THE FIRST KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

TEXTS:

RUTH 1:1-5

1 PETER 1:3-5

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

EZRA - A ROLE MODEL FOR THE MODERN MAN OF GOD

Ezra, the great man of God, modeled how the Modern Christian man can become a man or woman of the Word. The text from Ezra 7:6-10 gives us Four Attributes of a True Man or Woman of The Bible, we are meant to be

EZRA 7:6-10 (NASB)

6 So this Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all [a]he requested because the hand of the Lord his God was upon him. 7 Some of the sons of Israel and some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.

8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, because the good hand of his God was upon him. 10 For Ezra had firmly resolved to study the Law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

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AUTHENTIC BIBLICAL LEADERSHIP NOT ALWAYS A GIVEN

The discipline of God is not a thing to be taken lightly. On a personal level,  His Elect – those who are saved and bound for Heaven – are saved, yes. However we are also to be tested and tried to be molded into the Image of Christ. Trials and tests take many forms. Just like a carbon coal-like substance is mined, and then pressed down into a diamond, the child of God must be pruned, molded and shaped into Christ-likeness.

This is the discipline for the personal, spiritual life of the true believer.

However, did you know that the Lord also will discipline a group of people? He will do so, whether it is a church which has strayed and most definitely, entire nations!. The Lord said so. He did it. He did it many times. He is and will do it again.

Most of the countries of the world have abandoned the One True God of Heaven – Yahweh. It is blatantly obvious from the daily news accounts for decades. After the Protestant Reformation and its spread west, Europe turn from God.  England, which gave us the great Christians of the 1700’s and 1800’s is now mostly Islamic. The Father of Missions  was the Englishman William Carey. The Wesley brothers broke away from the legalism of the Church of England and brought the Grace of God to both the Old and New Worlds. The Prince of Preachers is the great Englishman Charles H. Spurgeon, who is still studied and quoted by both English and American Christians.

But something happened, both in the U.K.; Europe and North America. After the prosperity of the post-World War the men of God became creatures of comfort, especially here in the United States. Good living; wealth; the loosening of solid Biblical standards allowed that generation and subsequent ones (Baby Boomers, their children and Generations W, Y and Z) to grow up under diminishing leadership which standard was set by God.

The absence of fathers (good and bad) has destroyed all American cities along with ungodly social policies. Now in all strata of society, we see the dearth of the authentic manhood in the homes.  When this has happened in the past, God removes His Mighty Hands and here is what happens:

ISAIAH 3:1-12

1   For behold, the Lord [God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah

Both [supply and support, the whole supply of bread

And the whole supply of water;

2   The mighty man and the warrior,

The judge and the prophet,

The diviner and the elder,

3   The captain of fifty and the honorable man,

The counselor and the expert artisan,

And the skillful enchanter.

4   And I will make mere lads their princes,

And capricious children will rule over them,

5   And the people will be oppressed,

Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;

The youth will storm against the elder

And the inferior against the honorable.

6   When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,

“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,

And these ruins will be under your charge,”

7   He will protest on that day, saying,

“I will not be your healer,

For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;

You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”

8   For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,

Because their speech and their actions are against the Lord,

To rebel against His glorious presence.

9   The expression of their faces bears witness against them,

And they display their sin like Sodom;

They do not even conceal it.

Woe to them!

For they have brought evil on themselves.

10   Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,

For they will eat the fruit of their actions.

11   Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,

For what he deserves will be done to him.

12   O My people! Their oppressors are children,

And women rule over them.

O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray

And confuse the direction of your paths.

Why is this important in 2019 and beyond? It is significant because of the paucity of Biblical leadership in the home,  CHURCH, school, community, city, state and country.  It is blatantly flaunted by those who oppose God, via the corrupt culture, mass media, academia and in all levels of politics. Biblical leadership has been replaced by a confused, ungodly and dysfunctional "leadership" model, where the few real men of courage and Christ stick out like a sore thumb, and are called all kinds of unsavory names.

Still, though despised by the current culture of this perishing world, these authentic men - a remnant of God raise Godly families, follow the Word of God and remain in His grace and favor....and will continue to do so, until Christ returns.

Is there a solution for this? Yes – only when the Second Adam – the Lord Jesus Christ, returns on His White Horse in the soon-coming future and begins His 1000 Year reign on earth. Amen.

OH FATHER, WHERE ART THOU -"CONSTANT SORROW, GENERATIONS AT RISK"

"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)
Every time there is a senseless act of brutal violence involving young men and boys, we hear the same refrain - "What has happened to our boys"....or some such variation. From Columbine High School in the late 1990's to Broward County in February 2018, the world watches in stunned disbelief. 

In the aftermath of yet another tragedy, the navel-gazing begins. From daytime TV talk shows to even some well-meaning and great conservative talk show hosts across America on cable television and radio, the same type of "expert" comes on to pontificate on theories and even equations. We see a therapist, feminists, psycho-therapists and even a few psychos on the tube with their own theory. In the natural, a fair number of them are actually quite good. One analyst who appears regularly with Tucker Carlson has gotten close to the bullseye a number of times. She is named as a feminist in the caption, but as a mom, she is spot on with the need for boys to have positive male role models.

Still - NOT ONE - of these seemingly qualified professionals ever gets close enough to the real cause of this epidemic of hopelessness, hate and self-destruction. But on second thought, why should they? Why should primarily secular professionals in psychology or academia or politics be convinced of the one big cause of the sickness of these last two generations? Why should they when the people who have the answers - American pastors and preachers - stay silent. We can understand the superstar megachurch or parachurch ministry rich guys zipping it, as they're too busy trying not to offend anyone, less their coffers take a hit, or they don't get invited on Fox or some other channel anymore. But scan any church website for topics of sermons in the last month, and see how many address the reason for any of this madness. The answer is virtually none.

The reason why young men and boys from the 1980's to present have lost their way, hope and any reason for meaning in life is this - they lack the knowledge of the Giver of Life. Starting with the baby boomers, of which I am one, the slide into narcissism and rank stupidity is amazing. It was not just liberal courts and politicians destroying families by taking God and the Bible out of the equation or making the state their gods. It was churches and movements and yes, men themselves who failed. The reason why television, movies, Hollywood etc made authentic manhood look foolish, unnecessary and no-good could be because the church failed.

Even so, there has always been a remnant of the Men of God - evangelical Christians - who have never deviated from the Call of God, to be Disciples of God. The Jesus Movement of the 1970's, which blew up the west coast and spread all over America gave way to the guys beating bongo in the woods in the 1980's. It was not until the Promise Keepers of the 1990's where most of us men, then in our 40's started finding direction for our lives in Men's Ministry.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it...(Proverbs 22:6)

Many of us grew up without fathers. My own dad died when I was 11 and I was fortunate to have the priests in our Catholic school as our model for men of decency, strength, and morality. But it was the youth minister in my church group, a Presbyterian minister, taking me under his wings, who gave me an opportunity to get a foundation in Jesus through outreach, local missions and playing my guitar. Unfortunately, not many young people are willing to humble themselves to a Cause greater than themselves because culture, community and sadly even in families, they were taught in the last 30-40 years that life was all about them. 

The selfie generation has gone even further inward, adrift on a sea of pluralism in "religion", "spirituality", amoral to the core and even confused about the two genders. When a conservative poll of young EVANGELICALS found that 57% of them believe there are other ways to Heaven than through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (Barna), Houston, they have more than a problem.  When the world has 99% of their focus during the week, and if they even go to church, they find fancy coffee, WIFI, no bibles to open instead of on an app or on the jumbo screen behind the preacher. Then you add the rock and roll band playing a 7/11 song (seven words sang eleven times), who would blame them for thinking this social club is really cool! When life happens, watch these same deep-as-a-thimble young people walk completely away from God. 

So what is the answer? It is not that complicated". However, it will take clarity of mind, purpose and 100% commitment. It requires continued hands-on involvement of men like us, who have been in Men's Ministry leadership, on both the local and regional level, to step up. It requires knowledge, Godly wisdom and experience. We are compelled to lay out a process, with an eye to raising masculine, young men who can dream, have to mean in life and still have fun. We know this can work because we have seen it succeed countless times.

We are products of Promise Keepers. Regardless of the flaws of that movement's leaders, the value of Godly manhood to the family, as husbands, fathers, and Christians in the community stuck with us, through the countless awakenings at all those PK conferences. It was there that hundreds of thousands of men discovered the benefit of small groups and accountability to one another. 

Accountability led to responsibility

Responsibility led to action

Being proactive led to risk, but risk is a key element of Faith

Faith led to open hearts and minds

A mind opened by God led to the search for the Knowledge of God

The search led to the Scriptures, the Oracles of God

The Scriptures led to even more open hearts and Passion

Passion rejects passivity

Passivity kills legacy and destroys men and their sons

Passion for God leads to consuming the pages of the Bible

Consuming the pages of the Bible leads to yearning for others to know Him

That yearning leads to love for others burning with the love of God

These are the Two Greatest Commandments - love God, love others

Love never fails, but it must be based on the Truth of the Full Counsel of God

Love without truth, as the world teaches in the flesh - leads to DESTRUCTION

Love with the Way, the Truth and the Life - leads to Eternal Life
Eternal Life secured leads to sanctification of the cured

Sanctification can lead to a heart that breaks for these Generations X, Y, and Z.

These last generations, from their mid-teens now (2018-19) to their late 20's are so very lost and confused. Yet no one will tell them the truth. No one gives them the true hope of Christ, in a meaningful way.  There has never been more Bible Apps, Christian movies, Christian music and on and on...and there has never been more depression, lack of direction and worse in families and young people.  People look at outstanding Christians like Tim Tebow or the Philadephia Eagles' head coach and quarterbacks, and they don't get it. What makes a man like Tebow smile, while being mocked and discarded by a National Football League that celebrates all kinds of disgusting conduct? Tebow is even mocked by others, who could not even spell baseball, for landing in the New York Mets. You know what it is? It is Jesus.

"The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil...Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

While many of us homeschooled our kids until they got to college and went to their sporting or musical events, well, religiously, you know what means the most, when the rolled is called up yonder? What means the most is what we - the men of God, our wives, and the Godly men our sons grew up around - taught them about Jesus. Fortunately, our teaching on Jesus and the Bible, the pure Word of God, lined up with the way we lived in front of our children. 

On Judgment Day before God, when we stand in the Presence of the One Who has the power to send many billions into Hell and eternal separation, we had better have the answer. Those of us who call ourselves Christians should have a good response to the important question. It is that Jesus lived in our home. Leaders of all stripes, whether Christian or not, will stand before the Master - the Judge - The Lord Jesus Christ - and if we did not speak up now, while there is still life....if we did not try to reach the next person God pointed us to with the Gospel....if we did not try to spread the Hope and Love of Jesus.....well, you fill in the blanks. 

We may have lost many who turned from God, but there is still hope to reach those who never even heard of the True Jesus. He is not the One mixed in with eastern mysticism or the surfer boy born in a nativity scene in December. He is the Hope of all the Nations. Those kids in Broward County, hurting and scared....the kids in Connecticut or Colorado or the poor souls in Las Vegas during Fall of 2017, they more than others, need the Gospel of Hope. There is still time to reach one more. Let's not squander it. Let's leave a Legacy. Let's not just pray for our own children to be saved before their teenage years, but do like some of us - pray for our UNBORN grandchildren to be saved as well. Theirs is a very cruel world ahead of them, which hates God. The good news is this: God will always love them. In Jesus' Strong Name, Amen. 
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants..." (Deuteronomy 30:19)

BUILDING A LEGACY THROUGH SONS

PART TWO IN THE FAMILY SERIES

Webster's dictionary define's Legacy as "something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past". In other words, Legacy is sort of like "passing the torch" from one generation to another.


Many of us who are parents (of any age), most likely, did not grow up in a household where this was taught or expected. It may have been implicitly known, but never formally recognized and never made a ceremony. Societies of old, even some in agrarian America (pre-1800's Industrial age), practiced rites of passage where a young person is transitioned from a teen into adulthood. 


In the purely honorable and biblical sense, this is a good thing. The Jews bar-mitzvah their boys where on the boy's 13th birthday wherehe is required to start keeping the 'mitzvos' or Laws of God. The new teen is now a "son of the Commandment"! All Jewish men must keep these. Of course, in essence and truth, no one can keep all 613 Laws and commandments. The Catholic and mainline equivalent of this is Confirmation, but it is nothing compared to a Bar Mitzvah!


I did not grow up in any of these systems, except for the Confirmation part. Being one of six children, I was very close to my father until he died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 51. I was only 11 and it basically wrecked my life for decades. For most of my life, I had no positive male influence after that, except for my youth group leader who, thankfully, took me on missions trips and youth events. My male relatives' favorite hobby was not the Word of God (except for Christmas and Easter morning church), but drinking and partying.


At the Catholic prep school I attended, I began a search for the meaning of Life. Existentialism and Albert Camus attracted me. I looked into all religions and found them all wanting. I thought manhood was a form of religion and then, mostly wine, women and song. Fortunately, my family and school-trained morality never allowed me to pursue a life of wanton lust. When I was finally saved in 1988, by the Spirit of the Living God, and  gave up fleshly pursuits, I still had nowhere to turn. I remember sitting in a chapel on top of a mountain, going "what now, Lord"?! I took time off work, as my encounter with the Living Jesus was at 4am August 16, 1988 on a work day!


Fast forward to 1996 and my first Promise Keepers event at Soldier Field in Chicago and am in a new thing called a small group, where men are supposed to confess their Father Wounds and talk and pray about it. This did not freak me out, as long before I was saved, I was briefly part of the charismatic Catholic movement of the early 1970's.  But it was still new. I had no Father wound, having no father to speak of, after age 11! 


What followed was years and years of going to men's conferences and seeking advice or counsel from older men, who could or would teach me the Ways of the Lord.

MENTORING & FATHER IN THE FAITH

For the most part, I still had and have no real mentor but the Holy Spirit. He has led me to the Knowledge of all Truth and Wisdom in Christ. He has counseled me... upbraided me... disciplined me... brought me low... led me to my knees...had me on my face...and more! I do have a wonderful older brother in faith, a retired pastor named Doc, who speaks Truth and Prayer into my life for years now....and whom I trust with my life!  Every man should have an older man as his spiritual guide, brother and friend, to whom he can turn, at any time!


Through it all, God has given me a passion and zeal for Jesus and the Bible which NO ONE and I mean nobody, can take away! Jesus is my First and Second Nature now.


All of this is a long introduction to say, I am like every other man who had no formal introduction to becoming a Man of God and neither was I given a Legacy. But when God saved me and then gave me two sons, He expected me to start one of my own -BASED ON HIM!


To that end, I have raised my sons - Bernie (19) and Sam (16) - to be men of God. Not only have they grown up in the church, but for years, I took them to Promise Keepers men's events with me, where 13 and 11 year old boys got to hang out with Jesus loving, Spirit-worshiping men of God in the open and then eat out at at IHOP in St Louis or Peoria!


My sons have gone with me to several parades each time for many years, passing out hundreds of gospel tracts and still do when I ask. They minister all the time now with us at senior homes and in the churches we are invited to over the years. But still, that is not enough. I am not a pastor, even though I am must be the only licensed Five Fold Southern Baptist minister I know, who can preach in either a Baptist, Bible, Nazarene or Pentecostal church! God has made a way.


Our boys - Sam and Bernie - can do all the "Christianese", which have led many a PK (Pastor Kid) astray, and still not be walking with the Lord. I know that too well, since with the Spirit's leading, I had to bring myself up in the Ways of God over 20 plus years!


I wanted my sons to be real Men of God! So how do I do that? Where do I turn? Fortunately, before I became the President of Business Men in Christ, a powerful and growing men's ministry here in Central Illinois, I was part of a movement which came out of Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, Arkansas. Developed by Dr. Robert Lewis, this movement - Mens Fraternity -really changed my life, starting in 2001-2002.


My good friend and our youth leader at the time was a man named Bryan McKenzie, who was once a linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, and had the same burning fire for Christ. He brought this new thing to us called THE GREAT ADVENTURE, and this did it! I not only stopped chasing windmills or reading books about Jesus, but found out how He wired me for His Word; found myself in Him and the Bible only and have been flying high on the Holy Ghost since!

Now, 11 years later, I can't wait for the next day or the next event to pass on to my sons....or to share the Truth with someone else. I met Dr. Lewis, who created this now worldwide phenomenon in the men's ministry movement at the Southern Baptist Convention (I left the Catholic church a couple decades ago now). Dr. Lewis took one look at me and with a huge smile on his face said "you're living the Great Adventure, aren't you?"! This was in 2006 and I love that guy!


AUTHENTIC MANHOOD - LEGACY OF THE SON...for my sons.

Long before the Lord led me to the woman, who is now my wife, I promised Him if He ever gave me kids, I would give them back to Him. Therefore, I am now in the process of so-doing and it is now in a different phase. I wanted Bernie and Sam to live the Great Adventure too! So I got the Father/Son Version of it to bring the three of us closer together as Authentic Men of God.


We are now not just Father and Son but co-inheritors of the kingdom.


What I have done over the past almost six weeks and sessions of this curriculum is have Dr. Lewis teach us on DVD what an Authentic Man really is. This is not just Four Pillars of a Man's Heart stuff. This is bold in your face manhood - from the Bible.


What my sons and I are growing into as a knowledge of not just how the First Adam screwed up royally in the Garden, by watching a stinking serpent deceive his wife and then sin with her, but how the Second Adam - JESUS - corrected all of that perversion for eternity!


The best gift a Father can pass on to a son is Jesus and WHO they ARE in HIM. We have enough bibles in this house to supply half a village...and have done so through a ministry called Love Packages (which sends used bibles to Third World countries). What boys need to learn from their elders and dads mostly, is how to WALK out all that talk in the Bible about David and Paul and Peter etc!


We have learned the Four characteristics of a man - the Warrior, King, Friend and Lover. 

We have learned the following four Attributes of an Authentic man of God:
- An Authentic man is NOT like Adam, so he rejects Passivity and will not stand by and watch everyone or everything God has given us to be stewards of, go down the drain!
- An Authentic man accepts responsibility! Through a couple fender benders and now part time jobs as well as school, both sons are learning not just money management but a level of responsibility to family.
- An Authentic man leads courageously! Long before the movie Courageous came out, we were walking that road. But by taking the kids to see it, the message of Courageous manhood, fathers and more has been driven home to them, fearlessly!
- An Authentic man expects God's greater reward! I am not talking about what awaits us in heaven, in our Father's House. The reward is a life lived well RIGHT NOW! The minute one is saved, eternity begins! Many in the church don't see it because to their stuffed shirt pastors, that sounds like charismatic stuff! Well, it ain't! The moment we are now fully a saved and rescued follower of Christ, we are brought into the Eternal Kingdom and can access everything from eternity past as we await eternity future! This is when the Bible comes alive! This is when what Moses wrote in Genesis speaks loudly of His Wonderful matchless Grace! This is Authentic Manhood!

The Reward of an Authentic Man of God is watching his Legacy - his sons - grow into their destiny as they become their OWN men of God, because you brought them up in the way they should go! The great disciple John said this "Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:2-4 ESV)


Finally, as we go through this Legacy building, I plan a ceremony where my two sons and I will be sealing this knowledge into our hearts. This is not going to be some medieval rites of passage! I actually plan something they can do with their own sons someday, if Jesus has not yet returned.


I am gathering two of my older bibles; writing letters to them and getting them a compass and some other personal items that mean a lot to me. I have obtained certain audio teachings called Affections of a Godly man....or how a real man loves God (through Jesus).These items will placed in a box for each son. I will take them to the best barbeque restaurant in town where we will hang out in a private booth and well, the rest will be all Spirit led! Amen!


Have any of us arrived? No! But we have arrived at a moment in time, where we either seize it or throw in the towel. I refuse to let my life go by, without passing on a blessing and legacy to our children. You too can do this. If I am able to assist anyone interested in learning about Authentic Manhood or men's or senior's ministry, feel free to drop me a line here:
Bernie@businessmeninchrist.com


To God be the Glory, through Jesus Christ the King, amen.




FRIDAY: BUILDING A LEGACY THROUGH MY DAUGHTER
SATURDAY/SUNDAY: THE FAMILY - LIVING FOR GOD!