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• There are few words more powerful than “dad.”
• Illustration: When ninth and tenth graders were asked about the word “dad,” some had powerfully negative reactions, others very positive.
• Illustration (quote): T. Berry Brazelton: “Of all human relationships, the bond between father and child is one of the most powerful and complex. …”
• The father validates the child to the outside world.
• Illustration (quote): Sophia Loren: “…my most treasured possession is the only toy my father ever gave to me—a little blue car with my name on it.”
• Today we look at Timothy, a young man who did not have a strong father figure.
• But he nonetheless became the man.
• Let me give you the four stages of progress toward true manhood.

• This is a rude awakening in men, but we come by it naturally.
• Paul understood this about himself, especially in Titus 3:3.
• This is the story of the human race.
• Illustration: A strong man who holds the end of a four-inch fire hose will still get thrown around when the water is turned on.
• Manhood begins by submitting to the purposes of God.
• Illustration: Thompson’s Uncle Don’s was teased about his clumsiness as a boy, and that became a prophecy of his life.
• Even the best of family display some foolishness.
• Illustration: When he was boy, his father would time him as he ran to the store. This taught him that manhood was about being better and making it look easy.
• This doesn’t work in a lot of life situations.
• Thompson has been trying to offload that disk, a disk he was unconsciously incompetent about.

• We need to become aware that in some areas we are not competent.
• Most men are not easily coached, however, and walk away when something threatens us.
• Illustration: A wife shouts “Something is wrong here” over and over, and the husband doesn’t get it until she files for a divorce.
• Ask the question, “If what I believe and what I am doing is wrong, do I want to know?”

• It’s being willing to learn how to walk over and over again.
• Illustration (quote): In Tender Warrior, Dr. Willard Harley is quoted as saying, “A man can have the best intentions to meet his wife’s needs, but if he thinks her needs are similar to his own, he will fail miserably.”
• Illustration: A man’s emotional world is like a tackle box with 500 compartments.
• Illustration: Women’s emotional life is like a river.
• Men need to put the tackle box aside and jump into the river.
• Illustration: A man who hasn’t been listening to his wife on a drive.
• Illustration: A man buys his girlfriend a catcher’s mitt for her birthday, and just doesn’t understand why she’s hurt.

• By God’s grace, we can become the byproduct of the first three stages.
• When you have your eye on the purposes of god, you’ve been re-fathered and re-parented at the foot of the cross.