Episode Summary. George Barna’s Millennials in America report observes, “One of the most attention-grabbing attributes revealed in this research regarding the Millennial way of life is their widespread desire to identify a purpose for living. Three out of four Millennials are still searching for their purpose in life.” This evidence that Millennials want a life of purpose reminds me of the popularity of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, which has been translated into 137 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. There is weighty evidence that human beings are designed to want a purpose for living. This episode series is designed to help the men listening accomplish exactly what so many Millennials—and so many humans in general want: experience the satisfaction and joy of knowing that they are accomplishing the purpose for which they were created. Our goal for this episode is to frame a biblical, one-sentence description of the mission that Christ assigned us—so that we can stay focused upon it.

For Further Prayerful Thought. (This week’s discussion questions are mentioned in the podcast but are repeated here.)

1. Rightness in my relationship with God: How am I doing at loving my Lord?  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Lk 10:27).
2. Rightness in my heart attitudes: How am I doing with Peter’s exhortation? For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
3. Rightness in the world around me. What areas of brokenness around me has God put on my heart? Individuals? Worldview issues? What opportunities do I have to speak truth into such brokenness? What opportunity do I have to exercise compassion towards the broken? How might I become better equipped to winsomely articulate the biblical worldview? (I highly recommend the Colson Center’s What Would You Say short videos).

Resources Used in Today’s Podcast

Discipling Men’s Hearts Through Kingdom Theology, Gary Yagel (Doctoral Dissertation for RTS Orlando)

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. No Christian man I know wants to waste his life. He doesn’t want his life to simply be a shooting star that burns out in a few moments of eternity; he wants his life to matter. He wants to get to the end of the race marked out for him and hear, “Well done” from the lips of Jesus. But we also know that in order to hear Jesus’ commendation for our mission, “Well done” we need to “well do.” We need to stay focused on it. As we saw last week rudderless life is a wasted life. The starting point for connecting our mission from Jesus to our everyday lives is coming to the conviction that God’s design for Christ-followers is that our INNER PRIVATE world GOVERN our OUTER WORLD of activity. This episode looks at HOW to do that—how we can take charge of the rudder and shape our lives according to our mission? And our model will be JESUS. 

For Further Prayerful Thought 

1. How would you try to persuade another man that God’s intention for him is to shape his outer world attitudes and behavior according to the game plan he has constructed in his inner world in conversation with his CO.
2. How would you defend the statement, “If you are not intentional about building a game plan to accomplish your mission on a regular basis, you won’t accomplish much of your mission.”
3. What examples of Jesus shaping his mission stood out to you?
4. How do you need to better implement God’s command in Proverbs 4:26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure?

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. Not only does God have a specific mission for you in 2023, which Paul summarizes in Ephesians 2:10 as good works, but that mission is so important that God specifically designed you for it—to have your specific place and responsibilities in your family, your natural gifts and vocational calling, your specific spiritual gifts with which to contribute to the Body of Christ, and your specific relationships with the lost. God has designed both ME—and THE SPECIFIC OPPORTUNITIES I WILL HAVE IN 2023 to impact my world for Christ. This episode looks at how to overcome a disordered life, so that you and I can stay focused on Christ’s mission for us—and so bring him honor in 2023.

 For Further Prayerful Thought

1.  What do you think is the biggest cost of living a disordered life?
2. Why might the failure to have a concrete understanding of your mission, make it easy to live a disordered life?
3. What are the pluses and minuses of defining our mission as the MFMfC podcast does, i.e. Called TO Christ, Called TO BE LIKE Christ, Called to EXERCISE DOMINI0N for Christ?
4. What benefits of overcoming a disordered life stand out to you?
5. What do you think are the biggest challenges to living an ordered outer life because you have ordered your inner private world?

Resources Used in Today’s Podcast

• Crazy Busy, by Kevin DeYoung
• Ordering Your Private World, by Gordon MacDonald

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. As our 2022 race comes to an end over the next few days, it is a great time to reflect upon the upcoming race marked out for us by our Commander in Chief, Jesus, in 2023. Since the incarnation is at the heart of Christ’s mission to redeem his people and renew creation, how does the incarnation impact our mission as Christ-following men? That is the question we seek to answer in this episode.

For Further Prayerful Thought

1. Comment on the principle that when you love someone you must give up many of your freedoms. How might this thought enrich your understanding of the incarnation?
2. What are some of the feelings that you think might accompany being in a eight by eight jail cell for life? Are there other metaphors you can think of to describe the eternal God imprisoning Himself in physical body forever?
3. Why do you think incarnational leadership turns the followers’ hearts to the leaders?
4. Biblical discipline is keeping a balance of consistent firmness and sympathetic understanding. Which side of this balance do you tend to land on?
5. How can you move into 2023 more determined to empty yourself and thus show Christ to others? 

Resources Used in Today’s Podcast

•  God Came Near, by Max Lucado
• Ministries of Mercy, by Tim Keller
• Stronger Than Steel: The Wayne Alderson Story, by R. C. Sproul
• Boundaries With Kids, by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. Joe Namath once said, "When you win, nothing hurts." The pleasure of victory can be so great that it overcomes the aching muscles and bruised body that result from battle. If you are disheartened, battered, discouraged or weary from fighting the good fight--your heart aching and soul bruised--my hope is that this episode will give such a clear picture of the colossal TRIUMPH of Messiah Jesus—and our part in that victory, that in some small way the pain is lessened, because we GRASP the ENORMITY of our eventual WIN.

For Further Prayerful Thought

1. How does Jesus’ title Prince of Peace reinforce the truth that the gospel has four chapters, creation, fall, redemption, restoration and not just two, fall and redemption?
2. What stood out to you about the meaning of the Hebrew word, shalom? Why would it be biblical to say that shalom is the answer to all the levels of poverty in the world?
3. Why would you support the argument that one of the highest callings of Christians is to spread the kingdom of righteousness in their vocations?
4.  What aspects of kingdom righteousness in the work place stood out to you?

Resources Used in Today’s Podcast

•  Engaging God’s World, by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
• How then Should We Work?, by Hugh Whelchel
• Stronger Than Steel: The Wayne Alderson Story, by R. C. Sproul

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. Sometimes a single word can be loaded with meaning: Mom, Dad, Darling, Champion, Failure. Single words can be so important that Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” As we continue our series on the titles of Messiah Jesus in Isaiah 9:6, both of words that make up this title are loaded with a wealth of meaning, encouragement, and hope. The title is EVERLASTING FATHER.

For Further Prayerful Thought

1.  What are the differences that a person would normally have in his relationship with his king and his father?
2. Is it overstating the case to say that Christianity is best summarized by saying that Christ died to pay for our sins so that the guilt that blocks us from a relationship with the Holy One of Israel could be removed so that we can have an eternal personal relationship with him?
3. Why would a compassionate leader be easier to follow than one who is not?
4. What is the worst part of being a vessel that Jesus the Potter is cutting into? What is the best part?
5. How would you persuade a non-believer that holding the opinion that Jesus was a great teacher is logically untenable?

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. Why did the long-awaited Messiah of Israel have to be the MIGHTY GOD—and what does that title mean for our everyday walk with Jesus today? That is the topic of today’s episode.

For Further Prayerful Thought

1. How would you support the idea that the overall teaching of the OT is that the real oppression of Israel was done by foreign military powers but by SIN? Why might this point to the fact that the deliverer would have to be God, himself?
2. Paul commanded Christ-followers to abhor evil. What stood out to you in this episode about the awfulness of sin?
3. When it comes to being strong in the Lord and the strength of his might, which aspects of appropriating Christ’s power to fight spiritually stood out to you?
4. Which piece of spiritual armor do you most need to start putting on?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

 Check 6 Wallet Card comes in a 5 Pack.

The Check 6 tool is designed to go with the book, Got Your Back: Helping Christian Men Forge the Brotherhood Connections They Need.

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. For the next four weeks, our focus is on the first and most foundational part of our mission—deepening our love relationship with Christ. We will do this by zooming the camera in on four titles of Jesus given in the Isaiah 9 prophecy of the coming Messiah Jesus—Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. What do these titles tell us about Jesus and what difference these descriptions of our Commander in Chief make in our everyday lives? This episode examines Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor.

For Further Prayerful Thought

1.  Do you agree or disagree that every man has a little of Pat Tillman in him—a capacity to be inspired by a great mission.
2. How would you argue that the most foundational part of our mission as Christ-followers to deepen our love relationship with Jesus?
3. What stood out to you as takeaways from the truth revealed to us by God that Jesus the Messiah would be the Wonderful Counselor?

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. This episode seeks to examine what the church’s commitment to the poor of our cities should look like. We then examine three serious flaws in the progressive view of social justice, an ideology which is captivating many young adults leading them to abandon Christianity. Finally, we examine how only the church can bring about the restoration require to solve the problems of our urban poor but raise the question, “Will middle class Christians care enough to do it?”   

Questions for Guiding the Rising Generation to think about this material. 

1. What is the biblical case for Christians being very engaged with alleviating the poverty and other suffering in our cities?
2. What would you say to a church leader who said Jesus’ mission for us is to preach the gospel not care for the poor?
3. What flaws of progressive ideology’s approach to poverty most stood out to you?
4. How would you make the case that the true causes of poverty—the breaking of harmony between us and ourselves, each other, God, and creation can best be achieved by the church? 

Recommended Resources 

• When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.
• Before Your Lose Your Faith, Edited by Ivan Mesa

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)

Episode Summary. The rising generation of Christians is rightly concerned about the link between Christianity and the oppression of racism. The problem is that many ideologies claiming to overthrow oppression are based upon destructive, anti-biblical worldviews. As the leaders of our homes and churches, how can we guide those under our care to oppose racism passionately, but be discerning enough to reject ideologies, that are not only false but have proven to be destructive? That is our goal as we examine Critical Race Theory in this episode.

 For Further Prayerful Thought: 

1. As you have seen aspects of Critical Theory being promoted in your experience, why do you think that Christians might unthinkingly buy into it?
2. What part of Critical Theory do you think contradicts the teaching of Scripture most severely?
3. Which principles for arguing against the Critical Theory worldview in the public arena stood out to you? What additional ideas do you have?

Link to FBI Report on Ferguson.

Recommended Resources 

• I want to especially highlight the excellent series from the Colson Center, “What Would You Say.” This series addresses numerous worldview issues biblically, succinctly, and with logical clarity. It is the best equipping tool I have ever seen to guide Christians to know how to be salt and light, winsomely promoting the biblical worldview throughout the culture.
• A Practical Guide to Culture, John Stonestreet and Brent Kunkle
• Mama Bea Apologetics, Hillary Ferrer

For the printed version of this message click here.

For a summary of topics addressed by podcast series, click here.

For FREE downloadable studies on men’s issues click here.

To make an online contribution to enable others to hear about the podcast: (Click link and scroll down to bottom left)