Mission Focused Men for Christ

Summary: This episode continues the series, Winning Spiritual Battles Because We Use Our Spiritual Weapons. Every guy who reads this blog would stand at the door of his house with a shotgun to protect his family physically. But most Christian men feel inept and inadequate at fighting to protect them, spiritually. As we saw last week, Jesus told his disciples the ultimate weapon for defeating Satan is prayer. But if we are going to use this weapon effectively in spiritual battle, we need to understand it. This episode continues our study of what Jesus taught are the six basic parts of effective prayer, in Matt 6:9-13.For Further Prayerful Thought: What would you say to a believer who said he thought that reciting the Lord’s prayer at the end of his daily bible reading is what Jesus taught?What struck you about Jesus teaching us to tell our heavenly father what our practical needs are? Have you ever thought about keeping a prayer journal?Why does it make sense that one of the six prayer concerns we should have is looking at past events to see if there is unconfessed guilt or resentment towards another?How can you be more watchful of temptation coming into your life? Recommended Resource.The Focus Notebook is a great tool to help you organize your prayer life.For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Summary: As we seek to run well the race marked out for us, i.e. advance the righteous reign of King Jesus in our own lives, God has ordained one, primary offensive weapon that overthrows the kingdom of darkness:  PRAYER. Jesus said to Peter, “Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you “(Luke 22:31-32). One veteran missionary writes, There is nothing on earth that Satan so fears as prayer. He cannot triumph over prevailing prayer. Satan is more afraid of your praying than of your pure life or zealous witness. One’s life may be a beautiful witness that cannot be silenced, but prayer is a militant force that has the potential of defeating Satan, destroying his works, and driving him out of places and lives he claims as his own. This episode examines how to unlock the power of prayer in our spiritual battles because we know what Jesus taught about how to pray.For Further Prayerful ThoughtWhy is it important to you to remember that your prayers are directed to one who has adopted you into his family at great cost?Why is the name of God worthy of supreme honor. How can you increase the passion for your life to bring the Lord honor?What would you say to gently correct someone who thought that praying, “Thy kingdom come” means to ask Jesus to return to earth soon?What was the most exciting part of the story of the Kingdom of Christ prevailing on a piece of ground in Fort Collins, CO? For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Summary: In the last episode we observed that no one can nurture a child as well as his own or her own mother can. Similarly, no one can be the father to your children that you can be. Our job as fathers is to help our daughters flourish—to become all that God created them to be. This episode examines two ingredients required by every daughter’s heart for her to be able to thrive.For Further Prayerful Thought:In Matthew 3:17, as Jesus, God The Son Incarnate, was about to embark on his career, he heard the audible words of God The Father from heaven saying what every child wants to hear from his or her father. What are those words and how do they related to what we’ve examined about a daughter’s needs?What stood out most to you about a daughter’s needs?For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Summary: In today’s world, many of our female loved ones are engaged in a very personal spiritual battle about their identity and calling as women, and how motherhood fits into that calling. This episode shows how the mistake of overvaluing motherhood will hurt them and how undervaluing motherhood can be devastating. Only the biblical worldview gets this balance right; so that is our topic today.For Further Prayerful Thought:How can understanding colonial culture where work took place at home, help you understand the conflict that today’s mothers have between making a cultural contribution (vocation) and motherhood?How can you lead the way to help men understand that the separation of home and workplace means they have to work harder to build relationships with their family members, so they can lead their homes well?Recommended Resource:I highly recommend the primary source used in this episode to evaluate the impact of the Industrial Revolution on family life, Nancy Pearcey’s book, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity  For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left) 

Episode Summary: Our calling as men, to help others flourish, means helping our daughters and granddaughters build confidence in the way God created them to be female. Gender differences are profoundly related to our sense of identity. Before helping men know how to winsomely explain the biblical worldview of gender, the podcast identifies two big obstacles that routinely prevent others from being open to the biblical worldview. This episode then articulates the glory of God’s design of humans as male and female. It then suggests questions men might asked their daughters or granddaughters to open their hearts to the biblical view of gender.For Further Prayerful Thought:The best way to teach female loved ones the biblical worldview of gender is by exhibiting godly manhood. What are some places you can improve your commitment to helping others flourish?What have been the objections you have heard to the biblical worldview of gender. Which parts of the biblical picture might they be missing?Recommended Resource:  The Meaning of Marriage; Facing the Complexities of Commitment With the Wisdom of God, by Tim and Kathy Keller.  For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary: As we close out this Fatherhood Month series, we return to the Andrew Tate phenomenon that is impacting teen guys in our churches, with which we began this series. Tate says, “There is zero advantage to marriage for a man. If you use your mind, if you use your head instead of your heart, and you look at the advantages to getting married, there are absolutely none.” But, in fact research proves Tate completely wrong. Married men and women who have children are in fact happier, wealthier and more fulfilled than their single and childless counterparts. The biblical worldview is that marriage is the foundational institution for society, mentioned in Scripture before the church or civil governments. This episode presents the biblical worldview of marriage, identifying four purposes of marriage, which explain why it is so fulfilling, along with the high biblical view of sexual union, which is so important that God commands married coups to have sex often.   For information about Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical Manhood click hereFor Further Prayerful Thought:Which of the four purposes of marriage most stood out to you. Why does it make sense that God’s design for conceiving a child is a husband and wife united in the covenant of marriage who have promised to love each other, “till death us do part?”What stood out most to you in the Bible’s High View of Sex? Which of these truths do you wish you knew earlier?How do you think this material on marriage and sex might change a high school guy’s view of God and sex?  For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary: This past week, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s law, which blocks all transgender medical treatments on those under 18, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. This ruling is an encouraging sign; but it is also a reminder of the torrential flood of polluted messages coming from social media, shouting for the past twenty years that gender identity is fluid, different gender roles are unjust, and same-sex attraction is normal. This entire month our podcast focus is providing help to our boys to withstand the cultural pressure squeezing them into its false, destructive views about masculinity and femininity. This episode might surprise you because it argues that our rising generation of guys needs to understand God’s design not just of their own masculinity—but God’s design of femininity as well. For Further Prayerful Thought:What are some examples from your world that reveal the gender-blending worldview that is undermining God’s design of creation differences between men and women?Which arguments for men and young men to understand God’s revealed design of women make the most sense to you?What do you think of the Gospel Coalition’s argument by John Piper and the late Tim Keller that egalitarianism is a flat-out denial of the teaching of God’s Word, i.e. that there is no exegetical way to support egalitarianism from Scripture? To find our more about Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical Manhood click here. For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast:(Click link and scroll down to bottom left)  

Episode Summary: To aim low, when it comes to our efforts to guide our sons into godly manhood is to fail them and to fail the Lord. Toxic, self-centered, masculinity is real in this world; it has harmed countless women. Its only cure is the gospel of Jesus Christ which transforms. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). Answering Jesus’ call to Christian men to show the world his power of Jesus to fix broken manhood, restoring it to its self-sacrificing design, has never been more important. This episode examines the very high bar of what God designed manhood to be and calls us to pursue it.Click to find out more about Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical Manhood: A Five Week Study for High School Guys Designed for Dads or Youth Leaders to Lead or TO ORDER.For Further Prayerful Thought:Why not go easy on ourselves and set the bar of masculinity that we live out low. After all, who likes to serve and sacrifice for others?When you consider that the first call of manhood is to sweat so others prosper and die to ourselves so that others flourish, does that inspire a sense of noble calling or inner resistance to living a life of sacrifice for others?Which component of the call to protect loved ones from destructive ideas, stood out most to you. How can you do a better job with such protection?Since men want to be strong, why does the call to spiritual strength given by David, Paul, and John not inspire Christian men better to be spiritual warriors.For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary: Jesus closed his most famous message, the Sermon on the Mount, with the warning that those who ignore his words build their lives on the worst possible foundation—sand. Our sons, daughters, and grandchildren who build their marriages and families by ignoring God’s design of created gender differences and assigned gender roles build on a foundation that is bound to collapse, sand. In contrast, said Jesus, are those who build their lives on obedience to his Word, which would include God’s delineation of created gender differences in Genesis and assigned gender differences in responsibility in their marriages and homes. This group builds their family on a foundation as solid and secure as rock. This month’s series, Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical Manhood, explains a tool by that name. It is a five-week study for high school sons led by dads, youth leaders or men’s ministries, which you can use or help promote. Today we examine six reasons from this resource that helping our sons follow God’s “manhood script” matters.For Further Prayerful Thought:It is hard to overstate the prominence that God gives to his manhood and womanhood scripts in the first two of 1189 chapters of his revelation. Why do you think Christians today don’t think more about those scripts?What do you think of the statement, “Healthy males want to develop their masculine identity?” How is the identity of a male Christian like the identity of a female one and how is different?Which of the six reasons given that God’s “manhood script” should matter to high school guys most stood out to you? Link to the first chapter of Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical ManhoodLink to order Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical ManhoodTo Mention Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical Manhood on FacebookHere is sample wording:  “A Christian ministry I support is celebrating Fatherhood Month by letting the Christian community know about a new 5-week journey to biblical manhood for highs school guys they have published. Designed for fathers, youth leaders, and men’s ministries to lead, it is Men Helping Sons Embrace Biblical Manhood.”Here is the link to take you to the blog version of this episode which contains  the the link to our bookstore and the jpg picture of the front cover of the book to post to Facebook. For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary: Andrew Tate is a former is a kickboxing-champion-turned-social-media-influencer who has become popular among young men for his views on modern masculinity. He has over ten million followers on X. Regarding his influence on American Christian teen boys, Nancy Pearcey, author of The Toxic War on Masculinity, wrote recently on X: A former graduate student of mine now teaches at a high school, and she sent me an email saying, “All my male students are fans of Andrew Tate. They are even including quotes from Andrew Tate in the yearbook.” I asked, “Where do you teach?” She answered, “At a classical Christian school.”  I believe that young Christian men are paying attention to Andrew Tate, because he is pushing back against the cultural pressure that is emasculating men. This episode examines closely five identifiable components of that pressure, coming not only from the culture but from the church.[=New Resource:Men Helping Son's Embrace Biblical Manhood: A Five-Week Study for High School Guys Designed for Dads or Youth Leaders to LeadFor Further Prayerful Thought:What are your thoughts about the growing popularity of Andrew Tate even among Christian men?Which parts of the secular culture’s attack on masculinity stood out most to you?Which parts of the church’s egalitarian attack on biblical teaching or Bible- believing church leaders reticence to celebrate the glory of God’s gender design bother you the most?For the printed version of this message click here.For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)