Humble Manhood

To be a man is, fundamentally, to be humble.

*Men's breakfast talk, Nov 2, 2024. 

OPENER: Role models as you grew up (uncles, cousins, pastor). Q- Who were/are your role models?

PAST Men’s Breakfasts we’ve considered various questions about manhood. Today we want to consider the 1st and 2nd Adam (Adam and Jesus, c.f. 1 Cor 15) as role models. If there is one thing they have in common it is humility.

Worldly men/boys are portrayed as vastly different in the media, etc, than spiritual men since the Fall. Q- How do we see this?

1st ADAM
Adam was our example and role model in humility as the first man. Humility may be defined as: a) entire dependence on God (vertical-think the Great Commandment- ‘loving God’), and b) counting others as more significant than yourself (Phil 2, horizontal-again, the Great Commandment- ‘loving others’). It isn’t about a false modesty but seeing yourself rightly (in relation to God and others).

Activity for the boys- practice bowing and kneeling prostrate, explaining the meaning.

However, the Fall changed all of this. Read Gen 3:5. What was the first sin? It was prIde, the desire to be as God: to be worshipped, served, to set right and wrong, etc.

In ADAM
Story: When I was a teenager an elderly man whom I did not know stopped me on the street to ask if I was Jack Crocker’s grandson. He didn’t know me but knew I looked like my grandfather!

Q- Are there any family resemblances amongst our boys/fathers here today?

As Adam’s descendants the spiritual apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We are all proud.

Activity for the boys: How might we act out being proud (pointing, strutting, crossed arms)? Can we act this out? Very different from bowing!?

In Adam we follow his pride, not his humility.

2nd ADAM
Jesus did what the 1st Adam couldn’t do, He perfectly obeyed the Father, earning believer’s His righteousness. He also died a perfect death, the death we deserve to die, so believer’s might have forgiveness. He even rose from the dead so that He might offer us new life. All of this He did through humility (Phil 2- humility horseshoe).

Q- How did Jesus show humility?

Jesus humility is the means of salvation; our humility to the Gospel the means of receiving it. To be saved me must become utterly humble.

Activity for the boys: Using a retractable poll we played LIMBO!

In CHRIST
Once we are saved by faith (justified) we go on being saved by the Spirit (sanctification), in which humility is just as important, indeed a fruit of the Spirit! Read Col 2:6.

Q- How were we called? (we have some newly baptized believers here) (humility, repentance, faith, etc). We’re called to continue to walk in this same way.
​
Today, to be a man is to be humble. Q- How can we display humility as men of God today?
Christ is our role model, and as we follow Him, we are the role model of humility for others (1 Cor 11:1).