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How Jesus Looks At Generosity
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The Big Idea: You don’t have to give a large amount to give a lot. It’s pretty obvious that a $10,000 donation will pay for more charitable needs that a $100 donation. So does that make the $10,000 donor more generous, valuable, pleasing, or righteous in God’s eyes? You may be surprised–or not–to learn that…
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How Jesus Describes The End Times
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The Big Idea: Why be surprised that everything is happening just like Jesus said it would? Here’s a surprisingly relevant topic. Are we living in the last days? Can we know for sure? If so, then what should we expect to happen? When will the end come? And how should we live in the meantime?…
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Helping Men Climb Out Of Their Rut
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The Big Idea: If God puts a man in your path who is stuck, discipleship means finding out why and then helping him solve that problem. You can see them sitting next to you at any traffic light in America. The pace has numbed their senses. They don’t get enough rest. They’re always on the…
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What Does It Look Like To Be A Faithful Man Today?
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The Big Idea: God calls us to be faithful, not successful. Who doesn’t want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” But what does it look like to be a faithful man in this day and age? Join us and find out why the “if you really love God, you need to prove it”…
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What Does It Look Like To Follow Jesus in Practice?
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The Big Idea: What does it say about us if we don’t help a person in need when it is in our power to act? Imagine how the world would respond if every Christian man fully lived out his faith in Jesus simultaneously for the next 30 days. The results would be nothing short of…
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Why There Is Still Hope For Every Judas
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The Big Idea: Once we have believed in Christ, we can never fall so far that God will not restore us. Judas. The man who betrayed Jesus. He had in his generation what Osama has in ours: the most despised name on earth. No parent today would ever name a son Judas. It just isn’t…
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The Extremes To Which Jesus Will Go To Bring Us To Our Senses
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The Big Idea: Right now Jesus is grieving and interceding over every person who doesn’t get it. Has Jesus lost his cool? In today’s passage he delivers such a scathing critique directed at religious leaders that we picture the veins in His neck sticking out. It’s the climax of a conflict that has been brewing…
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Becoming a Servant Leader
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The Big Idea: The purpose of servant leadership is to help others while expecting nothing in return. The world is full of people willing to tell you what needs to be done, but not willing to lift a finger to help. Those were the kind of people in leadership who Jesus critiqued in today’s passage.…
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How To Love The Way God Wants Us To Love
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The Big Idea: God will never ask you to do something that He will not also give you the power to do. We all know what God wants most is for us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are to love Him with no reserves–the totality of our being,…
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Helping People Who Are Mistaken About God
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The Big Idea: What’s your best way to help someone who is mistaken? All around us are co-workers, neighbors, family members, and friends who have mistaken ideas about God. Those ideas may be based on their feelings, something they read or heard, or bad teaching. For example, some Christians are not sure of their salvation.…
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The Dual Citizenship of a Christian
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The Big Idea: Precisely because we are Christians, we must become great citizens. Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.” That’s poetic, but what does it mean as a practical matter? By what principle can we make secular decisions that also honor God? As Christians, we have a…
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The Extravagant Generosity of God
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The Big Idea: Jesus wants you to make sure everyone knows they’re invited. Jesus wants to make sure you know something: Everyone is invited to the party, and he’s counting on you to deliver the invitation. But what if someone is unwilling to respond? They’re still invited. Disinterested? They’re still invited. Hostile toward Christianity? They’re…
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The Kind of Man Who Pleases God
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The Big Idea: Becoming and making disciples is the fruit that pleases God. We all go through stages on our spiritual journeys. At first we’re the ministry. But eventually we come to faith, start to grow, and ultimately want to express our gratitude in some form of service. As we mature we start thinking less…
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How To Answer Questions About Jesus
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The Big Idea: Let’s win souls, not arguments. Christianity is so messy because it’s so much more inclusive that any other religion. In Christianity, we don’t reject sinners until they get their act together. Instead, we actually encourage them to get involved. We love sinners—the more the better! However, this takes a special kind of…
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What Can I Say That Will Make You Believe?
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The Big Idea: No matter what you say or how well say it, some won’t believe. But some will, so we speak. We’ve all had it happen. You’re talking to someone about the Christian faith. But they just don’t get it. They’re giving you nothing but grief. And you’re wondering, “What in the world do…
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The Only Approach That Really Draws Men To Christ
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The Big Idea: It is the story of Jesus—His life, death, and resurrection—that always has and always will draw men to salvation. Someone you really care about is walking in darkness. You’ve talked to them until you’re blue in the face. Given their resistance, what can you do that will really make a difference? The…
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Jesus Explains How Prayer Works
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The Big Idea: Let God “edit” your prayer to something you can really believe. Every one of us has prayed for something very important that hasn’t happened. Maybe you prayed that cancer would be healed, but the person died. Maybe you prayed to not lose your house or business, but you did. Maybe you pleaded…
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What Can We Do To Help Men Act Like Men?
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The Big Idea: The best way to help men act like men is to help the church act like the church. No doubt you’ve been on the receiving end of men behaving badly. In the world, it’s to be expected. But as we all know, many Christian men behave badly too. Why is that, and…
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Jesus Gets Flash Mobbed!
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The Big Idea: I am part of a carefully choreographed mission to bring Jesus to the people over whom He weeps. Chances are you have wept over someone you love who doesn’t believe in Jesus. You’ve wracked your brain about how to get through, but nothing seems to work. Jesus went so far as to…
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Small Beautiful Things You Can Do For Jesus
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The Big Idea: Since no encounter is ever random, no good deed is ever wasted. If you’re like me, the more you get to know Jesus, the more you ache to do things that show how much you appreciate and revere him. But how can average guys like us do things that honor Christ and…
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Nehemiah: The Principle of a Passionate Calling
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The Big Idea: God makes men by turning what breaks our hearts into a passionate calling to help redeem some broken part of the world. What is your burden—the thing that is breaking your heart? It could be your family. Maybe you feel stuck in a job you hate. Maybe you ache for your church…
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Job: The Principle of Suffering for No Apparent Reason
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The Big Idea: God makes men by allowing us to gain through suffering what can be gained no other way. Sometimes we suffer for doing wrong. We all get that. We also suffer for doing right. But in cases like that we can find strength from God’s Word because we know we’re doing the right…
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Solomon: The Principle of Success that Matters
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The Big Idea: God makes men by making it impossible to find lasting happiness in any pursuit apart from Him. As someone who works with men as my vocation, I find surprisingly few men are genuinely content with who they are and what they do—Christian or otherwise. The reason why is so much more prevalent…
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Gideon: The Principle of the Unexpected Leader
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The Big Idea: God makes men by turning our weakness into strength in such a way that only He can get the glory. Has God presented you with a calling, task, or mission so daunting that it raises all kinds of doubts and fears? What you may not have realized is that these nerve- wracking…
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Moses: The Principle of Personal Transformation
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The Big Idea: God makes men by taking us through a humbling process that fundamentally changes the way we think. Who hasn’t felt led by God to do something that we thought was important but ended up with egg on our face? Maybe you felt called to a career which required special training or education,…
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Joseph: The Principle of a Greater Good
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The Big Idea: God makes men by orchestrating even the toughest circumstances of our lives for a greater good. Nothing is more painful than feeling like you’ve been abandoned by God. You pray and pray, but nothing ever changes. In fact, things often get worse, not better. Who hasn’t thought, “If God loves me He’s…
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Paul: The Principle of a Passionate Life
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The Big Idea: God makes men by igniting and sustaining a passion within us to love and serve Jesus. Our city is bulging with bold men who lead passionate lives for the glory of Jesus Christ. These men are overflowing with purpose, meaning, joy and, yes, plenty of opposition and struggles. They’re convinced their lives…
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David: The Principle of Correction
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The Big Idea: God makes men by doing whatever it takes to correct and restore us when we go astray. Suppose your son knows he shouldn’t hit his sister, but hits her anyway and, when confronted, says, “I’m sorry.” You will immediately forgive him, right? Of course. But is that the end of it? Of…
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Peter: The Principle of Making Disciples
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The Big Idea: God makes men by a process of calling, equipping, and sending us so we can call, equip, and send others. We all know the problems–divorce, fatherlessness, domestic abuse, the explosion of pornography, racism, metal detectors in schools, rampage shootings, Wall Street corruption, apathy, the normalization of sin on TV, and poverty, to…
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Abraham: The Principle of Believing God Anyway
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Big Idea: God makes men by showing us how we can believe Him anyway in the face of what seem like impossible circumstances. We’ll be looking at 10 epic stories, 10 proven principles, and one huge promise for your life. First up… What is God calling you to trust Him for that makes you say,…
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No Man Left Behind!
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The Big Idea: Your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting. We’ve made a strong case for why disciple-making is God’s designated way to release the power of His Gospel on every problem facing our men, marriages, families, churches, workplaces, and communities. We’ve explored, “What is a disciple, and how do…
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The Staggering Simplicity of Living for Christ
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The Big Idea: A man will feel most happy, most alive, & most useful once he learns how to do what disciples do: abide, love, & serve. A disciple is not only called to live “in” Christ, equipped to live “like” Christ, but also sent to live “for” Christ. Once a man fills up in…
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Guaranteed Ways to Build the Men Around You
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The Big Idea: Equipping is simply bringing men together around Christ and watching Him change the way they think and what they do. What Christian man hasn’t wondered, “Could I disciple other men?” Many men in our Bible study are already doing just that. Many more are eager to get started and just need a…
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Guaranteed Ideas to Reach the Men Around You
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The Big Idea: The bar for evangelism is quite low. Evangelism is simply taking someone as far as they want to go toward Jesus. Over the next three messages I’m going to teach you how to make disciples. Making disciples includes calling people to live “in” Christ, equipping people to live “like” Christ, and sending…
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The Next Ten Years
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The Big Idea: Making disciples is God’s designated way to release the power of the Gospel on every problem facing our city. Ten years from now, what do you want to look back on and say, “I was part of that?” Michael Harrington who runs Salem Radio News which airs on 2000 radio stations recently…
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A Fresh Movement Among the Men of Our City
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The Big Idea: A city of disciples must first be a city of disciple-makers. When God looks at our city, what do you think He sees? What is His agenda for this place? And, where do you and I fit in? We are certainly not the first ones to dream big dreams for our community…
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Nehemiah and His Not So Crazy Dream
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The Big Idea: A servant isn’t thinking, “What do I want?” He’s asking, “What does the Master need?” There are two ways to go. The first is to get bogged down insisting you know best, trying to control the situation, exerting your will, trying to get your own way, and coming out on top. Filled…
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Do You Know What God Expects From You?
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The Big Idea: What is my agenda? What is God’s agenda? Are we working on the same agenda? You have an agenda that animates you—a plan, goal, career, mission, vision, or a set of priorities. It’s why you get out of bed in the morning. God has an agenda too. It’s why He gets you…
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What Happens When Boys Climb Trees
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The Big Idea: Nothing is more rewarding than to go out on a limb for Jesus. When Jesus was “passing through” a village, He was never really just passing through. He was always adjusting His plans. That’s because Jesus loves to love the people that others love to hate. In this week’s text, we’ll meet…
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When the Pain Is Too Much To Bear
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The Big Idea: Suffering compels us to seek the mercy that success makes us think we don’t need. How much pain can you tolerate? When we as men have painful circumstances, most of us try to double-down with self-reliance, determination, and grit. But what can you do when the pain just gets to be too…
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How To Do Something Great For God
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The Big Idea: A man can make a real contribution once he gets over wanting to be a somebody. Virtually every morning I wake up with a joyful ache to do something great for God. I’ll bet you do too. Yet I’m amazed at how easily an unselfish desire to serve God can morph into…
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Why Are We Still Talking About Jesus?
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The Big Idea: My worst day with Jesus has been infinitely better than my best day without Him. We’ve been in the series “Hanging Out With Jesus” for over five years now! We’ve taken our time and carefully worked through 70% of the four gospels in chronological order. So why are we still talking about…
