Transcription
Hey guys, for this week's podcast episode, we have Danny Silk, who's teaching at last year's conference. It's gonna be awesome. Hope you guys enjoy.
We live in a time where masculinity is shamed, and men don't know what it means to be a man. As a pastor and counselor, I've spent the better part of my life equipping and training others. My goal with this show is to translate my hard-earned experience into tools and tactics to help you become stronger as a man. This is the BraveCo Podcast. I'm your host, Jason Bellator.
[Applause]
Wow, so good, so good to be here. Thanks for coming, gentlemen. Yeah, it's, uh, this is such a privilege, such a privilege to share. Error, in kind of a weird way, it makes us one, you know. I just, I just use that error that you just sucked in. I don't know, I feel closer to you. Very cool. I am, uh, always humbled to stand before leaders. Kindred spirit. I'm always humbled that people would care what I think, you know. It's a, it's a weird thing. I'm from Weaverville, grew up. I was 21 years old before I ever left California. I grew up not knowing anybody with a passport. So the idea of greatness and eternity and all these things didn't even dawn on me until I got saved, until I met these guys. And then all of a sudden, I realized there's so much more expected of me than I knew was possible. But there was so much more available to me than I knew was possible. So, as I say that to say, it doesn't matter where you're from or what you've been through up until this point. It is, it's, it's really, it's really important though, that you do figure out that you were created for greatness. And that even if you don't expect great things from yourself, your family does. I do. And you, you need to surround yourself with people that expect great things from you. Because there are times that you're just going to forget and need somebody to walk up and just kick you in the butt and say, "We need you." So that's what we're here to do. We're here to kick each other in the butt and, and remember some things. And so I want to talk to you really about being men of, of great heart. There's, uh, there's a war going on in the spirit realm, and it is, it is really to distract you from becoming men of great heart. There's a temptation for you to become a man of great intellect and to know everything. And if you're a young person in this room, then, uh, you, you're the target of this agenda. Uh, I, I cannot believe how many young men know everything. I was stunned. That I mean, like, "Wow, look at you. How do you get your head off the pillow? Gosh, I'm so impressed with you. Tell me about another YouTube video you watched." That's right. Send me the link. See, all knowledge does really is puffs up. Just, just makes you, it makes you, uh, disgustingly rigid. Because, because it's arrogance. It's arrogance when we just, when we just know everything there is to know. It's, it's arrogance. And that's, that's one side of the war. One side of the war is to make you God's opponent. See, God is opposed to the arrogant. You get into a cycle where you think you're smarter than God. I mean, that's smart. That is smart. Congratulations. You did it. You're smarter than God. And the other side of it is to fuel appetites for your appetites to rule you. Today in society, we call it passion. "That's not my passion. I'm not passionate about that. I don't want to do anything. Is it my passion?" Well, then don't do anything. Because most of what you do isn't your passion. The Bible talks about how our stomach becomes our God. Our appetites become what we're most orchestrating, most tantalized by. It may be a little early for C.S. Lewis, but "without the aid of trained emotions, the intellect is powerless against the animal organism." There's a war between your intellect and your appetites, between your mind and your gut. And the thing that's the regulator is your heart. What have you done with your heart? Because out of it flow the issues of life. What have you done? What are you doing to command your heart? Because your spirit man regulates the two things that unattended will destroy you and everyone around you. Well, I'm so smart. I'm always right. You are. You're right. You're right. You're right there on the couch tonight again. You're so right. It's got to feel awesome to be that right all the time. Wow, look at you. High-five yourself because nobody else is in the room. My appetites are just out of control. I just can't, you know, I can't stop touching myself. I can't touch. I can't stop touching myself. I got a wiener and I can't let go.
[Applause]
Let me show you.
[Music]
I'm willing to destroy my life pursuing my appetites and making sure that they are the priority over how they affect anybody around me. So your heart is your regulator. Your spirit man, the maturity of your spirit man is the regulator of these two very much key components of man. A man is, is a brilliant animal, really is. And we need you to be. We need you to be a brilliant animal. You're created in the image of the lion.
[Applause]
You're created in the image of the lion. Don't let that get out. So it becomes super important that we understand that my heart is my place of stewardship. It is, it is, you know, it is what makes me valuable to the people around me. Or unattended, it is what makes me so destructive. And, and then I'm easily accused of being toxic. And everybody can chime in and go, "Yeah, yeah, what they said. What the accuser said." Yeah. So the whole world is screaming "toxic masculinity." Why? Because of weak hearts. Because of weak hearts. Because of weak hearts. The biggest problem in the world is fatherless homes. Biggest problem in the world. And who is the, the one who suffers most? It's the people that depend on us the most. We've abandoned our role protecting women and children in society. Why? Because we're so dang smart. And I can't take my hands off myself. I'm not talking to anybody in here. I'm just saying. So we ask ourselves, what, what is, what's driving this problem? I, I think it's that we lost our courage. I think men are discouraged. Men are discouraged and confused about who they are and who they are. It's, it's a war. It's, it's, it's a strategic plan that you would be discouraged. It's, it's not an accident that the whole world wants to strip you of your purpose for being alive. So collectively, we stand in a, a generation. We stand in a season of life when we're not sure how to happen. I'm not really sure how to happen. Is that misogynist if I do it that way? If I, if I'm kind to this woman, if I'm gentle, if I am, uh, chivalrous, am I being misogynist? Maybe that's what it is. Maybe I don't want to do that. I don't know. Maybe, hey, you pay the bill. I don't. Maybe that's what's supposed to be. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm supposed to be way more feminine. Get in touch with my feminine side. Maybe somebody breaks in the house. Maybe I should wake her up. "Honey, go see who it is. I'll get the kids. Here's the pillow." We're kind of confused. I always want to tell you guys that your, your, your call in life, you're, you're to be troublemakers, man. You're supposed to have a deep, meaningful relationship with trouble. Hello, trouble. It's been a while since we last met.
[Applause]
[Applause]
But I know you're still out there.
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
And I have a feeling you're looking for me.
[Applause]
[Music]
What?
[Music]
Ain't no grace. Perhaps it is you that has forgotten me. Perhaps I need to come find you. Remind you who I am.
[Music]
It's an Gerber knife commercial. So it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I got three things I want to talk to you about. First thing is courage. I think we've heard that word about 18 times so far. But I want to talk to you about death-defying courage. I mean, I think everyone watched Todd last night nearly lose his head three times and then slide off the back of that horse and squat down in the spot where you're never supposed to stand by a horse on a horse. You just met this high-level pucker effect watching that. Like, "What is he doing? He knows what he's doing." We are all thinking to ourselves, "Never in a million years am I sliding off the back of a." And then just kind of wait for it. But therein proves his point. Once a man faces his greatest fears, the music starts. I want you to figure out how to apply this death-defying courage to the calling of your life. Because you've been called. You've been called. You've been anointed. And you've been assigned. You're on assignment in your life. And your assignment changes, but your calling doesn't change. Your anointings grow. Your assignments change. What your calling is, who you are, it's what you're designed to be. It's, it's, it's how you're supposed to happen. And your calling as a man of God is shared by every man in this room. You're all on different assignments. And at the same time, many of you are the exact same assignments. And then I want you to get good at being encouraging to each other. I think there is, there really isn't anything more encouraging than to watch men run together, to be a team, to be a squad, to be a brotherhood. It's the way this is supposed to work. It's the way you were designed to function as a tribe. And yet, the thing that we struggle the most with is feeling alone and isolated. And that just means that we are out of sync with our design. We're, we're wearing ourselves out prematurely. We're suffering unnecessarily. There's enough suffering in this world. It's, it's, it's a mistake to do it by yourself. Gentlemen, no, I just don't trust people. I don't trust them. I don't trust other men. I don't trust other women. I don't, I don't trust babies. I don't trust anybody. I just don't trust them. Bull. Bull. You just don't truth them. You don't truth people. You're not honest with people. You're not honest with yourself. And you're not honest with other people. That's why there'll be no trust established with anybody. Because there's no truth coming from you. You control your trust. Nobody else controls your trust. Because trust comes from truthing. And you refused to truth to other people. You refused to truth your wife. You refused to truth your friends. You refused to truth your father. You refused to truth God. That's how you end up with a trust issue.
[Music]
I'm gonna tell you a story. Um, my son-in-law over here, Ben. Stand up. Give him away.
[Applause]
Ben's from Australia, where, um, there aren't very many guns. They came to America, and we have, and we have armed him. Yeah. And, uh, Ben, Ben on his second hunt. His first hunt was for pheasants with dogs and shotguns up close. Except for Ben. Ben could hit him the farthest way. You're like, "Boom, boom, boom, boom." Everybody missed him. Ben, "Boom." Wow. That was a 300-yard shotgun shot. I did it twice just to prove that it wasn't luck. Second hunt was to Kodiak Island up in Alaska, to take him deer hunting on Kodiak Island. Yes, Kodiak Island is where they make Kodiak bears. And so we get there a little bit early, and we have a half a day that we didn't expect to have. So we, we're staying on a 60-foot fishing boat so that we don't have to deal with what is natural on Kodiak Island in our tents. We jump in a Zodiac inflatable. We go onto the shore of Larson Bay. We get off. There's six of us there. Three Alaskans, three lower 48. Please help me. We teamed them up. So each one has an instant increased odd of survival. And I teamed up Ben with the best guy that we had, Craig Mosley. Craig Mosley is like the Bear Grylls of Alaska. He's raised there. He's been outside. His parents just threw him outside. They don't let him in the house. He's just, just an amazing man, such a manly man. And he's such a brilliant animal with a godly heart. And I said to Craig, I said, "Dude, hey, I got one goal end of this week. I need to bring Ben home alive, okay? Ben has got to come home alive, or I'm gonna have a lifetime in trouble with my daughter." Got it. So off we go. Off we go. That pair goes that way. Me and my guy go this way. And Ben and Craig go that way. And the four of us basically just went on a strenuous hike for hours. We came back. We get to the, the shore where the inflatable's going to come pick us up. And here comes Craig and Ben. And Ben has his first buck on his back. Like, "No way! You got a buck? The first afternoon? That's awesome. Way to go." Wow. So we're back in the boat and we're talking and we're eating backstrap, and that's just so good now, fresh. And they start telling stories. I said, "Tell them about that, that bear that chased you." So Craig tells the story. And basically, there's this, he thought he was coming up on a moose with a black powder muzzle loader. Comes up over. It's a big bear. Click. It misfires. He had one shot anyway. Right now, he's got a stick. He's got a stick. And he is running. And he is screaming, "Bear!" As he has taken up off this hill. And he's got three other hunters with him. And they come running. Two of us, his boys, one of them was with us on this side. And they, and they start, they start shooting this bear. And 11 shots later, this bear piles up at their feet. Next day, let me get to the shore. These two guys go this way. Me and my guy go that guy. Go that way. Ben and Craig go that way. Me and my guy get two deer. These guys got a deer. We're at the shore. We're dressing them out. Inflatable guns fixes up. Takes us back. We get there. And there's Ben and Craig on the boat. Like, "Hey, did you get there?" "Uh, no, no. We, uh, went up a little farther than you guys. And, uh, we saw some bears. We didn't want to deal with that. So we went up a little further. Climbed up in this, this ridge. And we're looking down on this big bowl. And they're glassing out there. See some movement over here. And there's a bear about 700 yards across the bowl. Just looking at it." Craig's like, "That's not good." "Bingo. What's not good?" "Does that bear, he's just locked onto us." "Dang it." So Craig stands up and starts waving his arms. "Hey, bear! Hey, hey, hey! It's people, not deer." Cause that's what they eat, right? We're hunting their food. They chase deer down and eat them. "Hey, brave, come in. I want to talk to you about our Foundations of Masculinity 12-week video series that we created for the guy that wants to grow stronger as a man. If you want to become a better leader, a better father, a better husband, have better relationships, this course is for you. And here's the thing, you get 12 incredible videos that literally walk you through step-by-step on how to grow. You also have homework with each one that is honestly pretty effective. And lastly, you get access to our private Facebook group. We're on there chatting with you guys. You can ask questions. You can connect with other men that are just like you. Go to bravecode.org to check it out and you can sign up today." And like a switch, this bear just comes running for him. This bear is charging 700 yards through the brush. Now, the brush is this tall, right? So it looks like a car coming through the bushes. So Craig shoots a warning shot. Shoots another warning shot. It keeps coming. He shoots another warning shot. Keeps coming. About a hundred yards, which when a bear is coming at you, is not very far away. About a hundred yards, the bear stops. Looks up over the bran, the bushes, looking for him. See if they moved. But they didn't. Why? I don't know. But they're still standing there. And he shoots a fourth warning shot. His gun is now empty. Ben is watching this whole thing. This is his first hunting trip. Craig starts loading his gun. Ben starts doing the math. Four plus four does not equal eleven. And here comes that bear. And about 20 yards, which is the sound booth, a bear stands up again. Now, there's not much between that bear and them. Now, and they are both up on this bear. And Ben's like going, "What are we doing? What are we doing? What's next? What happens next?" And Craig says, "If that bear takes one step in our direction, we start shooting." And that bear drops and comes running at him. And Ben shoots and hits it in the shoulder, spins it. And Craig shoots and hits it in the neck. And that bear stops about 10 yards, rolled up. Two shots. And the four of us are listening to this story.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
I'll just give you a little perspective here. That is, uh, that's Lincoln, my grandson, laying on the bear before we hung it on the wall. Is Ben. You all right? And the captain of the boat said, "Well, I'm gonna have to throw some more chemicals in the septic after Bang got done in there." In a few moments. Well, probably in a couple hours. We processed for quite a while about that. And, uh, one of the rods on the back of the boat starts bouncing. And Ben goes back there and grabs it. Lands a 40-pound halibut. That's a pretty cool 24 hours for Ben. But I heard Ben and Craig talking later. And Craig said, "I think out of that whole thing, what amazed me the most was you stayed. You didn't take off running." It's because I've been with men in that situation, and they took off running. See, men with empty chests take off running. Now, Ben says it's because his legs didn't work.
[Applause]
But really, it's because Ben is a man of great heart. And he said to Craig, he said, "I wasn't going to leave you. He said, "I trust you. I wasn't going anywhere." And I trust you. See, this is death-defying courage. These are decisions that are made in the face of death. This, this is what we are designed to display again and again as men. That's what's in you. That's what lights you up. That's what gives you self-respect. Actually, gentlemen, when you run when no one's chasing you, you don't even respect yourself. We took a picture of Ben laying around after all this.
[Applause]
I've not posted it on my Instagram. But why is this so important? It's so important because very naturally, we have a deep self-preservation to deal with. I could argue that self-preservation was the original sin. I know, I know disobedience gets a lot of credit. But I think self-preservation drove that disappearance. Adam was afraid that he wasn't getting something for himself. He was tempted to become the rule maker. The temptation was God's afraid that if you disobey him, you'll be like him. See, God's the rule maker. God gave Adam one oppressive rule. Why? So that Adam would have a ruler. Just one rule. One. "Don't do. Don't do the tree. There. Just don't do it. Do everything else. Run around naked. I don't care. Just don't do that." Why? Because I'm the rule maker. And the temptation was God's afraid that if you break his rule, you'll be the rule maker. You'll be like him. And that is deep in the heart of men. It's deep in the heart of human beings. But I got a room full of men and two ladies. I just noticed we got a couple ladies. Sorry about that.
[Applause]
We are gonna figure out ways to save ourselves. We're gonna figure out ways to protect ourselves. We're gonna figure out ways to justify ourselves. We're gonna figure out ways to minimize other people. We're gonna figure out ways to deny truth. We're gonna figure out ways to be the master of our own universe. And only really be able to deal with people who agree with us. So when confrontation comes, when truth comes, our self-preservation rejects the truth so that we can stay the rulemaker. And I'm just talking to the pastors. See, the key to our, our freedom is really in our ability to practice sacrificial covenant. It's the antidote to self-preservation is that I will develop my heart to protect love over being right, or getting what feels good, over being the rule maker, over being my own comforter. I will stay right here and I will protect covenant. That's the best part of a man. The best part of a man is learning to love. Men actually are the standard bearers of love in the home. You, you are the one who sets the standard of love in your family. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her. That's your job. It's not the lady's job to set the tone of love in the home. You don't like the level of love and affection in your home? Get a mirror and hit yourself in the head with it.
[Applause]
There's the problem. Found it. I married the most loving woman I could find and sucked the love right out of her. She, she's been hardly but an empty shell. The woman I married, I fell out of love with her. That wasn't her job. It was your job. She wasn't built for that. You were built for that. You're the saturator of love in your home. Come on. You are the chief forgiver. You are the chief servant. You were built to thrive in sacrifice. And when you expect less of yourself, you dissolve yourself. You dissolve yourself in your own eyes. Because you know, you know that about yourself. Why death-defying law? Courage? Because that's what the heroes do. I mean, name a hero that didn't display death-defying courage. Not much of a hero. He was fast. That's about it. They're screaming, "Maximus! Maximus! Maximus!" Not because he was good at emails. Yeah. We, we are drawn to these displays of sliding off the back of the horse that you just met a half hour ago that tried to kick your head off three times. We lean into that and say, "I want to see that in my life. I want to be like that. I want to face fear like that. I want to protect like that. I want to lead my sons and my daughters in that." I want you to apply this to your calling in life. I want you to take death-defying courage and apply it to who you were created to be. Stephen Mansfield, if you haven't read "Man of Fire" or Mansfield's "Book of Manliness," then you need to go do that. He talks about tending your field. Essentially, what he's saying is, what belongs to you? Who belongs to you? Who has God given you? What has God given you? Are you paying that much attention? Do you know you are mine to care for? You are mine. This is mine to steward. These are my responsibilities. We watched a horse learn responsibility. The ability to respond. We watched this horse learn responsibility, be taken from what he thought was freedom, and learn to respond and become free. You're like, "Wow, that was such a brilliant illustration of what responsibility does." Who and what means that there are people and things that are yours. They're yours. And your leadership grows according to how well you handle people and things. But don't get them mixed up. Don't get people on things mixed up. Because things have a very specific relationship with you. Things are for your consumption and for your pleasure. You tend to the grill because that thing is going in your belly. And you can't wait. You can't wait to eat it, to consume it, all its goodness. I can't wait. I have a tractor. I get to ride a tractor. It's ridiculous how satisfying it is to just ride a tractor around. It's so much fun. It's, you take care of your house and your land and your responsibilities. We have five acres at our house, and it seems like something breaks every day, all day long. Stuff is breaking. Trees fall over, crush the fence. Couldn't have missed the fence. Couldn't have missed the fence. No. All the animals getting out. Thank you, tree. Oh, but the tree, only, only half of it fell off. The other half's coming in three weeks on the other fence. Why? Because these cuts. It's just how this works. But people, people are not for your consumption or your pleasure. People are for you to take care of, to love, to connect, to protect, to provide for, to nourish, and to cherish. People in your life have a completely different relationship with you than the things in your life. And if you get those screwed up, they're going to let you know. See, we actually form attachments, deep attachments with the things that we love. So when we love people, there are healthy bonds, soul ties. Soul ties are a goal for you as a man. Soul ties, tying your heart to another human being, being deeply attached, enjoying each other, experiencing great levels of joy, experiencing great levels of satisfaction with other human beings. It goes on to become your tribe. It goes on to be your people. It goes on to be your lessons about how you will conduct yourself. But sometimes we bond with things. We bond with stuff. And where your treasure is, there will be your attachment. Don't get them mixed up, gentlemen. Don't get them mixed up. Don't let yourself do that. You can control things. You can't control people. Don't make it your objective. We love people. We manage things. Responsibility leads to great. My timer is not working. So I'm, I'm supposed to be done in good. Okay. Okay. Just checking, checking in with boss. My instrument panel just went blank. Whoa. Responsibility leads to freedom. You don't have freedom without it. You got to take care of what belongs to you. And it takes courage to do that. It takes courage to be the standard bearer of love in your home. It takes death-defying courage because it's going to kill you. It's going to kill you. You will not recognize yourself after you become famous for love, starting in your home. A lot of people are great with strangers. Why? Because it costs you nothing. It's just your gift in operation. Be famous for love in you, in the relationships closest to you. That's where it's convincing. That's where you believe in yourself. That's where you quit making excuses. And, and don't be satisfied until you have that. Don't be satisfied until you have a reputation for love. It's pretty much the only thing in life you have to worry about. Did you learn to love? And then I want you to give to other people. Why? Because everybody's got their own grizzlies, right? Everybody's facing their grizzlies. Oh, you're not just gonna walk away and keep up stuck. You can get that. That's yours. Nobody else. Get in there. Give it some heat. Give me some heat, Daddy. Can you get it? Don't go away.
[Applause]
Impart this courage to each other, gentlemen. Expect it of yourself first, and then have something to give away. Don't just talk about it. Don't just preach about it. Don't just point at it. Don't just send a YouTube link. Live. Here's the deal. You're about to face two days of adjusting that's going to require your best. It's going to require the most courage that you've accessed in a while. And you're going to be dramatically impacted. And you're going to carry out of this place repentance. You're going to take out of this place a, a radical shift in paradigm. And you're going to say, "Hey, self, I expect more from you. I expect more from you here, here, and here." And you're going to get home, and you're going to walk in the door, and your head's going to bob just a little bit. Like, "Uh-huh, uh-huh. I already changed. I already changed. I'm different than I was." And I'm home. And pow! Everybody left is still there. And they haven't changed. They're waiting for you. They're waiting for you. You would better take more than you home with you, or pretty much everything you take home will leave you. You would better have a plan of how you're going to carry this into your new life. That is why you've got to learn how to stick together. You've got to have a plan. You've got to know how to give courage. You got to know how to receive courage. You got to know how to regular. You got to stay in this thing. And you're not gonna do it by yourself. You suck at solo. You suck at it. It's got the word "low" in it. You've got to team up. You've got to work together. You've got to have a plan. It's not gonna just happen by itself. I'll tell you something. Uh, about four years ago, I was up in Portland, uh, met with, uh, uh, William Young, the author of "The Shack." Bob Hassan and I are up there. Spent the day with him, just getting to know him a little bit. And, um, he said something just in the course of the, you know, we did, we said, talk about a bunch of stuff. But the thing that really stuck with me was he said a friend of his had just come back. Billy Graham was still alive, and he was in his early 90s. And the, and the guy says, "Billy, if you had it all to do over again, would you change anything?" And Billy says, "Oh, yeah. He says, "I, uh, I wouldn't have done any of the crusades. I wouldn't have done any of the big events. I would have poured my life into 12 men." I was traveling 200 days a year. Right then, I feel kind of stupid right now. I think that's a feeling. I'm happy. Stupid? A feeling? Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. I feel stupid. Yep. Just getting in touch with my heart. I would take 12 men and pour my life into them. Somebody else did that. Changed the world. Changed the world. Want to do some math real quick? If I pour my life into 12 men, and each of them pour their life into 12 men, and each of them pour their life into 12 men, by the time you get to the sixth level, it's 2.9 million. That's church growth right there. I chose 12 men. And about a year ago, we started doing monthly Zoom calls. These are men that I know. These are, these are godly men. These are men they want to change the world. These are men that are doing a good job with their lives in most of their lives. Someplace they're pooping their pants, but most the place they're doing a great job. All of us, we're doing a good job with. We love each other. They don't know each other. They all know me. They're learning to to know and love each other. But we're just walking together. And there is a diligent plan every month that these guys will jump on this call, and they will share life together. They will touch base. They won't let themselves get what Stephen Mansfield calls rusty. Men tend to have rusty relationships where, yeah, I, I got to, had a great time, hung out, played golf, went fishing. Was a great time. What was that? Oh, has it been three years already? Wow. I wonder how you're doing. I've been through a lot since I saw him last. Why? Because there's, there's no diligence to carrying each other. There's no strategy. There's no plan. We just hope it'll magically happen. We just hope that what's never happened will start happening. You know, high school, college, whatever it was, you had a group of guys. Hey, well, we're together. You said, "Because that's what we did together." Group guys work together. That's what we do. We work together. Get away from that relationship. Yeah. I can't remember his last name. Why? Because there's no plan to do otherwise. The natural forces of atrophy will will end that unless you have a plan to do something else. We, we schedule adventures. We're going to gather up. We're going to do this thing. Just in February, we were in Alaska. Went to Alaska. Nine of us could make it. We went to Alaska. Rode snow machines. They're called snow machines, not snowmobiles. You get, you call it a snowmobile, they give you a pink one.
[Laughter]
Snow machine. See the snow machine. We rode 65 miles into the lodge. We were there for five days. We rode a total of 300 miles on snow machines in Alaska. We could have died. We could have died. But we didn't. See how many of those? That's an adventure. That's an adventure. That's how you define an adventure. We could have died. But we didn't. And that's what I tell my wife when we got home. "But we didn't." She says, "Because I prayed for you, stupid man." Our families will know each other. They will love each other. They will grow together. They will build a legacy together. That doesn't happen by accident. I have inheritance and legacy in my life that I can give away because someone gave it to me. And it wasn't my family. It wasn't my family. I'll tell you that story some other time. But I have received inheritance from having an opportunity to be connected to covenant relationships. And other people don't have that. They will because of a generous, strategic, diligent, intentionality. So gentlemen, make it your intention to impart your courage to one another and walk together. The death-defying courage is so necessary because your self-preservation will drive you to try to save your own life. And that's a promise from Jesus that didn't make very many refrigerator magnets. "He who tries to save his own life will lose it." You're going to need that courage just to live up to who you've been called to be as a man of God. You're gonna need to know how to face rejection, false accusation, criticism, misunderstanding, punishment. You're going to have to know how to faith face what you're so deathly afraid of. The thing that kicks you into the worst. You got, you're going to have to cultivate courage just to be the man of God you've been called to be. Amen. All right, whole, healthy, courageous men. Somebody say that. Whole, healthy, courageous men. Greatest need that we have. Greatest need that we have in society right now is whole, healthy, courageous men. There's a solution to fatherlessness. There's a solution to mass confusion. And there's, there's the solution to weak, sickly homes. Going to heal our society. And really, you've probably heard me say this a bunch of times, but whole, healthy families are going to save the world. That's what I believe. All right, gentlemen, stand up. This is the starting line. After what you watched last night, just, just a perfect illustration. I couldn't have done it better myself. I wouldn't even have tried. It was fabulous to watch. But that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. This is a great-hearted man. And every one of you watching that and listening to him talk while he was doing it, you were saying to yourself, "Wow, I want to take some of that home with me." That's exactly right. That's exactly right. You're taking some of that home with you because you saw it. Now you do it. Because the way that men learn to be men is they do it. They do it. They don't just talk about it. They don't just watch it. They do it. And then they do it together. Because men learn to be men from other men. I learned to be a man from being around other men. I learned to be like those men from being around them. Women, girls become women. Girls become women because of biology, physiology. Boom. You became a woman today. Boom. Men, boys become men by learning from other men. It's true. You got it. You got to surround yourself with men that you love and respect. And then you got to have death-defying courage to stay part of it. To stay in there. To work through the struggles. To work through the conflicts. To work through the misunderstandings. We fight to build our love. That's what we do. So put your hand on somebody next to you. Just pray this prayer. "Lord, help him. Help him, Lord. Let's help him, Lord." So do you hear what he said? "Hey guys, this guy's gonna need some help right here." "Help him. Help him. Deep help him. Long." Oh, Jesus. Okay. Now take your hand, put it on your heart. I'm gonna pray for the guy that really needs this help. "Help me. Help me get this, Lord. Help me get this, Lord. That I would not get out of here untouched." In Jesus name. Amen. Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to the BraveCo Podcast. If you like this podcast, would you please rate it, review it, leave us a great comment. And if you like this episode in particular, share it with your friends and family. That helps us to spread the word. Guys, stay brave. We'll see you next week.