Morgan Teruel: Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, god, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Matt Brown: Hi, guys. Welcome to Sandals Church. I wanna start off today with a question before we launch this series. How many of you this year, either on your phone, on the news, I don't know if there's anybody who still reads a newspaper, but on a newspaper, But you have read something or seen something that shocked you in the news. Ray Tran's.
I mean, this just seems like an everyday occurrence in our modern world. Right? Like, every single day it's like, oh my gosh, what what disastrous thing has happened this year? But it was actually the news that inspired this series. I was taking a look at my Apple News on my phone, and I was just scrolling through the news of the day.
Don't care about that. Don't care about that. Don't care about that. And then something shocked me. The United States military released a statistic that should bother and scare every one of us to death.
In the Q1 of 2024, the United States combined military, the Army, the Air Force, Marines, right, the Navy, Coast Guard, all of them released a statistic that should scare you to death. They lost more men to suicide in the Q1 of 2024 than in all accidents, military incidents, and wars that we are fighting abroad. And it shocked me. It shocked me. And it should shock you.
Listen to me. We have a problem with our young men today. And I'm not here to criticize them. I'm not here to to make fun or put down. What I wanna do in this series is I wanna lift up men and say, we see you, we love you.
And here's one of the things that I wanna challenge our United States military too. When I was in the military, we had a thing called a chaplain. And a chaplain actually believed real things. Real things and provided real advice. I was going through a very, very tough time when I was in the military.
And I remember one of my sergeants came up to me, and he said, Brown, you're going to church today. And I said, You can't make me go to church. I said, this is Sunday. He said, I can't make you to go to church on Sunday, but he said, I can make your life hell Monday through Saturday. So you wanna know what happened?
I went to church. And I remember walking in church for the first time, and they were singing Amazing Grace. I can't remember what the chaplain preached. I can't remember who was there. But I remember those words, Begin to do surgery on a young man's heart, as God began to woo me and call me back.
And I want you to know this. I joined the military to become a man, but I want you to know this. Only God can make a man.
McKay Vandenberg: Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for joining in today's message with pastor Matt Brown. I wanted to take a quick moment to invite you into the work that Sandals Church is doing. One way you can do that is by giving financially. If you head to give.sc, you can do so there.
For now, let's get back into our message.
Pastor Matt Brown: So we have 2 creation stories in Genesis. For those of you who've never read your bibles, there's Genesis 1 and there's Genesis 2. And they're 2 different, creation stories. And and we don't know why. You know, the Jewish people who wrote these things down didn't tell us, hey, here's why they're both in there, but somehow they work together.
And here's why I think maybe they work together. Because God knew men needed an extra story. Right? Ladies got it. You read Genesis 127.
We're good. He created us in his image, his likeness. Let's go make some babies. Amen? That's what he said.
Pastor Matt Brown: Men were
Pastor Matt Brown: like, I still don't get it. So God creates a garden. But I want you to listen to these words. If you're a young man today, or you know a young man, or you know somebody that's struggling. Genesis 2:7.
Then God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and he breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils. Listen to this. And the man became a living person. In Genesis 2:7, God doesn't create a baby. Listen to me, ladies.
Women, you create wonderful babies. Thank you for that. God creates men, and we need to remember that. And the further we get away from God as a nation, the harder it is to be it's gonna be to find a man. And so what we need to do is we need to love on men, encourage men, come alongside men, because these are difficult times for men.
So I wanna talk to you today about why men need God. Men need God to challenge them, listen to this, for where they are. If you're a man today, you might be old, you might be middle aged, you might be young. You might be married, you might be single, you might be straight, you might be gay. God knows where you are, and he loves you.
Amen. He loves you. And there's so many men today that have given up on God, that have walked away from the church. And here's the thing I want you to know. You may have given up on God as a man, but God will never give give up on you as men, ever.
And so in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Adam and Eve, they they they screwed up, they they mess up, they sin, they do the one thing they're not supposed to do. Anybody been there? And if your hand's not up, you're a liar. You need to go to the 10 Commandments. You've done that.
But Adam and Eve sinned and they try to cover themselves. That's what we all do. We try to cover our sins, and we do it with our careers, we do it with makeup, we do it with vacations. Right? We're all covering, and they think they can hide from God.
And God comes into the garden and he says listen, Genesis 39, then the Lord God called to who? Not to Adam and to Eve, to the man. If we wanna change America, we need to change men. We need to call men. We need to allow men to hear the voice of God.
And what does God say? Not, What did you do? But, Where are you? Where are you? Now I did some research this week, and by research, I mean I Googled some things.
But I wanted to know, who do Americans identify as the most manly men of all time? And my name was not on the list. K? Nowhere to be found. But I'm just gonna say some of these names.
The first name that came up on every list that I looked at was John Wayne. And some of you are like, the airport? That means you're super young. John Wayne was on every list I looked at. I knew I was old one day when our youth pastor said, who's John Wayne?
And I was like, oh, my gosh. I'm super old. The next name on the list that was on every list that I looked at, Clint Eastwood. His most famous movie, Fistful of Dollars. Almost sounds like a Bruce Lee film.
Right? And then, let's have a moment of reverence. Chuck Norris. K? And I'm not gonna list his films.
Enough said. Chuck Norris, that's all I said. And this one surprised me, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, Terminator did scare me. I skipped school in 8th grade to see that movie, and I needed to call my mom because I was afraid.
That arm scene where it's coming after you. Oh my gosh. And then the next one that was on every list, Sylvester Stallone, who was in Rocky and Rambo. Now, what's wrong with this list? They're all actors.
They except for Chuck Norris. Right? They're all actors. They're all actors. Right?
Chuck Norris. You know what I'm saying? You gotta, you gotta, you gotta That dude's the real deal. Chuck Norris has been dead for 10 years, but death is afraid to tell him. You know what I'm saying?
It's the greatest Chuck Norris joke of all time. But they're all actors, except for Chuck Norris. And they're all old. John Wayne's dead. Clint Eastwood's in his nineties.
Chuck Norris, no one knows, but maybe around mid eighties. Arnold Schwarzenegger, these are the kids of the group, 76. Sylvester Sloane, 77. There's nobody my age on the list. There's nobody younger than me on the list.
What does that say? When America says, who are our masculine heroes? We say, old and dead. That tells you everything you need to know. And so what's happening in our society?
We're not raising men, we're raising Peter Pan's. Right? And what does Peter Pan not want to do? He never wants to grow up, but always finds himself in Wendy's bedroom every night. Some of you missed that.
There's truth in the old stories. And some of you ladies have fallen in love with a Peter Pan. And he wants to make babies, but he's not ready to be a man. And let me tell you this, men. Men can run from their responsibilities, but they can never run from God.
That's what Genesis chapter 3 teaches us. Where are you? Hiding in my camo. No. No.
No. God can see you in your camo. In the book of Psalms, it says this. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I, listen to these words, flee from your presence?
You see, I joined the military to become a man, but here's the truth is, I joined the military to run from God. When I was 15 years old, I knew there was a call on my I knew that God had called me in the ministry. Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I say, surely, the darkness will hide me and the light will become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. Wow. Listen to me, men. No matter how deep the pit is that you're in right now, I want you to know that God's love for you is deeper. It's deeper.
Men need God to become a man. Next, men need God to celebrate them when they get it right. Man, if you're a mom today and you're raising a little boy, he's gonna get a lot of things wrong. K? A lot of things wrong.
You gotta catch him getting things right. Father's Day is approaching, and and probably my greatest memory with my dad was when I was 8 years old. Now when I was a kid, you couldn't play baseball till you were 8. You had to wait till you're 8. Now you start at, like, 3 in the womb swinging a bat.
You're already signed up for travel ball. But when I was a kid, it was 8 years old. I never swung a bat. I was the oldest sibling so I didn't have brothers to play with. I'd never played baseball.
I was the worst kid on our team. So back in the seventies when you were terrible, you didn't play. And then they passed a rule. We had to play 2.4 innings, which I don't understand how you get the point 4, and they put you in right field. That's how you knew that's how you knew you were terrible.
You were in right field. So I played every game in right field for 2.4 innings. I was terrified of the baseball. That's a problem in baseball. And I remember one time a horrific thing happened.
Somebody hit the ball into right field when I was in right field. And I remember as an 8 year of my whole team, because they knew what was gonna happen. Right? I was gonna run from the ball. And I don't know what happened, but I had a moment of courage, put my hand up in the air, and I don't know how, but the ball went in the glove.
It went in the glove. And no one was more surprised than me. Like, I still was, like, how are you staying in there? And my whole team ran out. Like, everybody forgot we were playing a game.
They ran out to cheer me. My dad jumped over the fence, ran He wasn't even the coach. Ran out onto the field and hoisted me up like in Lion King. And it was it was the greatest memory I have from my childhood with my dad. I was the worst player on my team, but my dad celebrated me the one time I got it right.
And guess what happened the next year in baseball? I became the best kid on my team because I got a taste of success. Ladies, you ever wonder why there's no cheerleaders at your games? Because you don't need them. You don't care.
You're gonna be like, shut up. We're playing. Why do men need cheerleaders? Because we're fragile. We're fragile.
And if you don't believe me, watch an NFL game. 300 pound Giants crying. We're losers. You know, we're the cheerleaders. You can do it.
Yes. You can. Right? Men are very, very fragile. And listen to me, ladies.
You have no idea how powerful your voice is into helping him believe that. You gotta catch him doing it right. Some of you have missed this story your entire life, But when Jesus is baptized who who baptized him? Does anybody know? John the Baptist, like, the manliest man ever.
Right? Like Clint Eastwood goes, My bad. John the Baptist, not even wearing underwear, dressed in animal skin, eating insects, that's a man. Bugs in his teeth, and that's who the Lord Jesus picks to baptize him. Not a movie star, but a real man.
And he goes out there, and some of you have missed this. In Matthew 3 16 through 17, as soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water, and at that moment, heaven was opened. And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. And a voice from heaven said, listen to these words, dads, moms, friends, this is my son whom I love. Listen to this.
And with him, I am well pleased. Jesus just caught the ball. What did the father in heaven do? Yes. Great job.
Great job. Ladies, let me help you out here. So many of your husbands struggle with lust and porn. I want you to know that I don't believe it has anything to do with lust, women, or sex. I think most men have a deep desire to be validated because they never had a dad that said, that's my boy, and I love him.
And today, I'm well pleased. And so what men will do is they will search far and wide to be validated, even if it's a screen saying, I desire you, I want you, you're a man, you please me. Men will pursue careers, women, lust, porn, addiction, money, you name it, because they didn't have a dad that said, I see you. I see you, and I'm proud of you. My wife and I, we started watching a show, Welcome to Rec Summit.
I'm not I'm not recommending it. Ryan Reynolds' favorite word is an expletive, so I'm just telling you. But these guys buy a defunct soccer team, in in, not in England, in in, Welsh. Not in Welsh. Wherever.
One of the countries in the UK. But Wrexham is in is is is a Welsh speaking, city in the UK. And they buy this. And and they're joking with one another. And Ryan Reynolds, I want you to hear me.
He's worth half a $1,000,000,000. K? Half a $1,000,000,000. And they're running through pictures, and it's him when he's a kid. And Ryan Reynolds, who's funny, but he said something that just, boom, it caught me.
He said, There I am looking for my dad's approval. And then they pan off him and you hear in the background, listen to me, Still looking. Still looking. Do you know that Ryan Reinhold's dad's dead? You see, these scars, these wounds don't just bother us when our dads are alive, they bother us even when our dads are gone.
This moment is where Jesus is validated by his father, and it was so powerful. Listen to me. It was so powerful that the apostle Peter mentions this verse word for word in his last letter in the bible. 2nd Peter 117. For he, Jesus, received honor and glory from god the father.
How? Listen to this, ladies. When the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, this is my son whom I love, and with him I am well pleased. Think of all the things that Peter saw. All the things that he experienced.
And yet, when he's writing his last letter, his last words, he's about ready to be crucified upside down. What does he remember? When God the father said to God the son, I love you, son. I'm pleased with you. I bet if we went around the room at every campus, every church, you can remember every time your parents said something negative to you.
You're no good. Who do you think you are? You're not smart. We've all experienced that, but we also need those moments where somebody says something powerful. I see you.
I believe in you. I affirm you. And that's what we need to do to our young men, not criticize them, affirm them. You can do this. Do you know why Peter Pan never wanted to become a man?
Because it's scary. Little boys get to do whatever they want to do. Men do what they have to do. Men need God to inspire them to what they could be. The last couple years, there's been just a phenomenal man that has just taken charge over the Internet, and his name is doctor Jordan Peterson.
And a lot of people don't get him, a lot of people don't understand him, but let me tell you who Jordan Peterson is and why he's so famous. And I've never heard anyone say this, but let me just tell you. You wanna know why Jordan Peterson has had such an impact? Because he became the father of the Internet. And he told men, I see you, and I wanna challenge you.
You can do more. You can be better. And young men flocked to him. I read Jordan Peterson's book. It's long.
K? Most men never read a book after high school. Men purchased this book all over America and in Canada and across the world. And you wanna know why? It said, I see you, and you can become something better than you are.
And Jordan Peterson gave them permission to stop apologizing for being men. I want you to know this, most men are not afraid of becoming a man. They're afraid of failure. They're afraid of failure. And here's the thing, every man fails.
Every man fails. And that's just the truth. But God sees you. God loves you. And God and God alone can inspire you.
Joshua 19. Listen to these words. Have I not commanded you? God has spoken to you. Have I not commanded you?
Listen to these words, ladies. Be strong and courageous. Because here's what God knows, if I don't get the men, I'm not gonna get the women.
Pastor Matt Brown: He says to the men, do not be afraid. Do not be
Pastor Matt Brown: as discouraged. And why is that? Every man's afraid. Every man's discouraged. When Tammy and I first got married, we had to come up with a plan in case somebody broke into our house.
And so here's my plan. My plan was I told her, I said, babe, if somebody breaks in the house, you attack them.
Pastor Matt Brown: No. No. No. It's not that I
Pastor Matt Brown: was, you know, it's not that I was afraid. It's that I had a plan. Here's what I told her. I said, if I attack and get knocked out, we're all done. If you get knocked out, I said, we
Pastor Matt Brown: still got a chance.
Pastor Matt Brown: Yeah. That's why young men need to grow up. So I remember one night we're lying in bed, and I hear my wife, babe. Babe. Babe.
What? I'm sleeping. She says, someone's at the door. Someone's tried to get in our house. It was 3 in the morning.
I was absolutely just out of it. You ever been awoke, you know, from 3 in the morning? We didn't have kids yet, so we were actually asleep. You know what I'm saying? Like, when you have kids, it's just like, oh, this is not unusual.
She's like, babe, babe, babe. Go check. I'm like, remember the plan. Remember the plan. She got so angry at me.
And all of a sudden, I heard our front door crash open and glass shatter. And I don't know what happened. I forgot the plan. And all of a sudden something came up inside me. You ever seen your husband go psycho?
There's a reason for that. God put it in there. They just men just don't know when to use it. Like, when they go crazy, that's good, honey. Just not now.
Not now. Not now. Later. Later. Save it for later.
I went crazy. Completely naked. Flew out of bed. My wife bought us this princess bed that has these posts on the end, hit it right on my thigh as I was charging to save my family. And we had linoleum because we were poor in our kitchen.
We didn't have tile. We had linoleum, and I hit the linoleum naked. Slid and looked up, and there's a man standing in my front door. And you know what I did? I charged that man because there's nothing scarier than a naked white man.
Amen? Come on. Come on. And I dove at him trying to strangle him in the air, and I hear, it's your brother. It was my brother standing in our door.
It was 3 AM. He was dropping off my wife's homework. They were still in college, and we had an old house. And when he opened the door the pressure changed, and all of my wife's poorly put up shelves because she didn't let a man put it up. You know what I'm saying?
Amen? No, I'm kidding. But she missed the studs. It all crashed down and shattered. So the door hadn't shattered at all, but he was just standing there in shock because he opened the door at 3 AM.
Everything crashed and a naked man is charging him. But ladies, you want a man that's willing to die for you, that's willing to go for you. But they're afraid. They're afraid to be that man. But listen to this.
Why don't you need to be afraid, guys? Because the lord, your god, will be with you wherever you go. Listen to me, man. That's why you need God, because he's got your back. That's right.
And if you don't have God, you're all alone. You're all alone. And let me say this to everyone. We cannot criticize men into becoming like Christ. We cannot do that.
We have to inspire them. We have to inspire them. One of the most inspirational verses in scripture is when Jesus calls Peter and he tells him who he's gonna be. Jesus says, who do people say that I am? And the disciples are like, I don't know.
Some people say this, some people say that, you know. Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Listen to Jesus's reply. Well, you finally got one right. Thank God.
No. That's not what he says. He says, you are blessed, Simon, son of John. Isn't it interesting that he lists both him and his father? Because, listen to this, my father in heaven has revealed this to you.
You did not learn this from any human being. What's he saying? Peter, you're special. Special. But now I say to you that you are Peter.
And what does his name mean? Rock. And upon this rock, I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And it gets even better. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Can you imagine? For whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Wow. Can you imagine? God doesn't say, Peter, why are you always blowing it?
God doesn't say, Peter, why are you always messing up? God inspires and inspires and inspires. Right? God challenges and challenges and challenges. God says, I made you a man, and there's more that you can do.
And listen to me, young men. Listen to me. God has more adventures for you than video games. Somebody was asking me as I did an interview about my book, and they said this. They said, how on earth have you experienced so many stories?
Without thinking about it, here's what I said. All I did was I said yes to Jesus. That's it. That's all I said. And some of you say, well, pastor, you're a pastor.
It's easy food. It's not easy for me. It's been a couple weeks since I've preached. Last night when I went to bed, I was nervous about this message. This morning when I woke up, I was nervous to preach this message.
Listen to me. I'm not saying it's not it's not scary to follow God. I'm just saying it's an adventure. It's an adventure. And guys, get out of fantasy and invite Jesus into your reality, and you will do things that you you just can't imagine.
God takes a kid with dyslexia, and he uses him to write a book. What might God do with you? Do you know what's happening, you know, this summer at our church? Right now there's a war in Israel. Israel's at war with Gaza.
Do you know where we're sending a team as a church? To Israel. Do you wanna know why that is? Because Christianity is a great adventure. And you're, like, well, is it safe?
Maybe. The country's at war. Well, have you done this before? Yeah. We sent a team to Ukraine.
Doctors. We sent people to Turkey after the earthquake. That's what we do as Christians. We live an adventurous life because we know who holds our soul. We know that our lives are in his hands.
God does not promise safety. He promises an adventure. And God's inviting you to his adventure. If you're a young man in church today, I wanna encourage you to memorize this verse out of the King James version. I like how it's written best out of the King James.
This is a choppy Greek, verse. It's hard to understand. I think the King James got it poetically. First Corinthians 29. But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered, listen to this, into the heart of man.
Listen to me, guys. The things which god hath prepared for them that love him. You know what I hear young men say all the time? I'm bored. Well, stop being bored.
You don't need this book. You need this book. This book is full of adventures of men who trusted and followed God. And you wanna know how I wrote this book? Because I trusted this book.
I trusted this book. This book goes with me everywhere I go. I kid you not, this book has a a tracker on it. Like I'll get a text message. You have now left your bible behind.
Oh no. Why do I have that on there? Because I lost it once and I wasn't okay. I read this book every day. And not for my messages.
Listen to me, men. I read it for me. And here's the thing, guys, we don't read like ladies do. Right? They're always doing bible studies, they're always studying, and they know way more than you and way more than me.
But here's the thing is, if you want to step out onto the adventure, you have to do this one bold thing. You have to be brave enough to be a beginner. Guys, we don't like being embarrassed. We don't like being insulted. And for a lot of years as your pastor, people would ask me questions, and you know what my answer was?
I don't know, but I can find out. I've learned many of the things God's taught me through questions I didn't have an answer for. I don't know, but I'll find out. That's what I learned in seminary. I didn't learn everything I needed to know in seminary.
You know what I learned in seminary? How to figure out the answer. That's what seminary that's what 4 years of a master's degree in divinity taught me, how to do the work to find the answer. And, guys, we have a thing called the debrief. You you can be Annie Moss.
You can be Annie Moss. I don't know if you're a woman or a man. Just send the question in, and I'll answer it for you. And I'll do the best I can, and we will figure this thing out together. Next, men need God to show them how to be a better man.
Like, if you just ask men, in not a threatening way, in not a critical way, how many men wanna be better? I I bet it's it's pretty close to a 100%. Men would go, Yeah. Yeah. I need to be better.
And ladies, here's the thing. A lot of men quit trying because they feel like it's never good enough. And I've met some women that have higher standards than god, and that's not fair. It's not fair. What we need to do is we need to allow men to fail Because if they don't feel the freedom to fail, they'll never try.
They will never try. Job 3622, Look, god is all powerful. Let me tell you guys, you wanna know why you need god as a mentor? Listen to what Job says, who is a teacher like him? Who's a teacher like him?
You wanna know why men in our culture are so dumb? They don't have god as a teacher. They don't have it. One of the things that was really scary for me, and a lot a lot of young men are choosing not to get married because marriage is very scary in our culture. And can I just say, ladies, men risk a lot in our culture when they get married because the courts do not decide in their favor?
And I'm not saying, ladies, please don't send me the email how you got taken over. I'm not saying that there aren't instances where men get away with stuff. I'm just saying the percentages say men get screwed in the courtroom. So men are afraid. They're afraid.
They don't know how to grow up. But do you know that god knows how to be a faithful husband? Man, you don't know my wife. You don't know his wife. You don't know his wife.
You think you got problems? Look who God married. He married Israel, and his son didn't do much better. He married us. Amen?
God knows how to be faithful even when his bride is faithless. And a lot of men today, because they didn't have a dad, they're afraid to become a father. And let me say this, men, you should be afraid because being a dad is scary. I got good news. God knows how to be a father.
I've told you this story many times when my first kid was born. I'd never held an infant. Guys, I wanna encourage you, work in kids ministry. Hold babies. Be around kids because they're scary.
You know what's scarier than me preaching? Working with 4 year olds. That's scarier to me. You need to know how to act around kids. You need to know how to be strong.
But I I didn't know. I I hadn't worked around little kids. I had I didn't have little kids. I'd never held an infant, and they put Madison in my arms. They're, like, here you go.
No instructions. Nothing. We had a birthing class, not a parenting class. And why am I in the birthing class? I'm doing nothing.
I have zero role except don't say something dumb. Amen? Which, of course, I broke. Right? But I remember leaving Tammy and going home in an absolute panic attack, and I want every young man to hear me.
I said, God, I'm not ready to be a father. I don't know how to be 1, and I heard God say this to me. He said, but I do. I do. Next, do you know what God knows how to be?
Maybe well, you're not gonna be a father. Maybe God's called you to singleness. You know what God knows how to be? A good man. And you know how I know that?
Because his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. In Colossians 310, it says, put on your new nature. Maybe your parents didn't raise you. You see, Jesus wants to re raise you.
It's called being born again. It says, and be renewed as you learn, listen to this, to know your creator and, what, To become like him. I was scrolling through TikTok the other day, and I found one of these, you know, social justice warriors filming a person, and it was this old grumpy guy, probably my age with big old beer belly. And he's telling this young man, this feeling, you're not that guy. You're not that guy.
You're not him. And the kid says, Well, who's that guy? And the dude goes, Not you. And grabs the camera. And we all feel that way.
You know who you are, guys? You're not that guy. You're not him. You're not him. But you know who is him?
Jesus. He stepped up every time. He never lost, and he did that all for you. So how do you become that guy? How do you grow up?
This book right here. You say, well, what should I read? 2nd Timothy 316. All scripture is breathed out by god. All of it.
Listen to this. It's profitable for teaching. Well, my parents didn't teach me. My dad wasn't there for me. I was raised by a single parent.
I was raised by my aunts. I was raised in a foster home. I was raised by the state of California. I've met you. I was raised incarcerated.
What do I do? This is profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for correction. Listen to this. And for training in righteousness that the man of god may be complete. You know what a man is without god?
Not complete. God wants to complete you and equipped for every good work. God wants to help you guys. He wants to help you become the husband your wife's praying for. He wants to help you become the dad your kids need.
God is not here to judge you. He's here to inspire you. He's here to save you. He's here to redeem you. That voice you hear saying you can't do it, it's not God's voice.
It's your enemy and he's a liar. And he never tells the truth. What does Paul say to a discouraged young pastor? To a guy not cutting it? A guy who doesn't know how to lead.
He's in Ephesus. Ephesians are crazy. He says, but you, Timothy, are a man of God. So run from all these evil things and pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, and love, and perseverance, and gentleness. Listen to me, guys.
I know life is tough. I know life is hard. Here's what God says. Fight the good fight.
Pastor Matt Brown: Fight the good
Pastor Matt Brown: fight. Don't fight your spouse, fight for your marriage. Don't fight your kids, fight for their future.
Pastor Matt Brown: Fight the good fight. We all know how to fight the bad fight. We all know how to fight the stupid fight.
Pastor Matt Brown: God wants to teach you how to fight the good fight for the true faith. Listen to this. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you. Man, this series is to challenge men, call out men, inspire men. And we're gonna end on Father's Day weekend.
And you know what we're gonna do on Father's Day? We're gonna baptize. And I'm gonna encourage men in our church to start leading spiritually. And some of you men have never been baptized, and that's your chance to tell your family, to tell your wife, to tell your aunts, your uncles, I'm following Jesus and I'm making a decision today to become a man of God. And listen to me, dads.
And then for some of you, we're gonna let you be the spiritual leader of your home, and if you lead your kids to Christ, we're gonna let you baptize them. Because I'm not their leader, you are. And we're gonna inspire you, and we're gonna help you, and we're gonna come alongside you. And here's the thing, here's what the bible says, if God is for us, who can be against us? Like you and God makes a pretty good team.
And it's not you holding up your end of the bargain. God's gonna do it through you. So what I wanna do is I just wanna pray for the men of our church. We love you. We see you.
We believe in you. And we're hoping for you, and we're praying for you. So I wanna end the service today. If you're a woman, would you please stand? And I'm gonna have all the women in our church pray over our men because they need it.
They won't ask for it, but they need it. So ladies, would you please stand? And I just wanna put out your hands, and I want you to pray for these men. They're young. They're afraid.
They're addicted. They're broken, but they're loved. They're seen, and they matter. And if you're a young guy and you're not sure you can make it, call us. The church is here for you.
We're not gonna judge you. We're gonna love you. That's right. Your life matters to us. Ladies, let's pray over these men.
Father, we thank you for these brave women. These women that will intercede on behalf of men. God, you gave them us to help us to help us be men because we don't know what we're doing. You gave them to us to be wisdom, to be intercessors, to pray for us. God, I just pray that through the hands of these women that we would pray for the men in this church, for the young boys in this church, for the adolescents, for the teenagers, for the middle aged, and for the elderly men.
God, we fight for them right now, and we pray your holy spirit that you would intercede and that you would do battle for these men. Lord Jesus, you died on the cross for them, and you've called them. So as one church, as men and women, lord, we stand together, complement complementing each other, and we say, lord, we love men, and we pray over them. In Jesus' name, amen.