A Stone's Throw

Check out this message by Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill in Seattle.  He says what a TON of us guys need to hear.  WOW!!  Pretty hard core man!

Here is the outline…

TEXT: 1 Peter 3:7
PREACHER: Pastor Mark Driscoll
DATE: March 22, 2009

After addressing women last week, this week Pastor Mark preached specifically to men.

1. Your father: Adam (Genesis 1–3)

• Marriage is a covenant (Prov. 2:16; Mal. 2:14).
• Men are the covenant head, responsible for their wife and family (Gen. 2:18; 5:2; 1 Cor. 11:2–16, 14:33–34; Eph. 5:21–33; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:3–5; 1 Pet. 3:1).
• Adam and Eve both sinned, both are at fault, and both are cursed, but God held Adam responsible (Gen. 3:9).
• Marriage is cursed (Gen. 3:16). Work is cursed (Gen. 3:17–19). Jesus is the only hope (Gen. 3:15).
  
  
  1. No Sissy Stuff Sam: whatever women do, do the opposite
     
     
  2. Success and Status Stewart: masculinity = material success
     
     
  3. Give’em Hell Hank: angry and abusive
     
     
  4. I’m the Boss Bob: domineering and controlling; in authority, not under authority
  
  
  1. Little Boy Larry: never grew up, disorganized, lives with his mother, etc.
     
     
  2. Sturdy Oak Owen: absolutely dependable but emotionally absent
     
     
  3. Hyper-Spiritual Henry: Hides behind religious behavior and “God talk.” Talks at you but not to you.
     
     
  4. Good Time Gary: irresponsible life of the party
  
  
  1. Honor her maritally. Take a wife honorably. Establish right priorities, and be a one woman man–absolutely faithful to your wife.
     
     
  2. Honor her physically. Be strong for your wife, not against her. Be protective of her and present with her.
     
     
  3. Honor her emotionally. Be emotionally present and intimate. Take her on dates.
     
     
  4. Honor her verbally. Speak honorably to her. Speak honorably of her, when she is present and absent.
     
     
  5. Honor her financially. Provide for the financial needs of your family, organize your budget, and be generous towards your wife.
     
     
  6. Honor her practically. Consider her needs and how you can serve her.
     
     
  7. Honor her parentally. Be “Pastor Dad” by shepherding your children (praying with them, teaching them about Jesus, reading the Bible with them, etc.).
     
     
  8. Honor her spiritually. You initiate and lead prayer, Bible, chats, church attendance, etc. Take responsibility for your church.

2. Your Manhood

Like Adam, the sins of men fall into two general categories: sins of comission (doing what you’re not supposed to do) and sins of omission (not doing what you’re supposed to do). This leads chauvinistic or cowardly tendencies:

Chauvinism

Cowardice

3. Your Savior: Jesus Christ (the Last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45)

Ephesians 5:25
calls men to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. Men are not
ready to be good husbands until they are a part of the Church and
understand how Christ loves the Church by taking responsibility for her
and sacrificing himself for her.

The essence of true masculinity is taking responsibility.

4. Your Wife

Understand that a wife’s fears (1 Pet. 3:6) are legitimate; men dominate the lives of women and children, for good or for evil. Honor your wife:

What happens when you fail to honor your wife? God ignores you (1 Pet. 3:7). Repent.

Further Study:

• Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, by Wayne Grudem and John Piper
• God, Marriage, and the Family, by Andreas Kostenberger
• New Men, Soft Patriarchs: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands, by W. Bradford Wilcox

Keep praying for the team for their last day of clinic before coming home on Friday!  They will be flying home at 11 a.m. Friday at CST.

Hey All

We had another good day in the Village.  It was Hot again, but not near as bad as Tuesday.

We all pretty much performed the same tasks as the other days.  We did have some good questions during our gospel presentation which was very encouraging.  It is a long process for a Budhist or a Muslim to convert to Christianity, but some of the questions showed that God is at work.

Today we shared the gospel with the children using the colored bracelet (black=sin, red=Jesus’ blood, white=forgiven, blue=baptism, green=grow and gold=heaven).  The children were very attentive and it was fun to share with them.

This morning Rhet, the man I asked you to pray for yesterday, attended our devotional time.  The Gospel was presented in a very clear way and we prayed for him and his wife.  I think he has tremendous potential to be a great leader and look forward to the day that he surrenders his life to Christ.

Tomorrow we will work until noon and then make our way back to Phnom Penh.  We fly out at 11pm our time (11am Joplin time).  I doubt I will have the opportunity to write again, so keep us in your prayers as we travel back home.

God has been good and it has been a blessing to serve Him here in Cambodia.
Brock

Keep praying for our medical team in Cambodia!  They are 12 hours ahead of us, so it is Thursday morning!

Hey All

Thanks for your prayers, we had a great day.  It started off by being cloudy and breezy.  It was still pretty warm, but not unbearably HOT like yesterday.

When we arrived at the clinic we were told of a young lady that was possibly having a miscarriage.  So, Dr. Kit and I went to see her. (I know, I was thinking the same thing.  Take the guy with not medical experience when you have two nurses and Doctor?!?!?!?!?) He decided that she was having complications from a previous miscarrieage and that she wasn’t pregnant.  She did need IV fluids and to be taken to the hospital.  Terry came to give her the IV, she told me to pray because she hadn’t done that in over 20 years.  God was good and Terry was able to get the IV in quickly. We later found out that she is the wife of one of our translators.  Neither of them are believers, but he has been asking many questions.  We stopped by to see them this evening at the hospital and they were shocked that we would take the time to stop by.  Please pray that God would use this time to draw them both into His Kingdom.  His name is Reth and I don’t remember her name.

After the excitement of the morning the day was pretty routine.  We all continued doing the same jobs as yesterday.  We saw around 130 patients today.

Tonight, we had a treat for dinner.  We had home-made French fries with our sweet-and-sour chicken, water melon,  and rice.  All in all our meals have been pretty good, but the fries brought a smile to everyone’s face.

God is at work and we are glad to be part of what HE is doing.

Thanks again for your continued prayers,
Brock