Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word, dear God. I thank you for tonight, dear God.
I ask that you please meet with us, God. Please be with Brother Stuckey tonight, God.
Fill him with his spirit, God, and I ask that you be with each one of us. Help us to apply the
word to our lives, God. We love you. We thank you for all the blessings. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, we're here in 1 Kings chapter 2, and look at the beginning of the chapter. And the
Bible reads in 1 Kings chapter 2, starting at verse 1, Now the days of David drew nigh that
he should die. And he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be thou
strong therefore, and show thyself a man. So we see here that David is coming to the end of his
life. He is about to die, and he's giving last instructions to his son, Solomon. The name of my
sermon comes from the end of verse 2, where it says, Show thyself a man. Show thyself a man. Now
we're going to see five points in these first nine verses of things that David left his son,
Solomon, about what it means to be a man. You're going to see five different points. Now I will
say this. The average American male fits zero of these five categories. Zero out of these five
categories. They do the exact opposite of what David tells his son, Solomon. Now you might be a
lady here tonight, and you might wonder, well, what do I get out of this sermon? Because you're
preaching on being a man, and obviously I'm supposed to be a lady. Well, there's many things
you can get. For one, a lot of these points are going to cross over. These are things that both
men and women can apply to their lives. If you're a young lady, you're not married, these are the
attributes you should be looking when you're trying to find a husband one day. And all scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine. All scripture is
profitable. We're going to see what the Bible says about being a man. Now if you are a married
man here, and especially if your wife is here, I would suggest you apply this. Because if you
hear the word of God and you reject it, your wife and your kids will lose respect for you. Now I
want you to understand something, though. David is giving his son, Solomon, instructions on being
a man. David is coming to the very end of his life. Now think about if you are about to die.
If you are about to die, if you are about to go home to heaven, and you're going to give
instructions to your son, you're going to probably leave him with important information. It's not
going to be pointless, fluffy information. It's going to be the most important thing that there
is out there in your mind. Think about when Jesus Christ, think about the end of Mark chapter 16. It
says in verse 15, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. At the end
of Matthew 28, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever commanded
you. That's pretty important instructions. And in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, he said, ye shall receive
power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and he shall be witnesses on me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and on to the uttermost part of the earth. You see,
when Jesus was ending, he left the instructions of soul winning, getting the gospel out to the
entire world. And what could be more important than going out and getting people saved? So we
need to understand that when David is giving instructions to his son Solomon, he's going to
leave him with important information. We need to apply these things to our lives. Now, when you
think about David's life, David was a man who killed Goliath. Before he killed Goliath, he
killed a lion, he killed a bear. He had all kinds of great military victories. Now, the world would
look at that and say, man, that makes you a man because you won all these battles, because you
killed Goliath. And you know what? You notice when David talks to his son Solomon, he focuses on the
spiritual. He doesn't focus on the temporal. He doesn't focus on the physical. He focuses on
something far more important than killing a giant, far more important than killing a lion. He focuses
on something much more important than that. Now, you're in 1 Kings 2, but let me just say this as a
side point before we go on. Obviously, as men, we shouldn't be weak people. You look throughout the
entire Bible, and there's a lot of information on that that guys need to be. I mean, one thing that
could help give you an idea, if you get married and your wife carries you over the threshold, you
might want to get a little bit stronger. Or if your wife could beat you in an arm wrestling match,
you might want to consider, you know, buying some weights and getting a little bit stronger.
Obviously, as guys, we need to be able to protect our families, and there's lots in the Bible about
that. You see that there's manly men in the Bible, but even more so than being strong is the spiritual,
and that is what David focuses on with Solomon. Now, look at verse number three. Let us see the
very first thing that David says to his son Solomon after he tells him to be a man. He says,
And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes and his
commandments and his judgments and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou may
as prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself. You know, David is really
repetitive when he's driving home this point. Being a man, the number one thing is keeping God's
commandments. That is what makes you a man. Now, you could not tell me that the average guy in this
world even comes close to keeping God's commandments. Now, we know obviously we're all
sinners. We come short of the glory of God. We've all sinned. We sin every day. The thought of
foolishness is sin, but in your life, you should be actively striving to follow God's commandments,
and this world, they reject that notion. I mean, think about what the world says. The world says
before you're married, you ought to sow your wild oats and just go and fornicate with a bunch of
women, but see, that's exactly opposite of what the Bible says. The Bible says you ought to be
pure when you get married, and a real man will be pure when he gets married. See, this world will
say just go out there and get drunk and just party, do drugs and all this stuff. That will
ruin your life. The Bible says you ought to keep God's commandments, and this is the number one
thing that makes you a man is keeping God's commandments, and honestly, when you think
about this, it makes a lot of sense because what could be tougher than keeping God's commandments?
It's a lot of work. It takes effort. You got to strive and fight against sin. It's not an easy
thing to keep God's commandments, and see, it's very easy to give in to the lusts of the flesh.
We all have a sinful flesh. It's very easy to give into that sinful flesh, but you know, if you're a
real man, you're going to fight against those temptations. You're going to fight against that
temptation to sin, and you're going to do what is right, and you're going to be a godly person.
That is the first thing you see when David talks to his son, Solomon. Turn to Deuteronomy 17.
Now, I think we could all agree that David was a man who probably knew the scriptures very,
very well, and in Deuteronomy chapter 17, this is what it says, and this is talking about the Word
of God. It says, And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, talking about a
king, that he shall write him a copy of this law and a book out of that which is before the priests
the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that
he may learn to fear the Lord as God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do
them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he turn not aside from the
commandments to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his
kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. So we see here in Deuteronomy chapter 17,
the Bible says that a king was supposed to write out the scriptures, and the reason why is it would
help him to keep the commandments, and it would cause him not to be filled with pride and lifted
up. Now, I'm sure David knew this scripture very well, and you look at the life of David,
he was a man who strove to keep God's commandments. The Bible says he was a man after God's own heart
in Acts 13. He was a man who strove to keep God's commandments, and he was a very humble
guy when you look at his life. And see, he's giving instructions to his son. He knows that
the job of being a king is not an easy job. Now, David made a lot of mistakes in his life,
but you know, when you come to the end of your life, you're going to start looking at the things
that you really screwed up and realizing how stupid it was to fall into those temptations
and those sins. I'm sure David, at the end of his life, he had a lot of regrets. You see what ended
up happening with his family. And when he's at the end of his life, he has a clear mind,
and he's telling his son Solomon, hey, keep my commandments. That is the number one thing that
makes you a man. Turn to Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two. Now, Titus chapter two,
starting at verse number 11. Titus 2.11 is a very common verse. It's a fantastic verse,
but we're going to look past that as well. But starting at verse 11, it says,
for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. I think we need to show that
verse to the Calvinists because they haven't seemed to figure it out yet that Jesus died
for everybody. But the Bible says it appeared to all men. But look at what it says in verse
number 12. Look at this wording. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. See, Jesus died for everyone,
but us that are saved, it teaches us that we should live godly. We should live soberly.
You see, the world doesn't understand why it's so important not to drink alcohol, not to do drugs,
not to fornicate before you're married. The world doesn't get it. But, you know, us being saved,
especially at this church and knowing the scriptures, we know what we ought to do,
and we ought to follow what the Bible says. The world doesn't get it. They say, well, it's no big
deal. You just go out. You party. Big deal. You wake up. It's a big joke. No, it's not a big joke.
The Bible says you ought to obey the commandments of God. And then it says in verse number 13,
looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. See, the Bible says we ought to be a
peculiar people. We ought to be different from the world. You know, if you watch the same things
on TV the world does, you're not a peculiar person. If you listen to the same music,
you're not a peculiar person. If you go out and get drunk just like the world goes and gets drunk,
you are not a peculiar person. We ought to be different from the world. Now, we're not talking
about being a strange person, but, you know, the world's going to consider you strange if you
decide, well, you know what, I'm sorry, but I can't go out Friday night with you to the bar.
I got to go home with my family and spend time with them. The world's going to look at that like
you're crazy. You know, you're going to be a peculiar person to them if you keep God's
commandments. They ought to look at your life and say, you know what, brother so-and-so or sister
so-and-so, they're different than everybody else. We are meant to be a peculiar people,
and the first thing we see here about being a man is keeping God's commandments.
Go back to 1 Kings chapter 2. Go back to 1 Kings 2.
So the first point we have tonight of being a man, the instructions from David to Solomon is
keeping God's commandments. But the second point we have tonight is kindred charity.
Kindred charity. When I say kindred, I'm talking about your immediate family, your wife and your
kids. Kindred charity, meaning you're willing to lay down your life for your family. Look at
verse number four. It says that the Lord may continue his word which he spake concerning me,
saying, if thy children take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart
and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee, said he, a man on the throne of Israel.
See, he focuses on the children, and the bottom line is there is no way that a kid is going to
turn out right in this world unless their parents actively strive to teach them the commandments
of God and teach them how to be a Godly person. You know, it is our job as husbands, it's our job
as men to do everything we can to help our wives and our kids become Godly, soul-winning,
God-fearing Christians. That is our job as men. Look at, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 25.
Go back in your Bible, 1 Samuel 25.
Now, this is a point that David did not do very well at. David was a man who kept God's
commandments. He tried to live a Godly life, but he was not a good husband, and he did not
do a great job raising his kids when you see what happened, you know, in his life.
But in 1 Samuel chapter 25, we see here in verse number 39, an example of David. It says verse 39,
And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord that hath pleaded the
cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil. For the Lord
hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail
to take her to him to wife. Now, I believe Abigail was probably a Godly lady. She's probably a very
beautiful young lady, but there's a problem. David's a married man, and if you're a married
man, that means you have one woman in your life. You don't go after some other woman.
Now, in today's world, we would look at polygamy as being crazy. Even the world would. But, you
know, in this world, people have no problem with fornicating with a bunch of women. Now, in the
Bible times, you don't really see people like that fornicating with a bunch of women. They marry them,
and then they have a relationship. Both are extremely ungodly, though. Polygamy was never
something. You were never supposed to multiply wives onto yourself, the Bible says. And you see,
David is a married man. Then go down to verse number 43. Then it says in verse 43,
David also took a Hinoim of Jezreel, and they were also both of them as wives. But Saul had
given Michael his daughter, David's wife, to Falti, the son of Laish, which was of Gallim.
And so here we see David takes another wife. And this is the way sin works. Once you sin a little
bit, it just drags you into more and more and more sin. And, you know, David is trying to give
good instructions to his son about raising your kids and being a Godly person. But, you know,
Solomon fell into the exact same thing. And it's probably because he saw that his father
was a bit of a hypocrite in this point. His father married a bunch of women. His father
wasn't always there for his kids. And then Solomon ends up doing the exact same thing.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy 6.
A very famous verse in Proverbs, the Bible says, Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And that's a great verse, but it's something
we need to hear over and over again, that if we train our children—but think of that word train.
That means it's going to take an active time where you spend time and do what you can to
help them become Godly. It's not just going to magically happen where your whole family
wants to live for the Lord. You've got to put in an effort. You think in the Bible of someone—you
know, I think in just my life growing up, I honestly believe this, that in Bridgeport,
West Virginia, the two greatest parents there were, where I grew up, were my parents. And I
don't just say this because I'm biased, but I'll give you actual reasons why I believe that.
And I grew up and I did not know the Gospel, and my parents did not know the Gospel. They were not
saved growing up. You know, when I was in elementary school, my sister, when she was in
sixth grade, she was pulled out and she was homeschooled. I was in fourth grade at the time.
And when I reached sixth grade, my parents did the exact same thing to me. Now, at this church,
that doesn't sound that strange because lots of people homeschool. But, you know, 20 years ago,
there were not that many people in America homeschooling. Twenty years ago, there were not
that many resources to homeschool. You know, there was very few materials. We didn't have the internet
to describe whatever materials and all these different things. There were no homeschooling
activities that we did back then. But, you know, my parents, even though they weren't basing it on
the Bible, they were concerned about the education that we were not getting in school, and they were
concerned about the morality. Because all my friends were going down a road, and my closest
friends, you look at their lives now, and they ruin them. And I believe the reason why it turned
out is right is because of my parents. Because they decided to pull me out. And I also know that
every single Saturday morning, my dad took me out to the sports field to play basketball or baseball
or soccer or football. Every single Saturday morning at 6 30 in the morning, because I'm an
early riser, and I was like, Dad, I'm ready to go. And every Saturday morning, we went there. You know,
he put in a big effort to be there for me. I believe that's why I turned out right. Now,
there might have been other parents that did the same thing, but I never saw any other dads out
there with their kids. There weren't any other parents homeschooling their kids. And I believe
that, you know, that is the reason why I'm here today. Otherwise, I probably would have ended up
just like everybody else. My parents actively spent time to train me. Now, when you're a kid,
you don't realize that on Saturday morning, your dad's exhausted from working all week.
Now that you know, I'm older, you know, working full time job, it's very easy to just say, Well,
I just want to relax. I just want to check out YouTube. I just want to do this or that. I just
want to do my own thing instead of spending time with your wife and spending time with your family.
But if you're a smart person, if you're a wise person, especially if you're married,
you will take heed to this advice from the scriptures. Cornelius was a great example in
the Bible. Cornelius was an unsaved man. And he was such a God fearing man that God sent Peter
to preach him the gospel. And Cornelius and his whole family, his whole house got saved. Because
Cornelius raised his family and was such a good husband that everybody wanted to hear the
scriptures and everybody got saved. Now in Deuteronomy chapter six, the Bible says, starting
in verse number four, it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. And these words
which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently onto
thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way
and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand
and they shall be as frontless between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy
house and on thy gates. You see how important the word of God is and you see how important it is to
train your family. When you're sitting down, when you're walking by the way, when you rise up,
when you lie down at all times actively training your family. We need to make it a point guys,
men that are married, number one is God in our lives, but number two ought to be our family,
our wives and our kids. And it shouldn't just be like, well, you know, I'm married and she'll see
me at church, we'll spend time there. No, we should actively be spending time with our families.
You know, if you're married, that is the wife that God gave you in this life. And look,
we all live very busy lives. It's very easy to get caught up with doing all kinds of things
and just want to relax and not take the time. But if we're smart, we will take time for our families.
You know, honestly, in our movement, the computers kind of like, or YouTube's like the new TV.
Honestly, where people just waste all the, the biggest problem to me about the TV,
my personal opinion is just how much time is wasted. And see, in YouTube,
people do the exact same thing. You see, the Bible commands you to read God's Word.
He commands you to pray and go to church and go soul winning. And what I try to spend time
memorizing the Bible during the day. But you know what, you got to take a break. Sometimes
you don't have to listen to every single sermon that comes out from our movement,
especially when we hear great preaching three times a week here. It would be one thing if
you're at a dead watered down church where your pastor is not feeding you. But when you have a
great pastor who's preaching you the truth, you don't need to spend your free time just listening
to sermons. It's one thing if you're working and it's on in the background, but it's another thing
when you actively set aside time from your family just to listen to all kinds of extra preaching.
Now you can disagree with me. That's fine. I will say personally, I don't listen to a lot of
preaching, honestly. I like listening to preaching. I think it's great. And if you have time,
definitely go for it. But I will not forsake spending time with my wife to listen to sermons
I will not do that. And I mean, we hear great preaching here all the time. And the truth is this
you will learn far more from reading the Bible than you will listening to sermons.
When you listen to sermons, you learn information and it goes in one ear and out the other. But if
you actively learn it on your own, it sticks with you. The vast majority of sermons I preach is
because I was reading the Bible or memorizing the Bible and something stuck out of my head
and I memorized it. It is extremely rare honestly that I hear a sermon and that builds into another
sermon. I'm not saying it's never happened, but honestly, men, we will do a much better job with
our time by spending time, extra time reading the Bible and then taking time out to spend time to
train our wives and our kids so they're godly and so they don't end up resenting you. Because think
about it, if your wife stays home with the kids, she might be bored if she's there all day and then
you come home, you don't spend any time with her. She's going to resent you for that. You need to
make sure you spend time. Kindred charity is the second point that we have. So first, you need to
keep God's commandments. That's number one. But second, you need to practice kindred charity.
Turn back to 1 Kings chapter 2. Now I will say this, ladies, this is a sermon directed towards men.
So don't go home and say, well, you see what brother Sucky said? You got to start doing this
and this and this and this. 1 Kings chapter 2, look at verse number 5. 1 Kings 2, look at verse
number 5, the Bible reads, Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zoriah did to me,
and what he did to the two captains of the host of Israel, unto Abner the son of Nur, and unto
Amasi the son of Jethro, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war and peace, and put the blood of
war upon his girdle that was about his loins. And in his shoes that were on his feet, do therefore
according to thy wisdom. So we see in verse number 5, he says thou knowest. Verse number 6, he says
thy wisdom. Look down at verse number 9, he says, Now therefore hold him not guiltless, for thou art
a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him. So what we're seeing here is Solomon was
a man who had knowledge, and he was a man who had wisdom. And David is telling him, he's admonishing
to him to have knowledge and wisdom. See the third point we have is knowledge and wisdom.
If you're going to be a man, you're going to have knowledge, you're going to have wisdom.
Now the number one thing primarily is obviously the scriptures. If you do not know the scriptures,
you're a saved guy, you're married, and then you can't help your wife if she has a Bible question,
there's a problem there. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 10.
I would say that would be another point. If your kids or your wife constantly ask you questions
about the Bible and you say, you know, I don't know, let me ask Pastor Jimenez, you know,
on Wednesday night or on Sunday. If you constantly say that, she will lose respect for you. Your kids
will lose respect if you don't know the Word of God. If they want to live for the Lord,
they want to know what the Bible says, and you can't show them what the Bible says,
they're going to lose respect for you if you don't have knowledge and wisdom of the scriptures.
In 1 Kings chapter 10, look at verse number one, the Bible reads,
And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,
she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train,
with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to
Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions.
There was not anything hid from the king which she told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the
sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
and his ascent by which he went up onto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And
she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy
wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it, and behold,
that half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard.
Happier are thy men, happier are these thy servants which stand continually before thee,
and that here thy wisdom. We see here that Solomon was a wise man. To be honest though,
before Solomon asked for wisdom, he was already a wise man. David called him a wise man in First
Kings 2, and it requires wisdom to understand you need more wisdom. That's proof that Solomon
already was a wise man before God granted him extra wisdom. But over and over again, she says,
Hey, your servants are so happy because of your wisdom. She's impressed. And see, that is the
sort of thing we need in our lives. If we're husbands, if we're going to be men, we need to
know the Scriptures so we can teach our families, teach our wives, and show them what the Bible says.
And quite honestly, the number one thing is the Scriptures. But just knowledge in general is an
important thing to have. We live in a really dumb day in America. People are extremely stupid in
America. You know, and I'll use math as my example because math was, you know, the subject I went
into, and I did teach school for a little while. And you know what, when I was teaching kids,
they didn't know basic multiplication. They didn't know what two times seven was. They were not taught
at a young age. You know, at a young age, you ought to know the multiplication tables like this,
but they don't require it in schools anymore because the school systems are raising a bunch
of idiots, illiterate people, that do not know basic math. And they don't even care. They would
never want to read the Bible. They don't like reading at all. They would much rather just watch
movies and play video games and all of this pointless stuff. You know, we ought to be different
when we raise our families at home. It shouldn't just be, well, it's just video games and TV and
all this stupid pointless stuff. No, the Bible talks about knowledge and wisdom. David said to
Solomon, he says, your wisdom. He says, thou knowest. And look at how much he impresses the
queen of Sheba because he has knowledge, because he has wisdom. Turn back to first King chapter two.
The bad thing about yelling early in a sermon is you start losing your voice like really early
during the sermon. But look at first King chapter two, look at verse number six. Look at what it
says. It says, do therefore according to thy wisdom and let not his whore head go down to
the grave in peace. He says, do therefore. Look at verse number nine. He says, now therefore hold him
not guiltless for thou art a wise man and knowest what thou oughtest do to do onto him. But his
whore head bring thou down to the grave with blood. He says, verse six, do therefore. Verse nine,
now therefore hold him not guiltless. See, the first thing we saw was keeping God's commandments,
then kindred charity, knowledge and wisdom. But now we see knowledge and wisdom in action.
It is not good enough. Like I said Sunday night, it is not good enough to know what you're supposed
to do. You have to actually do it. And see, you have to understand the instructions that
Solomon is getting. These are not easy instructions to do. I don't think Solomon
wanted to kill Joab. I don't think he wanted to have him put to death. You know what I mean? I
don't think that would be an easy thing for any of us to do is just putting another human life
to death. I mean, think about when someone dies, they're dead forever. I wouldn't want to do that.
And here's the bottom line. You know, we have a lot of knowledge and wisdom maybe about the Bible
from being at a church like this. And when you have this wisdom and knowledge, it is going to
require you to do some hard things sometimes in life to make some hard stands on what you believe
and what you're going to do and the direction your family is going to go. Now, we have all fought
those battles. You get married or you have kids and your other family tries to push their beliefs
on you. And you've got to be willing to stand up. You know what's right to do. It would be very easy
to back down and just give in so you can get along with your other family. But see, here's the thing.
My second point was not getting along with everybody in your family. It was your immediate
family because your wife and your kids are the ones that God's given you. Sometimes we've got
to just cut the ties with our other family that's going to drag us down. Some examples of some
things that are really hard to do in life that you have the knowledge and wisdom but you have
to actually put into action. Some examples would be getting worldliness out of your lives. Another
example would be when you start giving your tithe to church. You know, I remember when I first
understood that I was supposed to give 10% to church. I didn't immediately do it. I didn't want
to start giving 10% of my money. I was like, man, I'm a poor college student. I was like, 10% of my
money that I make? I was like, that's a lot of money. It's going to require you when you have
knowledge and wisdom about the Scriptures to put it into place. What's weird to me is people that
would go to a church like this and not try to follow God's laws. I mean, why do you even want
to know them then? Because God's going to expect you to follow them if you get that knowledge. And
you're at a church like this, you're learning the Word of God. You're learning what you should do.
I mean, you would honestly be better off just quitting this church if you're not going to put
it into place. When you hear the things preached over and over and over again, and you do the same
things over and over, and you keep rejecting what the pastor says, keep rejecting what the Bible
says, then why would you even want to know what the Bible says? See, it's not good enough to know
it. You have to actually put it into action. You know, honestly, a lot of us men that want to be
pastors one day, it's going to require us when we're pastors to do a lot of really hard things.
Sometimes, you know, I've written sermons before, and I was getting ready to preach it. I was excited
about it. God had laid it on my heart. And then right when I'm about to preach it, all of a sudden
I start realizing, man, if I preach this sermon, there's somebody I know that might get offended
by this. Someone that, you know, I'm friends with or I like or whatever. And it's very, very easy to
start wondering, how can I trim this message a little bit to look like I'm not watered down,
but to keep the message that God's laid on my heart. It's very easy to try to trim the message
because you don't want to offend somebody. And I think we need to realize that when our pastor
gets up here to preach, you know, there's a lot of people in this room. If you preach against one
particular sin, I'm sure that there's somebody in this room that's guilty of it. He didn't write
that sermon specifically for you. And I'm sure it'd be very easy for him to say, you know what,
I'm not going to preach this one. I'm going to preach something else. I don't want to offend
that person. And you know what? That's what every independent Baptist church is doing.
Every single Baptist church is doing that. That is why this world is in the message end,
because every single church, every pastor is trimming the message. They'll never preach
against drinking because there's people in the church that drink. They'll never preach against
smoking because there's people that smoke. They'll never preach against fornication because people
are committing fornication. They never preach anything. They're just like all the non-denominational
churches that are out there. They are no different. And those churches are dead as can be. They don't
do any soul winning. They don't really love the Lord. And that is the big problem with those
churches. It's not that they believe in the preacher of rapture. That's a problem. That is
so low on their list of problems. That is nothing compared to the problem with those churches.
It's interesting to me that I know guys that will go to a church. Sometimes the pastor's
preaching decently hard and they're so focused on getting the pastor to change his belief on
the preacher of rapture. That is not the biggest problem they have. The biggest problem is they
don't read the Bible much. They don't memorize the Bible much. They don't go soul winning and
they don't preach hard. And the knowledge that they do have, they are not willing to preach. And
if we want to change this country and if we want to change this world, we need men to rise up and
say, I'm not just going to learn what the Bible says. I'm going to actually put it into action.
That is what we need. We can be thankful at this church. That's what we have. And our pastor takes
a strong stand. But you know what? We need to multiply this church. The last instructions that
Jesus Christ had were, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
And he shall be witnesses on me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and onto the
uttermost part of the earth. We can change this country. We can change this state. We can change
this world if men would rise up. The problem in America is not women. The problem is men.
There aren't men rising up to start churches. There aren't men leading their homes. I mean,
look at our church. On Thursdays during soul-winning time, there are always more
ladies there than men. There's always more ladies. And part of the reason is because men
are working full-time. But you notice there's godly women that love the Lord. They want to go
soul-winning. They want to be here for the things of God. And women would follow if husbands would
rise up and preach hard and do what's right. We would change this country. We would change
this world. But men are not rising up to be a man like the Bible talks about.
Turn back to First Kings chapter 2, First Kings 2.
You know, in First Kings 10, which we already read, you know, it says that Solomon didn't
hold back anything from Queen of Sheba. He told her everything. All of her questions,
he answered them. That'd be another example of something that's really hard to do because
sometimes, I'm sure if you're a pastor, you know, you have people come to you and they ask you for
advice. And they want you to say something. It'd be very easy to try to make them happy or avoid
the question. But sometimes you've got to just speak the truth. If you know what the truth is,
it's your job to speak it. The Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. Sometimes if you're a
godly person, you might have to tell your friend where they're in error, what they need to change
in their lives. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's something God requires if you're going to be
a man. The Bible says in, well, the first point we saw was keeping God's commandments. The second
point we saw was kindred charity. The third was knowledge and wisdom. The fourth is knowledge
and wisdom in action. But the fifth one is kindness. Kindness. Look at 1 Kings 2-7.
It says, but show kindness onto the sons of Barzilliah the Gileadite and let them be of
those that eat at thy table for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom my brother.
And it says show kindness. Now, when I was preparing the sermon, I'll be honest, the other
points weren't that hard to figure out. You know, when we're talking about keeping God's commandments,
that's a tough thing to do. Being a man, you've got to keep God's commandments. Having kindred
charity, well, that's the family God's given you. Your wife and your kids. Knowledge and wisdom.
How in the world will you train your family and teach them if you have no information to teach
them? And knowledge and wisdom in action, that made a lot of sense. But at first when I saw
kindness, I was just like, how does that relate to being a man? Turn to Titus chapter 3 verse 4.
The word kindness appears 43 times in the Bible. I didn't look up how many times the word kind
appears, but the word kindness appears 43 times. It often comes up in 2 Samuel and Psalms.
That links right back to David. Oftentimes David is showing people kindness. He was not a hypocrite
in this way. He often showed kindness to people that did not deserve it. Then you see it popping
up in 1 Kings and Proverbs, which would be the books related to Solomon. So obviously what David
told Solomon had an impact because he's showing kindness to people and he's talking about kindness
in the book of Proverbs. Look at Titus chapter 3 verse 4. The Bible says,
but after that, the kindness and love of God our savior toward man appeared. You see,
when Jesus Christ came here, he came here and he laid down his life for us. He put everything aside
to care about us. He focused his entire life not on what he wanted, but on what other people wanted.
This idea of kindness is linked with laying down your life to care about other people. It's caring
about other people more than yourself. And that is one of the things mentioned in 1 Kings 2,
that if you're going to be a man, the instructions David gave to Solomon is
care about other people more than yourself. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31, it says,
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all
malice, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. So the Bible says to be kind one to another. It says to forgive one
another. I can't think of too many things that are harder than forgiving somebody who's wronged you.
That is not an easy thing to do. When you're talking about being a man, it makes sense to me
now. You know, studying this out, being willing to care about other people more than yourself,
being willing to forgive people that maybe you don't think deserve it or really have wronged you
in some way. But you know, isn't that exactly what Jesus Christ did for us? Isn't that what God did?
Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, we don't deserve to go to heaven. We deserve to
go to hell. He did nothing wrong, and He willingly was crucified and tortured for our sins, what we do,
what we did wrong. Turn to Romans chapter 12.
And it's kind of funny, when I was when I was preparing the sermon a few days ago,
I was actually reading in my daily reading in Romans, and I came across this verse in
Romans 12, which I thought would fit perfectly for the sermon. Romans 12 10, it says,
Preferring one another is the same thing as esteeming other better than yourselves.
Basically, you look at other people and you put them before yourself. You put them above yourself
in life. See, the world misses all of these five categories. Our world is all about me, me, me.
What do I want? What's good for me? Don't care about anybody else. Just care about what are my
needs. But see, the Bible says that if you're a man, you're going to put other people
before yourself. Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. We'll close there.
So just to recap on our five points, the first thing we saw was keeping God's commandments.
There's no question that the world misses this completely. The second one was kindred charity.
You know, Pastor read the statistics on Sunday. I think it was 48% of kids born out of wedlock.
48%? I mean, you think about a world, it's like, how much do you really care about that family
and that woman if you're having kids out of wedlock and 43% of kids raised in fatherless
homes? 43%. The world is not practicing kindred charity. You know, when I was in West Virginia,
I worked on a few different bus routes at various Baptist churches. And the bus route,
you go around, you pick up kids whose parents don't come to church, and 95% of the time,
those kids, they come to church because their parents are trying to take vacation from them.
To them, it's like a babysitting service. That's one of the reasons why the whole process,
it doesn't work because you're there babysitting them. And here's the thing, the kids are already
upset that their parents don't love them. So they're rambunctious the whole time. They act
up the entire time. The kids don't even want to be there. They aren't loved by anybody. Now,
you will have some kids that do want to be there and you can touch their hearts. And honestly,
they start looking to you almost as if you're a father or an older brother. And you know,
that's nice to see, but it's sad because we would visit those parents on Saturdays. We try to get
them saved. They didn't care about their kids whatsoever. They didn't say that, but it was
obvious they didn't care about their kids because on Sundays, like, wow, we got to run to the store.
We don't have time to help them out with this or that. They don't care about their kids. It was
just a babysitting service. You see this world, they don't practice that second point. The third
point, knowledge and wisdom. We live in a pretty dumb day in America. You know, maybe in some other
country, they have some knowledge, not in America. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
And knowledge and wisdom in action. You know, you look at people in today's world, they are not
willing to do the hard thing. They're not willing to take the proper stance for what's right. You
see it in the media all the time. Sometimes somebody who's a celebrity says something right.
They say something really strong. You're like, hey, amen. Every single time the next day, what happens?
Oh, I'm sorry it was a mistake. I didn't mean that. I was taken out of context. They're not willing to
stand up for what's right. They accidentally said something, and they're too much of a girly person
to stand up for what they actually said. They're not willing to stand up. And the fifth thing we
saw was kindness. We live in a me generation. People are not willing to lay down their lives
for others. In First Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11, the Bible reads, when I was a child,
I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man,
I put away childish things. You see, kids growing up, they care about themselves. A ball's stolen
from them, they start to cry. You know, they think about that pizza party they're going to have on
Friday. The Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. Kids are foolish. But you
know what's sad is there's grown males—I'm not going to call them men—grown males that are just
as foolish as these kids. See, the Bible says, when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Sadly, in today's world, most guys that are grown, they haven't put away childish things. They're
still playing their video games, watching their TV, spending all their time on things that don't
matter, all day on sports, and all these things like, yeah, when you're a kid, that's great,
but you're a grown adult. You're married, you have a family, and you don't spend any time with them.
When I became a man, I put away childish things. If we're going to change this world, we need men
to rise up to the challenge. And at Verity Baptist Church, all of us men, we need to take heed to
what David said to Solomon. I encourage you, look at 1 Kings 2, 1 through 9. Read that when you go
home. Look at what he says to his son. We need to start applying this, otherwise we are not going
to change this world. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing
us to be in your house this evening, and I ask you to help this sermon to be a blessing to everyone
who received it. I pray that we will take these things with us and start applying these things
to our lives. Me included, God, these are hard things to accomplish, but let's put in the effort,
God, to accomplish this. And we just pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.