LOOKING AT THE MAN HIMSELF

How do you see yourself as a man.? When you look at yourself in a mirror, how do

you see yourself ?  How do you handle your relationship with others? I wish to state

that you are very important and the way you handle issues in life will make you

succeed or become a flop. Let me then encourage you in the following four aspects:

1. Your person
2. Your spirituality
3. Your spiritual growth
4. Your sexual purity  

I.                   YOUR PERSON

1.      Do you love yourself? It is OK to love yourself. It is scriptural.  Matthew 22:39

‘But there is a second to set alongside it: "Love others as well as you love yourself.'(MSG)

Romans 12:3

‘For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith’.(NKJV)

If God can love you, you can love yourself! If God can forgive you, you can forgive yourself!  (HAVE YOU?)  (FORGIVING IS LOVE’S REVOLUTION AGAINST LOVE’S UNFAIRNESS.  WE FREE OURSELVES!)

    

     2.     Do you love others?   How you love others tells others how you love yourself.  If God

             can love and forgive others, you can also. “And the second is like it: ‘Love your

             neighbour as yourself.’”  Matthew 22:39   (ANY ONE YOU NEED TO FORGIVE?)

     3.     Do you love God?  With all of your being?   Deuteronomy 6:5

‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength’.(NKJV)

            Keep on loving Him. You can not out love God.  “Keep yourselves in God’s

 love…..”

             Jude 21 spells it out loud and clear on this aspect of loving God. (HOW?  THE

 WORD – PRAYER – WORSHIP – WITNESS – OBEDIENCE)

II.                YOUR SPIRITUALITY

1.       Are you sure of your salvation?  Where is your heart?  “For where your treasure is there will you heart be also.” Matthew 6:21

Are you born again? Jesus said we must be born again. John 3:3,5,7

Do you have a vital, up-to-date relationship with Jesus Christ?  2 Corinthians 13:5

‘Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.’(NKJV)

2.       How is your prayer life? Are you and God on speaking terms? “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1

(DID YOU PRAY THIS MORNING?)

Are you uninhibited in your prayer life?  Philippians 4:4

‘Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!’(NKJV)

           John 15:7

‘If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it

shall be done for you’.(NKJV)

III.             YOUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

1.      LISTEN, LEARN AND OBEY. Deuteronomy 5:1

And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them.(NKJV)

James 1:22

‘But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves’.(NKJV)

2.      Study the Word.  Psalm 119:11

‘Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You’.(NKJV)

Search the scriptures. Mine them. Dig out the truths of God.  John 5:39

3.      Mature. Grow up. Do not remain babies. 2 Peter 3:18

‘but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen’.(NKJV)

4.      Make time alone with God. Jesus did. Matthew 14:22-24

‘Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.’(NKJV)

There was work to do. There were people in trouble. BUT – Jesus needed time alone with the Father. And if He needed it – how much more do we?   (DAILY DEVOTIONS)

            Are you so busy in your work that you do not have time for the Lord of the work?

5.      Have a spiritual check-up.

Check your diet. 1 Corinthians 11:28

‘But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup’.(NKJV)

Have a spiritual x-ray. 2 Corinthians 13:5-6

‘Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified’.(NKJV)

Prove yourself.  Galatians 6:3-5

‘For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load’.(NKJV)

LEARN AND TURN. Lamentations 3:40

‘Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD’;(NKJV)

Being God’s man involves not only what we do – but also what we do not do.

Being a godly man is: 

-          A RACE, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

‘Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified’.(NKJV) Spiritual excellence is not just a destination – it is a journey.

-          AN EXERCISE, 1 Timothy 4:7-10

‘But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe’.(NKJV)

-          A FIGHT, 1 Timothy 6:12

‘Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.(NKJV) The Bible tells us to fight the good fight of faith. Some times it is necessary to fight!    (CHRISTIAN ARMOUR)

IV.             YOUR SEXUAL PURITY.

           The Bible speaks quite liberally about the issue of sex. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4

‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor’,(NKJV)

           Sexual purity involves the:

-          MIND – Matthew 5:27-28

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”.(NKJV) (WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MOST?)

           -    BODY –1 Corinthians 6:16-18

‘Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.’(NKJV)

-          SPIRIT- Hosea 4:12

‘My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God’.(NKJV)