Awaken Fight Club

The last 12 weeks were an amazing challenge of discipline, camaraderie, time management, and purely Godly perseverance and determination.  Over the last 12 weeks 8 men at Awaken decided they wanted to fight for their themselves, their families, their church, and their communities.  The program is based on the theme verse from Nehemiah 4:14 where Nehemiah proclaimed, "After I looked things over, I stood up and said tot he nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'Don't be afraid of them.  Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.'"

This past Sunday Awaken celebrated as men graduated the first Chapter by accomplishing certain disciplines each week and stood along side each other to encourage to finish.  The discipleship program is based on the premise that men learn and grow differently through team work, competition, and male camaraderie as they see growth spiritually, mentally, relationally, and yes physically.  The program came from a sister church in Goshen Indiana and is one of the most powerful tools we have seen used to help guys raise up to the challenge of leading their families and their communities.

The men were given weekly challenges that pertained to all areas of health and were challenged to walk in community with these challenges through squads.  The men accomplished some of the following over those 12 weeks:

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1.    Vision for life

2.    Set aside things that hinder

3.    Ran over 500+ miles

4.    5,000+ pushup and situps as a group

5.    Prayed = through house, for spouse, girlfriend, prayer walks, people far from Jesus, their own direction

6.    Reflected on who God says they are

7.    Read = Philippians, James, part of Samuel, Ephesians, Daniel, Proverbs, about Elisha

8.  Scavenger Hunt for wives

9.  Encouraging word to Spouse or Family member

10.  Father Wound

11.  Letter Forgiveness

12.  Memorize Scripture = Romans 12:17-18, Hebrews 12:11, Nehemiah 4:14

13.  Read book John Eldredge "Waking The Dead"

14.  Read and pray to kids

15.  Watch video of other people’s stories

16.  Make their own testimony video

17.  Create Family Memories

18.  Verses on God’s Strength

19.  Write letter to spouse or future spouse

20.  Quiet times with God

21.  Grace Week where rest and grace were reflected on

22.  Thought about cost of discipleship

23.  Why they believe

24.  Shared Faith and Invited.

Chapter One Fight Club Guys

Chapter One Fight Club Guys & Their Families

Dave Hensley Fight Club Guy Giving Away Awards To His Squad

Pastor Mike Giving Out Spirit of Fight Club Awards

Pastor Mike with Two Fight Club Guys Receiving Special Spirit of Fight Club Awards

Wonder of the World

Reading the other day I was reminded that our beginning as people began in Genesis 1.  Yes this is the creation account and many of us read through this saying, "la, la, la... I could recite this."  Still others may read through this and say, "yeah so it is a list of things God created."  Yes this is the place where God created some of the Wonders of the World I've attached below.

Grand Canyon

The Great Barrier Reef

Komodo Island

The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights

The Victoria Falls, World's Largest Water Fall

Yes in this Genesis account God made these things listed above and many other things in nature that seem to take our breath away; only if pictures could do justice.  However it is a major theological mistake to skip over this and simply say this is the account of God's Creation.  Yes I said Theological Mistake.  The reason is found in verse 27 and 31 where we find the pinnacle of God's creation: MAN!!  Here we are told we are the Wonder of His creation, the pinnacle, not these things listed above.  We are image bearers of God, meaning we reflect His Glory.

Whether we realize it or not many of us take our beginning as man back to Genesis 3, which capitalizes on the Fall.  I don't deny we were born in a fallen state, separated from God, with no hope of ourselves.  But we are told in Ephesians that God knew us before the foundations of the world.  That means our beginning goes back to you and I as God's Wonder of the World. 

Our reflected Glory is renewed then through Jesus.  Yes without Jesus we are hopeless and lost and don't give a true reflection of God's Image.  Yes I would even agree that there is a battle of the flesh within us.  But you are something amazing now in Jesus.  You are capable of good because of Jesus.  You are the wonder of God's Creation, you reflect God's Glory and believing anything less than this is not humility, but shame and pride.

Be reminded your original glory is greater than any of these images above and take our breath away.

2 Corinthians 3:7-8, 12-13, 18; Philippians 2:15-16; Matthew 5:16; Romans 7 (Paul makes distinction between his flesh and his "inner being" that comes to life through Jesus)

Men Vs. Women

I was personally reminded of the differences of men and women while playing with my kids. My 6 year old daughter asks why do adult teeth not hurt like baby teeth when they come in? Very good question, but while she asks this my son is rolling on the floor making growling noises! I couldn't help but think of how different Men and Women are. One is thinking and asking very intelligent questions, the other is grunting on the floor! HA!!

On one of our Sundays through our Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage Series we talked about the differences between Men and Women.

Top Five Needs of a Man:

1. Sexual Fulfillment: Husband feels close to their wives through sex and each should talk about this aspect of their relationship.

2. Recreational Companionship: Most men struggle to sit and talk, however they love doing things together. A husband and wife should find things they both enjoy doing together.

3. Attractive Spouse: A husband wants his wife to occasionally dress up and go on dates with him and take care of herself.

4. Domestic Support: Men have a need for a peaceful home. He wants to know that as he is leading and loving his family things are being taken care of on the home front.

5. Admiration: A guy wants a wife who believes in him and tells him that. Ladies tell your husband you are proud of him. Encourage him.

Top Five Needs of a Woman:

1. Affection: Guys your wives just want you to hold her and love her. It doesn't always have to be about sex!

2. Conversation: Men learn to talk to your wife. She needs you to talk to her. Set time aside to talk each week. This becomes harder with kids, but is desperately needed.

3. Total Trust: A wife needs to know she can be open and honest with her husband. Trust is a valuable and fragile thing that must be continually worked on.

4. Provided For: Guys get a job! Provide for your family. She doesn't need to be rich or have everything she wants, but she must feel she is provided for and stable.

5. Family Commitment: Though a guy needs a peaceful home that doesn't mean that a husband is not a husband or a father. A woman needs to know he is committed to his family no matter what.

Material taken from popular book "His Needs, Her Needs" by Willard Harley

For more on this topic listen to the following sermon: http://vault.awakenvirginiabeach.com/audio/2012-02-26-hq-sermon.mp3

Reaching Men

I firmly believe that you reach a family through reaching the men. For years churches have tried to reach families through the children and through mothers. This is not bad as we do lots of things for kids in efforts to reach parents. However I firmly believe that the headship in a home is through the husband and father as scripture explicitly challenges. Men are called to lead their wives and lead their children.

Therefore at Awaken we stand firm in our philosophy that if you reach the husband you reach the family, if you reach the family you reach the community that family is in, if you reach that community you have potential of reaching the city. In our particular area this has the potential of spreading across the globe due to the military concentration. Our men are a doorstep to the nations with the gospel!

Just this week we saw how easy it can be to reach guys when you think outside of the box. Last weekend as a small church we had 17 guys that loaded up into trucks with 4 wheelers, guns, bows and arrows, and a whole mess of camping gear and food. We honestly looked like a small militia entering a small town just southwest of Richmond, Virginia.

Two of the guys leading the retreat took about 20 minutes each and challenged these guys to what it meant to fight and be Godly Christian men. Another two of the guys who are trained on guns in the military set up a shooting range and helped show the guys how to handle the different guns out there. I must say over just a short 24 hours you could see the spirit of these guys come alive. Amazing what God can do within the hearts of guys when they go off and blow stuff up while being reminded what it means to live and lead as Godly men.

This igniting that took place in the hearts of these guys has continued as they have come back home. We are seeing an excitement within the guys which over time we believe will become contagious to their families and the rest of the church.

As followers of Jesus we need to find creative ways to let our guys be just that guys. Through this I believe God will continue to advance his Kingdom.