America is desperate for real heroes. From the TV set to the White House there is a lack of examples of true manhood.

Where are those men we can emulate and follow, people with courage, integrity, and virtue? Where do we turn for such an example?

There is such a man. A man among men, a man of great spiritual stature, a man of integrity, a man of strong family values. His name? Job.

Job is a real hero. A man who in times of severe adversity did not abandon his integrity, his virtue, his commitment to his family and to his God.

We find, in these chapters, Biblical traits of Masculinity.

Job is remembering the days of the past. He valued the past, but not as one who yearns for "the good old days" in order to keep from dealing with present reality.

Rather, he valued the past because of the truth it taught him about God, about people, and about himself.

By remembering how God had dealt with him in the past, Job was able to endure his present suffering.

In the Psalms we also read about the importance of God’s acts in history.

What a contrast to modern American males today. Unlike Job, they act as if they had no past from which to learn.

In fact, they have a subtle contempt for the past. We are even rewriting our history books, as if there were nothing in the past that we could learn from today.

As a people we have made great scientific and technological strides. Buckminster Fuller created the Knowledge Doubling Curve; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months.

This has lulled us into erroneous assumption that we must have also made great improvements in human relationships. When the Nazis arose to power in Germany, that nation had a 98 percent literacy rate, the highest literacy rate in the world. Knowledge does not necessarily produce godliness.

Many people believe that people are dramatically different today in our modern world. Therefore, we need not look to the past for instruction on how to raise a family or how to be a man any more than we would go to the past for advice on how to build an automobile.

A lot of Americans believe that newer must be better. Even a brief glance at the headlines will show that in the realm of human relationships we are doing worse than those who went before us.

Today, many men seem to think that the past is outdated, old fashioned, and has no value for today's living.

They say: "This is the 21st century, get real." Men today will never fully recapture their missing manhood until they repent of modern arrogance and humbly look at the history of God’s definition of a real man.

Even the church is exhorted to maintain a link with the past.

When we met Job in the first part of his book, we see him first as a family man, a father to his children.

In the midst of his suffering, Job said he missed having his children around him. He obviously did not view children as an intrusion into his personal pleasures.

What a contrast with many fathers today. Fathers have abandoned their children for their own personal pleasures.

Children are viewed as a burden or a robber of money and time that could be used for personal pleasures.

Many men have abandoned their role as a father, leaving the women to raise the children themselves.

Job was worried his kids would forget God so he interceded for them.

Job had ten children. Yet, he took pains to be intimately involved in the physical and spiritual care of each of his seven sons and three daughters. He knew his responsibilities as a father.

We are responsible for shaping the character of our children.

We must be careful with proverbs. They are general truths, but not every child raised right will grow up into a godly man or woman. To be the kind of father that Job was, we must crucify self and make our children a matter of our personal concern.

The gate of the city was the place all the community leaders gathered and discussed the community affairs.

Young men humbly withdrew and old men stood up to greet Job. This kind of respect comes the old fashioned way - it must be earned.

Religious people have become notorious for their critical, judgmental speech today.

We need men speaking the truth of God in love. Speaking it in such a way that shows respect to the person we are speaking to.

We need to do as Peter says, "give a reason for the hope we have." Or as Paul did in Athens: He "reasoned with them."

Give a reason for our hope not condemnation. One way of saying this is that in our society we must earn the right to be heard. We are bombarded with thousands of messages each day. Our relationships with people form bridges that allow us to communicate our beliefs. Furthermore, our actions speak much more loudly than our words.

Do we drive our vehicles in a safe manner? Do we treat teachers with respect? Do we tip servers at restaurants?

A Christian said she experienced this dark underside of Christian culture while working my way through college as a waitress. She stated “My earliest waitressing years were at the kind of pancake joints where Christians love to congregate after Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening services. The other servers and I always dreaded these shifts: the after-church crowd came in to "fellowship" more than, you know, eat, and that meant pushing together a lot of tables so they could camp out for a long time without buying much more than the endless cup of coffee. Not that any restaurant manager worth her salt would begrudge them that. My fellow servers called them the "Holy Rollers." Knowing there would be little, if any, tip left at the end of their meal, the servers saw the Christians' robust attempts at "friendliness" instead as pushy and arrogant. The memories still pain me now.”

Today's real hero is concerned about community values, and the decline of public morals in our community, and is willing to express them in a kind but firm manner.

Job was concerned with children and people beyond the needs of his own family.

He was involved with the care and guidance of children whose families were not able to care for them.

Job didn’t gather at the “Gate of the city” just to discuss matters but to act upon them!

Today's youth need to see what a real father - what a real man is like.

When a child's first impression of God is that of their image of a father, then we can see the importance of being a father to the children of the world.

The world doesn't need any more men who use their children and families for their own selfish pursuits.

They need men who unselfishly give themselves for the good of others.

Look at Job, God said that there was no one like him in all the earth.

Men, you and I need God if we are to come close to emulating Job to the world around us.

He pursued righteousness and it clothed him. His righteousness protected him.

So many of today's heroes appear to us as "good guys," but as time wears on we learn differently. Their image is tarnished and we are let down.

The only way to avoid this from happening is to be meticulous about holiness, to pursue holiness daily. We need to put on righteousness.

Do not give in to falsehood, to deception, or to impurity. Fill your mind with pure thoughts of God and your heart will not be defiled.

If we are to be protected, we have to pursue righteousness.

He spoke and everyone listened. They knew whatever came out of Job’s mouth was profitable!

Job had true wisdom and insight, not political rhetoric born of personal ambition or manipulation; but true wisdom, that is born of God.

We, like Job, can have that same wisdom. The New Testament tells us that we can ask God for it and he gives it liberally.

Men, we don't need to quote scripture to the world, but we need to share the wisdom and the power of the word with them.

Whoever loves wisdom makes those around him rejoice. Wisdom gives life. Wisdom gives strength. And wisdom gives a good defense because it comes from God.

But with the loss of manhood in America today, men have lost the desire for this great pearl. Men sell all you have to obtain this pearl.

Job was first and foremost a pursuer of God. Pursuit of God is a mark of a real man.

That can sound foreign to us because we live in a culture where religion has, for years, been the domain of women.

Men have been programmed to believe that being a real man and serving God somehow didn't go together.

Job shows us differently. All the character traits that we have seen in Job were made possible because of his relationship with God.

It was because of God's mercy that Job was merciful.

It was because God is just that Job sought justice. It was because God hates evil that Job broke the jaws of the wicked.

His life, in all its masculine expression, was built around his worship of God.

His pursuit of God molded him into the kind of man he was. That is why God approved Job as a model for true manhood.

That is why God referred to Job as "a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil."

Job was the real hero and a model for all men to follow and imitate.