We're in 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter number two, amen, it's where we'll take our text tonight, the book of 1 Kings chapter number two, amen. If you've obeyed the Lord, go ahead, sis. Yes, ma'am, amen, amen. Anyone else wanna obey him before we read our text tonight? Amen, thank God for his goodness. Amen, we're in 1 Kings chapter number two, several weeks ago on Wednesday night. We started a series of lessons concerning young men. We've titled the series Biblical Manhood or Scriptural Principles of masculine maturity, amen. And I believe that there are biblical principles and tenets laid out in the word of God that can give our young men what they need to be what God has created them to be in the world that they live in. And in doing so, serve their generation. Also realize that when you deal with subjects like this, it can be offensive to some because of the mindset of the society that we live in, amen. We live in a very passive society. We live in a society that has become extremely effeminate from the male perspective. And we live in a society where everybody wants to be tolerant of it. We know that sodomy is a sin, you do understand. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness of the sin of sodomy. But effeminate is not sodomy. Being effeminate is not sodomy. Being effeminate is growing womanish. Now it leads to that, I think, I believe. But it's just as much of a sin for a young man to be a sissy as it is for him to be a sodomite. And that may not go over very well, but that's just, amen, the way it is. People melt down in the society that we live in when you address things the way they are and address them through the eyes of God's Word. And so that's what we're looking at tonight. David is about to die in 1 Kings chapter two. He served as the monarch of the greatest nation in the world, the nation of Israel, God's people. Not just a nation that had power like the Assyrian nation or the Babylonian empire, or the Egyptian nation. Those were great nations, but what separated Israel from all the other nations of the world and their power and what they were able to accomplish was the fact that it was God's people. That was the difference. And so David realizes that his days are numbered and he begins to commission his son Solomon, whom he has chosen to take his throne. And he says in verse one of first Kings two, 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. I'm interested in that phrase basically is the springboard for the series of thoughts. Show thyself a man. Then he went on to say, keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whethersoever thou turnest thyself. Now the latter part of verse three, I think every young man would want that in his life. Amen? I believe you'd want your way to prosper. No matter which way you turn in life, that God's hand would be upon you. God's blessings would be upon your life. That's what David desired for Solomon, as he would take the great responsibility of being the next monarch of the nation of Israel. And here's what he said, if you're gonna be successful, if you're going to sit on this throne, and God is going to anoint you to serve his people as their king, you're gonna have to be a man. And so with that being said, we have been looking at the thought biblical manhood, that simple. Scriptural principles of masculine maturity, simply be a man. We said by way of introduction that as a breadwinner, as a husband, as a dad, every facet of your life, amen. Whether you are dealing with a grown son, out on the farm or on the workforce, be a man. Or if you're dealing with a little delicate little girl that needs the tender care and the tender hand of a father, you still are a man, amen. So there's a lot of things that are involved in that as you prosper and as you grow. I wanna change the first point. The first point that we dealt with in the series was the strength of manhood. We've seen that in verse number two of our text. He said, I go the way of all the earth, be thou strong therefore and show thyself a man. But I wanna change that for the sake of the outline that God's been giving me, and I wanna say that this is the ability of manhood. And we talk about strength prepared, we remember that, strength publicly, strength purposed, and on and on, strength spiritually, and that's what we closed out. But that first point, if you could scratch out the word strength and just put in ability. Because you see, as a man, God has created within you certain masculine traits that are abilities. Strength is what gives you to exercise and to accomplish those abilities that he's given you. And so you need to be able, as a young man, I'm not gonna re-preach all those things I've already dealt with. As a young man, you need to realize and be able to assess your abilities. And if you're lacking in some ability that you would like to achieve, then just simply do what needs to be done to learn and fill that gap in your life. How do I do that, preacher? Well, there's training processes, schooling processes, and then there's just the simple task of getting around someone that knows how to do that particular thing. Watching what they do, watching how they do it. For a long, long time, and I've always been a observing learner, You ever seen a bricklayer lay brick or a mason lay block? I've laid some and I really always had a time keeping the mud on the trowel. You ever tried it? You dip a trowel into a board that's got hot in it or mud, we call it, you dip it in there, you turn it upside down and it'll fall off. And I would lay some block. I'd make the awfulest mess you'd ever seen in your life. I thought, there's something I'm not doing right. There's just something that I'm not doing. And so I watched a mason one time. And he reached that trowel into the mud and he got it on the trowel. He went in there and he dipped it up and he went, and he shook it like that. You turn it upside down, it don't fall off. But if you don't do that, you turn it upside down, it gonna fall off. Just that simple. Now I wrestle with mud laying all over the floor and the mortar all over me and everywhere else till I just simply watched. to simply watch and said, I want to see what he's doing to keep that hot on that trial. And all it was, was that was it. Simple as that. So if you lacking in some gap of ability that you would like to have in life, and there's nothing wrong with broadening the scope of your abilities. Nothing wrong with, you say, well, I'm not going to do it. Just because you're not going to do something for a living, doesn't mean you should be ignorant of that something. So God has given you the ability to be able to do things and strength to accomplish those tasks. Then we begin to talk about the authority of manhood. That's where we closed out on our last lesson as we looked at the spirituality of manhood in his ability. Let me say this again. You have the ability to be spiritual if you're saved. Now you gotta be saved. You can't be spiritual unless you are a spiritual being. The only way you're a spiritual being is if you've given your heart to the Lord Jesus, repented of your sin, and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. And so if you have done that, then you have the ability to be spiritual. Now you may be as carnal as a bootlegger here tonight. But if you're saved by the grace of God, the divine nature that God has put within you, and the spirit of God that he has taken as a boat up within your life, the character of Christ living in you, you can walk in the spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and you can be spiritual. You have that ability. Now whether you are or not is regulated by exercising that ability. But then I stopped and we went into this thought on the authority of manhood. Now this is where the world has a problem. I said these two phrases before we left on last Wednesday night. God has created the male and the male gender a masculine trait to be a leader. You say, well, I'm just a follower, preacher. No, if you're a man, you're a leader. That doesn't mean you're not following. That doesn't mean that you're not submitted in some fashion to authority, but God's made you a leader. The first thing you're gonna have to learn to lead as a man is you. Everybody in this building has the ability to be an influence. The greatest person that you will influence is yourself. And you do that, amen, by making good godly choices on what your life is nurtured by, what you allow to govern, amen, your mind and the way you live each day. We said this, that God has created in the male gender a masculine trait to be a leader. God has created in the female gender with a feminine trait to be a guide. We made this statement, women are phenomenal teachers. It's just a gift. God's given them a gift to guide. But that's not what we're dealing with. People despise authority. You agree with that? People cannot handle authority. They cannot handle authoritative people because of the passive mindset that's in the world. And here's what they said of the Lord. In Luke 19 and verse number 14, we may turn to some verses here in just a moment. Go ahead and start making your way to 1 Samuel. We're gonna read a series of verses there, and I'm gonna slow down. We're gonna read a lot of verses, make maybe very little comments about some of them, But the biggest problem that the people that come in contact with the Lord had with him is this. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. That was their problem. They didn't mind him healing the sick. They didn't mind him opening the eyes of the blind. They didn't mind him cleansing the leper. They didn't mind any of the good, compassionate things that the Lord did. It's just the authority that he had and that he'd done it in was the problem. Same thing today. You don't have a problem with me visiting the sick. You don't have a problem with me praying with you when you're going through problems. You don't have a problem with me preaching the gospel when your children getting saved. You don't have a problem with me marrying your young or burying your dead. It's what I do in this pulpit on a regular basis, the authoritative. Never a man spake like this man, they said of the Lord. He doesn't speak as the scribes do. He speaks as one having authority. See, that's the problem. That's the problem the world has. So we're gonna talk about that. So we understand that people despise authority, but there are authoritative figures that are in our world and they're here for a reason. We know the ultimate authority that supersedes all other authorities is God and the authority of his word. Just because a man may be in a position of authority, if he deviates from the Word of God, he deviates from the path of God's will, that does not mean, amen, that he is to rule or reign over your life. You listening? 1 Samuel chapter number two, let me say first of all that the authority of manhood can be abused. But you see, look at me for a moment. You cannot use what I'm about to read as an excuse to be a rebel against authority. But we all need to understand from the pulpit all the way to the back that authority has been and can be abused. Now, the Bible said in verse 12 of chapter two in 1 Samuel, now the sons of Eli were sons of Balaal. They knew not the Lord. And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servants came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand, and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, all that the flesh hook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Also, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servants came and said to the man that sacrificed, give flesh to roast for the priest, for he will not have shodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if any man said unto him, let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth, then he would answer him, nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore, the sin of the young men were very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. So here in this text, Eli's sons are in positions of authority and they are abusing that authoritative role that God has given them. They are abusing the people to a level that the people of God had began to abhor and despise the offering of the Lord. And so you understand tonight that that authoritative aspect of leadership can be abused. We've seen that in husbands toward their wives and their children. Abusive, not providing for them. We've seen fathers abandon their children. We've seen them leave them with a mother, a man to try to sustain their physical needs and their food and everything else. And this church has gathered around multiple cases in 38 years and tried to sustain where men that were in this leadership role just simply abandoned their families. That's wicked. Worse than an infidel is what the Bible said, and denied the faith, ungodly. And I promise you, they won't play that on TikTok tomorrow. But that's the truth of the matter. Ungodly men. And so we understand that just because men, I've seen men abuse their wives. Think because they're the head of the home, they can control every breath they breathe and not give them, that's wicked, ungodly. That's abusing the authority that God, I've had men say, well, the Bible says that I'm the head. I said, yeah, the Bible also says that you're to love her as Christ loved the church. Had you became poor that she through your poverty might be made rich? Does she lack nothing? The desires of her heart, are they being met? Every care that she has, can she cast it on you? Then I don't want to hear nothing about the head because you're stuck in a pile of manure, sounds like. And so you can abuse that authority. You listening? You young men listening to your pastor? You're a young man and God's gonna make you a leader one day. In some way, shape, or form, you can easily abuse that leadership. The wrath of God be upon you. Amen to the preacher. So it can be abused. It can also be neglected, that leadership. Men that are in leadership neglect that authority that they have. The Bible said in 1 Samuel 2, back in the same chapter actually, and verse number 22, look at it. Now, Eli was very old. That's not an excuse, but he was old. and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, how they lay with women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." They were whoremongers. Not only were they abusing the offering of God, but they were whoremongers. In verse number 13 of chapter number three, the Bible says, for I told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth. Now he's saying that Eli knew what his sons were doing. He knew it. He was aware of why the people hated the offering of God. He was aware that they were laying with lewd women. The Bible said, because his son made themselves vile and he restrained them not. So authority can be neglected. I can't do nothing with him, preacher. I got a problem. I never will forget somebody telling me about Dr. Roloff. He was at a meeting somewhere and they were bringing a young man to him to try to straighten out, if you can put it that way, with the home. He said, this great old big guy come walking in the back door and he had this little old bitty run of a boy by the hand and he's gonna hand him over to Brother Lester Roloff to try to take care of him. And how senseless that looks. Something's wrong. You know what's wrong? The authority of manhood is being neglected. If you leave the discipline of your children and the guidance of your sons and your daughters solely up, amen, to your wife, you've got a problem, sir. You're neglecting the God-given role that he gave you to guide and lead your children and be the authoritative figure in their life. Eli refused to restrain his children, his sons. You listening? You see, leadership without accountability is toxic for a young man and those around him. You young men need to understand that you have a father for a reason. Now, you obey him in the Lord. That's very specific in the word of God. You obey your father in the Lord and your mother in the Lord. If they're wicked and ungodly, perverted in their mind, reckless in what they do, you got a serious ordeal on your hands. Leadership is created in a man to serve others and not abuse them. You listening? Husbands, fathers, grandfathers, political figures, pastoral leadership. All of these roles carry along with it the title, a realm of leadership, which has connected to it authority. Would you agree? If you're a father here tonight, you should understand that you have a role of authority. You're a husband, there is a role of authority. But that authority is given you because God has enabled you through that leadership and that authority, amen, to serve those that are around you. Amen. So I'm gonna fix to get ahead of myself. Let me just go to it this way. Let's just talk about it maritally speaking. For the husband is the head of the wife in Ephesians 5.23. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the bodies. We've already alluded to that. There's marital authority. There is a husband who is the head of the wife. Now he loves his wife as Christ loved the church. That's a great study for every young man in this building. You are to dwell with her according to what? You're to dwell with your wife according to what? Knowledge. You're to dwell with your wife. You young boys, come to the place in your life when you're attracted to a young lady and you're willing to share your life with her, you spend the rest of your days dwelling with her according to knowledge. Amen. And so you do that by looking, amen, at how Christ treats the church, his relationship to the church, his response to the church, his forgiveness of the church. Amen. And you dwell with her that way. If you're gonna be a godly husband, then you leave. And I promise you, if you love your wife as Christ loved the church, let me tell you something about him. He never forsakes the church. For his hunting buddies, for his card buddies, for his ball game buddies, or anything else. She is confident and she is safe in where he's at and what he's doing. It's going over good. And so when you love your wife as Christ loved the church, sir, you won't have any problem with your wife following you. unless she's a Jezebel and a Hellion. And there are those out there. We do understand that there are two sides of all of this, but I'm just telling you if a woman's got any sense at all, any sense at all, she desires to be cared for and loved and protected and provided for. A woman with a brain does. And a man, a man that's got a brain as well, he desires to be desired. You ladies get that? He desires to be desired. And he desires to be loved and cared for as well. When all that works out, it meshes together and you have a godly home. So there's that marital authority in that home concerning, amen, young men. So you young men, the aspirations that you may have to have a wife and be a part of a leadership role as a husband, you need to understand there's biblical tenets that revolve around that. We've got young couples in this building and you need to understand that. This isn't a partnership. This is not Sears and Roebuck. They ain't no roebuck no more, just sears. You get that? Roebuck left. And so you better keep things in order or you'll just be sears. Then there's this thing of parental authority. Children, obey your parents, how? How do you obey them? In the Lord, for this is right. So dad's an authoritative figure. I've seen dads provoke their children under wrath. I've seen dads manipulate the minds of their children, take them down a path. I've seen parents just, I don't know why they just didn't take their children to a tattoo parlor and have tattoo failure across their forehead. because that's the way they led them. So you dads need to understand the influence that you have as a parent, you young men, you young ladies as well, understand you have a father. And the Bible said, if you want your days to be long on the earth, you're to obey and honor your mom and your father in the Lord. I say again, in the Lord. If your dad's a drunkard, that's a different story. Your mom's a harlot woman, that's a different story. But if you've got a godly mama that loves the Lord and what's best for you, you wanna live long? Do you wanna live for a while? Better honor her and obey her. Amen, you got a dad that loves God, wants to serve the Lord, wants to see you prosper in the will of God, honor him, obey him. At the same time, you young men need to understand that there is parental authority. And a dad is an authoritative figure in the home. Now I only remember my dad disciplined me in a corporal manner twice in my life. Too, too many times. And I vowed before the Lord, or somebody, I don't know if it was my flesh, the moon, the stars, the sun, or whatever it is, I vowed that I'd never do anything again. My dad had a junkyard, 200 cars in the backyard. I got me a BB gun. You could take that BB gun on a hot day, and you can put that thing up against a windshield and pull the trigger, and it sounds like an explosion. but it ain't nowhere near as loud as I was hollering after my dad found out I'd busted windshields out of the cars with a BB gun. Anybody listening? There is parental authority. You have a responsibility. Your sons, you boys, you ought to have that ultimate respect for your dad, he's a godly man. He's trying to do what's right. He brought you to church tonight. Your daddy brought you to church tonight. He's concerned about you reading the Bible and praying. He's just concerned about you living for God. You are to thank God for him every day of your life. Amen. And you young men that are in this building, God may give you children one of these days. And in that, you should vow that you're gonna be a godly leader in their life. You're gonna make sure that you do everything. I thought about it this week. I thought about it. I was up there working on the building, and I'm 65 years old. I don't know how many more years the Lord's gonna give me. That don't depress me. I mean, I understand that I'm gonna die unless the Lord comes. And we're building a new sanctuary. Do you know who that's for? That's for some of these children's children. I mean, you need to understand that what we're laboring for, and you young men that are here, many of you have been out here working and thank God for it, but you need to understand that what's going on out there, the work and the money and the sweat and all the labor that's taking place, it's not for those that are working for the most part. Now, we'll get a taste of it, most of them will, but that's for people They'll be a day, they'll stand up, if they love the Lord and they have any sense of remembrance whatsoever, they'll be some of these little ones, little ones. Stand up. I never got to see, never got to meet. But if the Lord doesn't come back, they'll stand up and testify about reaping the benefits of people that labored in our behalf when we wasn't even here. Now that may not mean nothing to you. If it don't, I don't know how to help you. I'm just telling you, just the thought of doing something that a generation to come where they can have a place to serve God, I'm just telling you, that ought to be a motivator in our soul. You young men need to understand you'll be a parent one of these days. That's an awesome responsibility. You need to learn to develop that leadership. There's civil authorities. Romans chapter 13, let every soul be subject unto the... What are you saying, preacher? I'm just saying that you need to understand that with manhood, their leadership comes authority. Do you have a problem with authority? Do you have a problem with somebody telling you what you need to do? Do you have a problem with someone admonishing you, rebuking you, reproving you, confronting you? Just because you're a grown man does not mean that you're not to submit to leadership. If you don't believe it, just take off down the road, run about 80 or so, and just see what happens. You might be 75 years old. Hey man, Brother Raymer can run down through here running 100 miles an hour. There could be some young 21-year-old state trooper, pull him over, and the fact that he's a senior is not gonna make any difference. I want your license and registration, sir. Do you know why I pulled you over? They're gonna say. I got pulled over going to Rogersville, Tennessee. Young guy come up, had a big old dip of snuff in. Bean station's where I was at. Pulled me over. He said, you know why I pulled you over? I said, yes sir, I was speeding. I wasn't paying a lick of attention to what I was doing. I said, I have no idea how fast I was going. He didn't know how to handle that. If I hadn't had my seatbelt on, I'd have said, I didn't have my seatbelt on either. Honesty is the best policy, sometimes. He said, well, I ain't gonna give you a ticket. I said, thank God. I went on down and preached that night, amen. Paul said, put them in mind to be subject to principalities, powers, to be magistrates, to be ready to every good work. Submit yourselves, Peter said, to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king and supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. What do you say in their civil authorities? And men submit to those authorities as they exercise their leadership role in authority. That's pastoral authority. Now here's where we have a problem. We have a problem with this subject right here because most of the time pastors are not going to address it because they feel like everybody's gonna take it wrong. Take it ever how you want to. I'm just gonna read you the verses. This generation that we're living in, they want pastoral leadership without an authoritative figure. That's just a fact. They do not want a pastor that exercises any authority. A world of spiritual passiveness is where we're at. We want a pastor who tolerates sin and rebellion. That's what we're looking for. As I said, visit you in the hospital, go to the funerals, do all the things that pastors do, just don't tell us what we do. If you're gonna tell us what we do, make sure you say, you should do this. That's not what the prophets did. That's not what John the Baptist did. That's not what the apostle Paul did. Here's what the Bible says concerning the leadership role of pastors. Some of you, God may call you to preach. Maybe one in this building may take the role of this pastor, you know, 20, 30 years down the road. I have no idea. You need to understand that this is a role. And you that are here, that are older, ever who stands in this place, when I'm dead and gone, or when I can't function as a pastor any longer, you need to understand these verses. I may have been your pastor for 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years, whatever the case may be, but that don't change the word of God concerning the next man that God will put his hand on and anoint to rule and oversee over this congregation. Here's what he said in Hebrews 13. Are you ready for this? It's in the Bible. Obey them that have the rule over you. and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. So if I understand the Bible at all, just on the surface, not in depth, this verse is telling me that I have to watch for your soul. The reason why I have to watch for your soul is I am gonna give an account for it, for your soul. And in that day of accounting for your soul, I have two options. In that account, I will either do it with joy or I'll do it with grief. Every which way, every which option I have to choose in giving that account for your soul, is going to be either profitable or unprofitable for you. Now everybody's gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I get that. You're gonna receive rewards or you're gonna suffer loss. Every man, every man's work, every M-A-N apostrophe S work. Possessive, singular. You got that? You as an individual gonna stand before God, but I as an individual am gonna stand before God as the watchman of the souls of the Pleasant View Baptist Church. Now if you're in sin or you got a problem and I refuse to confront that problem and try to steer you in the right way, then I'm gonna give an account for neglecting that authority just like Eli did concerning his sons. God's gonna judge me for that. Amen. Did in First Thessalonians, everybody good with that? You obey them? That's why you obey them. That's why you submit, amen, to that authoritative role and position, because that man of God is gonna give an account. I don't care what some beanhead says about who's the pastor and what the pastor is. He's never pastored, she's never pastored. They don't have a clue of the burden and the care of a church. You know why? Because they're ignoramuses. and they don't know what it means to watch for a soul of an individual. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 12. We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord. Over you in the Lord. That's not overlording you. That's over you in the Lord. And admonish you. and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. So you wanna be at peace among yourselves? Have a right relationship with the man of God. Now I'm gonna tell you something, that's a constant battle you'll deal with. Because if the devil can get you out of sorts with the preacher, your children will die and go to hell, not because you mad at the preacher, because they won't have any respect for anything he says. You better understand your communication and relationship and your demeanor toward the man of God is extremely serious. This ain't Satan's almanac now, as Brother Raines would say. This is the Bible, the King James Bible, 2 Thessalonians chapter three, verse 14 says this. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Here's what Paul's saying as a preacher. He said, if there's anybody out there that's not doing what I've told you to do, mark him, avoid him, don't have nothing to do with him. Leave him to himself. That's pretty stiff, isn't it? I've never said that to anybody. I've never got up here and preached something. I said, if your daddy don't do that, or your mama don't do that, or your brother don't do that, you don't even speak to them. I've never said nothing like that. That's what Paul said. Paul said, if there's any among you that will not obey what I have said, leave them to their self. It's pretty serious. Would be to me. 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, 25. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. He said the man of God and his relationship to you and his desire for you to live for God, he said they are in opposition of themselves. I'm reading Bible verses. 2 Timothy chapter four, verse one. You can turn to these or get on the channel and write these verses down or read them when you get home. 2 Timothy chapter four, verse one. You know these verses. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, it is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. I'm reading Bible verses. 2 Timothy chapter four, verse one. Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. So if I'm reproving you, if I'm rebuking you, if I'm exhorting you, I'm to be long-suffering with you. And I probably have been too long-suffering through the years in many ways. And I'm to try to do it with a doctrinal perspective. In other words, it's not my opinion. It's what the Bible has to say about the position or practice or the direction of your life. And here's why. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. And that's exactly where people are. Turned under fables. bowing down to a bunch of foolishness. Discount the church and the Bible and the things of God. I'm talking about masculine leadership. I'm talking about authority. People can't handle it. From a pastor especially. And you know what we've done? We've turned the pulpit in a place where men make suggestions. That's a problem. Brother Range, when I was sitting where Brother Jim is sitting tonight at the Pleasure View Baptist Church up on the hill in Taylor, South Carolina, he never made any suggestions that I recall. It was this is the way, walk ye in it. That's the way it's to be. Listen to these verses and I'll close this point out. In Titus chapter 1 verse 10, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. So here's what Paul is saying to this preacher by the name of Titus. He's letting them know that there are people out there that are unruly, they're vain talkers, they're deceivers, and they're religious people. whose mouths must be stopped. That's what he says in verse 11. They need to be stopped. Their mouths must be stopped. So instead of using the S word that the kids say, the preacher said a bad word, I'm just saying your mouth needs to be stopped. How's that sound for tonight? They subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Can you handle sharp rebuke? He tells us concerning these people that are wicked and ungodly, he said they need to be rebuked sharply, otherwise they have no possibility of ever becoming sound in the faith. Can you handle open rebuke? A wise man will love you when you rebuke him. So what are you saying? I'm saying tonight that manhood, masculinity, young men, That leadership role that God has put in you comes with authority. Whatever you may be in life, you may be a pastor, but you're gonna be a man whether you are, you may be a civil leader, you may be in a role of leadership. Our politicians, you know what's happened to our politicians in this day? They are passive because they wanna get along with everybody and they wanna get reelected. And so they can't stand They don't have an ability, they have no fortitude. And that's a problem. Amen. Again, to have that kind of authoritative role, as a dad, you're a chauvinist. Or not as a husband, you're a chauvinist. As a dad, you're a dictator. So the world around you, gentlemen, young men, and it's gonna get worse and worse as we progress or digress in the society that we live in, they hate leadership. They despise leadership. They despise it from a marital standpoint, from a parental standpoint, from a civil standpoint. They despise it from a spiritual standpoint. But God, the Bible says that God has given the oversight of the house of God to the man of God. Taking the oversight is constantly a phrase used. Take the oversight thereof. Take it, is what it says, because there's a battle for it. You take a church that's very long without a pastor, it's trouble to ever regather it. It's difficult. Somebody calls one of you men that's called to preach to pastor a church, They've been without one for a year or two, that ship's probably close to sunk. Because somebody's in charge and you're gonna have to snatch that authority away and most of the time it's extremely difficult. Better listen to me. So a trait of biblical masculinity is authority. Now you women could have a problem with that, can't you? Nobody here but us chickens, and the camera's facing this way so they don't see nothing but the back of your head. But it can get rough, can't it? If he says, no, this is what we're gonna do. Well, I won't, and he's to be understanding, he's to be considerate, amen. My wife would say, I don't know why you asked me, you're gonna do what you wanna do anyway. That's what she's gonna say. But after it's done, she don't have very many complaints. Just saying, as folks would say. So next Wednesday night, I won't be here next Wednesday night, when we get back, we're gonna talk about the aggressiveness of manhood. Boy, that's another tough one. Let me ask you a question. God forbid this would happen, but if you found out tomorrow that you had cancer, and it could be undealt with, take your life, which is most of the time the case. Would you want ever who is treating you, whatever physician it may be or whatever oncologist you might be seeing, would you want them to be passive or aggressive? Which would you rather? I mean, you got a disease here, it's gonna kill you. Do you want a doctor to come in and say, yeah, you got cancer, yeah, and it could kill you, and we're gonna come back in a couple of weeks, I'm going on vacation, I'm gonna fly to Europe, I'll be back in about two and a half weeks, and we'll check you again, figure out maybe what we wanna do, see what you wanna do, we'll come up with something, surely, between the two of us. You don't want that. You ain't interested in bedside manner, You ain't interested in whether he combed his hair that morning or not. You want him to come in there like a bulldog and say, we're gonna beat this, you hear me? We're gonna start not yesterday, we're gonna start yesterday. We're gonna start right now dealing with this problem. We're gonna start today. That's what you're gonna want. Except from a preacher. You want the preacher to beat around the bush and run around the barn two or three times and try to make it as clean as he possibly can, but that, you know, it just don't work that way, because sin's far more destructive than cancer ever had time to be. And so that's what we're gonna look at next week, you young men, and what it means to be aggressive as a man. That don't mean mean, and it ain't mean hateful. just means being aggressive. Getting things accomplished and done, and realizing the severity of some things, and the attention that needs to be toward them. I'd like to read these verses, but it's too late. Think about the aggressiveness of man. If you're a young man, this nonchalant way of living your life is not gonna work. We need, the Pleasure View Baptist Church, need some young men that's got some grit about them that will stand, stand against evil, confront rebellion. Who killed Absalom? Anybody know? Anybody know who killed Absalom? Who? Nah, Joab didn't kill Absalom, I'm sorry. Joab hit him with a dart, but it was a young man come around and killed Absalom. Young men did. Because he was a rebel. Now, David didn't like it, but God wanted him dead. He would have done the same thing again. You know what we need? Now, I'm gonna go this route, but you know what we need? We need some young men that's aggressive enough to kill rebellion. Amen. Let the leader throw the first dart and say, all right boys, there it is, put it to death. We'll talk about that when I get back.