Acts 3:1-8
Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
Happy Father’s Day Gentlemen. Please take a long look at today’s scripture. Not just for the miracle, but for the men involved. They didn’t have a lot, but on this special day, these gentlemen used the one thing they had in abundance. Faith in God! And that was more than enough for them, and for me and you. But one thing remains. In order to utilize the power in us, we gotta at least show up.
As you already know, society is trying their best to make men into something different than we really are. We get beat up for not emoting enough. We get blamed for being to brash, angry, and hard. Others say we are too soft. There’s seemingly no way we can win. But I’ve got good news. The message from the Lord today is simply that you just show up. And show up just the way you are. Don’t try and fix anything. Don’t try and change, improve, or impress anyone. What God has put in you is sufficient to meet the requirements he has for your life. You don’t need to do a thing except, Show Up!
Please allow me to share a story with you that might help make this point:
As described in the BBC Earth Podcast, 50 badly mutilated rhino carcasses were discovered, with wounds to the top of the shoulders and neck, which suggested, elephants. Elephant attacks on rhinos are not unknown, but this volume of attacks was unusual. Further investigation revealed that the suspects were a group of adolescent male elephants who were clearly experiencing heightened aggression. This out of control gang of elephants appeared to be in “musth”. This is a unique state to elephants, in which young males, usually in their 20s, are flooded with reproductive hormones. The males become very aggressive to the extent that two males in musth will fight to the death, tipping each other over so they can stab their victim with their tusks. The normal safeguard is when an elephant in musth encounters a bigger bull elephant, he immediately drops out of musth as he knows his testosterone cannot compete.
This National Park had been seeded with elephants from other national parks. Huge bull elephants were extremely difficult to transport, so young males, females and babies were brought without them. As a result, there were no older bull elephants to push these youngsters out of musth. The huge rush of testosterone was overwhelming them and driving them to aggressive behavior. They realized that musth was the key to stopping this delinquent gang, so the decision was to put a natural stopper on the musth by introducing big bull elephants. Six large bulls were introduced from Kruger National Park, who towered over the adolescents, and literally within hours, the teen thugs had dropped out of musth. No more rhinos have been killed since by rampaging youngsters. This musth story was used in an American academic paper as an example in human adolescence of the importance of a stable society and a father figure to provide boundaries for teen males. The young males that were getting into these elephant gangs had no template of good social behavior and were at the mercy of their rampaging hormones, which was putting them at as much risk as those around them. The result was a happy ending for the elephants, and one from which maybe we can learn.
My brothers in Christ, this is not just a story about elephants; I post this story to demonstrate the power and importance of the male presence in nature, society, home and faith. God has designed us in such a way that our very presence makes a difference. Your presence as a Christian is more than a token expression of religious furor. It’s imperative. Peter and John didn’t have money or riches to share. They didn’t have doctor’s degrees and advanced medicine. All they had was the faith and trust that God placed inside them. And that was more than enough. Don’t focus on what you don’t have, can’t do, haven’t done or aren’t able to overcome. Your significance is not in what you can provide, but who you are. God doesn’t need us to show off. He needs us to show up!
God Bless
