1. BE a real man – God’s Way 1

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3.  Men to help one another with vine work  Become better disciples ourselves  Lead the way in making more disciples for Christ  Help and be helped by our Christian friends

4.  The real man and... › Week 1: a friend? › Week 2: his devotion to God? › Week 3: his spiritual fervour? › Week 4: his wife? › Week 5: his children? › Week 6: his acquaintances? › Week 7: his work › Week 8: his free time BE a real man – God’s Way 4

5. Psalm 8 BE a real man – God’s Way 5

6.  MIND  DEVOTIONAL DISCIPLINE  PRAYER (Next week) BE a real man – God’s Way 6

7. To deny there is a conscious assault on the Christian mind and its traditional values is like believing Saddam Hussein [was] building a “kinder, gentler world.” – Hughes BE a real man – God’s Way 7

8. 1. Train your thoughts 2. Stop worrying 3. Press for the prize 4. Count on God’s goodness 5. Accept the unacceptable BE a real man – God’s Way 8

9. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8, NIV84)  Intentionally program, immerse in scripture  logidzamai… deliberate and prolonged contemplation as if one is weighing a mathematical problem. BE a real man – God’s Way 9

10. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34, NIV84)  Condition? BE a real man – God’s Way 10

11. “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” (Philippians 3:13, NIV84)  What is the prize? BE a real man – God’s Way 11

12. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NIV84)  Condition? BE a real man – God’s Way 12

13. “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:33–36, NIV84) BE a real man – God’s Way 13

14.  If we are to have Christian minds, there are things we must put out of our minds — and this extends beyond TV, to what we read, listen to, and laugh at.  “To deny there is a conscious assault on the Christian mind and its traditional values is like believing Saddam Hussein [was] building a “kinder, gentler world.”  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV84) BE a real man – God’s Way 14

15.  Train mind in everything useful › Acts 17:23 › Acts 17:28 › Titus 1:12  Sources outside Scripture/Christianity can be useful  Where have God places you? BE a real man – God’s Way 15

16. To give over or direct (as time, money, or effort) to a cause, enterprise, or activity BE a real man – God’s Way 16

17. 1. Meditation 2. Confession 3. Adoration 4. Submission BE a real man – God’s Way 17

18.  Listen – Ps 40:6 › “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened ; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.” (Psalm 40:6, NASB95)  Mutter › “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the L ORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1–2, NIV84) BE a real man – God’s Way 18

19.  Devotion – confession != Devotion  When? Whenever we sin, we rarely do  Two kinds › Spontaneous. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23–24, NIV84) › Systematic  I am a sinner  Yes, but what sins have I committed? BE a real man – God’s Way 19

20. “Tell [God] all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart to a dear friend.… People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation; they do not … weigh their words, because there is nothing to be kept back. Neither do they seek for something to say; they talk out of the abundance of their heart — without consideration, just what they think.… Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God” – Francois Fenelon BE a real man – God’s Way 20

21.  Reverence › Concentrate. Luther said, “To let your face blabber one thing while your heart dwells on another is just tempting God.… Any and every thing, if it is to be well done, demands the entire man, all his mind and faculties.”  Contemplate › Macrocosm – thunder, lightning, stars (Ps 21) › Microcosm – human mind and body (Ps 139) BE a real man – God’s Way 21

22.  Reverence + contemplation =...  Worship › Personal expression of emotion › Psalms 146 – 150 › Hymns, Spiritual Songs  Adoration -> Submission › “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8, NIV84) › “as You will, what You will, when You will”  Disclaimer (meditate, confess, adore, submit) BE a real man – God’s Way 22

23.  Quiet time every day?  Bible reading plan?  Have discussions about mind control BE a real man – God’s Way 23

24.  Discipline of a Godly Man – Kent Hughes  Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis  Disciple: Getting your identify from Jesus – Bill Clem  Loving God With All Your Mind – Elizabeth George BE a real man – God’s Way 24

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