Model Man: From Integrity to Legacy

By Larry Stockstill

In this confused, chaotic world, men are looking to find a model man: a man who possesses the qualities of integrity, purity, pace of life, purpose, a model marriage, model children, and a powerful legacy. In this practical guidebook to manhood, Larry Stockstill describes this “model man” and his journey from integrity to legacy. These 9 short chapters will give you a new image, a new foundation, and a new starting place to rebuild your life into one that many will seek to imitate. Get ready to be coached, challenged, broken, and rebuilt until God can see in you His greatest dream: the godly, long-term, influential, and powerful “model man”!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9780768406849

Book preview

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PREFACE

A NATION DESPERATE FOR MODELS

But in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example.

—2 THESSALONIANS 3:9 NASB, emphasis added

AMERICA IS IN trouble.

Serious trouble.

Deep trouble.

Like an eighteen-wheeler loaded to the hilt with nuclear explosives sliding down a slippery mountain pass, we’re out of control. Without some drastic intervention and corrective steering, the end result is going to be catastrophic. The explosives we’re loaded down with are our own sins, both individual and corporate. Immorality that would have shocked and embarrassed us years ago has become not just accepted, but embraced and celebrated. Our financial system recently came near to collapse and is currently teetering on the edge of implosion. Worst of all, our spiritual leadership seems to have lost its moorings. America has gained in affluence but has lost its influence.

I just turned sixty and have been in public ministry for over forty years. I’ve never seen it this bad—never. There’s a passion burning inside me. My spirit is heavy, and I’ve wept for our country. God has laid a burden upon my heart that if something doesn’t change soon, our nation will be lost.

IT WILL BE.

There is good news though. It’s not too late. Weak though it may be, America still has a pulse. She can be revived! God is in the restoration business. He’s restored nations in the past. He can do it again. But what has the potential to turn it around? A different president or Congress? A new Supreme Court appointment or political party? I wish it were so. I’ve given considerable time and energy trying to make a difference in those areas. Now, however, I’m quite convinced that the only hope for our nation lies in one of its most precious resources, its men. It’s time for the Christian men to put away their toys and secret sins and lead by example. They must rise above the pack and become model men.

Becoming a model man is what this book is all about. The theme is expressed in Second Thessalonians 3:7-9:

You yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 NASB, emphasis added)

Here Paul happens to be addressing the issue of laziness, yet there is a much deeper, broader application. Paul’s entire approach to living was to do it in such a manner that qualified him as a model for others. The word translated model in this passage comes from the Greek term typos, from which we get our word type. It referred to a stamp or a seal that was pressed onto papyrus, forming an impression. To be a model is to make an impression. Impressions can be good or bad. Can you imagine if something in that stamp (like a notary seal or a seal at the post office) was misspelled? The result would be thousands of documents having wrong impressions. The characters on the stamp would have to be corrected in order to not continue making that mistake.

As men, we don’t realize the impressions we are making upon our children, the people we work with, perhaps thousands of people around us. If one letter in our character is out of place, we are making wrong impressions on those who look to us for direction, guidance, and example. What kind of impressions are you making?

Impressions matter.

Paul understood this and knew eyes were on him watching every move he made. Without a smartphone, a computer, or even a Twitter account, Paul was a walking model who had so allowed God to readjust his character that he positively impressed thousands of lives in the first century. He sought to be a model man, one whose way of life, integrity, purity, pace, purpose, and legacy could shake a godless Roman empire. Paul also wrote in First Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore I urge you, imitate me" (emphasis added). He said again in First Corinthians 11:1, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (NLT, emphasis added). Can you say that about yourself? Can you tell your kids and family members and coworkers to imitate you? Was Paul being arrogant? Not at all. He was a man with imperfections just like all of us. He understood more than anyone his need for God’s grace in his life, but he also knew who he was and who was inside him.

America is in desperate need of Paul-like models and examples, men that leave godly impressions on those around them. You may be thinking, I’m just one guy. What can I do? Let me tell you, one man can make a huge difference. I’m reminded of my own father, Roy Stockstill, and the hundreds of thousands of people influenced by his impressions. My dad is ninety-five, was married to my mother for sixty-three years before her death, and has been in the ministry for sixty-five years. I can honestly say that he truly reflects Titus 2:7: "Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works" (emphasis added). Watching him love God and my mom, not only in word but also in action, left impressions so profound on me that it caused a trickle-down effect. My dad built a legacy that’s still growing today.

Following his example, I’ve been married to Melanie thirty-seven years, and we have six children. On Sundays, all of our children and their beautiful, godly spouses gather with Daddy and our grandchildren for a meal of lasagna, roast beef, soft tacos, red beans and rice, or something similar. They hang around until late in the evening at our home—napping, riding golf carts, fishing, and watching sports on television.

My greatest joy right now is to watch one of my sons pastor the same church my Dad started and pastored for twenty years and that I pastored for twenty-eight years. Dad was my coach, mentor, and cheerleader. Now I’m my son’s coach, mentor, and cheerleader. Between the three of us, that’s fifty combined years of leadership. The church is growing under his leadership, and I’m working on my two great desires for God: restoring integrity and winning the world for

Reviews for Model Man

[MyLegacy_Myers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was recommended to me by my pastor on 02/15/15. On 03/06/15, I've completed the book and wow! The first chapter alone has completely shaped my life forever. I have to say, Chapter 7 really chewed me up inside, but I loved every second of it. I promise to whomever my wife will be, I will never make the mistakes that costed me my last relationship. Everyday I strive to be a Model Man!