Pete McKenzie 0:11
I guess you know if we didn’t have such good speakers speaking today we’d go home. But that ain’t me. We have the privilege of having feel him on here feel is come on up here feel you guys know feel a lot of you fight feels a firefighter in Long Beach.
I’ve been to Israel will feel I’ve seen him in action. He had tough duty during the whole lockdown and so many people are getting COVID. And he had a few people with his ambulances. He was driving around for the fire department just die right in his arms. He said COVID himself, recovered, quarantine. He’s got a beautiful wife and two daughters, Phil and I’ve been buddies for a lot of years, I had a chance to see him in action in Israel. Garin back there and myself and about 10 or 12 other people went to Israel a couple of years ago. And I got to see what I think was one of the finest young leaders that I’ve ever seen. Take charge of that trip and take care of his people and take us around Israel and not just see things but do things in serving law, the Israeli people. So Phil is going to speak to us today I asked him to speak because he’s given a couple of messages on spiritual leadership in our continent, our retreat next weekend. And so I asked him, if he’d give us a taste some you guys aren’t going to be able to make that retreat. And so I asked feel if he’d give us a taste of what we have to look forward to out there. So give him a big hand as it comes through.
Phil Hanlen 1:56
Man, that’s a humbling intro. Thanks, Pete. You like my sweatshirt? Does everybody know about this, this show the chosen. Alright, I’m wearing it. It’s a little warm in here. But I’m wearing it to specifically plug this show. If you haven’t looked it up, you guys need to be watching this, we all do and then paying it forward. But more on that later, more than another time. I’m excited to be here in front of you guys, again, I love you guys, this place has been such an important place for me. And you guys have all been such important influences for me the last 11 years or so. And just to be up here is it’s confusing to me. And it’s humbling, that I would be able to even be up here talking to you guys. So it’s a privilege, I hope we can hear something from the Lord together today. So let’s have a prayer. And I’ll start talking. Lord, thank you for this time in this place, and these men, thank you for your word. Thank you for your spirit. Thank you for making yourself available to us all the time. It’s so confusing to me that you would be the God of all the universe that we can’t even fathom how big and how vast and how great you are that, that you created all things and you can do whatever you want, you can do, you can choose to run this whole show however you want and you choose to make it that we would actually be able to have a relationship with you and be able to hear from you and have your help and have your guidance in our life and, and give us peace that surpasses understanding and it just doesn’t make sense. And and I just am so grateful for the Lord. And I know all of my brothers here are as well. So Lord, we just, we praise you, we thank you for that we thank you for for everything that you give us. And we just ask that the you would once again just be in this place that we would we would hear from you. And that that each man in this place would would have something touch his heart from you specifically Lord. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen. There’s one slide we’re gonna show real quick, just so I don’t sabotage you at the end. We had the first through his eyes Thursday, last Thursday for those of you that remember this, and it was awesome. And we are the train has left the station. And this is going to be a really cool thing and influencers initiative, where we get kind of start to work on getting the next generation of guys into this ministry, and then gleaning off of Pete and the teaching that we all have gotten to for years. So I’m going to talk about that at the end. But I felt like it would be a sabotage if I didn’t at least show you the slide real quick. So that at the end, it’s not like this big build up for me to just then plug this new ministry so it’s coming at the end. So you can take the slide off for now. But anyway, more on that a little bit. The message I have for you today. It comes at a special time for me. I just turned 40 on Wednesday, and thank you and I just was thinking it’s just like it’s amazing. 20 years ago I was lost and a total mess. And now I’m found in a total mess. So small difference and big difference, but
4320 I’m hearing that yeah, it doesn’t feel like my brother Guerin. Here, he and I moved about 3000 bricks into my backyard. And I don’t feel I feel 40 now, but muscles that I didn’t know I had or are sore, just wait, yeah. But I’m blessed. And not only is it 20 years ago, you know that it’s been another 20 years. I’m 40 now, but it’s my it’s my spiritual birthday, because this this year is 20 years since I was born again, coming up in the fall here. And that’s the real birthday, right. And I just, it’s amazing to think back I mice, my spiritual journey started at Ground Zero in New York. And right after September 11, that whole story like most of us, captivated me. And it really just before I knew the Lord, it just, it just drew me to want to go and help and do something. So I ended up doing a crazy thing and going over there to help. And when I got there, that’s a long story very short of how that all happened, how I actually ended up there. But when I got there, before I even saw the pile across the street, you know, I’m in the middle of New York, and just like, wow, the Holy Spirit just showed up. And, and all of a sudden, I’m in his presence, like, I’d never been in my life. And he just was there waiting for me this patient, loving Father, right, the Holy Spirit is waiting for me. And that’s, that’s 20 years of not a fun 20 years prior to that. That led to a very different me at that time. And all of a sudden, he’s just waiting for me. And it just crushes me and I’m sitting there. And I’m just like crying. I mean, like all kinds of fluids are just like falling out of my face onto the sidewalk. And he’s just doing work. And all those last 20 years are just getting dealt with. Right, just just a cleansing, completely spiritual experience. And I probably could have just stayed there and cried like that for hours. But he had purpose for me, right. And so he gave me this vision of a lion that I wish I could show you guys, but the best way I could describe it was like, like, if you could imagine suddenly being in the presence of a lion, that kind of like, there’s a lion right there, he just stepped into view. It wasn’t a mean, Lion gonna attack but just look eye contact, and it snapped me out of it. And it was like I was new. And I had this mission to go and help Ground Zero. A couple days later, another spiritual experience, where he called me to be a firefighter, which was hilarious. Like, when I went back to tell the buddies that I had at the time a man I’m gonna go be a firefighter, they laughter like you’re gonna be a firefighter. You in a uniform and a badge, like, come on, man. Five years later, I’m a firefighter, you know, and just following him through those things, and it hasn’t been like, he has like, you guys know, it’s not like suddenly I was floating around on a cloud and no more sin in my life is perfect. Like, please come on. I mean, it’s been like I said, I’ve The only difference now is I’m found still a mess. But I’ve got a, I’ve been with my department now for 15 years. I’m a firefighter paramedic in Long Beach. My wife and I’ve been married for 17 years. And we have a an amazing story of God’s presence in our marriage. The amount of ministry things that like God’s done through my life or that I’ve led or been a part of, it’s it’s crazy. I’m an elder at my church. We have a ministry ambassadors and embassies, where we go on the serving tours to Israel, I facilitated seven tours to Israel. I’m not gonna sit here and go down the list. But I mean, it’s when you when you look back, you know, starting back from like, just greeting outside church, you know, volunteering to be a greeter all the way through this, like, just in like, I’m looking at me, and I’m going like, there’s no way this is it. What I love most about it is that it shows God and shows off God. And it makes me feel vulnerable to talk about my life and sit in front of people because it’s like, to really see how awesome God’s been in my life, you’re gonna see what a knucklehead I am. But I got to do it. I got to continue to just tell the story of how glorious God is and how much his presence and His Holy Spirit is alive and well and real and available for all of us and he’s leading and every time I humble myself, I repent. I come back with all the broken pieces from my life and bring him to dad again and say I broke it again, Dad, you know,
he’s there to bless it again. He’s there to pick us up. And so as we talk about as we get to the point of talking about spiritual leadership, it’s it’s first most important to really focus on how to hear the Holy Spirit and how to look for his activity in our in our everyday life because he’s the same spirit that’s all throughout Scripture is alive and well today and all around us and in our hearts and with us and everything. But he doesn’t shout he doesn’t come and grab you by the collar and throw you into what you need to be doing. He He asked that you would Seek right? Jesus stands at the door. And if you’ll knock, he’ll come in. And so I’ve learned a way to understand his spiritual voice is the best way I can describe it. I use illustration of the day with Bill Molly’s bill, again, if I if bill is walking in a direction, and I can see that the actual direction that he should be going is this way, I’ll come to bill and use, I can’t just communicate directly to him, I have to use my words to tell him, Hey, Bill, this is actually the way you should go right over here. And if you go this way, you’re gonna end up in the right place, and then Hill Hill. Now, that’s not something he thought of somebody told him that, but now he has that he now knows the direction he should go. God skips that whole talking part. He’s spirit to spirit, he’ll put that on your heart. And so the times that I’ve encountered him is, is when I know it’s him putting something on my heart that just is in early on it. It’s a seeking, it’s like, Lord is that is that you, but now, I’m telling you, after enough reps, you just begin to interact with the Holy Spirit. And you know, when he’s guiding you, you know, when he’s, you’re, you’re where you’re supposed to be, you’re in that sweet spot. That’s been my experience, but, but that spiritual voice of something that he puts on your heart and redirects you, if you’re seeking him again, right, if you’re looking for if that’s your goal in life, is to know what he wants, he’ll help you reach that goal. He’ll be there to talk to you, he’ll be there to guide you. It’s a very, it’s a very normal part of Christianity, right? It’s not this weird, like spooky ghost like it. We’re talking about the Holy Spirit present in everyday life. And we need to take the weirdness out of it in a lot of ways, especially when you’re talking to young guys like me or younger, really introduced into the spirit. I mean, God’s gonna be the one that guides that. But when Jesus told us, the Holy Spirit was gonna come, he started out by saying, It’s to your advantage that I go away, which would have blown your mind, right? You’re the greatest person ever. You’re the greatest thing to happen to any one of our lives, why would it be good that you’re going to go away? And he says, because if I go, I will send the Holy Spirit, its Holy Spirit’s a big deal. Right? Because then he will be there everywhere. Right? He will guide you into all the truth, I’m in john 16, He will guide you into all the truth. He’s a big deal, we need to pay attention to him more than anything. Right, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you acts one, eight. And earlier in john six, you remember there’s when Jesus says nobody comes to the Father, nobody, nobody’s going to be saved unless the spirit calls him right. This is all pre planned. And we can’t figure that out. We could read every word in that Bible, we can know every word cover to cover, we could go to theology college and get all kinds of degrees extra name, which confuses me, I can’t even understand a lot of the words those guys use when they have those doctrines and whatever I’m like, simple small words, please. We can be you could be on any level like that. But absent of actually having the Holy Spirit leading you, you might be just next to useless in this whole commission of reaching the world. Right, just slightly below me, it’s great that God’s word is amazing. And if you know it all, and you’re speaking it, God’s probably gonna move in that space as you speak it but if you’re not in the spirit, if you’re not looking for him, and being a spiritual man of God, and you’re just kind of navigating it your own way. Like I have many times like I’m sure we can all say we’ve been in that place. We’re missing it. So we’ve got to get in touch with the Holy Spirit to become spiritual leaders, right? Paul gives us the advice do not walk according to the flesh. That’s us. That’s our, our understanding of the world around us. The physical world, that’s the the spiritual, that are the neurological pathways that we’ve created, the way that we see things because of choices we’ve made, how we do our thing, our personality, our emotions, all that stuff that’s from us here. We need to surrender all that. And that’s and then we walk in the Spirit, we surrender all that to God and ask him to be the best version of us. Do not walk according to the flesh, but walk according to the Holy Spirit. I’m in Romans eight for this. Set your minds on things of the Spirit, the mind to set the mind on things of the Spirit is life and peace.
And it’s tough. It’s not easy. And we need peace right now. And we need men of God, we need Christians to have that peace about them in these crazy times. I’m telling you, and as we look at the next generation, these guys are facing a world that’s more convoluted and more chaotic in so many ways, especially spiritually and personally than we’ve ever seen. And so we’ve got to really trust the spirit and just begin to be men that move in the spirit. It actually says in verse seven and eight, you could read that it says if you’re not if you’re not in the spirit, you’re actually you’re actually considered hostile to God. Like you’re doing your thing as a Christian man of God and and putting your badges on your chest because you know so much, but you’re outside moving in the spirit where he actually He wants you to be one of the words one of the translations as you can be, you’re being hostile to God that you’re avoiding the actual Holy Spirit. So that’s my best way to describe that I can in the amount of time I have, finding the Holy Spirit, following him how important it is, and just, but I do know that whatever it means to you, whatever you heard, and what I said, I just know that if you truly are desiring the Holy Spirit, He will find you he will be there for you. And if that’s the position of your heart, not that you want this president to be elected, that you want this policy to be driven, that you want this to happen at your job, that you want your wife to do this, if you’re if the number at the biggest position of your heart is him, and you want more of him, and you want to just want to know, God, am I am I where you want me to be? Is this, am I seeing this the way I should see it, I just want to know that, if that’s your desire, I know God, I trust and I know he will meet you there. And so but that’s my version of it. That’s how I would describe all that. Which brings us to spiritual leadership, the spiritual leadership, we can need to look no further than Jesus Himself. Jesus was the ultimate example of a man of God, of a leader to follow. And so in looking at this, this model of spiritual leadership and spiritual leadership is in your, your family, it’s in your job, it’s in your ministry that you’re doing whatever, whatever it is, it’s the man that you are day in, day out every choice you make, that’s, that’s where spiritual leadership is applied. And so the four points that I’m talking about today, which we could go on and on about Jesus, and we will go on and on about him forever. He was a servant leader, he led by by serving, he was humble and lowly. He knows he drove home the importance of knowing God’s word. And he was always praying, servant leader, humble, knowing God’s word and praying servant leader, in regard to servant leader, Matthew 20. You know that the rule is as Jesus talking, you know, that the rulers of the world, lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many servant leadership is sacrifice. And it’s going to sting sometimes. And it’s not it’s not necessarily fun. And that’s not what it’s about. And so I think when I’m in those times that I’m serving, or I’m, I’m trying to be that and it’s hard. My question is not Lord make this easier. My question is, again, Lord, is this. Is this where you want me to be? Is this what am I did like, I get off course here. And now this is hard. And I’m having a hard time because it’s something I’m off course from you. If so correct me. But if this if I am where you want me to be, that’s the only question on my heart. And if I am then embrace the embrace the hard part, right and go through it. Because you know, God’s doing something. God’s doing something when it’s hard, God’s doing something when it’s confusing, and when we’re serving, and we’re putting others above ourselves. And we’re taking the hard road and we’re doing the hard job, and we’re lifting others up around us. It’s It’s not easy. It’s hard. And a lot of the time you didn’t like the guy that you’re serving, you know, I can like this guy, why am I doing this?
Right? But that doesn’t matter. Like this. That’s how I see this guy is not how God sees him. Nine times out of 10, God sees each one of us completely different. I don’t have the patience to be God. You can all be very thick. Thank God for some today, thank be thankful that I’m not God, because I could not handle it. And I you know what I mean, nor could nor would I be patient with me the way he has with me, or love me the way he’s loved me. I look at that. And I’m just I’m humbled by His grace. So we see him and we and we continue to be a servant leader. We’re not looking to get everybody in a row and lead him and tell him what we wanted to do. We want to lead by example, we want to be, we want to be able to go the extra mile, right? We want to give people the shirt off our back. Let them know that that there’s really nothing we won’t do to show them God’s love, like I mean, they need to see that sacrificial counter narrative to the rest of the world leaders. It’s got to be different servant leadership. Jesus said, Come to me, humble and lowly Jesus said to come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me because I am lowly and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. When we’re looking for Jesus. We’re trying to wonder if this if we’re in his presence, if you want a clue. He is humble and lowly and he find rest. It’s like fresh water for your soul. There’s a piece that doesn’t make sense when bombs are going off, all around you. There’s a piece Right I love Pete describes it as a bubble, right when you’re in that Holy Spirit bubble where you know that the enemy is working through people to try to knock you off your saddle and take you off your course. But it’s not working, and Jesus and you’re just in that bubble protected by that you could see the attack. So you can see that things are, are dicey out there. But you’re you’re safe, you’re moving through because you’re in that place that God has you. You’re the bubble that you’re that the Holy Spirit puts you in. And if you’re wondering if you’re in the right bubble, just no God, no, Jesus’s character is not going to shout at you. If you feel that pressure and just driving you like Hold on a second. Let’s pray, Lord, ministered to me right now. I’m feeling a completely different feeling than I know you to be because he’s humble and lowly and He will guide you gently. And we will get to where we need to go. Knowing God’s word I think that’s, that’s obvious, right? But even even from when Jesus first got tempted by the devil, he he made it clear, right? Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, know God’s word. I counted like 20 to 30 scriptures, capturing moments where Jesus quoted God’s Word in correcting religious leaders and doing his ministry like he’s pointing to the Word of God and how important it is. You think about even when he was a child, that time when he got lost?
Parents of the year, right when they get like three days on their journey away from Jerusalem, they’re like, where’s where’s Jesus? Where’s the Savior of the world that we are raising? Does anybody know where their kid is? You know, I love that story. And they go back and they find him what he’s schooling. All the religious leaders in Jerusalem they’re gathered around Bible says they’re marveled at his teaching and his answers God’s word, we have to know it. And then I always intend we’re talking about commandments, God’s word. Always just ring that bell one more time, the two greatest commandments. Love God with everything you can possibly muster in your life, all your heart, strength, soul mind. And number two is Love your neighbor, as you love yourself, we I don’t my house take that very seriously. And our community, the people that live around us are the most important people in our life. And they know it. They know that and I think that’s important. So who’s your neighbor? Who’s your neighbor in your neighborhood? Who’s your neighbor in the county? Who’s your neighbor? And who are we neighboring neighbors, that something should ring about that Jesus said, that is the number two out of like, 600 he said, in doing that, you encompass the entire commandment, all of God’s commands doing that. So pretty important. But God’s word, know God’s word servant leader, be humble. know God’s word and pray always. Prayer for me. touched on the way I see the Holy Spirit’s voice in that leading spirit to spirit communication. Another cool tool that I picked up along the way something to remember as far as prayer goes, prayer, I love it. When it’s described this way prayer, think of prayer, like, like background music to your life. Like it’s something that’s always going that dialogue. It’s not it’s not only when you stop and pray, when you stop and pray. That’s just turning the volume up on what should be always going on. Pray without ceasing is what it says in Scripture, right? Pray without ceasing means like you’re, it’s that position of your heart. Your prayer is going on all the time constantly loaded, my where you want me to be, is that how do you want me to handle this situation? Am I handling this situation? Lord, forgive me for that what I just said, Lord, forgive me for what I just did. It’s caught, you’re constantly your heart, every every available moment of attention should be when you wake up to when you go to bed and all throughout your day, your neutral position should be communicating with the Holy Spirit. That’s your neutral position, your default position should be a dialogue with the Holy Spirit. And then when we pray, that’s just that’s just saying it out loud. It’s just turning the volume up. Background music to your life. I love that. I didn’t come up with that. But I stole it. Do not babble. That’s another good one, the Lord’s Prayer, right? Jesus retreated to pray alone all the time. Why would he do that? I mean, if nothing else, to show us that we should do that. Everything Jesus did is a good example of something we should do. As a man of God, and Jesus, countless times went and retreated to a place of solitude as he often did, to pray. So I’m thinking that’s something we need to do. Like on a regular basis if we’re missing if we’re not if there’s not at least one part of your day where you are just talking to the Father privately by yourself. You’re missing and a major part of your day. And the more days in a row you go without actually having that like deliberate just quiet moment with the Lord. Man you’re falling behind in what could be available to you right? Not in like a you’re feeling like you’re not doing something, you know, bad you. But like the opportunity that Jesus is, the God of all the universe is saying, I’m right here. I’m right here. And I want to be a part of what you’re doing. And I want you to, I want you to hear from me. Let’s talk. So at least once a day, quiet time with him. And I’ll tell you what, like So many of you guys, this world is frustrating. Frustrating right now, right? Smith, our mission is to make disciples of all nations and the Great Commission is to bring the gospel to the world. And we’re like, I don’t want to, I don’t want to co bring it to them. Right like them, man. Right? And that’s us, that’s our flesh. That’s our flesh to sit there and say, I got across what it perceives to be enemy lines. And instead of drawing lines and saying, we’re gonna be over here, you guys are gonna be over there until Jesus comes back. We got it, we got to build bridges, we got to continue to find ways to go into communities like the LGBT community, whoa, easy. I know, buzzwords, triggers. And we get their hand on their sword as I need to talk about certain subjects, right? social justice, I hold on, don’t throw anything. People are all over the place. And the enemy is just like a puppeteer just all over. And we’re sitting here because we’re so frustrated, because we it comes from a good place because we know the Lord. It comes from a good place. But we get to the point where we’re just like, offended on behalf of God like these people. But we got we got to start over, man, we got to, I’m putting my arm around you guys, when I say that, like I know, man. I know. It’s frustrating. But that’s that’s where prayer comes in, where the Holy Spirit is the only one that’s going to take us from where we are with all this truth.
And add grace to it and have the perfect balance of truth and grace as we go into the world and be in the world but not have it and continue to love the last who. It’s scary, man. It’s it’s hard out there. But we’ve got to remember that and so so we go to prayer, fervently. We’re praying constantly, we have those intimate times of prayer, so that we can reset and see the world through God’s eyes. That’s all we were all we should all want to do. And that gets us back on point with the mission. Right, which is in the same way, Jesus came, reached a bunch of disciples, send them out into the world. And it’s been a chain reaction of person to person to person, ministry, to ministry to ministry, passing the baton all the way till it reached my hand, till I got the good news of Jesus Christ, the one and only way to God, it’s cut. That’s how God wants it to be done. That’s how he’s doing. He’s moving through us. So we’ve got to get back on our horse. And I know me, I can’t do that by myself. I know that it’s the Holy Spirit. I know. It’s through prayer. And I know it’s him, correcting me, and putting me in the right place that I need to be. I have a quote. And this is before we leave off talking about through his eyes. Have you guys all read the book principles of spiritual leadership? Have you heard of that book? Jay, Oswald Sanders principles of spiritual leadership must say it one more time. Principles of spiritual leadership, Jay Oswald Sanders, extraordinary book. It’s right it’s, I did a little paraphrase of chapter 10. And this is kind of what I’ve been trying to say all along. I probably could have just read this and saved you guys the last like 20 minutes. But check this out. Regarding spiritual leadership. spiritual leadership has many essential qualities but requires spirit filled people. A guy can have a brilliant mind and possess all kinds of skill. But without spirituality, he can’t truly provide spiritual leadership. selection of leaders for the kingdom has nothing to do with worldly values like wealth or status. It is primarily spirituality. Holy Spirit does not take control of anyone against their will either. To be filled with the Spirit means simply that as a Christian, I voluntarily surrender my life and my will to the spirit. When I do that, my personality and my mind are taken over by the Spirit, my mind my will, my emotions, and even my physical strength all become available for the Spirit to guide. Amen. To drive that point home. Thank you, Warren. Yes. That was awesome. I lost my point. physical strength Yes, under the Spirit’s control, natural gifts of leadership are lifted to their highest power and sanctified for holy purpose. The filling of the spirit is essential for spiritual leadership. Our task is to remain yielded to him. So lead the next generation of men. Feeling the anger at the state of the world is not enough. commiserating with each other. On the state of the world is not enough. You will not feel better by only doing these things. Be the spiritual leader to the next generation who are inheriting a world far more confusing and convoluted than yours. And Jesus says go make disciples. So spiritual leadership is the point of this conversation. always leads to discipleship, which then leads to the ministry I want to mention. So if you guys could put that up on the screen real quick, Glen, that’d be great. So, as we close here, this is a new influencers OC initiative. Okay. We’ve been praying for a number of years. And talking about the next generation of guys, it’s out there, right? Because I’m the young guy in the group. The it’s been like that for a while. There’s a few more young guys around here, my brother right here. I see we’re close in age, right? Yeah. I brought my friend My brother Garin here for my forehand group. So we got a couple more in the room now. So that’s good three. You see my point, though. I have sat and been taught by P and been discipled by P for years. And he sits up here and he is one of the best Bible teachers one of the best, if not the best, Pastor to men that I’ve encountered. And I’ve seen, right, amen. Right. Amen. For 100%. It’s been a privilege and a blessing. And it happens right here, right? Friday mornings, where no millennials will ever dare to go.
We’re not going to it’s too early, you know. So it really just got to put a vision on my heart for this ministry A few years ago, and it sat dormant every time I prayed about it, it just didn’t wouldn’t call it forward. It was just this cool idea. I’m like, I wonder what that’s all about a couple months ago, like a bomb, it just ignite just went off. And it was on and I brought it to bill and P we started talking about it and in. So the trains left the station guys. And this is where we’re going to, we’re going to dive into the issues that are confusing and convoluted. And we’re going to look at everything from a biblical perspective and see the world through God’s eyes. And it will be worth he was here last week, and we’re working on a new look, it might change locations every time but it is the same day each month, third Thursday of every month, so it’s easy to remember, the acronym is through his eyes Thursdays, but when you look at it, it also says the cross. So that’s going to go to the next slide. So the cross come to the cross is the way we’re pitching it. And I’m not looking for you guys to necessarily all show up on Thursday night. I know you guys have stuff going on. And we’re actually trying to build up the younger generation, right? So we want to get the younger guys to these events. But where you guys fit in? Is discipleship. Go to the next slide for me, brother. Yeah, we could skip that one, too. I already covered that. Next one. And got all that Yeah, one more. I think we’re right here. Closer looks. Okay, here’s, here’s the mechanism. Got younger guys, we get them to these Thursday night events, we’re gonna have good worship, a good message. We’re going to be authentic and raw, we’re going to talk about things that a lot of times I think churches on the weekends are probably afraid to talk about. But we’re going to be bold, and we’re going to be Spirit led, we got a core team of guys that is going to look at the message, pray about it, be sure about it, look at it again. And when it’s ready, that’s what we’re gonna have on that night. And you know, it’s gonna cause some questions, it’s gonna, it might just make people hopefully just make some thrilled and excited to just be on fire for Christ again, because we’re gonna bring everything to the cross, we’re gonna bring everything back to the gospel and present the gospel, these Thursday night events are going to be awesome. But after it’s after they’re they’re done. What we want to do next is start to connect younger guys with more seasoned Christian men. And that’s beginning to do discipleship. So I want to make it easy for you guys to get this thing started. Go to the next slide for me. We’re looking for like two time slots a month, what are those? anytime you want, anytime you have you look at your calendar, you look at your week, and you’re like, even if you’re the busiest guy, we all have 168 hours in a week. Okay, if you could have one of them. And it can be at any time, I use the example of like, let’s say the only time you see yourself having time is 10pm on a Friday night or 8pm on a Friday night, like literally, that’s a finished dinner, I you know, I could I could I could I could sit I could sit down for an hour right then. Perfect. Give me that time slot, I’ll make it I’ll make it available to guys. And that might be the way God’s gonna use the randomness of all this. And connection is that might be the one time that some young guy is like, man, every Friday, I’m like about to go to the strip club and I’m tired of it, I need something else. That’s that would be perfect timing. And they click and there you are. And you can listen to that brother. And he’s fighting some temptation. And you’re right there for him. God’s gonna do some amazing things and break strongholds, we don’t even know. So it doesn’t matter. Go to the next slide for me. This is what they’ll see they come to a Thursday night. This is just a generic one that I built. And all those time slots will just be the times that you guys have given me, whatever it is five in the morning on Thursday. I mean, it doesn’t matter, whatever you wherever you can fit an hour in that you can pivot from whatever you’re doing and talk to a guy. I’ll put it on there while this whole calendar and so when they look at that, they’ll be like, Oh, I could do that time. I could do that time somebody might not even click on your time. But if you give me this inventory of like when you could possibly fit it in. I’ll let you know if somebody grabs that hour and then it begins, the relationship begins and you want to meet in person go to the I think the next slide is one I want to show you. There you go. I get it. I get it. Go ahead, say zoom meeting one more time. We’re all feeling that way, right? We want to meet in person, we miss each other. I know, I know. We were driving by them on the fire engine, am I back up, I gotta get a picture of that.
But right here, all those guys were available. That’s this is where they’re right here all the time, looking at porn, looking at YouTube, looking at media that they shouldn’t be looking at communicating people that they don’t need to be communicating with. The enemy is using this thing like crazy, right? We use it as our Bible app, which is awesome. We use it as communication. So let’s, let’s make this device in their pocket somewhere where there’s a dude on the other end, who cares about him deeply who knows the Lord and can show him and then next week, meet him for coffee. Right? Start the relationship in that means you can take whatever you’re doing. And you can pivot from whatever you’re doing. Have an hour long conversation with a guy in your same seat and then turn back to whatever you were doing. And start this thing. All right. discipleship, does everybody agree that discipleship is important? It’s exactly what Jesus said, right. And I’m the first one to admit that I’ve been guilty about not putting it as the most important, the most important things that I’m doing. But that changes now. All right, and so let’s let’s do this work with me on this last slide. Here you go. This is what I want you to take your phone out, take a picture of that, pray about what I’m talking about. If you guys, okay, and email me, and all you got to say is I’m in. And then I’ll get you set up. We’ll talk more, and we’ll get you we’ll get you lined up. Right. Leave that slide up there for me, you guys get your phones out. Take a picture of that. That’s all I got for you guys. Today. We’re gonna see each other again in Malibu. And we’ll talk more about spiritual leadership there if you’re going to be there. And then I’ll let’s let’s have a pair. We got Pete coming up and Bill coming up. You guys got my backer, they’re swarming me.
Unknown Speaker 36:57
I just want to say this about when Pete and I met with Phil, and Phil put on his heart about this ministry. I was a little skeptical only from the standpoint is I know how heavily involved he is in his church. And so it was on my heart to say, Well, why are you doing this with the influencers, and with a sincere heart. He said, The Holy Spirit put on my heart. It’s an influencers, ministry. And it means it’s not just this man’s ministry. It’s not pizza ministry. It’s not mine. It’s all of our ministries. We have an opportunity to pour in a man’s life. You do all the time. And I just appreciate what Phil’s doing. And I just wanted to lift it up. And Father, we just pray. He and Phil and I have a meeting with the pastor at Living Word Calvary in Irvine, as a permanent, hopefully, location for this, this coming Tuesday at two o’clock. And so Father, I lift up that meeting and I pray for Terry Walker, that he would be open to that. And that we would have a permanent location to begin calling it a home for this ministry. That’s an unimportant it’s just the guys know, each week or each month, I’m sorry, each Thursday, third Thursday of the month, where we’re going to meet. And Father I pray that you would give us that location or whatever location you have in Jesus name. Amen.
Pete McKenzie 38:33
Amen. Fail. Thank you guys. Sorry, I went long.
You know, is a cap on this saying and I’ve had a very close friend and brother, for Gosh, I don’t know 20 years. And his name is Frank wine. And Frank is a pastor of Woodbridge Community Church, if you don’t have a church, and most of you do have a really good church, you like it, but if you don’t, I would highly recommend Woodbridge Community Church over on Burbank in Irvine. But you know, Frank is not just a pastor, that church Frank, would you come on up here now, I’ve asked Ryan to come this morning. He’s not just the pastor of Woodbridge Community Church. He’s also the chaplain for the police department here in Irvine.
And as I said, Frank and I have been brothers and walking together for a long time, and I couldn’t be more proud of what he is as a pastor. But I know that it’s been a really tough time with a police department. Could you share a few things about that was
Unknown Speaker 39:42
Hey, so first of all, when I was young pastor, pizza guy that mentored me and I, I totally have fellowship with everybody in here who loves this man because a lot of us do, and he’s amazing. And we love you big time. who I am today is because Pete sat down and just coached me. He became a chaplain in 2000 Six. And I’ve been a chaplain for Irvine PD ever since then. And you guys what you did this last week when we finally had a chance to get into the facilities and love up on them was awesome. What the banner you guys made had impact. And so our chief texted me after we had left. And he said, Frank, thank you so much. That meant more to us. And you guys know, which was pretty cool. So I’m just like firemen, policemen are. They’re amazing people. They’re there. Most of them are honest, hard working. People trying to do a job and they’ve been beat up this last year, really bad. morale is really low. What Pete gave a great message on how when Jesus was going to a cross, and probably he’s going to suffer for you. And most people don’t even care. It was perfect brother, because those guys are out there every day and a lot of suffering. And most people don’t even care and they’re trying to do the right thing and a good thing. And so you guys, you you really touch them at a very special time. And I don’t know if you completely totally know that. But you did. And well done brothers and so I just want to say that and man can I encourage you when you see them maybe sitting in a corner of a restaurant or something like that. Just tell them hey, appreciate what you do and praying for you guys because the more that because they’re they’re low man that they just feel beat up. So that’s all I want to say it’s an honor to be a pastor I just get to go bring Jesus to the police department. So you know if you see me in a cop car, you know, I’m not don’t call my elder bored or something. Yeah, no, I’m not I’m not in trouble with it. I’m just trying to bring Christ into somebody. So usually I’ll get like a man whose marriage is falling apart or Who’s this or that and a chaplain go right with them. So I’m, that’s been my goal and just bringing Christ to our officers. So that’s me.
Pete McKenzie 42:15
Well, you know, Frank, when someone commits suicide in Irvine, guess who they call? I call Frank winds. When a police officers having marriage Trouble, trouble were who they call. And he couldn’t get in. Nobody could get into that. The police department at the City Hall they’re in here in Irvine, during lockdown. And so Frank had no access to him just call out just a call outs when they would call him. So anyway, I want to pray for Frank here and for his ministry to the police department here in Irvine, as well as for the police. So let’s stand the hand toward him. Father, we’re thankful for Frank, we’re thankful for the life you’ve given him in the ministry, you’ve given him the great family you’ve given him. And Lord, we’re so thankful for his willingness to be there. It’s you can say you care all you want, but nobody can fake showing up. And Frank shows up for these policemen. And I just pray that he had sent your bubble around him, that protecting him and his heart, given him words to say and wisdom when he needs it to minister. Christ in peace and health and, and healing to these policemen in their wives and their families. So Lord go before him in closing behind thanks that we have a part in this and we could encourage them in Jesus name And all God’s men said, Amen. God bless you guys. Thanks for coming today.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai