My son used to sleep and drink and eat football - especially eat. You should have seen him after a game. He was a sophomore lineman, and he played with great intensity. John was one of his teammates. John was, let's say, a hard-living kid who had sampled a little bit of everything. And John knew that my son was a Jesus follower. Well, John came to him after the first week of football practice and he said, "Hey, Hutch! I thought you were a holy man!" My son said, "Well, yeah, what do you mean?" John said, "Well if you're a holy man, how come you hit so hard?" Well, right there he was speaking volumes about what our world thinks Christian manhood is all about and he was wrong. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Those Hard-Hitting Holy Men." Now, our word for today from the Word of God will come from John 2, and I'll begin reading at verse 13. It's a seldom seen view of Jesus. In fact, I've never seen a painting of Him like this. I remember what one young man from Harlem said a while back. He said, "You know, Jesus in those religious paintings, He doesn't look like He could last ten minutes in my neighborhood." Well, listen to the Jesus of John 2. "When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at the tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords and drove them all from the temple area; both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, He said, 'Get these out of here. How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!'" Woah! This is the hard-hitting Jesus; the Jesus we sometimes lose in those pictures of lowly Jesus meek and mild. Now, we don't have a physical description of Jesus, but we do know He was a carpenter before they invented power tools. And that took a lot of strength. We know He spent forty days in the wilderness fasting without food and He emerged strong. And we know that He physically expelled these crooks. He didn't just say, "Would you guys please leave?" Listen; when a man comes to Jesus, this is the Jesus he comes to. And He doesn't lose his manhood, he discovers it. See, I think a man is wired to give himself 110% to something he believes in-a cause he thinks is worth giving himself to. That's why he likes sports; something he can give himself totally to for a little while. Then the game's over or the season is over. Or he gives himself to his business career, to something. I mean, every cause is a letdown, it runs out. A man is still looking for that cause for which he was made. And when a man like Simon Peter, that rugged fisherman, encounters Christ, he says, "This is it. This is the cause I can give my manhood to." As a man, you're going to be incurably restless until you find the Lord that you were built to serve. When you find Him, you discover a better best and a greater intensity than you've ever experienced in your life, plus a new capacity for love, for sensitivity, for courage you never knew before. He exhibited all of those when He paid the ultimate price for you. The man Jesus died for, a man like you and a man like me, knowing our anger, knowing our lust, knowing our selfishness, and taking the price for all of that on Himself; paying the death penalty for your sin and mine. And this man, Jesus, now says, "Give your life to Me and I will make it what it was created to be." This could be the day of a new beginning for you, as you fall at the feet of Jesus, as those men that were His disciples did years ago and you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." If you want to know more about how to begin a relationship with Him, then go to our website. It's ANewStory.com. Check it out! Listen to Jesus, the God-man, as He says to you, "Follow me." You'll find in His strength an intensity you were created to have in everything you do. And then, like your Master, you'll be one of those hard-hitting holy men.