Next Step Triple Threat

Men Reaching Men

Next Step Triple Threat

Unedited Transcript

John 13:34-35, John 15:12-17, Romans 12:9-13

Brett Clemmer

Good morning guys. How are we doing? You at least a little charged up after that video? Sorry for all you Florida State fans out there. I know there’s a few of you that were suffering through that. It’s a great thing. We’ll talk about him and why he was successful here in a minute. How many of you were here last week? Was last week great? Did you enjoy breakfast? Yeah, and then Pat’s message was fantastic. If you remember, Pat’s challenge last week was for you to do what? Take a man out for a cup of coffee.

A lot of grace here, a lot of you raised your hands last week. Pat said, “How many of you are going to take a man out to coffee?” All these hands started shooting up and he said, “Hang on a second. Hang on, before you raise your hand, I just want to make sure you’re really going to understand what you’re committing to, that you’re going to take a guy out for a cup of coffee.” Then, your hands started to go up again. He said, “Now, hold on a second. I want to make sure.” Then, finally you guys got to raise your hands and he couldn’t talk you out of it. Almost everybody seemed to raise their hands.

Now, you may not have been able to pull it off in a week, a week is a short time frame if you don’t have a guy that you’re already maybe in a conversation with but I’m just curious, how many of you in the last week were able to have a conversation with a guy over a cup of coffee or lunch? Awesome. Look at that. Table leaders, in the middle of your table, there’s a green card. If somebody at your table would grab that card and we’re going to take about 30 seconds and all I want you to do is go round the table, ask who was able to have a coffee this week and then as soon as you’ve got that added up, if you need … Just probably a calculator your phone if you’re trying to figure out how many it was. Count up your fingers and toes and just write that number on the card and hold your card up in the air. Then, somebody’s going to run around. We’re going to run around and grab those cards from you, all right? Just take about 30 seconds and do that.

Any kind of meeting that you might have had, coffee or lunch or whatever it was. As soon as you got it, just hold it up in the air. We’ll come grab it. McCurdy’s still using his fingers and toes over here. You guys got your card? I’ll take your card. Okay, 5. This is not a test. There’s a lot of grace involved here, just want to begin to see how many guys we’ve been able to impact. Got it right behind you? Super. I can’t wait to see what that comes up to. We’ve got all the cards in? We’re in this 7-week series on men reaching men, is the title of our series. Our goal during the course of this series is to help us as guys figure out how we can simply and easily begin to impact the men around us down to finding a guy that we can begin to impact that we can point that person towards Christ or if they’re already pointed towards Christ, begin to bring them along with us on a journey closer and closer to Christ.

I’m going to pray for us as we start here, just keeping that in mind. That’s really our goal is, we’re trying to figure out over the long term how do we impact another man and help him find Christ. Let’s pray. Father, we’re so grateful for these guys this morning. As I see those cards coming in, Lord, I know that many of those cards represent a life or 2 lives or 3 lives that a man in this Bible study is investing in another man out there in the world somewhere, Lord. Maybe it’s in his workplace, in his neighborhood, in his church. Lord, but we know that you called us to go and make disciples. Sometimes, we make it so complicated world. Sometimes, it’s overwhelming what it might mean to make a disciple. We don’t even feel like we’re good disciples ourselves. How can we make a disciple?

Lord, I pray that over this series, that you will continue to work in our minds and hearts, Lord, that you will demystify it for us, that you will help us to see that you would never give us a task that’s impossible to accomplish but instead, Lord, that you’re calling us to do the very thing that you wired us for. Lord, I pray that you would speak into our hearts and minds this morning as we go throughout the rest of the series as well, Lord, so that we can build your kingdom, so that we can bring you glory. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.

Last week, Pat gave us the longest Big Idea in the history of the Man in the Mirror Bible study. It was – Discipleship is one man caring enough about another man to help him build a relationship with God, a world view that’s biblical and a lifestyle worthy of Christ. This is a super, overarching definition, principle centered definition of what it means to help a man become a disciple. I was talking to a young pastor, a pastor named Collin Outerbridge. Collin’s a pastor, the lead pastor at Vista Church which is down in Southeast Orlando, great, young guy, has a senior pastor who’s mentoring him and then he, in turn, is mentoring a bunch of men in his church. He’s so eager to see the men in his church be disciple and to be disciple makers.

We’re having lunch the other day. We’re talking about this concept of discipleship. He said, “You know, a lot of my younger guys, they’re sort of overwhelmed by the word discipleship, disciple. It’s one of those words that get you so much so I’ve started using a different phrase to demystify it.” This is the phrase that he uses. He says, “I tell my guys that I want them to all be engaged in an intentional, spiritual friendship, an intentional, spiritual friendship. This is a great shortened … It’s the same thing as what Pat said last week but this is a shortened version of that to give you a little bit of a sense of what does it mean to be a disciple maker. It means to be engaged in an intentional, spiritual friendship with another man.

What does a friend do? A friend takes another friend out for coffee. A friend gets engaged in a conversation. What do we talk about with our friends? We talk about our family. We talk about our job. We talk about our hobbies. This is just what it means to be a friend. Men Reaching Men, the goal of this study is just to help us be committed to helping another man along on his journey. We’re guys. We compartmentalize our lives. Even a guy that’s a religious guy, a church going guy, he has all these boxes in his life. He has the work box and the marriage box and the kid box and maybe the Little League box, coaching box. He’s got his job box and he’s got his faith box.

Part of what we want to do as guys as we come alongside another man is we want to help him de-compartmentalize. We want to help him integrate his out of that church box, out of the religious box in that the gospel would influence the way that he’s a husband. The gospel would influence the way that he’s a dad, the way that he’s a Little League coach, the way that he’s a insurance agent or a attorney or a bulldozer driver on a rail crew, whatever he does, that the gospel would become the foundation for everything he does. Guys are at different points in their journey towards that. The way that we engage in an intentional, spiritual friendship is going to be different based on where a man is on his spiritual journey. Guys, this is not rocket science. Don’t make this more complicated than it is. Just be a friend. Just be a friend. Do stuff together. Talk about real things.

We started last week with the idea of a cup of coffee. What’s next? You’ve had a cup of coffee. What we’re going to talk about throughout this series is not … We’re going to give you practical steps each week but it’s not like try this step with one guy and then try the next step with another guy and then try the next step with another guy. This is a cumulative effect of how do you influence other men, how do you be an intentional, spiritual friend to another man. This is probably going to be mostly the same guy, the same 1 or 2 guys that you’re interacting with over the course of the next few weeks and that we hope will become a habit for the way that you live your life.

Last week was first down. We just saw a clip of Tim Tebow. Last week was first down. Coffee was the … You turned and he handed the ball and you ran the ball up to the middle, first down, took a guy to coffee. You maybe got 2 or 3 yards. What’s next? What do we do on second down? Now, I showed the Tim Tebow video because Tim Tebow got famous or was successful because he was running what was called the read option. The read option works like this. The quarterback gets the ball and he’s got options. I know that’s … Wake up. He’s got options. How does he pick which option he does? He reads the defense. Very good. A read option.

He gets the ball and he’s watching the defense. He’s looking at how the defense is spread out and if they’re spread out to the side, then he gives the ball to the running back because if they’re spread out to the side, the guy can go up the middle. If the defense is clogged in the middle, then he holds the ball in the running back’s belly as long as he can. When he sees the defenses converging, he pulls it back out, lets the guy run up to middle and get killed, doesn’t have the ball. Then, he goes to one side of the other. Tebow’s a leftie so we would go out to the left side typically and he’d have a running back with him. He’d have a receiver down field. He would read the defense and figure out what was the best option based on what he was being given.

As we’re interacting with the man, we’re going to read the man. We’re going to look at where he’s at. We’re going to figure out where he’s got the barriers up and where he’s open to hear us and interact with us. We’re going to go to where he’s open. We’re not going to try to go up against the things that he’s defensive about. We’re just going to look to engage with him and his life in the places that he feels open to us engaging with him in.

Tebow would look and if the guys were dropping back to cover the pass, he’d pitch the ball out or he’d run the ball himself around the end. If the guys were converging trying to kill him, he’d throw the ball down field. Sometimes, you see him on the goal line. He would fake like he was going to run and no. He would just stop and jump and he would just do a little jump shot over the defense. There’d be a tight end standing all alone in the end zone. It’s a beautiful thing if you’re a Gator fan. It’s a beautiful thing. Again, Seminole fan, not so much.

This is the read option. We’re going to talk about your read option, your next step triple threat because I’m going to give you 3 options this morning for what do you do with the guy once you’ve had that cup of coffee with him, once you’ve gone to lunch with him, once you begun to enter into a conversation with him that he’s willing and interested and engaging with you. Our next step triple threat, what we’re going to start with is we’re going to start by talking about what is the foundation, what’s the key to all this. The key to all this is love. Why are we doing this? Are we trying to manipulate a man into the kingdom of God? No.

The reason that we’re interacting with the guy is because we love him enough to not want him to be lost, to not want him to not know Christ, to not live with Jesus eternally. We don’t want him to be in hell. We love him and so we want to engage with him. Love is the key. Then, we’re going to talk about a story from the Bible that gives us some pointers. We’re going to talk about a man and his nephew. We’ll talk about Abram and Lot. This was one of the earliest stories in the Bible back in the earliest parts of the Bible that we’re going to see this story.

Then, we’re going to talk about this is your next step triple threat. Here’s 3 options that you could do when you look at the defense, look at the guy that you’re engaging with and figure out what does he need. Your 3 options are going to be this, pray, serve and give. Pray, serve and give. We’ll talk through each of these items and give you some really practical steps. Let’s, if you have a Bible, turn to John chapter 13 and let’s talk about love. Love is the key. When the Scribes asked Jesus what’s the most important commandment from the Old Testament, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” That was the foundation.

Then, in John 13 in the Upper Room before Jesus’s betrayal, he gives them a new commandment. That was the great commandment from the Old Testament and now, Jesus gives them a new commandment. In John 13:34 and 35, he says this, “A new commandment, I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” You see a progression here. Love God, big, huge picture. Love your neighbor. Love one another. You see how Jesus is focusing in this. This isn’t some general principle of how to live like a religious person. Love God and it’s not even the social justice message of do good for your neighbor, love your neighbor. It’s personal. Jesus says this is personal. You are to love one another, each other.

This is the foundation for us as we are men reaching men, is that we have to understand that Jesus told us to love one another. The question is how do you love another man? Let’s look at the story from Genesis 12. We’re going to do a quick survey of Genesis 12 to 19. If I could just have one guy to me at the table stand up and read a chapter of Genesis out loud. No, we’re not going to do it that way. Genesis 12, I’m going to take you through a quick survey here of the story of Abram and Lot. We’re going to talk about this man, Abram, and his nephew. Look at the first 5 verses of Genesis 12. “Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. Just go.”

Imagine somebody saying, “Hey, time for you to go.” “Where?” “I’ll show you, show you when you get there.” “And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him.”

Now, Lot, his dad, Abram’s dad had Abram and Lot in his household. Then, when his dad died, God had told Abram’s dad to go to this land and Abram’s dad gotten part way and then he had died. Now, God is saying to Abram, “I know you’re settled where your dad died,” and that’s a big thing to live where your dad’s buried but God said, “We’re not there yet. I want you to keep going.” Abram took Lot with him. “Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran and Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother’s son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.”

This is the beginning of the story. We see first thing, Abram obeyed God. Now, God told Abram to go to a new land and I will make of you great people. Jesus said to us, “Go and make disciples and I will be with you always.” You see the symmetry here? We are to obey Jesus the same way that Abram was to be obedient to what God was calling him to do. Abram was faithful and we need to be faithful. Abram was 75 years old. All you gray-haired guys in the room, no excuses. He was 75. We’re not even going to talk about the fact how old he was when he had a kid. Abram was a 75-year-old man who was obeying God and he took Lot along.

Then, if you skip up to chapter 13, you see Abram and Lot, their households have grown too big. God has given them prosperity and so now, Lot’s got a household and Abram’s got a household. They’ve got basically 2 big companies in a way. They’ve got all this livestock and all these fields. They’re beginning to compete with each other. Abram is the older, wiser one and so Abram in his wisdom says to Lot in verse 8, “Let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

Abram was proactive. He saw something that was going on. He didn’t just let it go until it became a problem. He was proactive. He stepped into it and then he advised his nephew, Lot, “All right, here’s what we’re going to do. You pick where you want to go. I’m going to give you first pick. I’m the senior guy here. I’m the one that my dad raised you. I kept you. I took you out of where we were. Really, this should be my choice but I’m going to forgo my privilege and I’m going to let you pick the place that you want to go.”

He does that. Then, in chapter 14, there’s all these kings that are scattered around. It’s like, nowadays, if the Deland had a king and New Smyrna Beach had a king and Orlando had a king, they’re like 4 kings getting in a battle with 5 kings. In the midst of the battle, Lot gets captured. What does Abram do? “Too bad, he should have gone to the left instead of the right.” No. What does Abram do? Abram goes after him. He gathers his men. He gathers a few hundred men and they go and they rescue Lot and all his possessions and all his family and all his household. They rescue Lot from being a captive.

Then, a few more chapters go by. We see Sarai and Hagar and Ishmael comes along. Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. Isaac gets promised. Then, in chapter 18, God decides to judge Sodom. Now, when Lot took the Jordan Valley, he went to live in Sodom. We know that Sodom, from the story, we know that Sodom was a sinful, vile place. God decided that he’s going to judge Sodom. In the Scriptures, it says that God basically said, “Well, I better tell Abraham. I better let him know this is what I got to do.” Abraham pleads with God. He goes to … I would not have done what Abraham did. I wouldn’t have had the guts but God says, “Hey, Sodom is evil. I’m going to judge it.” Abraham knows what that means. It’s not good news.

Abraham says, “Lord, if you could just find 50 righteous men, would you not destroy it?” God says, “Well, for 50 men, I would not destroy it.” Abraham goes, “How about 45?” “Okay, 45.” “How about 40?” Now, how many of you would stop at this point? Yeah. I would stop at this point. “How about 30? How about 20? How about 10?” Abraham keeps pushing God and pushing God and pushing God. Of course, God’s not being pushed. He’s just letting Abraham advocate. Now, why is Abraham so eager to save Sodom? Lot, his nephew is there.

When Abraham is pleading with God not to destroy Sodom, there’s got to be at least something going on with the fact that he knows that his kinsmen is there, this man that he’s invested a lot of his life into, that he’s loved, that he served, that he’s given things to, he knows that Lot is there. God commits to Abraham, “If there’s 10 righteous men there, I won’t destroy it.” Guess what? It appears that there’s maybe 4, Lot, his wife although she ends up not really being faithful in doing the one thing she was told not to and his 2 daughters who also proved later on to not have the greatest moral integrity. You can see that in chapter 19 or 20.

Lot escapes because Abraham advocates for him. If you look in Genesis 19:29, you see this interesting verse. This sums up the way that Abraham advocated for Lot. He says, “So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.” God remembered Abraham’s prayers and saved Lot. That’s a man reaching man. That’s a man looking at another man and saying, “I’m going to serve this man. I’m going to give the best land to this guy. I’m going to pray for this guy.”

In Abraham, we see this pattern of praying, of serving and of giving. Here’s our pattern. We see Abraham obeyed God. He gave Lot his pick. He served Lot in rescuing him and then he prayed for Lot’s deliverance. This is our pattern that we’re going to look at as well. The big idea is this. Now, last week was a big, long, big idea. This week is only 6 words. Be a friend, pray, serve, give. If you average last week’s words and this week’s words, we’re right where we want to be. Be a friend, pray … Can you remember that? Be a friend. Do what? Pray, serve and give.

Let’s look at how we can do that. This is our next step, triple threat, how can we pray, serve and give? Before we do that, let me just … I alluded to this at the beginning. I want you to think about something. Where your friend is on their spiritual journey determines how you take the next step. Let me give you an example. If you have a man who has absolutely no spiritual interest, whatsoever, he’s a co-worker in the cubicle next to you and you’re an acquaintance, you’re beginning to … You’d struck up a friendship and you’ve gotten a lunch a few times. He says, “Yeah, I’ve never really been on a church before except for a wedding and a funeral. I’m not really interested in spiritual things,” you don’t invite him to that other hour and a half long weekly Bible study that you go to studying the book of Revelation in Greek. That’s not where he’s at.

When you think about the man who you’re befriending, who you’re having this intentional, spiritual friendship, you need to think about where is he spiritually and then I’m going to reach him where he’s at. I’m not going to try to reach him where I’m at. I’m going to reach him where he is at. At Man in the Mirror, we call this the wide to deep continuum because when a man is early in his journey, you have to cast the net wide. Maybe your spiritual activity is going like our, Jeff Kisiah who works for us, he loves to take guys to dirt track races. Why does he do that? Well, because it’s so casual. It’s so easy. You’re just sitting in the stands watching guys drive around and kicking up dust and complaining about getting dirt in your mouth and pick … He always make it pick a guy that you think is going to win. He’s just engaging in an intentional friendship with you which opens up the opportunities later on for deeper conversation. That’s a guy on the wide side.

You may be engaged with a guy who’s been in church for a while, who’s got a wife and kids and is really trying to figure out how to raise his kids in a way it’s so that they will love God and trust God. He’s trying to figure out how to be a good husband. With that guy, you’re going to have deeper conversations. Figuring out where your guy is, where your friend on the spiritual continuum, on his journey is going to help you determine how to most effectively reach him. Let’s talk about each of these 3 items and let me give you a verse or passage here that gives us an overarching purpose here.

This is from Romans 12:9 to 13. It says this, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” It’s a great overview of this idea of pray, serve and give and of being an intentional spiritual friend.

Let’s talk first about prayer. How do you pray for a guy? You might think, “Well, that’s kind of weird to pray for a guy.” No, it’s not. Actually, it’s one of the most powerful things you can do for a man is to pray for him. Now, if a guy is early in his spiritual journey, he’s going to share an issue that’s going on in his life and you might just say, “Hey, man. Is it okay … Would you mind if I pray for you about that?” He’s going to say, he’s going to look around and he’s going to be like, “Right here, right now?” “No, no, no, no, but I want to pray for you about that. I’m just letting you know I’m going to pray for you about that.”

Now, if all you do is say that and walk away and never say a thing to him again, that doesn’t mean anything. You got to go back and follow up. You got to go back a couple days later and say, “Hey, man. You know, what happened with that situation that we were talking about? I prayed for you this morning about that.” The other thing that praying for a guy does is praying is good for you. It’s good for me because it helps us to be aligned with what God’s doing in that man’s life. It gives the Holy Spirit another opportunity to influence us in our relationship with this guy, give his wisdom like Abraham had to figure out what we should do next in interacting with this guy.

Now, a guy that’s farther along in the spiritual journey, you might say, “Hey, let’s pray about that. Let’s just stop right now and pray about that. Let’s go find a quiet place.” You went to lunch with him and he shared some stuff with you at the lunch table that he’s really struggling with, maybe a specific situation and you’re walking out for your car and you’re just in the parking lot. You just stop by your car and say, “Hey, man. Let’s pray about that real quick.” You pray for him. You ask God to speak into that situation and give him comfort or give him direction, give him wisdom. That brings your friendship another step forward. It brings both you and that man closer to Christ.

In Colossians 4:12, Paul tells to Colossians, Epaphras, struggles on behalf of you in prayer. Can you imagine hearing from a friend of yours that they’re struggling on your behalf in prayer? They’re right in there with you. They’re in the battle with you. That’s the power of praying for and with another man. The next thing that you could do is you could serve a man. When a guy shares a need with you, how could you meet that need? Remember in the Romans passage, it says contribute to the needs of the saints and show hospitality. Be practical and be prepared in how you can serve another man. Now, if you want to serve a guy, one thing I’m going to tell you can do, go buy a pickup truck. Somebody always needs a pickup truck. There’s something that needs to be hauled somewhere. They got to pick up a piece of furniture.

Now, that’s a metaphor. The pickup truck is a metaphor but you got stuff that people need. Maybe it’s your time. Maybe it’s your energy. Maybe it’s your advice but you can serve another man by speaking into his life or helping him out in a difficult time. I had a guy that worked for me and his car broke down. This is about 15, 18 years ago. His car broke down. Now, he was as far from Christ as you could be. He knew about my faith and he wanted nothing to do with it. When his car broke down, he was sitting at the office and it was like 5:30. Everybody else had gone and I was leaving.

I looked at him and I said, “Mark, what’s the deal? Where are you going?” He said, “My car broke down and so the bus doesn’t come outside until 6:05. I missed the 5:05 bus so I got to catch the 6:05 bus.” I said, “Well, where do you live?” He told me. It wasn’t even that much out of my way. I said, “Well, come on, man. I’ll drop you off.” “No, no, no. I couldn’t impose.” “Dude, seriously, come on.” I drove him home for 2 weeks. I drove him home until he got his car fixed.

The first week was very stiff. I was his boss. He knew about my faith. He was living far from Christ and very open about his lifestyle being far from Christ. The second week, he was crying in his driveway in my car literally as he, over the first week, learned that he could trust me, that I wasn’t going to pull out a Bible and beat him over the head with it. I just shared my life with him and asking him questions about his life. We began to talk about some deep, deep hurtful issues that were going on in his life.

Honestly, when he started talking about it, I was blown away. I couldn’t believe it but the door was opened because I had served him, because I had met a need that he had and it broke down the barriers. The defense went to the sides and we ran the ball up the middle because he was ready for that but it would never have happened if he had just been the guy that was sitting 15 feet away from me in the office for the first year that we knew each other. Serve a guy.

Then, finally, give a guy something. We have a very practical application for this. We’re going to give you a concrete gift to give and we’re going to provide some books for you that you can pick. Now, again, I want you to think about a man that you’re engaged in your intentional friendship with, where is he spiritually. If he’s a seeker, he’s a guy who’s trying to figure out the Christianity thing and he’s interested in learning more about it, you could give him a copy of this Christianity for You. If he’s a guy who’s struggling through life and trying to figure out why his life is not working out the way he wanted to, you might give him a copy of Man Alive. If he’s a guy that’s more generally interested in how to live the Christian life and maybe he’s been doing Christianity for a while but it’s not really clicking for him and he really wants to get a hand or maybe has got some emotional, anger issues or finance, money issues or something like that, you might give him a copy of The Man in the Mirror.

How do you do it? Here’s what you do. You take your friend and you say, “Hey, you know, I was thinking about you today.” Maybe you could do this today. “I was thinking about you this morning when I saw this book. I saw this book and I was thinking about some of the stuff that we talked about. If you’d like it, I’d like to give you this book. All I’m going to ask you to do is to read the first chapter. Just read the first chapter. Then, let’s talk about it next week when we go back out for coffee or lunch. If you like the book, then you can keep reading it. Now, if you don’t like the book, you can give it to somebody else.”

Now, you’ve got an opportunity for a guy to actually do something. You’ve told him that you thought about him. You’ve given him something you think is pertinent to his life and you’ve given yourself another conversation there. On the way out the door, we want you to grab one of these books. There’s tables set up, right Jeff, and you can pick one of these 3 books and just 1 though because there’s about 1 for everybody, a couple extras and pick the book out. Then, we want to hear what happens.

We asked you last week to e-mail us stories. Please keep doing that. We love to hear these stories. We’ve actually got a video that I’m going to share with you in a second here that shows the power of one man befriending another man and also the power of giving a man a book. Let me remind you, here’s our big idea. Big Idea is “Be a friend, pray, serve and give”. Pray, serve and give. Take this out for a spin. Let’s watch this video and then we’ll get the count up here.

[Video being shown]

Amen. You can say hi to Brad who’s right there. We thank you, Brad, for sharing that video with us as well. Thank you. You’re the chaplain. A chaplain came to Bradley and invested in him. He had a captive audience but a chaplain had to take that step forward and invest in Bradley’s life. You’re the chaplain. We’re the friend. These are friends. Because of you guys’ efforts, 42 men over the last week, somebody has begun to invest in their lives in an intentional spiritual friendship. That’s amazing, 42 guys. Give yourselves a hand for that.

Lord, we commission these guys to continue on in this process of investing in the life of another man, of being a friend who prays for another man, who serves another man and who’s willing to go out on a limb and give another man something that will speak to his heart at the deepest levels. Lord, I just pray that you would use us this week to reach other men to be men who reach men. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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