 Good afternoon, Pastor David. How are you doing, John? I want to welcome everybody to Unfiltered, and today's topic is something that really resonated with your message on Sunday, where you are exhorting the men to be men and to be present with our children, to be men of godly men to our wives, and it really stirred me up in some ways, because it seems like in today's world, there's this disengagement of dads that seems to be more prevalent, or at least more outspoken in the media, where they're making men look dumb in front of, in commercials, and there's this disengagement of dads in America at homes that has become a challenge of our time. And these are just some things I was just looking up. It says, one in four children now grows up without a father, doesn't count the dads who through physically present are emotionally disengaged with their kids. But the real toxin in our society is with the disengaged or missing dads. When men are not the problem, they're the joke. So as we are gearing up for our men's conference coming up in June, and then with your message that you spoke about on Sunday, I'm beginning to think as the senior pastor of our church and our men's ministry, how do we equip the men and to, or how would you encourage the men to be involved, to be engaged, to be the husbands to their wives and the dads to their children? What would you say to this pastor? I think that if there's anything, I'm trying to find the right way to say it because I don't want it to come off in a way that is unintended. I'll say it like this, John. I believe that if there's any, if there's any group of people in America that is fair game, to be made fun of, to be ridiculed, it's men. As you mentioned, I once said this to the church, and this was years ago, but I said, if you watch TV at all, watch the commercials, and then let me know how many commercials you see where a woman is made to be the butt of a joke. How many commercials do you see where the man makes a decision or encourages the wife or is looked at as being worthy of respect? So we've been demeaning men for years because there are no commercials that I'm aware of that ever present the man in any other way other than being kind of a cartoonish buffoon. He doesn't know what to buy at the store. He doesn't know how much things cost when you purchase them. The wife is the one putting the gas in the car. I mean, one thing after another in the commercial, it's always a strong woman and this weak, docile, passive man. And if there's anything that is lacking today, it's respect for men. I've heard women, feminists who have said, I don't need a man other than to donate the sperm that it takes for a woman to become pregnant. And that is so ridiculous as to be absurd. It just beyond me how someone with a thinking brain capacity to actually put thoughts together and make a coherent statement, it bothers me a lot, John, to see how easy it is for men to be blamed for all the problems. I heard another woman say, you know, we don't need men at all, same theme, but the response was, well then we're going to have to find other people, you women, to fight the wars, to build the bridges, to fix the roads, to do all the work, the manual labor that men who work themselves to death do for you so that you can live a life that has a little more ease. We're going to have to do that. I heard recently, for example, how that when the Ukrainian conflict began, that men anywhere from the ages of somewhere around 17 or 18 up to around 60 to 65 in the Ukraine were ordered to remain behind where the women and the children were all evacuated. And so you have the women going off to other countries, you know, and spending time away from the conflict. Well, men 65 years of age and boys who have yet to have an opportunity to grow into being an actual man, are they losing their lives to make it possible for these women and these children to survive. So we have denigrated men, and we have made men of no value for so long. And so no wonder these young men don't know what it means to be masculine, who don't know how to do the basic things that you and I and our generation, mine prior to yours, that we learned in order that we might have skills in order that we might provide. And so that has crept into the church, John, where men think that the women are supposed to do the job of nurturing children in faith, and they're supposed to be the ones to make sure that the family gets to a Bible study or gets involved in church or comes on a Sunday morning. And so I was trying to share with the fellows this week that they're sewing into the lives of their family, memories that constitute a legacy. One day, these men will go home to be with Jesus, and they're going to be leaving something behind. I mentioned how one of my granddaughters had asked me to write my favorite Bible verse and to sign my name in my handwriting, and to write her a little message so that she could put in her little memory scrapbook. And I was sharing with the men and the women, and I teasingly said to the ladies, this is man talk for a moment, you know, let me talk to the fellows. But I said, I signed my name, I put my scripture, Philippians 413, and then I wrote something to the effect of I love you with all my heart, baby girl, and I'll see you in heaven. And I said, I wrote those words because she will one day go to her memory, little scrapbook, should the Lord give her life. Long after I've gone, maybe as a young woman, maybe as a married girl, should the Lord tarry. And she's going to have this little memory scrapbook there with a message from her grandfather who told her what he felt was important, which is the message that's inferred by a sea in heaven. And I asked the men, have you given a legacy to your children, to your grandchildren? Do they know that you love the Lord and that you serve God? What are you doing to show them that? And I think that that's the answer. See, I used to teasingly say, because I'm a, what we used to call, and I still call a Chicano, I'm a Mexican American, and that's what we call ourselves, my generation. I'm not Latin X, whatever that stupid thing is. But we know that we leave something behind for our families, John. I want to leave behind faith. I want to leave behind a love for God and a memory that will guide my grandbabies and children about what their dad and their mama, with their grandfather and their grandmother was like. And so yeah, what can we do? Encourage the men to get into the word. I told them, give devotions, bring them to church, serve alongside of them. You don't have that much time. You think you do, but you don't. I've been with Marie since 1970. I met her since 1975 as a boyfriend and husband a lot of years, and my time is coming to an end sooner than later, not tomorrow, not next week, God willing, but soon. And I want to leave behind something that lasts and something that matters, John. And so yeah, what can I do? I can only encourage the men to be men. I can only encourage them to discover what it means to love, to cherish, to protect, to work hard, to provide, to be an example, to do the things that men do without complaint, to show them what it means to work and provide for family and have the satisfaction on a weekend to be able to mow your own lawn if you can and to and to sit down with the kids and to show them what a family really is all about. So I encourage the men to do that, and you do that through faith in Christ and getting in the word and being involved in your fellowship and developing godly relationships and covering your wife in the word of God in prayer. That's how you do it. And that's why we have these men's ministry events throughout the our campus and throughout the year to encourage the men equip them to be men of God. And it's a segue into our men's conference coming up June 3rd. We still we have tickets available for you men to come join us. And you know, we have you speaking that is a it's always a good thing to hear from our pastor, especially when you speak to the men. And then we have NFL Hall of Famer went to see went to Chaffee High School. And he's going to come speaking. He was from the Cincinnati Bengals. He's going to come speak with us and Anthony Munoz. A lot of us local guys know who he is. And maybe you guys don't know who he is. It was a good opportunity to come join us. And then Ken Graves from Calvary Chapel, Bangor, Maine. And so it's going to be a great lineup and a great opportunity for us men to be equipped to what we have one shot and one shot at this at our times drawing near. And so I want to invite the men to come. You can purchase your tickets online at the gazebo. We do have our service tomorrow evening, Wednesday. You're taking us through the book of Romans. Look forward to that. And so we have many opportunity men to be equipped in God's Word. And we look forward to seeing you get involved in and and pastor want to thank you for taking the time to hear your heart on this and what it is to be a man of God. So thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you mid for watching. God bless you and we'll see you soon.