This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. If you have your Bibles with you, turn to Matthew chapter 16, verses 13-27 as our text for the morning. And by the way, bring those Bibles if you have one at home. And if you need one, let me know or some of our staff will work out a way to get you one so that you have one. I believe it's printed in the insert in your bulletin as well too. You'll be on the screen as an additional aid. But bring those when you have them. As you know, it's already been mentioned that our ladies are off on a retreat this weekend, or at least many of them are about 16 or 16 in that range. So we want to continue to pray for them as they'll be coming back later this afternoon as well. But knowing that several weeks now or a couple months now ahead of time, I thought about I didn't know how many women would be there, how many... But I figured I'd have more men here compared to women, which I think is relatively true this morning. So I thought weeks ago that, you know, I should plan a sermon. Maybe directing more towards our men this morning that might be here in greater population. And so as I was thinking about that, well, the women are retreating, I thought, well, men should be advancing. So I decided to call the Texas Morning Men's advance. And let me just say we're off to bed. I don't mean to imply that our women are doing something opposite of what I'm trying to address here. Because they are certainly advancing in many ways as well too. Getting away, getting some time to replenish themselves, refresh, get to know each other better. But I really wanted to take advantage of the topic here and opportunity to really speak to our men directly here. And that includes, by the way, anybody who's a male in the room. So whether you're middle school, high school, moving up, and I want to also save our off to bed here. Ladies, don't say, all right, great. Pick the wrong week to come. This is going to be boring because I want to encourage you, as you're hearing things here this morning, will you do something very, very important? Will you pray for the men that are in your life? It might be your husband. It might be your brother or father. It might be your children. Will you think about some of the things that are here? And will you take this opportunity to pray for the men that got us a place around you in your life? Also, there'll be principles here this morning that are just as applicable to women as they are to men. So don't let my specific charge and application to men have you miss that or misapply that opportunity yourself here this morning. So I just want to encourage you to be participating in those ways. Well, let's look at the text this morning. Let's read it. I'll read it out loud, read it along, signalling your heart as I read it. And realize this is the holy word of God. Along after everything that we know fails to exist anymore, God's Word will continue and live on. And will never return void. So as we look at it here this morning here, the very word of God. Beginning verse 13. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked, Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon, Son of Jonah. This was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders. She preached and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed. And on the third day, he raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never Lord, he said, This shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself. And take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give an exchange for his soul? For the son of man is going to come and his father's glory with his angels. And then he will reward each person according to what he has done. This is God's holy and inspired word this morning. Let me pray one more time. Father, I ask that that very word that we read would be reflecting and would be penetrating and reverberating in our hearts and minds for the rest of our time that we are here this morning. Father, pray to your spirit would be our teacher now. God, the things that I might say that are not true to your word, we let those be quickly forgotten. And the things that I say that are aligned with your word be remembered, God, and be enhanced and be encouraged. So father, I ask that your spirit would use me as your vessel and tool this morning. And father, pray that you would speak now to hearts of men in this room, as well as hearts of ladies in this room as well. And father, you would raise up men to be men after your own heart, just like David was. So father, go before us now and pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, this text is a very common text. In fact, it's usually quoted, usually with the whole context not together. Usually hear people talk about Jesus told Peter upon that rock, I'm going to build my church. Or you'll hear people talk about this other part. Jesus said come after me. You must have known yourself and take up your cross. But I wanted to put the two together because they appear right together in the context of scripture for you to hear Jesus at one place rebuking Peter and then just versus earlier, he was their encouraging Peter. So what was going on with Peter? You hear some of the most encouraging things that God, Jesus Christ, could say about anybody to Peter. And then versus later, you hear some of the most, what sound like damning things that Jesus could say about a person. So what's up with Peter? What's up with this particular man? What's up? That thing's very common for every man as we look at it this morning. Well, statistically for every ten men in church, I'm not talking about outside of church, but statistically for every ten men that are in church, all ten will wrestle to balance work and family. 100%. Nine will have children who leave the church. Did you know that? It's scary. Eight will find their jobs unsatisfying. Six will pay only the monthly minimum on their credit cards. Five will have a major problem with pornography. Four will get divorced, affecting one million children per year. And only one will have a biblical world view. Now that right there ought to tell you right off the bat, something is wrong, not just with people, but specifically with men. As the men, I speak to you as a fellow man here this morning, not one who has reached the end or somehow necessarily farther ahead, but simply a fellow pilgrim on the journey here this morning. But as we unpackage that here, as we look at that, let's be honest, wrap the bat, it's really a scary endeavor. It's really kind of scary to peel back the onions sometimes and realize that what's beneath it may not be very appealing, may not be very encouraging, maybe even scarier than what's on the surface sometimes. If you look at that, you might remember the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So taking what wisdom and truth is there. Let's look deeper at what the problem is here underneath it all. Here's the problem that I think this text points out here that you see it, the tension going on in Peter's life, and it's true for all of us, but especially for men. The problem, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord, but rejecting the Lord's agenda. Do you see that here? Peter has just made a statement, you are the Christ, you are the Son of God, you are the Messiah. He's gotten it A plus 100% accurate, perfect. And Jesus even says, upon that statement, upon that truth, I'm going to build my church in the gates of hell. We'll not prevail against it. Powerful words. And then moments later, Jesus is saying, get behind me, Satan, for you have your mindset on the things of man, not the things of God. Do you realize how easy it is for us as men to exalt and to believe and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, but then to take the Lord's agenda for our lives and set it aside? Peter, one of the great leaders in the church did it. You and I do it as well, if we're honest. Now, I just want you to look at comparison these two separate little stories that are connected here. Notice that on one hand, you have it in the first story with Peter making a population about Christ, he nailed it. Who does Jesus say he got it from? He said these words weren't revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven. He nailed it, he heard it from God, and he says, upon this rock, upon this statement, I'm going to build my church. Now, contrast that to the second half of the story where Jesus says, basically, Peter, you blew it. Okay, he nailed it moments ago, but now you blew it. He told him that you heard it from God, from my father in heaven, he says, he rebukes them that you didn't get it from God at all. From he said, hey, you were the rock. Upon your statement of truth, I'm going to build my church. He now says, you are like Satan and get the behind me. It's quite a contrast that you see here, but notice that the key thing here is this problem of accepting Jesus Christ as Lord but rejecting the Lord's agenda. So what's the solution? The solution is pretty simple. Abandon your agenda to trust and obey the Lord's. Man, I want to challenge you here this morning to acknowledge the reality of the truth of this that is so much easier for you to proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord than it is to adopt and participate and practice his specific agenda for your life. Because let's be honest, his agenda sometimes, oftentimes, most of the times, going to make you feel uncomfortable, is going to make you feel extended beyond yourself, is going to make you have to rely on him rather than rely on yourself. It's not going to be popular with the world around you. It's not going to be proclaimed on television and the newspapers as the way to go. It might even come across as being weak compared to other plans and methods. It might come across as being less manly compared to other methods and ideologies. But nevertheless, if Jesus Christ is Lord, then his agenda must be followed and must be kept. Well, I want to get even more specifically. I want to challenge men you specifically with several things this morning. One, I want to challenge you to ask yourself the honest questions that I'm raising up right now and to commit yourself to look for honest answers in the next time period that we have here this morning. Will you do that? Will you ask yourself honest questions? And will you not accept easy, simple answers, but look for the truthful ones that we see in God's Word? I want to challenge you as well, too. Will you make a decision today with a plan? You've got a blank page for notes. I don't care whether you take notes or not on paper. Will you take them in your heart? Will you make a plan and listen to the Holy Spirit during our time here this morning about what he might specifically call you to do and to pick action on them? Will you give yourself the freedom to start over? So one of the most freeing things that I could tell you here this morning is that you have the freedom to start over today, fresh and new. There's a reason why the Scriptures are often telling us that you are a new creature in Christ and the oldest passed away. There's a reason why the Scriptures tell us that God is making all things new. It's because He wants you to know that the very purpose of Jesus Christ was not just here to come and save you for that moment you die, but the moment now to make your life new. I didn't expect what happened to me this past week to be so relevant to this message here today when I took this topic weeks ago, months ago, actually. Just even this past week, I found myself Monday morning waking up had been a really busy long week and I was just tired, I was exhausted. I thought, you know, I've got to have some time with God. I'm going to put off some things on my agenda here. I'm going to take some time and be still and listen. I won't lie to you. Lauren, I had been bumping heads over the last couple of days and hours that morning. I was feeling very frustrated. Let's be more honest. I was very angry, sick of where things were at, sick of trying to fix things up and try to fix where I was trying to do. I just had some time to be still, to listen. I took most of the morning to do that. She went off and left. It was just me, me and the house, and the dog. And I want to tell you, the thing that came across that morning I was there is that I just felt this impression of the Holy Spirit to start over. Quit trying to fix the track that you're on that's so kind of messed up and distorted. There were some good things about what I was trying to do and leading myself and my family and the church. But I felt like I was trying to, you know, I felt like I'd headed down a path and I'd gotten really off course or things were kind of crooked. I was trying to get things straightened down. I just heard in my spirit, God say, what's wrong with starting over? What's wrong with just stopping here and going, you know, all things are new in Christ. And it was the most freeing thing I've done in a long time. I took out a blank piece of paper and I began to think, what if I was starting over? And I took that in every aspect of my life. What about if I was starting over just as a man starting out? Maybe I just graduated from college and I was heading out to the right future in the unknown world. What would I be doing? Knowing what I know now, having the wisdom I have as a 42-year-old that I didn't have when I was an 18-year-old or a 22-year-old when I graduated from college, what would I do different? What would I start making important in my life? Then I went on to marriage. What would I do if I had to start my marriage over 20 years ago roughly? I got married. What would I like to get in place now that I've learned and I knew was important if I had that opportunity? What if it was back to 1992 when Michael, my first born son, was born? What if I could change things and start things new there with him and with the kids I would have as time went on? And I began to make some notes about what I would do differently, decisions I would make differently. And amazingly, I felt this relief of going, wait a minute, why can't today I start over? Why can't I make new decisions today? Why can't I let decisions, failures of the past, let them go and trust Christ for a new beginning? Laura came back a little bit later that afternoon. I said, hey, we need to talk. She didn't want to talk. I kind of didn't want to talk, either. But knew we should. And after talking a little bit about starting over, she was like, yeah, I think that's a great idea. Let's start over. A couple of days later, they expect this, they know that she would say this. But I heard her say, you know, I think I haven't felt this much freedom and joy for 18 years in our marriage and family. Why? Because we decided to start over and quit letting things of the past, quit letting fears of the past, quit letting questions about the future. Worry us and say, let's start fresh each day. Let's take it as a gift from God that we can begin fresh and new. We've had a great week. And there were times where we had to come back and say, look, all right, we say we're going to start over. Let's really start over here. Because it wasn't all roses and piece of cake all week long. But I continue to here. I'm excited going into week number two, thinking, I have an opportunity to start over, even here today. And I want to encourage you men to don't let the enemy rob you of the truth that there's a new day. And when he says in lamentations that my mercies are new every morning, it doesn't just say something about God's abundance. It says something about your need. If you need his mercies to be new every morning and they are new this morning, September 26, 2010. Let me continue with the challenge, men. Give yourself the dream to start over. The next thing, lead your heart well. I want to challenge you to lead your heart well. You know, we say our purpose here as a church is to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to our hearts, our church, and the world around us. If you've been around here at England at the time, you know, that's our purpose statement as a church. But I want to give you some real practical ways to say, how are we going to do that? How can we do that as men specifically? How can we start over and bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to our hearts? Because men will not be able to advance until we begin here. Let me say that again, men. You will not be able to advance until you begin here knowing that it starts with your heart. Dehawk, a leadership expert, writes this. He says it is management of self that should occupy 50% of our time and the best of our ability. And when we do that, the ethical moral and spiritual elements of management are inescapable. Do you hear that? Here's a leadership expert saying that 50% of your time, men, this is not a pastor writing this. This is the leadership expert writing to business professionals. 50% of your time should be spent leading yourself, managing yourself, because it's that important. I will tell you what one pastor said. Bill Heible's pastor will the Greek church, one of the largest churches in the world, says this, Jesus' pattern of intense ministry activity quickly followed by times set aside for reflection, prayer, fasting, solitude. It was practicing the art of self-leadership and nobody. I mean nobody can do this work for us. Every leader has to do this work alone and it isn't easy. We would rather try to inspire or control the behavior of others than face the rigorous work of self-reflection and inner growth. We will not be able to advance until we begin with the fact that we must begin by leading our own hearts well. And that begins men first with your connection with God, your relationship with God. In Matthew chapter 14, Jesus has just finished feeding 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, from just a few loaves of bread and a few fish. And people are amazed. By the way, you'd be amazed at how much your leadership ranking goes up when you all of a sudden feed people from nothing. People all of a sudden said, and then you got my vote. If I know that my needs could constantly and faithfully be met by you, I don't quite care about the other political agenda. He had this well-swing of people moving. He had a disciples all pumped up about that. It was like time to charge. Things were moving. Incredible miracle would just happen. What does Jesus do? Well, verse 22, immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat. Notice it says immediately as if this was so important, so imperative. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. And when evening came, he was there alone. What's up with that? Then Jesus had perfect fellowship with his father in heaven because he does. He says he does. Why does Jesus need to get away, to send even his disciples away and get alone on the mountain top? Why? Because the very reason why Jesus represents the perfect life, the perfect man life, is that he has perfect reliance on his father. And as great as exciting as to see the power of the God working and moving, Jesus needed the time to get away and to recharge and to refocus and be just him and his father in heaven. Jesus knew how to lead his heart and did it perfectly. And then we had the tendency to think that we don't need that component. Well, that's only when time is really getting tough. Or my five or ten minute devotional day, if I have time to squeeze in, I'm good to go. Rather than hungry and thirsting for a relationship with God and drawing all your strength and your power from Him like Jesus did. You know, it begins with having a right relationship with God. You can't connect with God unless you are in a right relationship with Him. You know that 90% of Americans pray regularly, 90% would say they pray daily, pray a lot. The only problem is that there's not 90% of Americans who are truly, sincerely, followers of Jesus Christ. But they're praying regularly. So what's up with that? You see, without Christ, there's no access to the Father in heaven. Jesus says the only way that we can boldly come before the Father in heaven is through Jesus Christ who makes that way possible. Praying apart from Jesus Christ and praying apart from completely coming before the Father in heaven through Jesus Christ is totally useless. You're not praying to the same God the Bible if that's the case. So men, let me say here first, because there's no chance there's one or two, maybe a few men here in this room that are not in a right relationship with God. And how does that happen? It happens by stringing your life to Jesus Christ by trusting that He's the only one that can give you forgiveness of your sins. The He's the only one that can present you before a perfect Holy Father in heaven, perfect and flawless, because God will have no sin in this presence. And He's your only assurance of eternal life. That's how you begin with the right relationship with God. And if you miss that point here and you try to skip the point too, it will not work. Not a single other thing I will say this morning or anything else in the Scriptures will mean anything to you unless you don't begin there. Yielding your life to Jesus Christ or right connection with God, because that's where it began. Then you cannot advance unless you are in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Well my hope and my trust is that most of you are. Most of you are trusting Christ. You have yielded your life to Him. You're following Him. Let me go on to say that your connection with God is so important also for your spiritual help. It's not just something you've done. Like oh yeah, I remember when I gave my life to Jesus Christ. Now I'm good. Now I'm on my own. Now we talk about this all the time in this church. Colossians 2.6, just as you received Christ so you're so to walk in Him. Just on that first day that you surrendered your life to Christ and you felt so helpless and you felt so needy and you felt like I couldn't... I couldn't live the life without the power of God in my life. That is how you're supposed to live every single day. And that's what creates spiritual vitality and health in your life. You know our nation is big about health. Even if we don't practice it and do it since we have the most obese nation on the planet statistically, we're all saying it's a good thing. We're all saying it's important. We're all looking for the new diet plan and the method that's out there the new way to look good and feel good about yourself. And the ironic thing, man, is where women look in the mirror and think their bodies sometimes always wrong. We men have this incredible ability to look in the mirror and think we're looking pretty good. When that's not so true, but we all would say health is very important. But we're missing the part of the spiritual health that's so important. In John 5 verse 19, Jesus gave them this answer, I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees as Father doing because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. What's Jesus saying? Jesus saying, look, I am intricately related to the Father in heaven and I cannot be separated from that because who I am has found it in him. And everything he's doing I'm doing, everything he's saying I'm saying. And that's why we worship Jesus because he's the Son of God. He is God, but what does Jesus say in John chapter 15, 10 chapters later? He says, I am the vine. You are the branches. If a man remains in me and I am him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. What is your way to live like God, your creator and universe, is to do it through Christ by abiding in Christ, by nurturing yourself spiritually, feeding yourself, leading yourself in your relationship with Jesus Christ. It's absolutely imperative. What did David do in 1st Samuel 30? I don't know if you remember the story about David. This is toward David is actually proclaimed king, although he's been anointed king. David is out hanging out with his men and his followers and they've had a really bad day. Why do they have a bad day? Well, listen, verse 3. When David and his men came to zig lag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to wheat. David's two wives have been captured. And a noem of Jesueryl and Abigail, the widow of Nabelle of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him. Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. And this is what you call a bad day. Guys, if you come home and your wife and children have been taken captive and your partners and your men and your friends want to turn on you and kill you because their wives have been taken captive, you call this bad dayness. Okay? Well, what does David do? David comes back with some roaring speech and rallies, the troops. David comes in and says, hey, we're going to go get him back and don't worry. Is that what David does? No. Let me finish. Verse 6. But David found strength in the Lord his God. Where did David turn to God? What did David do? He didn't know what to do, but turned to God. That's why David's called a man after God's own heart because he knew that was more important. Seeking the heart of the father was more important than seeking the approval of the heart of his men or even getting back the heart of his wives and children because he knew taking care of his heart meant pursuing the heart of the father. And God does tell him what to do. And they do get back their wives and their children. And David does get pronounced king later. Men, you cannot advance unless you're relying on Jesus Christ daily, unless you're feeding on him. You're going to his word, unless you're praying, praying to him yielded to Christ. It's just not going to happen. Let me say as well, too, because it's important to say we've already mentioned a little bit about health. When I'm just talking about spiritual health, it is total health as a person. And I've been surprised, and I'm ashamed to say that it's taken me this long in my 40s to realize that your physical health, your spiritual health, your emotional health, your intellectual health, whatever you have to break it down, they're all interconnected with one another. You are, you were created by God as a whole being. You weren't created just with a spirit. You were created with the body. You weren't created just with the body, but you were created with the spirit. And they worked together. And you know what, when you get to heaven, you're not just some spirit floating around. You're not an angel. I'm so tired of people saying we're angels in heaven. No, you're not. Hebrews says you are better and higher than the angels. Why? Because you're made in the image of God and the angels are not. That's pretty cool. And it says you have a new body in heaven. You're a holistic person in heaven. Everybody okay back there? That is cool. And you understand that God has created us that way. You know what that means, man, I'm talking to you directly. That means rest is important. And some of you men think it's really cool to overwork and to over extend yourself because that looks manly. Well, it looks manly by the world's definition, by Western civilization, maybe definition. By the American pick yourself up by the bootstraps definition. But you know what, it looks like before the eyes of God, it looks like sin. It looks like the kind of thing that meant him, meant he had to sin his son to die on a cross. To forgive of why? Because we know from the very foundation in God creating the universe that God worked six days and on the seventh day he rested. That was before sin entered the world. Rest is not a result of sin. Rest is something you need as a part of the foundation and the creation and the DNA of the universe. And it's part of being made in the image of God needing rest, a one in seven routine. Many of you are not practicing that right now. Let me just say point blank. You are in sin. And this is a damnable enough sin it would send you to hell for eternity. You look at it that way. I haven't in the past. I'm still struggling to do it today. But do you? God gives you a Sabbath rest each Sunday. Most of your professions give you paid vacation. Do you use it all? Is it proud to say you've got it banked up? Well, I've got a couple of weeks. I haven't used for a few years. That should lead you to confession before God and probably confession before your wife and children if you're married. You need those times of vacation. You have the opportunity to take sabbatical in your profession. You need to take a sabbatical. I had a chance to be at a converge lunch this past week or two weeks ago. And we had one of the pastors come back and share how he took a summer vacation. I mean vacation sabbatical. And he talked about how it had changed his life. And he had encountered God in a way that he didn't know he came back and he shared it with us. We were all like going wow because he took a sabbatical. Men, I don't know how God has given you opportunities to rest but I know he has. Are you taking advantage of him? Are you using him? Are you eating well? Do you see gluttony as a sin? The Bible does very clearly. Do you take exercise seriously or is that just something to do in your prime and in your youth? Do you get medical checkups regularly because you have the opportunities to do that? My dad would probably still be alive today if he had done that at age 40 instead of waiting to age 60. Just three years later he died of cancer from a tumor that had been growing about seven years. But if you had the colonoscopy when he was age 40 probably would have been taken care of. These are big decisions. These are things that God's called us to take serious leading ourselves. Men you will not be as effective advancing unless you look at your life holistically. Oh yes it begins with spiritual health. Don't get me wrong but it doesn't stop there is what I'm saying. It's not just connection with yourself though in these areas. It's connection with yourself in the area of purpose and values. Men do you ever stop and ask yourself why are you alive? Do you ask yourselves what are you living for? What's important to you? What do you value? You know here's the ironic thing. Most men will leave their businesses in a way that they never even attempt to do in their own personal lives. You won't start a business without a business plan. Why? Because you won't get any investors if you don't have a good business plan. And secondly it will fail without a good business plan. Those are just facts. But you know what you'll live your life without a plan or going back and referring to it and letting it guide you. There is something in they didn't have that's a real problem and it's called a sinful nature. We want a business plan because we know we want to have a successful business but we neglect a life personal plan because we think we can do it on our own and we think we really don't need it. And there's even something kind of cool and John Wayneish about saying we did it on our own. That's defiance before your creator and God and it doesn't work. Psalm 396 says this. We are merely moving shadows and all our busy rushing ends and nothing. We heap up wealth not knowing who will spend it. Even the Psalmist knew thousands years ago that when you heap up wealth for yourself what you're really doing. It's not you're going to take it with you after you die. You're heaping up wealth for somebody else to spend. Are you thinking of the more important questions who you're living for most of us as followers of Christ would say no yeah I'm living my life for God. But let me ask you men honestly are you really living your life for God really. Would that stand up in a court of law if evidence was presented the decisions you make of your daytime or a palm pilot or whatever iPhone indicated your calendar of what you spent your time on or your checkbook was looked at how you spend your money. Would it really say that Christ is the most important thing that you are follower of God or would it really condemn you of something else. These are questions that we need to ask ourselves don't make the same mistake that Charles Adams made Charles Adams was a 19th century political figure and and diplomat and sadly he wrote in his diary one day quote I went fishing with my son today. A day wasted you know his son also kept a diary and others went back and checked on the exact same day here's what his son wrote went fishing with my father the most wonderful day of my life. You know I think it Charles Adams could take that back and rethink things I think he would and I don't know where he is today but I'm willing to bet you his perspective has changed as he asked a deeper question about who he was and what his importance was. With that then do we take the time to do that asking ourselves. Men you cannot advance unless you embrace your creators purposes and values for your life you simply won't cannot. Well it's not just your connection with yourself it's your connection with others men let me say strongly this morning don't try to advance alone don't try to do it alone. God has called us to be a church let me say right off the bat take Sunday morning seriously because it's a time for us to gather men with other men take it seriously men get your families here. I know this sounds kind of self serving as I'm the pastor and this is kind of my job I'm here and you know yeah it could sound that way but you know what it could also be true take that seriously. It's not your wise responsibility if you're married to get your family here it's yours it's easy for us to say yeah God says I'm the head of my household we love to use that sometimes. Okay in an argument with our wise but the truth is that you are the head of your house so that means God's going to ask you first how did you make those decisions. Did you get your family to church in an environment where they could grow spiritually a place where they can learn about God. These are some serious questions that are important men take seriously being a small group you heard Don share earlier about our men's small groups that we do in Friday morning using men's fraternity curriculum. It's not perfect it's not the greatest thing in the world is a place to connect with men though. It is a place that if you come and invest you can experience life change in your life. I know we got students here in the room as well too are you in a small group through Jason's youth ministry. There are opportunities there get involved and we have some college students are you in a small group. The Christian organization or through the one that John Tomplin is supposed to is trying to start up here as a church men take it opportunity because you can't do this race alone. You need to do it with others men take friendship seriously take friendship seriously two ways one make your wife your best friend invest in that relationship because the two have become one. That's also the same way that you invest in yourself is investing in your wife because before the eyes of God you are one and you work as one you move as a unit because you reflect the image of Christ with this church which is he's the head and you're the body it's one. Take that seriously but also men don't let your wife be your best friend make your wife your best friend but don't let her be your best friend what I mean you need other men in your life as well. Don't place on your wife the responsibility to carry burdens of relationship that God designed for you to have with other men David was married remember the guy that was after King David the guy who's a man after God's own heart but David also had a guy named Jonathan and David saw that the relationship is friendship with Jonathan have things to offer that were so important that were even says were even better than a love for a woman because the truth is you need both the truth is you do need if you're married men a relationship with your wife that's like a best friend. But the truth is you also need best friends in your life who are other men both are true and that's my point but man we can get enough habit in the danger of putting pressures and burdens on a relationship with our wife that call her to take on a friendship relationship with this it really should be with another man. You need to think about that. Some of you here this morning get need to be thinking about man I need to work on friendship with my wife and some of you here need to be hearing you need to work on that friendship with some other guys and make that important because both are important and both are needed. Men you cannot advance unless you take seriously your need for others in your life. One of the things I want to do is I wanted to make some things really practical here this morning and I knew I wouldn't have time to do that thoroughly. I have a blog page which is nothing great nothing special okay but on there I put in a blog entry that I just posted this morning that I've been working on all week. Some of you have helped me with that and I've got I've got web pages I've got good books I've got articles I've got thoughts I got information about our men's group here it's just a place for you to go for some help of where to begin where you can make some first steps. The front of our web page has a little link you can go to it you can also get it to my Facebook page names too long to that you worry about it now here but those are links right there too they're just resources there. So don't don't don't feel like you're not in a place to begin that can be a place and we can have a dialogue there as well too so I want you to be aware of that. Let me conclude sharing a story about a guy named William Borden. Most of you probably have heard of Borden Dairy Borden Dairy started back in the late 19th century has been around for well over 100 years now but William Borden was a son millionaire millionaire heir to the Borden Dairy family inheritance. He graduated from Yale and Princeton universities but something different about William is that he really didn't care about the family inheritance and the family name and he rejected it to be a missionary to China and also one that spent time in Egypt as well. After his death though his Bible was given back to his parents which had lots of notes in it and on one page he had written the quote no reserve and the date that was placed with that no reserve show that it came shortly after that he had renounced his family fortune in favor of going in the mission field. He saw that with that decision he had said no reserve they also found elsewhere in the Bible to another two word quote that said no retreat and it was dated shortly after his father had told him they could always have a job back in the company he decided to come back but William Borden said no retreat. And then they found another entry as well they had the same similar two words said no regrets and it was written shortly before he died of age of 25 from spinal meningitis in Egypt working preparing himself to go to China as a missionary no reserve no retreat no regret then give yourself the freedom to start over today because there's an enemy right now that will tell you it's too late. There's an enemy that's going to say it's too complicated listen to me young men there's an enemy that will say you're too young to worry about this stuff right now don't worry about it Satan's called the father of lies by Jesus himself for a reason because he's good at it and he said lots of practice take those lies reject them in the name of Jesus Christ for that. I began the whole message here this morning talking about the Franklin or Delan Roosevelt the only thing we have to fear is fear itself does he know the rest of the quote that's only part of his sentence does he might know the rest of that sentence just curious okay let me read you the full sentence that he said that day the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless unreasoning unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. What's what's his point can't be retreating you've got to advance manhood without Jesus Christ is a daily retreat from an enemy that has been defeated God says first Corinthians 16 13 be on your guard stand firm in the faith be men of courage be strong. That's what God says and those aren't words of retreat their words of advancement men it's time to convert retreat to advancement it's time to take a stand it's time to advance by faith in Jesus Christ let's pray. God I ask right now that you would allow your mercy and grace God to be new every morning this morning right here right now that God you allow hearts to be transformed God that you would let men like me simply say yes I want to start over I want to start fresh today I want to move forward in faith to start dealing directly with things and opportunities that I have to better follow Jesus Christ. God there might be a man or two here this morning that knows that they haven't ever surrendered their lives to you yeah they've lived religiously yeah they've been to church maybe yeah they even own a Bible perhaps they not even read it on occasion but they know in their hearts they haven't yielded to you and they haven't surrendered their lives to receive Christ as Lord and Savior God would you give them the faith to embrace you this morning to turn their lives over to you. I know that there are men just like me who struggle who are struggling daily who are hearing the lies of an enemy God would you let your truth come and set men free here this morning God to stand and to walk faithfully believing that you have the power to change them not them to change themselves and God would you do a lot of work would you raise up men in this church and the churches in this community and churches around the world God that would take a stand that would lead courageously that would boldly advance. The message and the mission and the kingdom of Jesus Christ and God as a result of that would you bless families and marriages and businesses and civic organizations and neighborhoods because you're doing your work and the leaders that you've raised up and the men that you've called and placed your own earth. So Father do a work and do it because if you don't do it it will not happen so God come and work in our hearts pray this in Jesus name amen.