Good morning, everyone. It's a joy to be with you in the house of the Lord this morning as we continue on in our series of the M&Ms of the Christian life. And we get to an important subject today. I think you'll agree that in light of the crying needs of our culture and the confusion of our culture, what we go over today and next week are of critical importance as we talk about what it is to be a man, what it is to be a woman, created in the image of God, redeemed and set apart for noble purposes. Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna, now known as modern-day Turkey, and this was in the second century. He was a direct disciple of the Apostle John and is one of Christianity's most famous martyrs. He was martyred at the age of 86 years old, and he bravely went to the stake because of his faith in Christ and his refusal to deny Jesus as Lord. You see, under that time, members of the Roman Empire were required to confess Caesar as Lord. Polycarp said, no, there is no Lord but Jesus. It's one of the famous stories in early Christian history. And it's reported that Polycarp held steady in his faith in part because as he was on his way to his martyrdom, he reportedly heard a voice from heaven that said, be strong, Polycarp, play the man. Girded by that comforting voice, guided by the Spirit of God, Polycarp was used of God to encourage the church during a time of great trial. Well, I think the crying need of the church today, the crying need of the family in general, and I would argue the crying need of the culture is for a movement of men to rise up and live out demonstrate godly conviction and courage. We are surrounded by chaos and confusion and relational catastrophe, and it is critical that we regain our footing biblically and socially as to what God means when he creates human beings. So as we continue in our series on the M&Ms of the Christian life, today we will look at the nature and importance of biblical manhood. Well, like with the other issues that we've looked at in our series, we will not be able to completely cover such an important subject, but we can challenge some contemporary thinking. And we can give a shout out to the men that are important to us and around us and say, be strong and play the man. Well, as we begin today, it should be recognized that there are challenges to manhood, but there are actually some advantages as well. And I think it's good for us to celebrate how God has made us, but also to be able to laugh at ourselves. I think we need to take God seriously and ourselves not so seriously. So as we begin this morning, I want to come across some of the things that I was able to pull together about what's good about being a man. For example, it's good to be a man because you don't need to ask someone else to open your own jars. It's good to be a man because you get extra credit for the slightest act of kindness and thoughtfulness. It's good to be a man because three pairs of shoes are more than enough. It's good to be a man because you can drop by and see a friend without having to bring a special little gift. It's good to be a man because if another guy shows up at the party wearing the same outfit, you just might become lifelong friends. It's good to be a man because you can have the same hairstyle for years, maybe even decades, assuming you have hair. It's good to be a man because you can do all of your Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on the 24th of December and finish in less than an hour. It's good to be a man. But at the same time, and on a much, much more serious note, while there are advantages to being a man, there are also very great challenges to manhood in our day. For example, men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women. Men between the ages of 18 and 29 suffer alcohol addiction at three times the rate of women of the same age. More than two-thirds of all alcoholics are men, as men are 50% more likely to be users of illicit drugs. 80% of America's homeless are men. Life expectancy is 10% shorter for men than for women. The incidence of stress-related illnesses, such as heart disease and certain cancers, is much higher among men. Now, that is not to say that women do not face challenges. In fact, we will have a chance to look at that next week when we investigate biblical womanhood. But it is to say that there are challenges today in being a man of God, in a world that is warped by sin. So how much more than is there a need for a movement of godly masculinity, both in the church and in the family? And so we're going to deal with this subject a little bit differently this morning because there's not just one passage we could turn to that would give a comprehensive understanding of manhood, but we will look at a couple of different verses. But for this week and for next, I want us to be a people who celebrate. I want us to be a people who celebrate the goodness and wisdom of God in creating men and creating women. That we will celebrate men as men, celebrate women as women, and over the next two weeks just rejoice in the wisdom of God, the goodness of God, the kindness of God. in creating men and women. So may the Lord give us ears to hear in a new and fresh way what He has to say to us, especially in this age of confusion. Let's pray as we begin this morning. Father, we look to You this morning as our guide and our teacher, and we know that unless You teach, and unless Your Spirit gives understanding, and unless Your Word is opened, that this is an exercise in vanity. But Father, we did not come here this morning to just waste our time. We came here this morning because we expected to hear from You. And so we look forward to meeting with You now and You teaching us as we commit ourselves to You in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as you follow along in your sermon outline that's already in your bulletin, we're going to have some major points that we look at today. And the first one is, let's face the reality. Men are different than women. Men and women are different. We live in an age of gender confusion. We live in an age of warped thinking. But I, for one, want to celebrate the fact that in the beginning, God created them male and female. That idea is challenged today. We don't see in our popular thinking that men and women are different. We see them as interchangeable. I want to stand against that thought this morning. I believe firmly that men and women are of equal value. Men and women are equal heirs of all that we have in Christ, but they are complementary in nature, and it was designed so by God. And so we affirm all of those things to be true. Men and women are equal in importance, equal in value, equal in the inheritance they have in Christ, but complementary. They are not exactly the same. And since God is the one who has declared this from the beginning, I find myself in good company this morning as I affirm that it is time to celebrate men as men, to celebrate women as women. But first we see that these differences are natural and designed. Now, we can't get into a full and exhaustive presentation of how this is to be the case, but we're going to look at some ways where it is just the nature of the case that men and women are different. And even as I give some of these differences this morning, particularly focusing on men, and as I give some next week, we must not hear in the word different a moral judgment. It is not a question of better or worse, it is a question of different but equal in value. For example, the brains of men and women are different. A man's brain is on average 10% larger than a woman's. This is not so much a function of intelligence as it is the body size of the respected players. They are built differently because a man's brains connect well within regions of the brain and within hemispheres of the brain. This allows for greater ability to concentrate on tasks and to focus on what is in front of him. A man's brain connects more within what we call the gray matter, which is within the regions of the brain, whereas a woman's brain connects much more in the white matter, which is greater connections between regions or among regions of the brain and between the hemispheres of the brain. Neither one is better. They're both good. They're just different. They're designed by God to be that way. A man's skin is slightly thicker than a woman's and has more collagen in it. This helps a man to work outside. Think of what man's original job was. He was to be a gardener. He was to be a tender of creation. And having slightly thicker skin gave him protection against the natural elements. The fact also being slightly thicker and slightly more collagen means he is less prone to wrinkles and to the weathering of the sun than a woman is. The average man, simply in the nature of the case, is stronger, with more muscle mass, broader shoulders, and a much larger lung and heart capacity. Think of how men have traditionally served and how this is beneficial. We think of the soldier or the laborer, the hunter, the farmer, the protector, and why this difference in physical nature is important. The retina of a man's eye is slightly thicker than that of a woman's, which allows a man to focus better on distance, to be more drawn to action or movement in the distance. He's better at scanning their horizon, while a woman's eye is much stronger at objects closer up and has better peripheral vision, as anyone who has ever had a mother and has been a rebellious child can testify. She's also much better at color recognition than he is. Let's just face it, men. Men have larger veins in general. and more overall even blood flow from head to toe. His blood has less water and 20% more red blood cells than does a woman. This allows for greater endurance in all things physical. During stress, both men and women produce oxytocin, but when combined with their respective chemicals, if you will, in man's case, testosterone, it makes the man more aggressive, which is useful for the one who is to be the rescuer, the provider, the hunter, the defender. The prefrontal cortex of the brain develops differently among men as it does for women. They are programmed differently. The man's prefrontal cortex is more programmed to have more processing power for threat assessment and protection. It motivates him to action. The woman's prefrontal cortex is more programmed to have more processing power for details. The one serves better for scanning the distance and defense, the other is better for processing information and building relationships. Men are better at thinking three-dimensionally, which allows them to interact with their environment. It also allows them to block out noise, which drives every mother on this earth crazy, especially when the kids are rebelling. And it's the fact of the matter that generally, men and women even dress differently. I don't mean the types of clothes that they wear, I mean how they get dressed. Men typically dress from the bottom up, while women tend to do the inverse. Now, there are exceptions to these general rules, but there are things built into nature that just say, we're different. Some of the downsides of these positive characteristics that men have, as I say it again, they have less color perception than men, are more likely to have red-green blindness, are more likely to stutter, and more likely to have neurological disorders like autism. And in things that we just know instinctively, men are more likely to engage in risky behavior, they are more likely to die in accidents, they are more likely to harm either themselves or others. But at the same time, because of the nature of their brains, the nature of the blood flow that they have, they are better able to withstand sleep deprivation and to step up during a crisis. That is why generally, over time, we have seen that men have served well as firemen, police officers, ambulance drivers, and in combat. But I say it again, these differences are simply that, differences. Not better, not worse, just different. And because they are given by God, we should see these differences as something that is good and wise. Imagine God. who is the Creator of all. And imagine, as He says in His Word, He delights over everything that He has created, and He does. That means God takes great delight over every man, over every woman that He forms. He knows that it is a good thing in His eyes, and He wants us to see it as something as good as well. So I'll say it again, this is not a judgment value of better or worse. We're talking a statement of fact, and we should use words like necessary, helpful, productive, good, enjoyable. that men and women are created as different. And so I want to not only celebrate with what God says in his word and what God's people have known to be true over centuries, I'm even going to join along with the French who say, vive la difference, and enjoy the fact that men can be men and women can be women. So that we start with that as an introduction. Let's affirm what is true, the reality is men and women are different. But we get to point to and we see the tragedy. It all fell apart in the garden. As we see in Genesis 1 and 2, Adam and Eve are enjoying life in the garden. They are in fellowship with God. They're in fellowship with each other. They're actually in fellowship or at peace with themselves individually as who they are, and they're at peace with nature. All is good, all is well, and then it all falls apart quickly. How do we understand this? I think the first thing we need to see is the problem of passivity. As Adam and Eve are enjoying the good life in the garden, a dynamic developed that would prove to be deadly to all of humanity. And I call it the passivity of Adam. Satan in the form of the serpent comes and tempts Eve to go beyond what God has commanded. And believing the lie and being deceived by the lie, she takes of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so we pick up the text in Genesis 3, verse 6, which says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate. Now, if we stop there, as many religions in the world do, we would be right to assume that it is all the woman's fault. But we cannot stop there because the story does not stop there and because God does not assign the blame there. The Bible very clearly places the blame on Adam. In Adam, we all died, and so we need to look at what the rest of the verse says, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And therein lies the problem. Adam was the one who had been given the command of God. Adam was the one who had been created first. Adam was the one who was to tend the garden, who was to take care of his family. He was the one who was to name the animals. He was to lead and guide and protect and provide. But at that moment of temptation, instead of standing up, he stood down. And by his guilty passivity, he plunged the human race into destruction. We could continue on, but I think we want to move forward because we want to get to some other application points this morning, but we want to look at not only the problem of passivity, we want to look at the penalty of passivity. The text tells us that then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Now they have an awareness that there is right and wrong. Now they have an awareness that there is a penalty in disobeying God, that it is a punishment as it were by not following God and doing His way. And so there's a dialogue that takes place in the garden. The humans realize now they're no longer at peace with God. They realize now they're no longer fully at peace with each other. They realize now they're not even at peace with themselves, and they're certainly not at peace with creation. And so there is a price that is paid because of the passivity of Adam. Yes, God shows mercy, immediately God shows mercy, and He gives them a promise of a Savior that will come one day, and He provides for them, but He chases them out of the garden. That was an act of grace. If He had allowed them to stay in the garden and they had eaten from the second tree, they would have never been able to be redeemed or to be saved. They would have been lost forever in their rebellion and sin. But God didn't allow that, and so He chased them out of the garden and said, I will bring a Redeemer one day. But we need to come to the fact that the passivity of Adam was painfully high. The penalty was painfully deep. It has affected everything. Because in the garden, Adam was to lead his wife in work and in worship. He was to be the priest, the spiritual leader of the home. And he wasn't, at least in this case. And so it didn't end well. And we're paying the price even today. The problem is, the temptation to passivity continues with men today. All too often where men are needed to lead their families, to lead their children, to take leadership in the church, too often in the pursuit of their own treasures and pleasures and hobbies, they become passive and leave those things to the women in their lives, to their wives and to other people at church. And so this sinful passivity continues and we continue to pay a price. This is a serious issue among men, their tendency to passivity. It's a serious price that we pay where men are passive in their leadership in the home, where men are passive in being the spiritual guides to their wives and children. You will find untrained children. You will find frustrated and tired women. You will find neglected young men. You will find weak families. You will find weak churches. So it's good and necessary for us to heed what the Apostle Paul says as we look at our main passage for this morning, which comes from 1 Corinthians 16. The Word of God says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love. We have seen the reality, we have seen the tragedy, and now we see the challenge, maturity, and godliness. The church in Corinth was full of problems. And we're going to have the opportunity to walk with Paul through this letter because that is our next sermon series once we are done with the M&Ms of the Christian life. We are going to study 1 Corinthians together. And we have a chance to look in great detail what it is that Paul has to say to this church. But after working through many troubles and challenges of the church, he's finishing up now in chapter 16 with some final instructions, with some final greetings. And we find him challenging the believers in the church, and I would say specifically men, it's time to step up and to be seen in the life of the family and the life of the church. I think if Paul were with us this morning, he would want us to know that the church needs men. The family needs men. The children of our society and our families need men. Society itself needs men, men who are committed to the Lordship of Christ, guided by the Spirit of God, under the conviction that the Word of God is eternal and true for all peoples, to live out masculine biblical Christianity. We live in a morally chaotic society, just like the society of Corinth in the first century. There is nothing new under the sun. Wherever men and women rebel against God, we end up in the same place. And in many ways, we are in a Corinthian age today. of how we live. And so in these two verses, Paul's going to give a series of short exhortations that we will look at and we'll move through them. If you have your Bibles open, they will fall right out of the text and you will see them. The first one is, keep watch. Paul says, be watchful. And all throughout the letter of 1 Corinthians, Paul challenges the church to overcome sin, to overcome selfishness, to overcome division, and live in light of the fact that Jesus Christ is returning one day. I think we should say the same thing today. In light of the coming judgment, in light of the return of Jesus Christ, let us keep watch. against falling into sin, against falling into error, against falling into passivity, because the fact that Jesus Christ will return one day is to have a vital impact on how we live today, and how we plan for tomorrow, and how we look forward to this next week. So knowing then that the Lord is going to return in a day known only to Him, knowing that we will stand in judgment before Him, we should live sober lives that are striving after holiness, striving after productivity, striving after obedience, striving after raising up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Now, the word that is used here in the Greek is gregoreo. It means watchful one. It is actually the background to my own name, Greg, which means watchful one. So actually, I was playing a game with myself this week and I was saying, Greg, keep on gregging. Be watchful over yourself. Watchful over your ministry. Watch over yourself. Watch over your family. Watch over the church. In the best sense of the word, keep on gregging, man. Be watchful over the ones God has put around you. Gregoreo, be watchful. Paul says to keep watch so that you do not fall into sin of any type. But here's the sad fact of our day. Online pornography is a huge problem in society and a huge problem in the church. And our church is not immune because I'm dealing with the consequences right now. Men, keep watch over your eyes. Whatever you watch on TV, online, the things you read, the magazines you look at, protect your eyes, protect your heart, protect your mind. And if it's not enough for you to protect yourselves, do it because in protecting yourself, you will protect your wives and your children. Because they're the ones that pay the price for this filth. Do not be caught off guard. But we get caught off guard when we are passive. passive about our spiritual disciplines, passive about our time with the Lord, passive about our contributions in the church. So I challenge you to spend more time listening to the voice of God than to the voices of men. Let's just say it. Talk radio agitates. but the Word of God activates. Spend more time listening to the voice of God than to the voices of men. I encourage everyone that can on their smartphones, on their computers, on their tablets to put an audio Bible there. It's a practice I started several years ago when we were going through some dark nights of the soul and I would wake up at 4 a.m. and I couldn't sleep and I would pace the floors and I would turn the audio Bible on and let the Word of God wash over me and minister to my soul and suddenly I'd find myself waking up and it was morning. Have the Word of God in your car, have it on your cell phone, have it on your computer, and listen to the voice of God more than you listen to the voices out there in the culture. Because a watchful man is a prepared man. A watchful man is a protected man. A watchful man is a productive man. And if I were to sit with each one of you men and we were to have a one-on-one, you would say, yes, I want to be that kind of man. I want to be prepared. I want to be protected. I want to be productive. Here's how you do it. Spend time with God. Because He is the only one that can help you keep watch. Secondly, we're told in the Word, stand firm. The text says, stand firm in the faith. The wiles and lies of the enemy swirl all around us. The false wisdom of the culture threatens on the doors of our minds at every moment. And the day in which we live, a lie through the internet can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on. But we're called to stand firm in the faith. This means we stand firm in the truths, the cardinal doctrines of the church. It means the gospel, the things that transform us into men of God, to stand firm in that faith that was delivered once for all to all the saints, the faith that was revealed by God, given to men through the prophets and apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and fulfilled in Christ. As men, we are called to know the truth of God, to understand the truth of God, and to teach the truth of God, actively to those who are around us. To stand firm means to hold your ground because the attacks are coming. They come at us in many different ways, but we need to stand firm without compromise and follow the whole counsel of God. Are you able to teach the Word of God this morning? Are you able to explain the truths of the gospel to your children, to your grandchildren, to your nephews, to your neighbors, to yourself? That's what we're called to be by Paul as he challenges this church and as he challenges us today because that is the great need of the church and the culture today, men who will stand up instead of stepping down. And so Paul goes on and then he says, act like men. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men. This means don't be childish in your understanding, childish in your maturity, childish in your commitments and obedience and activities, but be mature, be upright, be striving towards holiness. That's what it means to act like a man. Paul would have been preaching this more than likely out of what we call the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the New Testament. It's what he would have used when he preached the Gospel, when he preached the Bible to Gentiles. And as we combine this expression with the one right next to it, it translates as be strong and courageous. Now where have we heard those words before? Hundreds of times in the Old Testament, be strong and courageous. And so these would have been the words resonating in the back of Paul's mind as he's challenging these Corinthian believers. He's saying stand firm with those struggling for the cause of Christ. Stand against exploitation of the weak. Stand with bravery and courage. Be like men. The problem of our day, and was certainly the time then, but it is our problem today, is that there are far too many males who are just large boys trapped in men's bodies. They're not acting like the men that they are called to be, which is to be mature and responsible and caring and committed and involved and engaged, becoming like Christ, who is all of those things. And so the plea goes out this morning, men, unapologetically but passionately. In light of what we have seen in Genesis 3, in light of the challenges for godliness and holiness in our culture and how to stand out for Christ, I call you and challenge you, don't be passive in your faith. Don't be timid in your walk with Christ. Be the spiritual leaders you were called to be, designed to be, in your families, in your marriage, in your homes, in your neighborhoods, in the church. You be the one that leads your wife and kids in prayer. You be the one that leads your wife and kids in studying the Word of God. You be the one that steps in and says, yes, I will serve in that position. That is the crying need of the day. Let your children, your grandchildren know you as the one who prays with them at bedtime. You are the one that's teaching them the Word of God. You are the one that's showing them how to walk in the disciplines of Christ. Don't be passive. Don't pass it off to others. Don't neglect the spiritual responsibilities that you have before God. Because as we've seen, passivity is dangerous. Now I know there are many in our church that for various reasons they find themselves being single at this time in their lives. And you are so significant to the success of our community, to the success of this church. Because you also have abilities and talents and opportunities to teach and train and coach and encourage and contribute. And so we need the gifts and participation of each person here to be involved. We all are called to act like men. Next Paul commands us to remain strong. Be watchful, stand firm in the Lord, act like men, be strong. Faith requires courage to stand up in the face of difficulty and challenge. If you want to live out your faith as you were called to, you will be challenged and you will need courage. Worldly pressures are going to come against you to say, just go along, just go along to get along, just go along. Resist those challenges because in the face of challenge, cowardice is of no use. It only leads to further spiritual weakness. So we have a strong challenge before us today, men. Let us rise to the challenge. The worst thing in life is not to be persecuted for the cause of Christ. The worst thing in life is not to suffer because you are a Christian. We only live but a short period of time. And so the worst thing in life is to compromise your faith and to live as a coward when courage is what is called for. Soon and very soon we will all see the king. And we will stand in His presence. And do we want to say, I was a coward? Or do we want to be able to say, thank you, Lord, for keeping me firm, because I heard your voice that said, stay strong and play the man. Chad Gray has a biblical website called biblicalmen.com, and he gives a very nice, short definition of biblical manhood. It says, biblical manhood is loving, self-sacrificing leadership. Be strong for your family and gentle with your family. Man, I want you to say that with me, that last part. Be strong for your family and gentle with your family. That's biblical leadership. That balances grace and grit. That balances hard work and humility. We are called to maturity in Christ and a maturity that is gospel-centered. It focuses on Christ, a maturity that is grace-empowered, one who has drank deeply of the wells of God, has experienced richly His grace, is the one that should be overflowing in graciousness as He interacts with those around Him. It is Spirit-led, directed by the Spirit of God, and it glorifies God in all things. Now I know as we hear this this morning, beginning with myself, this is a daunting task. But here's the good news. Christ already walked that path. He walked that path of godliness, of masculinity, of full humanity, and he obeyed the Father, he fulfilled the law, he helped the weak, he took down the strong, and because he walked that path, he says, walk with me, so that we can obey what it is that he has called us to do. So as we remain strong, the final thing that Paul has for us here is love correctly. Let all that you do be done in love. We know that love is the greatest test of the Christian. You can do things out of obligation, you can do things out of duty, you can do things out of guilt. But doing things out of love, love for God, love for the people of God, love for your fellow man, shows that you really do belong to Christ. It is a love that is not tolerant of sin, but is redemptive and grace-empowered in dealing with sin. Rather than casting the sinner to the side, grace brings the sinner to the cross and kneels with him and says, let's invite Christ into this situation. Love is also tough when need be because the desire is to see people corrected properly, dealt with properly, because love ultimately seeks the best for the other. And the best for the other is that they would come to full maturity in Christ and experience the joy of God's Holy Spirit. So we've seen the reality, the tragedy, And finally, we see the remedy, Jesus was a true man. Jesus was and is the ultimate example of manliness and godliness. And I'm just going to read a little summary that I collected from Glenn Stanton, a focus on the family. He says this, Christianity is unique in that its God became man, fully God and fully man. And it is not just happenstance that He became a man. It was God's perfect will. Jesus became the ideal of manhood, exhibiting all the qualities of a good man. He was strong, took responsibility for his actions, served and provided for others. He watched out and cared for the weak. He spoke truth faithfully and gracefully. He demonstrated integrity in all he did. He was a man under authority. He stood up and called out the powerful when necessary. He was the highest example of humility, moral strength, self-control, and compassion. And finally, he gave himself completely and fully for others. He withstood and overcame the greatest evil in the universe and was victorious. And He invites each of us to become the beneficiaries of all that He has done for us. That is manhood, says Glenn Stanton. What do we learn from that? What do we learn from the example of Jesus? What do we learn from Paul's challenge to us this morning? We learned that meekness is not weakness. We say that Jesus was meek. It's true. He was a true man, and he modeled meekness. But meekness is strength under control. Think about this. We're talking about Jesus, the agent of creation, the one through whom everything came into being, the one that says in the writer of Hebrews, upholds all things by the power of his word. He was able to destroy His enemies with a whisper, but His strength was under control. It was channeled to good and godly ends. He balanced tenderness and firmness, courage and faith. He walked in humbled strength and strengthened humility. He was a true hero, a good definition of which is given by the late tennis player Arthur Ashe, who says that true heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever the cost. What a beautiful summary of what Christ did for us. He showed meekness is not weakness, but meekness is strength under control, guided for godly and divine purposes. We learn from Jesus that courage is preferred over cowardice. Jesus walked with the weak, he walked with the strong. He taught the privileged and the deprived. He comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. He stared down his enemies knowing that he could crush them, but he did not. Instead, he allowed himself to be crushed so that his enemies could be healed and lived. And because he went through all of that for us men, he strengthens us to endure as godly men for him and for those around us. Therefore, let us walk as he walked. Jesus walked faithfully with the Father, turning neither to the left nor the right. He gave of the greatest He had for the greatest good of those who are in desperate need. And now He calls us to walk as He walked, to live out what He lived out, to follow His commands. Because Jesus, as the second Adam, the better Adam, the final Adam, overcame the cowardice of the first Adam. And as the full man that he was, he overcame the carnality not only of the Corinthians, but of every culture of every time. And so you can cry out to Him and know that you will find a sure and able Savior who can not only redeem you, who can not only set you apart for eternity, but it can use you greatly in this life for His eternal glories. This morning we have seen the reality. Men and women are different. It's a good thing. It's a wise thing. We've seen the tragedy. It fell apart in the garden with Adam's guilty passivity. We've seen the challenge, the call to maturity and godliness. We've seen the remedy that Jesus was a true man. This is the type of man that is needed today. Men who will walk with Christ unashamedly and proclaim Him joyfully, and teach Him regularly to their family, to their wives, to those that God brings around them, and will be part of this band of righteous men who will rise up, who will make a difference, who will live for Christ, come what may, and in whom Christ will find great pleasure one day of saying, this one was mine. Let Him, Father, come into your presence. Rise up, O men of God. Rise up. Let us pray. Father, I thank you that in your wisdom you challenge us and you do not leave us in our own selfish ambitions. but you push us and say no, and remind us that we belong to you, that you purchased us at a great cost. Father, I'm so thankful, so thankful for your divine wisdom that created men and created women, created this beautiful human family, and we want to rejoice in it, but Father, in our own selfishness from Adam on, we've made a mess And I thank You that Christ walked that path to redeem and to restore and to rebuild that which sin had ruined. But Father, we're still on that path between the now and the not yet. And more and more, Father, we want to experience and live out the truth of this salvation that You have accomplished for us. And so I plead for Your mercy and grace to be active in our lives to stir us, Father, particularly my brothers here with me this morning, to be those godly servants that you call them to be. And I pray that you wouldn't give us rest, Father, and allow us to go back to our lethargy, but you would continue to stir us, that we would move forward in greater courage. Oh God, we know that we will be face to face with Jesus in such a short time. because either you will bring us to the end of our days or your son will come back. But whatever it is, it will be soon, Father, and we want to be ready to see Jesus and say, I love you, Lord, and I live for you. So I pray that over us this morning, Father, and ask that it would become more and more true and that you would shake us and shake this city and shake this region with the gospel in a new and fresh way. to that, and we pray for your glory alone, in Jesus' name, amen.