GYC SE 2009: More

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GYC Southeast

Manliness 101

Israel Ramos

Session 1: God in the Image of Man - Seeking to Understand God and Man

What I wanted to do is I wanted to go over the book Education, just a couple of chapters, a few chapters from the book Education.

There's some stuff that she says there that I want to apply to us in the end, find a way to apply it to how it is that it impacts us as men.

The interesting thing is we had a, at GYC we had a kind of like a question and answer type of thing to which men were invited to come.

And then they asked me to be 1 of the panelists.

And I thought, as we analyzed the whole thing, we said, you know what, typically men don't come to men-only type of events.

You know, the ladies are totally different.

We had just across the room from us, we had the ladies having their own thing, and it was just like a flock of ladies.

We had quite a bit of guys and we were surprised.

And then we started kind of going at it and it was a question and answer forum.

And I sat there on the panel, I was supposed to be 1 of the experts or whatever.

And the funniest thing in the world, I was just sitting back laughing.

They would say, hey, so what do you think about this?

Because I think that, and then they'd go on and they'd start actually giving you the answer to their question.

And I thought, that's just the way guys are, man.

So what I wanted to do is go over these things.

I think that in the end, the principles apply to all of us.

And I don't want to deal with, I want to deal with kind of general things that kind of are pointed on this book and I wanna see how they apply to us, okay?

And the first 1 that I wanna go over is I wanna draw principles from the lives of men in the Bible.

The men in the Bible that I want to look at this afternoon are the lives of Joseph, Daniel, Moses, Elisha, and Paul.

And what I want to do is I want to look at through this, We're just going to kind of go over the chapters called lives of great men.

Go over certain characteristics that they had and then see how they actually apply to us where we're at.

It is in this book, the book education that you hear The famous quotation that all of us are very familiar with, which is found on page 57, it says, the greatest wand of the world is the wand of men.

Men who in their inmost souls are true and honest.

Men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as a needle is to the pull, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.

Now a lot of time this is applied to men and women, it's a generic sense, but if you look at the context of the book, it's dealing with, I believe specifically, the male gender.

And here the world needs just a few good men who will be like the Elishas, like the Pauls, like the Moseses.

And that's kind of what I want to go over with.

I'm going to just read a little bit then I'm going to write on the board some things and we're going to try to see how in the end all this stuff ties together, yeah?

She starts off by saying, sacred history presents many illustrations of the results of true education.

It presents many noble examples of men whose characters were formed under divine direction and whose lives were a blessing to their fellow men and who stood in the world as representatives of God.

If you were to ask the question, what is it that God would like to see in men?

Here we find, she says, that in the lives of these men, they all had something in common.

And number 1, the first thing that they had in common was, the first thing that they had in common was that they lived to be a blessing to others.

First thing is that they lived to be a blessing to others and second, their second thing is they lived to represent or represent God.

How is it that you can be like a real man?

And the funniest thing is when they asked me to do the seminar I thought to myself, man, this is the hardest seminar I ever have to give.

How in the world do you talk to someone about being a man?

And then I looked at this guy who's all buff and I said, this guy should do it.

And finally someone said, hey, you have 3 sons so that if there's any man, you're a man because you got 3 sons.

And I was just laughing, this is so hard.

So I was asking the question, what does it mean to be a man?

I think to be a man in God's eyes is to be someone who, because, because of, of the principle that lies within them, because of the character that they have, they live to be a blessing to others and they live to represent God.

Now when you throw this on the board, sorry, yeah that's the definition of man.

When you throw this on the board it looks generic, yeah right, I mean of course, that's what it means to be a man.

But let's look at the lives of Elisha, all these guys, and we're gonna see how it actually becomes difficult to follow these 2 things.

And then at the end it says this, that many times, they're called to do these 2 things, but it is specifically important, it is specifically important in time of crisis.

So all of this is what manliness is, but more specifically, it is to be these 2 things in a time of crisis.

The first example that she gives is the example of Joseph.

It says, Joseph bore alike the test of adversity and of prosperity.

Things that define Joseph is that he bore like the test of adversity and of prosperity.

Adversity, prosperity, it was the same thing to him.

He didn't change because of circumstances, right?

It says, Joseph bore like the test of adversity and prosperity.

The same fidelity was manifested in the palace of Pharaoh as it was in the prisoner's cell.

In his childhood, Joseph had been taught the love and the fear of God.

Often in his father's tent under Syrian stars, he had been told the story of the night visions at Bethel, of the ladder from heaven to earth, and the descending and the ascending of angels.

There are different reasons why Joseph was able to bear adversity and prosperity.

The first reason why Joseph was able to do this is because of his understanding of God And because of God's Word.

She says here that from the very beginning, there was something that Joseph had that enabled him to do this, and that was that he, when he was young, since he was a little boy, his father would tell him, hey, this is what happened to me at Bethel.

I was running away as a fugitive, and as I was, I was sleeping there with my head on a rock as a pillow, I saw angels descending and ascending into heaven.

There's something that he had, a deep experience with God and a deep experience with God's Word that enabled him to do this.

But there was another thing that prepared Joseph to be to be to bear like adversity and prosperity.

It says, the shepherd boy tending his father's flock, Joseph's pure and simple life had favored the development both of physical and mental power.

By communion with God through nature and the study of the great truths handed down as sacred trust from father to son, he gained strength of mind and firmness of principle.

The other thing that he had that allowed him to do that is, was his lifestyle.

So these are the things that allowed Joseph to bear alike the test of prosperity and the test of adversity.

Number 1 was his belief in God, that's his core.

And secondly was that he set himself up, he set himself up through his lifestyle to be able to deal with these different types of things.

Now when you look at, when you look at your life, when I look at my life, often we have to ask ourselves a question, what kind of a lifestyle were they?

And I'm not talking here about, I'm not talking about the general, because when you think about lifestyle, you think about what type of entertainment you're used to enjoying, what type of recreation you get to do.

I'm talking about lifestyle as in what type of habits we develop in our daily life, right?

What type of habits we develop in our daily life.

Session 3: The Difference Between Men and Dogs - What is Manliness, Anyway?

Father, we ask your presence to be with us in this last hour, that you would grant us your spirit, open our minds, and show us, Lord, reveal yourself to us in a special way, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

I hope no 1 is here just because of the title of this seminar, which is the difference between men and dogs.

When I was asked to do this seminar, I've been telling the people that some of my friends, it's just, it's like the hardest thing to be asked to talk to men about manliness.

It's like men don't go to manliness seminars, you know.

And Then they asked me for titles and I was like thinking to myself, I just gave them the titles frankly because I had, I just didn't know what to talk about.

And so I said that's an easy 1, the difference between men and dogs is that, you know, men were created in the image of God and dogs weren't.

But I wanted to go over with us, I've been going over with us the book Education.

We've been dealing with 3, primarily 3 chapters.

In our first talk we had, we dealt with lives of great men and we talked about men in the Bible and we tried to draw attributes from their life and how that applies specifically to men living in today's society.

In our last hour we talked about how God has the end, how you and I are the answer to society's problems.

And we are to be a counter influence by establishing character.

And in this, and that was taken from Education and Character.

This one's taken from the chapter called The Source and Aim of True Education, the very first chapter in the book, Education.

I want to read to us a couple of paragraphs from here, and then I want to draw from those 2 paragraphs insights as to how it is that God intended us to be.

What has happened as a result of sin, what sin caused in the image of God being reflected in mankind, and God's plan for restoring in, for fulfilling his purpose even after sin.

I'm reading from page 15, it says, "'When Adam came from the creator's hand, he bore in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his maker.

First off, you know that man has created in the image of God.

Therefore, man and God have these 3 specific attributes which are physical, mental, and spiritual powers or nature.

And in these 3 things, he was to reflect the likeness of his maker.

And it was his purpose that The longer man lived, the more fully he should reveal this image, the more fully reflect the glory of the Creator.

When God created mankind, He created them with an ability.

And in that ability, in that ability, the ability that God gave mankind, it says that he was to, in his image, it was his purpose that the longer that man lived, the longer he, the longer man lived, he would more fully, more fully should he reveal his image in his being.

And now it says this, all of his faculties were capable of development, and notice this is just, It's ridiculous when you think about this, all right?

Their capacity and vigor were to continually increase.

Their capacity and their vigor were to continually increase.

I want us to just for a moment pause and think about what it is that God designed for mankind to be.

He said, I'm going to create man in my own image.

He's going to have a social or an emotional nature.

That's how I'm going to create him, just like me.

And he says, what I want for mankind is that the longer he lives, okay, the longer he lives, this is actually life, the longer he lives, The more, the larger his capacity to become more like Jesus will be, and the larger will be not just the quality, not just the quantity, but also the quality.

Do you see that there, what I'm trying to say?

God intended, God intended that the longer Adam lived, First of all, the stronger he would become, not only the stronger would he become, but also not only would he be able to develop the thing, not only would he be able to develop his power, his physical ability, but God would increase the quality as well as the quantity of his ability to get stronger.

That means like God gives you a brain, not only will God give you information to fill your brain, he would continue to expand your brain larger and larger and larger, and that would continue on throughout eternity.

That's what God intended Adam to be, okay?

First, he says, the longer Adam lived, the larger would be his capacity to understand.

That means his brain would enlargen, and also the vigor would continue to increase.

So that the only thing that would prevent Adam from becoming God is the fact that God is infinite.

The only thing that would prevent Adam from becoming God himself is the fact that even in infinity you cannot reach Godness.

But he says, listen, Adam, not only will you be stronger tomorrow, you will have the capacity to even gain more and more strength.

The box that I give you is going to continue to get larger and larger, as well as your ability to retain, to put in the box that which I'm giving you.

It says here, all of his faculties were capable of development, their capacity and vigor, they were to continually increase.

Vast was the scope offered for their existence, glorious the field open to their research, the mysteries of the Bible, of the visible universe, the wondrous works of him, which is perfect in knowledge, invited man's study.

Face to face, heart to heart communion with his maker was his high privilege.

Had he remained loyal to God, all this would have been his forever.

Through the eternal ages, he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, to discover fresh springs of happiness, and to obtain clear and yet clear conceptions of the wisdom, first of all, the wisdom of the power and also of the love of God.

God created Adam with this capacity to infinitely grow and to infinitely obtain information so that as he grew and as he understood more, all of this would point to the fact that the wisdom and the power and the love of God are as infinite as God himself.

In other words, throughout eternity, Adam would wake up the next day and he would say, God, I cannot believe how, I mean, you are the most powerful being in the entire universe.

And then the next day Adam would wake up and his understanding of power would have grown more.

And then he would say, man, I thought you were powerful yesterday, but now that I understand that you are even more powerful than what I already thought you were, it just blows me away.

And then the next day, he would learn that there is even more power to God, and there's even more power to God, and there is more, and this is why Adam throughout eternity would be happy.

You get to heaven, you're thinking, man, heaven's going to be boring.

It's not going to be boring because every single day, you're going to realize that the day before you knew nothing like the day, like today.

And so God said this thing was to continue forever.

We Adam was to look at his Creator and he was to say, man, the love of God, it just blows me away how much God loves me.

I just cannot understand and believe how loving God is.

And then the next day, God would say, Adam, I'm gonna give you more ability so that you can understand more.

And so the next day Adam would wake up and he'd say, he'd be blown away just as much as he was blown away the day before.

This is what God intended for Adam in a perfect state so that Adam would understand the wisdom, the power, and the love of God.

He would do the same thing with the wisdom of God.

And then the next day, God would say, I'm going to allow you to understand a larger problem because I'm going to solve it and you need to know how much more powerful and or how much more wise I am.

And this he was to continue to have throughout eternity.

And then it says this, more and more fully would he have fulfilled the object of his creation, more and more fully have reflected the Creator's glory.

Through sin, the divine likeness was marred and well nigh obliterated.

And then it says his spiritual vision was dimmed.

Now let me just, I'm trying to draw these simple pictures Because these help me to understand how grave the change was.

Now if, if all you do is stop Adam and Eve from living eternally, That's all you do, you just say, look, from now on you can't live eternally.

That automatically completely disqualifies us from having obtained any type of godliness, right?

Because it requires eternity to be godly.

That's, I mean, it's going to require eternity for us to fulfill God's purpose for us.

So if in the end, all that sin did was to stop life.

Session 2: A Society of Actors - Understanding Our Problem

Father heaven be with us as we continue to understand and to seek to understand how we could deal with the answer that you have for it for us to be to the society's problems today.

I want to start off by telling you guys 3 stories which are going to tie into the point that I want to make in this topic, which I've entitled, The Society of actors.

I'm going to draw the story so that you remember, through bad artistry, my point.

Because I know you guys are going to say a fish.

I know you guys wish you could draw an airplane like this.

I was in Detroit, and I was getting ready to get onto an airplane.

And you have to go through security check.

And as I was going through security check, I got in the line and I got my bins and I was putting my stuff in there.

And then I see a line of just like pilots just come in.

And the pilots come in and I thought to myself, you know, that's fine.

I mean, they got to fly the airplane, so they should be able to cut in line.

And then they're coming, they're cutting in my line.

I said, that's fine, you know, I mean, they have to fly the airplane.

But what kind of upset me was that as a lady was reaching for the bin, the pilot didn't say excuse me or anything, he just grabbed the bin, didn't acknowledge her, put his stuff, walked through.

And I thought to myself, he could have at least said excuse me or I'm sorry, I have to do it.

It almost seems as though he snatched the box, the bin, and put his stuff in there.

And to my dismay, When I boarded the airplane, I thought, to this day I think, it was the same exact pilot.

And so I boarded on there, and I was kind of thinking to myself, man, this guy is just Rude, you know?

And then I sit in the airplane, and this is where the lesson hit.

As a matter of fact, this is where I got the title.

I sit in the airplane, he gets on the intercom.

And he says in his smooth pilot's voice, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to flight, whatever, whatever, from Detroit to whatever, we're gonna be flying at this altitude.

And he says, we just want to let you know how much we appreciate your service.

And I thought to myself, this guy is an actor.

Because so many other times that I board the airplane, I see the same, I hear the pilots, and they sound so nice over the intercom, but then when it's getting time to board the airplane and you're in the line, they're stealing your bins.

And I thought to myself, man, this guy's not really as nice as he sounds on the intercom.

And then I thought to myself, not only are pilots actors, But even the, not only is the person providing the service an actor, but also the people that are partaking in the service, they are also actors.

I have a friend of mine whose name is Alden.

And this guy, I'm going to draw another picture here.

I told this guy about a certain card which was introduced to me by my friend, and it is an American Express card.

It's the best credit card in the world, I think.

I don't even know how I was able to get it, but I was able to get it and I told him about it, he was able to get it.

And this card is so awesome because they have this type of insurance, it's called traveler's insurance.

And if you fly a lot, They guarantee that your luggage will make it to your destination, and if it doesn't, they will give you, I think, up to $1, 000 of credit to get your luggage.

Chung on the way over here, I pray every time I get on the airplane, I say, Lord, please help them to lose my luggage.

And then they have this other thing that is called satisfaction guaranteed.

That if you buy a product and for any reason, any reason you don't like the quality of the product, you can return it, and if the company doesn't take it back, they will reimburse up to $1, 000 of that product a year.

And so 1 day I went and I bought an iPod for, My wife and I, we bought an iPod for my sister-in-law.

And we got it engraved, you know, in the back, you can put their name on there.

So we said, this is great, we saved money.

So when we went to the Apple store to return the iPod, they said, we're not gonna accept the iPod because you already got it engraved.

And so I said let me see if this thing works with the American Express thing, you know, because oftentimes it will get gypped by the credit card company.

So we called them and I said, look, Apple won't take this thing.

They said, sir, can you tell me the transaction number?

So I told them the day they found the transaction.

They said, for now, we're going to take the charge out of your credit card account.

We're going to call the Apple store, and we will refund you the money regardless of whether they pay us back or not.

I got a call the next day or I don't know if it was a call or a letter in the mail they said return the iPod Apple will take it back so we returned it got our money back and I thought man American Express is awesome but then my friend Alden here I feel he takes advantage of it.

I mean, this guy knows how to use those features, and he uses them very well.

Alden Hall, by the way, is just a fake name.

And then I thought to myself, not only is my friend Alden, I can't say an actor, Not only is the person receiving the service also an actor, looking only for their good, but so am I.

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Series

Manliness 101

Session 1: God in the Image of Man - Seeking to Understand God and Man

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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Jethro and Moses

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Adventist Education: Is it Really Worth It?

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Sound Doctrine