Complete Sermon Notes

What is a “Good” Man?

Psalm 37:23-24 (NKJV) The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand.

GOOD – good choices, a productive life [lived to a good old age], gets back up though he falls.

• Two extremes – I’m a worm (manure)…or God I’m so good.

• “Not about perfection, but direction.” John MacArthur

Come as you are – but don’t stay as you are…

ORDERED – Koon – FIXED, ESTABLISHED, AND READY.

The Struggle: the enemy, or our mind, plants thoughts. We go back-and-forth on whether we should act them out. The more you fuel SIN the more you’ll fight SIN.

Hollywood says a real man is the opposite of what God says:

You can be a good man today – you can turn from darkness to light. From confusion to clarity. From being foolish to being wise. From being bound to sin to being set free.

• A man is often measured by who he “is”, not who he “was.”

We say, “This is too hard,” and we give up.

Antinomianism – “against the law [nomos].”

/  WALK HERE /

Moralism – the Law [external] – “the letter kills…”

• John 5:3 tells us, “This is love for God: to obey His commands…”

• Both are grounded in PRIDE – look at how many laws I obey vs. look how many laws i break.

Willpower is good, but not enough – “do not touch; do not taste.”

• You exercise your will to submit to the work of the Holy Spirit – SANCTIFICATION IS SUBMISSION [a gift from God].

Spiritual Disciplines engage the Gift-giver.

A GOOD MAN – ACTS 14:23 So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

• Fasting shows the magnitude – “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God” (Acts 20:28).

• 1ST – Do you truly know the Savior???

“What is the spiritual condition of those I’m leading?”

• Change the environment of your home if it’s on life support.

Qualifications of a good man – Elders [normal men who have matured] – Titus 1 (NASB) 5… appoint elders in every city as I directed you, 6 namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.

• Outside reputation.

• Sexual purity – a one woman man.

• Dissipation is a lazy partier or gamer – rebellious to the things of God.

Home Life: It’s not necessarily the character of the kids that qualify the elder – but how he shepherds them. Eli did not “restrain” his sons.

• A wife can’t qualify a man, but she can disqualify him.

7 For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain. NASB

• Self-willed – does what he wants in spite of the wishes of others. MUTUAL SUBMISSION IS VITAL.

• Hot-tempered people hurt others.

Prov. 16:32 ESV, “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”

• Not addicted to destructive substances: NOT in bondage.

• Pugnacious – quick to argue: always right about everything.

• Sordid gain is dishonest and greedy – backdoor deals, shady real estate transactions, pyramid schemes.

8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, 9 holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.

• Welcoming to others (PEOPLE PERSON) – not hard and disengaged.

• Do you love what is good?

• Fair and balanced…self-controlled

• A STUDENT OF THE WORD – START NOW!

All elders need to be reading through the Bible once a year…

• Put it on your calendar – download the App – always a student.

Different Callings – don’t beat yourself up – some are deacons some are elders.

“Holding Fast the Faith”: something is trying to pull it away from us!

• “Having done all, stand…”

• “Though He slay me…”

CLOSING: How we are made good?

Men, return to the simplicity of the gospel: 3 Nails and 2 Boards

• 2 Corinthians 11:3 [NKJV] But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

The more complex it is the less we will follow it – 1+1 Vs. Trigonometry

Finish where we started – Psalm 37:23-24 (NKJV) The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand.

MEN OF PRAYER WAS A GIVEN – Matt. 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

1. Ask – share your heart

2. Seek – look for; expect God to move [this is faith at it’s core]

3. Knock – action