What Does it Mean to be a Man?

What Does it Mean to be a Man?

December 17, 2006

Introduction

By Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

What is the appeal of that poem? Maybe it has no appeal for you, but I read it as a tremendous challenge. It can almost make you tired to read it and think of what is really being said. It is a poem that is saying, “Be a man!” “Stand up!” “Give it your best shot!” Oh yes, it is a poem that says a lot, but, of course, it is just a poem. Using different words, and words of inspiration, I find Paul expressing a similar challenge for all of us.

(1 Cor 16:13 KJV) Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

The NIV puts it this way.

(1 Cor 16:13-14 NIV) Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. {14} Do everything in love.

That’s basically the message I’d like to convey today. That’s it!

Body

I. Be a man!

A. We live in a world of politically correctness.

1. In a world of “politically correct,” we don’t have men and women, and we do not make “sexist” statements.

2. But God is the one who made us male and female.

(Gen 1:27 NKJV) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

a. God made us male and female and He made us with differences.

b. Sears once had a commercial about the softer side of Sears. – God made women with a softer side.

c. God made women to be mothers, and God had a plan.

(Titus 2:4-5 NKJV) that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, {5} to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

(Titus 2:4-5 NIV) Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, {5} to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

B. God intended men to marry women, not men to marry men, or women to marry women.

1. In a world of the left wing extremists, anything goes, but not so with God.

(1 Cor 6:9-10 NKJV) Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, {10} nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

II. “Quit you like men, be strong.”

“Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.”
Stand with courage! Stand with conviction! Stand for something!
We have people today who stand for nothing: They don’t stand for God, they don’t stand for America, they don’t stand for their wives or children! They stand for nothing but themselves, and they have no idea what they really want for themselves!

(Eph 6:10-18 NKJV) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. {11} Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. {12} For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. {13} Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. {14} Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, {15} and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; {16} above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. {17} And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; {18} praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints;

III. “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith” (1 Cor 16:13-14 NIV)

A. What do you stand for? Stand for the faith!

(Jude 1:3 NKJV) Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

B. Stand on guard because the devil is after you.

(1 Pet 5:8-9 NKJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. {9} Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

IV. “Do everything in love.” (I Cor 16:14)

A. There is a toughness to love.

1. It is the toughness that makes a man hold a job and provide for his family.

(1 Tim 5:8 NKJV) But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

2. There is a toughness to love that causes parents to correct their children.

(Prov 19:18 KJV) Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

(Prov 19:18 NKJV) Chasten your son while there is hope, And do not set your heart on his destruction.

And of course, there is kindness in love.

Conclusion

I. May we seek to be what God want us to be.

II. May we be men of courage. Men of strength, Men of faith, and men of love. Love for God and for each other.

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