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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Beer, Bullets, Bellies

I just want to tell you right off the bat that this is going to be a very uncomfortable sermon, and I just want to let you know that right off from the very beginning, because some of you guys will be hurt from this sermon, which is normal.

The Word of God is a sword, it is a knife, but there is a difference between a butcher's knife and a surgeon's knife.

And so what we're going to be talking about today is going to affect a lot of people, and everybody in this congregation is involved when it comes to this subject.

However, I will be speaking directly to a certain group of individuals in this church.

So let's start with a word of prayer and ask God to prepare our heart.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much again for your grace, for your goodness, for your kindness.

Lord, as we jump into this message, Father, we need to humble ourselves first, and ask that you would prepare our heart.

God, we need you to speak directly to us.

We don't want a soft sermon, a fluffy sermon, God.

We want a direct message of God that will shake us, that will wake us up out of the slumber.

And we pray, Jesus, that we'd walk away from this message with our hearts stirred, and that every person would know that you have been in this place.

God, oftentimes this world clings to us and draws us into its darkness.

But, Jesus, we pray that you would unsheath your sword, the Word of God, like never before, and that the Holy Spirit would convict us like never before.

And Jesus, we pray that you would show us our duty like never before.

For this we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.

The name of this sermon is called, Beers, Bullets, and Bellies.

No, this is not a sermon about the health message.

This sermon is going to be about something else.

And I think you'll begin to pick up on it very quickly.

I was reading an article online, and it got my heart stirred.

And just this intensity of emotion began to come upon me as I was reading this article.

And I want to read you a part of this article.

And this is what the Bible, this is what this article says about men in the United States, right here.

It's talking about the response of men, or the responsibilities of men, to their families, to society.

Today, 18 to 34 year olds spend more time playing video games a day than 12 to 17 year olds.

While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married, and not raising families.

Women are beginning to take the place of men in many ways.

This has led some to ask, do we even need men?

Increasingly, the messages to boys about what it means to be a man are confusing.

The machismo of the street gang calls out with the swagger.

Video games, television, and music offer dubious lessons to boys who have been abandoned by their fathers.

Some coaches and drill sergeants bark, what kind of man are you?

Movies are filled with stories of men who refuse to grow up and refuse to take responsibility in relationships.

Men, some obsessed with sex, treat women as toys to be discarded when things get complicated.

Through all these different and conflicting signals, our boys must decipher what it means to be a man, and for many of them, it is harder to figure out.

For boys to become men they needed to be guided through advice, habit, instruction, example and correction.

Someone once characterized the 2 essential questions Plato posed asked, who teaches the children and what do we teach them?

Each generation of men and women have an obligation to teach the younger males, and females of course, coming behind them.

William Wordsworth said, what we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how.

When they fail in that obligation, trouble surely follows.

We need to respond to this culture that sends confusing signals to young men, a culture that is agnostic about what it wants men to be with a clear and achievable notion of manhood.

The founding fathers believed and the evidence still shows that industrialists, marriage, and religion are important basis for male empowerment and achievement.

We need to say to a number of our 20-something men, get off the video games 5 hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job, and get married.

Folks, I want you to understand something and I think you kind of know where we're going with this sermon.

Society is telling us 1 direction, this is what it means to be a man.

Media is telling us the same direction, this is what it means to be a man.

And all these views about what it means to a man are completely contrary to what the Bible teaches.

And God is calling for some people to wake up in this congregation and say, no, this is not what it means to be a man.

In fact we're gonna look at somebody who made the same admonition to his son.

Take your Bible go to 1st Kings chapter 2 verses 1 through 2 and if you're there go ahead and say Amen.

This is the story as David is coming to the end of his life.

He's been an old king, he has seen many things.

He's experienced so much in the world, and now he knows his son is about to take over his kingdom.

And so he wants to say the perfect words to his son, things that will wake his son up and help him to realize that there is a responsibility that God has upon him.

Now the days of David drew near that he should die and he charged Solomon his son saying I go the way of all the earth.

Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a what?

In some translations, it says, show yourself to be a man.

He knew he had to remind Solomon of a great responsibility that was resting upon him.

Because all of society was saying, this is what it takes to be a man, this is what it means to be a man.

However, God had a different view of what a man is.

Folks, if you ask today, you go to the average person on the street and you say, what is a man?

But if that is the definition of what it means to be a man, We're all in a lot of trouble, except for maybe our deacons.

You ask some others, and you say, what is the definition of a godly man?

You know what they will tell you are a man?

They will say, well, it's somebody who sits around in front of the TV with his belly hanging out, wearing a wife hugger shirt, and drinking beer all day.

It's somebody who grunts all the time and walks around with these big burly arms, and that's what a man is.

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Beer, Bullets, Bellies

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