Sermon

Men, Rise Up! • June 21, 2026 • Andrew Spradlin • Genesis 2

Valley Baptist Sermon Podcast

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  1. Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.

  2. We're so glad you're here and we hope this message inspires you,

  3. builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.

  4. Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible

  5. and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.

  6. So welcome and enjoy the message.

  7. Now, if you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 2.

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  8. We are living...

  9. in a time that some have called a fatherless generation.

  10. Millions of kids are growing up

  11. without a father in the home.

  12. Millions of others are growing up with fathers

  13. who are really just grown up boys.

  14. They grew up physically so they could sire a child,

  15. but they never really grew up,

  16. which brings us to the question,

  17. what or when rather does a boy

  18. move from being a boy to a man?

  19. By the end of the message, Lord willing, I'm going to answer that question.

  20. Now, the message today isn't really about fatherhood, because being a good father doesn't start with trying to be a good father.

  21. It starts with becoming a real man in the biblical sense.

  22. So whether you're a dad today, a boy, a young woman looking for a husband or a mom

  23. who's trying to raise her son to be a man, this message is for you.

  24. I think you're going to find that it applies.

  25. Now, we've been in the book of Ecclesiastes for the last several months,

  26. a book written by King Solomon towards the end of his life.

  27. And I want us to listen to what Solomon's dad...

  28. King David had to say to him just before he died.

  29. In 1 Kings 2, verse 1, it says,

    1 Kings 2:1

  30. Now the days of David drew near that he should die.

  31. And he charged Solomon his son, saying,

  32. I go the way of all the earth.

  33. Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man.

  34. David was basically saying to his son,

  35. it's time for you to rise up and be a man.

  36. Men, it is time for us to rise up and be men.

  37. That's what our culture, our family desperately needs.

  38. Now, there's a lot that that means,

  39. and there's a lot that that does not mean.

  40. We're not going to cover everything this morning, but here's what I want to do.

  41. I want us to go to the very beginning of creation in Genesis chapter 2,

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  42. when God created man and he designed man.

  43. This is sort of a manhood simplified kind of a message today.

  44. Us men, we are simple creatures, right?

  45. You ladies, you're complex creatures.

  46. You've got the ability to process all of these emotions,

  47. all of these facts all at once.

  48. Men, we're pretty simple.

  49. So I've just got three points for us today, all right?

  50. Three responsibilities that God gave to you and I as men

  51. that if we will focus on,

  52. I believe it will really simplify our lives.

  53. Now, some of these things certainly apply to you ladies, so don't tune me out, all right?

  54. Now, in Genesis chapter 1, we have the summary of God's creation of the universe.

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  55. Included in that is his creation of mankind.

  56. And the emphasis in chapter 1 is that God made both men and women to be equal.

  57. Both are clearly made in the image of God.

  58. Well, in chapter 2, we're given some more details about the creation of mankind,

  59. about how God created men and women and how he created them a little bit different.

  60. Genesis 2, verse 7, we're going to focus on men today.

    Genesis 2:7

  61. It says, And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

  62. And man became a living being.

  63. Everything else in the universe God spoke into existence.

  64. But with man, it says that he formed him.

  65. That word form means handcrafted.

  66. Men, the culture wants you to believe that you need to apologize for being a man.

  67. Do not ever apologize for being who God created you to be.

  68. God handcrafted you.

  69. He formed you with incredible purpose.

  70. You are a man whom God carefully made for a reason.

  71. It's very important that you own that,

  72. the significance that you have that God gave to you.

  73. Now, it says that God also breathed into man

  74. the breath of life and he became a living being.

  75. This word for breath in Hebrew is the same exact word

  76. that sometimes is translated as spirit.

  77. It's a very personal picture.

  78. of God getting face to face with the man's lifeless body that he had formed from the dust

  79. and breathing life into it.

  80. Now notice that the body that God had formed did not become a man until God breathed His Spirit into it.

  81. Man's not a man in the way that God designed him to be until he received the Spirit of God.

  82. Some of you, sadly, are simply a shell of a man.

  83. You have the form of a man, but not more than that, because you have not yet received the breath of God.

  84. That can change today.

  85. I'm praying that it does.

  86. Verse number 8.

  87. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

  88. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

  89. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

  90. So God creates man, and then he places him in this ideal garden called Eden.

  91. And in verse number 15, God repeats himself again, I think, for emphasis.

  92. He says,

  93. Now, I don't know for sure how significant it is, but it's interesting to me that God created man out in the wilderness.

  94. And then he put them in the garden after he was created.

  95. Perhaps that explains why some of us men, we have a love for nature and the outdoors.

  96. I'm not sure if that's what it means.

  97. But here's the main thing I want to point out.

  98. It says that God put them in the garden.

  99. Why?

  100. To tend it and keep it.

  101. God gave man a job to do from the very beginning.

  102. Now, notice this is before sin entered the world.

  103. Some people think of work as a curse,

  104. that it's somehow a result of the broken, fallen nature of the world because of our sin, but not at all.

  105. Work was a part of God's original design.

  106. You and I, we were made to work.

  107. Men, God has given us a work to enjoy.

  108. Did you know that?

  109. We should enjoy the work that God has given us.

  110. God said, tend and keep the garden.

  111. That means cultivate it, grow it, expand it.

  112. Now in the garden, work was rearranging the raw materials

  113. that God had given humanity for human flourishing.

  114. And really, that's still what work is today, right?

  115. It's the rearranging of that which God has already created.

  116. Now, I think it's important to realize that since work is given by God, work is a calling, isn't it?

  117. I believe every man should seek God, seek the face of God, asking Him,

  118. what do you want me to do with my life?

  119. Sometimes in the church, we create this divide, a false dichotomy between the secular and the sacred, between the secular and the spiritual.

  120. Some of you, you look at me and you think, well, as a pastor, you've been given a job by God.

  121. But I'm just...

  122. I'm just an oil-filled worker. I'm just a mechanic or a businessman.

  123. And you sort of think that you have a lower tier job among God's colleagues.

  124. Listen, whatever God has called you to do is on the top of the ladder.

  125. It's at the top of the tiers in terms of importance.

  126. Here's the thing about work.

  127. Work will become drudgery to you.

  128. It will become this heavy, almost impossible burden to carry.

  129. when you divorce it from purpose.

  130. If you're just working for the dollar,

  131. you don't understand work.

  132. You're just working for the dollar,

  133. you're not going to enjoy work

  134. like God intends for you to enjoy it.

  135. But if you will get your heart and your mind

  136. in touch with the purpose of your work,

  137. that's when your work will have elevated significance

  138. with your life.

  139. Now, it's said that when President Kennedy visited NASA in 1962, he was walking down the hallway

  140. and he encountered a man who was carrying a broom.

  141. And he asked the man, hey, what are you doing?

  142. And he said, I'm helping put a man on the moon, Mr. President.

  143. See, there's purpose in all of our work.

  144. There's dignity when we understand our purpose.

  145. All of our jobs, it should be connected

  146. to human flourishing and more specifically as Christians,

  147. all of our jobs should be connected to kingdom flourishing.

  148. As a Christian man, don't pursue your potential for money.

  149. Pursue your calling from God.

  150. And there's a difference in focus.

  151. It changes everything.

  152. God has called us to reach our world for Christ.

  153. And God's called us to different positions, right?

  154. Different occupations that we all have.

  155. Why?

  156. To be salt and light to the world around us.

  157. Now, men, what do you do if you don't yet know your calling from God on what you're supposed to do?

  158. What do you do?

  159. Well, you get a job and you work really hard until you figured it out, right?

  160. One of the problems that we have in our culture is that we have these grown men acting like boys,

  161. living in their mom's basement, playing video games in chat rooms.

  162. I understand why that's the case.

  163. It may be that you're one of those young men listening to this message.

  164. Maybe you never had a man in your life to show you what it's like to work.

  165. So many of these grown boys, I'm convinced they're scared to go out and get a job.

  166. They're afraid what?

  167. Of failure.

  168. You see, boys are content to remain in a controlled environment.

  169. Men risk failure.

  170. So what if your first day at work doesn't go so well?

  171. Learn from it.

  172. Go back to work the next day a little bit better.

  173. So what if your first job doesn't go so well

  174. and you get fired?

  175. Learn from it and go out and get another job.

  176. God is calling us as men to rise up and work,

  177. to produce, to accomplish, to provide.

  178. Now, with the emergence of AI, there's some angst

  179. in our culture about the future of work.

  180. Some are speculating, telling us that AI

  181. is gonna eventually replace all of our jobs.

  182. There's gonna be this universal income.

  183. We're not gonna ever have to work again.

  184. What a miserable dystopia.

  185. We thought depression rates were high now.

  186. Imagine what it'll be like if there's no work.

  187. Now, I'm by no means an expert on this.

  188. I have no idea what the future of AI holds,

  189. but let me put some of your hearts at ease.

  190. Even if, worst case scenario, all of our jobs are gone.

  191. We're living in this dystopia

  192. where all of our jobs have been removed.

  193. As Christians, we're always going to have a job, aren't we?

  194. Jesus gave us our main job.

  195. It's your main job as a Christian, not just as a pastor.

  196. It's your job as well.

  197. Go and make disciples of all the nations, which means that even today, whatever job you have as a school teacher, truck driver, doctor, whatever it might be, whatever you earn your paycheck with, that's not actually your main job.

  198. Your main job is to help people know Jesus, which means no matter what your occupation,

  199. your work has eternal significance and value, purpose, right?

  200. If you're an oil-filled worker, you're actually a missionary disguised as an oil-filled worker.

  201. If you're a schoolteacher, you're a missionary disguised as a schoolteacher.

  202. So if someday all of our jobs are taken away, our main job as a missionary is never going to be taken away.

  203. It's always going to exist.

  204. The church is in no danger of being replaced by AI.

  205. Your purpose in life is in no danger being replaced by AI.

  206. I know that's a little side tangent, but there's a lot of people worried about it because I hear from some of you.

  207. Not me.

  208. The way I see it, we might just get a whole lot more full-time workers down at the church house, right?

  209. Right?

  210. in the mission, out among people,

  211. making known the name of Jesus.

  212. Nothing, including AI, can thwart the plan of God.

  213. Verse number 18.

  214. And the Lord God said,

  215. "'It is not good that man should be alone.

  216. "'I will make him a helper comparable to him.'"

  217. And then if we were to read on, we'd see that God removed a rib from the man and he created a woman out of it.

  218. And he brought her to the man.

  219. In verse 23, Adam breaks out in Hebrew poetry.

  220. He says, and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones.

  221. Some translate this at last is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

  222. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

  223. Now, in context, God had just been bringing all the animals, the animal kingdom, in front of Adam,

  224. and he was responsible to give them each names.

  225. I think Adam is sort of feeling left out at this point because he sees all the animals.

  226. He's thinking, man, I don't really have someone that's comparable to me.

  227. And finally, God brings him a naked woman, and he says, this at last is mine.

  228. Paraphrased by some scholars, wow, right?

  229. Verse 24,

  230. Verse 24,

  231. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

  232. And they shall become one flesh.

  233. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

  234. This is speaking of marriage.

  235. We see here men.

  236. God has given us a woman to love.

  237. Now, it's important to note that God didn't give Adam a woman to love until he first gave him a work to enjoy.

  238. There's a proper order of things.

  239. Get a job and then get married.

  240. If you ever, young men, think about dating one of my daughters, that's the order, all right?

  241. Now, we know from the New Testament that it's not God's will that everyone should marry.

  242. Some men and some women have been given a gift from God

  243. of celibacy, singleness.

  244. They're called to be single in order to devote themselves

  245. more fully to the kingdom of God.

  246. And we praise God for those people.

  247. We wouldn't be who we are as a church family

  248. if it were not for those people.

  249. But the truth is 99% of you men

  250. have not been given that gift.

  251. If you have, there's a good chance you suspect it.

  252. And if you haven't, you probably know it.

  253. For most of us as men, God gives us a woman to love in the relationship of marriage.

  254. Now our love for our wives should be a sacrificial love, right?

  255. Ephesians chapter five, verse 25 says, husbands,

  256. love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave

  257. himself for her. Now that's a high standard, isn't it?

  258. Love your wife like Jesus loves us. Like he died for us.

  259. That's what you're supposed to do for your wife. You see,

  260. being the leader of your home does not mean perks. It means responsibility.

  261. Now, that does not mean that everything bad that happens within your home is your fault, men.

  262. But it does mean it's your responsibility.

  263. Our love for our wife, it should be a sacrificial love, but it should also be an understanding love.

  264. 1 Peter 3, verse 7 says,

    1 Peter 3:7

  265. Husbands, likewise, dwell with them, that's your wife, with understanding,

  266. giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel,

  267. and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

  268. Now that's a challenging command because sometimes it's really hard to understand a wife, isn't it, man?

  269. Surprised I didn't get an amen there.

  270. I read recently that someone suggested that when responding to your wife,

  271. always answer feelings with feelings and facts with facts.

  272. I think that's good advice.

  273. Because maybe we can get ourselves in a whole lot of trouble when we start answering feelings with facts.

  274. If your wife says, well, I'm feeling really, really tired lately,

  275. you might be tempted to say, well, you need to eat better and start exercising.

  276. Folks, let me tell you, even if that's true, that is a horrible thing to say.

  277. That's going to blow up in a lot of ways.

  278. Whenever your wife is saying she feels tired,

  279. she's not looking for solutions.

  280. She's looking for compassion.

  281. She's expressed a feeling to you.

  282. One of the ways you love her well

  283. and meet the need that she has

  284. is you respond with the feeling.

  285. Love her well, learn to love her.

  286. That includes studying her.

  287. Know what makes her tick, know how she's wired.

  288. Learn how she responds and learn how to love her

  289. in a way that allows her to flourish.

  290. Now, the third thing that God gave Adam was a will to obey.

  291. In verse 16, it says,

  292. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

  293. Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat,

  294. but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

  295. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

  296. Men, God has given us a will to obey.

  297. His will.

  298. You will never be fulfilled in life until you realize that.

  299. Now notice that from these verses, God gave Adam a whole lot of yeses,

  300. and he only gave him one no.

  301. Eat from all the trees that exist, all of the trees, but not that one.

  302. If you eat that one, it's going to kill you.

  303. So please, don't eat that tree.

  304. Now, most people think of this command as God being restrictive.

  305. That's how the devil presented it to Eve.

  306. He basically said, God's holding out on you.

  307. God wasn't holding out on them.

  308. He'd given them every tree to eat of.

  309. He was protecting them.

  310. Did you know that that's always the case when God commands us something?

  311. You've got to come to realize that God is a good God.

  312. If he's given you a law, if he's commanded you something, it is in your best interest.

  313. What is the word I'm looking for?

  314. Interest.

  315. To obey it, right?

  316. Being in the center of God's will

  317. will never be the wrong place to be.

  318. Now, in order to obey God's will,

  319. you must know God's will.

  320. As Christian men, you need to become obsessed

  321. with the truth, discovering the truth.

  322. Boys are content with fantasy, men want truth.

  323. One of your jobs as a man is to learn about reality as God created it.

  324. Reality, truth, and that comes from God.

  325. He's the definer of that.

  326. He's the giver of that.

  327. So what you need to do is you need to pursue God with all of who you are.

  328. And then you want to listen to everything he's revealed about himself and reality.

  329. Make a commitment to devour his word and then make a commitment, I'm going to obey it.

  330. If God tells you to serve, serve.

  331. If God tells you to sacrifice for your wife,

  332. you sacrifice for your wife.

  333. If God tells you to tithe, you tithe.

  334. If God tells you to jump up and down 10 times,

  335. you jump up and down 10 times.

  336. God is supremely in control.

  337. He is our authority.

  338. You may think you're really great, but you're not God.

  339. Whenever you go against God's will, here's what it does.

  340. It creates chaos within you, and it causes chaos around you.

  341. Every man's got to know his place in the world,

  342. and his place in the world is in full submission to Jesus Christ.

  343. Now, for about six weeks now, I've had this message on my mind.

  344. Since Mother's Day, whenever that was, I started thinking about,

  345. what am I going to do for Father's Day?

  346. And so I've been kind of just wrestling with this message in my mind.

  347. And nearly every morning, I've been reminding myself in my prayer time

  348. that God has given me a work to enjoy.

  349. A woman to love and a will to obey.

  350. And that has kind of just really simplified things within my mind.

  351. If I run into something challenging at work, I remind myself God's given me a work to enjoy.

  352. I can tackle this.

  353. If I run into a challenge with Kelsey, which would never happen, right?

  354. I remind myself God has given me a woman to love.

  355. Now, why would I need to remind myself of that every day?

  356. Well, because I'm a sinner.

  357. I'm a sinner.

  358. And I don't do this very well oftentimes.

  359. It doesn't always come natural to me.

  360. You see, God gave Adam a will to obey, and he chose to violate God's will.

  361. He passively took the fruit that Eve gave to him,

  362. and he ate what God had clearly forbidden him to eat.

  363. We see that in Genesis 3, verse 6.

    Genesis 3:6

  364. It says,

  365. So when the woman saw the tree was good for food,

  366. that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise,

  367. she took of its fruit and ate.

  368. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

  369. So we see Adam's right beside his wife when she's talking to the dangerous serpent.

  370. He's right beside her when she's having this conversation.

  371. He never speaks up.

  372. She takes of it.

  373. He watches.

  374. She gives it to him.

  375. He takes of it.

  376. God had clearly given Adam and Eve a command, and they violated it.

  377. And Adam sinned.

  378. And our sin has made our little simplified life as a man very, very challenging.

  379. It's become very hard.

  380. All three things that God gave to mankind for their flourishing were corrupted by sin.

  381. A work to enjoy, a woman to love, a will to obey.

  382. All three were corrupted by sin.

  383. See, every pain and tragedy that you've ever experienced in life can be traced back to Adam's.

  384. Choice to violate the will of God.

  385. See, when Adam and Eve sinned and then later had babies, they had little sinners, didn't they?

  386. Little babies who were infected with the sin virus.

  387. So the Bible says there's none good, no, not one.

  388. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

  389. Our hearts, our minds, the totality of who we are has been corrupted by sin.

  390. so that now obeying God's will

  391. is not something we naturally do.

  392. Now, we don't have time to read it,

  393. but if we were to read through Genesis 3,

  394. after Adam and Eve's sin,

  395. God pronounced some judgments upon them.

  396. He told the man, he said,

  397. "'Because of your sin, cursed is the ground for your sake.'"

  398. Remember, he was supposed to till the ground

  399. and tend the garden.

  400. "'Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth.'"

  401. You see, because of our sin,

  402. Even good, wholesome work became a whole lot harder and more taxing on us.

  403. I've got one of the best jobs in all of the world.

  404. I love my job.

  405. But because of sin, there are some aspects of my job that aren't very fun.

  406. Counseling with a person whose spouse has just recently found out that has been cheating on them.

  407. Not very fun.

  408. comforting a family who's tragically lost a loved one,

  409. rebuking someone who's living in sin.

  410. Sometimes my job is really, really hard.

  411. Because of sin, even the best of jobs are a lot more taxing upon us, right?

  412. Right?

  413. Now, God told the woman in judgment, he said, your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.

  414. That means, simply put, things are going to be a whole lot harder because there's going to be conflict now.

  415. Before sin, no conflict.

  416. After sin, a whole lot of conflict.

  417. Because sin always brings division, doesn't it?

  418. It brings division between us and God, and it brings division between us and one another.

  419. Gary Thomas said about marriage, he said marriage is one sinner living with another sinner trying to get along.

  420. It's hard, isn't it?

  421. So here's the temptation that you and I face as men.

  422. With our work, our woman, whatever God has called us to, men, we are tempted to avoid our callings.

  423. Instead of charging forward in our calling, sometimes we're tempted to retreat

  424. because those callings have become very, very difficult.

  425. And so some guys simply avoid them.

  426. And those guys, in my opinion, are more like boys than men.

  427. A boy...

  428. is someone who has not yet owned his God-given responsibilities.

  429. He settles for fantasy instead of reality.

  430. Instead of cultivating and growing and building something real in the world,

  431. the only thing he grows and builds is something in a video game.

  432. Like Minecraft.

  433. I looked up this week, the average age of person,

  434. the most prominent age of a person playing the game Minecraft is 24 years old.

  435. Instead of fighting the spiritual battle

  436. that God has called all of us to fight,

  437. he's content fighting in a sport

  438. or fighting in a video game.

  439. Instead of being intimate with the woman

  440. that he has been given by God to love,

  441. he fantasizes about another woman.

  442. Boys settle for fantasy, men face reality.

  443. Now at the beginning of the message, I posed the question,

  444. when does a boy

  445. Go from being a boy to becoming a man.

  446. And that's admittedly a hard question to answer.

  447. I'm not sure there's one exact thing we could point to, but in my opinion, here's the starting place.

  448. When a boy takes responsibility for disobeying God,

  449. he has taken the first step in becoming the man God has designed him to become.

  450. 1 John 1, verse 9 says,

    1 John 1:9

  451. "...if we confess our sins, He..."

  452. That's God.

  453. It's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

  454. Men, here's the reality that we all need to come to grips with.

  455. And ladies, you've got to come to grips with it as well.

  456. God formed you.

  457. He handcrafted you with incredible purpose to be in the image of God,

  458. to reflect Him in all of His glory in your life.

  459. And men, you were given a work to enjoy, a woman to love, a will to obey,

  460. and we have felt that at all.

  461. We're all sinners.

  462. We have failed the will of God.

  463. We failed to perfectly live out our design.

  464. And God makes clear within the Bible

  465. that when we sinned, we died spiritually.

  466. And here's what that means, to spiritually die.

  467. It's when the spirit of God

  468. that he breathed into mankind departs from us.

  469. Separation, death.

  470. And here's what happens.

  471. The spirit departs and shame and guilt fill the void

  472. that the spirit leaves behind.

  473. That's exactly what happened to Adam and Eve.

  474. Whenever they sin, suddenly they were ashamed.

  475. They realized they're naked,

  476. so they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves

  477. and they run and they try to hide from God.

  478. That is the solution religion will get you.

  479. You would try to cover your shame and your nakedness on your own with rules, rituals, self-righteousness.

  480. Adam and Eve, they tried fig leaves.

  481. Fig leaves are not going to cut it.

  482. God knew that, so what did he do?

  483. He sacrificed an animal for the very first time.

  484. Out of love and grace, he properly clothed Adam and Eve like they couldn't clothe themselves.

  485. A foreshadowing.

  486. thousands of years later what Jesus would do for you and I as Jesus

  487. willingly hung upon the cross and he died and he shed his blood white to pay

  488. for our sins so that if we believe in him he'll cover us with forgiveness and

  489. grace the righteous robe of Jesus and what else will he do

  490. At that moment, we believe, what does he do?

  491. God says he breathes his spirit into us.

  492. We are born again of his spirit.

  493. If you have not received the spirit of God,

  494. I'm telling you, you're a dead man walking.

  495. Maybe that's how you feel today.

  496. Oh, you might be really strong on the outside.

  497. Men, we're good at projecting strength, aren't we?

  498. Maybe you're physically strong, financially strong, socially strong,

  499. but it seems like you've got it all together, but inside, you know you're broken inside.

  500. When you really evaluate it, you know that you're just the shell of the man that you're supposed to be.

  501. And there's only one way to fix that.

  502. And that is to fall down at the feet of Jesus.

  503. See, the charge this morning was men, rise up.

  504. But the irony of that is the only way we rise up

  505. and become men is by first falling down

  506. and surrendering to Jesus.

  507. Because you can never stand as a man

  508. until you bow to the king.

  509. See, manhood is not something we earn,

  510. it's something we receive.

  511. Manhood is bestowed by God.

  512. Now I think we've all seen some medieval war movies where some guy kneels before a king

  513. and the king touches the guy with his sword and then he says, rise a knight.

  514. In a similar way to knighthood, manhood is bestowed not by a king but by the king.

  515. Jesus, man, the king of kings and Lord of lords, he's calling your name.

  516. He formed you.

  517. He shaped you by hand.

  518. He made you.

  519. He loves you.

  520. He died for you.

  521. He's calling you to kneel before him so he can touch you, not with his sword, but with his spirit.

  522. If you'll just come to him and give it all to him and humbly bow yourself before him,

  523. he will bestow on you the true life of a man.

  524. I want us to bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.

  525. Men, it's time for us to rise up, but clearly we do that by first falling down.

  526. That's full surrender.

  527. Not before just any king, but before Jesus who loves you.

  528. He loves you so much that he died for you.

  529. He gave everything for you.

  530. You, me, mere peasants, less than a peasant,

  531. an enemy of the state who had joined the rebellion against him.

  532. Jesus died for us that we could rise up and really live.

  533. The Bible says, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  534. Maybe you need to call in the name of Jesus today.

  535. In just a moment, we're going to have pastors and leaders here at the front.

  536. We're going to stand and as soon as I pray, we're going to stand and our team's going to be singing a song, leading us a song together.

  537. And we're going to ask you to just come forward and give your life to Jesus.

  538. To bow before the Lord and receive him as your savior.

  539. You see, the greatest need of humanity, men and women, the greatest need of humanity.

  540. is to be forgiven. I want to invite you to be forgiven today of all your sin. Now, today

  541. is Father's Day, and maybe on Father's Day you feel especially heavy, because maybe your

  542. father is no longer with us. That's hard, isn't it? Maybe you had a lousy father.

  543. Instead of protecting you, he abused you.

  544. Instead of being there for you, he abandoned you.

  545. Instead of loving you, he was angry with you all the time.

  546. Maybe he had a lousy father.

  547. Maybe he had no father at all.

  548. I want to encourage you today.

  549. Please remember, Christian, that God says, I am a father to the fatherless.

  550. As a Christian, that's one of the most important steps of discipleship that you will ever take.

  551. Is to recognize your identity in Christ as a son or a daughter of the living King of God.

  552. Maybe today you need to have a fresh understanding that God wants to be your personal father.

  553. To protect you, to love you, to provide for you.

  554. To guide you.

  555. If you've never given your life to Jesus, please, in just a moment, come.

  556. There's going to be pastors here and leaders there at the front.

  557. We're not going to embarrass you in any way.

  558. We're just going to invite you to step out, make a decision for the Lord.

  559. Maybe you don't need to talk with any pastor here.

  560. You need to talk with the master.

  561. We talked about kneeling our heart before the king.

  562. Maybe, I have at least found it very helpful at times to physically kneel.

  563. physically put myself in the posture that I'm desiring my heart to be.

  564. And so maybe you just need to come kneel before God.

  565. Cry out to Him for His help to make you the man that God wants you to be,

  566. to make you the woman that God wants you to be.

  567. Others, maybe you want to be baptized like others this morning or join our church family.

  568. However God leads in just a moment, please come. Let's pray.

  569. Father, we thank you for being our Father.

  570. To be able to call you Father and to experience you as our Father.

  571. I thank you, Lord, for my earthly father that you gave me.

  572. I recognize what an incredible privilege and blessing that is.

  573. I pray, Lord, that you help me be the kind of father to my kids that he was to me.

  574. Lord, I pray for all our dads.

  575. Help them, Lord, become the men you want them to be.

  576. And then fatherhood gets easier at that point.

  577. Not easy, but easier.

  578. Yeah.

  579. Lord, would you become a father to some today that don't know you personally?

  580. Would you do a special work in their heart?

  581. Help them know that you love them, that you are not against them.

  582. You are for them.

  583. You want a relationship with them.

  584. But, Lord, I pray that you give them the courage and the faith and the willingness.

  585. Tug on their heart, Lord.

  586. Make it easy for them to bow their knee before you in humility and in faith.

  587. Help them receive you, Lord.

  588. We love you, and we pray this in Jesus' name.

  589. Amen.

  590. Thanks for listening today.

  591. We hope you enjoyed this message.

  592. And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review.

  593. Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast

  594. if you would like to be notified when a new sermon is released.

  595. If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith

  596. through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait.

  597. reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.

  598. That's podcast to 88988

  599. or connect with us on one of our social media platforms.

  600. You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org

  601. to find even more great resources.

  602. No matter where you are in your journey,

  603. know that we love you.

  604. We're praying for you

  605. and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.