By Elder John Mabry, II
The following was shared during the 2015 Annual Men’s Day service. I share it with you today to encourage all men to fully know, understand and walk in the responsibilities that God has entrusted to us:
- Know God: Worship God and Him only and have no other God before Him.
Realize that man cannot exist without God. Psalm 14a says, “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” God breathed His life-giving essence into man’s nostrils, and man became a living soul.Although the form of man had been created and his vital organs existed, he could not think, walk, see, feel, taste or hear until God imparted His life-producing nature into him.
- Be productive or industrious: God is a creator, and made man in His own image..
God’s nature that He imparted into man caused man to be life-producing just like his Creator – in other words, to be creative and to make things. Man has been empowered with the ability and the responsibility to produce. In Genesis 1:28 God told man to be fruitful, to multiply, and to replenish the earth. The ability to produce is also exemplified in the New Testament when Jesus, the second Adam, told His disciples to produce an abundant harvest – to become fishers of men. That’s why you see many of us men tinkering with things like cars, building projects, computers, etc. God put that in us.
- Provide for those in his care: God provided for the children of Israel in the wilderness.
Man is to provide financial, emotional and spiritual support and encouragement for those under his care. One of the most beautiful examples of this responsibility is found in the book of Ruth when we see how Boaz took it upon himself to provide for an elderly widow and her widowed daughter-in-law. These two women, an elderly widow and a Moabitess, were destitute and without hope, in the society of that day. But a real man – a man of compassion, a man of integrity, and a man of God – saw a need and filled that need.
- Lead those in his care: Moses led the children of Israel.
There are numerous examples of how Moses led some two million Hebrews out of Egypt. His leadership skills are studied in college management classes today.
- Teach those in his care: God chose Abraham because he would teach his children.
Men have the responsibility to teach those in his care about God. Not only did Abraham teach Isaac about God, but he taught his servants and their children about God as well.
- Exercise his authority to protect: God protected the children of Israel in the wilderness.
Man has a responsibility to recognize that he has authority in the earth to protect what has been entrusted to him. God gave Adam authority in the earth to take the oversight in the earth, to subdue it, and to have dominion over every bird in the air and every living thing that moved upon the earth (Genesis 1:28). In fact, before God named Adam, He gave him responsibility and outlined his scope of authority in the earth.
As men, we have an awesome responsibility, having been made in the image of God. He has given us the responsibility to worship Him, to be industrious, to be a provider, to lead, to teach, and to operate in the scope of our authority. Let’s not shirk our responsibility – let’s be true, godly men!