word. The only thing an ambassador ever does is represent. To take the message, the methods, and the character of a king and represent him wherever he is. And so men, your life doesn't belong to you. If you are God's child, it belongs to your King. Your heart doesn't belong to you, He wants to form your heart to be tender. And then He says, “You go represent me. You represent me. You represent me. You represent me. You take up my cause. You carry my justice to where justice is needed. You carry my mercy to where mercy is needed. You be a humbly available tool in my hands. You make my plan visible.” Listen, God makes His invisible justice visible by sending just men to give justice where justice is needed. God makes His invisible mercy visible by sending men of mercy to give mercy where mercy is needed. God makes the humble heart of the Savior visible by sending humble men willing to put their own lives at stake so that they can represent the tender heart of their Lord. Our culture is crying out for tender-hearted men who, because of their tenderness, move out in mercy, move out in righteous justice, move out in humility. Men, your wives need that, your children need that, your neighbors need that, your church needs that, your culture needs that. No, you can't gain God's favor by your obedience. Jesus did that for you. But this one thing you can do, you can take up the righteous cause of your Lord and you can say, “I'm going to represent His cause wherever I am. I'm not going to be a hard-hearted man. I'm not going to walk away from trouble. I'm not going to ignore suffering, but I'm going to move up. I'm going to care and I'm going to act.” It is the way of the Lord. May we be men of tender hearts. Let's pray. Lord, I know for me I can be hard-hearted. I can not care in places where I should care. I can close my eyes to what I should see. I pray that I would be a tender-hearted ambassador of the King. Moving out in justice, mercy, and humility to represent your righteous cause. I pray that not just for me, but for every man who is hearing me right now. Would you meet us and would you make us tender for your glory, and for the sake of your children we pray in Jesus name. Amen. SESSION 3 I want to end our three times together by considering that a man of faith is thankful. We've talked about that a man of faith is fearless. No, it's not because he trusts his own strength and he's got control. It's because his heart has been overwhelmed by the glory of God, by the incalculable wonder of His presence and His power and His promises, and that vertical fear releases you from horizontal fear. You are firm of heart. And because you're firm of heart, your heart doesn't wobble in the face of bad news. And then we've considered how a man of faith is tender-hearted. That tenderness starts with a devastating message of the gospel, that there's nothing that we can do that will please the Lord. The bar is too high. The measure is too great. The only measure that matters we fall woefully short of, and it is that humility that is the soil in which tenderness grows. What does it mean to be tender? It means to pick up God's holy righteous cause. To care about what's around you, to be His ambassadors, to make His invisible justice visible, to make His invisible mercy visible, to live a humble, caring, loving, merciful life. Well, a man of faith is also thankful. And I want to look with you at a diagnostic passage. When you hear the word diagnosis, you know that that word means something is wrong. And you know that effective cure is always attached to accuracy of diagnosis. Bad diagnosis, no cure. Effective diagnosis, lasting effective cure. I'd like you to turn your Bibles to 2 Peter 1. I want to read verses three through nine. This won't look like a thankfulness passage to you, but it is. "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He granted to us His precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 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
Transcript: Session 3
MEN OF FAITH
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