real and that stands for responsible if you haven’t picked up on that yet it’s pretty obvious but our stands for responsible so I want you to turn your Bibles to Luke Chapter sixteen.

We’re going to take a look at a parable today and there’s a couple more parables that we might be looking at over the course of Man Month. Luke Chapter sixteen but before we get into Luke Chapter Sixteen going to ask you a question and I asked a couple guys this question yesterday and they were unable to answer this but what is the difference between the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots.

Fifteen wins that’s right one she wins and one team constantly loses obviously the team from Ohio is constantly losing Adam Scully didn’t like that in the first service but he’s not here so I can really make fun of them now but the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots they draft the same people they have access to the same people but why is one franchise so successful and one is not because they.

This this can go downhill really fast are.

Well with the New England Patriots they have a motto their team is known for certain before I give you that one some of you might know the Raiders the Oakland Raiders they have a they have a motto their motto is just win baby you probably heard that before if you’re a Raider you just want to win the New England Patriots Their motto is Do. Do your job if you hear any of the Patriots players interviewed they’re always talking about how their coach Bill Belichick is saying do your job in other words the often from the defense has so many different players and he coaches them to know what their specific assignment is in any given play and don’t worry about what the quarterback is doing and don’t worry about what the running back is supposed to do know your job and do your job to the best of your ability because of you’re doing your job to the best of your ability and your teammates are doing their job to the best of their ability guess we’re going to happen we’re going to win a lot of games and guess what they do unfortunately for us living in Arizona but you know that idea of doing your job I don’t know if Bill Bell a check and Robert Kraft are Christians but they didn’t come up with that idea it’s right here this idea of us knowing and doing our job and being responsible is found in God’s word and that’s what we’re going to be looking at during the month of March you know when we look and understand our relationship with God God has a calling on our life has called us to certain things and the two most important callings in our life first is that God has called us to be his child he has called us to be sons and daughters of God and we read about that call in First Corinthians Chapter one Verse two although I had read this for you but it says in First Corinthians one two to the Church of God that is in Corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ both their Lord and ours so if you’re here today and you place your lord your face in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you have been called to be God’s son or his daughter that’s the most important calling in your life and within that call There’s also another call and that is a call to service you’re not called to just enjoy being called a son or daughter of God But there’s a role. All that God has given you and if he says to ten it says For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has prepared before hand that we should walk in them and so when we say that we’re supposed to be real men it means that you have a clear picture in your mind of your responsibilities now before we read in Luke Chapter sixteen what I want everyone here to do men and women because this applies to everyone as I want you to take just a moment especially for the rest of this month but I want you to think about what specific responsibilities God has given to you because everyone in this room has responsibilities what responsibilities as God given to you to manage so that you are held accountable to Him for those during your life and they kind of focus on three different areas of your life I’ll give those to you right now what kind of responsibilities do you have in terms of the relationships that you have in terms with how you deal with and present yourself to society and then also within the Body of Christ so think just for a moment what responsibilities do you have in terms of your relationships. If you’re married to guess what your spouse is a great responsibility that God has given you to manage using those biblical words but to really focus on that relationship if you have parents that are still living what is your responsibility to your parents it doesn’t save for accident by accident on or your father and mother all right that’s in there for a reason and if you have children what kind of responsibility do you have to your children or your siblings and so we have lots of relationships in our life and we are to know what God’s word says about those relationships and be responsible to to act the way that God wants us to and what about your role in society everyone here probably at some point during your week gets out of the house and you go to the grocery store or you have a job and so what kind of a role do you have in society you know God calls us his ambassadors I mean. As we go out in our daily lives we’re representing God to the world around us and that is that is a very serious responsibility we have so what kind of responsibility do you have to the world around you and then also what kind of responsibility do you have here to the Body of Christ because God has given you a gift or an ability to be used to build up Christ’s body and so I want you to to seriously and specifically think about those responsibilities because sometimes those responsibilities changes we go through different seasons in our life and some responsibilities stay the same throughout our entire life but everyone in this room right now has a responsibility or responsibilities that God has given to you and so as we’re looking at this and as we’re trying to think about what it means to be a real man or real child of God I want you to think and apply these things to those relationships OK Alright let’s begin reading Luke Chapter sixteen.

Luke sixteen beginning in verse one. Says Jesus told His disciples There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions so he called them in and asked him what is this I hear about you give an account of your management because you cannot be a manager any longer.

Now for those of you who have read other passages of Scripture especially the Gospels there’s a lot of parables and a lot of them are very very similar and a lot of these parables go something like this there is someone who is a master or an owner and there is someone who is a manager to that master owner and there is this accounting that takes place between them and this is really talking about our relationship with God God owns everything and he at different times in our life gives us responsibilities and there will come a time especially at the end of our lives where we will be held accountable for what we did with God’s possessions but then also in this life sometimes there is a judgment that takes place in either there is a reward or loss or something like that and so we see that many times and that is something that will take place in our in our our lifetime first. Three So the manager said to himself What shall I do now my master is taking away my job I’m not strong enough to dig and I’m ashamed to beg I know what I’ll do so that when I lose my job here people will welcome me into their houses so we called each of his masters debtors and he asked the first how much you owe my master nine hundred gallons of all of oil he replied the manager told him Take your bill sit down quickly and make it four hundred fifty then he asked the second how much do you owe me a thousand bushels of wheat I replied You told him Take your bill and make it eight hundred. You know it’s interesting you are reverse three and the only thought that went through this manager’s mind was that he could either dig ditches or beg it must’ve been a really bad economy at that time also notice his response when the manager said you’re about to lose your job what did he do he started working you know why didn’t he do that before so something happened he got the pink slip and all of a sudden the light went off wait a second I need to get to work and that’s exactly what he did and notice the master’s response to the manager getting to work verses eight the master commended. The dishonest manager command means to praise him the master commended this honest manager because he had acted shrewdly some years translations of my read wives or wisely for the people of the world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light I tell you use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much so if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth who will trust you with true riches and if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property who will give you property of your own no one can serve two masters you. Do you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve both God and money. So this is a very interesting parable of very similar to many others that we find in the Gospels and there are many directions that we can go but what I want to do is I want to use this is an example to teach us the lesson of why it’s important for us to be responsible in this life and so I’m going to give you three reasons why it’s important to be responsible and the first reason is this because being responsible leads to wisdom when you are responsible when you do the things that God tells you to do it works wisdom is putting knowledge into practice word works look at verse eight says the master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly or wisely but the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of light you know when the manager was called in by the owner and he was given this this wake up call and he realized that he wasn’t being responsible he became responsible and the master said that his actions were wise and so when we practice what God tells us to in this life we are wise now how many of you have made unwise choices and you learn from them when you became wise Consequently you know we made we made mistakes all the time.

Some mistakes we don’t want to make some mistakes are really small like I made a mistake just this last week yesterday we had the I want to Grand Prix you know some of you were here and we had a big race track right over here and there were kids and there were trophies and we had a great time and my daughter asked me to make her car for her where you say she was supposed to make it but you know that that’s how it goes and so I and I may I cut it so it’s almost like a big watermelon wedge and I get it already and she painted it looks all pretty and really nice and I put the wheels on it and in the past I’d put a little bit of glue so that the wheels don’t fall off and I must have used a different glue. Before because I put some gorilla glue on the wheels and Gorilla Glue for those of you don’t know a gorilla glue does their bones and so the foam found its way into the wheels.

But we already journey very well on jaggies car and that old boy there is a great lesson to learn don’t use Gorilla Glue on a pinewood derby car so that they had that experience cost me something it cost me five dollars and we had to buy another box or another car so that wasn’t that big of a deal but there are some mistakes in this life that you don’t want to learn the hard way you want to get them right the very first time because if you make a mistake it could potentially ruin your life and the lives of those around you want you to turn over your Bibles to Matthew seven.

Matthew seven talks about being wise and putting God’s word into practice.

Because if we don’t the consequences might be a lot more than we would like to admit Matthew chapter seven.

If you’ve never read this before I’m sure you’ve at least heard the saying Matthew seven twenty four. It says Jesus speaking and he says everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell in the floods came on the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on that rock and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built a house on the same man and the rain fell in the floods came when the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it is the man who built his house on the saying in this parable lost everything and they don’t then that homeowners insurance back there where they could just claim this they lost everything and if in this life we don’t put God’s words into practice we we can really do some serious damage. And so men where do you get your advice from you get it from your body used to get it from movies or do you go to God’s word and are you wise enough to take God’s word and put this in practice so that you build your life and your house on the solid rock of God’s word so the first reason why it’s important for us to be a real man a responsible is because it leads to wisdom another reason why it’s important for us to be a real man is to be responsible for this reason because being responsible makes us useful. When we’re responsible we are useful to the master now about fourteen years ago right when Caleb was being born I had kind of a dream job of mine when I was I think in ninety three there was career day in school and Danny Bushay she brought her dad who was a firefighter and he got there and I don’t remember what he said but all I said was i work one day and then I get two days off and I thought I want to do that sounds really cool so I was thinking about becoming a firefighter and I felt like I was supposed to want to ministry so I followed that but when I was living in Granville Michigan I live really close to the fire department just a couple blocks away and they had a couple people that were full time and then everyone else was on call and so my next door neighbor said yeah you should look into that you know you live close and you’re a young guy you could do this and so they hired me on they put me through training and I was thinking this is great I can be both I can be a firefighter and I can be a pastor of the world life is great but as I was going through the training they gave me a pager and every time that there was a call they would go off and I would say everyone get to the station they didn’t say that they you know had some kind of a code and you get to the station and I remember the first time it went off it was a Wednesday like three four o’clock in the afternoon and that night I was going to go home have dinner and then come back because we had Coach Mike Rice which is kind of like a wanna And we had a men’s Bible study that night and so I’m sitting there at church and all of a sudden goes off and like here we go I’m going to go on my first. Call and then I thought wait a second I can’t go and I go then I probably won’t be back in time for church so I didn’t go and I went I ended up going on a couple of the calls but over and over and over again I get the call and I realized if I went I would not be able to go to my main responsibility which was was church business and so I got to the point where I realized for the Granville fire department they need people who are dependable and available and I said you know what I’m just not my life is not set up that way and so I’m not useful to you so I resigned so that they could find someone who was you know when it comes to us being men sometimes we feel our lives so full of things that take us away from our main responsibilities.

And we’re not available to the master to do whatever he’s asking us to do there’s a passage in second Timothy I’d like you to look at.

Second term of the Chapter two talks about what we need to do to be useful to our Master. So that when called upon we are ready to go second term of the chapter two.

Second to the chapter two verse twenty.

Verses twenty twenty one it says this.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay and some for honorable and some for dishonorable Therefore if anyone cleanses him self from what is dishonorable he will be a vessel for honorable use set apart as holy and useful to the master of the house ready for every good work so men are you ready if your master needs you for something are you ready and are you available and the two ways that we do that is we make sure that we’re holy meaning that our life is free from all the sin in the corruption in the addictions that really prevent us from being used by him but more and more. So importantly is are you available or have you filled your life soul filled full of different activities that are only for your pleasure and so if someone says hey I need this I need help in my life so I just I can’t I’m too busy living my life for myself so a person who is responsible make sure that they are available to God first hand look at verse ten again and Luke. In our parable Luke ten says Luke sixteen ten says whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much in a lover is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much in other words if we are ignoring the responsibilities that God has given to us you’re not being the real man that God wants you to be and if you ever noticed in life usually as you get older you get more responsibility and sometimes that’s good a lot of times young men and even women they want those promotions at work and that’s that’s good and that’s that some something that’s really wonderful and as you prove yourself usually more responsibilities are given but what the Bible is teaching us this is a truth that we need to really understand is God is watching how we handle his possessions in this life because there is something after this life where he is going to give us more responsibilities if we have proven ourselves faithful in this life and that leads us to our third reason why we’re supposed to be responsible which is this being responsible prepares us for our next job.

For our next job and I’m not talking about in this life I’m talking about in the life to come look at verse eleven look sixteen eleven it says so if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth who will trust you with true riches and if you have not been trustworthy was someone else’s property who will give you property of your own or so guys I know most of us you want that. Emotion you want that big break in and if you’re not being responsible you’re probably not going to get it but here in this Bible passage it tells us that there is so much more for us in the next life and if we are living responsible in this life we stand before God at the Bema Seat we can be rewarded with that I want you to turn over to Second Corinthians five verse nine and ten. One of the passages that talk about the Judgment Seat of Christ. And if you’re hearing you’re a believer if you place your faith in Jesus Christ the good news is your sins will never be held against you Jesus paid for all of those but you will stand before the Bema Seat of Christ and that’s where your responsibility in this life will either be rewarded or punished second Corinthians five verses nine and ten says.

So whether we are at home or away we make it our aim to please Him for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or bad so what we see here in this parable and a lot of the other parables is a description of the Judgment Seat of Christ during this lifetime God has given us all responsibilities and that is your relationships that is the gifts and abilities that God has given you to serve within the Body of Christ that saving your money in your finances all of those things and when you stand before the Lord if you’ve been responsible with the little He’s intrusted to you in this life guess what you’re going to have something more in the life to come and what that isn’t and how that’s going to work out we don’t know because obviously we’re not there yet but the Bible is clear if you’re responsible with a little They got is given you in this life he will reward you with more and so that’s why it’s so important for us to be responsible because it’s preparing us for the next life you know.

We get so wrapped up in all these silly things I guess in this life and I want you all to realize that you will not be judged at the bema seat for how well or. Surely any president of the United States is done and so if you are obsessed with politics you know what ultimately you’re not responsible for that and you will not be held responsible and judge for how well your favorite sports team did in this life and you will not be held responsible or judged for how many trophies that you receive from all your hobbies and God wants us to enjoy life and that’s fine if we have these other interests but don’t lose sight of the responsibilities that God has given to us and for which you can hear him say hopefully well done you have been faithful in a few things let me give you more things that you can handle so men what are you responsible for when you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ how is he going to judge determine whether you are faithful I want you to seriously consider that one of those relationships that you have in your life right now that you have to invest in spouse parents siblings children friends and family members take those seriously because those do matter what about your relationship with the world around you. Do people know that you’re a believer in Jesus Christ or have you transform and if you conform to the pattern of this world you think about that and take that seriously and then also here within the Body of Christ are you using the gifts that God has given you because you will be judged for those and and the nice thing is that should be something that we look forward to because if we are faithful with the things that God has given to us he will say well done in first Peter for all read this as one of the last passages that will read first Peter for beginning in verse ten it says as each of us received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s very Grace Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God whoever serves as one who serves by the strength of God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ so this is kind of teaching us and I guess the question. And we all have to answer for ourselves is Whose team are you building up who are you working for who are you building up and promoting If you are building your own team and your own image in this life guess what you’re building your house on sand and it’s going to fall but if you’re building up the body of Christ you’re doing things in being responsible for his glory you’re building on that solid rock and you will never be disappointed and so a real man knows his job he’s committed to being faithful and trustworthy in a responsible to God and that’s true of the women too so let’s turn to the Lord in prayer and let’s ask God to help all of us to be that kind of person let’s pray.

Dear lord you care about our entire life and not just the years that we spent on this earth right now but also our eternal future and because you care for us you sent your son to die on the cross for our sense that we can have the hope of eternal life but.

If we lose sight of all the things that we will be doing for each earn it in your presence we will be serving you and glorifying you we’re missing out on the bigger picture some day you will come back and hold us accountable and responsible for how we handled your possessions and that’s our finances our relationships our giftedness all of those things and Lord you are asking us to be real to be to be responsible with those things and so Lord my prayers out throughout the month of this of March man month that if there’s anyone here who is being irresponsible and they have misplaced their priorities and they’re spending way too much time on things that ultimately don’t matter that they will that they will reorganize those things that they will become the real men and women that you desire for us to be lord and most importantly we thank you for giving us the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ and we realize that he took his role as our Savior very responsibly he fulfilled his job and dying on the cross for our sins and so Lord it’s our honor and it’s our pro pleasure to live for Him and to build up your church we pray these things in Christ’s name Amen.