This time, Brother Robert Keller from way over in Louisiana is gonna come preach for us at this time. Let's go, brother. Appreciate you. Will I break anything if I move this out of the way? Because I'll break your thing. I've never needed a microphone or anything like that. That way everybody can see my pretty face. I don't want anybody to miss that. I've never needed a microphone to be heard. My first career was in the Army as a platoon sergeant. I'm pretty well able to be heard at least. I don't know if I say anything worth hearing, but it can be heard. I want to thank everyone for the food and for the hospitality. It was a great blessing. It's a blessing to see all these faces, most of which are familiar. A blessing to me. My wife reminded me that we have not been to this church in 30 years. So it just doesn't seem possible because I was eight I don't but just what she said Of course brother here was pastor at the time and you know a lot of firsts at this church at first place I ever learned to eat crawfish was a Fellowship I was I guess I was preaching all day Sunday or something. I'm not sure, because I think so. And had crawfish for the fellowship meal. I wasn't going to suck the eyeballs out. But there was this little blonde girl across the way, and my wife asked me how to eat these things. I said, I don't have any idea. But she said, well, we'll watch her. So that's the story of how your pastor's wife taught us how to eat crawfish. I'm very glad to be here and I'm glad that my wife was able to be here. She wanted to come, you know, see all the people that she knows and meet some people that she hasn't met yet. So many of you she knows and loves and she wanted to come. Her back is not doing well. So we'll be only only be able to stay this evening, but I'm glad she was able to come You'll probably glad I'm going After this message because you know, sometimes I preached a message one time in Kentucky at a It was a Bible conference, but it was an camp so, you know an outdoor thing and and brother Harold Harvey was putting it on and and I felt like the message was not, he said, what kind of a sermon are you going to preach, brother? And I said, well, I'm afraid it's just a little bit ugly. And he said, well, I'll preach a pretty one afterwards. I don't ever want to preach in the flesh. I don't ever want to preach in a way that is, but I don't know how to get out of the flesh. That's my problem. I mean, I live here, you know, we have this wonderful salvation in this earthen vessel. So, but pray for me that, because I don't mean this in a, in a harsh way, but it has been on my heart for quite a while that there are just not very many men in, well, in the world, in America, But I'm afraid there's not that many men in Baptist churches. I'm not just talking about the fact that there may be more females. I'm talking about a whole lot of boys. Some of them 40, 50 years old. And we just have to man up. Job 38, verse 3, Gird up now thy loins like a man. Now, you know, Job had a lot of problems during a good portion of the book of Job. And he definitely felt sorry for himself. And there's a lot of things to be talked about the patience of Job. That's kind of the problem. He wasn't very patient. And I'm not going to say everything Job said was worth preaching, but he said a lot of things that were true about God, even when he was whining. And he said, Here, gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee an answer, and answer thou me. So he wants the one that will answer him to act like a man and tell him the truth. See, a real man has an answer. which is the Word of God. It's always the Word of God. Christ taught us that. Every answer to everything is from the Word of God. And you don't always have to quote the Word of God, but it's got to be in agreement with the Word of God and basically come from the Word of God or it's just gibberish. It's garbage. For I will demand of thee, I need to know, and answer thou me. But you've got to be a man. to give an answer. Job 40 in verse 7 says something much the same, "...dirt up now, dirt up thy loins now like a man, I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me." Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Paul was a man. You know, apparently, He was not very impressive to look at. I don't know, but you can garner that from the scripture. He might not have been a terribly healthy man. We know there was something wrong with him. And, you know, if you talk to 40 Bible scholars, they'll give you 40 different answers. I'll just tell you the truth. I don't know. But there was something that was bothering him. He had some kind of a health issue, but he was a man. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. He says to Timothy, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. You see, a man isn't afraid of adverse reactions. But I just don't feel comfortable talking to people about God. Well, man up, buttercup! This is a man's business. This is not for little boys. I was talking to a preacher one time, and we'd just come back from the mission field, and he's a good brother, I certainly won't call his name, but he said, well brother, we're thinking about doing mission work in this close by city, and I just don't know how to do it. How did you do it? I said, well, I went there and I told people we're gonna have Baptist services at this building this Sunday. And I'd like to invite you to come. Talk to him about the Lord if he'd let me. He said, now again, I love this brother, but he said, well, but I don't like talking to strangers. And I just, I guess I got a little bit in the flush. I said, brother, you think I don't like it? Now, I know those of you that don't know me very well. You just take from my sweet disposition and my kind appearance, kind of like a big teddy bear. You might think I like people. I'm not a people person. Really, I'm not. I love my family. I love some of my family. I love without any condition. I love the church. The Lord has added me to and given me the privilege of every one of them. I love them. I try to love my brethren. And that is exhausting. I just don't care for about anybody else. I mean, I'm not lying, I just don't. We live on 35 acres and we have a gate that stays closed. And that's not because I'm, you know, but here's the thing. It doesn't make any difference whether I want to or whether I like to talk to people that I don't know. Now, I've starved to death as a salesman because I don't like talking to people. But the Lord called me to preach the gospel. Say, well, you're a preacher. No, because the Lord's called us all. The spirit and the bride say come. That's our job as Christians. The commission begins with telling people about Jesus Christ. People you like, people you don't like, people with big dogs, people, you just, it is not about what you want to do. God didn't ask you what you'd rather. A man, a real man, He tries to do the right thing even when it is not to his advantage. Even when he doesn't like it. Even when it's hard. Even when it's unpleasant to do. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 13. Watch ye. Stand fast in the faith. quit you like men be strong now that word quit here doesn't mean give up that word quit here has much the same meaning as the old testament word be a man quit you like a man that means act like one and if you don't feel like acting like it's an interesting word because it says more than just be a man it's becoming something there's a lot of times when i don't want to do the right thing oh you're a baptist preacher you don't want there's i there's so many times i don't want to do the right thing And there's been a couple of times when I haven't. Just, you know, not obviously very many. We were thinking about it last night, my wife and I were, when she had our youngest, our son, she had him at home and things didn't go great. bleeding, and so we had to take her to the emergency room, and a friend of mine, he's gone to be with the Lord, but his name was Mike Wisnan, and he was a mountain. I mean, that's just all there is to say. He was about as wide as I am tall, and he was well over seven feet, a huge man. And he was actually there. He came, he'd heard about it, and he was in the same city. He came there, a fine Christian brother, and he said to me, you know, he kept telling me, don't worry about it, the doctor will be here. The doctor came in and said, well, if you'd had this baby in the hospital instead of here, she wouldn't be like this. And in my, because I am the sweetest, just ask me. I came back like, I was gonna knock that, and I was a Christian man, I wasn't acting like a Christian man, but I was, I would say I was a preacher. That'd have been a real great for the newspaper, wouldn't it? Baptist preacher, knocks the teeth out of emergency room doctor. I was about to come after him and explain to him he was gonna work on her whether we had the baby in the hospital or not. And my wiznet stood in front, and I mean, there was just nowhere to go. Like I said, you couldn't get past him. 400 pounds and just a huge man and I slammed into him and I was stopped in my tracks and he said, you don't want to do that. I said, no, you're right. I don't. But I did then. I didn't want to do what was right. But I did. by the grace of God and a little help from a friend of mine. I walked up to that doctor and I said, now, look, you're going to take care of her. And that's all there is. I don't want to hear any more about this. And it was all fine. But my point is, we all get stupid. Yeah. And we all want to do the right now. Would you really hit that? I don't know. I hope not. But, you know, tell me you're not going to take care of my wife. I don't know. I was pretty upset. And I was fixing to do the wrong thing. We all have to watch ourselves. We're all prone to do the wrong thing. And we all are motivated by the Lord to do the right thing, but that flesh sure does scream. Yeah, we definitely don't always want to do the right thing, but you see, a man, and I use that, I told that story on myself to make this point. I wasn't being a man when I was going to go after that doctor. The manly thing to do, and by the grace of God, I was able to man up and act like a Christian, and the Lord took care of it. I should have known that from the very beginning, did know that from the very beginning, but I wasn't listening. You see, a man is not being macho. I love, everybody knows me, I love to hunt. I like to fish and I like to do other things outdoors, but I particularly love to hunt. What do you like? I like to hunt everything. If you can eat it, I like to hunt it. Birds and just everything. And I've always been outdoors. But you know, you don't have to be an outdoorsman to be a man. You can live in your mama's basement and you know be on the computer 20 hours a Week and be a man or hours a day and be a man You see being a man is being what Christ tells us a man is Some fellas say what's too hard It's too hard to be a man. It is hard. I mean, it's just hard. It is very difficult to be a man. You see, because a man tries to do the right thing even when it's not to his advantage. It's the same thing I just said. That's hard to do. When it's frightening, when it's unpleasant, but 2 Samuel 10 and verse 12, The Lord tells us be of good courage. You know what good courage is? That's a godly courage. That's where you stand up and you say, I'm going to do this. I don't want to do it. It's the truth. I don't want to do it. Lord knows I don't want to do it. Why lie about it? Lord, you know, I don't really want to do this. I'm scared to do this. I'm going to do it because you said to do it. That's all. A man abandons himself to the will of God. Whether or not he cares to, whether or not he thinks it's going to go well, whether or not he is afraid to do it or not, he abandons himself to the will of God. Be of good courage and let us play the man for our people, for someone else. You see, that is a characteristic of being a man. It's thinking about someone else. It is often an act of doing something for someone else. Play the man doesn't mean play at being a man, it simply means act like a man. Let us play the man. But it also means maybe you don't really feel like it. You know, I know a lot of people say, well, if I don't really feel it or if I don't, if I'm not sincere, I'm not going to do it. The best thing to do is to want to do the will of God. That's the right thing. But even if you don't, Even if you don't feel it. Even if you don't want to. Do the right thing anyway. That's what a man does. Play at it if you need to. Gird up your law and stand up strong. And act like a man, even if you don't feel like a man. Don't be a little baby boy. Act like a man. Some don't want to do it because it's going to cost too much. They don't want to be a man. They don't want to think about others, they want to think about themselves. Joshua chapter 1 verse 7. He says, only be thou strong and very courageous. You know why he had to give this pep talk, why he had to get them stirred up? Because they weren't feeling very courageous. They didn't want to be very courageous. They didn't want to stand. But thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. God says, stand up. and be a man. Be thou strong and very courageous. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whatsoever thou, whithersoever thou goest. In other words, being a man will never cost you. what is right. It'll never cost you the blessings of God. Now I'm not saying it won't hurt in the flesh. I'm not saying, I'm not promising you if you stand up and do the right thing, and particularly in this case I'm referring to telling people about the Lord, acting right, doing the right thing. I'm not saying that people won't talk bad about you. I'm not saying they won't make fun of you. I'm not saying that you'll get all the things you want, but you will never, ever be able to do anything if you do the right thing that harms you. Not truly. You will not be if God will bless you. Have you heard, and I'm sure you have this expression, you cannot out give the Lord. But the problem with that, and it's absolutely true, the problem with that is a lot of people take that to mean, well, if I give $100, the Lord's gonna give me 200, and I do need something that costs 100, so I'll go ahead. It doesn't, it's not the way this works. God didn't say, I'll give you what you want. But God will give you what is good for you. What you need, yes. But that doesn't sound very palatable, does it? I mean, what I need. You know, every time I got a whoopin' when I was a little boy, I was told it's what I needed. I don't know about everything I need. But I'm telling you that God will always give you in abundance what is really and truly good. It might just not be what you want. I've said this many times. You might miss out on a perfectly good 1980 Pinto because you think you should have a Mercedes. Oh Lord, I need transportation. I need this. Where's my Mercedes? The Lord says, I've got it right here for you. And God doesn't give you second best. God doesn't give you, well, it's all I've got on my lot right now. It's all, you know, I'm afraid I'm running low. That's not how God works. God gives you the very best thing. But you see, part of being a man is saying, all right, Lord, I mean, how many times have you had something happen to you that you just did not want to happen to you and you felt like throwing a fit? You just felt like getting mad. You've seen boys do that, right? Oh, they're kicking dirt and throwing rocks and, you know, just carry on. What's hard to do is say, Lord, that's not what I was thinking. That's not what I was wanting. And I don't even know how this could be good for me. But I know it's in your hands. And I know you love me. And I know what you give me is perfectly good. And give me the strength not to act like a little boy, but to be a man and say, all right, Lord. See, other people depend upon you. Husbands. If you cannot be a man, please do not ruin that little girl's life by marrying her. Let her find a man. And I know it's all the Lord and the Lord brings people together and I understand that. But being a woman needs a man to be a man. Do not put her in the situation where she has to dishonor the Lord. by dishonoring you because you won't be a man. Well, she's just a Jezebel. No. Most of the time, I'm not saying there aren't ungodly women just like there's ungodly men, but most of the time when a Christian woman is not in submission, it's because her man isn't a man but a little boy. Be someone she can respect. Do the right thing. Take care. Be an example, a testimony. My daughter is, she'll probably end up listening to this, but I've said this before. She is a strong-willed person. And that's good and bad. I mean, as a child, that was a challenge. But I guarantee you, you're not going to talk her into doing anything she don't want to do. And that's a good thing. Now that she's an adult and a member of the church and serving the Lord, she's not going to be talked into doing something she don't want to do it. But I told her, I said, make sure that she's as yet unmarried. And I know that's all in the Lord's hands too. I said, but make sure you marry a man. And she's since come, I told her that when she was young, and she's since come to me and said, you know, you're right. Because she's, you know, she was seeing a very nice young man, young boy, but he was her age. And it wasn't his situation that he didn't, it wasn't about money, it wasn't about, it's just that She told me, she said, if we were to marry, I would end up pushing him around, I would be upset because I wasn't obeying the Lord, and I would be mad at him for being such a wimp. Christian boys need to act like men. Again, I'm not talking about, you know, burping and telling your wife, go, go change the channel. That's not being a man. That's just being a jerk. I'm not talking, you don't have to be a hunter or a fisherman or an outdoorsman. What you need to be is God's kind of man. You got to say this is right and we're going to do it. I don't really want to do it even, but we're still going to do it because God said to do it. And when you don't do it, say I was wrong. A man that can tell his family, his children, I was wrong. And I'm sorry for that. I blew it. I was, don't do what I did. Because it wasn't right. And I've already repented of the Lord. And I'm telling you now, I apologize to you because I was a bad example to you. That's a man. What else does a man do besides, obviously, tell people about the Lord? And that's not an easy thing to do. I don't think there's anybody here that's saved that thinks that's easy to do. When I got to Germany as a missionary, oh, they came out with this big brass band, all these heathens. They showed up and said, oh, thank you for coming here and telling us how wicked we are and how we need Jesus. They didn't do that. And you know what? They didn't want to hear it. They didn't even like me for telling them. We just kind of got to know one family and we were just learning the language and nobody there where we were spoke English. And they had invited us over for coffee drinking. That's kind of like tea in England. The big thing in Germany, they have little cakes and sandwiches and coffee about three, four o'clock. And that was nice. Oh, we're going to get to meet the neighbors. And then our before because they do things well in advance there. You know, they said this is a big deal to them. So it was like three weeks in advance and we were learning the language and we got to learn the language enough to where we were able to start witnessing. And we start in German and we start witnessing. And then they figured out who we were. They didn't want us to come to coffee drinking anymore. Her, my wife's feeling. But one fellow said, you can get more people to church with ice cream than hell. I bet you can't. You're not going to do them any good, but you can get them to church. It won't be much of a church. I had one lady tell me, And, you know, she has a testimony of Christ, but she's never learned much. And she's a friend of ours. And she said, well, it was the most wonderful thing. Our preacher had a special Sunday for motorcycle games for, you know, bikers. And there are all, and we had all these. bikes in the, you know, Harley's in the parking lot, and we had all these bikers come, and oh, they loved it. And I said, well, one of two things happened. Either the Lord saved them all, or they didn't hear anything. Because here's a strange thing. I know you're not going to understand this, but I'm going to enlighten you. I'm going to tell you something you've never heard before. People don't like to be heard. They are a vile and filthy thing in the nostrils of a holy God. People don't like to hear they deserve eternal condemnation. That they are wrong. That everything about them is wrong. Their very soul and being is wrong. They just don't like to hear that. They'd much rather hear about ice cream, you know, motorcycles and stuff like that. But you know what? They need to hear about Jesus. They need to hear the truth. I can't tell them that kind of stuff. I just tell them the good news. How can you tell them good news if they don't know the bad news? Jesus Christ died for sinners. That's the good news. But you see if you don't express to them that they are in fact a sinner deserving hell, Jesus dying for sinners is nothing. It doesn't mean anything to them. That might be okay for that one because that one needs it, you know, but not them. That's a hard thing to do. And yes, all Christians, men, women, boys, and girls should be telling people about Jesus Christ. But a man has got to be where it starts. He's got to be the example. Don't. It is so ungodly. I mean, wicked. That men allow women to be the spiritually strong one. Now it's not wicked on the part of the women, it's wicked on the part of the wimpy worthless little boys. You know the story about Debra, right? Well Debra, she was all messed up. She usurped authority and did all that. Debra's actions were because the general of the children of Israel was such a wimp, he wouldn't go to war without her. He wouldn't man up. He wouldn't be the one to lead Israel to war. And God didn't let him have the victory over the heathen king. Don't blame this on Deborah. That was worthless, wimpy little boys that should be men. We all, and look, I understand. I cannot tell you how often I would just prefer to not have to man up. I don't want to do those things. I mean, it was easy in the army to be, it comes easy for me to be like a platoon sergeant and do all those things. And I liked being outdoors and none of that stuff bothered me any. But the hard thing to do is do what I don't want to do. It's easy to do what I want to do. I want to do it anyway. But a man does what he does not want to do. Well, that's just hypocrisy. No, it's being a man. We are all of the same condition and we all have the same affliction. We want to be selfish children. But a man says, yeah, that is what I want to be, but I'm going to do the right thing anyway. See, a man looks at those that are under his care, particularly a family. real man, he moves to provide for them when they need. He moves to protect them when they need it, even if it costs him. John 15. John chapter 15 and verse 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Of course, that's referring to the greatest man that has ever lived, Jesus Christ. But we're supposed to be like Him. Now, we can't be like God, can we? We just can't. I mean, that's just... We can't be all-knowing. We can't be all-powerful. We can't be everywhere at once. We're supposed to seek, now I know you're not going to achieve this, but the goal is not to act like God, the goal is to act like the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Jesus the anointed, Jesus the sent. Jesus, the perfect example, well that's what we're supposed to do. Even now, it doesn't mean just laying down your life. I'm not talking about that kind of an extreme thing. I've heard people say, well I would give my life for them. But they won't inconvenience themselves for them. Don't tell me you're gonna give your life when you won't even go a little out of your way. A man doesn't care if it's gonna cost him. This is gonna hurt. Sometimes it does. Now, again, God protects us. God cares for us. God will give us what is perfectly good for us. We shall never go without. The Lord, who is our brother, not just our friend, he will surely care for us. But in the flesh, it might be uncomfortable. I'm not telling you you won't lose friends. In the world, you might, but you never lose the friend, the only true friend, and those that love him. I'm not telling you that this won't hurt. What I'm telling you is you do the right thing and God will always care for you. He will always protect you. He will always give you what is perfectly good. See, all good and perfect gifts come from above. Now, what that means is twofold. Everything that comes from above is a good and perfect gift. It also means that all good and perfect gifts come from Him. In other words, there's no good thing for you that does not come from God. And it means God will give you all good and perfect gifts. It's just sometimes not what we think we want. I hope church members that came up will not get too upset if I tell this story again, because I have told it many times. When I was a little boy, I was a rascal. I was not a bad kid. I was just, you know, my grandma called me a rascal. I just always seemed, I'd get in trouble and didn't even try. Just happened. I was sitting in the back seat of my parents' Bonneville, and to tell you how long ago it was, I was a little bitty boy. And my father, we were on the way, it wasn't a real church and the gospel wasn't preached, but it was one of those, you know, social churches. But he, anyway, he always gave me a shiny quarter that I could put in the Sunday school box. And oh, I was proud of that shiny quarter. Every week, and I walked in, and I put that quarter in there, and I was so proud of myself. But one day, he was fishing his pocket, and he didn't have any change, so he opened up his billfold and pulled out a dollar. Oh, nasty, wrinkled piece of paper. That was not my shiny quarter. And I just happened to express that. I said, I don't want that old nasty piece of paper. I want that, boom. And the next thing I remember, I was picking myself up off the floorboards of that backseat of that Bonneville. And I wasn't sure why, but I figured out I was going to take that dollar, that piece of paper, and I was going to be happy with it. See, sometimes we miss the good. That dollar was worth more than a quarter. I found out later it was worth four of those quarters. But at the time, I didn't want it. We are so busy with what we want. We absolutely miss the greater blessing the Lord does give us. You know, it is heresy to claim that you have to accept Jesus Christ. And why is that, Heresy? Because God does not need your acceptance. You need God's acceptance. Now we receive Jesus Christ and we're made accepted or acceptable in Christ to God. We need to be accepted by God. He does not need us to accept Him. But once you're saved, God gives us much. And He says, here it is. It's laid out here on the table. But we deprive ourselves of it. Very often. Because we don't go and partake of it. Now, that's something that a lost man cannot do. Because he's dead and trespasses in sin. But a saved man can harm himself. Nope. I don't want that. I don't want what's there on the table. I want something else. And what they want is garbage out of the dumpster. It's rotten. It's filthy. It's nasty. It is not fulfilling. It is not satisfying. There's no good in it. But that's what they want. A man says, Lord, I don't really want that, but I trust you. And you say this is what you have for me, then I know that this is perfectly good for me. We all struggle with it. We have to gird up our loins and be men. A man honors women. honors them. He does not treat them like second-class Christians, citizens, as if they're less important. He does the things that he does for his wife and for women in general because he respects them. A man honors women, treats them with respect. I know I'm not the first one to say this to you little girls, but I'm going to tell you something. That boy says, if you love me, you do this because I love you. He doesn't love you. He's a liar. If he loved you, he'd want you to do the right thing. You see, because a man wants others to do the right thing as well. 1 Peter 3. We need more men. If there were more men amongst those that are saved, our churches would be full. If there were more men amongst those that are saved, People would get to hear the gospel on a regular basis, even if they didn't want to hear it. And I have told plenty of people that didn't want to hear it. I didn't even ask them if they wanted to hear it. I just told them anyway. And if they can't run faster than me, they're going to hear it till they can outpace me. That's not because I'm anything special. It's because God said do it. 1 Peter 3 and verse 7, Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them, that is, with their wives, according to knowledge. See, a man is supposed to answer his wife's biblical questions. But he can't do that if he doesn't know himself. When the children have questions and the man says, I asked your mother, she knows about that. She knows better than I do. He is giving up his manhood. Likewise, she husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, as unto the weaker vessel. That means you do that which is unpleasant, you do the right thing and lead them to do it so they don't have to lead the children to do it. You stand up for what's right. And that will encourage them too. Any saved young woman that is led right will follow her husband because he's following Jesus. But what is she supposed to do? How can she follow her husband when her husband's not following Jesus? What's she supposed to do? Follow him to do wrong? No. I know one man and I have significant concerns about his salvation. He told his wife, He said, if I told you to rob a liquor store, you should do it because I told you to and that's on me. And she came to me and asked me as pastor, I said, well, normally I wouldn't say anything about what your husband said, except he's wrong. You're supposed to follow God, how this is supposed to work. Now we live in a broken world. How this is supposed to work is the man It's like follow the leader. I like to use this example. The man follows Jesus. That's how it's supposed to happen. And the wife follows the man. And the children follow her. All in single file in this simile. Now, are any of them actually literally following the husband? Who's the leader of this? It's Jesus. So if she follows her husband, she's following the Lord, who she's following. You ever play follow the leader as a little kid? You might be the 32nd person in line, but you're not following the 31st. You're following the leader. Man is supposed to follow the leader. And the woman can very peacefully With no worries, follow the man, because he's following God. This breaks down when the man doesn't act like a man. Are we perfect? No, we are so messed up and we make mistakes. But we need to always get back up, follow the leader, and lead our families. To follow me? No. to follow Christ. He's the leader. It's hard to be a man. Now look, I'm not saying it's not hard to be a woman, and God made a woman with emotions that, well, I just couldn't, I can't conceive of, to be honest with you. I mean, good, right emotions. Love, a kind of love, and a joy, and a peace, and a caring. I had a lot of people come up to me and say, smile. I said, I am. In here, I'm smiling. And that's all you're gonna get. I'm happy, see? I am happy. But women have this ability to express love. So it's hard to be a woman. But this is not about women tonight. It is indirectly because a woman ought to be able to rely upon a man to lead, to do the right thing. Then they're not trusted in that no-account fellow to do the right thing. They're trusted in the Lord, whom he is following. A man, a real man, studies the Word of God because that's the only way you're going to be able to answer the question. You know, the Bible says that a woman, when she has questions, ought not, in Sunday school or whatever, in the entire assembly, call out and ask that, but they ought to ask their husbands at home. Fathers or whoever the head of their home is. But there's too many women that are frustrated because that no account rascal does not know anything about the Bible. Who are they going to ask then? Who's going to be the head of their family? A man needs to be a man. It's not fun to be a man. Hunting and fishing and such, they're fun. But being a man is doing what you don't want to do, because it's the right thing to do. And putting others in front of yourself, because it's the right thing to do. You see, he not only Studies the Word of God. He teaches the Word of God. Not maybe he's not Led by the Lord to be a Sunday school teacher Maybe he doesn't you know? have Bible study with People that worked at lunchtime or whatever But he's to teach his family And there's no more important people in the world under your charge. God made me a husband and a father first. That's why the Bible says you can't even qualify as a pastor if you can't take care of your family. If you can't be a man at home, you're not even qualified. Now, do we all fail? Of course we all do. There is not a man in the pulpit, there's not a pastor, there's not a man of God that deserves it himself. But by the grace of God, we seek to be what we should be at home. We seek to be what we should be to the churches the Lord has given us to pastor. But that's the way it should be for every man. See, the qualifications of a pastor are not some kind of super-Christian. Oh, the best and the brightest. You know what the qualifications for a pastor are? I'm going to boil them down for you. It is to be a Christian man. Every single man who is saved ought to qualify. Now, that doesn't mean, Lord, call them all. But these are the basic qualifications. It's not to be super Christian, it's just to be a man. And to try to be a man, to seek to be a man all your life. A man is devoted to prayer. Don't tell people that you're going to pray for them and not do it. Just don't say anything. I've got a hangnail and it hurts so bad. I'll pray for you, brother. That's not like saying, you know, gesundheit or something. Say you're going to pray for them, do so. Now, there's people that I pray for that I don't pray for every day, because there's a lot of people that want prayer. I get all kinds of emails. Dozens of people. Second Cousins, and I just learned what that means. Second Cousins friend. But I pray by the grace of God for the people in my charge, my family, and the church the Lord's given me to pastor every day. Because I love them. That's my responsibility. And I try to pray for other people as they come to mind. David O'Neill. I mean, there's all you got to do is turn on the television and you'll run. You'll have so many people to pray for. You will run out of time. But a man of God prays particularly for those that he has a responsibility to pray for. A man loves God first with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength. Because you can't love anybody else unless you love God first. The only person that a human being will ever love if they don't love God, I mean truly love. There's a kind of a broken clown mirror reflection of love that the world thinks is love, but I'm talking about real love. The only way you can love someone else is if you recognize God has first loved you and you love Him therefore. Why did Paul, oh, he loved the heathen so much. I think you misunderstand this. He was a debtor to them. Why? He didn't owe them anything. He was a debtor to them because he was a debtor to God. He loved the lost because he loved God. And God said, you love the lost and you tell them about me. A man needs to love God. And anyone that doesn't love God is simply not a man. I don't care how macho they think they are. I don't care how much they think they're a man. They're just a broken little boy. A man loves God. And because of his love to God, he does all these other things. It was well needed, well appreciated. You look in Hebrews chapter 11, and you see a variety of personalities in Hebrews chapter 11. But you see a common thread of manhood in Hebrews chapter 11. People believing God and doing what he said, even and especially when it didn't make sense. That's manhood. 2 Kings 2 verse 1, it says, now the days of David drew nigh that he should die, and he charged Solomon, his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man. You young boys in here, you young men, there's gonna be a day, if the Lord doesn't come back, where you're gonna be the old men in the room. Don't wait until you think you're 18, or you got a driver's license, or whatever milestone. You show yourselves as men right now. And you young ladies, you heard what he said, the charge. You're looking for men. You're looking for godly, God-loving, God-serving men. Thank you, brother, for that message. Brother Wyatt, please come lead us in a song at this time.