Men's Fraternity Week 6

Men’s Fraternity
Week #6 The Seasons of Manhood

Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

[Pastor] Mike’s uninspired translation: Teach me to know how short my life is so I don’t waste my life on worthless things!

1. Living out authentic manhood in life hinges in large part on our ability to:

• Know what season of life you are in.
• Know what needs to be prioritized during that season.
• Know what threats and opportunities are ahead.

2. Keys to transitioning through the seasons of a man’s life:

• Reverse Engineering: Living with the end in mind.
• Mentors: Have men in your life who are in a later life stage than you are currently in.
• Transitions: Know the transitions you are about to enter.
• Laws of the harvest: What we are sowing today will come back to us.

Galatians 6:7
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

3. The Seasons:

a. Spring: (0-20) identity.

• The season where a boy becomes a man, at least physically.
• Make a break with the home he grew up in.
• In this season he must answer the who question.

b. Summer: (20’s & 30’s) Learning and growing.

• First adult stage of a man’s life
• The first part of this stage is about learning
• Many young men get lost in extended adolescence.
• During this stage a man must determine how to deal with his sexual energy in a Christ honoring way.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

• In your 30’s you really begin to see growth.
• The 30’s are also a time when the tension mounts.
• Although exhausting, remember this stage will pass.

c. Fall: (40-60) Influence.

• A man in this stage reaps the harvest of seeds sown earlier in adult life.
• During this stage a man usually evaluates his past successes and failures.
• The dangers of mid-life loom in this stage if a man looks back with regret.
• It is during this stage that a man is positioned to make the greatest difference.

d. Winter: (60’s and beyond) Sage.

• The stage when a man is marked by wisdom, experience and respect.

Proverbs 20:29
The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair

• Men in this stage have the confidence necessary to help younger men through the stages they are facing.
• The greatest lie a man could believe during this stage is that they can no longer contribute.
• This is the stage for a man to take advantage of the flexibility he has in life.
• This is the stage of life to live intentionally.

Group Questions:
1. If you had the opportunity to share with men at a younger stage of life about the stage you are currently in, what would be the very first things that you would share? Why?

2. Have you had an older mentor in your life? If so, what were the benefits? Have you ever acted as a mentor for anyone else? What was the experience like for you?

3. There are several potential dangers for the different seasons of life. What are the particular dangers you need to guard against in your current season?

4. When you look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels it is clear that He is on mission to complete the work of our redemption. However, He also grew as a young man in many of the same ways that we must grow. Read Luke 2:52 and discuss the ways in which God helps us to grow.

Luke 2:52
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.