Men take the lead

In this time of our country we as men have drop the ball of leadership. The young men have few examples of real men. The church is not producing the amount of men needed to fight the battles that is upon us today. To walk as real men, we must change the way we see the world around us and walk as Godly men. We have the power to change our environments but we must first know who we are as men.

Isaiah 3:1-12 (NASB)
¹ For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water;
² The mighty man and the warrior, The judge and the prophet, The diviner and the elder,
³ The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the expert artisan, And the skillful enchanter.
⁴ And I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,
⁵ And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable.
⁶ When a man lays hold of his brother in his father's house, saying, "You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler, And these ruins will be under your charge,"
⁷ He will protest on that day, saying, "I will not be your healer, For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; You should not appoint me ruler of the people."
⁸ For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, Because their speech and their actions are against the LORD, To rebel against His glorious presence.
⁹ The expression of their faces bears witness against them, And they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
¹⁰ Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
¹¹ Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him.
¹² O My people! Their oppressors are children, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And confuse the direction of your paths.

In the past weeks we have talked about what God has given us as men. We talked about the responsibilities that came with the gifts God placed in our hands. These highlights are discussed daily in some fashion are another. The world has become a dominate force in the lives of men today. When I say world I mean the environment that is not ruled by God’s hands. God gave the rule of this world to man but man lost it to Satan. Jesus regained it and restored it into the hands of man. It is still in the hands of man but we just don’t believe it. Jesus opened the doors to the Kingdom and gave us the keys to it. In those keys we have the power and the authority that God gave Adam in the garden. As men must stand with the keys and walk back into our rightful place.

We are the leaders that God made to rule this Earth. We give our lives to Jesus and then we tell Him (Jesus) to do the rest. He did His part, how it is time for us to do our part. We must first take steps in the right direction and we will see Jesus calling us forward. We can no longer wait for someone to point us in the right direction; we must be willing to go after it. Our roles as men are well defined in the Genesis. We must remember that God did not take back what He had given man. God didn’t say, no longer will you lead, God said, he will rule over you (woman)”. This is the first time God made this statement. You must remember that God said “he would rule over you” this is part of the conditions of the curse.

Why is it so hard for us to remember that Jesus walked this entirely out for you and me? Is it because if we do it means taking on responsibility? If we as men set our own rules, then these are the rules we follow. If we follow these rules then we are setting ourselves against God. As true men we accept the responsibilities that come with manhood. We know that the road will be hard but we take it on because we are walking as the sons of the Creator. Sons of the Creator create just like his daddy. If God is your daddy, then create something that God will say about you, have you consider my son _________? The world, the earth and God is waiting on you.

Men as Leaders

In the beginning God gave man a set of instructions. These instructions contain the very essentials of his existence and being. We can find these instructions in Genesis 1 & 2. If man is the creation of God why does he have such a hard time following his creator instructions? We have kick against the words of God since the beginning. If we would stop for a moment and ask ourselves why, the answer would help us step into our rightful place.

In Genesis 1 God created man and gave him authority with instructions on how to use it. Genesis 1:26 (NASB) ²⁶ Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." This all sounds great but Adam was ruler of the kingdom that God had provided for him. God saw fit to provide Adam with someone to help him. Each had a job to preform but Adam was created first making him the responsible one for the environment established by God. (Point one)

In Genesis 2, the plot gets better. Eve is placed before Adam. This doesn’t mean that Adam is to dominate her but he is the point of responsibility. This placed Adam in the leadership role of the environment, which was in the garden. In Genesis (2:16-17 (NASB) ¹⁶ The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." What is this death that God is talk of here? Again in Genesis 2:18 (NASB) ¹⁸ Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Let’s take a look at helper. What does it mean?

“HELPER (Gk. parakletos, “summoned, called to one’s side”; “Paraclete,” KJV). In the Gk., this word refers to one who pleads another’s cause before a judge; the word is rendered “advocate” in 1 John 2:1 where it is applied to Christ. The NIV translates, “one who speaks . . . in our defense.” When Jesus promised to His sorrowing disciples to send them the Holy Spirit as a “Helper,” He took the title to Himself: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper” (John 14:16; see marg.). The Gk. parakletos applies well to both Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus was eminently a helper to His disciples, teaching, guiding, strengthening, and comforting them; and now that He has gone the Spirit is His substitute to carry on His work in us. In this present age it is, therefore, evident that the Holy Spirit is the believer’s parakletos on earth, indwelling and helping him, whereas Christ is his parakletos in heaven, interceding for him at the Father’s right hand. The New Unger's Bible Dictionary.”

If this is true then Eve was to stand for Adam. She also to perform her duties, these would be duties that Adam wasn’t given. Adam was given the Garden, Genesis 2:15 (NASB)
¹⁵ Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. This says Adam you responsible for this environment. We can see that God Adam a helper in the woman. (She had not been named Eve yet.) Now alone came the snake and set down beside the woman. This is very interesting! Think of it like this, you are Adam. You are naming everything in the garden. This means that you know something about the creatures you are naming. You know that God created everything that you are looking upon. A snake begins to talk with the woman that God presented to you. This snake begins to question what God has said to you. Let’s listen to what was being said.

“Genesis 3:1-6 (NASB)
¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
² The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
³ but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"
⁴ The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
⁵ "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Here you are the King of your God given garden and you let one of your subject’s question what was given to you by your creator. Known, He walked and talked with you in the cool of the day. You knew His voice and you let things go to hell.

At what point did you stop believing what your creator told you. At what point did you stop being the leader and become the follower? Where is the man that God created to rules the garden and lead the woman He presented to you? If your house is going to hell it’s because you are leading the way. If your children are falling off the path of righteousness it’s because they don’t trust you. The devil cannot get in your house unless you leave the door open for him. What happen when the woman eat of the tree? Nothing! What happen when Adam eat of the tree? The devil step in and claimed the right to the gifts God had given Adam.

This is what we as men are doing today. We are giving away the rights God gave us through Jesus, the anointed one. However, there’s hope for us still. All we need to do is step into the place Jesus provides for us. Jesus restored us to oneness with God, which gives us everything we lost. We need to step into the place of manhood and stop being lead by the world of darkness. We need to put our faith into action and watch restoration take place in our lives. We are leaders, lead.