On April 20 & 21, 2012, the men from my church attended the 2012 Man Up Men’s Conference in Orlando, FL. The conference featured powerful and insightful messages from Jerry Thorpe & Jim Groves. This is the fifth & final post in the series.

The notes may be hard to follow, but feel free to browse them for insights. Especially, check out the “Notes & Quotes” section at the bottom.

More valuable insights about manhood can be found in the writings of Robert Lewis. Check out his books: Raising Modern-Day Knights, Real Family Values, and Rocking the Roles. You’ll be glad you did.

Man Up Men’s Conference

Orlando, FL

Speaker: Jerry Thorpe
Topic: Wandering
Text: The Wilderness Wandering of Numbers 13-ff, Psalm 90:12, Joshua 1:1-9
Date: April 21, 2012

1. You must have courage (Joshua 1:1-2, 6-7, 9)

2. You must major on God’s Word (Joshua 1:8)

3. You must trust in the presence of God (Joshua 1:5, 9)

Notes & Quotes

• “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
• If we’re not careful in our marriages, things will just become routine. You’ll get into a rut.
• It’s easy to get distracted watching ESPN or enjoying your hobby, giving your kids the crumbs of your life.
• “Once we take the wrong road, we cannot get on the right road until we go back to the place where we made the wrong turn.” – Jim Bakker
• On friendships: friends should make you live better morally, and friends should stimulate your thinking.
• On health: “Nothing tastes as good as slim feels.”
• On life & success: I was climbing the ladder of success, but when I got to the top, I realized the ladder was leaning against the wrong building.
• On marriage: Communication is the first thing that breaks down.
• On relationship with God: Communication is the first thing that breaks down.

On April 20 & 21, 2012, the men from my church attended the 2012 Man Up Men’s Conference in Orlando, FL. The conference featured powerful and insightful messages from Jerry Thorpe & Jim Groves. This is the fourth post in the series.

The notes may be hard to follow, but feel free to browse them for insights. Especially, check out the “Notes & Quotes” section at the bottom.

Man Up Men’s Conference

Orlando, FL

Speaker: Jim Groves
Topic: Trusting God
Text: Genesis 3:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21
Date: April 21, 2012

Story: The Fork in the Road (Trusting God vs Pleasing God)

Reflections

Application

Notes & Quotes

On April 20 & 21, 2012, the men from my church attended the 2012 Man Up Men’s Conference in Orlando, FL. The conference featured powerful and insightful messages from Jerry Thorpe & Jim Groves. This is the third post in the series.

The notes may be hard to follow, but feel free to browse them for insights. Especially, check out the “Notes & Quotes” section at the bottom.

Man Up Men’s Conference

Orlando, FL

Speaker: Jerry Thorpe
Topic: Successful Living
Text: Philippians 3:13-14
Date: April 21, 2012

Synopsis: “This one thing I do, forgetting the things behind, I press on to the finish line.”

Outline:

1. This One Thing I Do (Goal or Mission for Life)

Characteristics of True Goals:

Reflection & Questions to Ask Yourself:

2. Forgetting Those Things Which Are Behind

Two Things You Have to Forget:

Three Tings You Have to do to Walk on Water:

3. I Press On (Don’t Quit)

Notes & Quotes

On April 20 & 21, 2012, the men from my church attended the 2012 Man Up Men’s Conference in Orlando, FL. The conference featured powerful and insightful messages from Jerry Thorpe & Jim Groves. This is the second post in the series.

The notes may be hard to follow, but feel free to browse them for insights. Especially, check out the “Notes & Quotes” section at the bottom.

If you’re interested in more resources regarding biblical manhood, check out the writings of Robert Lewis. His books Raising Modern-Day Knights, Real Family Values, and Rocking the Roles are especially helpful. Look them up!

Man Up Men’s Conference

Orlando, FL

Speaker: Jim Groves
Topic: Identity
Text: Romans 6:1-10
Date: April 20, 2012

Outline:

Word Picture: Man-Eating Grizzly Bear

Imagine you’re being chased by a man-eating grizzly bear. As you run away, you come upon a log cabin, and dart inside, locking the door behind you. Now, you’re safe, but you don’t necessarily feel that way.

• Step 1: Truth – You are safe
• Step 2: Faith – I believe I am safe.
• Step 3: Works – Live like a safe man. Act like a safe man.
• Step 4: Feelings – I finally begin to feel safe…sort of.

* Replace “safe” with any other truth from the Bible: forgiven, accepted, a saint, Christ’s friend, and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

• Step 1: Truth – You are accepted
• Step 2: Faith – I believe I am accepted.
• Step 3: Works – Live like a safe man. Act like a accepted man.
• Step 4: Feelings – I finally begin to feel accepted…sort of.

* Work through this pattern.

* Focus on the right things you are supposed to do, and you will stop doing the wrong things.

* Focus on your true identity and act that way. Your feelings will catch up.

Notes & Quotes:

• You will live out what you really believe to be your true identity. Not what you say is your true identity.
• Emotions get in the way of our obedience.
• Most adultery starts with this feeling: I feel unloved.
• Hypocrisy is acting differently than you are, not acting differently than you feel. Only Satan defines it as acting differently than you feel. Jesus defines it as the former.

On April 20 & 21, 2012, the men from my church attended the 2012 Man Up Men’s Conference in Orlando, FL. The conference featured powerful and insightful messages from Jerry Thorpe & Jim Groves. This is the first post in the series.

The notes may be hard to follow, but feel free to browse them for insights. Especially, check out the “Notes & Quotes” section at the bottom.

Do you want to read more about manning up? Check out Robert Lewis’s books Raising Modern-Day Knights, Real Family Values, and Rocking the Roles. You’ll be better for it.

Man Up Men’s Conference

Orlando, Florida

Speaker: Jerry Thorpe
Topic: The Challenges of Life
Text: 2 Timothy 2:15
Date: April 20, 2012

Outline:

1. Is the Lord Well-Pleased? (2 Timothy 2:15a)

You must have a passion for pleasing God.

2. Is Your Work Well-Done? (2 Timothy 2:15b)

You must have a passion for excellence.

Three areas that need a commitment to excellence:

• You must be excellent in your marriage.
• You must be excellent in your relationship with your children.
• You must be excellent in your service to God.

3. Is the Word of God Well-Used in Your Life? (2 Timothy 2:15c)

You must have a passion for the Word of God.

• If you make the Bible part of your life, it will change your life.

Notes & Quotes:

• God is more concerned with what you are than what you look like.
• “Being obsessed about what other people think about me is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about me.” – Craig Groeschel
• “The three greatest days in a person’s life are the day they were born, the day they were born again, and the day they come to grips with why they were born and why they were born again.” – Howard Hendricks
• For your kids, love is spelled TIME.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak at my church.  I enjoy having the opportunity to communicate God’s Word to people in a way that applies to life.  My effort is always to make it clear what the Bible is calling people to do.

The title of this message was “We Need Your Help.”  It reviews the two requests that Paul makes of the people of Collosae in Colossians 4:2-6. Paul is out in the trenches of ministry, and he is asking for them to support his mission of taking the Gospel to the world (see the outline below).  He wants the people to support the mission (1) with their prayer life and (2) with their public life.

Today, the same requests may be made to the people of God in our churches. We need help.  We need people to pray diligently and deliberately for the spread of the Gospel.  We need people to support the mission in their public life by the things that they say (communication) and the things that they do (conduct).  If we are going to impact our communities with the truth of the Gospel, we are going to need help from everyone who claims to be a Christ follower.

For those interested, here is the bare bones outline. The illustrations are missing, but perhaps this outline will be helpful to some of you.

1. Support the Mission with Your Prayer Life.

– We Must Pray Diligently.
“Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert…” (4:2)

– We Must Pray Deliberately.

1. Pray for the Communicators who Preach the Gospel
“pray for us, too” (4:3a)

2. Pray for Chances to Preach the Gospel (4:3b)
“pray…that God may open a door”

3. Pray for Clarity in the Preaching of the Gospel (4:4)
“Pray that I may make it known as I should”

2. Support the Mission with Your Public Life.

– Our Conduct Must Be Godly.
“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders” (4:5)

– Our Communication Must Be Gracious.
“Let your speech always be gracious” (4:6)

A while back, my Dad bought a Christian CD for my son, Jeremiah.  It’s a great CD that puts Bible verses to music.  One of the songs is based on Philippians 2:14 … a verse I sadly paid much attention to before Jeremiah got the CD.  The song goes like this:

Do… do… do… do… do all things,

Do… do… do… do… do all things,

Do… do… do… do… do all things,

Without complaining or arguing!

Pretty deep stuff for a children’s song, huh? And, simple, too.  My son sings this all of the time, and the cool thing is that he’s learning to apply the Scripture to his life.

So, what’s in it for us?  Well, I think it’s time we all learn to stop complaining.  Now, I’m not talking about providing helpful feedback to a person or an organization that asks for feedback and wants to improve (think restaurants that offer comment cards).  I’m talking about the unproductive stuff.  Like complaining to a friend or family member about some person, place, thing, or event when there’s nothing that they can do about the situation.  I’m talking about complaining about work, church, family members, and the like with your only real purpose being to let people know how unhappy you are.

One of the world’s most prolific bloggers, Seth Godin, recently wrote a post about the uselessness of whining.  Take a look at what he wrote about the two problems with whining:

The first is that it doesn’t work. You can whine about the government or your friends or your job or your family, but nothing will happen except that you’ll waste time.

Worse… far worse… is that whining is a reverse placebo. When you get good at whining, you start noticing evidence that makes your whining more true. So you amplify that and immerse yourself in it, thus creating more evidence, more stuff worth complaining about.

If you spent the same time prattling on about how optimistic you are, you’d have to work hard to make that true…

Well, we’ve identified the problem.  We know what God thinks about it.  And, we know how useless our complaining is.  So, what are we going to do about it?  Hmmm?

This past Sunday night, I had the opportunity and privilege to share God’s truth with the people of our church.  It was a challenging message to share because so much of it hinges on our realizing that we as believers have not been left here on earth for our own benefit.  Instead, we have been left here to introduce others to Jesus!  Said another way, you are not here for you; you are here for who you used to be.  Let that thought sink in.  You are not here for you; you are here for who you used to be.

The outline for the message looked like this for those who are interested:

1. Reject the Typical Focus (Acts 1:6-7)
– The typical focus is selfish (v6)
– The typical focus is wrong (v7)
2. Remember that we are a Task Force (Acts 1:8-9)
– The task force has been empowered (v8)
– The task force has been sent (v9)
3. Remember the Time Frame (Acts 1:10-11)
– There are limits (v11)
– There are eternal implications (v12)

Because we, as a task force, are here to introduce others to Jesus, we must live like it.  We must be certain that our attitudes and actions do not cause extra difficulty for those who are coming to faith in Jesus (Acts 15:19).  This may mean changes for the way we do church, and it certainly means changes for the way we live.  We are a task force that needs to get to work.

The message ended with a reading of an encouraging and challenging prose by Dr. Bob Moorhead.  It’s called the Fellowship of the Unashamed.  A video clip of the piece is below.  I hope you find it to be challenging to you.  When you’ve finished watching it, you should be ready to “get to work!”

If you liked this video, another version can also be found on my brother’s blog.

Do you want to get more out of your personal bible study time?  Have you ever wondered how it is that some Christians, pastors, or bible study leaders seem to be able to identify so much more truth in God’s word?  Well, there’s a three step process that can put you on a path to understanding and applying God’s word to your life.  This will help you to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22).

Here are the three steps of inductive Bible study:

1). Observation: What does it say?
This first step is a simple one.  Read the text carefully a time or two in a Bible version that you can understand.  (There are many great versions and translations available.  The one that I use personally and recommend is the NET Bible.  If you want to know why I like this one best, ask me some time.)  As you read, look for the following things:

1. Are there any commands?
2. Are there any promises?
3. Are there any repeated words or phrases?
4. Are there any results or conclusions (look for therefore or so that)?
5. What is the main idea of the passage?

2). Interpretation: What does it mean?
This can be a challenging step, and it’s the one that people sometimes fail to carry out correctly.  To perform this step, you may need to seek out a few Bible study tools (commentary, concordance, etc.).   But, don’t get too intimidated at this step.  Simply, consider the following questions:

1. Are there any terms, words, or phrases that need to be defined?
2. How does the passage fit into the broader context of the chapter & book?
3. What was the author of this book trying to say?
4. What did the audience understand the author to have been saying?

3). Application: What does it mean to me?
Now, it is time to apply the timeless truth of the passage to life.  Though all of the Bible may not be written directly to us, it is certainly written for us.   And, we must ask a few questions to learn how this passage should change our lives:

1. What attitude does this passage instruct me to have?
2. What action does this passage instruct me to take?
3. What does this passage instruct me to believe?
4. What does this passage instruct me to avoid?

At this step of application, also look for the How and the Why.  In addition to telling us what to do, believe, and avoid, the Bible also frequently tells us how and why to apply the truth of the passage.  So, look for that.

Certainly, this is not an exhaustive guide, but it should be a great start to helping you learn more from your Bible study time.  So, try taking these steps sometime this week, and let me know how it goes.  And of course, feel free to ask me any questions that arise from your personal study of the Bible.