For March 8, 2022 – Builders Men’s Ministry – Preparation
What or who is pushing our buttons –
motivating, inspiring, urging us on?
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Passage for Study and Discussion: Tuesday, March 8 – Builders Men’s Ministry
1 Peter 1:17-21 New International Version
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
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That’s a pretty simple question, right? Why do we get up each morning, do our morning rituals, head off to work at home or away, then come home, sleep, and do it all again tomorrow. Even if we are looking for a job or direction for training/schooling, something or someone is moving us to action. Am I right?
Here are some possible life-motivators – of course the list is not all-inclusive:
Survival
Fear of rejection or being alone
Financial success or simply keeping food on the table
Showing love to my family by working / planning
Pleasing God Who empowers me to live for Him
Self-love that means I do what I do to benefit myself
Living to impress others – bosses, that special guy or gal
Fear of failure or loss of what is valuable
To reach personal goals for success and achievement, etc….
OK, that’s enough. Of these or others you may list, what constitutes the very best and longest lasting motivation of all? Fear is my answer, but wait until you read the rest to pass judgment. We fear not being able to make enough, buy enough, keep enough, be prepared enough. We fear losing our relationships with the most important people in life, losing our health (enter Covid, cancer, etc), losing our job or position, …… Some fears are beneficial since I won’t run into traffic for fear of being hit, I will generally obey traffic laws because I don’t want a ticket or to be hurt or to hit someone else because of my bad choices. I won’t eat certain things, drink certain things, go certain places after dark, or be careless with a weapon. Why? Fear – healthy fear.
I want to suggest a better fear to become our motivation in life to do what we do. This fear is real but not negative or unpredictable. This fear is commanded, encouraged, misunderstood but available for free. I am not kidding. It is big, powerful, life altering, and full of promise. Ready? OK. The fear I suggest is the “fear of the Lord” also called the “fear of God”, the healthiest fear of all.
Well, why shouldn’t we fear Him? In the passage from 1 Peter 1:17-21 we are reminded that God will judge our behavior someday, He paid the ultimate high price for our forgiveness and entry into His kingdom. It didn’t cost Him money like silver or gold. It cost Him the life of His Son Jesus. We are blood bought. God deserves our love and reverence and obedience (holiness).
Also, He is after all the creator, sustainer of life, the one who provides all resources to meet our needs…all of them, everything. Plus, He is going to judge our actions and words from our time on the planet. (1 Peter 1:17) Those are all good reasons to be afraid of Him, but the problem is that being filled with fright of Him is not what He wants or ever did. Looking through the Old and New Testaments, one can certainly see His mighty power on full display in creation, in delivering the children of Israel from captivities, in revealing to the prophets the future and then keeping it preserved in His Word, in delivering Israel into times of judgment, in punishment of the enemies of Israel, in providing a Savior to take away the sin of the world.
So what does He want and how does He want us to be purely motivated? Ready? It is His love for us, and it is His kindness to us. Really! I am dead serious. Fearing God is not strictly being scared to death of Him. He deserves and desires awe, reverence, and our deepest love. That, my friend, constitutes the fear of the Lord.
(Romans 2:4
Don’t you realize how patient he is being with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see that he has been waiting all this time without punishing you, to give you time to turn from your sin? His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance)
Some see God as just mean or uninvolved or uncaring. He is none of those things. Even in creation at the very beginning of man’s journey on earth, God loved Adam and graciously met needs by the things He put on earth to supply Adams physical needs. He and Adam had perfect fellowship and friendship, as they spent time together “in the cool of the day”. He knew Adam didn’t need to be alone and that a relationship with God Himself was not the only way to demonstrate His love for Adam. God gave Eve to him. She was not given as a slave to work under his rule or as a tyrant to rule over him, but as a co-regent – someone of equal value to God but who was to work under Adams authority and protection. God’s kindness in creation is evident. His love is real.
Adam, the first created man, was motivated for a time by the goodness of God, the love of God, the provision of God, the power of God, the authority of God. You know what happened, don’t you? Adam had a choice to either stay under that loving, powerful authority or try to become “god-free” and rule himself without the care and protection of God. He made a horrible choice. It wasn’t Eve’s fault. It was Adam’s. He had experienced God’s love first hand. He knew how powerful God was; yet, he believed a lie and started a series of seriously consequential actions motivated by anything and everything -except the God Who made Him. Rather than live in the fear of the Lord, Adam feared someone else.
You who have children know how this works. You love them, sacrifice for them, would give your life to protect them, but they don’t always appreciate it or willingly submit to your loving authority. You want them to respect you and know deeply how much you love them and can protect them from at least some of their own immature decisions, but they don’t always respond in a loving, thankful way. But you see, neither did/do you. Neither did/do I. And yet, God loves.
So this, my friend, is my explanation of living in the fear of the Lord – we know His power and His might to a certain degree, we know of His awesome actions in the past – ones we like to learn about and those we are’t too sure about, but now we know He loves us; therefore, pleasing Him is priority. So, why do you live? What pushes your buttons and keeps you moving forward? I don’t know, but I do know this: the fear of the Lord is key and includes the only real, pure motivation, namely, God’s love. I don’t deserve God’s love, but I am certainly glad He is real and all He promised is true. By His grace I will live for Him while I am here, knowing that I won’t do it perfectly – though I want to be holy as He is holy. Where are you in this process?
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Table Talk Time Questions for Builder Men’s Ministry – March 8
1. Lean In: Do you see men in our day as anxious, fearful, or insecure? If you do, what seem to be some of the reasons they are or at least might be? How much does fear of death impact a man’s emotions or choices?
2. Look Down: In the 1 Peter 1:17-21 passage of focus for tonight, what kind of fear is Peter telling us to have? How does this kind of fear differ from absolute terror or being scared to death? What is the “empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors”? What does His being the ultimate judge of our words and actions have to do with our attitude toward God? Does the fact that we will be accountable to God for our words and actions contribute to our understanding of the fear of the Lord? Knowing God sacrificed His only Son for us has to be a part of why we stand in awe and love Him. Yes?
3. Look Out: How do you see men in our culture expressing fear or insecurity? How are they attempting to deal with fear, anxiety, or insecurity? Could this have something to do with the “empty way of life” handed down from our ancestors? How effective are those methods? Who have you seen find better, more effective ways to face their fears and conquer them? How does insecurity in a man impact his wife or children? Do men you know fear death or eternity?
4. Look In: Has fear, anxiety, or insecurity ever been a problem for you or those men close to you? Have you had to deal with any of the “empty ways of life” handed down to you from your ancestors? What great things have they handed down to you? How did you find your way during those times of high stress/anxiety/fear? How did you get set free? What could 1 John 4:18-19 have to do with overcoming fear in life? Have you ever lived in the fear of death? How did it reveal itself in you or did it?
5. Take It Outside: What could we possibly do to help men and boys grow to a place where the fear that motivates them is the pure fear of the Lord – based on His power and His love for them? Does being personally secure in Christ help? Might being ready to DO I Peter 3:15 help us lead others? What scriptures, teachers, preachers, music, movies, poems, podcasts, writers, books, or other media has helped you become more secure in Christ and stabilized your thinking and emotions?
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1 Peter 1:1-16 – passages we have already studied at Builders Men’s Ministry
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hopethrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
Be Holy
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[a]