The Measure Of a Man
A
Father’s Day Message By Jim Hammond
Men are born to be measured. I was 8lbs. 9 ounces. I’ve
been measured ever since. Our
parents put hash marks on the door jambs with dates for our growth
measured in inches. Grandmas and Aunts pinched our cheeks and said,
“My how he has grown.” We
were trained to measure ourselves.
If you're less than 10
years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
How old are you? ... "I'm four and a half " ... You're never
36 and a half ... you're four and a half going on five!
That's the key. You get
into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next
number. How old are you? "I'm gonna be 16." You could be 12,
but you're gonna be 16.
And then the greatest day
of your life happens.... you become 21. Even the words sound like a
ceremony.... you BECOME 21 ... YES!!!
But then you turn 30 ...
ooohhh what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk ... He TURNED,
we had to throw him out. There's no fun now.
What's wrong?
What changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40
... stay over there, it's all slipping away ...
You BECOME 21, you TURN
30, you're PUSHING 40, you REACH 50 ... and your dreams are gone.
Then you MAKE IT to 60 ...
you didn't think you'd make it!!!!
So you BECOME 21, you TURN
30, you're PUSHING 40, you REACH 50,
you MAKE IT to 60 .... then you build up so much speed you HIT
70!
After that, it's a day by
day thing. After that, you HIT Wednesday ... You get into your 80's, you
HIT lunch. My grandmother won't even buy green bananas ... it's an
investment you know, and maybe a bad one.
Then a strange thing
happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again ...
"I'm 101 and a half!!"[i]
We measure in so many other ways. When we drive, we don’t just go places, we measure our
progress or satisfaction based on whether we are passing cars or not.
Our measuring becomes a form of competition that enters our lives
at every level. I think we
learn this kind of thing from our fathers.
Not in Texas Anymore...
A young man who left his
home in Texas at an early age, finally purchased his own ranch in
Oklahoma. He invited his father out for a visit, and took him on a tour
of the property.
Driving along in the son's pickup truck, a
jack rabbit hopped onto the road in front of them.
The son stopped the truck
to let the rabbit pass, and the father queried: "What in tarnation
is that!?"
The son incredulously
replied, "That's a jackrabbit, Dad, what did you think it
was?" The father shrugged and said, "We grow 'em a lot
bigger'n back home in Texas."
So they went on and a
little farther on they came to a few buffalo roaming the range. The son
stopped the truck and the father again said in a puzzled tone "What
are those?"
The son hesitantly said
"Those are buffalo, Dad; you gotta be kiddin me, you really don't
recognize them?" The father replied "Well, I guess they're
kinda familiar-it's just that we grow 'em so much bigger back in
Texas."
The son, a bit
disgruntled, drove on in silence. At length they approached a low part
in the road with marshy wetlands on either side. A large snapping turtle
lumbered onto the road. The father peered intently at the creature and
said "Now what the heck is that thing!?"
Without missing a beat,
the son replied, "wood tick"...[ii]
We have learned how to measure how fast we could
run, how far we could jump, how long we could hold our breath, how big
the fish was that got away, or how many rebounds, how many points, what
batting average we had. Life
became a complex process of measuring ourselves.
It didn’t stop when we grew up.
We measured sales quota, marketing progress, growth potential.
Life was filled with tools for measurements, scales, tape
measures, speedometers, odometers, calculators, clocks, watches, SAT
tests, job evaluations, and salary packages.
We calculate progress with diploma’s and certificates. I thought it would be funny to put all my diplomas in matted
frames and hang them on my office wall, then hang among all these
diplomas nicely matted and framed certificate that reads, “Certificate
of Humility.” We also had
unconscious tools of measurements, we measured ourselves by our dads,
our peers, and our mirrors. We
learned how to use all these tools.
They became helpful to us.
Today we are going to look at various scriptures
with the key word “measure” in them and learn the measure of the
fully Grown man.
Focus:
God measures a man by God’s own standard, but the good news is
that God will give as a gift to those who are willing to receive it the
full measure of Christ.
The Measure of the Full Grown Man
1. He Knows God
(Psalm
71:15)
Psalm
71:15 (NIV)
My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your
salvation all day long, though I know not its measure.
Not only does the fully grown
man know God. He knows God
is Big, so big he is measureless. Men
like to have things figured out. We
like to understand, and to put a handle on things.
We like the headlines that sum things up. But God is hard to sum up.
He is hard to put a handle on.
We have to be okay with not understanding him fully.
Why? He is
measureless. Do we really
understand that? No.
“I
know not its measure.” But
we can sure appreciate it.
Not only does a fully grown man know this measurelessly big God, a fully grown man lives for
his measurelessly big God. And
not only does he live for this God.
He speaks praise. His
mouth tells others about this God.
He sings his praises. He
is a man of worship.
Action:
Men what can you do this week to set your heart on God? Will you make a commitment to open your mouth to talk about
what you learn this week while you spend time with God? Father’s if you have children that can read, why not read
scriptures with them this week, take turns reading verses.
2. He Is Gracious
(Matthew
7:2 )
Matthew
7:2 (NIV) 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and
with the measure
you use, it will be measured
to you.
A full grown man Is Gracious because He has
received Grace
The flipside is also true.
If you are gracious, you will receive grace.
Action: The
next time you are tempted to say a harsh word, or make a negative
critical statement, remind yourself this week of the grace you have
received. Ask yourself if
you want to be treated with a harsh critical statement.
Would you make a commitment to say something unexpected,
gracious, and affirming this week to the ones you love.
3. He Is Generous
(Luke
6:38)
Luke
6:38 (NIV) 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure,
pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your
lap. For with the measure
you use, it will be measured to you.”
A full grown man Is Generous because He has
received generosity The
flipside of this is also true. If
you are generous, generosity will come back to you.
THE principle: When
it comes to giving, whether it is giving time, giving money,
or giving love, you will not find you have run out of time, or
money, or love. God gives you more when you give.
Action: Have
you worried about finances in the last couple of weeks or months?
Have you wondered just how you were going to pay a particular
bill, achieve a particular goal? Make a commitment to be generous in some way because God was
generous to you. Giving is
what makes us learn the true value of our precious resources. Giving breaks the back of the spirit of poverty.
We are rich when we can give.
Let me suggest to you to find a need and meet it in some secret
way as a way of expressing your love for God who has been generous to
you. God will be delighted
and you will be delighted also because with the measure you use, it will
be measured to you.
4. He Is Joyful
(John 17:13)
John
17:13 (NIV) “I
am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the
world, so that they may have the full measure
of my joy within them.
A full grown man Is Joyful because he has
received a Full Measure of Joy
Action:
Receive Christ’s full measure of Joy.
Do you want to know how to receive it?
First you must invite Christ to be your savior, your leader and
forgiver. If you’ve
already done that, then decide to take some of the actions seriously you
will be challenged with today. Decide
to obey God’s will. You
will find joy following you around.
Joy is a byproduct.
5. He is Faithful
(Romans
12:3)
Romans
12:3 (NIV) For by the grace given me I say
to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you
ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance
with the measure of faith God has given you.
A full grown man is Faithful because he Has
received a Full Measure of Faith
Action:
Come to the source. Open
your hands to receive a full measure of faith.
Come to the source of the giver of faith.
Scripture says, faith comes from hearing the word of God.
Decide today to ask for more faith.
Come today before God. Come
again tomorrow and hold out your hands to your heavenly father and ask
for a greater measure of faith. Be
faithful with the faith he has given you.
What faith has he given you?
What do you believe God wants to do through you?
O.K. that measure of faith is from God, now start.
Take action. God has
given you a measure of faith, walk in that faith as you ask for more.
6. He is Happy (Romans
15:29)
Romans
15:29 (NIV) I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure
of the blessing of Christ.
A full grown man is Happy because he has
received the full Measure of Blessing.
Are you happy?
Maybe you haven’t been receiving a full measure of the blessing
of Christ. It’s
available.
Action:
Thank God for the blessings he has given you.
Let’s take some action right now.
Here’s my assumption. Contentment,
or happiness, is being happy with what God has given.
That sense of well being can be trained by training ourselves to
give thanks. Let’s pause
now to give thanks, for the full measure of the blessing of Christ.
7. He is Humble (2 Corinthians 10:12)
2
Corinthians 10:12 (NIV) We do not dare to
classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When
they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with
themselves, they are not wise.
A full grown man is Humble because he
Measures Himself by God’s standard
Action: The
best place to start when it comes to humility is to acknowledge our
sinfulness. Don’t measure
how good you are next to someone else.
Let’s measure ourselves according to God’s standard.
We fall short. Let’s
thank God for making up the difference.
True humility forgets about self, and begins to think about
others. Rather than
comparing, we look to serve others.
Rather than seeing ourselves as better, we serve others
“considering” them better than ourselves.
This is the model of Christ.
Philippians
2:3 (NIV) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in
humility consider others better than yourselves.
8. He is Whole (Ephesians
3:19; 4:13)
Ephesians
3:19 (NIV) and to know this love that
surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians
4:13 (NIV) until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ.
A full grown man is Whole because He Is
Filled to Overflowing
Action: Ever
wake up feeling empty? What
do you do? I try to fill
myself with food, or a cup of coffee to get me going.
Ever stopped to consider that the feeling of emptiness needs to
be filled with God? Make a
commitment to look to God to fill some of those needs, those little
needs that we often fill with other things.
Wholeness comes from being filled with the measure of all the
fullness of God. Remember
the bottle illustration. We
are vessels. Pull off the
cork (that’s removing the pride and acknowledge your need for God).
Place yourself under the waterfall of God’s grace.
Ask to be filled. Place
yourself in him, and allow him to get into you.
This is not a one time thing, this is a repeated thing.
It’s a lot like breathing.
Spiritual breathing. We
need it.
9. He is Growing
(2
Peter 1:8)
2
Peter 1:8 (NIV) For
if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you
from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
A mature man is a growing man.
He has certain qualities in ever increasing measures.
(READ 2 Peter 1:5-8 to discover “these qualities”). What we
have been calling a full grown man is really a man who is willing to
grow, and to change. A
full grown man knows he still has room to Grow! Maturity is pressing toward the mark; immaturity is
complacency and self-satisfaction.
Those that know they haven’t arrived are a lot further along
than those who think they have already arrived!
A friend gave me a quote from a TV comedy show that I have never
watched. In it there was a
parody on a men’s club. This
men’s club recited a prayer at the beginning together.
The prayer went something like this and they all prayed it in
unison. I had to laugh:
“We are men” (pause) “We
can change” (Pause) “If we have to” (Pause) “I Guess”
It’s funny because we can relate with that attitude.
Change is not easy for anybody, but it seems to me, men have a
difficult time seeing a need for change.
Wasn’t it Albert Einstein who defined insanity as “doing the
same thing over and over expecting different results”?
Let’s embrace growth whole-heartedly and that means deciding to
make a change. This is a
difficult thing. We usually
don’t make a change until pain forces us to.
Though we may not say this to our spouse, or our boss, or our
God, our attitudes might be saying “That’s just the way I am! Leave
me alone.” I have many
areas that are difficult for me to change.
The most difficult areas are the ones I do without even being
aware of them. These are my
bad habits that are so ingrained I have difficulty even seeing them as
bad. Let’s confront the
apathy within us that resists change.
There are 4 stages of manhood, men pass through if they are to
become a full grown man. I
shared these on father’s day in 1995.
Here are the stages again.
Stage 1: Unconsciously
Incompetent (At this
stage we are bad and don’t know we are bad)
Stage 2: Consciously
Incompetent (Here we Graduate, but it doesn’t feel like progress.
We are bad and now we have just come to know we are bad.
Usually it is because someone we care about tells us, or
confronts us with our unconscious incompetence, so suddenly we graduate
and become conscious of it. Though
it hurts, this is an important step.
Many immature people never acknowledge their ineptness.)
Stage 3: Consciously
Competent (At this stage we begin working on it.
You see we are narrowing the field here.)
We might be very conscious of our great progress.
“See I took out the trash.”
“See how I’m listening to you.”
This just shows how far we have to go.
Real change is when someone else starts to notice.
By
the way, don’t think that just because you have changed, or decided to
change everything it is going to be easy.
I remember at Promise Keepers the warning to the men. The men were warned that even if they made dramatic changes
it would be difficult for their wives to deal with those changes even
when they were good changes. They
are not sure what to do with you when you change.
This
phenomena reminds me of a story:
A guy in a taxi wanted to speak to the
driver so he leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulder.
The
driver screamed, jumped up in the air and yanked the wheel over.
The
car mounted the curb, demolished a lamppost and came to a stop inches
from a shop window.
The
startled passenger said, "I didn't mean to frighten you, I just
wanted to ask you something."
The
Taxi driver said, "It's not your fault sir.
It's my first day as a cab driver.
I've
been driving a hearse for the past 25 years!"
Some of you guys who take this message
seriously and begin making serious changes are going to freak your wives
out because they are used to a corpse on the couch, and you just turned
the TV off and said, “Honey, lets talk!”
Have
some fun anyway. Freak out
your wife. Encourage
yourself. Take some steps
and make some changes, that’s what growing is all about.
Let’s measure some growth.
Growing is the measure of a man.
Stage 4: Unconsciously
Competent (At this final stage others discover that we are doing
things well. We may be
completely unaware of the progress, This is a gift from God.
)
2
Peter 1:8 (NIV) For
if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you
from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Dear Lord,
We thank you for all you have done for us.
Your goodness is measureless, but we thank you for the glimpses
we have measured. We commit
ourselves to open our mouths to talk about what we receive and learn
from you this week. Help
us to be men of grace. We
come to you to receive a full measure of grace that we might be
gracious. Help us to
speak words of grace. Help
us to say something unexpected, gracious, and affirming this week to the
ones we love. Father,
you have been generous to us. Help
us to become like you in our generosity.
Help us to master financial worry by being generous.
Give us a practical way of expressing love to you by being
secretly generous to someone else this week.
Father help us to receive the full Measure of Joy you came to
give us. Then help us to be FAITHFUL WITH the full measure of
the blessing of Christ. Lord
help us to see ourselves by your measure, humbly.
Then fill us to Wholeness, Filled to Overflowing to bless others.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
At this service, all the fathers were honored then
given Tape Measures, while we listened to the song "The Measure of
a Man" by the group 4 Him. Here are the lyrics to that song.
This world can analyze
and size you up and throw you on the scales
They can I.Q. you and run you through
Their rigorous details
They can do their best to rate you
And they'll place you on the charts
And then back it up with scientific smarts
But there's more to what you're worth
Than their human eyes can see
Oh, I say the measure of a man
Is not how tall you stand
How wealthy or intelligent you are
'Cause I've found out the measure of a man
God knows and understands
For He looks inside to the bottom of your heart
And what's in the heart defines
The measure of a man
Well, you can doubt your worth
And search for who you are
And where you stand
But God made you in His image
When He formed you in His hands
And He looks at you with mercy
And He sees you through His love
You're His child and that will always be enough
For there's more to what you're worth
Than you could ever comprehend
Oh I say the measure of a man
Is not how tall you stand
How wealthy or intelligent you are
'Cause I've found out the measure of a man
God knows and understands
For He looks inside
To the bottom of your heart
And what's in the heart defines
The measure of a man
You can spend your life pursuing physical perfection
There is so much more
More than ever meets the eye
For God looks through the surface
And He defines your worth by what is on the inside
I say the measure of a man
Is not how tall you stand
How wealthy or intelligent you are
'Cause I've found out the measure of a man
God knows and understands
For He looks inside
To the bottom of your heart
And what's in the heart defines
Oh, I say the measure of
The measure of a man
Is not how tall you stand,
How wealthy or intelligent you are
Oh, I've found the measure of a man
God knows and understands it
For He looks to the bottom of your heart
And what's in the heart defines
Yeah, what's in the heart defines
Yeah, what's in the heart defines
The measure of a man
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