Refined Legacy Men’s Panel: Stories of Strength and Transformation

In this episode, we are thrilled to share our men’s panel discussion from Refined Legacy, featuring stories of strength, faith, and transformation from the Bible and personal experiences. From Jacob's dual identity to Abraham's conflicts of faith, the panelists share powerful insights into waiting on God, overcoming challenges, and embracing vulnerability. 

Join us as these men explore how biblical lessons intersect with modern life, offering encouragement for men to lead with love, serve with purpose, and grow in faith.

Tune in for inspiring reflections and practical wisdom from this unforgettable discussion.

Episode Highlights: 

• Refined Legacy Men’s Panel.

Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on Purpose Beyond Motherhood and :

• Twelve 12 Ministries Website
• IG Handle: @twelve12ministries
• Facebook: @twelve12ministries
• Email: info@twelve12ministries.org 
• Visit the Twelve 12 Ministries Shop

This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.

Transcript

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several women in the Bible who had to wait. So Sarah, Hannah, Rebecca, Rachel, Elizabeth. I think, Anita's in the house tonight. She wrote a chapter. But we just really, it was just put on our hearts to do a study for men. so, stories of strength. And so, these men up here, they all contributed and wrote a chapter. And so, we're just gonna kick it off. Jason, how about you go first? And if you guys wanna just introduce yourself.

and then let everybody know what chapter that you wrote. Okay, whoa. I got a lot more power there. Can I first just say, we're doing that last session with Dr. Collins, I'm five foot five. I'm never doing stools because I get on a stool. I look like a little boy that you want to be like, it's okay. When he sits on a stool, it looks like I'm dominating this thing.

That's horrible. Anyway, I'm Jason Rolfe, co-founder of Legacy Place. My wife and I have been doing that for two years now and we love it and that's, you know, as you can see. My name is Weston Smith and I had the honor of writing about the Sugarlite Woman, so I can't wait to talk about that. My name is Colby Harris. I'm the founder of Dads in the Making and I have the honor to write about the story of Hannah and Elkanah. Awesome.

name is Paul Daniels. I'm discipleship pastor at Covenant Church and I wrote the chapter on Zechariah. Hi, my name is Lance Abraham. I am with Paul over at Covenant Church, although I'm not a pastor, thank God. Whoa, whoa, Thank God we didn't that part. You don't want me as your pastor. Let Paul handle the pastor stuff. But I'm happy to be here tonight.

Darren Clark and I wrote about I wrote about Isaac and I had the steam title of being

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Let's jump in. Lance, I'm gonna have you kick us off, okay? So what impacted you most during your research for stories of strength in your chapter? So, it's good I went first, because I forgot to mention who I wrote about. I wrote about Jacob. One of things that stood out most to me about Jacob was, it's kind of interesting, like, in the word.

after Jacob had his encounter with God, God renamed him Israel, right? But then later on in scripture, you see him referred to as Jacob again. And once during this chapter, you were studying what the name Jacob means, what the name Israel means. And then there's this like weird question, like when Abram became Abraham, he was just Abraham, right? When Saul became Paul, he was just Paul. So what's the deal with

When Israel later says, you know, this is the God of Abraham, Isaac, not Israel, it Jacob.

So what was really interesting about this, and there are a lot of different theories around why that's the case, so it has to do with how they kind of brought together all the different documentaries around what happened in the Old Testament. But what really stood out to me, it just was an impression. I don't have theology around this necessarily, but there's this Jacob that was a supplanter, deceiver, thief. There was like the flesh Jacob.

And then there was Israel who struggled with God and overcame. Right? And I think the duality of that nature is in us.

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And I feel like even though we become a new creation in Christ, we still have that Jacob in us. We still carry that Jacob with us. We may try to fend it off. We may try to have accountability partners to help overcome it. We might do all of these different things. But that nature gets carried even though our name has changed and our identity has changed and our destiny has changed. And so as a man, it becomes this tension that we have

to learn how to not just manage but operate it in a healthy way. So I think landing on that, it's some of us when we get saved, we're like, I forgot about everything in my past. I denied this. No, no, it comes with you. But what God does is redeem that, give you a new name, give you new identity and a new destiny. But that's part of it, that journey that brought you to that struggle with God, where you got to overcome.

you

goes with them. that's Yeah, so good. Cole, what about you? Just that same question. Okay, yeah. My initial thought to that question was with Hannah and Elkanah, I was just impressed with their obedience to the word of God, and part of that was to go and worship God. But as was expressed earlier tonight, and I've been thinking about it, a lot of us in the room are in a place where we have a heart to worship God, where we care to be obedient to God's word.

Or how can we even pray to God if we're believing a lie that infertility is given to us by God or is from God? I'm here to tell you tonight that it's not we can uproot those lies and replace them with the truth of God's Word And how do I know that I'm glad you asked? It is stated in John 10 10 that the thief or the enemy who's the devil or Satan he comes only to steal kill and destroy Jesus said I have come to give life and life abundantly

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He also said that I only do what I see my father doing, speaking of his ministry. And in that ministry, he only healed, he only raised the dead, he did not put sickness or disease on any man or woman. He did not cause loss. knowing that, the knowledge of God can help us to where we do desire to know God, seek the knowledge of God, which is his written word and his presence, his Holy Spirit. And with those, we can

We can't worship, we can't desire to grow in the knowledge of God when we know who he really is. So that's what God put on my heart. that's powerful. Thanks for sharing that. Hey Paul, what about you? man. Alright. You know.

So many things. I enjoyed Zechariah. And I think one of the things I saw quite a bit of reminders. And we have the propensity, even as ministers Zechariah being a priest, to know your job, to seem to other people like you've got everything together. And you have your prayers. But then when the Lord speaks, we have this propensity to fight back on the thing that we actually been praying for.

You know when the Lord said I heard you and I'm here. This is what I'm going to do and then and then you're saying well How can this be? With this way this is what you've been praying for from the entire time You know so and one of the beautiful things I think and the whole story of Zechariah and and him being a priest and that whole line is it seems like there was It seems like there was a lot of chance involved it just

It just seemed that way. The likelihood that he would even be the one who would have to serve in the temple was just very rare and it would be really unlikely that he would ever serve that way again. But what it shows me is that even though things might seem to be chance, that the Lord actually does have a plan and he's actually working things out. He was actually doing something that he was already planning to do with

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with John and bringing Jesus about, but the lesson that I learned personally or was reminded of is watch what you say. Don't bless, don't curse until you agree with God. Because there is a note, one of the biggest notes that we can remember is as a priest when he was done and he's coming out of the temple, he's not done with his job yet. He's about, he's supposed to

bless the people. The Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the priestly blessing. He wasn't able to do that because he was in the moment, the place of prayer where he's talking to the angel and he didn't agree with God. what the Lord decided to do for him is you don't get to bless or curse until you agree with God. And so you don't get to say anything. And so I would encourage us as men and women is listen, watch what we say.

for something, let's not use our words and the things that we do to actually fight against the thing that we're actually believing in. So good. See, Pastor Paul? Okay, honey, I can't call you Darren, I'm sorry. Honey, why do you feel like this Bible study is so important for men? I think men have to understand.

I had a conversation earlier with someone here that I just met. And it's hard for men sometimes to be vulnerable, to take that mask off, to be soft. But it's necessary in order to pursue the women that are in our lives. To be able to understand, to ask the question. Sometimes we suffer in silence. Christopher even said sometimes that suffering in silence comes out in actions that may not be God-like.

But what we need to do is find out what is necessary with our wives, with the women that are in our lives. Pursue them, ask them questions, seek the faith, understand them the best way that we can so that we can be of service to them.

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Just the other day I heard someone speak and said, in the Bible it says, men love your women like Christ loved the church. It says for women to respect us, and you're talking about the terms of submission, but first submission doesn't come from the man until we submit to God first. But we're supposed to love. And in that love is simply to be of service to them. Nicole and I have been married before. We've been together for 17 years. Those first couple years were kind of tumultuous. I'm going tell you.

But somehow, someway, we put Christ in the middle, and without having a conversation of, hey baby, we should do this, or hey, what if we try that? We just start putting each other first, and trying to out-serve each other. So men do that. Take the mask off. Be vulnerable. Try to serve your wife.

to the best that you can, even if it doesn't feel right, even if it doesn't, you're not sure what to do, ask, open the question. I really want to this quick story that I'll be goodness.

Ask the question that may be a little more challenging to ask and hear. Years ago when we first started dating, I we were still dating, I don't think we were married, I asked her, said, is there anything, you know, that you just don't like about me? Go ahead, answer the question. I'm not going to respond negatively, I'm just going to listen. And she was like,

No, I can't take it. No, please tell me. Go ahead. I have no idea what's going to be said. But she says, no, what I really don't like. Go ahead, tell me, I don't like it when you sing in public. Since then, I think, OK, what about worship at church? That's OK.

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So bad. And that's a little bit, to make it a little light, but ask the harder questions. When they're crying, when she's crying, do you want attention? Do you want a conversation? Do you want distance? Sometimes you don't know what to do. Sometimes asking is the thing. And be open to the answer. And then respond accordingly. And keep doing it, and keep doing it, and keep doing it. Really good.

Jason, what about you for that same question? Why do feel like this Bible study is so important for men?

Yeah, so I got to write on Abram and Sarai, that's Abraham and Sarah, from the afterwords, by the way, the after party, I guess. So when I first got that, honestly I was like, and Sarah, everybody knows that story, they're big legends of faith, Abraham's father of faith, all this stuff, and I'm thinking, God, gotta give me something, so I feel like God's gonna let me read Abram's mail. I started to get the real kind of picture of his life as he journeyed.

You know, if you look at irony, you should see Abraham or Abram. If you look at paradox, you should see Abram because that brother had some very hard conflicts of faith in his story. And so when I went back and started looking at Abram and Sarai, I was like, this is the pre-version couple. And if you read the story, you go back and read about Abram when God's telling this stuff that's going to happen, he comes to a point where I don't know that he had the faith in it, but he said,

believe in you and my faith is in you, you're the dream and I'm paraphrasing you're the hope that I'm going for. And I think that's where it clicked in me that we start missing it. Anytime we start taking a dream, an expectation, a thing and we start putting hope there, we start removing it from God and putting it in that and God's over here going no, no, just me. Just me. Like put it here and it will reproduce. Put it here and it will go forward and do something amazing. Put it here and there's all

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all kinds of amazing things that can happen. So I think this is important for men because sometimes we get in this place where we're jumping back and forth in our own irony, in our own paradox. I'm trying to be a good man, but I failed here. I'm trying to provide for my family, but I just lost my job. I'm trying to get ahead, but every time I do it, it seems like I get further behind. I'm trying to live by faith, gosh, I just have no faith right now because nothing seems like it's gonna happen. And if you look at who God called the father of faith, Abram, into Abraham,

That was his story. So to me, it's very encouraging to go, God, I love that you took seriously ordinary people, even though we've blown them up into these heroes, which they are. I'm not saying their stories didn't have this amazing impact for generations, but they were just men trying to live the life of faith, hear God, and do what he said, and see what God would have them do in their lives. And so I think it's important to read stories like that in the Bible and maybe dig a little deeper even to see the humanity of those people.

and not just the big bang that happened in their stories. Because come on, I don't know about y'all, but I can tell you the big bang. I put that on Instagram and Facebook. That's everything that goes out there in world. Like, look at me, you what I look so good. Nobody's posted on Instagram and Facebook, I look horrible today. I snot running out of my nose. I didn't know what to do with my job. I failed. Somebody cussed me out on the street. A homeless man told me I was ugly. mean, it was just like, nobody talks about those things, right? But that was Abraham before he was,

Abram before he became Abraham right so that's why I think it's important it's important to know we all have humanity but God still sees us as great men of faith and provision and hope and life we just gotta keep looking at that story a little bit more. Yes, amen. Weston, what you got for us? The last. Okay so when I when I was deciding what I was gonna go over I saw all the selection and I was like I don't want to

And I was like, but then there was one that said this should have been a woman. And I was reading the story and I was like, this is about a woman. It's very clear about how awesome and amazing she is. Where's the man involved in all this? And I chose this after I read it to her. was like, this is the one I'm gonna do. This is what the Holy Spirit put in my heart. I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm having a revelation of this right now. You see a man who's not in the forefront. This is a total depiction of who and what I'm walking through in my marriage, in my life.

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I took it because I could see myself here. It was the story of my wife operating in all her gifts and doing all these things while the man is barely mentioned that you're like there's not much here to talk about. There was so much to talk about but it was through the reflection of not what was talked about with him but was who was the star of the story, his wife. And the Holy Spirit just kept showing me, showing me, showing me, hey you see how she operates when a godly man walks by and she wants to

an upper room for him? How does she get that? Don't talk, you don't mention it man. Then it talks about, hey she said her husband was really old, but that she would do promise to Son. Son comes. Husband's really old. I don't know how old he is. The scripture doesn't tell me. Later on, the husband is there and the son has a headache, doesn't feel well. He tells the son, go see your mom.

goes to his mom and ends up dying. She knows what to do. She goes to her husband and she says, hey, can I take a donkey or a saddle and go out and find the prophet? And so as I was going through that, I kept looking and thinking about this is my life. If you met my wife, you would know that she's a worshiper. She's on the platform. And I am somebody in the congregation. I have no voice whatsoever. I sing in the shower only and cry out whenever I hear a worship song happen because I'm a crier these days.

And when I see her...

The way she operates is around the house that I make for her, the godliness that I provide for her to allow her to operate in these gifts that she does. She is at the forefront. You've never seen me. I was supposed to do this with her today. And you get to see something out of me. But if you had saw her here, you would have seen all the joy, because she's a social butterfly and I'm the most introverted person ever. And you would have seen all these things that the Lord has provided me in private.

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so that she can show it publicly and I love The life as a man that I don't I don't have to have a big ministry I don't have to have all these things happen But it's what I'll be remembered by when I appear before the Lord my life in the mundane My life that'll be appeared before the Lord not for my gifts before my godliness And I heard it said the other day I heard it said do not be remembered for your giftedness be remembered for your godliness

because that's what matters to the Lord. And I just thought, well, this is exactly what I want to do. I love doing this, and this is great. But when I have a conversation with the Lord, the Smith household, I will be called out like Adam was in the garden when the Lord specifically calls for Adam. It does not even mention Eve. And he says, Adam, Adam, where are you? Why are you hiding? And Adam, the manager of his house, has to tell the Lord what happened. I don't want to have that conversation.

Now I don't get to have that conversation obviously because of Jesus.

But in the reflection of that through my family, through my son, through my wife, and all of that, this story reflects the heart of the husband. You just don't see it because you're not looking for it. You see it through the wife. With barely any lines, I pulled all of that out because the Holy Spirit was like ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding

probably the most boring person, but man, he loves it, and I want to be remembered that way. And so when I read this story, and I felt so drawn to it, I was so honored to write about it, and I was so excited, because I it was better than every other story that was on there. And I was so excited to tell my life. Look what I It was great. So I say that because for men, you are the first line of defense for your house and the last, right? And you lay your life down immediately for everything.

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that's going on in there and you don't have to be you don't have to be the the forefront in terms of the public or anything like that God is looking at what's happening privately behind your doors with children without children with your wife how you're stewarding that where your godliness is coming from how you operating that he's not looking at your gifts he's looking at the things that actually matter that will weigh the scales that are being weighed stored up as treasure in heaven which is awesome and I think it's so cool and so yeah

powerful. Thank you. So good. Okay, I've got just one more question for all of you. I'd love for you guys to answer this. What do you hope men take away most from this Bible study?

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Okay, well I think the realization that we're part of the story. You know, I think as a family, the man is part of the story. Your wife's battles are yours.

That's one of the reasons why I love Zechariah and his wife being barren for so long. Socially at that time, you know, we have no idea what kind of stress she dealt with in life. And I love the fact that the angel says to Zechariah, the Lord has heard your prayer. he's praying, I believe, not just for the baby, but for his wife as well. She's carrying a load.

The family load is everyone's load. So I think if anything, what we should take from this is we are part of the story. It's very important. I love the fact that men are doing Bible study in the first place. I think it's a great practice as a family to do Bible study and to grow and to be equipped to protect and be the shield for the whole family and for the wife and the aisle week.

get that out of this study.

Sure. I imagine many of you heard the term helping the pastor, provider, protector for your home. So I try to do everything we do with usually biblical principles. One of the thoughts that often comes to me is I believe or help me with my unbelief. It's always a process. It's always a struggle. Being a provider, kind of co-signing with what Wes says is...

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Yes, provide for the needs of electric phone, also to provide for me to try to a way for my wife to thrive and protect. I'm a wall between evil that comes or anything that may try to step into the path of my family. I will pray first, no weapon formed against me.

But that doesn't mean the weapons won't be formed and on the wall between anything else. So try to do that.

be soft, be loving, be serving, be a warrior as well. And many of men that are on this panel, many of men that are in the books, many of the men that you know will need to be in any of those positions or all those positions. So put that hat on and be a warrior, be a lover, be a king, be a friend to your wife.

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I think for just piggybacking off what everyone said here.

The reason why this is just so important for men is because yes, men are part of the story. You're foundational. You are what your family sits on. You're going to carry the load. You're going to do the hard work. You are duty first feelings later. We'll think about it later. I'm going to get the hard thing done because that's how I'm wired to do things. And as you get in community, you find other men, find there are other people that are walking just like this whatever season of life. Men need men. I need strong men in my life.

older, conquered things that I'm struggling in and me being vice versa with Bible studies like this and also just purpose. think men said a lot of purpose like what am I supposed to do with my life and is this you know am I doing everything God's calling me to do and and I know what I will what I'm called to do and I told it at the highest of steam and the steam is that is to take care of my family first and that's truly all that matters and everything from

that flows the kingdom, putting the kingdom first. The kingdom first in God's eyes for me is your wife and your children. Everything else outside of that is totally secondary. And if I steward that right and work it hard at that, then everything else becomes a blessing on top of it. And once I learn wisdom from that as I read scripture and I continue to glean off other men who are older, who are younger, who are doing bigger and better things or whatnot, I can grow and then I can obviously steward that wisdom that I've been given to give to other people and let them know they're not alone and that you are doing what God is exactly

I'm there but yet I'm so important because when you stub that toe it hurts you catch something and it's like man what did I just do I lost my whole foot I can't use it anymore that's exactly how I feel like hey man you're not gonna see me you're not gonna hear a lot about me and yet I'm gonna be as powerful as I can for the body and it comes by putting my family first and making sure they're taken care of so they can go off and use their gifts and feel available to be able to do that and feel

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I have the security to do that, I have the blanket to do that, I have a godly husband who is praying for me and covering me more than I have prayed about it myself, because he's already ahead of it. And that's what I would glean and I would tell you, when you're walking with your family, whatever area of life you're at, and if you don't have people like that, let me be that person for you, because I want to be that person. I need people like that, and I'm happy to share that with others as well.

I actually want to follow you because our Bible sections have some similarities, but first I want to say the most significant thing with Hannah and Alkanah. We're pursuing the Lord together despite the infertility journey, when it is so easy in this circumstantial situation to turn away from God. And again, believing the lies about God, that he's distant, that he is angry or punishing us, that he is silent. And again, the knowledge of God replaces

who God really is, that he loves us, he delights and rejoices in us, our provider and our defender. So that was one of the most significant things. But getting to what you said is that Elkanah was slightly insignificant in the story, but he positioned them to receive from God. And how did he do that? His obedience to God's instructions or God's word. It says,

year year in some translations, they traveled to worship the Lord and to offer sacrifices. So he did what God instructed. He positioned them to receive. again,

He did that by getting them to the temple within steps of the temple where Hannah went and she was the star. Earth changing, world changing, earth shaking prayers. Two of her prayers are recorded where very few were by the time First Samuel happened. One of those prayers was a prayer of victory, of thanksgiving, of her testimony to God's goodness in their life, to his provision and blessing.

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Canna, somebody else said, there is, the Bible does a great job of laying out people's mistakes and shortcomings so that we can benefit and learn from them. And God is very interested in dealing with our souls. A lot of our focus is on our body being healed and restored and yes and amen to those things. But God is also in the business of healing up the brokenhearted, which deals with our soul. And so with Hannah, we see where she is tormented

by someone who is rude and disrespectful to her and that person is dealing with their own pain and hurt. And it happens yet today where people say careless, thoughtless, rude things. And Elkanna tries to help and console and overcome that. He doesn't do a very good job in dealing with Ham's emotions. And he tries to fix the emotions. And many guys can relate to stuffing our own emotions.

not experiencing them, not communicating them. So there is so much to take away from this story, the honesty of how Alcana did fail, did fumble a little bit, but we can overcome that. We can experience healthy, God-given emotions. We can experience the Holy Spirit as our comforter when we do biblically mourn and grieve and walk through sorrow before God. That's how we experience him in the many different ways.

the facets that he wants to show up for us. That's good. Well, I want Jason to bring this home. So there's a couple of things that I would love to just deposit in when it comes to why this is needed. I think number one is men need to know that the Bible is masculine.

I think, you know, in the body of Christ, you know, when we come to church, when we learn all the things we learn, even from the songs we sing to the messages we tend to hear, it's a lot about like, so one of the things we learned at church is that meekness, you have an idea what meekness means in your mind, but the definition revolves around this idea of strength under control. When it comes to men, we tend to focus a lot on the control.

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Don't watch porn. Don't cheat on your wife. Don't do this. Don't do that. And it's like, you need to control this. But I'm not sure we focus so much on building strength. Because if you read in the Bible, there's some crazy stuff in there.

Right, you wanna learn about leaving it all and just going off on a gut feeling? Read about Abraham. You you wanna hear about a guy that lived in privilege and then left it all? Read about Moses. You know, you wanna talk about...

you know, Jacob who lived the life, like all of these, the guy that doubts himself and has insecurities and then finally follows God, read about Gideon and see what he became, right? So like there's these very masculine themes and men, like predominantly men, this is one of the things that Anita leading a women's study, it's like she has to find women, like the Shindamite women that we can draw lessons from and that we can speak to for women.

many men that did so many crazy things like we think of David as like the gentle guy who plays a harp and this and that. That dude was savage. The dude was savage and like Solomon I asked for wisdom. You know what like the first three chapters of his kingship was? He like his dad was like I need you to off this family, this family, this family, this family. It's crazy and it reads like to a man we talk

about strength under control, what I love about the Bible is it shows you how to be weak. Because there are certain areas that men as Christians and Christ followers, we are called to be savage and intolerant and fierce and protective and all of these things. It says we should be gentle as doves but wise as. Isn't that an interesting dichotomy? Because what are serpents? Serpent can kill you.

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The serpent is slick, sly, understands what his environment is like. So how do I become wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove at work, at home, when I'm dealing with a difficult client, when I'm dealing with a difficult parent or kid or whatever? There are all these different venues as men that we are not only called to be under control, but we are called to be fierce. We are called to be protectors. We are called to be, a couple people mentioned,

last line of defense, you don't want a dove as your last line of defense.

I'd rather have a serpent in that moment. And so as men, there's this multifaceted thing about being a man that's a Christ follower, that the Bible, through its stories and through what God is trying to relay through those characters, is that I don't care if you're perfect or not, I need you to be this and this. And I need you to be this in these certain venues, and I need you to be this in other venues, because I really love this or I really hate this, right?

And so this, and the last thing really revolves around this audience. It didn't click with me like the audience that was gonna be here tonight. So Anita and I don't have kids either. So I don't count it an accident that we were here.

There are a lot of things where we will experience delays in our life. There are a lot of areas where we may not get the answer that we hoped that we would get in the way that we would get them. But there's one thing that God has asked us to do that there's no obstacle for that relates directly to what we've been talking about tonight. There's no obstacle to us producing life.

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It may not be in the form of a baby. It hasn't been in our life. But the sooner we can divert our attention and our focus to bringing life where we are today, in the situations we're in today, with the people that God has entrusted us to today.

then the other things that we're looking for to produce life, God will bring or not bring in the way that we want, but regardless, you know, it's funny when he sent Adam and Eli out of the garden, he said, be fruitful and multiply, right? What was the Great Commission? In essence, be fruitful and multiply. He wasn't talking about babies. There's nothing except us.

preventing us from producing life today. So let me just encourage you to look for the situations, produce life.

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Not fair. Not fair. You know, go to some places and they say that was worth the price of admission? That was beyond worth the price of admission to say that there's nothing stopping you from producing life right now.

Hoo-ha! It's steak face worthy people, I don't know if you haven't discovered your steak face yet, but you need to discover it. Because that was fantastic. I don't like meat and glass. I want to try to make quick.

Let me preface by saying this, I don't know if you have noticed over last 40, 50 years, there has been an assault on men. To reduce men to bumbling idiots that all they're good for is watching porn, getting a job, and trying not to mess up in their life.

Now that's really boiling it down, but if I look at news, I look at commentators, if I look at TV shows, if I look at movies, rarely do I see an example of men. That's what I want to preface this with. My mind the way it works goes always back to beginning. And if I look at one of the greatest deceptions that the enemy has, it's this, that men are supposed to be alone. Men were never meant to be alone.

Matter of fact, the first thing when you talk about how to need, God made me, looks at goes, nope. He didn't say I made a mistake, he's like, I'm still good, but that thing can't be alone. And I could go to talking about how we need a wife, which we do, but I really feel like I'm supposed talk about this.

Twelve 12 Ministries (38:17.014)
I think one of the scariest things for our enemy, the devil, this world, whatever you want to call your enemy, is that when men get together and they start realizing who they are, and when they get in a group together, like you see on this stage right now, is like, I think the devil goes nuts, like break it up, make them sick, kill them, them the car on the way there, do something, because you can't get a bunch of men together that understand their purpose, understand their destiny, understand who God is.

because if you do, we're done. That's it. There used to be this thing, and I don't know if you guys know about it, it's called Promise Keepers. I'm old, but maybe you remember. Stadiums full of men, worshiping, listening to sermons, praising God.

It's one of the most powerful things you can watch, I think. And I'm not just saying that because I am a man. I'm saying that because when I watch it, it's like there's nothing impossible for those dudes. And if you've ever been around, you can take us dudes right here. She got us together on a call. If you left us on there long enough, we'd come up with something to fix, build, do, accomplish, because we're hardwired that way. And what I'll leave you with is this. And I don't know if you've ever seen this, so maybe go look it up when you go home. But there's these things called hawkers.

And I'm not talking about the spiritual condition of Hawkers, whatever that means, but the point is when I watch those, I'm not a big crier, I begin to cry because it's a bunch of men together in this group, in this ferocity, in this power, in this emotion that comes out of them where they make these faces and then basically it's it's Samoan kind of battle cry before they go into battle. They would just scream together these Hawkers and it was just, I don't know, if you go watch

I'd be scared. I'd be like, nope, not playing y'all, we'll go play those guys.

Twelve 12 Ministries (40:10.976)
You're not meant to live life alone. Find your group, find your pack, find your people. Doesn't mean it has to be seven. It could be one and two and three. But find somebody and let somebody else come in. Join up with them because when you get men together that are discovering their purpose, their destiny, there's power that comes in. And I'm telling you, you can change your neighborhood, your workplace, your city, the nation. We really can do anything possible when you get men of God together going, God is

I believe he can do what he says he can do. I have the faith to take one more step. Boom. It's over. And the devil is crying and whining and peeing his little pants. don't live life alone. Find your group. That was stinkin' face worthy as well. my goodness. Aren't these men amazing? Yes!

would just love all of the men to stand up. Please stand up. Pastor Paul, will you pray for these men? Pray for these men that are standing, Pastor Paul. And ladies, reach your hand out to these men. Thank you, Lord God. Father, we thank you, Lord, for who you are. Lord, you are our Father. You're the greatest example, Lord, for us. Father, I speak to every man, Father, and over every man in this room, Lord, myself included, Lord.

Thank you for the position you've given us. We ask God for your grace to do the work you've given us well Lord we ask that your anointing will be upon us father Father, that you would grant us strength Lord God to be strong father when when things are are weighing us down Lord May we have strength Lord straight from your throne God father I pray Lord for wisdom Will you grant us wisdom father on what to do and what not to do father? What is right? What is not right how to speak how not?

to speak Lord God how to proceed as a man of God. Father I pray Lord that you would grant us knowledge knowledge of you Lord may we be father everything you've called us to be. Father may we think Lord biblically may we think father with your Holy Spirit in us father. Father I pray for understanding Lord let our hearts father be after you God. Father when our wives see us Lord may they see Lord men who are after the heart of God who have hearts

Twelve 12 Ministries (42:36.898)
After God's own heart Lord God may we be protectors Lord father if there is any weight in this room if there is any burden that a man is carrying father Holy Spirit, would you just take that off right now? Lord God will be lay it down in Jesus name and father may we be free men who can lead our families father in our communities Well, we thank you Lord for your anointing. We thank you for your presence May we grow closer and in love with you more than we've ever been in our lives. We honor you for God and Jesus

Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Can you guys give it up for these men over here?

video and legacy place is going to come up. I know if you need to stretch your legs, stand up, grab some food, the legacy place is going to come up and just share with us. I know we're running a little bit behind, but the father knows he do the schedule and the program. And so thank you guys so much.