Jesus was made fit to lead us through suffering. Naturally, if He lives in you, God will continue to make you fit to lead by calling you to a sacrificial life. More important, sacrifice for Christ is what unites you most deeply with Christ. How else could the apostle Paul write, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10, emphasis added)?
Risking for God is synonymous with sacrificing for God, and it is not a burden; it is a privilege as God’s man. It is a special bond we share with Christ and part of our worship. We lay our lives on the altar so He can use us mightily for His work.
Men who dare greatly for their faith have asked and answered this question: Am I willing to sacrifice my agenda in order to be used for God’s agenda?
Kingdom-Build
When your view of God is right, your identity as God’s man is settled (as in, no more competing identities), and you are willing to sacrifice your agenda for His service, it’s time to build something that will outlast you. It’s time to invest in something you can’t take with you but something you can send ahead to eternity. It’s time to get busy building the kingdom of God right where you live, in your local church, and in your world. It’s time to start thinking outside the box and dream—dream big God dreams.
The kingdom doesn’t need more religious guys. It requires more big, hairy, audacious dreamers. Think I’m playing you? Listen to Jesus describe the kind of man God uses for breakthrough works of His Spirit in the world. Could He be talking about you? From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (Matthew 11:12, emphasis added)
As soon as John started talking about a Messiah, the battle line was drawn. Men throughout the centuries have been challenged to cross that line, out of comfort and into risk for their King. Forceful men have been moved from within with God’s vision for kingdom expansion.
And even today, forceful men still hunger and thirst for the kingdom of God to explode in people’s hearts wherever they may be. The kingdom mentality is not for the spiritually timid; it is for the man of war. And it is about winning—souls, communities, people in desperation, countries in darkness, and all the particular battles of your world.
It’s about winning men you know to join forces and affect the course of history.
I had a missionary from Kenya write me recently about the AIDS and orphan epidemic in his country. His assessment on the ground gave me a glimpse of the global impact men have and a template for the solution in many cultures: “Here in Kenya,” he said, “we don’t have an AIDS problem; we have a man problem.” He went on to describe how migrant labor forces men to seek work in cities far from home: they sleep with prostitutes, then come back and infect their villages with the virus. He begged me to come and join him to bring men’s ministry rather than medicine. Africa needs men who make things better, not men who make messes—Africa needs leaders.