Author: Gary

By Joby Martin
Love is…
The love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape love—a sacrificial, selfless love. It’s the kind of love that compelled Jesus to go to the cross. According to the Bible, the opposite of love isn’t hate—it’s selfishness.
Love says, “It’s not about me.”
Selfishness says, “It’s all about me.”
Jesus remained on the cross because He chose to. He didn’t just endure every ounce of physical pain—He also bore the full weight of spiritual pain by drinking the cup of God’s wrath toward sin. And He still stayed. He still chose us. Because love is greater. Love never ends.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4, we’re given both a description and an application of what love truly is—not what you think it is or feel like it is, but what real, agape love actually looks like.
Are you always patient and kind?
Do you ever envy or boast?
Are you ever arrogant or rude?
Do you keep a record of wrongs or hold grudges?
You get the picture. If you’re honest with your answers, you wouldn’t just fail the love test—you’d go down in flames.
Let’s call it what it is: Men, we have a problem—and the problem is us. You can’t willpower your way into living out agape love. But you can connect to the source—The One who is love—and draw from Him.
Think about it this way: if you go to church every week, memorize Bible verses and sing every lyric to every worship song—but you don’t know love—then you don’t know God. As 1John 4:8 tells us, “God is love.” This means He exists in a perfect love relationship with Himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and He is without sin.
Out of the overflow of His love for Himself, God created mankind. That’s why humans are the only part of creation with the ability to love: we alone were made in His image and likeness. We can love because He first loved us.
This means that if you have placed your trust in Jesus, He has taken your record of wrongs and nailed it to the cross. If you want to love others as Christ loved, you must first experience His love for yourself.
What do I do now?
Every day, kneel before King Jesus and ask Him to show you how to lay down your life for those you love.

Pastor Joby Martin
“Be Strong”
Now that you are all armored up, it is time to anticipate a battle. It is time to be strong. The strength the Bible talks about isn’t just the ability to perform physically demanding tasks— it’s the ability to withstand great force and pressure.
If you’re a godly man, Satan will place an incredible amount of power and pressure against you—and no amount of muscles, guns or money will be able to stand against that.
Jesus, the most powerful man in all of history, shows us what truly defeats Satan by living it out and finishing the job for us. Before Jesus redefines what it means to be great, powerful and strong, He begins with the gospel. What looked like the greatest moment of weakness in the world turned out to be the ultimate demonstration of power and strength.
If you want to possess real strength, it must be within God’s economy—which is unlike the ways of the world. Instead of pursuing power, possessions and position, you must become a sabbathed man, a persevering man, a humble man and a serving man.
To be a sabbathed man means living out the godly rhythm of resting for work, not fromit. When God created Adam and Eve, the first full day they experienced was a day of rest—to abide with God. They hadn’t even worked yet.
True sabbath rest is found only in the risen Christ. It is a gift from God that reminds us we need Him—and that He delights in us.
Jesus shows us what a persevering man is at the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, He cried out to God the Father, asking if there was any other way to fix the mess we’re in. He sweat drops of blood in anguish, fully aware what the cross would require—yet He still chose to go through with it.
The only way to satisfy the wrath of God against our sin was for Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin and make payment on our behalf. We get to drink the cup of God’s grace because Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for us.
Jesus took responsibility for things that were not His fault—and that’s part of what it means to be a man. He had all the authority of heaven and earth, yet He leveraged that authority to endure suffering on our behalf. To be strong means you must make yourself vulnerable and expose yourself to pain and discomfort for the benefit of others.
A humble man is one who submits to the authority God has placed over him. Jesus shows us that real strength and security is not demonstrated through displays of power, but through humility. Why would God trust you to live with authority if you are not living under it?
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve—and give His life as a ransom for many. Before going to the cross, He clothed Himself like a servant and washed the disciples’ feet. He stooped to the lowest position and took on the dirtiest task—even for the one He knew would betray Him.
He didn’t preach a sermon. He didn’t perform a miracle. He didn’t beg them to behave. He served. And His motivation for serving was love.
The measure of a man is not in power, possessions or position. It is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. What kind of man are you?
What do I do now?
Stop making excuses. Get up and start serving—your wife, your kids, your friends, your coworkers, even your enemies.

By Joby Martin
“Stand Firm”
Are you killing the sin that is trying to kill you? Standing firm in the faith requires taking sin seriously. Sin is like an apex predator set on destroying your life—and you’re not meant to pet an apex predator. We’re not called to tame our sin or invite it in to cozy up with us on the couch. We are called to put it to death.
So how do you do that? You start by being honest. You’ll never learn in freedom until you learn to walk in honesty. Start being honest with God and with others you can trust.
Call the sin in your life what it is, and remember: our fight is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces. The Enemy has been watching your game film—he knows which lures to use to tempt you. And the thing about temptation…is that it’s tempting.
So how do you combat the schemes of the Enemy? Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the whole armor of God so that we can stand firm in the face of temptation and trial. To stand firm doesn’t mean leaning back on your heels— it means shifting your weight forward onto your toes, ready for action, prepared to fight.
The first piece of armor we are called to put on is the belt of truth. Truth is under assault in our world today, and as a man of God, you are called to fight for the truth—not a truth rooted in opinion or preference, but the truth: what God has revealed to us in His Word. If you are not equipped to fight for the truth because you don’t know it, open your Bible and start reading.
The second piece of armor we are called to put on is the breastplate of righteousness.To put this on means that when you place your faith in Jesus, He places His approval on you. When God looks at you, He sees His sinless Son—not because of anything you’ve done to deserve it, but because of what Christ has done on your behalf.
This means that God cannot be dissatisfied with you, and that truth should compel you to love and guard the hearts of those around you.
The third piece we are called to put on is the shoes for your feet, having the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Here’s what that means: when you walk into a room, do you bring peace or chaos?
Through Christ, you have been reconciled—brought to peace with God. Because of that, you can be an ambassador of peaceto others. But carrying that peace forward requires a life marked by confession and repentance.
The fourth piece of armor is the shield of faith. Ephesians 6:16 ESV says that “in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” Notice it says in all circumstances, and that all of the darts will be extinguished. All doesn’t mean sometimes or when you feel like it—all means all.
A shield isn’t meant to be used individually—it’s even more effective when locked together with others in battle. Do you have a band of brothers you can lock shields with?
Next, is the helmet of salvation. Just as the breastplate guards our hearts, the helmet guards our minds. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to take every thought captive that comes against the truth.
This leads us to the final piece of armor: the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This is the only offensive piece of the armor—your weapon against the Enemy. It is your responsibility to know the Word of God and teach it to your family.
When you put all the pieces together, here’s how to sum it up: Bow to Jesus. Then stand up and act like a man. Dress yourself for battle and go to war to defend and protect your loved ones. Stand firm—because your victory is in Jesus.
What do I do now?
Get in the habit of praying Ephesians 6:10-18 out loud every week with your band of brothers.

“Be Watchful”
Have you ever watched little boys pretend to be soldiers? They tuck toy guns by their side and army crawl around the house, looking left and right, peeking around corners. The older brother usually tells the younger one to stand guard at their fort and keep watch for the bad guys.
This is a picture of what God is calling men to do. Whether you’re single or married, young or old, with a family or without family—being watchful is a high calling, and you’ve been given the strength to fulfill it. But here’s the thing—your strength is not primarily for you; it’s for someone else.
We have a real Enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy. He aims to take out the defender, so that everyone else is left defenseless. When the Enemy takes out a man, everyone suffers. The ripple effect is devastating when a man abandons his post in pursuit of something—or someone—else.
The Enemy uses at least five key tactics to take out men: pride, anxiety, laziness, isolation and lust.
Prideful people have two options: be humble or be humbled. Every knee will bow before King Jesus. You can either bow now—by choice—or wait until it’s too late and bow at a time of His choosing.
Anxiety is closely tied to pride, because when your identity is wrapped up in anything other than you being a child of God, worry creeps in. You panic about things like money or status, because if those things change, you fear your identity will too.
Laziness is wrapped up in a relentless pursuit of comfort—and that pursuit is completely at odds with the gospel. While you sit by, distracted and abdicating responsibility, the Enemy is prowling around, looking to devour the ones you love. Wake up. Sober up. Get in the game. Pursue Jesus, your wife, your children, your friends.
In prison, the ultimate form of human punishment is isolation. Have you ever thought about that? I know you think you don’t need people or help, but if that isn’t one of the biggest lies the Enemy uses, I don’t know what is. Who does the lion go for in the herd of antelope? The weak one—the one all alone on the outskirts, dragging behind. Isolation puts a giant red target on your back, and the Enemy wants you to keep repeating the three most dangerous words: “I got this.”
You don’t have it. There was only one man in the history of mankind who did—and you’re not Him.
The fifth tactic—lust—is not explicitly stated in the Scriptures you read today, but I think we can all agree it is a powerful tactic of the Enemy, perhaps even the most powerful. If the other four tactics are arrows trying to pierce you, lust is like an arrow dipped in gasoline and set on fire. Lust has destroyed marriages, families and entire lives.
As the apostle Paul writes, “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV). This doesn’t mean to toe the line or flirt with it—it means to run away as fast as you can.
If you were the Enemy, how would you come after you? The answer to that question is exactly where you need to get in the game and fight. But don’t fight alone. Without Jesus and His Spirit living in you, you won’t make it very far. You need Him—and you need brothers around you who you can be real with.
Remember, you are fighting from Christ’s victory, not for it.
What do I do now?
If you don’t have godly men in your life, start asking God to provide four men who will come alongside you—men who will pick up your mat and carry you when you can’t fight anymore. The best way to find these kinds of men is to commit to being that kind of man for others.