Skip to content True Friends: Warriors of The Heart Jun 17 · 20 min ...more
True Friends: Warriors of The Heart
June 17, 2026 · 20 min
We are digitally connection, and emotionally disconnected. Digital friendship does not equal real relationship. What do we need? True friendships, warriors of the heart!
Series Disconnected Connectors June 17, 2026 · 20 min · Disconnected Connectors
We are digitally connection, and emotionally disconnected. Digital friendship does not equal real relationship. What do we need? True friendships, warriors of the heart! ...more Show the full description Show less We are digitally connection, and emotionally disconnected. Digital friendship does not equal real relationship. What do we need? True friendships, warriors of the heart!
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In this video 0:00 The Power of True Connection15:20 Community: God's Design for Growth
1:50 and it's often forged through difficult times. It's in the challenges that friendship is usually created. I love when little kids talk about their best friends. That's so
2:02 cute. It's a little naive and there's a small cynical part of me that wants to encourage them and say, for sure Tommy is your best friend. He's been that way for the entire 3 years
2:14 that you've been on this planet. It's adorable. I love their heart for community, but it reveals something that you and I should look into. Right? Because when I hear that a part of me wants to correct them and say,
2:26 you've got acquaintances. You've got classmates. You might have teammates, but you haven't lived long enough to have friends. Because you haven't suffered
2:38 and endured and shared and encouraged and given. You haven't cherished and celebrated and fought with and fought for these people long enough
2:50 to call them friends. Listen to what George Washington, our first president says about what real friendships like. He says, true friendship is a plant of slow growth. It
3:02 must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it's qualified as friendship. Look at some of those words, slow, undergoing, withstanding
3:14 adversity. That's true friendship. And instead of often seeking this, we're tempted to accept a fraudulent substitute. Right? Instead of that enduring and growing,
3:26 we want the shortcut. 1 of the greatest enemies today to seeking, developing, maintaining the type of real and deep community that we were designed for is
3:38 that we believe a lie. We believe the digital lie that we are already connected. We believe that digital connections are real
3:50 connections. All of our technology has given us the illusion of connection, the facade of friendship. Right? We have followers. We have connections. We even have
4:01 friends on Facebook, but this type of connection is not real because it requires nothing of us. None of the
4:13 hard work that real friendship requires. It provides none of the important benefits that face to face, life on life connection provides. American sociologist Sherry Turkle shared
4:25 her thoughts about this new form of digital connection that many live in. She says, we're lone full we're lonely rather but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections and the social robot may offer the
4:37 illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other even as we're tethered to each other. Ultimately, we'd
4:48 rather text than talk. We have a generation growing up who does not recognize their desperate need for connection. They lack the tools necessary for making the
5:00 connections because they believe they're already connected. Brothers, we need friends. True and deep friends. We need to be connected. We need a herd,
5:13 a unit, a pack, a team, an army. We don't need more casual acquaintances. LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends. We need real,
5:24 true, and authentic friendship. We need Timbrogi. Now That last word probably caught you off guard there. I didn't mispronounce it. Pastor and business coach Carl Martin, 1 of my
5:36 favorite authors, unpacks this beautiful term. It was actually a term held by the ancient Celts to talk about the men who surround your heart. He says the ancient Celts had a category of friendship they called symbrogy.
5:49 It meant sword companion of the heart. Those who love you fully, who will stand with you permanently. My Simbrogi get me and they let me be me.
6:01 They have full permission to speak into me and their voices are loud in my head in my heart. I carry them with me and they carry me. They carry me.
6:14 Just like the men carried the crippled man to King Jesus tearing holes in the roof to get their friend in front of the Lord, to get their sim brogi in
6:25 front of king Jesus. Do you have those type of men in your life? I praise god that I do. Brothers like Sean and Chris and Ron who will tear holes in roofs to put me in front of the king, who will tell
6:37 me when I'm out of line, in love, who will speak truth to me. I'm reminded daily that alone doesn't work, but the connection does. Scripture tells us to pray for 1 another, not to
6:49 find forgiveness, but to find healing. Well, I need to be with 1 another to be prayed for and to pray for. Connection wins. We reference it in our first session, but this is often
7:01 quoted at weddings. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verses 9 through 12 reminds us how specifically we are benefited from connection. It says 2 people are better than 1. They can help each other
7:13 succeed if 1 falls. The other can reach out and help them up. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, 2 people lying close together can keep
7:25 each other warm. But how can 1 be kept warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But 2 can stand back to back and conquer.
7:37 3 add in the Lord Jesus are even better for a triple braided cord is not easily broken. Now look at the juxtaposition of the connected life and the disconnected life. The man who's alone
7:49 grows cold, he's exposed, his life's uncomfortable, it's uncertain. It says he's easily attacked and overcome. That's us when we're alone. But the connected
8:01 life it says, it's better. They help each other succeed. They watch each other's backs. They offer insight. Watching each other's back. Scripture gives us the armor where
8:13 to put on every single day in Ephesians chapter 6. Right? The armor of God, we put it on. The helmet, the breastplate, the shoes, we put it all on. You notice that our back is exposed? That's because I'm supposed to be
8:24 standing back to back with my sword companions. When they stand back to back, it says they conquer. Remember guys, community was God's plan. All that told goodness, it
8:36 only shows up in a life that's connected. Even when we think we don't need it, even when the remnants of COVID have kept us apart. We don't need to go to church. We don't need to be in a small room. We're better off just
8:47 kinda hanging out at home. Let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do. But encourage each other especially now that the day of his return is drawing near, it says in Hebrews 10
8:59 25. Now, let's close our time together in this session by unpacking. This is just 3 of the greatest benefits that we find from living in community. 3.
9:11 1 is there's a part of life with God that we only experience in community. There is a part of our life with God and in God that is completely communal.
9:23 When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he started off by saying our father, reminding them all that follows guys is a prayer that happens in community. Christianity is a team sport.
9:35 So much about our faith, our relationship with the father, we miss out on it, and we're not a part of that faith community. We miss out on the beauty and the power of corporate worship, of praising God
9:47 together along with others who rightly see King Jesus for who he is. We miss out on the blessing of praying for and being prayed for 1 another. Praying for 1 another should be 1 of the most
9:59 common occurrences in the life of God's man. We get the beauty of the broken body, the church. The the gift of navigating
10:11 the challenges of personalities, the difficult of difficulties of being in relationship with people that are broken just like you, just like me. It's 1 of the most important parts of our faith.
10:24 1 of the greatest things that we experience is the opportunity to love people that are difficult to love. That's when we start to look like our father. But that's just a part of the life that we get to experience with
10:34 God. So there's a part of life we only experience in community. There are spiritual muscles that we only exercise in community. There's a strength that is only developed within
10:46 community. Remember last time we talked about all those pesky 1 anothers, bear 1 another burden, pray for 1 another, forgive 1 another, bear with 1 another. We find that we can only do those when we are
10:58 in relationship with someone else. It's difficult to 1 another yourself. This is huge part of our faith. It's only developed. Spiritual muscles that only get strong when we're loving and serving and
11:10 giving of ourselves to someone else. And in that community, another way we're strengthened is god starts to reveal our blind spots. Proverbs 14 12 reminds us that there's a
11:22 way that seems right to a man, but it ends in death. At some point, we've all believed that our way was right as we were heading towards death. Praise god for the man, according to Ecclesiastes, who had
11:34 a brother to throw his arm around him and say, let's not go this way. This road leads to death. We need godly brothers who love us enough to tell us difficult truths.
11:46 Because like we said, alone, we can convince ourselves of just about anything. We can justify any behavior. We can reason our way into and out of anything but in community. In
11:57 relationship, there's a balance of opinion. Scripture says there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors. They help us see reality about ourselves and our situation. There's an
12:09 experience only had in community. There's a strength only found in community, and there is a beauty to life that we only enjoy in community. There is a
12:21 beauty to this life that we only enjoy in community. Surfing a great wave, eating a great meal, a mountain bike trick. Those are all great things. They're way better
12:33 when you enjoy them with a friend, when you share them with a friend, when you celebrate their achievements, when you push each other through different struggles. There's a beauty to life only experience a relationship.
12:45 My wife and I just hiked across Catalina Island. Not across. Right? It's a 20 something mile hike across. We took a 7 and a half mile scenic hike to our campsite. We camped backpacked in and camped for a
12:57 couple days. It was beautiful. We hiked. We snorkeled. We enjoyed God's creation together, but it was even a better experience because 4 of our best friends came with us.
13:09 And we laughed. We encouraged each other on the long pack laden hike in. We pointed out fish that we otherwise would have missed if we were snorkeling by ourselves. We shared our provisions because
13:21 we overpacked and we underpacked. We shared our water. There's tons of stuff we forgot. We laughed so much. We read scripture together in the morning. We just enjoyed being together.
13:33 Stu Webber says together. It's 1 of the most powerful words in the English language. Geese know how to use together for their full advantage. They seem to know instinctively that life's a team sport. What did he
13:45 mean? Geese. Have you ever watched geese fly? Similar to seagulls, pelicans, you've seen the beauty of the big giant v. It's not just aesthetic.
13:58 It has incredible purpose. Check this out. The geese fly in a v because it adds 71 percent range than if they were flying by themselves.
14:09 71 percent. As each bird flops its wings, it creates updraft for the bird that's following it and so on down the v. They're literally lifting each other up with each flap of their
14:21 wings. The bird carrying the highest load is the 1 in the front. But as that 1 tires, it moves to the very back and just gets carried along and another takes its place. That's the picture of the
14:33 life that god intended for us. Not just a beauty, but a strength that is only found when we live connected, where we can
14:44 fly 70 percent further than we ever could alone. Where when we have those moments that our wings start to fail and that we tire, that we can
14:56 move to the back and just be carried along. Brothers, we have to face the reality. The stats in our culture don't
15:08 lie. Alone isn't working, but it's a really good thing. We were never intended to live alone. And community has generational
15:20 benefits. Benefits that we'll start to impact next time.
Community: God's Design for Growth
15:27 Greetings, men. Kenny Luck, founder of Everyman Ministries. You know, after 30 years of helping men in the mental health, pastoral, and coaching context, the 1 working assumption I've operated on is
15:39 this. Men, they're like icebergs. You only see the tip. Under the waterline of the image that they are projecting and the lives that they are living are massive spiritual, emotional, and relational
15:51 battles they recognize, but they're just not talking about. And it creates a dissonance. It creates spiritual plateaus. It creates unresolved tensions within
16:03 that start to eat away at their faith, eat away at their hope. It opens them up to spiritual attack and lies to the point where so many, if they were honest, would say, I believe in God and I believe his promises are
16:15 true, just not for me right now. Have you ever felt that or thought that? Well, here's the thing. So many men I counsel and coach say the same thing. I'm attending church. I'm reading my bible. I'm going
16:27 to men's group. I'm praying, but I'm not sensing or experiencing God the way I see it promised in the bible. You know that abundant life that Jesus speaks of. I'm I'm not breaking through,
16:38 and I know there's more. I just don't know how to get there, and it's confusing me. It's affecting my relationships with God and other people. Now if you've ever felt the same way, if you've ever had any of those
16:50 thoughts, welcome to the club. As men, we go through different seasons of personal, professional, and, yes, spiritual life. And listen, that calls
17:02 for new Christ formation, new faith steps, new discoveries, and new thinking. You see, there's no big mystery here. The big wheels of life, of relationships,
17:14 Christ formation, and of fulfillment turn on the hidden axles of what the Bible calls your inner man. So when the Bible says, watch over your heart with all diligence for
17:26 from it flow the springs of life. It's not calling for new outer spiritual behavior management. It's calling for a new you. You say, how do you know, Kenny? Because God called
17:38 me personally into a new season of Christ formation after 25 years as a pastor and counselor. And you know what I needed? I needed a community of brave brothers, of
17:50 professional men who were spirit filled, and I needed a solid process and godly coaching to walk me into a new place of strength, a place of powerful sacrifice, a place of complete
18:02 tenacity in my purpose, a place of growing authentic generosity, and a place of meaningful insight into myself first and for other
18:14 people. That's my promise lane. What's yours? If you're like me and you want a new place of growth, if you want the dissonance to go away, if you want an inner breakthrough in Christ, if you want to discover what is it
18:26 that is holding you back spiritually versus continuing to say some narrative to yourself and other people, just lean in right now. There is a next adventure in God
18:38 and in life waiting for you. But the old thinking, the old victories you cling to, the old patterns of living, just the old thought processes are not going
18:50 to cut it in this next adventure God has for you. The promised land that he has for you. And that's why I'm inviting you into the every man promised land living experience, where Christ formation
19:02 advances in new ways, where the language of the heart is spoken, And where the enemy, he takes it on the chin and strongholds are broken. You want your next adventure in Christ to
19:14 begin? Then fight the good fight like I did. Believe. God is at work. Register. Get into an every man promised land group. Our team of trained coaches are eager to meet
19:26 you and to start getting you prepared for the greater works of Jesus in and through you for this next season and adventure of life.
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