What Kind of Man Are You Becoming? | Wild Inside

One of the things I like to do, I don't I don't know why, but I like to imagine when I think about Bible characters as I'm reading God's word, I like to imagine like contemporary actors playing those people.

Okay, so like one of these really fun for me is to imagine Goliath being played by Samuel L.

Jackson.

Like if you think of just a giant Samuel L.

Jackson and you read like what Goliath is saying, it just becomes really, really funny, man.

Another one that I like is it doesn't make any sense, but it's old man Logan.

I like to pretend that the Apostle John is old man Logan when he's old.

You know who Logan is?

He's Wolverine, right?

You might have seen that.

Well, I asked AI, would you would you cast Wolverine as old man John the Apostle?

And that's what it came up with.

Um yeah, it did okay, but what I want you to notice is that he's very friendly.

Unlike Logan, Logan's a little berserk, but this dude's very friendly.

He's got a warm, open heart.

Did you know that the Apostle John was the last living apostle?

And he would be invited.

Remember, this is a guy who he was with Jesus physically.

He would be invited to churches in his time when he's really old, and they'd sit him right there in front of the congregation, and he would begin to talk to them about the love of Jesus and the forgiveness of Jesus.

And he would know because he's been around Jesus.

And he's really kind and sweet, you know, at that point.

We get the sense when he was younger, he didn't do everything perfect.

Even when he was with Jesus, he didn't.

Like there was a time when he and his brother James, the Samaritans, the Samaritans wouldn't let them come into their town.

And so they got a little bit offended.

They said, Jesus, they rejected us.

Should we call down fire from heaven on these guys?

And did you know Jesus, like, wow, like that idea is just the dumbest.

John, what are you talking about, man?

No, that's not what we're gonna do.

There's another time they got their mom to ask if they could sit at his right and his left.

He's like, guys, you don't even know what you're asking.

So he didn't do everything right, but you know, Jesus perseveres with us, and ultimately he became the disciple that lived the longest, recorded the book of Revelation, and was known for the second and third generation of the church as the guy who keeps talking about the love of Jesus.

Even in response to false teaching, he would write letters about the love of God.

First John 2, 12, here we go.

I'm writing you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name, Jesus' name.

I'm writing you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.

I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, dear children, because you know the father.

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong.

That's true.

And the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

He's talking to the people, and he he's like pointing out different segments of the congregation that are gonna be there.

And scholars would agree it's not that he has specific instructions for these different age groups of men, but he's including all the different demographics of men that are there and women.

He's saying, Hey, you guys, I honor you, I respect you, you're here, and you know about the love of God.

You guys, I honor you, and I love you, and you're here and you know about the love of God.

You've defeated the enemy.

He's singling them out in some sense because he wants them to know you're special too.

You're special to God.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a guy like that around?

I mean, he's he's like he's been with Jesus, he's this fatherly figure.

I I could be wrong, but I can't think of anybody like currently alive in this generation that is quite the same as like a father figure to so many folks.

The last one I remember is Billy Graham.

I'm I'm sorry for those of you who were so young, you don't remember Billy Graham, but it's kind of he was like the pastor of America.

Like he was he was different than anybody right now.

Even when you think about the Craig Rochelles, he was different.

He was more pastoral.

It wasn't really about leadership, it was about the gospel, it was about the love of Jesus Christ.

And everybody just kind of knew it.

Like that's what his gig was.

And I don't know that we have anybody like that today, but I really think John the Apostle was like that, like that back then.

Everybody just knew, man, I hope he comes.

He'd be so great to be around.

You probably couldn't help but be like Jesus just by being around him.

It can be hard.

I think it's hard for women, but but I know as a man it's hard for men.

We're called into relationship with God, and we're sons of God, but we can't talk face to face with God, at least not yet.

We get God's word from the Bible, so he talks to us through that, and we have images of what Jesus did when he was on planet Earth, but there's still like there's a relational sense of like, I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do in this phase, and I don't know what to do in that phase, and I don't know what to do in that phase.

There's no one necessarily modeling exactly the right things for me to do.

I want to talk to you today.

I hope, I hope you're free.

I'm not trying to be like, uh, I'm not like the a spiritual giant, okay?

So I'm not trying to be like the guy.

I I'd love to coach us from God's word, if that's right today.

Men.

I I've had some really impactful coaches in my life.

The thing about coaches is they're really not critics.

They might say some harder things to hear, but they're doing it because they know pushing you helps you.

And that's what I want to do, if that's okay, gentlemen.

I want to push us a little bit because I think it will help us become really the guys that we're supposed to be.

Here's the the big idea today for today.

In every season, there's certain things that God is asking us to be faithful with if we'll focus on them.

Here's a different way to say it.

Every phase has a focus, and every season can be a school if we'll go to school in that season.

Every season can be a school, if we'll pay attention, what season am I in?

And everyone's in different seasons throughout life, but there's also very specific lessons we're supposed to, gentlemen, learn at different times in our life.

And so we want to learn all of them, but there's very specific ones.

Let's start with sons.

As we look at the sons in the Bible, these are men ages 0 to 17.

We don't know much about Jesus when he was this age, but we do know this, John 2.52.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Young ones, you under 18, your objective in this phase is to grow in wisdom and in favor.

That's what you're that's what you should be growing, growing in.

Now, the world, dude, they want to just distract you.

They want to just get you into a fool's parade.

They're not really for you.

Do you ever think about this?

There's there's not much in the world that is for men other than Jesus, really, other than God's church.

Those are the ones that are, there's no like men's study.

You don't go to college, oh, men's studies.

That's that like doesn't really happen very much, dude.

There's no one necessarily advocating for men.

And yet, men, we need a lot of help.

The world wants you, dude, it wants you, it wants you intoxicated instead of interested.

It wants you hooked on drugs, it wants you in jail, it wants you hooked on porn, men, it want, it wants you destroyed.

It'll tempt you into everything that'll kill you.

That's what is trying to get you in debt, it's trying to get you sick.

That's what the world wants.

God wants us to grow in wisdom just like Jesus did.

Wisdom is doing now what I'll appreciate later.

Wisdom is living kind of like from the future backwards.

It's looking at here's what I'll have wished I would have done, so this is what I'll do now.

It's it doesn't always, it's that intuitive what wisdom is, and that's one of the things that make it so challenging.

So, one of the things we can do to grow in wisdom is reflect on God's word.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Here's a challenge for young men, zero to 17.

I would challenge you, try this practice, read one of the chapters of Proverbs every day.

There's 31 chapters, there's there's close to 30 days in every month.

You go through one chapter a day and try to do this, try to categorize it in your mind.

The book of Proverbs says a lot of stuff that is very wise, whether it's about money, whether it's about your purity, whether it's about how hard you work, all that stuff.

Guys, if you'll just do that, you'll be way smarter than your trippy friends.

Like you just happen quick.

You'll quickly outpace them.

Now, something you gotta know about wisdom is it comes through mentors the best.

Yeah, it's people who already do, they've already had all the bruises, and so now they've got some good stuff to share.

How many, just show hands, everybody?

How many you know you did something when you were under 18 that an adult told you not to do that you deeply regret?

How many we got?

Yeah, look around the room, guys.

Yeah, this is this is like most of the folks.

That means, young men, you are likely to do that if you haven't yet, unless you pay attention to some really good mentors.

And good mentors, they're not your peers.

Okay?

I'm sure your peers are awesome, I'm sure they're cool, sure they're even smart to a degree, but there's they just haven't had a ton of life just like you yet.

And I'm not disrespecting you, I'm sure that you're dope and you're smart and you're awesome, but compared to how much life you're going to have later and how much experience you're gonna get, you have the least amount right now.

So the best thing you can do is get with some mentors.

And mentors, dude, they care about you.

They're they're probably they're willing to spend time with you, they're willing to probably spend money on you, and they're men of integrity.

They're men who are gonna do what they say.

Now, I made a mistake when I was around 18, and I allowed a mentor into my life that didn't have really great integrity.

And that really cost me a lot in the end.

I wasn't paying, and the spirit of Jesus was even warning me, like this guy, he talks a good game, but he's he doesn't have the goods because he'll just flagrantly disobey right in front of you.

Yeah, you don't want those guys.

You want the guys that have nothing to hide, and they do they can teach you stuff.

Well, they can they can show you something in the garage, they can show you something, you know, at the front desk, they can show you how to do something on the computer, they can show you stuff, even if it's just just character, they're helping you grow, they're expanding your understanding of what's going on here.

Young men, this is this is my own theory, okay.

I have no data behind this, but it looks true.

It looks true from 49, okay?

Between the ages of 15 and 25, the enemy has a plan for you to do really careless stuff.

He doesn't even need you to be like ridiculously rebellious.

He just needs you to be careless.

If you'll in those 10 years, before your prefrontal cortex is entirely developed and you actually think very deeply about the future, he wants to get you make mistakes like he wants to get somebody pregnant, he wants you to drop out of school, he wants you to get arrested, he wants you to do anything that will hijack your next 20 years so that you can't be as effective for God as you would want to be.

Okay, so so do me a favor, just get through 25, dude.

Okay, just try to avoid as many mistakes, just grow in wisdom until you're 25.

And by the way when you're finally there, you're like, oh, yeah, I'm not gonna do that stupid thing because it's stupid.

Now I see.

But it was hard to see beforehand.

Grow in wisdom and grow in favor.

Now here's a shortcut in the Bible: it is favor, but favor is obedience.

Favor is obedience.

The more we obey, the more God's favor comes upon us.

That's all over the Bible.

You can especially see it in Deuteronomy 28, but you can see it when Abraham decides to obey about Isaac, and the Lord says, Because you've obeyed me, now I'm gonna do all this stuff.

You can see it when David decides not to obey the Lord about Bathsheba.

He says, David, I've done all this for you, and I would have done much more, but you disobeyed me.

Dude, you want like a lot of stuff from God?

Look, it's it's not that you like pull a lever and God gives you stuff because you're good.

He only does us good because of Jesus.

But he also honors our attempt to just honor him.

So he sees us trying to obey, and he says, Man, they're really trying, they're really going after it.

I'm just gonna like unload the dump truck of blessing on their life.

Man, that's what we want to grow in.

Check this out, it might be counterintuitive.

Ephesians 6, verse 1 through 3.

Ephesians 6:1–3

Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord.

For it's the right thing to do.

Honor your father and mother.

This is the first commandment with a promise.

If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you, and you'll have a long life on the earth.

Young men, it's really smart to be submissive to parents or even to stepparents, or whoever has had a large hand in raising you, even if it's not like your natural parents, those are ones you want to, they're not gonna be right all the time, but you want to honor them and respect them as much as you can because just because not for them, for God, because you belong to the Lord.

And he says, I'm gonna reward just that if you'll do it.

I don't know if you notice this.

You ever think about this?

Jesus was perfect, and he's got Mary and Joseph for parents.

Now you know there was times as a perfect son of God, he's watching what they're doing, he's like, that's just not what you should do.

I'm like, I'm Jesus.

That's not that's not the way they're gonna make a suggestion.

Well, that's really not this, we shouldn't do that.

And yet he submits to his parents.

Now, if Jesus, who is perfect, can submit to his imperfect parents, you and I, even when you're older and out of the house and got your own life, you and I can still honor our parents or the ones who raised us.

And check it out, Joseph, he was Jesus' stepfather.

Like he wasn't even his he wasn't his natural father.

If Jesus can submit well to his stepfather, you and I can submit to other folks that Jesus uses to help us grow up.

People like uncles, people like grandmothers, people that have shown an interest, people that, dude, they've bled a little bit for you so that you can do anything.

Those people deserve honor, and we can learn from them.

We can Jesus wants us to learn from those who are parenting us physically and spiritually.

There's stuff he wants us to learn.

And sometimes it's even weird because you'll find, like Jesus, I feel like I'm more advanced spiritually, sometimes you'll find, than even your parents are.

And that's okay.

I remember when I first began to know the Lord and and like the gifts in my life began to appear, and and Jesus was kind of pulling me toward him.

And I began to notice, oh, I like my parents are really dope and they're awesome, but I'm I feel like I'm I'm comprehending stuff about the Bible that they just never knew.

And that just has to do with my giftedness.

That's because I'm particularly smart.

But in the midst of that, I was like, well, what does that mean?

Well, what it means is, well, then you better be all the more obedient.

If you're understanding it better, if you're claiming to be more mature, then you better be all the more obedient because that's what would really show it.

So that means we flow with those authorities in tough times.

We flow with them.

And that means now, I don't know if you'll hear this on TikTok, but guys, your online influencers, most of them are morons.

Okay?

They just are.

Are you paying attention to this?

Like that, dude, there's witches and there's there's there's all kinds of like manifestation, and they're getting locked up with demons like as they talk.

So if you're going online for your wisdom, can I just encourage you, dude?

It's you can find it, it's there, but it's like finding a needle dropped in the middle of a lake.

Like, it's hard to find.

You're way better off surrounding yourself with actual relationships of people that are wise who've got some good stuff that will help you be blessed as you go.

Now, if you can get your whole feed to have nothing but really wise Christian people, do it, man.

That's awesome.

But most of the ones that are famous and they're your age and they're making a ton of money, dude, it's not because they're brilliant.

It's because they're doing something else that the world is applauding right this moment, but it may not help them long term.

Well, I said it, you can say amen if you want to, but um now, one more caveat.

It may be that you're in a situation where there's someone who's abusive in your life or someone who is they're misusing their authority.

And it's totally, it's still honoring to tell the pastor or tell the guidance counselor or tell an authority, hey, this is going on, and I'm trying to be honoring, but God is not asking you to just to submit to being hurt like that, just so you know.

Young men, let's move on.

These are men 18 to 40.

Men 18 to 40.

Hey guys, here's what we're supposed to do.

I'm not you anymore, but um, here's what y'all are supposed to do.

This is the stage about getting rid of your childish patterns and faithfully investing in yourself and in others.

You still want to grow in wisdom, you still want to grow in favor, but now you've got maybe even a bigger thing that you need to be doing.

You need to start thinking about everybody else.

Any man under 40 in the Bible, they're still a young man, if you can believe that.

And young men, here's here's the awesome thing about young men.

They're strong.

They are strong, they got a lot of strength, yo.

Now, a lot of things on earth that are strong but not necessarily good.

Okay?

Look, dude, there's strong BO.

There's strong poison, right?

There's strong headaches.

So just because it's strong doesn't mean it's necessarily doing what we want it to do.

You think about like a fire hose, that thing is strong.

But if that thing is not guided, that can hurt somebody that's whipping around.

That's gonna hurt somebody.

In this stage, men, we're most tempted to have a big sale but a small rudder.

Okay?

We want to be ahead and we want to brag about it, like, look what I got.

We want we want to have a big hat, but we don't really have a lot of cattle yet.

That's where we are in this stage.

So we just want to here's another way to say it.

You now have man-sized opportunities, but you may be in danger of having boy-sized responsibility.

And we want to get rid of that boy-sized responsibility as fast as we can.

This is the normal stage when we want to be more advanced than we are.

Many of you remember Spider-Man Homecoming.

Okay, and Peter's got this, he's got this Spidey outfit from Tony Stark.

And it can do all kinds of stuff.

There's like amazing.

But he's young and he starts to use it in ways that are getting him into trouble.

And then Tony shows up and he's he's gonna take back the suit.

And what does Peter say?

Many of you know it.

He says, I'm nothing without this suit.

And what does Tony say?

If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it.

He's saying, You're not enough Spider-Man on the inside yet.

You've got the tech, but you don't have the character.

And my friends, it's never been easier to have the tech, but not the character than it is today.

This time is about growing up.

There's this, there's this phase now that is really, we call it prolonged adolescence.

And I'm not dissing anybody for this, okay?

Just so you know, I'm a guy that likes to have fun.

Like I like, many of you have heard recently, I like to play a video game with my wife every night.

Like I like to I like to goof around, I have lots of recreation, I watch shows, like I do that to balance out my life.

But you you've got to know that in the Bible, there's boys and then there's men.

And there's no 10-year break between the two.

There's no like off time, there's no waiting room.

You're either a boy or you're a man.

Now, when you're a boy, hey man, act like a boy, you are a boy.

And then even if you are a boy that's called into leadership occasionally like Joseph, like David, God is already pulling you up.

Then it's time to start acting like a man.

Yeah, it's time to speed up that process.

Here's one of the things that young men that are wise do.

This is a trippy verse.

It's from Genesis 49, 27.

Jacob is blessingslash prophesying over his sons.

And so this is really about the nation of Benjamin, but he's he's also talking about Benjamin, and he says something super cool.

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, devouring his enemies in the morning and dividing his plunder in the evening.

He says, you know, the thing about Benjamin, he's after it early.

He's devouring his prey in the morning.

Meaning, dude, by 7:30 a.m., he's already killed and eating.

He's already after it.

And he does that all day long so that by the evening, he's like, I got stuff to share.

I got so much because I'm on it, dude.

I'm after it.

It's time.

It's time to move.

That's what he knows.

Early on.

He gets after it early, so he's got stuff to share.

And gentlemen, especially in your 20s and getting into your 30s, this is the time to progress in integrity, to progress in skill, to progress in you knowing Jesus.

Why?

So that as you keep growing, you have more and more plunder to share with people.

You have more and more of the goods to help everybody else out.

Every phase has a focus, and this particular season, it can be a school if we will embrace it.

So we discard boyhood patterns.

Listen to Paul.

Now he's talking about spiritual kind of immaturity, but it applies to everything.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child.

When I became a man, I did away with childish things.

So that means, dude, if you're 30 and you're acting 20, that's immature.

Here's a picture for you, okay?

Imagine you're at a restaurant and there's a 28-year-old, and he's looking at, you know, the kid menu, and he's got a little baby spoon, and he's spooning in, and he's taking little bite sizes of responsibility, and he's looking at his screen.

What's the problem there?

Dude, you're just too old for that.

Come on, man.

You've got stuff to do.

You should have moved on by that from that by now.

But young men, you're in danger with even just some of your peers.

Just pay attention.

Be a Bible dude, not a world dude.

Because a lot of the guys in your realm, they're like, hey man, I want someone to take care of me.

I want someone to make sure everything's gonna be okay.

I want someone to like just you know, fill my Baba with beer.

That's what I want.

I want to just take advantage of everything.

And I want someone else to pay the check.

Guys, I I respect you 100%.

I know there's men in this church that are under 30, and they're some of the most generous.

They're some of the most selfless, sacrificial-hearted dudes.

That's 100% true.

But also, avoiding responsibility is a mega dumb thing to do.

It just is.

This is the time.

This is the season.

It's time to learn how to hustle.

It's time to learn how to have a great work ethic.

It's time to learn how to deal with your baggage.

That means you bring it to Jesus and you pursue that thing, getting healed.

You just don't hold on to that.

That means, gentlemen, this is the time where you learn and demonstrate, because some of your nut job friends don't know.

You demonstrate how you treat a woman.

Let me tell you how you treat a woman, guys.

And you know this.

Men always, always, always, always protect women.

Always.

If you're getting slugged in the face by a woman, you still protect the woman.

That's if you spend your last drop of blood protecting a woman, bro, you died a better death than most of us are gonna die.

That's exact that's what you do.

Well, Cardi, you know, she get offended if I if I pay the check.

No, you pay the check anyway, dude.

You do it.

Okay?

If she gets offended, tell her to send you a refund.

By the way, uh that's a red flag, okay?

Go with a lady that wants to be treated like she's something special because she is something special.

This is the this is the season.

You're learning how to make money, you're learning how to budget.

And you don't have to be there yet, Peter.

You can be growing into the Spidey suit.

You don't have to be there yet.

This is the time, this is the 20-year time to keep on learning about it.

The work-life balance, if you're already a father, fathers, your kid only gets one father and it's you.

And other guys can help fill in the blanks a little bit, but only you can really be your kid's father.

That means you gotta be around.

That means you gotta be home.

And even if you're a divorced dad, okay, maybe you only get every other weekend.

Well, hey, bro, look, you can make that weekend count more than some of these other scrubs who they live with them every day, but they're not investing.

You can still make it more awesome than they are.

Guys, King David, he had a right heart.

He got some things wrong, but he had a right heart.

But one of the final things that he did wrong, he was told by the Lord he he's not allowed to build the Lord a temple.

Instead, his son Solomon was gonna do it.

And so David, dude, he spends years of his the end, you know, the end part of his life collecting all kinds of tools and money and plans to build this great temple to the Lord because he knows Solomon's gonna be the one to do it.

He did all that, he was at work doing that, but he didn't invest in Solomon himself, he didn't transfer his heart.

And so, because he didn't transfer his heart, even though Solomon he was wise, he was given wisdom, but Solomon ultimately fell into really, really stupid stuff.

And he didn't turn back to the Lord.

See, David would fail and he would turn back to the Lord, but he didn't impart that.

And men, we got to be around enough to impart the heart.

And dude, every phase has a focus, and this can't, this season can be a school if we'll allow it to.

How many think we should keep going?

Men, is this any good?

Ladies, you know, I could really use some more high-pitched day men's if you want to throw them out there.

Fathers, young men and then fathers, fathers, okay, these are 40 years old to 60 years old.

And guys, these are really your power years.

You're not quite as strong, but now you've got still a lot of strengths, and now you got a ton of wisdom, hopefully.

If we've been running hard after Jesus, now you're in your power years.

Now your purpose is to better others and to better other relationships and to better your family and to better the opportunities, help people get opportunities that are going to come along.

Listen to what Paul says.

First Corinthians.

Now he's talking to people these general gen generally trying to call up.

I mean, that's what he's doing as a father figure.

For even if you have 10,000 others teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father.

For I became a father in Christ Jesus when I preach the good news to you.

So I urge you, imitate me.

Guys, that's one of our objectives in this stage.

You're not gonna be perfect, but we want to be able to say, dude, I'm going hard after this.

Dudes, if you will just imitate me, just follow me around for a week, and the blessing in your life will increase.

Like that's really what you want to be.

You don't want to brag that way, but you want to you want to think that way of like, I'm I'm so living with integrity as far as I can.

That means I'm cleansing myself by repenting.

That means I'm staying in God's word.

That means I'm going to church.

But now there's, dude, there's been like a compounding snowball of integrity that's been rolling up.

And now you've got a ton of wisdom that you can share.

And bros, men, this is like the temptation is you're gonna opt out of this.

And it's a very, very bad idea.

Okay, if you go to the gym, many, many of you guys know about this.

If you go to the gym, you see somebody on the bench, and if he's gonna do a lot, there's a spotter there.

Now that spotter, he's also strong, but he's also got wisdom.

See a spotter?

He's gonna he's gonna help the guy if he needs it, and he's not gonna help much.

He's gonna like, okay, come on, come on, you got it, you got it, you got it.

But he's got the wisdom to not like interfere, too, because he wants the guy on the bench to get strong.

So he just helps just a wee baby bit.

Here, come on, come on.

It's a lot of encouragement.

You can do this, bro.

Come on, man.

You got it, you got it.

Go, that was all you guys.

That's who we we are right now.

That's the stage the 40, 60.

You're still doing your own stuff, but you're also a spotter.

You're helping other dudes get strong, and you're making spiritual children.

The apostle Paul didn't have any kids.

Isn't that trippy?

You're just a great spiritual father, and he doesn't have any kids.

That means single dads, that means dudes with no kids at all.

You're not off the hook.

God still expects you to be a spiritual father by investing in other people.

Why?

Because somebody, bro, has to teach.

There's young men right now, they don't know how to treat a woman.

They need to watch you and see how you treat a woman.

They don't know how to get a job.

They need your help in terms of how to do that.

Here's something that some of you guys, I'm telling you, man, if you want to really like do the A plus version and and be a super sacrificial pro at this, why don't you go sign up for Fierce Kids for four months?

Why don't you go do it?

Dude, first of all, look, and I'm not trying to offend any of the ladies, you know when a dude goes in, they're like, Oh, the kids pay better attention.

Like, they totally do.

They just think dudes are like the coolest thing, they respect them in a different way.

Some of them probably will call you Jesus.

And and you don't really have to do anything.

And guys, look, I ain't gonna lie, look, if you're single, I don't know if you know this, but like chicks dig a dude that's good with kids.

So I just want to challenge you.

Like, that'd be an awesome version.

If you want to do that version, what about gentlemen?

Okay, you've got you've got some experience now, you probably have some stuff.

Why don't you have some young families over?

Why don't you have them around your table?

Why don't you pray over their kids?

Why don't you feed them when they don't have a lot of money?

You remember what it was like when you didn't have a lot of money?

Well, now they don't have a lot of money, so why don't you help them?

Why don't you be the one that's going to impart something positive and valuable?

Show them how to do all this, man.

When I was first a Christian, we were in my wife and I were in college, and there was we're we're in we're in a church that they really were doing the gospel they were, but it was a church that was also kind of weird, like it looked old and weird, and I wouldn't necessarily want to invite a friend.

But they had this couple that would invite all of us college kids over to their house after church every Sunday.

Now, like dude, they were, you know, they're kind of I probably thought at the time, oh, they're kind of dorky.

They weren't like apologists, they weren't like fantastic with the Bible.

But I'll tell you what, they loved us really well.

They'd have us over and we just sit around the table and they'd feed us.

And we just ask the questions that you have when you're 19 and 20.

And they just tell us, well, here's what I think.

They weren't, they were in other words, they weren't professionals, they were just there loving us, giving us food and paying attention to us, treating us like adults when we were used to people not treating us like adults.

That was the Dare family.

Can you be a Dare family for somebody?

Dude, you don't have to don't you don't have to have much.

Why did God give you all that stuff anyway?

Why do you finally have all this stuff?

Is it just so you can be a grumpy old man and sit on your little smog pile of gold?

Or is it to invest in other people and help them get ahead?

Let's do one more.

Grandfathers, these are the 60 plus, the 60 plus crew.

Now here's the apostle John again.

Old man John.

Dear children, I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

He is Jesus Christ, the only one who is truly righteous.

Guys, we've got an advocate.

Your purpose, grandfathers, oh man, you get to help everybody fly.

You get to be there with like your only job is to come along and encourage people and encourage people and encourage people and give them little baby challenges.

That's all you need to do.

Years ago, my my youngest daughter, Amber, was learning how to ride a bike.

And so I did that thing where you like grab the back of the bike and you're trotting along and you're holding that thing up.

And so often I would just let go, and I wouldn't tell her that I was letting go and just let her let her keep on biking.

Occasionally, occasionally, I would go boop.

Like I'm just I'm just keeping her balance just a little bit, very occasionally, just to keep her up and progressing with her own momentum.

And grandfather age, folks, this is what we do.

We keep on redirecting.

That's what the apostle John was doing.

That's what Jesus did for the Apostle John after he was a young man and tried to call down fire on that Samaritan village.

We don't shame him, we don't scourge him, we don't exasperate him.

We get to be the corner man.

You know what the corner man is in the boxing ring?

It's no longer, it's not the guy who's out there getting his butt kicked.

It's the guy who's waiting in the corner.

So when he comes and sit down, you got like a couple minutes, man.

You get to encourage them, you get to wipe the blood from their eyes.

You say, You got this.

You're gonna you're gonna do it, man.

Hey, think about this when you go out there.

One little, I'm not gonna say anything else but this.

Love that girl.

Speak into those kids.

You're doing great.

Don't worry so much about getting ahead.

God will get you ahead.

Just hang on.

You got this.

I believe in you, I'm proud of you.

No matter what, Jesus loves you, and I love you.

I believe in you, guys.

Think about think about when you needed to hear this.

I believe in you, I'm proud of you.

No matter what, Jesus loves you, and I love you.

That's our job, grandfathers.

That's the stage, that's the school.

If anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

One of the purposes of the corner man is to point to the real corner man, which is Jesus Christ.

See, you're sitting there back with him, somebody comes into the corner and you say, Hey, I'm gonna help you, but also this guy, Jesus, he's the real cornerman, he's got everything that you need.

See, whatever phase you start at, the right place to start is you go to Jesus.

In every phase you're in, go back to Jesus, go back to Jesus so you can hear him say, I believe in you, and I'm proud of you, and no matter what, I love you.

Some men who are listening right now, you've never heard a man say that.

I believe in you, and I'm proud of you, and no matter what, I love you.

Doesn't matter how much you make, it doesn't make matter what you did wrong, no matter what, I love you, and Jesus loves you.

So we're gonna take communion in just a moment.

You should have had, you should have seen one of these little doohickeys when you walked in.

If you don't, if you didn't, go ahead and raise your hand and somebody will bring one around.

One of the things we do before communion is we just take a moment of reflection.

And we ask the Holy Spirit of Jesus, would you would you convict me if there's anything between us?

If there's any sin I've committed I forgot to repent for, forgot to ask forgiveness for.

We just take a moment, say just open up my mind to anything you want to remind me of.

Let's just take 15 seconds and ask him to do that real quick.

We're gonna take this together, and the first thing we're gonna do is to take the wafer bread thing that's in the smaller section.

You want to open that one first for sure?

This is what the Lord Himself said.

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

This is his body, let's take it together.

And I need you broken to make me whole.

In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant between God and you.

Sealed by the shedding of my blood.

Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.

Let's take the cup together.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for being our corner man.

For some of us, Lord, we're asking for greater eyes to see you more of the time, to remember that you're there, to draw strength from the fact that you're proud of us and you believe in us, and you'll always love us no matter what.

God, I pray for every man in every stage that they're in.

I pray that you'd resource them with a sense of what next, what to work on.

Give us all patience with the place that we're in, and help us to take the higher road.

Help us to train, help us to go through this school in this season with joy in our hearts because it's the thing you're asking us to do.

And then, Lord, make us a ridorulous blessing to the world around us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon.

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Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out.

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And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.