Men's Fraternity Week 21

Men’s Fraternity
Week #21 - Review

Introduction

1 Corinthians 16:13
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Discussion:

When your alarm goes off in the morning do you immediately shut it off and get out of bed, or do you hit the snooze button? How many times do you hit the snooze button?

• The effectiveness of the alarm is in direct correlation to how much you don’t want to hear it!
• We are going to review the journey we have taken through the 33 Series and ask ourselves – Have I pushed the snooze button?

I. Man and His Design

1. God’s call to Every Man!

Philippians 2:5-8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, [Rejected Passivity] but emptied himself by taking form of servant, being born in likeness of men. [Accepted Responsibility] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [Lead Courageously] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. Invest Eternally


2. Four Faces of Manhood

Acts 13:36
For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep.


• King - Righteous Energy
Proverbs 20:7
The righteous who walks in his integrity—blessed are his children after him!

• Warrior - Courageous Energy
1 Corinthians 9:26-27
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

• Lover - Relational Energy
1 Thessalonians 2:7-9
But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

• Friend - Connecting Energy
Proverbs 17:17; 27:17
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
3. Seasons

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

Transitions between stages of Life.

• Spring: 0-20 - Identity
• Summer: 20’s-30’s - Learning and Growing
• Fall: 40’s-60’s - Influence
• Winter: 60’s-beyond - Sage


4. Man and His Story

Psalms 34:4, 6
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Events and Experiences that have shaped your life!


• Look back to make peace with your wounds.
• Father wound
• Mother wound
• Loneliness wound
• Heart wound
• Dealing and Healing of Wounds.


5. Man and His Traps

Jeremiah 2:13
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Looking deep into our heart idols in our lives and the traps we get entangled in.
• Control idol
• Significance idol
• Comfort idol


6. Answering the Alarm

Ephesians 5:14-16
Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

The way we are designed by our Creator is that we are built to live for something greater than ourselves. We are wired to outlive our life!
• Discover the Transcendent Cause – Reject passivity.
• Leverage your influence now – Accept responsibility/Lead Courageously.
• Invest for eternity - Make an eternal difference in the lives of those around you!

Discussion:

Why is it difficult for us to hear and respond to the early warning alarms God puts in our lives?

What alarms sounded off in your life through this series?

As we reviewed our 33 Journey of these past weeks, where have you seen yourself pressing the snooze in your life? What do you need to wake up instead of pressing snooze?

Men's Fraternity Week 19

Men’s Fraternity
Week #19 Significance



Introduction:

• We have talked about daily battles worth fighting, we have talked about who or what we’re giving our life to:
• Who or what we are worshipping.
• Who or what we are letting define us.
• Who or what we are serving.

I. Deep Idol of Significance

Galatians 1:10
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Lie of Significance – if a certain person, a certain social group or colleagues in my profession… If they find me worthy of attention or love, if they acknowledge my value… then I am significant.

[How often do we base our decisions on what others will think of us?]

• Idol of Significance feeds on the opinions of others.
• We care more about what people think than what God thinks.

When people give affirmation or feedback, which is a good thing, but then they become the greatest things when we cross the line of the Significance Idol.

”Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, clever, or good looking there would be nothing to be proud about.” C.S. Lewis

II. The Traps With the Idol of Significance

• Approval trap.
• Recognition trap.
• Relationship trap.


1. Approval Trap


• In Biblical terms it’s called “The Fear of Man.”
• Driven by fear and becoming overly concerned with disappointing or upsetting people.

[Find significance in your actions, not in the approval you get from them.]

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.


• Turning to others for what only God can provide is a direct result of accepting Satan’s trap:

Significance = performance + other’s opinions


• The lie of being approved by others to feel good about myself causes me to fear rejection and then conforming our attitudes and actions to the expectations of others.

Acts 20:24
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Key questions to consider:< br />

• Does the thought of disappointing people effect your peace and contentment?
• Do you have a tendency to avoid telling people what you really think?
• Are you hypersensitive to criticism and you either are crushed or you seek to crush the one who said it?

Approval trap is fueled by the “steroid” to prove yourself!


2. Recognition Trap
• The trap is based on pride and hungers for admiration and fame.
• Being recognized can be a good thing, but it becomes toxic when it becomes the greatest thing.
2 Corinthians 10:12
Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

Recognition trap is often fueled by comparison with other men and the recognition they receive.


• When we regret doing something because we didn’t get the recognition it uncovers our real motives.


3. Relationship Trap
• A man is tempted to feel “less than” if he is not in a relationship or finds himself single again.

1 Corinthians 7:32
The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

Singleness provides a unique opportunity to invest eternally by giving undivided devotion to the Lord.

III. Replacing the Idol of Significance

• The answer to the fear of man is the fear of God.

Luke 12:4-5
I tell you,my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I warn you whom to fear, fear him who, after he has killed has authority to cast into hell. Yes I tell you, fear him!

• Know that people’s actions are more about their hearts than about us, so do not take their rejection or mistreatment personal.

Isaiah 51:7-8, 12
Hear me you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart: Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations. – I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass…

• Remember that people are mortals like us, they too are fallible and are going to die someday but God is infallible and eternal.

Understand who has the real power, both now and forever; and let no one define who you are but God!

”It is the most natural thing in the world to be scared, and the clearest evidence of God’s grace at work in our hearts is when we do not get into panics. The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” Oswald Chambers

• We were made for more than worrying about what people may think.
• We were born for more than fearing someone’s opinion.
• We were redeemed for more than living with focus on pleasing humans.
• We were saved for more, much more, than this shallow approach to life.
• We were chosen to do the will of God and not the idol of man’s popularity.

I AM TO FEAR NOTHING AND NO ONE BUT GOD!

Fear of man vs. fear of God - There are no other options.

Questions for discussion:

Which of the significance traps is most relevant for you: the approval trap, the recognition trap, or the relationship trap? Discuss.

Living according to the false belief I must be approved by certain others to feel good about myself causes us to fear rejection conforming all of our attitudes and actions to the expectations of others. How are you affected by this belief?

In Acts 20:24 Paul says, But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Discuss what traps Paul had to work through and how he worked through them.

Journal - What a Great Day!

Wow! I didn’t know so many good things could happen in one day! God has just showered us with blessings today and I hardly know where to begin.
I guess I’ll start with Sassie. She got up today! Remember how she was just lying on the back porch all day and all night, and hardly moving at all? Well, when I got up this morning, she was lying in the hallway that goes back to the porch. After I brushed my teeth and all that, I coaxed her into the kitchen with a boiled egg. We’ve been just taking food back to her on the porch, but I thought since she had moved on her own, I would see how far she was willing to go. She came into the kitchen and ate the egg, then I decided to try one of her treats. They’re those hard crunchy bones, and of course she hasn’t been able to eat anything that needed much chewing. She was very careful and hesitant at first, but she eventually crunched the thing up and ate it.
After that I tried to coax her into the living room. Again, she was very hesitant at first, she kind of sat in the doorway between kitchen and living room for a little bit, but she finally came all the way in and lay down by the computer where Joni was sitting. After that she stayed in the house all day, lying around in her usual places. She was eating better, and drinking more water, and generally seemed in better spirits. When I had lunch today, she sat and whined for food for the first time since her accident. Joni took her out in the snow, which Sassie has always loved, and she wagged her tail and seemed happy. Sassie, I mean, not Joni. I could scarcely believe the turnaround from her condition of yesterday. I asked for a miracle, and I believe we got one.
Sassie is not 100% yet, she has trouble going up steps. She gets her front paws up, but has trouble getting her hindquarters up. Maybe she’s just sore still, but I guess she may have some lasting damage too. We’ll have to wait and see. I guess God does look after animals. I’m reminded of a line from the movie, “The Stand.” “All things serve the will of God, even big dumb dogs.”

Well, that made my day pretty awesome, but it gets even better. Today I got an email from an audiobook publisher, asking if I would like to review some of their books. That’s right, a publisher contacted ME! This is a brand new publisher that I’ve never heard of. Last Word Audio published their first book last August, and has only two books published, with a third on the way, but I think it’s awesome that when they went looking for a reviewer, they found me. I felt really honored. So anyway, this guy is going to be sending me a couple of books to review, and they don’t sound bad.
I’ve been wondering a lot lately if this whole audiobook thing is really what God wants me to be spending my time on. I truly have to believe that He is telling me to go for it. Too many great things have happened in such a short time for me to believe otherwise. I’ll take this thing as far as I can, which is pretty far with God pulling the strings, and if I get my sight back someday I’ll try to become an audiobook narrator. I’m already networking, making contacts with some publishers, so who knows where it could lead.

And to top off this really great day, our neighbor, Brett, came through this evening with a bobcat and cleared our driveway. We got quite a lot of snow over the weekend, and we were afraid that we might not be able to get out for a while, but God stepped in again and got our driveway cleaned. When Brett was out there, Sassie watched from the window and tried to bark at him, but all she could manage was kind of a little “huff!” Seeing her take interest in her surroundings again was an excellent way to top off this wonderful day.

Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household. NIV

Joshua 1:7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. NIV

Journal - Audiobook Jukebox

Hey kids, I wanted to share something kind of exciting that happened last week. Or maybe it first started a couple of weeks ago, I’m not sure. Anyway, I received a comment on one of my audiobook reviews over at Audiobook Heaven from someone I didn’t know, which hardly ever happens. In the comment, there was a link to a website called Audiobook Jukebox. Now, usually when someone posts a link in a comment to your blog, it is spammers who are just trying to get traffic to their site, and usually those sites are not the type that respectable internet surfers like to visit. I always promptly delete those from my blog, and even though this one didn’t seem as bad as others I have seen, I deleted it anyway because I just don’t like having other people’s links there.

Well, about a week later, I got an email from that same person, and the email said about the same thing the comment said so I decided to check it out. Oh, I should mention that my email address is visible in my Blogger profile to anyone who cares to go looking for it, so there was nothing underhanded at work there. I visited Audiobook Jukebox, and it seemed perfectly legitimate to me so I asked this person for more information.

Audiobook Jukebox is a fairly new blog, started about three months ago, I think. The person who contacted me is one of the founders of the site, and their basic goal is to create a central gathering place for audiobook enthusiasts. People who write audiobook reviews, like myself, can put links on Audiobook Jukebox that lead back to the reviews on our own sites. In other words, the reviews stay on my site, but Audiobook Jukebox will have links to them that people can click on. It’s kind of a win/win situation. People who like to read audiobook reviews can find a great wealth of them at Audiobook Jukebox, maybe even multiple reviews of the same audiobook, and those of us who write the reviews can get greater exposure, thereby increasing traffic to our reviews. Since I began putting my links there, my hits have gone from about 10 per day, to around 40 per day, which makes me very happy.

So that’s been pretty exciting. I just posted my 100th audiobook review, and I have links to 70 of them on Audiobook Jukebox so far.

This story may get even better! I got another email from this person on Friday, asking if I would be interested in another opportunity that she has to offer. I won’t reveal any details yet, I want to check it out first, but it sounds pretty cool.

This has been a nice little ray of sunshine for me, when things have been looking rather dark (no pun intended). This is kind of interesting, actually, because I was sort of talking to God Friday evening, and I said something like, “God, I’m trying to do what you want, but you gotta give me something to work with here.” It’s not usually a good idea to be demanding things from God, but in my own defense, I was really doingmore pleading than demanding. Anyway, it was only a few minutes after that when I checked my email and found out about this new opportunity, the one I’m not revealing yet. I sure hope this is coming from God, and not somewhere else, but I asked God to slam the door on it if it’s not from Him, so we’ll see what happens.

More on this later.

Acts 20:24 I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. NIV