Men's Luncheon - Denver Foster - September 29, 2026

One of the things that happened is God between us, our uh staff folks, and moving on our church, and it's always fun to get to know that to be connected.

So today I want to introduce you to Denver.

Denver is doing a uh seminary degree and had to have an internship, and he's gonna be a part of our church, and we love Denver and what he's doing and his project he's doing, and I'll probably tell you a little bit about that maybe.

But uh we uh we said, well, come on, intern with us to be here.

So he's been working alongside us and helping at our Jackie campus and doing some statistical work to help us prepare how we do that kind of stuff.

And uh it's always great.

So we're excited to have Denver and he's gonna teach you today.

Denver, everybody say hi to Denver, say hi to you.

Awesome.

Thanks, sir.

Thank you, gentlemen, for this opportunity.

This is honestly my first time speaking on a pulpit level.

So uh in the past, I've done military training.

Um, I used to instruct generals of what the mission was and where they needed to go.

Uh but this is totally new for me, so you guys get to be here to witness me getting my feet wet.

Um so I thought I'd start off with a little story.

The the story I was gonna tell is basically there's this young gentleman, he just graduates from Barber College, and he goes to work with this master barber that's been doing it for ages.

And the young man, you know, he's talking to him about all these new methods and stuff, and then somebody walks in, sits in his chair, and he spends 45 minutes cutting this gentleman's hair using all the new fancy techniques that's going on in the world.

And then the guy stands up, he's like, awesome, pays him twenty dollars and leaves.

And then the young barber was like, you know, what do you think?

How did I do?

This is all the new stuff, I bet you can't do that.

And so before the master could say anything, another gentleman walked in, walked to the master's chair, and he spent 15 minutes talking to the guy while he did a very basic haircut.

The gentleman sits up, gives him a hug,$50, and walks out the door.

And the young man was impressed.

He's like, What did you do?

He's like, I was using all the techniques, you barely even touched his hair, you spent more time talking to him.

And so the master barber said, I spent 15 minutes getting to know him, talking about his life, and seeing where he was in the world.

The haircut is just something he needs, not what he wants, right?

So that impression left, you know, an outstanding uh impression on the young man.

So today what I want to talk to you about is our mission.

What is our mission?

So our mission, you know, we we look at there's 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 through 18.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

So this is kind of a continuation from over the weekend, right?

We we have we have an end date, no matter what it is, right?

I could feel a thump in my chest, and that's it for me.

Right?

I'm driving home and there's a horn honk, and that's it for me.

But up until that point, whether God takes us or you know, we go into an eternal sleep, then before that point is how are we carrying the mission for the Lord?

So what I see here, and I've been at lunch with you guys a few times, is I see a whole room full of experience.

You know, this is fairly new to me.

I've been a Christian for a long time, but I was one of those guys that was asleep.

I never had a mentor in this field until very recently.

So, you know, a few years ago, God was like, you know, you're no longer doing business, you're no longer doing anything.

This is the path you're gonna take.

And so I've spent most of my life in mentorship.

So a little about me in the history is, you know, by the time I was 13, I grew up on a small airfield in Oklahoma.

My dad and uncles and grandfather, they were all mechanics and pilots.

And so I grew up working on aircraft.

And then at 19 years old, I I applied for American Airlines.

Everybody laughed at me, but I did, and I got the job.

That wasn't because I went to school and got an education, that was through mentorship.

So I was able to walk into a giant company and take a test, and they say, you know what, we'll try you out.

And so I spent the next couple of years going from repair station to repair station, learning at a higher level.

And it was all mentorship.

So that is the mission that I kind of want to press on you, gentlemen, today, and then is that grab somebody, grab somebody in the church, grab a young man, you know, whether he wants to or not, and just say, hey, let's go for coffee.

It doesn't matter what you talk about, you're gonna put wisdom into their life.

Um when I finally left the military, I made a decision actually when I was in Afghanistan.

I was like, I am not going to be a trigger man for some crazy world anymore.

I had to completely shift gears in my life.

So while I had an education, I needed to move myself away from that lifestyle.

So I started to read, and I started to read a lot.

Um I didn't know that I was a nerd, I was pretty athletic, but I guess I'm a nerd.

And I spent more time, and every day I started reading, reading, reading, and I got to where I could complete a whole book in a week.

So it was a book a week challenge, and it took me about two years, but I was just knocking out books.

And I just started at basic stuff and I started to graduate higher and higher.

And I do that today.

Um and then once I got to a level, I had to say, you know, I need to still make money in the world.

And so I got an insurance license, and then I'm selling insurance in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I started to catch a pattern as I talked to people.

And so I started talking to these Tulsa millionaires, and I'm like, you know, you're super wealthy.

How did you get here?

And they just wanted to talk, and they started telling me.

So I started to network in Tulsa, and the next thing I know, I'm in Washington state, and then I'm in California, and I'm learning banking and all of these different things.

And I didn't, you know, it wasn't an education I was paying for, it was just talking with people that had some knowledge to spread.

And that just sent me through the roof.

And then one day I'm working on a business plan, and I somebody's like, hey, you know, do you like dogs?

And I wound up becoming a professional dog trainer.

My goal in life was not set out to be a dog trainer, that's just what happened.

I spent time with the gentleman in Washington learning how to work on houses and fix houses.

I learned about private banking and all of these stuff, all this stuff.

So with a room full of knowledge, it doesn't matter where you've been, it's what can you share.

Because if that knowledge goes away and you spent 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years collecting it, and you don't share that with the next generation, then it's not gonna help anybody.

So, how does that tie in with the Bible?

Is that you know, I grew up in a Bible-believing church, right?

We went through the Bible book by book, verse by verse, and so I had all that ingrained in my head, and once it was time for God to say, you're done learning here, now you're gonna go here, all of this knowledge just started to come back, and then I I'm doing the same thing now.

I'm grabbing good men that know the Bible, that can help me walk and teach and grow.

Does that make sense, Christians?

Okay.

Um so one of the projects I'm working on is well, let me back up a little bit.

So I have a master's degree in Christian apologetics.

And this started while I was training dogs.

Dog training is a bit of psychology.

So your dog is crazy, great.

Usually there's a reason outside of the dog, and so I talk to people.

And so while I'm talking to this person, and this person has a messed up life, what do I do?

I'm like, well, do you have a relationship with Christ?

And so, you know, as a Christian-based company, I would just openly share the gospel with people.

And this one person was like, Well, I'm Mormon.

And I'm like, cool, I don't really know what that means, but we'll go with it.

And the more I talked to this person, the more I understood where her mistakes were in life, right?

Um, so I started doing tons of research and tons of research, and then next thing I know, I have a master's degree in apologetics.

And I have been working and writing on which started out as a book, now it's a series of do you know who Jesus is?

So if if a person walks up to you and they say, you know, yes, I know who Jesus is, and you start to pry a little bit, and they go off on a third rail, do you have the biblical knowledge to guide them through that?

Because they can get very tricky.

Uh so part of what I do is I know I have a low chance of maybe swaying that person, guiding that person, you know, helping them to open up to what the Holy Spirit is actually trying to say to them.

But part of what I do is I stand in defense about the persons behind me, because they don't know what we know as men.

So, you know, that's really my gear and the way my brain is focused is I'm not and I and I've said that coming into this, I'm like, I don't know if I'm supposed to technically be a pastor as much as maybe a teacher.

And so I'm trying to develop a series that that goes further than the typical Bible class that we usually get.

I want people to go, this is Jesus, and let's follow the chain through the Bible, which most people just don't do, right?

And then I mean I get and Brother Dave, he can attest to this.

You know, I sit down and did a complete word study on one single word just to show a Mormon gentleman that this is what the Bible's saying.

So studying through the lexicon.

And what I'm trying to do is I'm a very simple person, um, a lot of it's intellectual, but I I believe, because you know, I used to train from high high-level NCOs, officers in the military, and the lowest private.

I mean, I've done it all, and I want to break things down into a way that everybody has the ability to understand exactly what's going on.

You guys following?

Awesome.

So kind of back to my notes.

I'm sorry.

Oh, thank you.

There we go.

Sorry.

Yeah, if you guys can't hear me, just let me know.

Um, so the the Bible, you know, when we look at the the commission, the Bible does not give us a retirement.

We're here until we're not.

Uh I mean, and I've kind of gone through the Bible and it just it's just not there.

Um we uh we talk about Paul, you know, and he's he went through um, you know, he went through prison, he went through a lot, and he didn't give up, he was just fulfilling the commission.

John, you know, I mean the guy was boiled in oil and he kept going to the very end.

So don't count yourself out.

Grab somebody and coach them.

You know, just take them for coffee, it doesn't matter.

Talk about your life.

One of my best friends before I moved to Fort Smith was in World War II, and my grandfather was an infantry officer, and it turns out they dug in the same dirt.

It was kind of an interesting experience.

And I learned a lot about his life, his family, and then we shared the gospel together.

He did a great Bible study with me.

So everything is teachable if we understand it.

And I think I will turn it back over to Pastor Greg.

I've spent 15 minutes yakking.

Thanks for my TED Talk.

That's great.

Thanks, Denver.

Uh one thing he said that I absolutely love, um, and I even typed it in my phone so I would get it right when he was talking about mentoring and our mission and who we are to participate in that.

He said it doesn't matter where you've been, but what you have to share.

Isn't that good?

And what we have to share are two things.

We have the testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and no one can ever take that from you.

And it's the most powerful, eternal thing that you will ever share.

And the second thing we have to share are the things that God has done in your life.

So as a Christian, we have these things that God has done.

We've learned this lesson, we've seen him faithful in this, we've seen him answer these prayers, we've learned those things.

And so everybody has those things to share.

If you have any relationship with Jesus, you have two eternally powerful, incredibly powerful things that we have to share.

We have the ability to share what Jesus did in our lives, and we have the opportunity to share beyond that, how he works in our lives, what he's done, the lessons that we've learned, and all of that.

And so I think that's an incredibly powerful thing.

I'll share with you a scripture to kind of back that up, that I think is always one of my favorites.

If I can figure out how to work my phone, uh I'm not relieved.

One thing I do not have to share is technology knowledge.

Right?

And so here's what he says.

Don't be ashamed of the this is 2 Timothy chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.

And so he is focusing on testimony.

Don't be afraid to be a witness to what God has done.

Don't be afraid to share who Jesus is and what he's done.

And when we a lot of times are attached into church life and all that, people say, I don't go to church because I don't know where hypocrites are there.

Get all this other kind of nonsense that goes on.

Um, that's what he's saying.

Don't be ashamed of him as Paul.

Don't be ashamed to be a part of the body of Christ.

Don't be ashamed to be a part of the movement of God.

He says, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.

Because when we share, what you're sharing, as we've just talked about, it's not who you've been or what you've been.

It's what you know.

And you know Jesus.

And so what we are sharing is Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works.

It's not who you've been, right?

Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

So we're not sharing based on the fact that I did this or I accomplished this or I built this or I was trained this way or I did whatever.

We are sharing on the fact that Jesus, who was appointed as the Savior from before time began, has intervened in your life and saved you from your sin.

Then he says, This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel.

For this gospel, I was appointed a herald, an apostle, a teacher, and that is why I suffer these things.

But I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed.

What we're sharing is what we've learned, what we know, and what we know is who Jesus is.

And what we know is what Jesus has done.

And what we know is how Jesus has been faithful in our life.

And so he says, I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard.

Now, how was he persuaded?

Because he's been walking with Jesus, and because Jesus has been doing these things in his life all along, right?

It's not where you've been, it's not where you've been, it's what you know.

I am not ashamed because I know who I am, believed, and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.

That's what we're teaching, right?

I love that.

And you guys in this room know that in volumes, in ways that young guys don't know.

So I just I think it's a great word for us to always be reminded to be aware of guys under us, to not be ashamed, to not worry about what you've been or not been, but share what we know because we believed and we've been persuaded.

Good?

Let me pray for you guys.

Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for Denver and making a part of our church family and life and what you've been doing in his life, and as he continues to work to equip us to be able to share, to be able to answer questions, to defend the faith, to give a defense for the hope that is in us, as your word says.

I pray, Father, you'll encourage us to have the confidence that Paul talks about.

Not a confidence based in I held some position or I did something or I was in his career forever or whatever it was.

But help us to be confident and persuaded in Jesus.

Knowing who he is, knowing what he's done, having that testimony that we have to share, as Paul says, and being able to share the journey of what you've done in our lives.

I pray, Father, you'll open doors for all of us, be able to share young guys, be able to step in their lives with that word of encouragement.

I know there are guys in this room to do that, and I know there are guys in this room who could do that.

And so I pray that you'll open those doors for us and help us to step into that world.

We thank you for who you are, that you are the Savior who was appointed before time, who you appeared and went to the cross and died in our place.

You rose again, conquering death and sin, and once again, one day you will appear once again, and you'll take us home and be with you forever.

In the name of that Jesus, in whom we believe and are persuaded, we pray.

And everybody said, Hey, you guys have great action.