Biblical Masculinity - Part 1 - Brendan Hurley - Men's Conference 2026

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you that you

speak to us in the Bible, and we ask that as

we look at it now, you would help us to see what

it means to be a man according to you. And we

pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, when I

was three, as I mentioned earlier, my world completely

changed. My dad ran off with my mum's best friend.

And from then on, I would only see my dad two

out of 14 days every two weeks. When I did see

my dad, he'd do one or two things generally.

He'd either plonk me in front of a screen, because

he had work to do, or he'd go out and do heaps

of fun things with me. You know, we'd go to swan's

games, we'd go out and play golf, we'd go do

some cricket at the park, we'd do all sorts of

stuff. It was about having fun. It wasn't the

sort of kind of, you know, you need to clean

your room and let me show you how to drill a

hole or hammer a thing. It was, let's just go

out and have a blast. And the rest of my weeks

would be with my mum or my grandparents or at

school. So I didn't grow up having much time

with a father figure. And much of my life, I

mean, my granddad did what he could do, but even

then he couldn't do as much as a dad would. And

it felt like in my life, I've been trying to

work out from then on, what's it mean to be a

man? Now, of course, I know biologically what

it means to be a man. But I mean, what's it mean

to embody your biology? What's it mean to be

a masculine man? Do you have to drink beer, play

footy and watch motor racing? You know, can you

like reading books and... dressing quite fashionably.

If you need tips, talk to me later. Do you have

to be handy around the house and good on a barbecue?

Is that what makes you a man? What makes somebody

a man? What's it mean to be a man? Now, without

a masculine role model, working out the essence

of masculinity can be quite tricky and confusing.

And so as a kid, I always felt like I started

behind the eight ball. and that I've been playing

catch up ever since. Well, if it was hard for

me as a kid in the 90s, I think it's even harder

today for people, don't you reckon? There's many

more divorces, blended families, FIFO dads, dads

working long hours, fewer role models of what

it means to be a man. And I think generally in

society, there's been an attack on masculinity

itself. What was once noble and healthy and chivalrous

is now considered toxic. You say the word masculinity,

people think, yeah, toxic. And online, there's

so much unhelpful advice, lots of misogynistic,

angry men teaching young men, here's what it

means to be a man. And even with our celebrities.

There seems to be fewer good men. I'm a big Sydney

Swans fan. Do you know how rough the last couple

of weeks have been? Just to hear, I mean, Isaac

Heaney, he was the poster boy. He was like, he

was squeaky clean. He seemed like the most lovely

guy, talented, like a, that's the sort of man

I'd want my kids to grow up and emulate, except

a Christian. But like, you know, I'm like, that's

a pretty good guy. And then you hear about the

stuff that happened with the Sydney Swans in

the last couple of weeks and... It's just appalling.

Where are the role models today a boy could look

up to and go, that's what it means to be a man?

I think it's really hard to see what a man is

today. And that's without the gender fluidity

and the adrogenisation of people and all these

other things. It's hard. And I think because

it's hard and because it's not clear, we end

up with really toxic role models of what it means

to be a man. Here's the three main ones I see,

I think, both in the Bible and in society. So

three kinds of toxic masculinity. You've got

the passive people pleaser. I don't know if you've

watched the show Ted Lasso, the gridiron coach

who comes and coaches a premier league soccer

club. He's just this really nice guy, very passive,

very kind, but doesn't know how to really assert

himself at times and things like that. I mean,

the other one I think of when I think passive

people pleaser is Richard Bucket. Did you ever

see Keeping Up With Appearances? It's that kind

of person. Then you've got Andrew Tate. If you

don't know who Andrew Tate is, anyone who's got

kids, your kids will know who Andrew Tate is.

He's this misogynistic, tough guy. I think he

was in MMA and all these other things. He's not

a good dude, he's a violent guy. Kind of think

like James Bond, but the Sean Connery James Bond,

the more violent kind of one. Life is living

large and it's all about you and you do whatever

you can and you will take whatever you take to

get it. And then the other one which I think

you just see in every American sitcom today.

is Homer Simpson, the stupid sluggard. He just

sits on the couch, he's trying to escape work,

he's trying to escape the pressures of life,

and he just wants to sit back and take it easy

and enjoy it. I think these are the role models

of masculinity that we see today, don't we? And

none of them are good. They take a bit of a good

thing and they twist it, don't they? So what's

it mean to be a man? Well, I also want to suggest

to you the answer is not to go, oh these are

the bad ones Let's just wind back the clock,

you know, if we could go back a few generations

back to the 50s back I don't know when then we'll

know what to be a man is I'd want to say there

are some good things from those times where we

can see what it means to be a man But some of

the movements in modern society like feminism

We're trying to address real problems in the

past I think things like feminism have brought

some really helpful things, some good correctives,

but some really unhelpful things and it's gone

too far in other ways. So we can't just look

back and go, well, that's what it means to be

a man. It's easy to have nostalgia for a simpler

time and not properly critique it. I think a

more helpful approach is to go back to the Bible

and see what did God intend men to be. That's

what we need to do. And so if we go back to creation,

we see three things that men are meant to be.

Here are the three things. God made men to be

pioneers, to be leaders, God made men to be protectors,

and God made men to be providers. God made men

to be pioneers, to be leaders, to be protectors,

and to be providers. So let's have a look at

each of these. Firstly, God made men to be pioneers.

I mean, men need a mission. We need a purpose

and an aim in life. We're wired to lead toward

a thing, aren't we? And God gave Adam a task

and a mission. You can see this in Genesis 1

and 2. So do you remember God blessed them and

said to them, be fruitful and increase in number,

fill the earth and subdue it. And in Genesis

2 we see that Eve is Adam's helper. She's there

to support him and help him in this mission.

His mission is to create life, fill the earth,

and to subdue the chaos within the earth. And

you can see this in Genesis 1 and 2 quite clearly.

I think when we conceive the earth back in Genesis,

I think what we're meant to see... is I think

it was a bit like this. I think the earth, you

had Eden, and I think, it wasn't all ocean by

the way, that's not what I'm trying to say, it's

that you had Eden, and Adam and Eve's job was

to Edenise the earth. So to bring God's rule

and presence throughout the earth. That's what

they were meant to do. But at the fall, this

gets reversed. Because what happens at the fall?

Eve is calling the shots. She also gave some

fruit to her husband who was with her, and he

ate it. Yeah, Adam's not leading, Eve's leading.

And this is not how God set things up. So here's

how God set things up. It's a hierarchy of authority,

not of value. You know, everyone's equal, but

there's a sense in which there is authority,

and the authority is that God is the authority

overall, and then man... is the authority over

the woman, and then together they are the authority

over the animals. But what happens in Genesis

3 is this gets flipped. So the animals, the serpent,

tells the woman what to do. And what's the woman

do? She tells the man what to do. Hey Adam, have

some fruit, you know. And God's not even in the

picture. There's a reversal of the order. The

man isn't leading, he isn't doing his mission

that he's meant to be doing. Years ago I played

Aussie rules and for a while I played in defence.

And I learnt pretty quickly there are certain

situations where you get the ball and what's

your job? Your job, your mission in that moment

is to absorb the tackle. You know, you don't

always have to get it out and give it off to

someone else. Sometimes that's the worst thing

you can do. Sometimes you just need to absorb

the pressure, take the tackle, and you get a

ball up and your team gets time to set up all

over again. But I tell you what, when everyone's

bearing down on you, it's tempting to handball

the ball out, isn't it? To go, yeah, I'm gonna

get it out, and then they're all gonna back off

and go and deal with someone else. You make it

someone else's problem. You avoid the pressure

and the hits. But that's the wrong call. And

yet today, I think many men have been conditioned,

and I'm including myself in this, it's something

I'm working on, is to handball our responsibility

and our leadership to someone else. You know,

it's easy and tempting to handball to others

what we should carry. It could be handballing

Christian formation of our kids. Like, yeah,

I'm all for Christian schools. I think they're

great. I'm all for our kids church. Dan does

a tremendous job. I love my wife. She does an

awesome job helping our kids know Jesus. But

I can't handball that job to someone else. It's

my responsibility that my kids Get to know Jesus

as they grow up. Life at home. You know, it's

easy for me to go, yes, sweetheart, whatever

you want. No, no, no. I need to be the one who

sets the direction, the vision, who has the initiative.

Sometimes for men it's not leading well with

their elderly parents. They put their aging parents

in a home and never visit, never call. They don't

really honor them or value them as they should.

Sometimes it's men, young men who struggle with

adulting. I think of a friend of mine, dear friend,

but his life's not in a good way. He got married

and ever since he got married, his wife's mum

cooked dinner for them each night. Every night.

I think she might have done some of their laundry

too. It wasn't a good dynamic. It wasn't adulting.

It wasn't stepping up as a man. Now, don't get

me wrong, there's a place for delegation, there's

a place for listening. That's actually good leadership,

isn't it? But at the heart of leadership is making

decisions, taking responsibility, managing and

investing into what matters. See, being a man

is about leading yourself and leading others

well. And I think we all need to ask ourselves,

how are we going with that? One way to check

is... to graph our responsibilities. So to think,

okay, I've got myself, my family, my church,

my work. How am I going in leading these things,

in being a positive influence, taking initiative

in these things? Now, this is just how I do it

in my life. You don't have to do it like me.

You might break it up into a whole range of other

ways. That's fine. But... I think it's helpful

to analyze it, break it up, thinking, okay, where

am I weak? Where am I strong? Am I putting two

eggs, many eggs in the work basket at the moment,

not enough in the family basket? Which thing

is getting too much of me at the moment? Where

are the areas I need to develop and grow? List

the problems. What's going on in my life? Where

am I sinful and struggling? What about in my

family? What are the dynamics happening there

that aren't good, that need to be addressed?

And then make a plan. Write it down. Just do

it on your notes app or write it on a piece of

paper. But I think this is what us as men need

to do is we don't be passive, do we? Like Adam

was. We take the initiative and we lead. But

that's not all men were made to do. God made

men to also be protectors. To be protectors.

Eve and Eden, they were Adam's job. It was Adam's

job to protect them. Have a look at what it says

in Genesis 2 .15. Sorry, it's a bit small, but

I hope the payoff is worth it by having it in

table form. Anyway, the Lord God took the man

and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it

and take care of, literally, guard us. The Hebrew

word is shamar, to guard or protect. It's used

of priests at the temple. And so when Satan the

serpent started talking to Eve, what was Adam's

job? He was meant to clock. This guy's a threat.

What's he doing here? What's he saying? Why is

he saying that about God? He should have dealt

with him. He should have stepped in and said,

no, Eve, stop listening to this guy. But instead,

he just sat there and did nothing. And sadly,

Eve wasn't much better. She engaged with the

serpent. She took charge, rather than letting

Adam step up, and it went horribly wrong. And

the consequence with that was that it started

the battle of the sexes. Here's what we see in

Genesis 3 .16. This verse actually parallels

another verse in Genesis 4 .7, where Sin desires

to have Cain and God says he needs to rule over

it. And the desire here is not that, you know,

Eve's going to look at Adam and go, oh, he's

such a hottie. Like, it's not that kind of desire.

It's the desire to rule over him. He will rule

over her. This is what happens in a broken world.

He will use his power and his strength to dominate

and oppress, but she'll want to be in charge.

Growing up, my dad sat down with me and we watched

a lot of Indiana Jones. I don't know if you're

a big Indiana Jones fan. I love those movies.

The old ones are better. The new ones don't even

count. But I remember that great scene in The

Last Crusade. Do you remember when he's getting

chased around by the tanks and he's on the horseback

and he's out in the desert and he picks up a

rock and he puts it in one of the tank guns?

And you've got this powerful gun, you know, in

the tank that's designed to protect the tank

from enemies and shoot out at others. And they're

trying to shoot Indy and it backfires and it

injures those inside the tank and harms them.

Now, I think what Genesis is saying is that a

man's strength and a man's brawn is like that

tank gun, especially for women. Because when

it's pointed out at others and doing its job

properly, it makes them feel safe and protected.

You know, it's the man in the middle of the night

who should be getting up with the golf club to

ward off any people trying to break in, isn't

it? But when there's a rock put in it and it

backfires into the family, that's when it's dangerous,

isn't it? That's when people feel unsafe. I think

men should build their strength. I think men

should learn how to fight. Because our world

is full of enemies and threats, both physical

and spiritual. Yet learning to master our strength,

to master our power, to master ourselves, that's

crucial. I mean, domestic violence is a huge

problem in Australia, especially among men. Andrew

Tate and his sort of misogyny. Even men just

lashing out with their words can be just so bad

and can make women feel emotionally unsafe. Men

need to build strength with self -restraint.

And sadly, there's many men out there who feel

emasculated in our world, and they're the ones

who tend to embrace this kind of toxic masculinity

that's built on a half -truth of be strong without

self -restraint. And those sort of men need to

repent. But healthy masculinity says build strength

and learn to control it and use it for good.

Here's how Proverbs puts it. I think it's brilliant.

Proverbs has these two really helpful Proverbs

for men. A wise man is full of strength and a

man of knowledge enhances his might. And in a

whole range of ways, wisdom, good counsel, but

I think strength as well, brawn. But whoever's

slow to anger is better than the mighty and he

who rules his spirit then he who takes a city

We need to have both don't we? strength and self

-control It's better than the mighty I think

that's an amazing thing isn't it You if you're

slow to anger if you rule your spirit you're

better than you know Genghis Khan You're better

than anyone who is a conqueror. That's actually

to conquer yourself is the hardest thing to conquer.

So how are you going with this? Both strength

and self -control. Maybe everyone at home is

walking around on eggshells because of you. Maybe

you're perpetually grumpy and shouty. I know

there are times where I am. And when I am, I

notice that. I try to notice that and go, okay,

something needs to change. I need to change.

What can I do? Do I need to have a rest? Do I

need to go have some fun? Do I need to just change

my mindset? But I can't let that happen. Maybe...

You're not growing in strength, maybe your family's

lost respect for you because you let yourself

get weaker and weaker. I'm saying, you know,

health and all of that, that's a hard thing.

But we've got to take responsibility for what

we can fix, what we can deal with. I remember

for years I had anxiety issues that I didn't

try and deal with or manage. And I think it made

my wife lose a lot of respect for me. So physically,

spiritually... We need to work on protecting

our families, protecting ourselves, so that we

don't backfire into them. I think part of the

problem is we often get so busy doing, there's

always another thing to do today, that we don't

spend time working on ourselves, do we? It boils

down to this. What threatens you and your family?

Are you ready for those threats? There's all

sorts of things out there. But make sure you're

not one of them. Make sure you're protecting

them, not that they need protecting from you.

So as men we pioneer, we protect, but there's

one other thing we do. God made men to be providers.

God made men to be providers. Have a look at

this one. This is again Genesis 2 .15. The Lord

God took the man and put him in the Garden of

Eden to work it, to cultivate it and take care

of it. This is the Hebrew word abad. Again, used

to the priest in the temple. And it means to

cultivate, serve or labour. And I don't know

if you've noticed it, but as you look at the

story in the Garden of Eden, I think the idea

that keeps coming across is that Eden itself

is like a temple. Is that God's... Presence is

there. And Adam and Eve are meant to be like

the priests of the temple. It's a place of bliss.

And because it was a place of bliss, work was

good. God would provide what was needed through

Adam's work in the garden. But all that changed

at the fall. Because here's what happens to work.

Here's the punishment now in a fallen world.

Curse is the ground because of you. Through painful

toil, you will eat food from it all the days

of your life. Work is no longer work. Work is

toil. Work is frustrating. The means of providing

for ourselves and others is now burdensome and

brutal. What are we fighting? We're fighting

thorns and thistles. To work means sweat and

grit. We're battling scarcity. And the soil that

we labor upon to provide for ourselves will one

day swallow us up, won't it? That's the great

irony in Genesis. The way in which we seek provision

will actually kill us one day. Providing is brutal

now. And so because of this, we just want to

escape it. A while ago, I read about a strange

phenomenon in Japan, the hikikomori. They're

shut -ins, recluses, usually men who've withdrawn

from society. Many of them spend their lives

online, tending to do pretty seedy stuff online.

But in Japan, there's approximately 1 .5 million

of them. Shut -ins. Men, mainly shut -ins. And

one of the big causes that these men have shut

themselves away from society is because of work

demands and pressure. Work was too hard, the

expectations were too high, it was all too much.

Now this is an extreme example but it proves

my point I think. Providing in a sinful broken

world is frustrating, exhausting and crushing.

And for a lot of men it feels like too much.

Now, you can shut yourself away like the Hikikomori

did, but what I think many men in our culture

tend to do is they get overwhelmed and they try

to endlessly escape the difficulty of providing.

And often the way we can escape can be toxic.

I mean, I think back to that Sydney Swans incident.

Why were they doing what they were doing? I reckon

there was a pressure. that was on them. They've

been working and it was like, yes, here's a chance

to let my hair down, here's a chance to just

have a bit of fun, but they took it way, way,

way too far. And many men do that, even men in

churches. They drink too much, they watch porn,

they have affairs, there's... endless gaming

or gambling they overeat there's all sorts of

ways in which in this world that's so hard we're

trying to cope but healthy masculinity finds

internal resources to cope from the spirit from

Jesus and the way he's loved us actually we still

use God's good gifts don't we? We still enjoy

things. I'm not saying, you know, never have

a beer or anything like that, but we use God's

good gifts in submission to Jesus' Lordship.

And that gives us the strength to carry on. And

we have the great hope that Jesus gives that

one day we will be in glory where we can have

true rest. So how are you going with this? Where

do you turn when you're feeling stressed and

tired? Is your approach, the way you try and

handle it, healthy or toxic? If it's toxic, what

are you going to do about it? All right, let's

wrap up. We've seen what healthy masculinity

should be. Three aspects to preform masculinity.

We're meant to be pioneers, protectors and providers.

But we've also seen how after the fall, how masculinity

can become toxic. We can become passive people

pleasers, who don't lead but we lie and we manipulate

and we... We don't take the initiative, we sit

back. We can have the misogynistic tough guy,

the Andrew Tates of the world, who are violently

taking for themselves. And then there's the stupid

slogans, the Homer Simpsons, who just want to

escape the hardness and the pressure of life.

And sadly, men act in these ways today, just

as they do in the Bible. I mean, do you remember

in Genesis 3, God promises that there will be

a serpent crusher, one who will destroy the work

of the serpent? And so what we're meant to do

as we read the rest of the Bible is we're meant

to go, where is that man? Like the whole Old

Testament, we're meant to be asking that question,

where's this serpent crusher? But you know what

we find as we go through the Old Testament is

that it just gets worse and worse. And so often

men just act so poorly in toxic ways. I mean,

think of chapter four in Genesis, right after

all this. You know, Cain. kills Abel. And then

you get Lamech, who takes two wives. And he says,

hey, you know, if anyone challenges me, you know,

Cain's Revenge is seven, I'm going to do it 77.

You know, he's like basically the prototype for

Andrew Tate. And then the whole world in chapter

six is violent. God, God regrets making the world.

In the end of chapter five, though, you know,

we see Noah and you think, oh, well, there's

a guy. He's pretty good. His father even says

of him, out of the ground that the Lord has cursed,

this one shall bring us relief from our work

and from the painful toil of our hands. Noah

does well for so long. He's like Adam 2 .0. He

gets the commission from God to fill the earth

and subdue it. He seems to be doing a good job

because he's been so obedient and brought his

family through the ark and, you know, is the

salvation of the world, really, because they've...

the world and humanity has been saved through

this man and yet Noah has a toxic moment. He

becomes a man of the soil and gets drunk and

naked and it causes huge problems. Now I get

it Noah's seen the flood he's probably got PTSD

uh you know he wants he's got this work this

job to bring relief like his father had said

to the world but it's too much for him and so

he does what's shameful. And then we read on

and we meet more men like this. We have Aaron

and Saul who people please in awful ways. We've

got David who, you know, you think, David's a

good guy? I mean, what an awesome guy David is.

There's the sort of man I want to be. I want

to be like David. But what happens? He does a

Homer Simpson. He stays home on the couch when

kings were meant to go to war. He then sleeps

with Bathsheba and murders Uriah. He becomes

like Andrew Tate. And he does that by lies. He's

a passive people pleaser. He says all the right

things to Uriah and the High Command to get his

way. David is so good and yet he's toxic in all

these three ways by the end of it. See, no man

in history embodies masculinity perfectly. Sadly,

the best of men are men at best. That is until

a Jewish boy is born in Bethlehem. And this boy

grew up to be a man unlike any other. He was

a pioneer with radical ideas and truths that

were so good and so wonderful that it ruffled

the feathers of the religious establishment.

He was a protector of the weak and the vulnerable.

He didn't exploit with his power, he used it

to serve others. and to do good to them, to protect

those who were getting taken down by the religious

establishment. And he was a provider to those

who were in need. He wasn't overwhelmed by helping.

He stayed faithful and godly his entire life.

And we see it most clearly at the cross. Because

at the cross Jesus led in such a way that it

cost him but he led, he was a pioneer and he

used his power to serve us at the cross and he

used his great obedience to protect us from sin

and death by ranting himself, sacrificing himself

in our place. He provided for us the salvation

we could never get on our own. I want to say

Men today do need role models. Role models are

important, but we need something far greater.

We need a saviour, don't we? A rescuer. One to

save us from the fall, from our failures, to

redeem masculinity. And that's what Jesus does

for us. When His grace is received and when...

a man becomes thankful for it, it changes them.

And they do become a role model. Someone you

can continually look up to. But that's because

they're looking up to Jesus, learning from him.

Transformation in the Christian life is grounded

in receiving God's grace, and then looking to

Jesus, seeking to copy him. Let me give you one

example of it. This is what it says in 1 Peter

2. He himself bore our sins in his body on the

tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness

By his wounds you have been healed You see it's

it's grounded in God's grace those green words

there, isn't it? How Jesus has suffered for us

how he bore our sins But then that leads to he

is now an example for us a role model That we

act differently as men Back to our table. So

what happens in the New Testament when men are

grounded in God's grace? Well, they do these

things like Jesus. Paul says, I do not permit

a woman to teach or to assume authority over

a man. She must be quiet, for Adam was formed

first then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived,

it was the woman who was deceived and became

a sinner. And all around that is Paul telling

men how to leave the church, because the church

is the household of God. And just like any household,

men are to lead it. So Paul tells men how to

lead in a Christ -like way. Protectors, likewise

husbands, live with your wives in an understanding

way, showing honour to the woman as the weaker

vessel. No, she's not built like we're built.

That's okay. We're equal in value, but we're

different. And since they are heirs with you

of the grace of life, so that your prayers may

not be hindered. We're to protect the women in

our lives and one of the key ways we do that

is to be prayerful people and our relationship

with God is going to struggle if we're not protecting

of the women in our lives. And then we're to

be providers in the same way husbands should

love their wives as their own bodies. You know

you look after your body I hope. Well that's

what we're meant to do. with women and especially

our wives. He who loves his wife loves himself

for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes

and cherishes it just as Christ does the church.

We work hard to give to others and provide for

them. See these are Christ -like behaviors driven

by grace. So what about you? As men we all struggle

with doing these things it's hard we're sinners

we all tend to struggle in one of these ways

which one of these do you tend to ward most it

may be different depending on the season of your

life but i'm talking about today talk about now

which one is it for you passive people pleaser

misogynistic tough guy the stupid sluggard Identify

where you tend to be toxic. Remember that you've

been forgiven of it. Confess it to God and make

a plan to change it. Because that's what men

do. That's what it means to be a man. It's to

take responsibility for your own stuff, isn't

it? And to seek to grow by God's grace. It's

to go on that journey of growth. And when men

do that, the next generation of men aren't behind

the eight ball, are they? They get a head start.

Because they see what it is to be a man and how

good it is to be a man. They're part of communities

with men who are role models because they're

copying Jesus. And then those boys will become

men who see that they need Jesus to save them

from their toxicity. and to help them be the

sort of men that God created them to be. Like

I said in the interview earlier, for me there

was a really unique bloke in our church when

I was growing up named Nathan. He was a role

model to me and to many other men. I mean, there

were men, young men there and boys as well, whose

parents treated them horribly, whose parents

had... whose dads had abandoned them, you know,

all sorts of things. And Nathan was just, had

this amazing ability to love and care for these

young boys, to guide them and support them and

teach them the Bible. And he was an incredible

example as well. He shared life with them. Has

God's grace driven you to be a man like that?

making you a role model to other men and young

men especially. Let's pray that that would happen.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us

to be godly men, that our godliness would be

driven by grace and that we would constantly

remember your grace. Help us to be godly pioneers,

protectors and providers. And those times where

we are toxic help us to repent, to own it, to

apologize, and to seek to change. And Father,

by your Spirit, we pray that we would help us

on this journey of becoming more Christ -like.

Help us to be more like Jesus every day, every

year, every decade, that we may be men like him.

And we ask this in His name. Amen.