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. Some of the things God wants to do he can't do because he can't find him a man. The first thing every male needs to understand is that you have a divinely orchestrated reason for your manhood. Now I know the culture wants to give you a whole bunch of reasons for your manhood, but God says for my manhood, your manhood, our manhood, I'm up to something God says, and that's why I chose him. So if a male is living his life never discovering what God wants out of his life, he is a misguided male. So he makes up his own rules along the way, or he makes up the rules that his posse gives him, or he makes up the rules that the media gives him.

And he defines himself in all kind of errant ways because he's going and working for a team that didn't draft him. When a man accepts Jesus Christ as his personal savior, he is drafted into the purpose of God. But unfortunately, many men who even go to church don't even care to know the purpose of God. And therefore, they live distracted in the purposes of culture. 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 and 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, 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.

Okay? 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 rejecting people because of the colorless 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. Deep green forests, snow-capped mountains, breath-taking glaciers, eagles soaring overhead, whales breaching the surface of the ocean. It's a place abounding with natural wonders, a magnificent example of what our creator can do. Few places evidence God's creative power like 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. 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 into the DNA of manhood. The 12 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. 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. 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, submitted 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 of the crowd?

Do they see somebody who's taking a stand under God or he's just another cultural icon? 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. 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 email 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. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will look at why many men don't use the spiritual authority God gave them, as he explores what it means to understand God's covering. Right now, though, he's back with this final illustration. His name was Thomas Anderson. The movie is called The Matrix. Thomas Anderson, aka 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 gonna 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 or 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 or ordinary life.

You go back to your plain or ordinary job and you live your plain or ordinary way. But in this hand, I got a red pill. And if you take this red pill, you're gonna 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'll 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 it's made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.