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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

A Call to True Manliness

Well, if you've looked at the bulletin, today, 5'10", 150-pound David Wright is going to talk about true manliness.

Maybe not your conventional Christmas sermon, but what does it mean to be a true man?

Is it to be able to tackle a bear with your bare hands?

This looks like some true men out in the rugged frontier, moose horns on his shoulder, bows and arrows.

He's not even afraid of going to that mountain stream.

Has anybody been to Wisconsin in the summertime?

Shame on you for those that don't know this even exists.

This is where people come together to saw logs with a stopwatch to see who is the fastest, who is the most proficient, who can chop through with an ax.

In fact, this 1 in the top left is the most intriguing to me because they have to chop a little wedge, put their board in there, climb on top, do it again, climb on top.

I don't remember how many times they do it until they finally whack off the top of the tree in like 40 seconds or something.

So being a lumberjack, does that make you a true man?

Maybe it's your income, how much you make, the kind of cars that you drive.

Or maybe In Hendersonville, it's just as fitting to say it's the size of your pickup truck.

Don't worry, honey, I'll drive right over top.

I came across this on the internet, true and false manliness by James Freeman Clark.

He's an American theologian and author, and he says, manliness is the character of a man as he ought to be, as he was meant to be.

It expresses the qualities which go to make a perfect man.

Truth, courage, conscience, freedom, energy, self-possession, self-control.

But it does not exclude gentleness, tenderness, compassion, modesty.

A man is not less manly, but more so because he is gentle, he writes.

In fact, our word gentleman shows that a typical man must also be a gentle man.

So maybe it's better not to run that car over after all.

Now there are plenty of examples in scripture of very manly men doing very manly things.

Moses going up against Pharaoh, parting the Red Sea as all the children of Israel file through.

And while that is certainly part of being a man, Is that the only part of being a man?

Or is there something about being a gentle man or gentleman?

And what does it mean to be manly at home?

Because sometimes we're really good at being manly out there and conquering and coming home and saying, look what I've done, but at home, maybe we're not quite as, well, manly.

So this morning, I wanna look at an example, the story of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus.

And if you have your Bibles, we're gonna be looking this morning at Matthew 1, verses 18 to 24, is where we'll begin.

I'm looking at somebody in this Christmas story that oftentimes gets somewhat overlooked, but looking at the role of Joseph this morning.

So I'm in Matthew chapter 1 beginning verse 18, it says, now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

After his mother, Mary, was betrothed, today we'd say engaged, to Joseph, before they came together, She was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded, was pondering, was considering to put her away secretly.

Now that wouldn't be easy to do, would it?

Joseph, I'm pregnant, but I have not been with another man or any man.

That's the best story you could come up with?

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord, through the prophet saying, behold, the Virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated God with us I'll tell you it takes a real gentleman to hear news like that and to come up with a plan to put her away quietly even before the dream comes, even before God tells you specifically and directly, take this woman to be your wife.

What is inside of her comes from me, from the Holy Spirit.

Now why did God come to Joseph here and not just Mary?

Because Jesus was to be born into a family.

And this family needed, I believe, a spiritual leader in the home.

It's the same in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2.9, and God called to Adam and said, where are you?

Because he was a spiritual leader, the head of the home.

Not in a tyrannical, domineering way, but as a loving, tender husband, man, spiritual leader of the home.

As Paul says, Ephesians 5, 25, husbands love your wives just as, this is humbling, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.

Have the same perfect love for your wife as Christ has for the church.

So God is calling Joseph to be the spiritual leader of this home, to be the guardian, the protector, the provider, the leader of this family, as Christ is to his church.

He's calling Joseph to be the house band.

She's already pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit, but the creator of the family says, lead her, because she can't do this all by herself.

She'll need your strong arms to lean on Joseph to be the spiritual leader the guardian of this home to encourage her to be attentive to be constant to be faithful and compassionate Joseph you are my man.

I believe Joseph was a true man because he was patient, he demonstrated that he was gentle, because he was godly, And I believe he knew his Bible and the prophecies.

And I imagine the angel probably showed him Isaiah 714.

That was quoted and the scripture was to be fulfilled.

And so Joseph humbly submits and obeys God and in a gentle way Joseph leads his family verse 24 Then Joseph being aroused from sleep did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife Now it goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway.

Whatever God calls you to do, you do that first.

Secondly, comes your family, and thirdly, comes the church.

That's true, you've heard it from the pastor.

First God, then your family, then the church.

Because our families can only be, excuse me, our churches can only be as strong as our families, isn't that true?

And our families can only be as strong as we are connected to Christ, isn't that true?

So if it's not in that order, something is out of order.

Then we find him again in chapter 2, same book, Matthew chapter 2, picking up the story in verse 13, you know these verses well.

Now when they had departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, Arise, take the young child.

So some time has passed, the wise men have come and have gone, take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word.

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A Call to True Manliness

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