Marcus Mecum - Men Like You - Part 2
June 13th, 1982, many of you might remember the plane crash that happened in Washington, DC. Flight 90 of Air Florida took off, crashed almost immediately after takeoff, crashed into the 14th street bridge, ended up in the Potomac river. So, the plane is there in this river on fire, most of the passengers have died, a dozen or so have found their way out the door of the plane, it's frigid, icy conditions, the river's frozen, broken ice everywhere. And they have really only two choices, one is to stay in the plane and be burned alive, the second is to jump into the icy waters of the river and probably freeze to death and die of hypothermia.
So, as they're jumping in the water, children and women are jumping in the water, people begin to gather all along the riverbanks across the bridge, and they're watching this scene take place. CNN and news reporters arrive, cameras are full view of the tragedy that's occurring. All over the world, people are watching these women and children jump out of this plane into the waters, and the narrators there are talking about how tragic it is. People are looking out there crying, afraid, people are, "Can't believe what's going on", talking about what a tragedy it is.
The whole world's watching when one man begins to run down that bridge, takes his coat off, jumps off the bridge into those icy waters, and he goes and he grabs a woman and her daughter, and he pulls them to safety. The cameras are watching. The world is watching at this moment. He goes back out, and he grabs another woman, and he pulls her to safety.
While all this happening, news broadcast, everyone's talking about it, and a woman is at home in her apartment and she's watching what's going on, out of the corner of her eyes, she sees this man jump into the water while everyone else is watching, everyone else is there talking about what's happening and how tragic it is, this man's in the water, and the woman says this, "That looks like something your daddy would do". As she feeds her kids. He goes back out, rescues, ultimately saves five people's lives before he, his life had to be saved. And it wasn't until three hours later they discovered it actually was those kid's daddy that was saving those people.
This is what I want you to catch, man, your family knows what kind of men you are. They know. And the question that was plaguing me all morning is when my family thinks of me, do they know what kind of man I would be? When I'm in crisis, when I'm up against the wall, when I'm overwhelmed, when I'm under attack, when I'm facing adversity, what kind of man do they think their daddy is gonna be? What kind of man do they know I'll be? Am I the one that's on the shore, on the bridge looking talking about, "Oh, how bad. How terrible. How sad. Oh, those poor people"? Or am the kind of man that rips off his jacket and jumps into the waters risking my own life, throwing caution to the wind because I live my life for something greater, I live my live with a divine purpose? And men like you, men with purpose are the kind of men hell fears.
Number four, men like you are strong men. Verse 14, Gideon begins to bring up his weaknesses. He has them like all of us. He talks about how off all the clans of Israel, his family is the least. And that in his family, he's the lowest on the totem pole. Gideon has insecurities, he has doubts. He's focused on his environmental limitations. He's looking at the way he was raised, the poor hand he had been dealt. And in great detail, he's looking at God saying, "If you only knew my family. If you only knew my upbringing. If you only knew where I came from". His environment that he was raised in is shouting, "You are inferior". It's shouting, "Don't believe, don't expect, don't dream".
No one saw anything great in Gideon. Not even Gideon saw anything in himself, but God saw something great in him, and at some point, you have to make the decision, "What kind of man am I gonna be"? Am I gonna be a man that looks at my weaknesses, looks at the problems, look at all the disadvantages, or am I gonna be the kind of man that says, "God has given me strengths, and I've gotta learn to go with my strengths"?
A September afternoon in 1779, John Paul Jones was fighting for the American colonies. He got in his little ship, sailed out to the north sea, only to be overwhelmed with a fleet of British war ships. They begin to fire their great cannons across the bow of his boat. He knew that if he didn't surrender, he would obviously be blown out of the water. And so, he pulled up in their direction, next to one of the huge British battleships. As he tied his ship to theirs, the captain of the British ship in a callous attitude shouted in a voice, "Do you surrender"? And John Paul Jones said, "Surrender? I haven't even started to fight".
And three hours later, he had defeated the British on that boat, the captain turned over his ship, his soldiers, his guns, everything he had, he turned over to that man, and freedom began it's fight for independence because of one man. Limitations, outnumbered, outgunned, could have easily fled, no one would have thought one thing, he would have been forgotten, no one would have known that he retreated. But instead, he evaluated the situation, and he found his strengths, and he went with his strengths. God told Gideon, "I want you to go in your strengths". Gideon's, "But I'm weak. But my family. But our history. But you don't understand. You don't know the limitations".
And God did not pay any attention to all the weaknesses Gideon brought up, he just said, "I want you to go in your strengths". And Gideon said, "How"? And God said, "I'll be with you in your weaknesses". Go in your strengths trusting God will be with you in your weakness. God gave you your strengths, your job is to give him your weaknesses and let him be strong where you're weak. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, this is the message Bible. Paul said, "Because of the extravagance of those Revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.
Satan's angel did his best to get me down: what he in fact did was push me to knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, 'my grace is enough: it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness'. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness.
Now I take my limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations cut me down to size, the abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become". Paul said, "Stop focusing on those areas of your life that you think are a disadvantage. Quit looking at them like a weakness, and instead see them as a gift". Every single one of us have weaknesses, every single one of us have made mistakes, every single one of us have failures, every single one of us have areas that we could look at, and without any question, use that as a reason God could not use us, but God looks at Gideon and he says, "It's the men like you. Men with a history, men with weakness, men with problems, men that don't have it all together. It's men like you that hell fears".
Which by the way, the most wonderful thing about God is basically saying, "Okay, God, I get it. This isn't about me in the first place". Yesterday, we were watching little gio, my grandson, he's 11 months old. And he had a accident in the kitchen, he just kinda fell down. And we could tell it was a little bit of a harder fall than just normal. You know, you could hear by the thud, you know, you could just kinda see it happen, out of the corner of our eyes we saw it. And we just wait, and you know there's a little pause and there's usually gonna be the cry. But the second that he hit the ground, all of us jump up to our feet, every single one of us. Gio's down, we stand up. And we all rush in to help. And I just wanna encourage you, your Heavenly Father, all of heaven stands up when you fall down. Go in your strength, and know heaven stands up in the areas that you're weak.
Number five, men like you, men that hell fear are men who build altars. Judges 6:24, "There Gideon built an altar," and I love this, he named the altar, "The Lord is peace". Watch this, here's an altar that's been built, he comes, he brings his weaknesses, he brings his upbringing, his pain, the disadvantages, his father wounds, the areas of his family that have caused him to doubt himself and feel inferior, and he lays them at that altar, and then he picks up God's purpose for his life. I want you to see it, immediately, when he lays down his weaknesses and he picks up that divine purpose that God had given him before he breathed his first breath, something about grabbing a hold of that purpose flooded his soul with peace, and he called the altar, "The Lord is my peace". What kind of man does the devil fear? Men like you. Men that are at peace with themselves because they're at peace with God.
In closing, I want us to go back and see how the story ends in judges 8. Again, Gideon is talking to the captains of the army he's defeated, the enemy, the Midianites, now he's looking at the leaders. He's asked them, "'what kind of men did you kill at tabor?' they looked back at Gideon and said, 'men like you, each one with the bearing of a prince'. And Gideon replied, 'those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you'. Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, 'kill them'! But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid'. So, Zebah and Zalmunna looked at Gideon and said, 'come, do it yourself. As a man is, so is his strength'. So Gideon stepped forward and killed them".
This is what I want you to see, the difference between a man and boy comes down to this text. Men know how to draw their sword, which is his word. Men are not afraid to stand up for God's word. They're not afraid to draw on it, they're not afraid to use it. But here Jether is, he's one of Gideon's of 300, he's got the uniform on, he's got, potentially, his armor on, he's a soldier, he's positioned right beside Gideon, he's got his weaponry, he's got everything, but when it came time to use it, he could not draw his sword, and the Bible says why, "Because he was a boy". 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was child," that's the first when, "When I was a child".
"When I was in boyhood," that's the first when. What did I do? "I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child". The second when, this what we need to do, we need to catch our second when, is manhood. The first when is boyhood, the second when is manhood. And he says, "When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me". 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, "Act like a man," that's the English standard version, "Act like a man". In other words, don't act like a woman, act like a man.
Hear me, hear me. You can take that however you want to but this is how I'm encouraging you to take it, be uniquely who God's made you to be. You do not have to check your manhood at the door. God has put the nature on the inside of you, of someone that's willing to jump off the bridge into the frigid waters of our world. He's made you that way. You don't have to sit on the sidelines. You don't have to watch. You can pull that sword out and defend, and protect, and provide for your family. God has made you that you way, he's created you that way. So, number one, don't act like a woman, that's how you become a man. Number two don't act like a boy. Boys are boys because all they think about are their toys.
Years ago, I had an encounter with, I just got to the church, there was a very prominent, I guess, successful man in our community and he wanted to spend some time with me. And I didn't know who he was, I just got here, but long story short, I went out and he showed me all of his accomplishments, all of the great things that he had done. We got back to the church, and he said to me, he said, "What kind of church you trying to build here anyway"? I was like, "Excuse me"? He's like, "Well, this isn't Atlanta, this isn't Tulsa, this isn't Dallas. We don't want those big churches here". And I said, "I don't even know what you're talking about. My heart is just to build whatever kind of church God would want. I think God uses small churches, I do. That's how God saved my life, was through a small church. Nothing wrong with small churches. Love small churches".
But I said, "I don't know what kind of church God is gonna want here. I don't know what God's going to try to build. My job is just to obey him and do what he's called me to do. So, if that's a church of a hundred, we'll be faithful to that. If that's a church of a thousand, we'll be faithful to that. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna answer to him, and I don't wanna stand before him and him look at me and say, 'you were supposed to reach so many more people but you pulled back, and you stopped, and you didn't do it because you doubted, or you hesitated, or you cared about the opinions of people'. I'm not gonna stand before God and hear that. I'm not gonna have come this far to hear God say I fell beneath what his call and assignment was on this church".
We parted ways, of course, never heard from him again. I see him every now and then in the community, I could tell he couldn't stand me. He's a big old man, too. Oh, yeah, big man. He was intimidating. Not too long ago, I started seeing him again, he starts coming to church, feeble and weak, really no family around him, very few friends. Of course, our staff were there for him, there with him in the hospital, no one else is there. So, the pastor started having the conversation with him, "Hey, you're not leaving this to anybody really. Do you have any plan? What are you gonna do"? And he said, "It doesn't matter to me because when I die the man with the most toys wins".
And he died in that hospital room alone, a boy, not a man, a boy. He missed his purpose, he missed his assignment, he missed the call of God on his life. And what he could have done, what he could have accomplished, the amount of people he could have helped and blessed, not through this church, orphanages he could have built, widows he could have helped, you name it, it could have happened. And I'm just here to encourage you, it's about more than our toys, it's about more than a body count, it's about more than you being just about you. If you're a man now and you've caught your second when, if you're married, if you have children, then you have responsibilities, and real men draw their swords, real men grab the word, God's given you a word, he's given you a sword, and your job is to use it.
I want us to all stand up to our feet. And so, I'm gonna ask for us to do what Gideon did, we're gonna build an altar. We're gonna bring our weaknesses, we're gonna bring our upbringings, we're gonna our bring our excuses, we're gonna bring our problems, we're gonna bring our pain, we're gonna bring them and we're gonna build an altar before the Lord.
And so, I want every father, every dad, matter of fact, I don't care, even if you're not a dad or father, every man, I'm gonna ask you right now to get out your seat and I'm gonna ask you to come down to this altar, and as you come, I'm gonna prophesy over every single one of you. I'm gonna speak the word of the Lord over your life. You're not leaving here believing the lie that you can't or you'll never because of your failures or your weaknesses. Listen, heaven's standing up right now with the men of this church. Hell fears, demons are trembling with even the thought that the men of God in this room would take their rightful place and become the mighty warriors that God has anointed us to be for this hour and this day.
Listen, we gotta, we better get a clue. DC doesn't want this, can I help you out? The world does not want this. Your businesses do not want this out there. There's a popular opinion that wants to push the men down, but God's trying to raise us up, because they're after our children, they're after our homes, they're after a generation, and it is a demonic, soulless agenda, and the only thing standing between that is the church that Jesus said he would build and the gates of hell will not prevail.
And so, father, I speak to the men of God in this room. This is an hour where men are to take their place. Wake up the mighty men, wake up the mighty warriors in this room in Jesus' name. Lord, make us make the transition from boyhood to manhood. When we were a child, we spoke like a child, we acted like a child, we reasoned like a child, but when we became men, we put away those childish things. Father, I thank you that you're raising up men that are about more than their toys, they're about more than stuff, they're about more than just gathering more and more, they're about more than all of the things that the world tries to assign them that defines who they are.
But Father, in Jesus' name, I declare over every man that they're a mighty warrior, that they're not what their past says, they're not what other people have said, anyone that's tried to shrink them down, anyone's that tried to shut them down, anyone that's tried to get them to burnout, or dropout, or quit, or backup, Father, on their assignment and their purpose, Father, we break the curse of every one of those demonic prophecies, those worldly prophecies over their life. We come against that word. That word will fall short, but your word, your prophecy, your will will not return back void, but it will accomplish that which you sent it out to do.
And so, I prophecy over every man in this room that they are a mighty warrior, they're called, they're destined, they're here with a purpose. Bless that purpose, anoint that purpose, raise them up to be a godly voice to their children and their grandchildren. Raise them up to be a godly voice in their family, with their wives and their marriages. God, raise them up to be the protector, the provider, and the defender that you've called them to be. God, we pull out the sword which is the Word of God, and Father we thank you that right now, we're being raised up as those mighty, mighty warriors in Jesus' name.
But Father, in Jesus' name, I declare over every man that they're a mighty warrior, that they're not what their past says, they're not what other people have said, anyone that's tried to shrink them down, anyone's that tried to shut them down, anyone that's tried to get them to burnout, or dropout, or quit, or backup, Father, on their assignment and their purpose, Father, we break the curse of every one of those demonic prophecies, those worldly prophecies over their life. We come against that word. That word will fall short, but your word, your prophecy, your will will not return back void, but it will accomplish that which you sent it out to do.
And so, I prophecy over every man in this room that they are a mighty warrior, they're called, they're destined, they're here with a purpose. Bless that purpose, anoint that purpose, raise them up to be a godly voice to their children and their grandchildren. Raise them up to be a godly voice in their family, with their wives and their marriages. God, raise them up to be the protector, the provider, and the defender that you've called them to be. God, we pull out the sword which is the Word of God, and Father we thank you that right now, we're being raised up as those mighty, mighty warriors in Jesus' name.