I'd like you to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 and find verse 27. Genesis 1 verse 27. Now, Before we read this text, I want to introduce you to the boy I never knew. I've never known a boy who didn't love a sword, I've never known a boy who didn't love a knife, I've never known a boy who didn't love a fire, I never known a boy who didn't love a flashlight, I've never known a boy who didn't love a fire. I've never known a boy who didn't love a flashlight.

I've never known a boy who didn't love a hammer. And, you know, why is that? Well, it's because boys are males. If you hand a little boy a sandwich, he's going to turn into a gun. If you hand him a nana, it's going to turn into a gun.

Because he's a man, because he's a male. He's different. Girls don't do that typically. And so I want us to talk about that whole thing. Why, I don't know if you've ever thought about why it is that boys do this.

Why are they attracted to swords? Why are they attracted to light? Why are they attracted to knives? Why are they attracted to hammers? So I have a theory Beyond the fact that it's because they're men, they're males.

These things are some of the most important things in a man's life, in a person's life. The sword of the spirit is the most important thing. The light of the world is the most important thing. The hammer of the word of God is the most important thing. And I don't know why it is that boys want that, but it's quite possible that those are metaphors.

God gives boys a sense of something that's really a metaphor of something really powerful and something really good. Because when a man, when a boy grows up, He builds his life around the sword of the spirit, and he walks by the light of the word of God. And the hammer of the word of God, the iron sharpening iron, is so critical for the Christian, the Christian man. So that brings us to Genesis 1, 27. God made men to be men.

God made women to be women. And they think differently and they have different functions. So Genesis 1, 27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them.

The title of this message is, We Are Men. And so I want to lay down some foundations of what it means to be a man. And then these other, our brother brothers throughout this weekend are going to continue to detail other elements of it. But verse 27 makes it very clear that God made men to be men and women to be women. Verse 28, then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing.

So God gave men and women work to do to bear fruit and to take dominion. Those things are critical to understand who you are as a male, as a man. And so I want to give you three marks of Christian manhood. If you're a Christian, these marks are yours. And I'll tell you what they are, and then I'll walk through them, each one.

First, Christian men are image bearers, the image of Jesus Christ. They were created to bear the image of Jesus Christ. The second mark of a Christian man is that he's a dominion taker. He takes dominion. The third mark of a Christian man is Christian men walk with their sons and Christian sons walk with their fathers.

Those are three marks of Christian men. And so these are just very critical principles. So let's start with the first one. Christian men are image bearers. You know, what were you made for?

You were made in the image of God. The reason that you think, the reason that your body is the way it is, the reason that God gave you a life is because you bear the image of God. God is actually, He's not only put eternity in your hearts, He's put intelligence into your soul. He's put his qualities within you. And so the first work in your life recognizing that you are made in the image of God is that you were made to bear the image of his son Jesus Christ.

And the first work in your life is to understand whether you know Jesus Christ. The first work in your life is to understand whether you love God. The first work in your life is to understand whether you want to follow Jesus Christ. The first work in your life is to understand whether your sins are forgiven. That's the most important thing.

And when you know that your sins are forgiven, when you know that you want to follow Jesus Christ, when you know you want to be his disciple, then you have the glory of Jesus Christ in your life. And that's the most important thing in life. And then you become like Christ, and you are shaped by the sword of the Spirit, by the Word of God, by the light of the world. And that's what man is made for. Man is made to glorify God.

God made men to glorify him. And it's so critical that we understand that. In fact, I want us to stand. We're going to learn a song, sing a song. It's really the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, what is the chief end of man?

And we're going to sing it together. It's very short. It's very easy. And here's how it goes. What is the chief end of man?

Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. I'll say it again. What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. I'll say it again.

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Now we're going to put it into a song. I'm going to say the first line, what is the chief end of man? And then you will repeat it, what is the chief end of man?

Okay? And then we'll all say together, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Got that? Okay, so I'll start. What is the chief end of man?

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. What is the chief end of man? What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy and enjoy Him forever. Amen. Be seated. Man glorifies God by turning to Jesus Christ for salvation.

And what a Christian man is, is a reflection of Jesus Christ. He's becoming like Jesus Christ. The Bible says that man gets his life from Christ, and he gets his life through the the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Word of God in his life. That's how a man gets life and it is life that is truly life. Jesus said, I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.

And that's the life that Jesus gives. In Colossians chapter 2 verse 9, we see how important it is that we get our life from Christ instead of our life from the world around us, the entertainers, the stars, the heroes of our day who are corrupt. Get your life from Christ. In Colossians 2, 9, We see why it's so critical that we get our life from Jesus and not from the world. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power.

What we learn from that verse is that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. And when you believe in Jesus Christ, he enters into your life, and His glory enters into your life and you are filled with the fullness of God. That's the Christian message. And here we're told, and you are complete in Him, you're complete in the One who is the head over all principalities and all powers. The greatest power, the greatest love in the universe enters the life of the Christian man.

Paul told that church in Colossians 1.19, for it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. And he is a storehouse in which all the hidden treasures of wisdom are. He is a fountain of living water. He said, if anyone believes in me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. He's a fountain of life.

And so the Christian man is an image bearer so if you're a Christian man look to no other instructor but Jesus Christ Look to no other security but Jesus Christ. Look to no other counselor but Jesus Christ. Because he's a fountain to wash your sins away. He's a tree of life to bear fruit in you. He's a storehouse.

He's a river. He's a river of water of life that runs freely. And so the first the first mark of a Christian man is that Christian men are image bearers. They bear the image of Jesus Christ and they look to Jesus Christ for everything. The second mark of a Christian man, Christian men are dominion takers.

Christian men are dominion takers. A dominion taker is a man who takes authority over the things that are going on around him. Him and man's duty in the world is to take dominion and there are several ways that Christian men take dominion and I'll just mention a few of them first by bearing fruit and multiplying. Christian men are called to do things, to bear fruit, to multiply, to multiply their skills, to multiply their intellectual capacity, to multiply the kingdom of God, to be fruitful and multiply, to get married, to have children and have grandchildren and great grandchildren, and to take dominion over the earth and to send out children throughout the whole earth. Christian men are dominion takers by being fruitful and multiplying.

They don't spend their time jiving around with porn. They don't spend their lives plunged into games and meaningless activities. They are bearing fruit. They are doing things of meaningful value. It's a tragedy when a boy does nothing in his youth.

He has nothing to show for it. He has no work to show for it. He has no fruitfulness to show for it. The second thing that marks this dominion taker is that he's becoming a provider. Men are providers.

God has appointed men to be providers. Providers for women, providers for churches, providers for the poor. God calls his men to be providers. And so every boy here needs to be learning how to be a provider by working and doing the things that are really productive. And becoming a provider so that someday you boys can be married and you can support a wife so that you can support children.

How about two children? How about six children? How about ten children? Some of you have ten children. You know, it takes money to support those children.

But God calls men to be supporters of wives and children. And so men take dominion by being providers. Thirdly, men take dominion by assuming authority in headship. And that means that everywhere a man turns he's rejecting passivity. He's not just letting everybody else do things.

Men are designed by God to start things. Men are designed by God to stop things because they have authority. God has vested authority into men. It's very interesting, you know, it's obvious that men are born with an aggressive nature. They want to conquer things.

They want to win. And by the way, that desire to win, that desire to take dominion, that desire to have authority, is not from the fall. That is from the image of God in them. God has designed men to be heads. Heads of state, heads of families, heads of churches.

And headship is critical. Assuming the responsibilities of headship and authority are critical. We know, we all know that our fallen nature corrupts our desire for authority. It corrupts it corrupts this aggressive nature and so we have to always bring it into submission to Jesus Christ so that we're always acting in love. We are, our headship is an act of service.

It's an act of love. Men are designed to be strong, not delicate. You know, men, don't let your boys be delicate boys. God has designed them for war. God has designed them to take the hit.

God has designed them to be, to get fatigued for other people. God has designed men to be courageous. God has designed men to be courageous. God has designed men to be protectors. And that means that they can't be delicate men.

We don't want to raise delicate men. And we want to raise men who are being fed from heaven, that they have convictions from heaven that are fixed, that are strong. It's very interesting how often in the Bible God comes to men and urges them to be courageous. I'll just give you a couple of examples. Moses was talking to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 31, and he tells the children of Israel, just before they're getting ready to go into the promised land, they're going to go in and take the promised land.

And Moses is in the last days of his life and he's telling them how they ought to conduct themselves as they go into the land. And he says, be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." And then Moses turned to Joshua and he said to him, in the sight of all Israel, be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to this land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them and you shall cause them to inherit it for the Lord he is the one who goes before you he will be with you He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." David's last words of his life to his son David are found in 1 Kings 2 verses 1 and 2.

This is a critical, these are critical verses for young men. This is a verse that I taught to my son when he was probably seven or eight years old. David says to his son Solomon, I go the way of all the earth. In other words, I'm going to die. Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man.

Prove yourself a man. You're going to hear that idea communicated through the other men who are going to speak. Prove yourself a man. You are men. We are men.

We are not women. We are not delicate. We prove ourselves to be men. Prove yourself to be a man and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses. That's how you walk like a man.

You walk in obedience to God. And then he says that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn that the Lord may fulfill his word which he spoke which he said if your sons take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart with all their soul you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel." And then God himself spoke to Joshua before he went into the land. And God says to Joshua, be strong and of good courage, for this people you shall divide as an inheritance only be strong and very courageous and then he tells him how to be strong that you may observe to do all the law which Moses my servant commanded you, and do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Have I not commanded you, be strong and be of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." You notice the common denominator of courage. Why? Because Christian men are dominion takers and they take dominion by bearing fruit. They take dominion by taking authority and they take dominion by being courageous.

And then finally, the third mark of Christian men. Christian men walk with their sons and Christian sons walk with their fathers. Here's something that we all need to understand and that is Christian manhood begins with a father and a son and the way that they walk together. You fathers and you sons, God has put you together for this purpose, that you would walk together. The Bible makes it very clear.

Deuteronomy 6 makes this very clear. You all know Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, where Moses charges the fathers of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength. And he says, these words which I command you today shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Christian manhood is a life of walking beside sons and daughters as well. It's a walk along, talk along vision of discipleship.

It's not just involved in pouring facts into people's heads, but it's walking with them and teaching them the way in which they should go. And it happens when fathers and sons talk together, they work together, and they walk together in life. There's nothing more urgent for a Christian father and a son than that they walk together and that they walk together closely and that they do all these things that are spoken of here, to sharpen their minds. You know, fathers and sons should be able to look back and say to one another, look what we built, look what we learned, look what we read together, look at the places we went, Look at the men we were with. Look at the experiences we had in the Church of Jesus Christ.

That's what it means to walk together in life. And so the question, the most important question really is, are you an image bearer of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are your sins forgiven? How do you know that you are a child of God and that your sins are forgiven. Is it your desire to walk with God?

Do you believe that Jesus Christ bore the suffering that you deserved, bore the punishment that you deserved for your sins? Has he changed your heart? Like has he changed the things that you want? When God changes someone, their wantor changes. They want different things.

If your wantor hasn't been changed, you haven't been born again. But if you do, if you want to follow God, if you want holy things, if you want to listen to your Father, if you want the Word of God, if you want to be in the community of the Church of Jesus Christ, if that's what you desire, most likely God has changed your heart. He's changed your wanter. You know you're a Christian when you don't want the things that you used to want. You know, do you want to stop lying and confess your sins?

Do you want to stop stealing and make restitution and confess? Do you want to be a source of grace to your brother and your sister? Do you want your dad to read the Bible to you? Do you, when your dad starts leading a song at home, do you want to sing that song? These are really critical questions to understand whether your wantor has changed, and God wants to change your desires so that you desire the things that are good one of the prophets says Why do you keep why do you keep seeking worthless things?

That's what non-christians do Three marks of Christian manhood first Christian men are image-bearers. They bear the image of Jesus Christ, and they're forgiven. Number two, Christian men are dominion takers. Number three, Christian men walk with their sons, and Christian sons walk with their fathers.