Act Like Men Session 1

Well, we can't stand what we want, right?

If you want, I'm sure. There's nothing that we deserve but death, but Lord, you gave us life. In praises to you, we'll continue to sing, Lord, we want these praises to be to you, to you alone, because you are seated on the throne, majestic.

You are Lord over all. You're the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who reigns forever. And today, we sing.

Those are special times.

And the special instructions given to men in disputing men, we should be devoted to prayer. So who would like to open us? Thank you, Tim. Father, thank you for this time together with men. I pray that you would speak through Jeff and that we would listen to what you have to say for us.

Through your word.

We know that your word is sharper than any two-edged sword. So I pray that we would be able to discern.

The intentions of our heart through the preaching of your word. So thank you for your word, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The overarching theme of the book of Daniel, John Laskin, what would you say it is?

What is the overarching theme of Daniel?

Sovereignty of God.

The sovereignty of God.

Amen.

His free will to do whatever he wants in the universe. None can stay his hand and say, why have you done it? But he does according to his will in the heavens and on earth. The will of God is unstoppable.

Now, to say that does not mean that the will of man is irrelevant. These are different categories. His decree is over everything that happens under the earth. But that does not mean that the human will is meaningless.

We are instrumental in the things that happen on earth. And the things that we do, the choices that we make, matter intensely. In fact, from our perspective, everything changes based on what we do or do not do.

God's eternal decree, his sovereignty, his will, is not ever overrun by our will, but compatible with his will is the will of man. And I will say to you this evening that the will of man is one of the most powerful forces.

In the universe.

It is an important thing to consider. In the book of Daniel, you have the will of God over the nations, even the giving over of Israel to Babylon. You have God sovereign from cover to cover in the prophecies that are unfolded.

But you also see the strong will of a man named Daniel. When told to eat the king's food and to drink the king's wine, what did Daniel do? He refused. And by the strength of his will, empowered by his God, he refused the king's food, and the result of that is he turned out healthier than the other boys.

Later on, the wicked king decreed that everybody had to pray to this king alone. And Daniel exerted his will and even opened his windows in a show of defiance by the strength of his will, refused to pray to a false god and openly prayed to the true God.

His will on display. As a result of that, what did they do to Daniel? And refusing to back down, he was willing, willing to go face the lions rather than to obey a wicked order. There came a time when a vision was given to Daniel.

He set himself to pray and fast. As soon as he, by the exercise of his will, restraining his appetite and seeking God all day long, as soon as he began to pray, what did God do? In the heavens, God released Gabriel to bring him an answer.

But by the strength of his will, he persevered and he endured in prayer and in fasting. And it wasn't until the 21st day that God released Michael, the archangel, to come to his help. And the result then is he got this vision and this prophecy which unfolded the history of the world, this incredible revelation.

But somehow, the spiritual war that was happening in heaven between Michael and the archangels, Michael and Gabriel, against these demons,.

The prince of Persia,.

And other demonic forces in the heavenlies, these were invisible things. But here on earth, Daniel's will was in the middle of the fight, is in the battle. When we talk this weekend about spiritual warfare, we're not just talking about invisible things.

That have nothing to do with us.

Somehow, the way we fight on earth affects the outcomes in the heavenlies.

And the way things unfold.

Now, does that overrun God's decree or change his mind? No, of course not, that's a different category. But the will of man, from our perspective, is changing outcomes. The will of man. Let's think of a few other examples from history or from the Bible of strong-willed men.

Who can you think of besides Daniel, strong-willed man? Paul was pretty hard-headed, wasn't he? He was unstoppable, nothing could deter him. No matter if he was stoned and left for dead, he would get back up and go right back into the city.

Couldn't turn him away.

Who else can you think of?

Peter, very strong-willed. In church history, we have, in the Reformation, strong-willed men like Martin Luther and Calvin and Melanchthon and all of the Reformers willing to die, if need be, in order to restore the true gospel.

One of those Reformers was John Knox. Training with Calvin in Geneva, he prayed, give me Scotland, Lord, or give me death. And he went head-to-head with Mary, Queen of Scots,.

For a long period of time.

In fact, Mary had come to say that she fears John Knox's prayers more than all the assembled armies of Europe. There was spiritual warfare for a nation, and the prayers of John Knox were instrumental in bringing that nation to Presbyterianism,.

Out of the bondage of Rome.

It was a spiritual battle fought in the will. Knox had to be willing to die, and he was exiled and he lived and then ultimately died for the cause, but Scotland was won to the gospel. And his son-in-law after him, John Welch, exiled to France, a cannonball shot from the wicked Romish king of France blew the gunpowder out of Knox's hand at one point, I mean, out of Welch's hand.

The son-in-law of John Knox, another time he was laying in his bed, and the cannonball split his bed in half as he slept.

Wow.

John Welch, a strong-willed man, but he fought and fought and then came back to Scotland.

Ultimately, the battle was won.

Patrick Henry, here in the United States of America, what is his famous saying? Give me liberty or give me death. Give me liberty or give me death. Who talks like that anymore? Who is willing to die for the sake of the cause?

Well, let's turn and meet a man that we have spent little time considering whose name is Apollos. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 16, verses 12 to 14. Now, when asked about who are the strong-willed men of the Bible, we think of Daniel and Moses, we think of Peter, and somebody here said Paul.

Was a tour de force.

He wrote 13 books, possibly Hebrews, in the New Testament.

Possibly 14.

Right, that's debatable.

But the other option of who could have written Hebrews would be Apollos, because he had sufficient learning.

To put that together. I used to think it was Apollos.

Now I think it's Paul. I think Paul was using like a manuessen, kind of like somebody to write. That's why the Greek language is different in Hebrews, but I think it was his teaching that brought it to Rome.

That's what he came here to talk about.

Yeah, that's what I'm excited about.

You know who thought that Apollos wrote it?

Martin Luther.

Luther held that Apollos wrote Hebrews. Maybe that is it, man. Let's read, somebody read for me 1 Corinthians 16, 12 to 14, and guys, this is the theme passage of this weekend. Setting the stage for manliness, what it really means to be a man, and my opening message here at this retreat will be that it includes setting your will and being as strong-willed as Apollos in the battle.

Most men will waste their strength on lesser things, worthless things, and lose their will. Apollos did not. Who would like to read for me? 1 Corinthians 16, 12 to 14.

Now concerning my brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Let all that you do be done in love.

Excellent.

The book of 1 Corinthians is untangling a knot. It is sorting out an absolute mess,.

A dumpster fire of a church.

Corinth had as many problems as there are hours in the day, and Paul goes through the book one at a time, knocking out the issues. But when he gets to the end of the book, instead of negatively dealing with the problems, he turns around and gives five imperatives.

What is an imperative?

It's what we should do.

It's what we should do.

It's a command. It is not an optional statement.

It's not a suggestion.

An imperative is a command. So here in verses 13 and 14, the first is be watchful. It sounds to me like a drill sergeant closing up this book with five hard-hitting commands.

Be watchful.

Two, stand firm in the faith. The third is interesting for a men's retreat. Act like men. You're not allowed to say that in our culture today, because that would be misgendering someone who thinks that they're other than how God made them.

No.

Be strong is the fourth. And then the fifth is let all that you do be done in love. I've always clued in on that passage because it's so striking, just that staccato fashion of just commands. It makes you perk up and pay attention.

And as a man, hopefully there's something in you that says, yeah, I wanna be a man.

I wanna act like a man.

I wanna be strong.

But what I always have glossed over in reading this passage is verse 12. What can we learn from Apollos? I find this incredibly interesting. Now, consider who Paul is. Paul is the apostle by the will of God, undisputed leader of the church at this point.

He is the one who's taken the gospel where Apollos ministers. Apollos is a Jew, but he's from Alexandria down in Egypt. He was never from Jerusalem. And he goes up to Turkey and then into Greece,.

To Achaia, Corinth.

So his ministry is not around Jerusalem. He's not familiar with Peter, James, and John. He is in Paul's territory, Ephesus and Corinth. And Paul is the one who has been planting churches in these Gentile places.

Paul is the man. But notice in verse 12, Paul says, now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urge. Now, is that a command? No, it's not. Urging is different than commanding. Paul understands that the soldiers that he is leading are not his puppets.

He is not directing them and commanding them.

As Lord over them.

He's a leader among them. And this is not a matter of sin. Apollos has stewardship over his own life. Paul doesn't own his life. Apollos is not a slave to Paul. But notice, he strongly urged. He had a very strong will for what Apollos should do.

And that was to go visit Corinth. Things have been rough there.

I'm sending you, I wanna send you.

But notice the clash of wills. This is what I find so interesting. But it was not at all his will to come now. You know what I love about that? He's dealing with a great apostle. He himself is relating to God as his Lord, as his one chief shepherd of his soul.

And he knows who he is in Christ and he knows what God has called him to do. And once a man of God has a mission like that, no one and nothing, including the great apostle, should be able to move you from that mission.

Once you know what God has called you to do, nothing in heaven or on earth should be able to stop you from doing what God has called you to do. And I love this because he was not at all willing. It was not his will to come now.

And Paul even signs it off by saying, he'll come when he has opportunity. Which tells me that Paul relented. He could tell he's not changing Apollos' mind. This is a man on a mission. And I see here in Apollos a man of strong will.

I think in the church many times we have thought that willfulness is always bad. Now let's look a little more carefully at the life of Apollos. How many times do you suppose Apollos is mentioned.

In the New Testament?

How many mentions of his name?

Take a guess.

10!

You got it exactly right. And I've listed all of them here on your notes. Right? If you notice in 1 Corinthians 3, 4 to 6, that's three references because he's mentioned in four, five, and six. But these references beginning at the top with the one we just saw, 1 Corinthians 16, 12, all the way down.

Let's quickly look at these 10 verses and learn why it is that Apollos was right to be so strong-willed. What had he set himself to do? What were the things he was standing for?

I'm gonna go around the room.

So Brad, I'll probably call on you first if you could find Acts 18, 24. You can either turn in the scripture or just read it right off the notes. So, and then Bob, 19, 1. Cameron, 1 Corinthians 1, 12.

Mike, can you do 3, 4 to 6? John, 3, 22. What's your name? Mason, I didn't know which of the brothers you were.

You're 4, 6.

And then Titus 3, 13, Eric. Look first at Acts 18, 24.

Brad, read it for us.

Now, the Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, confident in the scriptures.

Did you say he was an elephant man?

No. Elephant? No.

I don't think so.

You're an elephant.

Eloquent.

Eloquent, oh yes, yes.

Tuss, tuss, tuss. He's a native of Alexandria. Alexandria, at this time, as our PhD historian would be able to tell us, was the center of learning,.

Wasn't it?

It was probably the preeminent center of learning. They followed the philosophy of Philo and were very knowledgeable, very studied, and he comes from this place. Now, he is a Jew, but notice where his attention.

Had been devoted.

Yes, he had probably learned some of that eloquence by the schools that he was involved in, maybe probably the influence of Philo, which was more of a metaphorical, allegorical style of teaching, but he was very dramatic, very well-spoken.

He knew how to communicate truth. But the key verse here at the end of verse 24, the key part of the verse, it says he was competent in scriptures. Here is a man who had devoted himself to learning. Education, education is a good thing.

Remember our friend Daniel? Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah and Mishael and Azariah, were devoted to learning, so much so that the king chose them out to become part of his court. They had studied language.

They were quick studies. They were willing to devote themselves.

To hitting the books.

One of the things that made this man, Apollos, useful in the kingdom is that he was willing to learn. Education here is not regarded as a bad thing, but it wasn't the learning of Alexandria or of the Roman Empire that was foremost.

Sure, he read history. Sure, he read science and studied many areas of study, but the thing that is pointed out by Luke here in chapter 18, verse 24, is that he was competent in the scriptures. If you ever want to be on mission for God, if you ever want to be sure of what God has called you to do, you have to be competent in scripture.

You have to be spending time in the word of God, sharpening the edge of that sword. I think of David's mighty men who went into battle. I think it was metaphorical as well as a physical reality that holding the sword, fighting off the enemy, the mighty man's hand froze to the handle of the sword.

What was that guy's name? Eliezer, was it? His hand froze to the sword. In the same way, if you become competent in the scripture, your hand froze into your sword, which is the word of God, you are becoming strong for the battle.

It's a prerequisite to being on mission for God. Unless you're competent in scripture, what do you have to say? Nobody cares about your opinion on this, that, or the other. They need to hear from God, and the only place we learn that from, the special revelation of the word of God.

He was competent in scripture. Next verse, Bob, please. 19.

One.

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.

Okay, so here in 19 .1, you have Paul and Apollos basically crisscrossing each other, going to different places and missing one another.

Priscilla and Aquila are in the mix,.

But look at the previous verse indicating what he did in this Achaea region, so probably the city of Corinth, certainly at some point, but he had gone from the Turkish continent over into Greece, into Achaea, and lands at Corinth.

In verse 28 of chapter 18, he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. Here you have a man who's willing to refute the lies. And in this, I would sum that up with the word apologetics.

Is it worthwhile to spend time on a Monday night to learn what Mormons and Roman Catholics and Muslims and atheists and secularists think? Yes, in order to refute their views, you need to understand their worldview.

But more importantly, you're there with a sword in hand to show them by the scripture that the Christ is Jesus. So here we're seeing a glimpse of why Apollos was so sure of himself. Well, he was in the scripture, and he was in the battle, fighting for that scripture.

Now we turn to 1 Corinthians 1. So here we had learned in the book of Acts that Apollos had gone to the Corinthian church, and he had begun to teach them, watering the ground where Paul had sown the seed.

Now, this presents a problem, evidently, because the Corinthians, as we mentioned, they're a dumpster fire. They take this as an opportunity to become sectarian. Some following the teachings of Paul, and others beginning to esteem Apollos as a better teacher, and assuming he's teaching something different, they begin to break off into factions.

So let's turn to 1 Corinthians 1, and the next mention of Apollos is in verse 12.

Who's up? Cameron?

What I mean is that each one of these says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ.

Right.

So here it's possible there's four factions, because some follow Cephas, and some follow Christ. I think it's more likely that there's two. I think that you have some who are following Apollos, who are setting themselves up as now more enlightened.

They've moved on, they're the super spiritual, the enlightened, and this other group is saying, wait a minute, no, we're apostolic. Paul went down and met with Peter, and so we have not only the testimony of Paul, but he's saying what the apostles said, and we're sticking with him, the apostles.

And then I think this group turns around and says, oh yeah, well we follow Christ directly. We don't need any apostles in Jerusalem. So I think there's probably a division between this group, who in following Apollos, has thought themselves super spiritual, and others who are less impressed, or less willing to devote themselves to a man.

And yet, they're claiming the same thing. So it's become ugly. I think there's two factions, could be four different factions. You've got your Peter group, and the Jesus group, the Jesus people, and the Cephas, I mean the Paul and the Apollos.

But in any case, what you had in Apollos was leadership. He had come and taught, and poured himself into them, to the point where men were willing to follow after him. He was the leader of men. So what do you think they saw in him, that they were willing to follow?

Character, competence.

They saw he knew the scripture.

If he was the one who wrote the book of Hebrews, look at the depth of that theology. Even if he didn't, we know from the book of Acts, his competence, and how he was able to refute even the Jewish scholars on their turf.

Here was a man who had studied the scripture, and this sword was what he was wielding. But notice something else about his leadership, verses, chapter three, verses four to six, Mike.

For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? What is Apollos, what is Paul? Servants through whom you believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted Apollos water, but God gave it fruit.

Paul will remind them that the leadership of himself and of Apollos was not lording over anyone. It was a servant leadership. The word servant, in verse five, is key in this passage, that they were not there to elevate themselves, such that some would have a faction following one and following another.

Apollos had come as a servant to help and to be willing to serve the Lord Christ alongside of them. He was willing to get his hands dirty, just like Paul, making tents. He was willing to do whatever needed to be done in the service of the church.

So his leadership was a servant leadership. We're almost done with Apollos. We'll move on quickly here.

Chapter four, verse six.

John?

322.

Oh yeah, 322, I missed that. 322 and then 4 -6.

Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, whether present or the future, all are yours.

Awesome.

So it's not that Apollos was over them, but rather that he was a gift to them. He was given to them. Paul says, all are, meaning he was given. He came with a concern for them and willing to pour into their lives.

He had not a desire to be elevated or even regarded as equal. Paul is saying, both of us are given to you. We're gifts in that sense. And every member of the church is a gift to the church and every teacher.

In Ephesians chapter four, it talks about how God gave some apostles and other evangelists and other pastor teachers. These are given to the church.

Because it's a gift from God.

For the building up of the body. Next, first Corinthians 4 -6.

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos.

For your benefit, brothers,.

That you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

Paul's concern is against puffing up pride. And he points out the humility of himself and of Paul and of Apollos. He says that none would be puffed up as one against another. So here you see the humility of Apollos and also of Paul.

Lastly, Titus 3 -13, the final mention.

Do your best to speak,.

See us the lawyer of Apollos on the way. See that they lack nothing.

Awesome, thank you.

Here, as Paul has been planting churches and finally appointing elders, Titus has become a pastor, where Paul had left, I think it was in Crete. And Apollos is still in the ministry. He's still running the mission.

So from this, I see a steadfast endurance, even to the end. Speed Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing. He's still partnering in the gospel and you see a steadfast endurance.

So in the bottom of your notes, in the application section, from Apollos, you see him devoting himself to the same things that made him great. He's on mission. He's willing to study the scriptures, particularly becoming educated and so competent.

Apologetics, leadership, service, concern for others, humility and steadfast endurance. Why is it a good thing that Apollos was so strong-willed? Because his will had been set to the very things that are at the heart of God.

Strong-willed, there's many women who complain that after 20 years, I still can't change him. He's still just like when we got married. I haven't been able to change him. Did you know that is almost definitional of a man?

That men are by definition strong-willed. It's part of what it is to be a man because men are called to be providers and protectors, to go before and to go do the hard things, to be the ones who were called to be the first to forgive, the first to step up and to do the hardest work.

If there's a heavy cabinet in the house, which of the two in the marriage is called to move it? The man's gotta step up and be a man. And in the same way, a man will be strong-willed. Now the problem is if a man becomes strong-willed in things other than the mission of God, it tends to be useless.

Strong-willed about watching every football game.

That comes on on a Sunday, every Sunday.

And nothing can change him.

Because that's what he's gonna do.

But it's useless. So now the second half of the sermon here, I wanted to turn our attention to what robs a man of his will, what emasculates a man and takes away his desire to accomplish a mission.

Let's go back to our main passage,.

1 Corinthians 16, 13. We have the positive model of Apollos, a strong-willed man. Even Paul couldn't change his mind. He knew who he was in Christ. He knew what he was called to do. He stayed on mission and nothing could deter him.

It was a servant-hearted mission. It was competent. It was in the scriptures. It led other people to the point where his ministry was competitive with Paul's in the minds of the people. This is a strong-willed man.

And yet Paul warns in verse 13 of what can take that away.

Be watchful.

Stand firm in the faith.

Act like men.

Be strong. And then we'll get to the 14th verse.

Just to close it out at the end.

Watch out for things that will steal your strength and rob you of your manliness.

That's what Paul's saying there.

Watch out.

There are things to be watchful of.

There are things that make you not manly. There are things that make you flimsy,.

The opposite of firm.

There are things that make you weak, the opposite of strong. I was listening to a podcast by a man that I consider to be manly because he doesn't mince words. He may not be the best spoken all the time.

And I don't agree with this theology all the time. He's post-millennial and theonomic, goes a little far into those things. But he is willing to say things the way they are without flinching. His name is A .D. Robles.

Anybody heard of him?

A .D. Robles? You like A .D. Robles?

I love that guy. And he's funny. He titled one of his videos, very strangely, Keep Yourself from Pornos and Drugs and Hydrogenated Oils. Hydrogenated Oils. So I clicked on that, like okay,.

That's an interesting title for a podcast.

And he said he had a Eureka moment. He began to think about what is destroying this culture. And he looked around and he said, look at the sexual, just, anarchy and just the absolute breakdown of the minds of the youth.

What's the common denominator behind this drift.

In all of those things?

And he traced it to pornography. And then he said, what would cause, for the first time in the history of the world, someone to walk into a school and shoot random kids? Who would, that's not been done.

Something is getting really out of, and he traced it to drugs. Then in each case, either prescribed drugs, in the most recent case in Nashville, it was a woman who had been taking male, masculine hormones of testosterone for years and years to the point where her mind was deranged and went in and shot a pastor's daughter and some other children.

How does the mind get that warped?

It is the use of drugs.

Now there is, in some extreme cases, reasons to use medicine. But the use of fentanyl and street drugs and the quick use of psychedelic or psychiatric drugs for things like ADHD. Children that are just prescribed drugs because of anxiety or some level of depression.

The first thing that the doctors run to is drugs. So A .D. Robles was thinking about this and thinking how bad the culture has gotten.

And he said, you know what?

If you could just tell your son, the young man in your church, keep yourself away from pornos and drugs, you are doing well. You are likely going to be fine if you can stay away from those two things.

And here was his eureka moment. Acts 15. Wasn't that a strange exhortation turned to me to Acts chapter 15, verse 20. And I think he's right about this. He said he had always read this passage and wondered why, when the church refuted the Judaizing of the gospel,.

Why did they turn around.

And pick four random commands to issue? We still have the whole moral law of God. The 10 commandments are still in effect. It's not that the Jerusalem council would have said,.

You know what?

You can go and murder people now. You can go and lie to your spouse and do anything that you want. Just don't do these four things. The eureka moment that A .D. Robles had was that in the culture at that time, he was looking around and seeing the pitfalls, the particular things that would be a major snare to a new believer in a Gentile culture.

And the first one is the same one throughout all of time. It really doesn't change.

Sexual immorality.

Sexual immorality is the pitfall that has tripped up many young men who otherwise had been given by God the strength within them to stand and accomplish something great. But how many young men who once had a fire in their heart,.

A vision in their mind,.

A mission to accomplish, became emasculated and pacified and bored by looking at pornography? How many young men wasted their life and lost that drive?

A .D. Robles says,.

You can trace a lot of the problems of the day to just a handful of problems. And he added hydrogenated oils,.

Which by that,.

He was talking about just eating badly, overeating and those kind of things. A handful of problems.

What were they?

And let's read Acts 15 verse 20. Write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, because idolatry in that culture was the worship of these pagan gods. If you want to go on and have any participation in the worship of pagan gods, you're cutting yourself off from the power.