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Habit #2: Spiritually Happy Men Are in a Small Group
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The Big Idea: The Rat Race is the conflict between who I am created to be and who I am tempted to be. The proverbial questions of the rat race–“What’s it all about?” and “Is this all there is?”–have tortured us all at one time or another. So let’s kick off this new series by…
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Habit #3 Spiritually Happy Men Serve
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The Big Idea: You need to have a deep, intentional, spiritual impact in one person’s life. (You’ll love it and God gets the glory.) We live in a culture that relentlessly pushes us to think about ourselves. Look out for #1. What do you need to be happy? How about this new car, new relationship,…
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Habit #4: Spiritually Happy Men Pray With & For Their Wives
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The Big Idea: Praying with my wife brings the Greatest Power in the universe into my most important earthly relationship. Prayer is powerful. It puts us in a conversation with the perfect Father who loves you more than anyone ever could, and has more power than anyone you could ever know. So it makes sense…
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Habit #5: Spiritually Happy Men Are Generous
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The Big Idea: Have you ever known a spiritually unhappy man who tithes? Every “on fire” Christian would love to be tithing. We all know men who are, and we’d love to be more like them—if for no other reason than to be as spiritually happy as they are. But how? Is generosity something you…
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Habit #6: Spiritually Happy Men Are “Part” of a Church
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The Big Idea: Don’t be estranged from your Father because a few siblings let you down. Most of us have heard someone say, and many of us have said ourselves, “I know I should be more committed, but I just don’t feel challenged and inspired by church. Besides, I’m getting everything I need in my…
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You Can Always Be a Great Dad
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The Big Idea: Encouragement is the food of the heart, and every heart is a hungry heart. Every Christian dad wants to be a great dad. In this lesson we’ll see how those good intentions sometimes go astray, but also how easy it is to be that great dad we all want to be. It’s…
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Character-Building Struggle
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The Big Idea: Our job as fathers is to build strong resiliant kids through our presence, process and prayer. We all want our kids to succeed, to avoid our mistakes and the consequences. How do we walk with our kids through struggles that will form their character, rather than save them from every little bump…
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There’s No Such Thing as a Secular Job
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The Big Idea: My work is not just a platform for ministry, it is ministry. Half of your waking hours revolve around work. Yet most of us have not been trained on how to live out our faith in the workplace. In this first of three lessons on the subject, we’re going to focus on…
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If Work Is a Blessing, Why Does It Feel Like a Curse?
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The Big Idea: We glorify God in work when, in spite of brokenness and sin, we reflect His image to the world. Work can bring some of the highest highs and also the lowest lows. Closing the deal, finishing the project, meeting the sales goal — the feeling is amazing. Having a project go bad,…
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Finding Work That Makes You Feel Alive
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The Big Idea: I will feel fully alive when I truly believe God gave me this work for a reason. We are made for tasks—to work, to serve, to contribute, to add to the greater good. But if you’re not happy in your work, you’re probably not happy anywhere. So, what if you don’t like…
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The Role of a Husband
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The Big Idea: If you don’t step up, she can’t come alongside. If you knew then what you know now, would you still get married? Some might say, no. But for the vast majority of us the answer is, yes. But we’d also like some help figuring out what to do about those “irreconcilable differences?”…
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I Married a Woman I Couldn’t Change
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The Big Idea: I let you be you, and you let me be me. If you knew then what you know now, would you still get married? Some might say, no. But for the vast majority of us the answer is, yes. But we’d also like some help figuring out what to do about those…
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Love on the Rocks: Navigating Struggles and Conflicts
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The Big Idea: Communication will not resolve every conflict. But no conflict can be resolved without it. Life struggles can bring out the worst in marriage and dating relationships. Communication breaks down, feelings get hurt, and you just want to escape a painful situation. But in the worst of times, even when you don’t think…
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When Money Was My God
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The Big Idea: Few things reveal my true heart as much as money. When I started out my life philosophy was, “Money will solve my problems, and success will make me happy.” But the opposite happened. Money created as many (maybe more) problems as it solved. And success made me miserable. Like all of us,…
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Making Money God’s Way
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The Big Idea: Few things reveal my true heart as much as money. It’s a challenge to discuss making money God’s way—not because the Bible says so little about it, but because it says so much. So where do we start? How does God Himself advise us to make money? And how do we want…
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Spending Money God’s Way
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The Big Idea: If your priorities don’t determine your spending habits, your spending habits will determine your priorities. Money causes stress. When you don’t have a handle on your finances, it makes the rest of life more difficult. Most men have had trouble at some point falling asleep with thoughts of bills, debts, saving for…
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Phony Sex
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The Big Idea: Sex is too dangerous to be played with and to sacred to be exploited. How do we treat sex the way God wants us to when we live in a sex-saturated and sex-perverted culture? Actually, the culture of the New Testament was not really all that different from ours. So how did…
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Holy Sex
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The Big Idea: A husband needs to be loved physically so he can love emotionally, and a wife needs to be loved emotionally so she can love physically. As a man, is there anything you daydream about more than sex? Probably not. So why did God make us this way? Why do we even want…
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How To Discuss Sex With Your Children
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The Big Idea: Out: having “the talk.” In: an ongoing conversation about sex. For many of us, sex was taboo in the homes where we grew up. Not many of us had a parent give us “the talk.” For those who did, it was usually awkward. It may even have gone like this: “Son, you…
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In Times of Great Need God Will Sustain Us
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The Big Idea: Even if I give up on God, God will never give up on me. You really do need a newer car, to restore your marriage, to get your children to understand what’s at stake by their behavior, to make more money. You’ve prayed and prayed. You’ve tried to keep the faith. But…
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My Name Is Joseph And This Is My Story
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The Big Idea: Jesus came to pay a debt He didn’t owe, because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay. My name is Joseph, and this is my version of the events that led up to the birth of my son. We were living under crushing circumstances. Poverty and disease were rampant. Hope was in…
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How One Cup of Coffee Can Change the World
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The Big Idea: Discipleship is one man caring enough about another man to help him build a relationship with God, a worldview that’s biblical, and a lifestyle worthy of Christ. Let’s presuppose that, like Peter, James, John, Paul, Timothy and others, you’re a true believer that making disciples is the main work of a Christian.…
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Next Step Triple Threat
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The Big Idea: Be a friend. Pray. Serve. Give. The challenge in the previous message, “How a Cup of Coffee Can Change the World”, was to begin the process of engaging another man in conversation and begin to get to know him. Great. Now what? Introducing the Next Step Triple Threat. Like the great “Read Option”…
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How to Handle Disappointment
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The Big Idea: Jesus called us to go, not to wait and see if they come to us. In the previous two messages, we’ve been given several ways to get involved in a man’s life and help him move forward in his walk with Christ. But anyone who has ever tried to help another person knows…
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The Ministry of Giving a Nudge
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The Big Idea: Just help a man go as far as he wants to go toward Jesus at that moment. We’ve been learning that reaching men is pretty much doing what we do every day, but with a view to building intentional spiritual friendships. So let’s say you’ve had that cup of coffee, helped a…
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Getting a Man to Say Yes
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The Big Idea: An intentional spiritual friendship is built over time. It’s a relationship, not a transaction. So how exactly do men develop relationships? We tend to bond in shared experiences (verses shared conversations), and there’s a definite progression. You can see it in the way that Jesus built a seemingly random group of strangers…
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The Indispensable Necessity of Connecting Men to Church
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The Big Idea: A real man invests in his church, then helps other men do so as well. Many men today consider church to be optional or a low-priority item on their list. But after you connect with a man who wants to grow in Christ, the reality is that it will be impossible for…
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A Men Reaching Men Celebration!
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The Big Idea: It takes a man to teach a man to be a man. Men are often frustrated because they know “what” needs to be done, but not “how” to do it. That’s why in this series we focused on proven, easy-to-execute ideas to reach other men. And it’s working! You guys have gone…
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What Knowledge Will Bring You Sustainable Joy?
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The Big Idea: The more we grasp just how much Jesus really cares, the more robust will be our joy. Are you a basically unhappy man who occasionally experiences joy, or a basically joyful man who occasionally experiences sadness? We will all feel what C. S. Lewis called “stabs of joy” in our circumstances, but…
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No One Thinks They’re Going To Fall Away
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The Big Idea: Let us learn to distrust any confidence that does not depend entirely on the Holy Spirit. No one ever thinks they’ll be the one who falls away, but could it happen to you? Or is it happening now, or already happened? When Jesus predicted that all the disciples would fall away, they…
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The Fully Surrendered Life
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The Big Idea: The key to embracing God’s will is to fully surrender any will of my own. Many soldiers and martyrs have gone fearlessly to their deaths. But in today’s passage, Jesus underwent a moment of unrivaled agony and suffering. What was happening that was so extraordinary? What does it mean to us? And…
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What Should You Do When You’ve Been Betrayed?
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The Big Idea: If God allows you to be betrayed, how can you handle it so that Christ is glorified? King David expected his enemies to oppose him, but it really got to him when betrayed by his friends. He was devastated. For there to be a betrayal there must first be someone you thought…
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How To Get Back At The Jerks Who Mistreat You
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The Big Idea: Mistreatment is God teeing up opportunities to show the world there really is a difference. Unfair mistreatment is so pervasive. Between our relationships and transactions, most of us get mistreated all the time. We have quite an example for how to get back at those who mistreat us. No man was ever…
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How Men Deny Jesus and What We Can Do About It
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The Big Idea: Men deny Jesus when they value something else more than they value knowing Him. Peter hit rock bottom after having perhaps the worst 24 hours in history. While we may not face the drama he did, all of us are tempted to deny Jesus in big and small ways. We may not…
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Betraying Jesus for Money
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The Big Idea: Everyone betrays Jesus for money, but it’s what we do next that counts. Not even an atheist would ever name his son Judas! Judas is synonymous with betraying Jesus for money. Yet at some point, haven’t we all betrayed Jesus for the same reason? So what’s the difference between Judas and us?…
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What Jesus Wants Us To Know About His Kingdom
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The Big Idea: Every form of truth requires some form of faith. From his verbal exchange with Pilate, we learn something explicit about the nature of Christ’s kingdom we would otherwise not know. Join us as we delve into why some men are so conflicted about the truth, what we know that’s true about the…
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A Man Struggling To Do The Right Thing
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The Big Idea: Once a man is willing to compromise his integrity, anything can happen. We all get caught up in situations where we know the right thing to do, but we’re conflicted. That’s the situation in this lesson. Join us as we learn something about Jesus that we would otherwise never know. We’ll explore…
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Hope Amidst Despair
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The Big Idea: Suffering unjustly reminds us of Jesus’ pain & purpose. You might be feeling hopeless or desperate right now. Maybe your family is suffering, you’ve lost your job or a relationship you value is damaged inadvertently. Maybe there are things going on in the culture that are making you feel marginalized…or just plain…
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What Can Happen When a Man Finally Gets It
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The Big Idea: Am I where I’m supposed to be? Am I doing what needs to be done? Is this where I can do the most good? What did a lifelong criminal dying on a cross next to Jesus see that was so powerful he felt compelled to plead, “Jesus, remember me when You come…
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Why The “Happiness” Gospel is Letting You Down
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The Big Idea: Any gospel without suffering is a gospel without Christ. No one wants to suffer. You’d be nuts if you did. In fact, it’s normal to do everything humanly possible to seek the abundance promised by Jesus. But a gospel without suffering is a gospel without Jesus. In this lesson, we explore how the…
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The Man Who Could No Longer Remain Silent
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The Big Idea: What stirs you so deeply that you can no longer remain silent? Our nation is falling apart morally. Few would disagree. But what can you do? No doubt the early disciples were thinking similar thoughts and asking similar questions at the murder of their Leader. Now we come to His burial. In…
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The Empty Tomb: What (Else) Is Missing?
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The Big Idea: Jesus defeated death and sets me free from my sin. The story of Jesus’ execution, burial, resurrection and bodily existence post-execution is a public narrative. Literally dozens of people saw him die and saw him alive again. In this message, Man in the Mirror vice president Brett Clemmer looks at the Bible’s…
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Did Jesus Actually Rise From The Dead?
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The Big Idea: What changed their minds then is what will change our minds now. Long before we get to the “meaning” of the Resurrection, the bigger issue for most of us was, or is, “Did it actually happen?” It’s natural to have doubts. But whatever they are, they’re probably mild compared to the doubts,…
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But We Had Hoped…
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The Big Idea: In my greatest disappointment Jesus gives me the biggest surprises. After Jesus’ death, two of his followers left Jerusalem to go to a nearby town. Soon, a stranger joined them as they walked. They told him the story of the last few days, the death of their beloved rabbi and friend, and…
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First Things First: Restoring Confidence
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The Big Idea: Even if I die, God is still in control. We’ve all lost confidence in leaders because we think they let us down—whether a boss, pastor, or elected official. That’s to be expected. You may have even been the leader who went through, or is going through, such a crisis. But what if…
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Jesus’ Faithfulness to His Friends
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The Big Idea: Jesus will keep on showing up. That’s what he does. Even after he died, Jesus just keeps on showing up. If the disciples thought they were sharing a hallucination, Jesus repeated appearances should convince them that he is really alive! Jesus always shows up – if you’re super emotional like Peter, a…
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Jesus, The Tender Warrior
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The Big Idea: Jesus wants to heal our most broken places so we can be completely His. Jesus fights for his friends. In John 21, Jesus renews and restores the disciples so they can live the great adventure he set before them. In this message, we’ll learn how He can do the same for us.…
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Guilt-Free Disciple Making
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The Big Idea: Our work for God (making disciples) will always be a reflection of our walk with God. Why do we feel so much pressure—and guilt— when we hear Christ’s command to “go and make disciples?” Actually, you’re probably already doing a lot more than you think! In today’s lesson we’ll explore what Jesus…
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Why Knowing We Should Make Disciples Isn’t Enough
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The Big Idea: The more consciously you witness in the power of the Holy Spirit, the more consistently you will see lives change. In His final messages, Jesus told the disciples to carry on His mission—to go and make disciples. But Jesus apparently knew that wouldn’t be enough. I agree. In a career that spans…
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The Rat Race
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The Big Idea: The Rat Race is the conflict between who I am created to be and who I am tempted to be. The proverbial questions of the rat race–“What’s it all about?” and “Is this all there is?”–have tortured us all at one time or another. So let’s kick off this new series by…
