Thanks, Pete. All right. Well, good morning, guys. Oh, there’s the camera, right? Yeah, I can’t I can’t say enough about Pete’s leadership and his role model and his mentorship in my life and the difference it’s made with my wife and I and me being a man of God. I just can’t thank you enough. And all you guys. It’s humbling to be. It’s humbling to be standing up here. Speaking and giving a message when so many of the guys in this group are role models for me and guys I look up to and so I’m grateful. I’m honored to be able to share and there are some things on my heart that I’d like to dive into. And I got a good word of encouragement from my brother, Bill Colville, as he always encourages me before I come up here and he pulls me aside and really just gives me that heartwarming. Don’t blow it. Right here, right here. So I’ll try not to blow it. No promises. But anyway, I’ll first I want to do is share an experience I had at work and the smartphone. Okay, it seems like it’s all right. All right. All right. Yeah, I just there’s just an experience that God put on my heart reminded me of that happened a few years ago that I just think illustrates some good points. We were We were dispatched one night to the beach for reports of a man in the water. struggling, it was like 10 o’clock at night. And our rescue boat our lifeguard boat arrived first two lifeguards one dove in and went to the victim. And there was a there was a struggle in the water. So the other lifeguard announced that on the radio that they were struggling, and that’s right about when we got on scene. And the the ambulance that was with us I was on the fire engine, that one of the one of the doors of the cab flew open and that medic charged down the sand into the water jumped into the water and swam out to help the situation. And so we’re just do what we do. And we’re sprinting to we always move with a purpose. But this was a little bit more. And we all we all go splashing into the waves and the and the other lifeguard had jumped in and the three of them were working to to help the victim and bring him to the shore. we all we all got hands on him and helped him onto the gurney, he was having some kind of psychological crisis, some kind of behavioral crisis problem, and probably also on drugs. And this was a suicide attempt. And so he was fighting and struggling to breathe fighting and struggling to keep us from stopping him. And it was chaotic. Got him on the gurney, began to treat him for hypothermia and possible drug overdose. And we’re all now experiencing hypothermia, because none of us remember to bring our beach towels to this outing. We’re all in full uniform, so and it was crazy. And that that that sense of urgency that that medic had just flew stuck with me. And so talking to him later. turns out he’s a lifeguard or he was a lifeguard before he was a firefighter paramedic. And there’s something there’s something that all lifeguards know that if you’re trying to rescue someone in the water, and they’re struggling, they will drown you too. And it’s such a serious thing that lifeguards will actually push away from somebody if they’re struggling too much and panicking and flailing. Or if there’s something up to him, and they see them in that condition, they’ll keep their distance from them not to abandon the rescue or give up on the person, but because of the risk to themselves, right. And you can imagine that I thought about the discipline that that takes to be watching somebody struggling to live gasping for air clinging to anything, but have to know that you have to keep yourself back. Right? And and because they know that if they if they drown, then nobody’s getting saved. And I just thought that preaches. I just think I see that so much about how that translates into a few ways we can illustrate what goes on with us as Christians. And so I identified three ways. The first one is as we find ourselves in a world spiraling down out of control, which it is we can’t ourselves get out of control, we need to also be, we need to realize that we’re the ones who are supposed to know that God is in control who is in control, right? And we can’t fight the way the world fights and we can’t we can’t do that same thing because we need to have the wisdom to know the will will be dragged down the same way the world gets dragged down if that’s what we do, right, Romans 1212 Be patient in affliction. So that’s one way number two, sometimes even I in the middle of trying to help someone, like we often find ourselves do whether it’s a brother who’s gone away word or whether it’s somebody that’s lost that we’re trying to reach. We need to realize that the temptation to sin can be overpowering our effectiveness and we need to know When to when to pull back. And it’s and then again, it’s like the lack or not to abandon the mission or quit. But to realize that possibly the only person that they may ever know who is anchored to Christ, we have to keep ourselves safe, right and Galatians six tells us about this brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourself so that you also won’t be tempted. Something to keep in mind. And then the third way, and you guys will love this, especially you, Ron, we can’t do this Christian life alone. In the same way it take it took all of us to help that one victim it takes the body of believers caring for each other and having each other’s back to reach a lost world and to do the Lord’s work. Hashtag for him. So and we need Jesus to be the guide, we need him at the center of it also for for where two or three are gathered together in my name. I am there among them. Matthew 1820. And so that just that just leads me to these essentials, I wanted to bring up just kind of what I see as the essentials of a good Christian walk, at least what I’ve learned is a man of God, sort of a barometer, these four things where you can, we can all look at where we’re at with these four things, any given day, any given week, any given month, and and how healthy of a amount we have this we have in our life. And it’s simple. It’s just not always easy, but the Bible prayer, Holy Spirit and fellowship. How are we doing with that, take away any one of them and you’re at 75% take away two of them here at 50%. If you want to give yourself a if we want to give ourselves a grade of where we’re doing and I know personally, how well I’m navigating life and how well my character is holding together out there in the world. How well I’m doing with all that parallels, how much I’m spending time in God’s Word in prayer, whether I’m looking for the Holy Spirit, whether I’m tuned into him, and whether I’m around other guys who know the Lord, less of those things. The worldly fill more of those things, and I’m walking in the Spirit and Jesus is is who’s seen most when, when I’m seeing if that makes sense. We as men of God, we have to be, we have to have Jesus as Lord of our life like this ministry teaches, we need to have the Bible as our as our final authority. We really need to have the Bible be our compass for our direction, and and where we go to to navigate this life. We’ve got to be praying, we’ve got to be in prayer. We got to be in prayer all the time. The Bible says Pray without ceasing. Pray constantly. So I like it when preachers are the best illustration I’ve heard said is think of prayer, like a like background music to your life. That’s always kind of playing. Your heart is always speaking to God’s heart, your spirit to God’s Spirit, your mind to God’s mind, you’re in tune you’re, you’re wondering more than anything, whether you’re where God wants you to be. And and everything that you face, you want to know what God wants you to do. And if and that’s you’re just we’re how we’re positioned and how we’re postured silently to the world inside, inner dialogue with him. And so that when you’re actually praying out loud, or somebody can hear you that’s just turning the volume up on your heart on what’s already just been kind of always playing. I’ve just always loved thinking of it that way. Our number one prayer, what we should be praying most for is that everybody would get closer to Jesus. Everyone will be closer to Jesus. That’s the overarching prayer that we’re just trying to get a world to Jesus, he’s the only way to everlasting life. He’s the only way to God. And he’s the he he’s getting closer to Jesus is where the solution to every problem lies. His guidance will help us navigate through whatever this world brings us. And so all these things mentioning the Holy Spirit, you know, the Holy Spirit is active everywhere. He’s on the move. He’s nudging us, he’s opening doors for us. He’s guiding us. He’s correcting us. He’s always available. He doesn’t shout, but he’s always around. And so a healthy life in God’s word and a healthy prayer life. Just give him more access to you. And that’s what fellowship does to fellowship with other believers, why we want to be around like minded men on the same path that we are, we can be at different points in the journey, but we’re on the same path towards Jesus. It just gives him more access to us to have his way with us. And so that’s, that’s what I’ve learned. I learned years ago, it’s not something I came up with, but those four things are what I use to kind of measure and like I said, they always parallel how well I’m doing, how I’m talking to my wife, how I’m dealing with the things that work. If I’m if I find myself in that pinch point, and when I get down and I finally pray. It’s like almost immediately like, well, what is this last week? of my life included, has included a healthy regimen of these things. Am I really paying attention to the Lord? And, and that’s what I’ve learned. So moving right along. The next thing I wanted to do was just have us wrestle with a question. And and a point and and we’ve kind of we’ve talked a lot about it in prayer this morning. We’re always talking about it, but just how the world looks right now and where we stand with it all. And the question that I have for us to wrestle with is, do we truly believe what we say we believe, and know what we say we know, in regards to the Lord? Because if we do, then we have, we’d have that competence in the Lord, regardless of what it looks like out there. And I know that right now. Absolutely. These are unprecedented times and my heartbreaks frequently. I mean, it’s, it’s crazy out there. There’s all these conspiracy theories about who’s pulling strings, and what groups are getting together and what people are doing all this big, overarching, diabolical story that’s going on out there. But we’ve got the spoiler alert, the devil is behind it all. Amen. And his forces and his spiritual authority that he has is behind it all. He, the devil’s forces influences the actions of men. And we have to be reminded, and I have to be reminded constantly, our war is not against people. Right? We have to remember that. And there is and there’s, there’s temptation all around to get angry and get worrisome and lose hope and, and nobody’s gonna get any judgment out of me, because I’ve had a heck of a last just the last 12 months, like we talked about. And like, when I was here in August, I told you a lot about I mean, it, it gets hard to keep that compassion for people for sure. But, but we have to, we have to keep trying, you know, the dynamics of our society are changing rapidly. And we and that’s, that is what it is. And things seem to be falling out of place, everywhere. But as things are falling out of place in the world, they’re falling into place biblically. Right? And we know that Jesus told us about all these things and called them birth pains to the End Times. He said, this is this is not a surprise, he gave it to us in the playbook. But it but it is it is very real. It’s a lot to bear. And, and if you try to bear it alone, it’s impossible to stay positive. And that’s what I found. And that’s why we’re so up in arms about having to wear masks all the time or not being able to eat at restaurants were up in arms about our election results were up in arms about the civil unrest and all those things. Like I said, genuinely challenge me and break my heart the same way they do everybody’s but but is the is God still the God that we believe in? Still is right and another spoiler alert. Godwin’s? Godwin’s. Okay. So that’s how we should be living. And I just, I just wonder, and I wonder what the world sees when they look at the body of believers right now. Again, not to shake my finger at anything anybody’s doing specifically, but do they see the love? Do they see love? First, I just I just want us to consider love, first and foremost in our actions and our words and what we do with our community. People, every one of us are known as somebody who believes in Jesus. So do they do those people know that we love them? Do they know that God loves them? Because we want people to know what we know about God, and about Jesus, and about life and death and the path they’re on. We want desperately to that we’re trying. We’re trying to join Jesus in saving the world. Right. And the thing about getting people to know what we know, is another phrase that I love, which is no one cares what you know, until they know that you care. So what message are we sending out there? Right? Are we? Are we being too harsh? Are we being too hypocritical? These are the questions that we have to ask. Pete’s been talking to us a lot lately about just the fact that Jesus refers to us as a holy priesthood. So here’s First Peter, chapter two verses one through five therefore rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by people but chosen and honored by God. You yourselves as living stones, a spiritual house are being built to be a holy priesthood. And that’s it. That is an honor. That is a privilege that should that that should humble all of us and give us inspiration and motivation to First Thessalonians chapter five verses 14 through 18. warn those who are idle, comfort, the discouraged help the weak Be patient with everyone. See to it that no one ever pays evil for evil to anyone. But always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always pray constantly give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. In Jesus, I wanted to finish up here and I and I, we hit up a little bit of time, so I’ll have to fit it in. But Matthew chapter four, at the end of this last year, I was, I was looking for a Bible study. And that was kind of between Bible study, I decided I wanted to finish out the year by reading the Gospels, which is always a good choice to go back through it. I won’t tell you how far I got, because that’s not important. But part of the reason I didn’t finish is because I got stopped and was just meditating and taking notes on Matthew chapter four. I loved it. Matthew, chapter four chapter I’ve read plenty of times, is where right after Jesus gets baptized, Matthew chapter four picks up with the temptation in the wilderness. And then he starts his ministry, but you know what he does, before he starts his ministry. He starts the very first for m group. So you see Jesus tempted in the wilderness, fasting for 40 days, 40 nights suffering through that, then the temperature comes in the devil takes him for a ride and puts them through all that. Jesus handles it like a champion that he is, gives us some beautiful gems like man must not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, and that we should worship the Lord and serve him only. Mike drop. And then he says, devil Get out of here and the devil leaves him God sends His angels to minister to him. He picks himself up, and he heads to California, and he begins his ministry. And then we pick up in chapter in verse 18, where he’s walking along the Sea of Galilee, and he sees Peter and Andrew, and they’re fishing. And he says, follow me. And I will make you fishers for people. And immediately, they left their nets and followed him. Then he’s walking a little bit more, he sees James and john. And he tells them to follow him. And immediately they follow Him and leave their leave their nets leave their dad, and it’s on some power there. Verse 23, we read. Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. When the news about him spread. So they they brought to him all of those who were afflicted, those who are suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon possessed the epileptic, the paralytics. And he healed them large crowds reforming and it was on. And the first thing he did was say, hey, you for dudes, get tight. Follow me, and let’s go change the world. And so I just see us here in this coming out of our 2020 wilderness coming out of our election wilderness, our lockdown wilderness and some in some ways, we’re still finishing going through that wilderness, that’s time of suffering. And we just need to be reminded that Jesus is still very much on the move. And he is looking at each one of us right where we’re at and saying, grab a couple guys. Get tight, follow me, and let’s go change the world. And we can’t we’re beating that up a lot. Because we really, I believe in, it’s something God is doing. And it’s obvious in this ministry of getting guys together, and making them tight. And there’s something intimate about the about the number four, those three of those guys that he just picked up, Peter, James, and john became Jesus’s tightest disciples, do your research, look into the different places where, where those three were. And the other disciples weren’t how many times Jesus took his three and made this for him, that core four. So it’s important. And another point I just wanted to make as we close here, going back to the life guard situation, and that whole story, and I think about the way that medic charged, he knew his brother was in trouble, and he charged, no hesitation to be that kind of brother. And I know that that’s the kind of brothers we’re going to have in these four groups. Because these four m groups, these guys are going to be getting closer to Jesus. And I know that’s what he’ll do through them. Something something’s trying to drag you down, or you’re getting too close to something that’s going to pull you under your brothers are going to be coming after you and any of us who have had brothers that are that tight know that that that’s true. And vice versa. We’ll be looking out for each other that same way. So don’t be that one guy. Try not out there trying to save the drowning world by himself. I’ve made that mistake I’ve been in that period of time. Definitely don’t be in the world drowning along with the world. I’ve also been there too. But be somebody who listens to God and knows that the that the fellowship that he’s calling you to it’s the same as he did with the original All disciples as it is right now. It’s the same calling. He’s still moving. He’s still working, it’s still the same Jesus the same God, it’s alright. may not look all right, but we should have that confidence in God that others can glean off of and see. And so when I say, know what you say, you know, I’ll leave with this first Corinthians 1558. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know, that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. And without us closing prayer. Father, God, thank you, thank you for this time in this place, and these brothers, this brotherhood, I know their sisters watching too. And thank you for them to Lord. But this men’s ministry is calling men forward, to unite together to get strong and you and I know it doesn’t stop there. I know you’re going to change the world through these men and these groups. And so I just pray behind that, Lord, I just push into that, that you would go with them, that your Holy Spirit would lead and that everyone would have a group of four following Jesus. And I just thank you God, that we have the opportunity to still hear each other this way. And it’s in Jesus name that I thank you, Lord, Amen. Give him heaven. Now, what
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