Skip to content A Man's LIfe is Better with Life Giving Relationships Apr 8 · 36 min ...more
A Man's LIfe is Better with Life Giving Relationships
April 8, 2025 · 36 min
Pastor John Mark emphasizes that a man's life is enriched when he forms strong, healthy friendships and models biblical manhood.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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In this video 0:00 The Importance of Relational Living
The Importance of Relational Living 0:02 Welcome to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Keaton. Join us as John Mark shares his insights with other men in his ministry rooted in the timeless truths of the gospel. Today's message will encourage you to0:14 inspire, inform, and invest in the lives of others. This is men's breakfast with your host, John Mark Caton.0:23 Alright, guys. Hopefully y'all are doing well today, man. So good to see y'all. Happy Tuesday morning to you, and, good to see all the new guys, out there. We're glad that you are0:35 here. We do start a new series today, and, the new series is called a man's life. It's a man's life. We're gonna be looking at what God's word says about making0:47 sure, that, we have the kind of lives that model, the biblical manhood idea, the what it means to truly be a man. And so over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be looking at that theme,0:59 a man's life is better when, and then I'll fill in the blank biblically. Today we're gonna be talking about a man's life is better when we do like relationally, when we have the right1:11 friendships, the right people in our lives, and so that's what we're gonna talk about today, but along with that, just heard the idea of, praying for our country, kinda let me just share with you a little bit of what's1:21 going on as we move towards voting Tuesday, whether it's early voting, whatever. If you haven't noticed this, every Sunday morning, every weekend, we have a place to register to vote. We1:33 want anyone and everyone new from California, new from wherever you're coming from, Vegas or New York, or if you've just moved, we want everybody to have the opportunity to make sure you register to vote. So that's why
1:45 every weekend we have that right over that that, table right over there. Also, in this series I've started, that started last week with with reality check with the on your marriage, I'm gonna have 2 different
1:57 Sundays. 1 Sunday, I'm gonna talk about the purpose of government. What is the biblical purpose of government? And then you kinda look at, well, if that was the Biblical purpose of government, what is government doing
2:08 today that doesn't align with God's word? Well, that's probably most of it, right? Most of what they're doing, they've overstepped their bounds. Then the second question I'm gonna ask, should Christians be involved in
2:18 politics? How many of you ever heard anybody, say, man you just kinda keep your faith and keep religion out of politics? And I'm gonna deal with that biblically and I'm gonna talk to you about, hey listen, let me tell
2:29 you what, if we leave politics, this country's in trouble. Alright? This country is in trouble. So that is a, that is a red herring, that is
2:41 a false narrative that Christians should stay out of politics. Man, let me tell you what, if we don't bring our faith into the voting booth, our country, our kids,
2:53 our grandkids are in trouble. And so I will deal with both of those as we come up. Now I also know, just to let you know, that about this time of year, anytime we go into election season, I get
3:05 sent a lot of podcasts about, maybe there's a prophet so and so and a prophet here that wants to do numerology that Trump is this or Harris is that. Just know,
3:17 it it I got 2 options for you. I can sit around and watch all your podcast. Preach what? Or I can prepare to preach and teach you on the weekends. So I I choose the latter, and
3:29 so I I want you to know, if you send me if you send me a podcast and I will if I pull it up, if it's more than 7 minutes long, it will not get watched. I I mean literally,
3:40 I've had a couple recently sent to me. When I open up the podcast, it's an hour and 32 minutes. Guys, I I just want you to know I can't do it. Alright. I can't do it and actually talk to y'all every once in a
3:52 while, but we're active in politics. We believe in them. I I think everybody in here, your passion, your purpose right now needs to be able to vote. You decide who you're gonna vote for. Go vote with conviction. Vote
4:04 with courage, and don't be don't be, don't be shy and make sure that it happens. Alright. So if we go back to where we are, that's what was coming up. We obviously know this election season, and there's gonna be a debate
4:15 apparently. Well it'd be interesting to see, will I be watching it? Absolutely. I will watch it, I won't just read what people say about it afterwards, I kinda wanna save it, watch it, make sure I know what happens. But,
4:27 a man's life. Listen guys, we have to step up. And if you look in God's word, there are certain things that men need to do. And I wanted to start with this, that a man's life is better
4:39 when we do things right relationally. Think about it. Go all the way back to the creation of the world. Remember, god created this was good, this was good, this was good, this was good, this was good. Then god created
4:50 Adam, and what did god say? Uh-oh. I cannot leave him in the garden alone. Right? A lot of times we think, well, the problem took
5:02 place because God created woman. And she said let me tell you. Just imagine what would have happened to the garden had you left Adam all alone. Right? There would have been beer cans everywhere. He would have cut
5:14 down all the trees. There would have been a bunch of tree houses. He would have killed all the animals. Right? And God would have had to start over. So let me tell you, the first thing God said, it is not good for man to
5:25 be alone. Right? And so men, I want you to know, God never created us. Although we are different than ladies, and I'll share a little bit of the recent research, you'll know it. It's obvious. But although God
5:36 created us to be more manly and and live a little bit more on purpose for ourselves and not quite as relational than, than ladies are, he still created us for relationship.
5:48 Think about how God describes the church. Right? God describes the church as a body. Right? Look around. Just look around the room. We're we're we're the body of Christ. What does that mean? You can use the analogy.
6:00 Some of us are the eyes. Some of us are the ears. Some of us are the fingers, the hands, the legs. Right? But that also means some of us are the buts. Right? Look around. Who's the but in the room? Somebody's gotta do
6:11 it, guys. Somebody's gotta do it. Can I say that before 7? I can say that before 7. But the reality of it is, when you think about when God created the world, it's not good for man
6:23 to be alone. When God created the church, he says we're the body of Christ. That means we have to be in relationship with each other, and not everybody's the same,
6:35 not everybody's just alike, and so that's what we want to talk about today. Really, what it truly means to do life right relationally. How many of you
6:47 have at least 1 really, really, really good friend in your life? 1 really good you don't have to fake it, guys. You don't have to hands again, hands again. Alright. Well good. That's
6:59 most of us. It's it's a struggle. If you know, 2 years ago, I I lost through a car wreck, 1 of my lifelong friends. Went all the way back to middle school, all the way through
7:10 college, college roommates, buddies, and stuff like that. That was 1 of my lifelong best friend. Anybody have a friend that you cannot see them in 3, 4, 5 months, you sit down and
7:22 the first word, it was like the last 3 or 4 months were a comma and you finished the same sentence? Do you know what I'm talking about? Alright. That was that dude for me. That was him. Now I've got other 1, and so I
7:33 want to encourage you, have those kind of friends. You know the definition of a great friend is? A good friend will help you move, a great friend will help you move the body. How many of you knows? Right? That's when you
7:43 know you have a great friend. Good friends will show up and help you move, Great friends will show up you show up and move the body, and so as we think about what it means to be relationally, I think probably a great
7:55 analogy, of what it truly means, to, to to be the kind of relational man God wants us to be. I think it's the 2 major
8:06 bodies of water, actually there are 3 in Israel, but the 2 major bodies of water. Let's just put the illustration up here. If you if you look at, you know this image, you'll see this image.
8:20 That's, alright. If you look all the way at the top, notice that is the Sea of Galilee. Notice the blue line is the Jordan River. What's at the bottom? The Dead
8:31 Sea, alright. Guys, here here's where we are. You and I, we as men, God created us to be the Sea of Galilee, not the Dead Sea.
8:43 And so if you notice the Sea of Galilee, if you follow the blue line, that is the Jordan River. It goes all the way up to the north, to the Herman Springs, to Mount Herman, alright. That's where the Jordan River starts.
8:55 It flows down into the Sea of Galilee. What do we know about the Sea of Galilee? It's teeming with, a wildlife, with fish, it is a great place, it is where a lot of the miracles that Jesus performed is, where he
9:07 walked on the water, they caught all the fish. Man, that is the Sea of Galilee, but what's unique about the Sea of Galilee, why it's so special, with every other lake in the world is this, that not only does it
9:19 receive life, it gives life. Right? Now you go down to the Dead Sea, what does it do? It only receives, it never gives.
9:31 And guys, I wanna encourage you with this, God created us to be the Sea of Galilee. That there are other people that are pouring into our lives relationally, they were receiving the God's
9:43 word, but we are also then pouring into other people's lives. Does that make sense? That if all you do is take, take, take, receive, receive, receive, and never
9:55 give, give, give, you're gonna be more like the Dead Sea than you are the Sea of Galilee. And so that's when when I talk about man, a man's life is better when we do things right
10:06 relationally. We have to understand that. Now, relationships are different, I I I just Googled, the last couple of weeks as I prepared for this, what are the differences, some of the unique differences between, male
10:17 friendships and female friendships? And we know many of these. It's kind of funny, everybody talks about well those old stereotypes go away. Let me tell you what, The current research is just like the research from a
10:28 decade ago, which is just like the research from 2 decades ago, which is just like the research from 50 decades ago, that men and women are different. How many of you know that?
10:40 Shocker. God created us different. You just take as it relates to words in, in a conversation, in a friendship. Who uses more words in a friendship? Men
10:52 or women? Women. Women. It's not even close. God, I don't know how y'all know that. None of y'all have PhDs from Harvard or anything like that. You haven't studied genderology and you know
11:04 that. Right? Because intrinsically, god made men different than women. We speak with grunts, we would rather do an activity together, we'd rather be sarcastic, we would
11:16 rather deliver 1 liners, isn't that? That's how you know if my friend, I'm your friend, right? I'll tell you, there are 5 love languages, that was with my wife. Speak. Okay? There's a sixth with my dudes.
11:27 If I am picking on you, I love you. Right? If I am sarcastic, I love you. So when it comes to words, women use way more words than men. When it comes to emotions, just news
11:39 flash, who's more emotional in their relationships, their friendships? Men or women? Hundred percent. It's not uncommon for ladies to share in a story and have a
11:51 conversation and both of them be crying about nothing. Right? A dude can express this incredible loss and you're like, dude, I'm sorry. Fist bump?
12:03 Right? That's that's as emotional as we get. Right? It's like, yeah, man, I am all in. I am hurting right with you. Fist bump. Right? That's all we do. Emotions, man. They they just, you know,
12:15 they they they're way more emotional. What about activities, man? In friendships, who chooses activities more? Men or women? Men. Right? We'll
12:27 choose to go do something. They'll go sit down and have a cup of coffee. I'm not against coffee. Right? I love coffee. I function on coffee. God created coffee, right? But men will say, hey, let's go hunt, let's go,
12:39 play golf, let's go go to Topgolf, let's do this, let's go to a game. We choose activity based things whereas ladies just sometimes wanna sit down and they wanna have conversation together and they wanna do something.
12:50 And it's more, for them about being together than doing something. Conflict resolution. Dudes have a tendency to do 1 of 2 things when it comes to conflict with a friend.
13:02 Either fist fight or forget it. That's kinda how we operate. Right? If it's really, really bad, we're gonna settle it right there. If it's not bad, we actually are better than ladies at overlooking
13:14 small offenses. How many of you know that? If you're married, you know that. Right? If you're married, you know that. You're like, that was not a big deal, and she's going, it was a big deal, and you're like, no, it
13:24 really wasn't a big deal. But here's what happened when it comes to conflict, dudes are actually better than ladies at just saying, yeah, that that that stung a little, but he probably didn't mean it, and it ain't worth
13:35 making a big deal about, I'm moving on. Whereas ladies will wanna have this dive in deep conversation, let you know how they feel, and you know, as men, how many times you looked at your wife and you just said, I'm
13:47 sorry, is that the right answer? And and she'll say, no, because I haven't finished delivering my words. You can wait till then. Right? And so as we think about we're
13:58 just different. Touch. When it comes to touch, ladies are much more in tune with hugging at the end of everything. Now what do we want, a handshake? Maybe a shoulder bump, fist bump,
14:10 something like that. Touch, ladies love a lot more touch in their friendships, hugs, and encouragement, and just being present. So let me tell you, we are different, but guys just because we are
14:22 different, we don't ever wanna be the dead sea, we always wanna be at the sea of Galilee. So let me ask you a question, guys. Who's pouring into your life, and whose life are you pouring
14:34 into? If all you do is receive, you will eventually begin to smell. You will not serve. And so that's the challenge, guys. I wanna
14:46 encourage everybody in here and everybody on the podcast to understand this point. A man's life is always better when we do things right relationally, and I want you to know this is not
14:58 a marriage conversation. You know, if you think about your life and all of our lives, we really have, it has been described and probably rightly so, with kind of 5 concentric circles
15:10 of relationships. Okay, and they start from the very core, and they move out. Now I want you to know that of those 5, the first 3 are non gospel
15:21 centered relationships. Alright. Those are people that we just do life with with. The last 2 concentric circles need to be purposeful, but those are gospel
15:33 centered relationships. In other words, those are people that I am looking to create a relationship with to potentially share faith with them and lead them to
15:45 Christ. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna show you a verse here in a few minutes where Paul had already written a letter to the Corinthians to tell them to separate themselves from immorality. Then in first
15:56 Corinthians chapter 5, I'll show it to you here in a second, some of the Corinthians had gone so far in separating themselves that they didn't have any relationships with lost people, And Paul says, hang on,
16:08 let me correct you for a second. I never told you to separate yourself from immoral people who are outside the church. He says, now if someone calls themselves a Christian
16:20 and continually commits sin, I want to encourage you to back away from them because they're probably not a Christian. But he follows it up and he says listen, I never told you to leave the world. And so guys, I
16:32 want you to know, you need to be thinking about the different levels of relationships that you're gonna have in your life, that you can have them pour into you and you pour into someone else, but there are clearly, as we
16:42 look in God's word, some relationships we need for the purpose of sharing the gospel. Does that make sense? Alright, so let me just talk to you a couple about a couple of, about a couple of these. I wanna take some
16:54 notes. You know, how can we be relationally healthy? Number 1, we all need to establish a core group of strong friendships. A core
17:06 group of strong godly friendships. If you think about Solomon in his old years, Solomon was that was that king that God blessed with wisdom, but as
17:18 he got to the end of his life he realized he messed up in a lot of ways. The book of Ecclesiastes is his book of regrets. It's his book of golly, I blew it a
17:30 lot. But if you go to this 1, it's a passage you know, Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9, he reminds all of us as men, he says, guys, don't ever forget, 2 are better than 1 because they
17:42 have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, 1 can't help the other up, but pity anyone or pity the fool who falls and has no 1 to help them up. Also, if 2 lie
17:54 down together, they will keep warm, but how can 1 keep warm alone? Though 1 may be overpowered, 2 can defend themselves. A cord of 3 strands is not quickly
18:05 broken. Man, just think about what he said. If you just look here he says, man, 2 are better than 1, they have a good return. Man, at the office, how many of you know production matters,
18:17 right? He says 2 are better than 1. We we love a good return. He says another thing, they can help you out. Man, do you ever stumble, do you ever fall? Do you have that good friend, do you have a couple of good friends,
18:27 your core group of good friends, that as you're going through something and you fall, that they can help you back up. He says you can keep warm. The idea is not is obviously in their day, you could be a shepherd or you
18:39 can be out in the cold weather and a front comes in, man, 2 can stay warm. One's gonna freeze to death, and there's coming a freeze in your life. There's coming winter
18:51 will show up in your life. How many of you know that? Sometimes unannounced, it just shows up. You can have defense. He says man, 2 can defend themselves. So I want you to know, Satan is always
19:03 roaming around looking for someone to devour. And you will be stronger to stand against temptation and the wiles of Satan and wiles of devil, if you have other men
19:15 around you that can help you stand. Man, we need to have those kind of men around us that will help us stand when difficulties come our way. Alright, so here here's what Jesus said in
19:27 Luke chapter 6 verse 31. He says, do to others as you would have them do to you. You say, what does that mean? Alright. Let's say that you are in here and you don't have friends. You don't have a good core group of
19:37 strong friends. Well, here's how you develop a friend. Start start acting like a friend to other people. Does that make sense? I love what Zig Ziglar said, great legend of yesteryear. He says
19:49 listen, if you go around looking for a friend, they're scarce. But if you go around looking to be a friend, you'll find a lot of friends. Does that make sense? What does a friend do? Show up, hey, what do you need? What
20:00 can I do for you? Man, if you show up all the time saying give me give me give me give me, you're looking for friends, He says, I I wanna encourage you to walk up, be the sea of Galilee, be a giver.
20:12 Be someone who shows up and you say, what does that mean? It's not just my money. Man, just start walking up to dudes and give them a word of encouragement. Shake their hand, put a smile on their face, put a smile on
20:23 your face, and so I want you to know, if you walk around looking for friends, they're scarce. You look at you walk around acting like a friend, and being the sea of Galilee, you'll find friends
20:35 everywhere. If every time you show up in someone's life, they just have a little smile on their face, they feel a little energy, man, I'll tell you, you'll find friends everywhere and I love that
20:47 idea. C. S. Lewis put put it this way, says, don't waste your time weathering, wondering whether you love your neighbor, just act like you do. Isn't that a good word? I mean,
20:59 nineteenth century great theologian, he said don't waste your time wondering whether you love your neighbor. Just act like you do. How many of you live in a neighborhood? Alright, just from here on
21:10 out. Don't wonder if you like them or not, just when you see them out, act like you do. Man, just act like you do. And then what'll happen is you'll establish a relationship and have and that's what I do at my house,
21:22 man. When Gene and I love to move, I do. I like to move because it's an opportunity for me to clean out her junk. How many of you do that? Every time we move, we make several trips, always
21:34 move myself, but there's always at least 2 trips at the to the dump that she has no idea about. Right? But then there are also those shocking moments that some Christmas she'll
21:46 go, hey, do you know where this is? Yeah. And that's when I leave and go play golf. You say that's not Because truth or I will say, no, I
21:57 don't. I knew well, then you see, that's not true. That is true. You're like, well, you're lying. No. No. No. No. I took it to the transfer station. I'm a hundred percent
22:09 sure it's no longer at the transfer station, but I don't know where it is now. Alright? I hope Gina doesn't listen to this, because I just say, so I don't know where it is. That's a that's a good opt out. Y'all feel
22:21 free to use I've got other great marriage tips if you need them. First of all is just be really, really lucky with the woman you marry. Alright, cause I was really really lucky. It's not that I'm really good at it, but
22:32 that's all number 1. And we gotta develop a good core group of friendships. I love Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20. Says walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools
22:43 suffers harm. How many of you ever heard the quote show me your friends and I'll show you your future? How many of you heard that? How many of you ever told your teenage boys or or daughters that
22:56 show me your friends and I will show you your future? Guys, that applies to us. If you're in here and you're in your twenties, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. If you're in here and you're in your
23:07 thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, or eighties, show me your friends and I'll show you your future. And I love it. There it is. Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. Look
23:18 at Proverbs chapter 22 verse 24 and 25. Do not make friends with a hot tempered person and do not associate with 1 easily anger or you will learn their ways and get yourself
23:30 ensnared. He says, listen. Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. Guys, if you wanna grow in your faith, if you wanna put a smile on your face, surround yourself with people that are growing
23:42 in their faith and faith and putting a smile on their faith, right? If you really want to get to where you can serve God and love God in a more real and powerful way, surround yourself with people that are are serving
23:53 God and and loving God in a powerful and a real way. So that's our core group. Who's in your core group? Hopefully mentally, everybody in this room, you were thinking of 2
24:05 or 3 guys, that's my core group of friends. Alright? Show me your friends, I'll show you your future. But then there's a second level as we move out to those concentric circle, develop
24:17 solid relationships with other believers. Alright? So now, you've got your core group, you've got this small group of guys, when it comes to coffee time or breakfast, you're calling them all the time. But then I want to
24:29 encourage you to develop a larger group, a broader group, of friendships with just other believers. Now remember, the earlier, the smaller concentric
24:41 circles are not gospel centered. Right? I I just want to surround myself with believers. You say, where do you see this? Look at John chapter 13 verse 34. Here's what Jesus said. A new
24:53 commandment I give to you, that you love 1 another. As I have loved you, so you must love 1 another. By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples if you love 1 another.
25:05 So Jesus is talking about I have that core group of good and godly friends, alright, that I'm gonna surround myself with. But then I also wanna have a large group larger group of believers. Now
25:17 this larger group of believers, they can be baby Christians. They can be strong Christians. They can be anyone in between That I wanna develop, and that's what you do. Men's group, a church.
25:28 This is where church would fall into this category. That I can't be friends with everybody, but I can be friends with more people. That I wanna have a bunch of other guys. So that way if someone in my core group all of a
25:40 sudden gets transferred or leaves, and as I think back of my ministry years ago, when I started out, Gina and I started out, early in ministry doing young marriage ministry. It was
25:52 not shocking to us, nor should it have been shocking, should it be shocking to you, that some of those closest friends we first had when we got married, 1 of 2 things happened to them.
26:04 1, is they were climbing the corporate ladder, most of them got transferred. How many of you ever had a good friend that got transferred somewhere else? You got, especially in your twenties, right? But then some of them
26:14 we stayed with through the years, and sadly they went through divorces. And so that's why we're always looking to have this larger group, this larger body of believers, because as I've
26:26 journeyed in life, some of the people that were in that second or third level of friendships are now part of my core. Does that make sense? As someone got transferred,
26:38 someone surrendered the ministry, someone left, man, so I want you to know, always surround yourself with these kind of people who are saying, listen, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love 1
26:49 another. I love what DA Carson said, great theologian. How many have ever heard of the gospel coalition? Gospel coalition, if you've heard of it, DA Carson and Tim Keller, started the gospel
27:01 coalition. Here's what he said about friendships, or or this new command. He said, this new command to love 1 another is so simple that a toddler can understand it and memorize it, yet
27:12 so profound that most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed about how we flesh it out. Does that make sense? It's so easy to say, listen, love 1
27:24 another as I have loved you. That's a new command. And he goes, Everybody's gonna know how much you love each other because or how much you love me by how much you love each other. And he says, Listen, that is so simple
27:36 that a kindergartner can figure it out. But it's so profound that most of us, if we look back on some of the conversations, some of the things that we've done in our lives, we would be embarrassed if Jesus
27:48 said, did you understand those 2 verses? And really what it means for you? So I want to develop a larger core of people. Now, so let me give you a couple of biblical keys, you might want to write this
28:00 down, to developing a good and solid friendship. Alright? Number 1, it includes acceptance. Acceptance. We have to accept
28:12 that others have a past. Guys, when you think about your friendships, man, whatever you do, don't ever look for a guy that doesn't have
28:24 a past. If all we ever did is exclude people that didn't have a past, Jesus wouldn't have chose any disciples. The new testament church certainly wouldn't have included
28:36 a guy named Saul who became Paul. You know, but a lot of times what we can do if we aren't careful, we can hear about a guy's past and we can exclude him. Man, we want to include that guy, so
28:48 we want to start with acceptance. I love what Romans chapter 15 verse 7 says. Accept 1 another then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. Number 2,
29:00 acknowledgement of God's command. Guys guys, I want you to hear me right now that you being a good friend to other believers, especially the more mature you
29:12 get, it is not an option for you not to be friends with other believers. You say, where do you see that? Look at first Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 9. He says
29:24 this is what Paul says talking to Thessalonian men, the believers. He says, now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love 1
29:36 another. You know what Paul is saying? I don't even need to write this down because because God's already told you. Guys, I'm gonna tell you right now, part of God's call and command in your life is that not
29:47 only would you allow yourself to be someone else's friend, but you would go look for other people to be their friend. And that's the idea of acknowledgement of God's command. This is a this is a command. Here's
29:59 action. Man, action, you better take action. You accept them, you acknowledge God's command, and then you accept, that you make each other better. Here it is, Proverbs chapter 27
30:11 verse 17. As iron sharpens iron, so 1 man sharpens another. That's action. That means we spend time together. That's why Justin talks about this house build, this 1 day house build. Hey,
30:23 I I love what Justin said. We can all do it. How many of you are good woodworkers in here? Right? See, I'm so envious of y'all. How many of you are like me, you're you you would like to
30:35 be good with wood? Right? It's kinda like I'd like to sing, right? But I'm just not any good at that activity, right? And so here's what we know. Action is what creates friction
30:47 which makes us sharper as men. As iron sharpens iron, we need to do stuff together as men. And sometimes we need to understand, I may not feel like it,
30:59 but I need to be connected because friction makes us sharper in our faith, in our walks as men, as fathers. And then finally, the allegiance. Man, we have to have some allegiance to each other
31:10 during difficult times. I love Proverbs chapter 17 verse 17, a friend loves at all times and a brother is born in a time of adversity. Man, when someone's going through something hard,
31:22 that's not the time for us to exit. That's some that's the time for us to show some allegiance. Man, difficult times, I'm gonna walk you through this. Man, I know you screwed up. I know
31:34 you made a mistake, but I'm not gonna walk out. I'm gonna stay here. I'm gonna be in. I'm gonna be here and help you through this. Man, that's when we know we've developed true friends. We gotta accept each
31:46 other. We gotta acknowledge that being friend, being a good friend is God's command. Man, we have to have some action to sharpen each other. We have to do stuff together, and then finally,
31:58 some allegiance when difficult times show up. Alright. Here's the next idea. Ready? Now we're out to those larger circles. Alright. Your first circle that you that could be those 2 or 3 good guys, and I will tell you,
32:09 your core group of friendship may not be anybody in your family. The next group is probably it probably includes some people in your family, but it also includes some
32:21 other people in the church. That third group, man, this is people in the church. This is people you see just on Sunday mornings. You walk by, you say hello. These next 2 groups, when you get to them, these are
32:33 gospel centered groups. That these are people I am creating a relationship with because I am supposed to share the gospel with them. Let's go to Mark chapter 2. Let me show you this example
32:45 from Jesus. It says while Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who had followed him. When the
32:56 teachers of the law and the Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? On hearing this, I love this,
33:09 the these these, Sadducees and these scribes and the teacher of the law, they whisper into his disciples ears. They didn't wanna go to Jesus. Right? They just wanted a little gossip. They they started gossiping, they
33:20 started whispering and said, hey, did did you notice your leader? He's with these tax collectors, with these sinners, with these people, and I love what Jesus did. On hearing this, Jesus said, let me answer that
33:31 question. Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
33:43 Guys, let me ask you a question. Who in your life are you having intentional relationships with that are gospel centered? Your purpose
33:56 is to bring them to faith. I can tell you this, that I have many relationships that are gospel centered. Now, I will tell you, it's
34:07 hard because if you haven't noticed, most of my job is dealing with Christian people, but that still does not give me the right not to create
34:19 gospel centered relationships. Most of my gospel centered relationships right now are happening at Lifetime Fitness. Monday through Friday, sometime between 9 and 11, I'll be over there. I'll be wear wearing some reality
34:32 check t shirt or some momentum tech t shirt or a make room t shirt. And guess what? Someone will say, that's my pastor, that's my pastor, that's my pastor. They'll come over, tell me their problem.
34:44 And then I know that God has just set up an opportunity for me to walk downstairs and have a cup of coffee with somebody. And so I want you you know guys, a man's life is always better
34:56 when we do relationships right. We need a core group that those are our closest people. We also need to step beyond that, develop a larger
35:08 group. That is where church, and by the way, church is what I'm gonna talk about Sunday. That is where church and life groups come in, that larger group. Those are not the people you can spend all your time with. Then
35:19 you also need gospel centered group. Who are you connected with right now that your greatest desire is to see them come to faith. That's the way a man's
35:31 life gets better.
35:35 Thank you for tuning in to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Caton. For more information on John Mark's ministry and resources, please visit johnmarkcaton dot com. Until next time, remember, we're
35:46 on this journey of life together.
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