The Call to Biblical Manhood

Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and he's looking for some men who'll stop going meow. Dr. Tony Evans says our future depends on men finding the strength to be godly leaders. I will become the man of my house. I will influence my realm and be the man God created me to be.

It's time to roar. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Men grow up in a series of hoods—babyhood, boyhood, manhood—but making it all the way to biblical manhood takes a certain kind of growing Dr. Evans talks about today.

Let's join him. The struggle of manhood today has incited chaos in every other area of our lives. The refusal or failure of males to become men as God has defined them. He identifies a man named Abraham, and he gives the men who are here today, starting with me but applying to all, three things that every man needs to understand, every male needs to understand, and every female needs to expect. If you're going to be God's man and experience God's involvement in your world. So let me jump out here first of all and say I am not seeking to be cultural.

I am not seeking to be convenient, and I'm not seeking to win friends. My job is to tell you what God says and what God thinks, not what the media purports. The question of the series is Adam, where are you? Not Adam and Eve, where are y'all? Adam, where are you? God created the man first because he would be the one God would be looking to first.

Abraham is now in the vicinity of Sodom and Gomorrah, a decaying culture, as you and I are living in today, a decaying culture for all three of the same reasons, and he gives him three things. Verse 19, I have chosen him. I have chosen him. The first thing of a man is to understand you've been drafted. You watch the NFL draft, the NBA draft. When you draft a player, it's because you got a position you want him to fill. You've got a role you want him to take up.

You've got a purpose for drafting him for the improvement of your team. Every man has been created as a man, as a draftee of God, because he's got a post he wants you to fulfill and a purpose he wants you to accomplish. I have chosen him.

In the midst of this decay, in the midst of this culture, I found me a man. I've selected him, and I have chosen him for a purpose. How do I know he chose him for a purpose? Because verse 17 says, Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? In other words, I'm up to something, and to do what I'm up to, I found me a man. The point is, some of the things God wants to do, he can't do because he can't find him a man. He can't at least do it the way he wants to do it because Adam is unlocatable.

He's in hiding. In fact, far too many men are wearing jerseys with other men's numbers on them. Always the superstar, because at least if I can wear somebody else's number, I can piggyback on their success. I chose you.

God has your own jersey with your own number on it. If you're a man here that you've been selected, and you've been called and crafted by God for a kingdom purpose, and you don't want to live your life, look back on your life and never know why you lived your life. I have chosen you. But this choice involves your and my and our participation. It's not a passive choice where you sit down, okay, God, I'm willing to do your will. Whatever you say to me, I'm going to do. Just show me your way. Okay?

All that's good starting point, but that involves your participation. Again, the purpose is already inside, but it says the wise man brings it out. So it's already there in seed form. In Super Bowl 43, the Pittsburgh Steelers were two minutes left in the game. They threw a pass driving down the field to win the Super Bowl to San Antonio Holmes. San Antonio Holmes dropped the ball. The San Antonio Holmes dropped the ball that would have put them in position to win the game.

He had failed. He slowly went back to the huddle after dropping a perfect pass. In the huddle, Ben Roethlisberger called his number again.

San Antonio, go for it again. In the next play, San Antonio Holmes runs down to the edge of the end zone. He goes to the very end. Ben Roethlisberger throws him the pass. He reaches up high and catches it for the winning Super Bowl touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, the reason that he scored was two things happened at the very same time. He reached high and caught the pass, but he touched low and had two feet inbounds. So if he would have reached high and missed the pass, it wouldn't have mattered that his feet were inbounds. But if his feet were inbounds and he dropped the pass, then it would have been an incomplete pass.

Or if he caught the pass, but his feet were out of bounds, it would have been an incomplete pass. See, what God is calling men is to reach high but touch low, to grab heaven but to execute in history, so that history is benefiting because you've reached high. What too many men are doing is asking their wives to reach high for them. What too many men are doing is asking their wives or other people to do for them what God is waiting on the man to do, because he wants to know, Adam, where are you? Because God always starts with the man.

Now, he'll use a woman if he can't find the man, but he always starts looking for the man. Now, I know that for many people that's not politically correct. That's not culturally acceptable.

Tough. That's what the Scripture says. And when we are operating out of that order, chaos enters into the life, the home, and the culture. He says, I'm not gonna hide from Abraham what I'm about to do, because this man is operating according to my authority and in relationship with me. That's the first thing. The second thing, he says in verse 19, So that... Okay, all the men, I want you to say, so that. Okay, in other words, I chose him.

Now, this is what I want him to do. So that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do righteousness and justice. Okay, so let me clarify a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding is that it's the woman's job to raise the children.

That may come from the culture. It doesn't come from the Scripture. It says, I command Abraham to raise the children and to teach them righteousness and justice. Ephesians 6, 4 says, fathers, raise your children. In the Bible, it is the job of the man to raise the children, not the woman.

The Scripture says that I chose him and I want him to raise and train and command his children after him. The reason why we've got chaos with kids is daddy can't be found. Our kids are not a lost generation. They're the product of a lost generation, of abandoned men. Men who can tell you everything about football and nothing about Scripture. Men who can quote statistics, but can't quote a verse. Men who would never ever miss a practice or a game, but can't get their kids up to go to church. Because everything is out of whack. But at the same time, they say, I want God to do this and God to do that. You can't miss so that. I chose you so that. Because if we're going to fix the culture, he says, we can't skip the family to fix the culture.

How are we going to fix the White House and you can't even control your house? And what are you to teach them? Righteousness and justice. Righteousness is your vertical standing before God. That's your walk with God. That's living to please God. Setting a spiritual standard in the home that everybody knows about.

That it's not vague. This is how we roll up in here, up in here. As Joshua said in Joshua 24, 15, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Everybody in your family ought to know we serve God in this house and here's how we do it. In other words, divine guidelines are established by dad. By the father, if you are a father, you set the righteous standards. This is right.

This is wrong. God said so. He told me to teach you. So therefore, let's review the rules of this house because God has chosen me to set them. He starts there. And then he used to teach justice.

Righteousness is obedient walk with God. Justice is your equitable treatment of man. That's how you deal with people. You know why this racial problem won't go away? Because daddy hadn't fixed it with the kids. So it gets generational and it gets transferred. Kids don't come out the womb prejudice. Kids don't come out the womb racist. Kids don't come out the womb woman rejecting people because of the color of their skin.

No, some folks have trained them in that. And that started in the home. And because we didn't train our kids with Martin Luther King's statement to judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, they pick up all the things they hear in the house and the things they hear in the culture and they replicate it.

If you can't fix it at home, don't think you're going to fix it in the street. He says you ought to teach them justice, how to be equitable, how you treat people, how you respect people, how you honor people, how you're fair to people. You teach them that.

That's supposed to come in the house. And so he says that this is the responsibility of the father. So if you can make the practices, if you can talk about fantasy football, if you can talk about the stats of this team or that team, you certainly can take time out to have devotions. You certainly can take time out to have memory verses. You certainly can take time out to pray with them at bedtime. And that may mean recording the show and looking at it later because you've got to be dad first. You've got to be dad and husband first.

So I can't look at that show right now, but technology has set it up so I can look at it later because right now I come home from work to my second job. This is what God says. This is what God wants. And far too many men are handing their children a ticket to fail. Praise God for the women who tear up the ticket.

But far too many are handing them a ticket to fail. How is that daughter going to know what kind of man she should marry if she doesn't see from her dad, hear from her dad the standard to judge the men in her life? How will that boy know how to treat a woman if he sees you cussing at your wife, screaming at your wife, howling at your wife, abusing your wife?

How is he going to know how to treat her like a lady? That's dad's job. You say you're putting a lot on us.

First of all, blame God, not me. Secondly of all, that's why he says he made man the stronger vessel because you should be able to bear more weight. See, the nature of a foundation is not how pretty it is, it's how much weight can it hold. Not how nice it looks. You don't go looking at foundations.

You just want to know is it solid or is it cracked. There's a third key principle that Dr. Evans wants to tell us about, and he'll come back to do that in just a moment. Stay with us. The stunning wilderness of coastal Alaska. And now you can experience it with us. Join Tony Evans and other friends of the ministry as together we discover the glory of God's spectacular creation on an unforgettable Alaskan cruise. Set sail with us to take in the splendor of God's creation along with the wonders of his word. We'll enjoy great teaching from Dr. Tony Evans and other gifted instructors as well as life-changing worship and special musical performances. This spiritually uplifting cruise will give us time to relax, refresh, and refocus as we take a journey through Scripture while surrounded by the awesome creation that is Alaska.

Find out more about the Urban Alternative Alaskan Cruise at TonyEvans.org today. Tony's been discussing the call to biblical manhood today. And as we've been learning, the future of our families and our society depends on men stepping up to their God-given responsibility as leaders.

But that takes power and perseverance. In Kingdom Men Rising, Dr. Evans addresses the cultural consequences of male passivity and shatters stereotypes, painting a real-life picture of manhood at its best, teaching men to keep promises instead of secrets, to rebuild lives and not just engines, to follow Jesus more closely than the stock market or a favorite sports team. And right now, we want you to have a copy as our gift. Just visit TonyEvans.org before time runs out, make a contribution toward Tony's ministry, and we'll say thanks by sending the book your way along with all 12 full-length audio lessons in his current series, Kingdom Men Rising. Again, that's TonyEvans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222, where resource team members are standing by around the clock. I'll have that information for you again after part two of today's lesson.

Here's Tony. So the first thing is there is a purpose. There is a destiny for a man. There is a responsibility of discipline and discipleship for a man. And then the third thing, at the end of verse 19, he says, So that I may bring upon Abraham what I have promised to him. What had he promised Abraham? Watch this. Watch this, men. You don't want to miss this. He says, verse 18, Since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

No, you didn't. He says, Guess what I'm going to bring Abraham? I'm going to make him a great nation. I'm going to make him a mighty nation. In fact, through him, everybody else is going to be better off. Through him, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

So let me tell all the men here something. It's okay to want to be great. In fact, you're sinning if you don't want to be great. Greatness is built in to the DNA of manhood. The twelve disciples came to Jesus one day and they said, Who going to be the greatest in the kingdom? They were arguing about who going to be greater.

And Jesus then answered them in an interesting way. He says, If you want to be great. He didn't tell them don't want to be great. He said, If you want to be great, you just have to go about it the right way.

See, God is not against greatness as long as that greatness is under his rule and out of relationship with him. He's not after one. See, men want to win. Men want to win. Women, you ever notice that?

That's because it's built in. He want to win. Men want to win. They want to be great. That's why they compete all the time, because men want to win. The problem is they don't want to win God's way. They want to win their way. We want to win our way. It's okay to want to be great. He says, I'm going to make Abraham a great and mighty nation. But guess what? I'm going to do it. Now, you know how freeing that is that God's going to bring it and I don't have to fight to get it?

You know how free that is? That God is going to invade my circumstances when I'm in relationship with him, submitting his authority, walking with him, prioritizing him, fulfilling my responsibilities to those who are in my scope of influence. And let me show you something else in chapter 17. In chapter 17, talking about fulfilling his scope of influence, it says in verse 26, In the very same day Abraham was circumcised in Ishmael his son, all the men of his household who were born in his house or bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him. So he not only took care of his kids, any man in his vicinity he affected. So the question is, what do men think when you show up? Do they see a real man or they just see one in a crowd? Do they see somebody who's taking a stand under God or he's just another cultural icon?

Does he see somebody who's buffed in the weight room but wimpy? When it comes to decisions of life, he says he affected all the men in his vicinity, not just his kids. And so God wants you to be a man of influence.

He wants you to be great. Do you know when a lion roars and he really wants to make a statement? That roar can be heard five miles. When a lion sucks it up and belts it out, five miles.

You know what that lion is saying? I own this. Don't come up in here. I own this. This is my territory up in here, up in here.

And I want to serve notice to y'all, five miles away is my space. I own this. Jesus is called the lion of the tribe of Judah. He knows how to roar. And he's looking for some men who'll stop going meow.

He's looking for some men who don't mind roaring. This is my space. This is my hood.

This is my territory because it's been given to me by Almighty God and I am under his authority. It's time to roar, to be great under God, for God, to the betterment of everybody in your sphere of authority and responsibility. When you think of Tom Brady or Ray Lewis, you don't think of just somebody who played.

You think of folk who are great when they played. You don't just want to just pass through here. You want to make whatever mark God has for you on the world that he gives you. Now, ladies, your job is to make it easy for him to do that. Don't work against his roar.

Encourage it as long as it is a righteous roar, a godly roar. But encourage him to be all that God has created him to be using all that God has given you so he can become what God expects of him to become. You know, Jesse Owens, 1936, he's in a hostile environment. He's in a hostile environment.

He's in Germany. As far as Hitler and the Germans were concerned, he's a monkey running because that's how they looked on him and the black race. So that's just a monkey running. Hitler going to come out here and watch the monkey run. In every direction Jesse Owens looked, there were crowds of people who were against him. But he decided to roar.

So four times, he served notice on Germany. I'm here and you got to deal with me. You don't like me. You don't think much of me. You hate me.

You're against me. But I come from another kingdom. I come from the United States of America and I'm going to represent that kingdom in this chaos.

And he demonstrated in the chaos of the kingdom of Germany, the greatness of the kingdom that he was from because he represented that kingdom in this chaos. Men, you belong to another kingdom. You belong to the kingdom of God. You represent the king of kings. And you may be living in a chaotic world, but your job is to roar and serve notice on this kingdom.

You're from that kingdom because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Dr. Tony Evans will come back in a moment with a final illustration about the call to biblical manhood as he finishes up this message from his current teaching series, Kingdom Men Rising. This 12-lesson collection offers practical, clear directions for men who want to make a difference for the Lord. And as I mentioned earlier, we're offering a special package that includes all the lessons on CD and digital download as well as a copy of Dr. Evans' powerful book by the same name, Kingdom Men Rising. Remember, they're all yours as a thank you gift when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry.

This special double offer won't be around for long and we don't want you to miss out. So make the arrangements today by calling our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night. That's 1-800-800-3222 or visit tonyevans.org where you can also sign up for Tony's free weekly e-mail devotional.

Again, that's tonyevans.org. Dr. Evans believes there's a desperate need to reclaim civility in our culture today. In light of that, he encourages each of us to find ways to demonstrate kindness to everyone we encounter through the course of our day. Our acts of kindness change the atmosphere of our communities for good and for God.

You know, sometimes life can be so complex that just making it through the day seems like a real accomplishment. But Dr. Evans says kingdom men need to be looking much further down the road throughout our lives and beyond. He'll explain next time, but right now he's back with his final illustration. His name was Thomas Anderson. The movie is called The Matrix.

Thomas Anderson, a.k.a. Neo. Neo is a computer programmer, part-time computer hacker. But through a series of circumstances, he gets whipped away to a computer-generated reality called The Matrix. He runs into a man named Morpheus. And Morpheus says, Neo, we've been waiting for you. He says there's a war between the people in Zion and the machines.

And we have been looking for a conquering hero. We have been waiting for you, Neo, because you are the one. He says, Neo, in this hand, I have a blue pill. If you eat this blue pill, then you'll wake up in your bed tomorrow and this will only be a dream. But in this hand, Neo, I got a red pill. If you take this red pill, you will enter into a life you never thought possible. If you take this red pill, you're going to have powers that you never dreamt of. So the question is, which pill do you want?

Do you want to leave here and go back to your plain old ordinary manhood, or stay here and get this thing done so that you become the person you were created to be? We've been waiting on you, Neo, but it's your choice what pill you take. So I want to say to all the men here today, I got two pills. In this hand, I got a blue pill. And you take this blue pill and you go home to your plain old ordinary life.

You go back to your plain old ordinary job and you live your plain old ordinary way. But in this hand, I got a red pill. And if you take this red pill, you're going to find power that you did not have, ability that you did not possess, strength that you did not own, and a new relationship that you didn't think possible. So I want to see if I have some men here who will say, I will be God's man for God's standard, for God's glory. I will become the man of my house. I will influence my realm and be the man that God created me to be. Come on, somebody. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.