Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you that you
speak to us in the Bible, and we ask that as
we look at it now, you would help us to see what
it means to be a man according to you. And we
pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, when I
was three, as I mentioned earlier, my world completely
changed. My dad ran off with my mum's best friend.
And from then on, I would only see my dad two
out of 14 days every two weeks. When I did see
my dad, he'd do one or two things generally.
He'd either plonk me in front of a screen, because
he had work to do, or he'd go out and do heaps
of fun things with me. You know, we'd go to swan's
games, we'd go out and play golf, we'd go do
some cricket at the park, we'd do all sorts of
stuff. It was about having fun. It wasn't the
sort of kind of, you know, you need to clean
your room and let me show you how to drill a
hole or hammer a thing. It was, let's just go
out and have a blast. And the rest of my weeks
would be with my mum or my grandparents or at
school. So I didn't grow up having much time
with a father figure. And much of my life, I
mean, my granddad did what he could do, but even
then he couldn't do as much as a dad would. And
it felt like in my life, I've been trying to
work out from then on, what's it mean to be a
man? Now, of course, I know biologically what
it means to be a man. But I mean, what's it mean
to embody your biology? What's it mean to be
a masculine man? Do you have to drink beer, play
footy and watch motor racing? You know, can you
like reading books and... dressing quite fashionably.
If you need tips, talk to me later. Do you have
to be handy around the house and good on a barbecue?
Is that what makes you a man? What makes somebody
a man? What's it mean to be a man? Now, without
a masculine role model, working out the essence
of masculinity can be quite tricky and confusing.
And so as a kid, I always felt like I started
behind the eight ball. and that I've been playing
catch up ever since. Well, if it was hard for
me as a kid in the 90s, I think it's even harder
today for people, don't you reckon? There's many
more divorces, blended families, FIFO dads, dads
working long hours, fewer role models of what
it means to be a man. And I think generally in
society, there's been an attack on masculinity
itself. What was once noble and healthy and chivalrous
is now considered toxic. You say the word masculinity,
people think, yeah, toxic. And online, there's
so much unhelpful advice, lots of misogynistic,
angry men teaching young men, here's what it
means to be a man. And even with our celebrities.
There seems to be fewer good men. I'm a big Sydney
Swans fan. Do you know how rough the last couple
of weeks have been? Just to hear, I mean, Isaac
Heaney, he was the poster boy. He was like, he
was squeaky clean. He seemed like the most lovely
guy, talented, like a, that's the sort of man
I'd want my kids to grow up and emulate, except
a Christian. But like, you know, I'm like, that's
a pretty good guy. And then you hear about the
stuff that happened with the Sydney Swans in
the last couple of weeks and... It's just appalling.
Where are the role models today a boy could look
up to and go, that's what it means to be a man?
I think it's really hard to see what a man is
today. And that's without the gender fluidity
and the adrogenisation of people and all these
other things. It's hard. And I think because
it's hard and because it's not clear, we end
up with really toxic role models of what it means
to be a man. Here's the three main ones I see,
I think, both in the Bible and in society. So
three kinds of toxic masculinity. You've got
the passive people pleaser. I don't know if you've
watched the show Ted Lasso, the gridiron coach
who comes and coaches a premier league soccer
club. He's just this really nice guy, very passive,
very kind, but doesn't know how to really assert
himself at times and things like that. I mean,
the other one I think of when I think passive
people pleaser is Richard Bucket. Did you ever
see Keeping Up With Appearances? It's that kind
of person. Then you've got Andrew Tate. If you
don't know who Andrew Tate is, anyone who's got
kids, your kids will know who Andrew Tate is.
He's this misogynistic, tough guy. I think he
was in MMA and all these other things. He's not
a good dude, he's a violent guy. Kind of think
like James Bond, but the Sean Connery James Bond,
the more violent kind of one. Life is living
large and it's all about you and you do whatever
you can and you will take whatever you take to
get it. And then the other one which I think
you just see in every American sitcom today.
is Homer Simpson, the stupid sluggard. He just
sits on the couch, he's trying to escape work,
he's trying to escape the pressures of life,
and he just wants to sit back and take it easy
and enjoy it. I think these are the role models
of masculinity that we see today, don't we? And
none of them are good. They take a bit of a good
thing and they twist it, don't they? So what's
it mean to be a man? Well, I also want to suggest
to you the answer is not to go, oh these are
the bad ones Let's just wind back the clock,
you know, if we could go back a few generations
back to the 50s back I don't know when then we'll
know what to be a man is I'd want to say there
are some good things from those times where we
can see what it means to be a man But some of
the movements in modern society like feminism
We're trying to address real problems in the
past I think things like feminism have brought
some really helpful things, some good correctives,
but some really unhelpful things and it's gone
too far in other ways. So we can't just look
back and go, well, that's what it means to be
a man. It's easy to have nostalgia for a simpler
time and not properly critique it. I think a
more helpful approach is to go back to the Bible
and see what did God intend men to be. That's
what we need to do. And so if we go back to creation,
we see three things that men are meant to be.
Here are the three things. God made men to be
pioneers, to be leaders, God made men to be protectors,
and God made men to be providers. God made men
to be pioneers, to be leaders, to be protectors,
and to be providers. So let's have a look at
each of these. Firstly, God made men to be pioneers.
I mean, men need a mission. We need a purpose
and an aim in life. We're wired to lead toward
a thing, aren't we? And God gave Adam a task
and a mission. You can see this in Genesis 1
and 2. So do you remember God blessed them and
said to them, be fruitful and increase in number,
fill the earth and subdue it. And in Genesis
2 we see that Eve is Adam's helper. She's there
to support him and help him in this mission.
His mission is to create life, fill the earth,
and to subdue the chaos within the earth. And
you can see this in Genesis 1 and 2 quite clearly.
I think when we conceive the earth back in Genesis,
I think what we're meant to see... is I think
it was a bit like this. I think the earth, you
had Eden, and I think, it wasn't all ocean by
the way, that's not what I'm trying to say, it's
that you had Eden, and Adam and Eve's job was
to Edenise the earth. So to bring God's rule
and presence throughout the earth. That's what
they were meant to do. But at the fall, this
gets reversed. Because what happens at the fall?
Eve is calling the shots. She also gave some
fruit to her husband who was with her, and he
ate it. Yeah, Adam's not leading, Eve's leading.
And this is not how God set things up. So here's
how God set things up. It's a hierarchy of authority,
not of value. You know, everyone's equal, but
there's a sense in which there is authority,
and the authority is that God is the authority
overall, and then man... is the authority over
the woman, and then together they are the authority
over the animals. But what happens in Genesis
3 is this gets flipped. So the animals, the serpent,
tells the woman what to do. And what's the woman
do? She tells the man what to do. Hey Adam, have
some fruit, you know. And God's not even in the
picture. There's a reversal of the order. The
man isn't leading, he isn't doing his mission
that he's meant to be doing. Years ago I played
Aussie rules and for a while I played in defence.
And I learnt pretty quickly there are certain
situations where you get the ball and what's
your job? Your job, your mission in that moment
is to absorb the tackle. You know, you don't
always have to get it out and give it off to
someone else. Sometimes that's the worst thing
you can do. Sometimes you just need to absorb
the pressure, take the tackle, and you get a
ball up and your team gets time to set up all
over again. But I tell you what, when everyone's
bearing down on you, it's tempting to handball
the ball out, isn't it? To go, yeah, I'm gonna
get it out, and then they're all gonna back off
and go and deal with someone else. You make it
someone else's problem. You avoid the pressure
and the hits. But that's the wrong call. And
yet today, I think many men have been conditioned,
and I'm including myself in this, it's something
I'm working on, is to handball our responsibility
and our leadership to someone else. You know,
it's easy and tempting to handball to others
what we should carry. It could be handballing
Christian formation of our kids. Like, yeah,
I'm all for Christian schools. I think they're
great. I'm all for our kids church. Dan does
a tremendous job. I love my wife. She does an
awesome job helping our kids know Jesus. But
I can't handball that job to someone else. It's
my responsibility that my kids Get to know Jesus
as they grow up. Life at home. You know, it's
easy for me to go, yes, sweetheart, whatever
you want. No, no, no. I need to be the one who
sets the direction, the vision, who has the initiative.
Sometimes for men it's not leading well with
their elderly parents. They put their aging parents
in a home and never visit, never call. They don't
really honor them or value them as they should.
Sometimes it's men, young men who struggle with
adulting. I think of a friend of mine, dear friend,
but his life's not in a good way. He got married
and ever since he got married, his wife's mum
cooked dinner for them each night. Every night.
I think she might have done some of their laundry
too. It wasn't a good dynamic. It wasn't adulting.
It wasn't stepping up as a man. Now, don't get
me wrong, there's a place for delegation, there's
a place for listening. That's actually good leadership,
isn't it? But at the heart of leadership is making
decisions, taking responsibility, managing and
investing into what matters. See, being a man
is about leading yourself and leading others
well. And I think we all need to ask ourselves,
how are we going with that? One way to check
is... to graph our responsibilities. So to think,
okay, I've got myself, my family, my church,
my work. How am I going in leading these things,
in being a positive influence, taking initiative
in these things? Now, this is just how I do it
in my life. You don't have to do it like me.
You might break it up into a whole range of other
ways. That's fine. But... I think it's helpful
to analyze it, break it up, thinking, okay, where
am I weak? Where am I strong? Am I putting two
eggs, many eggs in the work basket at the moment,
not enough in the family basket? Which thing
is getting too much of me at the moment? Where
are the areas I need to develop and grow? List
the problems. What's going on in my life? Where
am I sinful and struggling? What about in my
family? What are the dynamics happening there
that aren't good, that need to be addressed?
And then make a plan. Write it down. Just do
it on your notes app or write it on a piece of
paper. But I think this is what us as men need
to do is we don't be passive, do we? Like Adam
was. We take the initiative and we lead. But
that's not all men were made to do. God made
men to also be protectors. To be protectors.
Eve and Eden, they were Adam's job. It was Adam's
job to protect them. Have a look at what it says
in Genesis 2 .15. Sorry, it's a bit small, but
I hope the payoff is worth it by having it in
table form. Anyway, the Lord God took the man
and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of, literally, guard us. The Hebrew
word is shamar, to guard or protect. It's used
of priests at the temple. And so when Satan the
serpent started talking to Eve, what was Adam's
job? He was meant to clock. This guy's a threat.
What's he doing here? What's he saying? Why is
he saying that about God? He should have dealt
with him. He should have stepped in and said,
no, Eve, stop listening to this guy. But instead,
he just sat there and did nothing. And sadly,
Eve wasn't much better. She engaged with the
serpent. She took charge, rather than letting
Adam step up, and it went horribly wrong. And
the consequence with that was that it started
the battle of the sexes. Here's what we see in
Genesis 3 .16. This verse actually parallels
another verse in Genesis 4 .7, where Sin desires
to have Cain and God says he needs to rule over
it. And the desire here is not that, you know,
Eve's going to look at Adam and go, oh, he's
such a hottie. Like, it's not that kind of desire.
It's the desire to rule over him. He will rule
over her. This is what happens in a broken world.
He will use his power and his strength to dominate
and oppress, but she'll want to be in charge.
Growing up, my dad sat down with me and we watched
a lot of Indiana Jones. I don't know if you're
a big Indiana Jones fan. I love those movies.
The old ones are better. The new ones don't even
count. But I remember that great scene in The
Last Crusade. Do you remember when he's getting
chased around by the tanks and he's on the horseback
and he's out in the desert and he picks up a
rock and he puts it in one of the tank guns?
And you've got this powerful gun, you know, in
the tank that's designed to protect the tank
from enemies and shoot out at others. And they're
trying to shoot Indy and it backfires and it
injures those inside the tank and harms them.
Now, I think what Genesis is saying is that a
man's strength and a man's brawn is like that
tank gun, especially for women. Because when
it's pointed out at others and doing its job
properly, it makes them feel safe and protected.
You know, it's the man in the middle of the night
who should be getting up with the golf club to
ward off any people trying to break in, isn't
it? But when there's a rock put in it and it
backfires into the family, that's when it's dangerous,
isn't it? That's when people feel unsafe. I think
men should build their strength. I think men
should learn how to fight. Because our world
is full of enemies and threats, both physical
and spiritual. Yet learning to master our strength,
to master our power, to master ourselves, that's
crucial. I mean, domestic violence is a huge
problem in Australia, especially among men. Andrew
Tate and his sort of misogyny. Even men just
lashing out with their words can be just so bad
and can make women feel emotionally unsafe. Men
need to build strength with self -restraint.
And sadly, there's many men out there who feel
emasculated in our world, and they're the ones
who tend to embrace this kind of toxic masculinity
that's built on a half -truth of be strong without
self -restraint. And those sort of men need to
repent. But healthy masculinity says build strength
and learn to control it and use it for good.
Here's how Proverbs puts it. I think it's brilliant.
Proverbs has these two really helpful Proverbs
for men. A wise man is full of strength and a
man of knowledge enhances his might. And in a
whole range of ways, wisdom, good counsel, but
I think strength as well, brawn. But whoever's
slow to anger is better than the mighty and he
who rules his spirit then he who takes a city
We need to have both don't we? strength and self
-control It's better than the mighty I think
that's an amazing thing isn't it You if you're
slow to anger if you rule your spirit you're
better than you know Genghis Khan You're better
than anyone who is a conqueror. That's actually
to conquer yourself is the hardest thing to conquer.
So how are you going with this? Both strength
and self -control. Maybe everyone at home is
walking around on eggshells because of you. Maybe
you're perpetually grumpy and shouty. I know
there are times where I am. And when I am, I
notice that. I try to notice that and go, okay,
something needs to change. I need to change.
What can I do? Do I need to have a rest? Do I
need to go have some fun? Do I need to just change
my mindset? But I can't let that happen. Maybe...
You're not growing in strength, maybe your family's
lost respect for you because you let yourself
get weaker and weaker. I'm saying, you know,
health and all of that, that's a hard thing.
But we've got to take responsibility for what
we can fix, what we can deal with. I remember
for years I had anxiety issues that I didn't
try and deal with or manage. And I think it made
my wife lose a lot of respect for me. So physically,
spiritually... We need to work on protecting
our families, protecting ourselves, so that we
don't backfire into them. I think part of the
problem is we often get so busy doing, there's
always another thing to do today, that we don't
spend time working on ourselves, do we? It boils
down to this. What threatens you and your family?
Are you ready for those threats? There's all
sorts of things out there. But make sure you're
not one of them. Make sure you're protecting
them, not that they need protecting from you.
So as men we pioneer, we protect, but there's
one other thing we do. God made men to be providers.
God made men to be providers. Have a look at
this one. This is again Genesis 2 .15. The Lord
God took the man and put him in the Garden of
Eden to work it, to cultivate it and take care
of it. This is the Hebrew word abad. Again, used
to the priest in the temple. And it means to
cultivate, serve or labour. And I don't know
if you've noticed it, but as you look at the
story in the Garden of Eden, I think the idea
that keeps coming across is that Eden itself
is like a temple. Is that God's... Presence is
there. And Adam and Eve are meant to be like
the priests of the temple. It's a place of bliss.
And because it was a place of bliss, work was
good. God would provide what was needed through
Adam's work in the garden. But all that changed
at the fall. Because here's what happens to work.
Here's the punishment now in a fallen world.
Curse is the ground because of you. Through painful
toil, you will eat food from it all the days
of your life. Work is no longer work. Work is
toil. Work is frustrating. The means of providing
for ourselves and others is now burdensome and
brutal. What are we fighting? We're fighting
thorns and thistles. To work means sweat and
grit. We're battling scarcity. And the soil that
we labor upon to provide for ourselves will one
day swallow us up, won't it? That's the great
irony in Genesis. The way in which we seek provision
will actually kill us one day. Providing is brutal
now. And so because of this, we just want to
escape it. A while ago, I read about a strange
phenomenon in Japan, the hikikomori. They're
shut -ins, recluses, usually men who've withdrawn
from society. Many of them spend their lives
online, tending to do pretty seedy stuff online.
But in Japan, there's approximately 1 .5 million
of them. Shut -ins. Men, mainly shut -ins. And
one of the big causes that these men have shut
themselves away from society is because of work
demands and pressure. Work was too hard, the
expectations were too high, it was all too much.
Now this is an extreme example but it proves
my point I think. Providing in a sinful broken
world is frustrating, exhausting and crushing.
And for a lot of men it feels like too much.
Now, you can shut yourself away like the Hikikomori
did, but what I think many men in our culture
tend to do is they get overwhelmed and they try
to endlessly escape the difficulty of providing.
And often the way we can escape can be toxic.
I mean, I think back to that Sydney Swans incident.
Why were they doing what they were doing? I reckon
there was a pressure. that was on them. They've
been working and it was like, yes, here's a chance
to let my hair down, here's a chance to just
have a bit of fun, but they took it way, way,
way too far. And many men do that, even men in
churches. They drink too much, they watch porn,
they have affairs, there's... endless gaming
or gambling they overeat there's all sorts of
ways in which in this world that's so hard we're
trying to cope but healthy masculinity finds
internal resources to cope from the spirit from
Jesus and the way he's loved us actually we still
use God's good gifts don't we? We still enjoy
things. I'm not saying, you know, never have
a beer or anything like that, but we use God's
good gifts in submission to Jesus' Lordship.
And that gives us the strength to carry on. And
we have the great hope that Jesus gives that
one day we will be in glory where we can have
true rest. So how are you going with this? Where
do you turn when you're feeling stressed and
tired? Is your approach, the way you try and
handle it, healthy or toxic? If it's toxic, what
are you going to do about it? All right, let's
wrap up. We've seen what healthy masculinity
should be. Three aspects to preform masculinity.
We're meant to be pioneers, protectors and providers.
But we've also seen how after the fall, how masculinity
can become toxic. We can become passive people
pleasers, who don't lead but we lie and we manipulate
and we... We don't take the initiative, we sit
back. We can have the misogynistic tough guy,
the Andrew Tates of the world, who are violently
taking for themselves. And then there's the stupid
slogans, the Homer Simpsons, who just want to
escape the hardness and the pressure of life.
And sadly, men act in these ways today, just
as they do in the Bible. I mean, do you remember
in Genesis 3, God promises that there will be
a serpent crusher, one who will destroy the work
of the serpent? And so what we're meant to do
as we read the rest of the Bible is we're meant
to go, where is that man? Like the whole Old
Testament, we're meant to be asking that question,
where's this serpent crusher? But you know what
we find as we go through the Old Testament is
that it just gets worse and worse. And so often
men just act so poorly in toxic ways. I mean,
think of chapter four in Genesis, right after
all this. You know, Cain. kills Abel. And then
you get Lamech, who takes two wives. And he says,
hey, you know, if anyone challenges me, you know,
Cain's Revenge is seven, I'm going to do it 77.
You know, he's like basically the prototype for
Andrew Tate. And then the whole world in chapter
six is violent. God, God regrets making the world.
In the end of chapter five, though, you know,
we see Noah and you think, oh, well, there's
a guy. He's pretty good. His father even says
of him, out of the ground that the Lord has cursed,
this one shall bring us relief from our work
and from the painful toil of our hands. Noah
does well for so long. He's like Adam 2 .0. He
gets the commission from God to fill the earth
and subdue it. He seems to be doing a good job
because he's been so obedient and brought his
family through the ark and, you know, is the
salvation of the world, really, because they've...
the world and humanity has been saved through
this man and yet Noah has a toxic moment. He
becomes a man of the soil and gets drunk and
naked and it causes huge problems. Now I get
it Noah's seen the flood he's probably got PTSD
uh you know he wants he's got this work this
job to bring relief like his father had said
to the world but it's too much for him and so
he does what's shameful. And then we read on
and we meet more men like this. We have Aaron
and Saul who people please in awful ways. We've
got David who, you know, you think, David's a
good guy? I mean, what an awesome guy David is.
There's the sort of man I want to be. I want
to be like David. But what happens? He does a
Homer Simpson. He stays home on the couch when
kings were meant to go to war. He then sleeps
with Bathsheba and murders Uriah. He becomes
like Andrew Tate. And he does that by lies. He's
a passive people pleaser. He says all the right
things to Uriah and the High Command to get his
way. David is so good and yet he's toxic in all
these three ways by the end of it. See, no man
in history embodies masculinity perfectly. Sadly,
the best of men are men at best. That is until
a Jewish boy is born in Bethlehem. And this boy
grew up to be a man unlike any other. He was
a pioneer with radical ideas and truths that
were so good and so wonderful that it ruffled
the feathers of the religious establishment.
He was a protector of the weak and the vulnerable.
He didn't exploit with his power, he used it
to serve others. and to do good to them, to protect
those who were getting taken down by the religious
establishment. And he was a provider to those
who were in need. He wasn't overwhelmed by helping.
He stayed faithful and godly his entire life.
And we see it most clearly at the cross. Because
at the cross Jesus led in such a way that it
cost him but he led, he was a pioneer and he
used his power to serve us at the cross and he
used his great obedience to protect us from sin
and death by ranting himself, sacrificing himself
in our place. He provided for us the salvation
we could never get on our own. I want to say
Men today do need role models. Role models are
important, but we need something far greater.
We need a saviour, don't we? A rescuer. One to
save us from the fall, from our failures, to
redeem masculinity. And that's what Jesus does
for us. When His grace is received and when...
a man becomes thankful for it, it changes them.
And they do become a role model. Someone you
can continually look up to. But that's because
they're looking up to Jesus, learning from him.
Transformation in the Christian life is grounded
in receiving God's grace, and then looking to
Jesus, seeking to copy him. Let me give you one
example of it. This is what it says in 1 Peter
2. He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness
By his wounds you have been healed You see it's
it's grounded in God's grace those green words
there, isn't it? How Jesus has suffered for us
how he bore our sins But then that leads to he
is now an example for us a role model That we
act differently as men Back to our table. So
what happens in the New Testament when men are
grounded in God's grace? Well, they do these
things like Jesus. Paul says, I do not permit
a woman to teach or to assume authority over
a man. She must be quiet, for Adam was formed
first then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived,
it was the woman who was deceived and became
a sinner. And all around that is Paul telling
men how to leave the church, because the church
is the household of God. And just like any household,
men are to lead it. So Paul tells men how to
lead in a Christ -like way. Protectors, likewise
husbands, live with your wives in an understanding
way, showing honour to the woman as the weaker
vessel. No, she's not built like we're built.
That's okay. We're equal in value, but we're
different. And since they are heirs with you
of the grace of life, so that your prayers may
not be hindered. We're to protect the women in
our lives and one of the key ways we do that
is to be prayerful people and our relationship
with God is going to struggle if we're not protecting
of the women in our lives. And then we're to
be providers in the same way husbands should
love their wives as their own bodies. You know
you look after your body I hope. Well that's
what we're meant to do. with women and especially
our wives. He who loves his wife loves himself
for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes
and cherishes it just as Christ does the church.
We work hard to give to others and provide for
them. See these are Christ -like behaviors driven
by grace. So what about you? As men we all struggle
with doing these things it's hard we're sinners
we all tend to struggle in one of these ways
which one of these do you tend to ward most it
may be different depending on the season of your
life but i'm talking about today talk about now
which one is it for you passive people pleaser
misogynistic tough guy the stupid sluggard Identify
where you tend to be toxic. Remember that you've
been forgiven of it. Confess it to God and make
a plan to change it. Because that's what men
do. That's what it means to be a man. It's to
take responsibility for your own stuff, isn't
it? And to seek to grow by God's grace. It's
to go on that journey of growth. And when men
do that, the next generation of men aren't behind
the eight ball, are they? They get a head start.
Because they see what it is to be a man and how
good it is to be a man. They're part of communities
with men who are role models because they're
copying Jesus. And then those boys will become
men who see that they need Jesus to save them
from their toxicity. and to help them be the
sort of men that God created them to be. Like
I said in the interview earlier, for me there
was a really unique bloke in our church when
I was growing up named Nathan. He was a role
model to me and to many other men. I mean, there
were men, young men there and boys as well, whose
parents treated them horribly, whose parents
had... whose dads had abandoned them, you know,
all sorts of things. And Nathan was just, had
this amazing ability to love and care for these
young boys, to guide them and support them and
teach them the Bible. And he was an incredible
example as well. He shared life with them. Has
God's grace driven you to be a man like that?
making you a role model to other men and young
men especially. Let's pray that that would happen.
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us
to be godly men, that our godliness would be
driven by grace and that we would constantly
remember your grace. Help us to be godly pioneers,
protectors and providers. And those times where
we are toxic help us to repent, to own it, to
apologize, and to seek to change. And Father,
by your Spirit, we pray that we would help us
on this journey of becoming more Christ -like.
Help us to be more like Jesus every day, every
year, every decade, that we may be men like him.
And we ask this in His name. Amen.