Blueprint: Discovering God's Intended Design 3

Last of the 3-week preaching series in church entitled Blueprint: Discovering God's Intended Design 3.

Week 1: In God's Image
Week 2: In the Garden
Week 3: In the Lead


This week's topic, In The Lead, is all about the role of men, i.e. being the head.   Pastor Jeff shared a CNN article 'Why Men are in Trouble' and I believe it is the reality for a lot of men these days.  I agree that men need to step up, but to what exactly?


Authority

Genesis 2:15, 19-20
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

God delegated man to take care of the garden and gave him the authority to name the animals. In the olden days the act of naming carries with it authority, as it also determines someone's destiny.  These happened before Eve came into the picture.

Direction
Genesis 2:16
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden...


This is the first commandment in the Bible and it's all about freedom.  


2 Kings 2:2-3
2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.

David's message to Solomon tells us what Biblical manhood means.  It is to walk in obedience to the Lord. 

"Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice." - Edwin Louis Cole

Accountability

Romans 5:19
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

The one man who disobeyed was Adam.  Even if it was Eve who got tempted by the snake and ate the apple first, he was the one that received the original instructions from God, and so was responsible in making sure that they were obeyed. 

1 Corinthians 11:3
3 But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

Saying that the head of the woman is man or the head of the wife is her husband may be difficult for some people to accept especially in the secular world, taken out of Biblical context.  But it must be understood only as different roles and not one having more value or dignity than the other.

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