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- [00:02]
A
On March 20, 1779, Captain William Jones of the Continental Marines advertised in the Providence Gazette stating that the Marines were looking for a few good men to fight in the Revolutionary War. They needed men who were courageous, loyal, and capable of standing their ground. Well, friends, welcome to Christ in Prophecy. I'm Tim Moore, director and senior evangelist for Lamb and Lion Ministries, and I'm joined by Dr. Nathan Jones. Today we're launching a conversation that's been a burden on both of our hearts for some time. The urgent need for godly men. And not just a few. We need many. Nathan, you and I have seen this need in our own families, in our churches, and across the culture.
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B
Well, that's right, Tim. Look at our own sons, for instance, and the community of friends around them. It's been difficult for them to find strong, godly men to come alongside them. This isn't just about young men encouraging other young men. We. We need more men of all ages to step up and be men of God.
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A
Well, you know, Jesus once asked a very haunting. When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? As a ministry that points to the soon return of Christ, we anticipate that glorious day. And yet this verse is a reminder that God is looking for good men. But the fact is that the only person I can really control is me. So today we're going to talk about what it means to be a man, a godly man. Then we'll talk about how to find and be a mentor that pours into the next generation.
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B
So this is a great topic for this Father's Day weekend. So, hey, fathers, Happy Father's Day. But the lessons are going to apply not just to fathers, but to everybody listening in. So stay with us. We're going to dig into God's word and discover what he has to say about raising up men for such a time as this. Folks, Lamb and Lion Ministries have released a podcast on this topic with brothers Tim and Chris Moore. Yes, Tim. And his own brother Chris. You can watch all four episodes of A Few Good Men on our Christ in Prophecy YouTube channel. Click playlists and you'll see A Few Good Men right there. And you can join in with us as we dive into how to raise godly men. Stay with us. We're going to be right back.
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Swipe away the endless bad news and open up our Lamplighter magazine to discover your blessed hope. Our bi monthly magazine sheds God's light on today's headlines through powerful articles written by men and women who love God and his word. What's really happening and how you can have hope in Christ. The Lamplighter magazine is available in print, email and downloadable formats. Request your copy when you go to christinprophecy.org over the last few years, there's
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B
been a lot of talk about what is a woman. But today we want to ask what does it mean to be a man?
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A
You know, there's no doubt, Nathan, that our culture is very confused, not only on what is a woman, but really what it means, as you said, to be a man. Science, tradition and popular opinion all. All offer different answers. But the real question is how does God define a man? And what does it mean to be a godly man?
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B
Yes, biologically, there's definitely a distinction between men and women. It's clear despite all the modern confusion. Just look at genetics, for instance. A man is XY genetically chromosome, and women xx. So we're clearly different genetically, but we're also different scripturally. Men are called to be husbands, fathers and leaders in the home.
- [03:18]
A
Yeah, and you know what, when we say leaders, that doesn't mean that a man is to lord his leadership over his wife or his children. It just means that like Christ, he provides godly leadership. And that is a servant leadership. We can't overemphasize the word servant even as it comes before leader. But women are called to be mothers, yes, wives. And to have a role in the home, that is absolutely critical. I think both you and I would agree that, that our own mothers were instrumental in our raising as followers of Jesus Christ. But fathers are critical in this equation. And so it is rightful and good. It is really a creation order thing that God created men and women for companionship with one another, but for the continuation of the species, of the race, just because they are to be mothers and fathers and to raise up young people to follow after the Lord God himself.
- [04:09]
B
Also, you know, it's interesting, Tim. Our grandparents generation, the silent generation, or our boomer parents, you know, they turned 18 and they were out of the house. They either had to go to military, go to college, or get married. We Gen Xers tend to be a little later in life. But you know, I'm seeing it especially with our children's generation. The young men aren't just manning up anymore. It seems they're almost 30 years old before they start taking the responsibilities on of a man.
- [04:34]
A
You know, I recently had the interaction with a young man. I say young. He was in his late 20s and he was a man boy, because even in his late 20s, he. He wasn't capable of engaging as a man. His mother was still running his affairs and at one point he was trying to sell something to my family and he couldn't even engage in dialogue because he just melted down. And so she had to step in. This is a man in his late 20s. And so our culture has now removed any expectation of responsibility. People talk about adolescents or teens, and yet this youngster mentality extends virtually to age 30 or beyond within our culture. And we have to recognize that as Christian parents, that means mothers and fathers, we are not raising children, we are raising men and women.
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B
Oh, that's so well said. It's true. We tend to think that children need to be cared of even into their adulthood, where they're on our insurance till 26, where we're helicoptering parent or the new term right bulldozer parents. They bulldoze all the problems out of the way of their kids. And so they never develop the means to deal with the world. And so they continue to turn to their parents or the government usually for help to take care of them. And it's created a culture that's really just so self absorbed and incapable of dealing with life.
- [05:51]
A
You know, my kids will tell you that there were times when I purposely allowed problems and challenges to rise so that they would have to overcome them. I did not remove them all. My son would famously tell you about a time when we secured a Greyhound bus trip for him so that he would learn to overcome certain adversity. And he did and grew as a man. Well, the crisis of manhood in our day is that too many men, even in Christian homes, and dare I say Nathan, even in churches, are not stepping up to lead in the church. We've seen the feminization of many Christian church settings to where the women are running the show. And really the men have been emasculated, so to speak, in their godly role.
- [06:35]
B
We see what Paul warned Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 said, but realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come for men will be what? Lovers of themselves. They are lovers of money, boastful, arrogant revilers. They are disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self control, brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Tim, I think you only have to watch something on a streaming network to realize that all these are are defined in the TV shows. Where you have TV shows that glorify in sin and lust and just irredeemable subjects. And our society is bathed in it. And that's the society Paul said the end time society before the Lord returns
- [07:19]
A
would be like, you know, it's very telling as well, what you just read out of two Timothy what men will love, they're going to love self, they're going to love money, and they're going to love pleasure. And that's exactly what we see before us today. The Pew Research center recently found declining interest in marriage and family among young people. Only 74% of boys and 62% of girls in the 12th grade wanted to get married and have a family. Now, what's ironic is there's been a shift where more boys today say they want to get married, but many of them are ill prepared. And that has led to declining birth rates and rising mental health crises among children. And so how would God. Let's just go back to the Word of God, Nathan. How would God define a man according to his word?
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B
Well, he would define a man by his obedience. He will do everything I want him to do, basically. Acts 13:22. Can you see where he raised up David to be their king, concerning whom he also testified and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do what all my will. So isn't it interesting that a man seeks God and seeks to do his will? That's the true definition of what it means, a man to step up.
- [08:31]
A
You know, I asked my son when we were preparing my brother and I to have our podcast called A Few Good Men. I said, what do you define a man to be? Because my son has served in the Air Force for a number of years and is a manly man. He's very strong and very determined in his goals. And he said, a man leads himself and he leads others. I said, that's pretty good. What is a godly man? He said, oh, well, that's even better. He said, a godly man leads himself and others. And so we have a role to lead others and to be able to lead ourselves. You can't have followers unless you're capable of controlling and leading your own self, but then leading others to God. And frankly, Nathan, we've talked many times. These are the days that Paul warned us about, but they are also the days that God has placed us in for a purpose. You, myself, our sons, our children, our children's children. If the Lord tarries. So folks, stay with us. And coming up, we'll present our weekly take on what's really going on. Then we'll dig deeper into what a man of God looks like from the pages of Scripture. We'll be right back.
- [09:36]
C
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- [10:03]
B
well, welcome back to Christ in Prophecy Radio. I'm Nathan Jones. I'm here with Tim Moore and we're in a segment that's called what's really Going On. We look at current events through a biblical lens. So let's start this discussion with the story, Tim, that you shared on your podcast A Few Good Men.
- [10:18]
A
Just this week I had dinner with a college roommate and he shared that his oldest daughter just last year had gotten married. And I said, oh, that's wonderful. How did it work out? Well, it didn't work out. I said, oh, just two immature young people. Yeah. I said, was it an immature young man that didn't really lead in that marriage? He said, well, actually she married a woman. And I said, okay. And following on, I said, why? What led her to this deception that is permeating the culture? And his answer has haunted me for the last number of days. He said, she couldn't find any good men. And I thought, well, she's not looking in the right place if she's not in a church setting, if she's not in a group fellowship of Christian believers. But there has become a great desert, if you will, to where fewer and fewer good young men are evidenced for young women to even find as potential mates. And that weighs heavy on my heart. It did when I was raising daughters. I thought, how am I going to find three good young men? And so we are identifying a problem, but we know the solution because it is turning the hearts of men back to the Lord God. Well, Nathan, I hope that that clip was a blessing to those My brother and I had a lot of fun talking about manhood from a Christian perspective, but there has been such confusion in our society over gender roles, over masculinity. Obviously the charge of toxic masculinity has been used so many times to essentially silence men and suppress their God given role. And we've already talked about the feminization of the church. This has had a very devastating effect on our entire society.
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B
Yeah, we talk about the war of the sexes. Why does it seem like that the women are Raging against the men. Well, you go back to the beginning in the creation where Eve was deceived by the serpent and she ate first the apple, but then Adam willingly then ate after her. And because Eve fell into sin first, God placed man over woman. And from that day we've had the battle of the sexes where the women just fight. They, as the Bible says, kick the goads against this idea that the men, not saying the men are superior to the woman, but the men have been given the responsibility as leadership over. And we see this time of what we call neo feminism. It's this fight against, you hear it, against the patriarchy. We must tear down the patriarchy. And what is their biggest tool in that battle is to say that anything that a man does that's masculine is toxic. And Tim, we end up with a society just filled with beta males. You know, we can go to the story of Deborah. Do you remember that story in the Bible where Deborah asked Barak to lead and he wouldn't do it? And she says, okay, but it's always going to be remembered that a woman led this army. The man wouldn't step up and take the leadership role that God had ordained him to take.
- [13:13]
A
You know, and sadly, what this leads to in our own society is even if a couple has a child, oftentimes they're not married because the woman doesn't want to get into a commitment or the man is taking advantage of a woman, frankly in some situations. And so this leads to fatherlessness for young people being raised. It leads to single parent homes. Now folks, we realize that there are widows out there, widowers. There are sometimes circumstances that are outside the norm. But our society has normalized that which God did not ordain. Our young people are suffering tremendously. Children who come from a single parent home or do not have a father in the home are so much more prone to get into trouble, to end up in jail, to, to fail out of school. It stunts their growth not only intellectually and relationally, it stunts their growth oftentimes spiritually. Again, I'm not talking about every person, but we're talking about trends and why God in creation order intended for men and women to have a God ordained role in the family and in society.
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B
That's a wonderful point. You know, the Bible has a precedent for this. If you go to Isaiah 3, 4, it talks about when a society rebels against the Lord, what does he do? He breaks down that society. He gives them what's called children to rule over them. Immature and incompetent leaders. They cause Chaos. Tim it's not hard to see in our society as we continue to pull away from God, more and more people in leadership and congress and all the way up to the presidency act like children. They're often incompetent. They can't do their jobs. It's a complete breakdown of society. And that's because men have not lived godly lives, bringing first their families and then their society before the Lord to do his will.
- [14:56]
A
You know, that's a great point. And folks, we can get more wisdom as we study the pages of Scripture because this is a trend that God addressed in his own Word. So stay with us. When we come back, we'll talk about some biblical examples of godly manhood.
- [15:12]
C
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- [15:56]
A
well, we promised that we would continue by looking at some biblical examples of godly manhood. And Nathan, you used a great example when Deborah encouraged Barak to lead and he refused to. So she stepped into the gap. But there are so many other examples of who were called to lead, dare I say to be strong and courageous.
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B
Yeah, I love the Bible is just full of what you call exemplars, great word, people who stood up for what godliness and manliness is. And most people don't think about Joshua but Joshua. And you read chapter one, verse six through seven says be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give you. This is the Lord speaking only. Be strong and very courageous and be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. So we see here God commanding Joshua not just to be strong and courageous, but to be very courageous. He said do not turn to the right or left. In other words, stay focused on God and His Word.
- [16:57]
A
You know, that's a great point. Staying focused on God and His Word is what allowed Joshua to Be strong and courageous. We think of him as one of the two spies, the other being Caleb, my own son's name after that great exemplar of being courageous when they came back from spying out the land. But later, Joshua needed to be encouraged. And so not only did the Lord encourage him, but even the people encouraged him to be strong and courageous. I think of the Lord calling out others when he called Gideon. The angel came and appeared to Gideon and said, the Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Now, if you read the text, Gideon is hiding down in a wine vet and as he's trying to tread grain. Why? Because he's hiding from the enemy. And yet the Lord saw in him the ability for this scared young man to be a valiant warrior. The Lord always looks at the heart. You can think about David's charge to Solomon. We've already spoken about David, a man after God's own heart. But David's charge to Solomon was to show yourself a man. I love that phrase, show yourself a man.
- [17:59]
B
Yeah. Both Joshua and David were the perfect examples of what's called servant leadership. It's modeled after Jesus Christ who came to serve and not to be served. And so we see that in that generation. We also see in Deuteronomy 6 a generational faithfulness, as if it's passed down. It says, these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk, by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Folks, this is why it's so important that we embed, not just our sons, our daughters, too, the word of God. You know, it was so important for my kids. They each did three years of Bible drilling, intense Bible memorization. We as a family, read the Bible together before they went to bed. We had a Bible story before bed. And it was so gratifying as a parent, when my kids continued those traditions. And I didn't need to be part of those anymore. And I hope someday they do with their own children.
- [18:51]
A
Amen. You know, you mentioned that both David and Solomon were great exemplars. I would agree. But sadly, toward the end of their life, they also became an exemplar on how not to act sort of like the old dad in Berenstein Bears. You know, he would always screw things up and he would say, don't be like me. Or the mother would roll her eyes. And the example was to not follow in every misguided footstep. Of even those who come before what led to the downfall of both David and Solomon obviously would recognize that there was sexual sin. But they had strayed from the word of God. Yes, they allowed their eye to stray. They didn't stay focused on the one who had raised them to positions of prominence. We as men are susceptible to the same temptations today. And boy, isn't that particular temptation so rampant in our society filled with pornography and all sorts of wickedness? We need to establish a godly man's code of conduct. If you don't stay centered, your life grounded on the word of God and on Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then all those other things will fade over time. Your physical strength will fail, your mental capacities, let's just face it, will begin to dwindle. That's almost inevitable. We will have emotional ups and downs and the spiritual connectivity with the Lord God is the most important of all of our attributes.
- [20:09]
B
One of the best books I read was by John Maxwell, who's the leadership guru, and he said the foundational aspect of a good leader is character. If you don't have character, you don't have good leadership. But where does good character come from? It comes from the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us from there. He says that competency, you're good at what you do, and when you're good at what you do, you develop credibility with other people. And so we see examples all throughout the Bible and in life where people who are grounded in the world of God have good character. And even if, like you said, Tim, if Joshua kind of fell at the end and didn't conquer all the nations, or David and Solomon fell into sexual sin, the initial character was there so that they repented and returned to the Lord. So we're not asking for supermen here. We're asking for human men who are willing to acknowledge their sin, repent and turn back to God.
- [21:00]
A
That's a great point. Why is David considered a man after God's own heart? And not because he was perfect, but because even in his failing, he turned back to God with a penitent heart and he wanted to serve the Lord his God. I look at what Paul said in the book of First Corinthians, in chapter 16, verse 13, he said, be on the alert, boy. That's a word we offer all the time, watching for the Lord to come. Stand firm in the faith, act like men and be strong. So Paul's admonition to the church at Corinth is the same admonition we're encouraging today. Act like men and not worldly men, not men chasing after everything that the world craves. That's what you spoke about in the text there in Timothy. But craving what the Lord craves, a man after God's own heart. So that we, like the sons of Issachar to go back to the old testament in 1 Chronicles, chapter 12, can understand the times with knowledge of what Israel or America or perhaps just our own family should do. Boy Nathan, we need men like that who understand the times we're living in.
- [22:03]
B
Absolutely. And so, folks, Tim and I can only touch the surface of this Again, we encourage you to go to our Christ in Prophecy YouTube channel. Check out the playlist. A few Good Men podcasts and Tim and his brother Chris dive much deeper into the subject. As we've heard from God's Word, the need of godly men is both urgent and prophetically significant. So stay with us. Tim's going to return with a word of encouragement.
- [22:25]
C
Many churches avoid Bible prophecy, but it's a valuable part of God's Word. For more than 45 years, Christ in Prophecy has provided reliable insight into all of God's Word. We're talking about passages and prophecies God recorded so you and I can know what to expect. If you'd like to hear Tim Moore and Nathan Jones speak in person, consider attending one of our upcoming events or invite them to come and speak at your church. Get in touch to find out more and make your request@christinprophecy.org contact let's take God at His word. All of it. Connect with us at christinprophecy.org contact we
- [23:05]
A
open today's program by recalling Captain William Jones 1779 call for a few good men to serve in the Continental Marines, he needed men who were courageous, loyal, and capable of standing their ground. Friends, that call has never stopped echoing. God has been issuing his own version of it since the beginning of time. In the garden, he asked Adam, where are you? He called Noah to stand righteous in a generation consumed by evil. He told Joshua, be strong and very courageous. And David charted his son Solomon with these show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways. Today, the need is no less urgent. Paul warned Timothy that in the last days men would be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And that description fits our generation with painful accuracy. But God is not wringing his hands. He is still calling men not perfect men, but faithful men. Noah walked with God and did according to all that God had commanded him. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. David fell hard, but his heart always turned back toward the Lord in repentance. Proverbs 27:17 reminds us. Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Knives lying side by side in a drawer never get sharp. It takes one edge pressed against another, sometimes with friction, sometimes with sparks, but always with the result of becoming more useful to the King we serve. So here's my charge. To every man listening, show yourself a man. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Captain Jones sought a few good men for an earthly revolution. Our commander in chief, the Lord Jesus Christ, is looking for faithful men who will stand with courage until he returns. Godspeed.