Bent Oak Church

Having learned about the 5 masculine instincts, you might be wondering, what comes next? What should I do with what I've learned?We'll take a closer look at Paul's advice to Timothy about how to watch your life and doctrine closely. We'll see how the Christian gospel offers a different path to character and why character is best infused into our life by the power of the gospel. 

Shakespeare recorded man's fifth stage as a retreat. He uses the phrase, the world now too wide. He captured what is a natural instinct for so many men, apathy. The longer we live the more we realize how little control we have. The world feels increasingly complicated and ourselves increasingly less capable of fixing it. We naturally begin to disengage and retreat into hobbies and comfort. Doubt and sin are certainly risks to faith, but rarely do we recognize the risk of apathy. Through the story of Abraham, we'll look at the instinct of apathy and how God tested Abraham to keep him engaged with his faith.

​Shakespeare described this fourth stage as the professionals. The man now dresses the part, cuts his beard, and says what is expected. By this point in his life, he has achieved some success and with it a reputation, a reputation he cares more and more about protecting.That instinct is central to the lives of both Saul and David as they struggle to live into the expectations of their throne while remaining honest and true before their God. It is a question of integrity and their ability to confess.We'll see how this instinct is at work in men today and how we keep it from leading us to the same ruin.

We live in an age of anger and outrage. It's never been easier to be stressed out and short-tempered. But Scripture calls us to be patient, putting off anger. Scripture calls us to be kind to one another. Brad takes a look at Paul's advice in Ephesians 4 and why kindness is central to being a follower of Christ. 

Ambition is certainly not a sin. It has helped many achieve great things. But left unchecked, it has a tendency to become obsessive and controlling. Ambition consumes us and causes us to lose perspective on others, on God, and on ourselves. As we continue our look at the 5 instincts, we observe how ambition worked in the life of Moses, for good and bad. We also learn how sabbath rest can help us keep ambition in its proper place. 

Shakespeare described man's second stage as the lover. He was describing a romantic view of life that is driven by a need for adventure, quests, and experience. Samson was driven by this romantic need for adventure. Restless and determined to find himself, he constantly wandered off to Philistia. Through his story, we come to realize how easily we abandon what God is doing looking for what we want. Real adventures are received not achieved. 

In this week's message, we take a look at the first of our five instincts, sarcasm. Cain's struggle to receive God's lesson exposed his sarcasm as immaturity. We also look at practices by which we can check our own sarcasm and grow into something better.

As we continue our conversation looking at instincts and character we discuss the uniqueness of Christian character and how the men and women of scripture help us grow into it. 

Men are not doing okay. Across a wide range of markers, men are failing, disengaging, and giving up. The whole conversation has become another cultural controversy. The consequences? Men have given up on getting better. In this first sermon of the series, we take a look at the challenges men face and why the pursuit of Christian character matters more than ever. 

Our Christmas readings usually include the angelic message to Mary and Joseph, the coming of the wise men, the worship of the shepherds, but the story of Jesus's flight to Egypt rarely fits well. In this week's sermon, we take a closer look at how Matthew uses the story to explain Jesus's identity and the promise of God's faithfulness to us as well.