Where Are Our Champions?

Would you agree that people are looking for champions today?

The world needs champions for life, champions for good, champions for justice. 

You know that Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The purpose of God’s Spirit coming on God’s men was to be the champion of those who have not, of those who know not, and of those who are put down a lot.  

We see that same Spirit coming upon the men of Pentecost, God’s men. We see this explosion of champions who are agents of justice and who have powers like Batman.

That rag-tag group of defeated men we call the disciples was transformed into a group of real, live biblical Batmen who were empowered by the Spirit of God, fueling a new masculinity. (I’m talking about the Batman I grew up with, not Christopher Nolan’s presentation of the Dark Knight.)

The world is waiting for more champions like these, fueled by a new form of masculinity that is moral and counter-cultural, that shows the same unity, the same moral courage, and is focused on a new target audience: men! 

It’s not focused on the people we hurt, although we still need to help them, but let’s get to the root cause of the issue. Let’s tap the well. Let’s target men—men targeting men. 

What we saw at that time was Peter filled with the Spirit, targeting the source of the problem: the men of Israel. They are the target of his message.

Why? It’s because the men of God want to spark an uprising.

A new message gave a new heart to men—a new character, a new conduct—and created a phenomenon that we are still living in today. The blast zone of what happened 2,000 years ago among men in Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost is an explosion that is still reverberating around the globe today. If you’re reading this and you’re one of God’s men, you fall into that tradition. 

This is like the shores of Tripoli. If you’re a Marine, that’s the song we should sing. We look back at that. That’s the inception of male Christianity. It was right there at Pentecost, and it’s a phenomenon. There was a personal tumultus, meaning “an uprising” in Latin, a personal changing of the heart. That led to a social tumultus in the surrounding community that then led to a global tumultus that was born out of a men’s movement.

Let’s focus on the uprising in a man. What goes on when a man has a personal uprising, a personal tumultus in God?  

It is an uprising of spiritual sonship. That’s what happened at Pentecost. That’s what transpired with the Son of God.  

I was on a television show that was aired around the world, and the female host said, “Kenny, answer this question. What is wrong with men?”

I didn’t hesitate for a second: “Men are on a quest for an identity to house their masculinity.” I looked at the host and said, “Every man is born for this quest. It’s the Holy Grail of our existence. We just can’t put our finger on it. We are looking for our identity to house our masculinity.”

It’s called the quest for sonship. When we talk about an uprising and when we talk about whole social fabrics of men—men in community, men in the church, men outside the church—this is the quest. It’s about this Holy Grail of masculinity, this quest for validation.

What happens if a man successfully achieves his quest for validation as a man? He finds the identity in which to house his masculinity. This produces inner security, inner stability and inner maturity.

You see, when you have inner security, inner stability and inner maturity, when the pressure squeezes on you, what comes out is a man.

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The preceding is the second in a series Every Man Ministries is calling “Uprising, Part 2.” We discover that a rebellion is taking place against the suffering created by broken masculinity. This article—and the others that follow—take us on a journey into the broken male culture, showing us that God is our Father and He wants us to return home to His family, and like any loving Father, He expects His sons to behave accordingly. Part 1

Kenny Luck is the founder of Every Man Ministries and the men’s pastor at Saddleback Church. His 20th book, Sleeping Giant: No Movement of God Without Men of God, is the proven blueprint for men’s ministries and was recently released through B&H Publishing. Watch and read more of Kenny’s teaching at EveryManMinistries.com. Follow Every Man Ministries now on Facebook, Twitter (@everymm) and YouTube.