The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
From David’s Warriors To Today’s Brothers: Camaraderie, Masculinity, And Kingdom Mission
What if brotherhood forged in risk is the missing key to vibrant faith and real leadership? We open with an exploration of 2 Samuel 23—David’s Mighty Men—and why their grit, loyalty, and costly devotion still speak to church life today. This isn’t a call to cosplay toughness; it’s a call to purpose. We talk about hands stuck to swords, raids for a cup of water, and the kind of character that inspires people to risk big and worship bigger.
We also tackle the thorny question of alliances. Can we partner on mission with people who don’t share all our beliefs? We say yes—with discernment. The kingdom advances when we stop confusing disagreement with enmity, and when we recognize allies without surrendering convictions. From community cleanups to school-board courage, we highlight how collaboration can serve the common good while staying rooted in biblical truth. Along the way, we rethink how “unequally yoked” gets misapplied and offer a better path toward mission-first unity.
Iron sharpening iron gets practical here. Sharpening needs difference—temper, shape, and tool. Real growth comes when diverse strengths refine us, not when clones affirm us. That’s why inner circles matter: trust is forged in risk, not in talk. We argue that to be Christian is to be a leader by default, because discipling is influence. And we reclaim a robust vision of masculinity: acquainted with violence yet governed by restraint, strong enough to act and humble enough to worship. The rallying cry is simple—“Not on my watch.” When darkness presses the gate, we stand shoulder to shoulder for the King.
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Were you or someone you love coached to join True Love Weights or take part in a youth group promise ceremony? Were you given a ring symbolizing a commitment to purity only to find it broken, tarnished, or not what it promised to be? For years, youth groups across the country handed out promise rings as a symbol of faith and dedication. But for many, these rings were cheap, defective, or falsely advertised, leaving behind broken promises and emotional distress. Were you traumatized by the emotional high of your commitment only not to make it pass in your prom? Were you led to believe that a promise ring would strengthen your moral superiority only to ride the roller coaster of guilt and shame by not lasting past a fake-hilled video of Samahayek walking down the street in Desperado? You're not alone. At Turtullus and Associates, we're investigating claims against manufacturers and distributors of faulty promise rings sold to churches and youth groups. If your ring caused you to break your promise prematurely, caused skin irritation, or didn't live up to the hype, you may be entitled to compensation. Join the thousands of others who trusted these rings and were let down. Our class action lawsuit holds these companies accountable. There's no cost to join, and you can receive a cash settlement. Call the number on your screen today. Offer not valid in Michigan or Idaho. And if I might add, has been getting a lot of play over in foreign countries as of late. So everybody is not um citizen of the United States or might be listening abroad, or all the broads that might be listening, hats off to you. Welcome to the Well Foyo Podcast. We appreciate you tuning in. We really do. Thank you very much. Um, it is not about us, tell you the truth, not about you, but it is about the kingdom of God and anybody that we can reach with the kingdom of God, we are more than happy and excited to do so for our King, Jesus Christ. So this is going to be unusual. C Dub just got up from a power nap. We were doing some high-intensity activities, blowing off a little steam. And Bones, you know, all about blowing off a little bit of steam and engaging in some high-intensity activities. And I sent you a message a couple hours ago. I was just thinking about the camaraderie. Right. If you've not been there, there's no way you can know. Church mothers, there's no way you'll know. Ahab P. Whipple and his wife Jesse, there's no way you'll know. If you haven't been there, done that, been in some high-intensity situations, have blown off a little steam. This is what men do. And some of y'all won't understand it. And the reason that you don't have more men attending your church services on Sunday is because you don't understand. So let's get in the word for ourselves. 2 Samuel chapter 23, verses 8 through 39. Here's what I'm getting at. In your walk in kingdom living versus your walk in church attendance, you're going to come across a group of people. I will not use the urban slang that I hear a lot of people using, although I understand it. I hear people talk about ride or die. Please. I was born in 74 bones. You were what, born in 70, 71? 71. We do not revert to such ghetto terms. Nor such low speech, sir. But there are those that you've been through the thick and thin with. And after doing what we were able to do today, and after going into unknown situations and not knowing what the world was going to go on, I mean, literally, you're placing your life in someone else's hand. And if you've ever seen the movie A Few Good Men or the play, where old Jack Nicholson, Colonel Nathan Jessup, you know, uh, do you know what it's like to put your life in a man's hand and ask him to do the same? I did that today. And on multiple occasions per month. That's what me and my guys and gals do. And if you've never been in that position, there's no way that you can understand. Bones, I know you have been in that position. And as we were blowing off a little steam, having a few beers, eating a few chicken wings after all was said and done, I go, there is nothing on planet Earth that can substitute for this. That experience, that camaraderie, that shared peril, that shared risk, that shared brother and sisterhood that you go through with people. I said the only thing I I find in the Bible that really compares is when it records about David's Mighty Men. Bottom line is a lot of us in the church world wouldn't like David's Mighty Men. Hell, some of us might not even like David. Right. But you know what they did is they got stuff done. These were not necessarily even God-fearing men, but they loved David.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And David loved God. And since they love David and David loved God, these were men that serve God. As much as that might mess with your theology, I think it gives really good insight into how kingdom works versus how our church mentality is. And especially in today's life and times, you know, I was thinking there's a guy named Scott Pressler. If y'all aren't familiar with Scott Pressler, Scott Pressler was good friends with Charlie Kirk. And as much as Charlie Kirk was active politically and he brought Kingdom into the political and academic realm, for some of you that want to get theological, he invaded several mountains, mountains of social influence. One of his top dogs that he would roll with was Scott Pressler. Now, is Scott Pressler morally right? No, Scott Pressler is an openly gay guy. But you know what? His morals were enough in line that him and Charlie Kirk were able to set that aside. And they go, you know, actually what we want for the country is the same thing. And so we will work together, and while everybody else is pontificating, Scott Pressler would go up and clean trash in bad neighborhoods and start doing voting drives. And the fact that some of y'all listening are having problems with that right now is the reason that you need to be really careful not to say that wrong is right and right is wrong and all that. Not saying that at all. But the fact that you can't get past that and go, the kingdom serves a greater purpose, therefore, we need to do kingdom work. The fact that you can't get into that mode is a big reason that you are in severe risk in these days and ages of squandering what the Lord has blessed you with, with the influx of people asking about the kingdom of Jesus Christ that are going into your churches every Sunday.
SPEAKER_02:The inability to see past um your differences, uh, the ability to get past those differences and uh uh to ally with someone, um, to yoke up with someone uh for for sake of uh of a mission, common mission, is is what probably one of the biggest downfalls of the Western Church. Um and a lot of it has to do with you know, we we gotta make sure we gotta get all the doctrine right, uh get all the theology right. Uh we gotta get everybody on the same page. Uh um and and we got all kinds of scripture to back ourselves up with that, uh uh not being unequally yoked and all that stuff, which is when in that context is taken way out of context. Um but yeah, the uh we have to we have to do better at um at getting past differences and being able to uh link up with folks and uh ally up with folks so that we can um meet our mission. Because I think in a lot of ways we're we're failing that in that part. Um if we were to do that, then we would see that there's a lot more common ground than there is uncommon ground. Amen. And I think that's where that's where you start, that's where we start to build the rapport. Uh where uh well it starts with rapport, and we just then we get into relationship, and then we start to that's really where um each other's message starts rubbing off on the other. Um you realize that the person sitting across from you um may not have some doctrine, right, some theology, right? But they've got some other stuff that is right that you're weak in, um, and vice versa. To me, that that is literally what the um iron sharpening iron is about. Uh and and I I guess we're gonna have to dive into this some other time. Um but uh that is what iron sharpening iron is. Uh and the reason I say that is because if we if we get into that too deep, um it takes a different kind of iron to sharpen another kind of iron. It does. And I guess we're gonna have to dive into that into the next podcast or two.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'll give you a little hint. It depends on what kind of fire you've been through. And the other way iron can sharpen iron, because that episode where we were talking about that today aired today, even though we recorded it a little under a week ago. Yeah, a lot of it has to do with the shape. Yeah, not everything is shaped the same. I remember uh Mr. Crow teaching shop class, man. How do you sharp sharpen iron? Because really, you don't really use iron to sharp iron. We today we use steel to sharpen steel, and you would never get the finest sharpening as steel versus steel or iron versus iron, but you could use a rasp that was tempered and shaped to file down a rasp and a file to sharpen things to a certain point. But after that, man, it's taking leather.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we we use we use stone more than anything. Yep. And then yeah, you get your leather.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, flint flint and leather are the two main things modernly used. But to get it to that one point, you could use a file or a rasp.
SPEAKER_02:Right, right. So so yeah, it it takes it takes um different types of people working together to really uh to really improve each other. And uh what it does is it you know it brings each other out of the shell. Uh it uh forces you to see something from another person's point of view, which is not always a bad thing. Um and no one's asking anybody to accept another person's unbiblical doctrine or or or unbiblical lifestyle. Uh that's not the point. Uh the point is um we have to be able to recognize uh when there's an ally sitting in front of us and and when there's not.
SPEAKER_01:There's no way that Charlie Kirk would approve of Scott Pressler's lifestyle, but they also recognized that they were not enemies just because of that. And they were actually on the same side on a vast majority of issues. I'll tell you one thing that's going to offend a lot of y'all because a lot of the church-going Christians were afraid to speak out, especially when they when the big transgender push and the pornography that was being pushed in the public school libraries and just public libraries. Do you know who the biggest ally of Christians was as far as stood in the gap and would speak out and be even confrontational when Christians were afraid to? Was Muslims. Yeah. Muslims show up at a school board meeting and get in people's face. Yep. And you know what? Am I a Muslim? No. Am I pro-Islam? I'm actually not. But I respect the fact that they were willing to go and enter the public arena and risk all the stuff that a lot of us are afraid to risk and speak out because it needed to be spoken against. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Right. We we've had this um this really bad way of um if a person doesn't agree with me, then they're my enemy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that's we just can't do that. That's that's not the case.
SPEAKER_01:And as much as people might want to have uh no kings protest, which is a bunch of crap, the reason you're protesting no kings is because you don't know the king of kings. That's right. Yeah. Look look at the source, but we we don't want authoritarianism, but yet if somebody doesn't agree with us 100%, then we're gonna find a way to fight them. So he's being authoritarian. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And so what we're talking about here basically is masculinity in the in the church. Um, and David's Mighty Men, I think is a really good, really good picture of uh what a man's man might have looked like back in in that day and time. Amen. Um and there's nothing wrong with men being men in the church um uh and whatnot. Um men ought to be, you know, hunters and and and and gatherers and protectors and providers and and all those things. Um and you can do that and still be yourself uh in church on Sundays without having to without having to change anything. Um but uh that hasn't, you know, and I think that's starting to change a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Um I I really see a move, a counter shift, if you will.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's there is a shift occurring. Uh there's more and more uh speakers coming out, uh, you know, pushing, if you would, that point of view. Um, but there for a number of decades, uh the man was uh expected to come to church, uh be quiet, be quote unquote nice, uh and uh and and whatnot. And and really the it's almost seemed like the the women were more vocal.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the men were being neutered and feminized.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. Um so and that creates problems, uh, because you know, without uh without the men, um you know, then you you you lose certain uh characteristics uh of the body of Christ that's necessary for for uh for replication.
SPEAKER_01:And there's there there's some of you that are gonna go.
SPEAKER_00:Now now would you risk your eternal salvation just to risk the the thought of being neutered and and and and being compliant and what people say or having to do that? Is that really worth worth the risk? Your eternal yep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I don't I don't see it as a risk.
SPEAKER_01:No, but but that that's what it's framed as.
SPEAKER_02:But that's what it's what is posed at, yeah, it's how it's uh taken up as. Um because I look at David, and you know, David was the apple of God's eye, and and you know made his mistake. Oh man, he's a man's man. Man after God's own heart and all these things. But don't be mistaken. Um he he he took down a line and killed a bear and uh, you know, with his bare hands, he wasn't no pushover.
SPEAKER_01:And he attracted people that were the exact same way, exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:He was he was a man's man, and and and you know what, chicks dig it. Uh so that's just the way it was, and and I don't think there's anything wrong uh with that from a male point of view, uh, as long as you're not violating scripture as you do it.
SPEAKER_01:I'm wild and a little crazy too. Some girls don't like guys like me. Um some girls do. That's right. Uh it but here's the thing uh Jesus Christ is the seed of David. Yeah, there you go. So do you think that everybody that he called had a halo? As is perceived in the medieval art. Do you think everybody he called had a halo over his head? You can read about Peter.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Why were they called sons of thunder?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, James and John. Yeah, there's a reason. He called men of action to be his disciples. So that being said, let's get in the word for ourselves. 2 Samuel chapter 23, verse 8. And bones, you feel free to stop me at any time. All right. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. Good lord. I had to choose this chapter. Uh a Tecemonite, chief of the captains, he was called Adeno the Esnite, because of the 800 who were killed by him at one time. This is not your church deacon.
SPEAKER_02:He got a he got a body camp.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Cracked him up, dude. And after him was Eliezer the son of Dodo, the Ahonite, one of the three mighty men. You got an inner circle here just like Jesus had an inner circle. Yep. Eliazar, son of Dodo the Ahonite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there with battle, and the men of Israel had withdrawn. He rose up and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and it clung to his sword, and the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the people returned after him only to plunder the dead. I'm gonna tell you something. There's a guy that we used to work with, and I might get in trouble for saying this, but it's true. There's a dude named Chuck Roth. Chuck Roth was not a nice guy. No, not at all. Here's what I respected about Chuck Roth. There was a lot of people at our job, especially at that facility, that would be your buddy to your face and talk smack to your back. Chuck would talk that shit straight to your face.
unknown:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:And I respected that. Big reason I got involved back in tactical operations, Chuck, Chuck Roth. I was a little bit disillusioned. I probably tried to do too much too fast. Got burned out, and it was there, there were two guys I can say hand in hand that really got me back into being manly. That's Chuck Roth and Jacob Noel. God bless them both, despite all their flaws, and they have a crap load. Good lord. You never had to wonder what they were thinking. No. What you saw was what you got. And if you if you didn't know, all you had to do was ask, and they'd probably tell you before you asked. Oh yeah. Chuck told me one time, I have trouble trusting a man that doesn't have the same blood on his hands that I do. A lot of truth in that. A lot of truth. Never really had that much blood on my hands, but you know, every n every now and then you gotta press the envelope. And again, if you don't understand, you just don't understand. You've not been in that. But it was one of the things that made a lasting impression on me.
unknown:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:So this is kind of the context of what we're talking about. Verse 11. Now after him was Shemai. Oh, this guy's great, son of Aege, a Haranite, and the Philistines were gathered into an army where there was a plot of land full of lentils. It's like lentils are like half beans. They're not even really that good, but people in the Middle East love them. And the people fled from the Philistines, but he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck the Philistines, and the Lord brought about a great victory. I believe in the Chronicles, and uh I believe it's 2 Chronicles records it. First of 2 Chronicles, it records that he's in the midst of this big battle that he's known for. He just goes, I am Shama. Full on brave heart, man. There you go. Getting down.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Guess what, folks? Some of y'all are like, oh, yeah, getting carnal. These are heroes of the faith. Well, these are heroes.
SPEAKER_02:These are men who were also fighting in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And just like we talked before, um, I remember I recorded something right after uh, well, at the time that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, was what you don't realize, and in one of the big deceptions in the body of Christ, yes, it is important to be spiritual and walk in the spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. But at the same time, it is folly to think that demons don't influence people that operate in the flesh. Therefore, we are to be spiritual men and women, but willing to be oper be willing to operate in the natural as a reflection of the spiritual truth and light that that is within us. Yeah. All right, verse 13. Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time. I love this story, to the cave of Adulum, while the army of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephim, and David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David had a craving and said, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. So the three mighty men forced their way into the camp to the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and carried it and brought it to David. Yet he would not drink it, but poured it out as an offering to the Lord and said, Far be it from me, Lord, that I should do this. Should I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives? So he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did. All I can think about is old Val Kilmer playing Doc Holiday in Tombsah. Oh, I wish I had some water. Man, that's wish I had some water. I'm a huckleberry. I'm a hookleberry. Oh yeah. Folks, you need some friends like these.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, these, I mean, I look back at the one guy that slew all these people, his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. Um, and there's a couple ways to take that. Uh his hand grew tired and uh cramped and and and clutched the sword. It'll also be taken as his hand grew tired and was became so bloodied that the blood dried and caused it to stick to the sword. Um but these are like I said, these were men that uh because of their their time in battle, because of the things that they're going through, because of what they've endured on the battlefield, they had the utmost trust and respect for. Um this story of running and running into the enemy camp to get David some water and bring it back to him is is no small feat. No, it's no small thing. Um the fact that David is influencing people in this manner as a leader is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01:It speaks of his character.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, it definitely tells uh great things about his his character, his charisma, um, and who he is as a leader. Despite all of his flaws, we could talk about his flaws all day long. Um, but the fact that those flaws did not prevent people from following him. He still uh had a sphere of influence, uh a sphere of great influence, uh that that uh that was stronger and greater than his flaws. Um that's the um I think that's the leadership that that God is wanting in in his men here on earth.
SPEAKER_01:And I don't know if we're gonna do this as a full episode. We might, we gotta discuss this off camera, off podcast. But the Lord's been dealing with me about something that flew out of my mouth before before I thought about it. And the more I think about it, I'm like, oh, that's a little bit the Lord said that because that's more profound than I am. To be a Christian is to be a leader by default. Yeah, by default, you're right. You you you can't disciple without being a leader, and that might be something we get into either as a short, but um I'm the more I think about it, I'm I don't I'm not sure it will is it's a little bit too more in depth to be just a short.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's there's something there. Uh, and I would agree, yeah. Um to be Christian by default is to be a leader. Um you can't disciple someone without being um a leader, without being without having influence.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh that's it's it's built in.
SPEAKER_01:Guess what we need to be reading up on for the next two weeks. Oh boy. You gotta have fun with this stuff, folks. Verse 18 now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, was a chief of the 30, and he swung. His spear against 300 and killed them and had a name as well as the three. He was the most honored among the thirty, so he became their commander. However, he did not attain to the reputation of the three. You're going to have people that go through things with you, and you're going to have folks that are highly competent, great leaders, but yet at the same time, they have not been through the same intense, intense life or death situations that you've been.
SPEAKER_02:You can put your elbow out and touch them. That's how close they are. Shoulder to shoulder, if you would. And some friends move back and forth in and out of those circles for whatever reasons, because of things they do or or don't do. But it seems like when a person gets into that inner circle, that that shoulder-to-shoulder circle, it's very hard. They don't leave. It's very hard to kick them out. Because you can almost accept anything from them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because they're being genuine. You know, it it's funny, and I don't want to get too much into private conversations, but um, you know, C Dub, as of last month, was definitely not expecting this. Has been courting a lady. Every day. And although she's beautiful, and although I'm crazy about her, we'll see what the Lord says. C Dub is behaving, so ain't no need to cancel the WoeFoyo podcast. As you begin to learn another person, you find a lot of things you like, and you probably find some things you don't like. And let me tell you something where it's not a like or dislike, but I just can't relate. Oh, this is my friend here. This is my friend here, this is my friend. Oh, there's one of my best friends. This is one of my best friends. And I go, I have a lot of friends. And I go, I don't.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I have a lot of people I get along with. They have a lot of people I love and want to bless. Yep. I've got about five. Yep. One of which I'm doing the podcast with. But let me tell you about those five. Life or death. Yeah. It don't matter.
SPEAKER_02:Those are the ones that go to jail, don't matter. Those are the ones you called up in the middle of the night and said, hey man, um I need you here now. I and there I need you to bring a shovel and some duct tape and a pair of gloves. And the only thing you get back from that person is whose car are we taking? You know. Um, yeah, those those those friends are hard to find. Um but I think that's that's uh that's a big difference. I mean, I just that's the difference between men and and women though. Women have those friends, have more friends. Um but I I think that probably um contributes to the idea that women probably get hurt more by friends.
SPEAKER_01:And I I would also say that women seem to have a lot more friends than women that I've known. And if somebody ticks them off, they're quick to cut them off quicker than guys. Guys, I'll go, oh, you're still my friend, but I know I can't trust you in this area. Yep. And and and that's the truth. And it's just like, okay, yeah, hey, hey, you're a friend. We've been through some stuff, but I know there's an area that I can't trust you 100% in. And and I go, if we're honest, we probably would examine ourselves and say, and you know what, there might be an area or two where I can't be a hundred percent there for you. But there's a select few, like I said, I probably five in my lifetime that I can name that you know what? Screw it. If I die, I die. If I go to jail, I go to jail.
SPEAKER_02:It it's like you and I love your brother, but I don't like you right now. You know, that's that's sometimes it it gets that way uh between men. Um but the love's still there, but just ain't we ain't on the same page right now.
SPEAKER_01:Um about 17, 18 years ago, you and I both had that conversation with each other.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But that's because we love each other and we're friends.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I understand, but I can't agree. Yeah. And guess what? We're still doing shit in 2025.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So this I believe altogether there was about I think there was about 52 mighty men. Something like that, yeah. It was interesting. Uh, I think here in in one account there's 52, and in another account there's I think 37, I think.
SPEAKER_01:And uh 37 here in Samuel, and then 52 in Chronicles.
SPEAKER_02:And the the explanation for that that I was able to dig up was that there's probably 52 at the beginning at the beginning, and then 15 of them, 15 or so of them died and weren't weren't standing tall at the end. Uh so uh but yeah, there's there's 52. Man, that's a that's a that's a pretty good shoot, man. That's two platoons right there. Uh but but even out of that fifty-two, there was three that uh that were you know shoulder to shoulder with, and those are friends you can't replace. Amen.
SPEAKER_01:Twenty. Then Beniah, son of Jehoiada, son of the valiant man of Kazbeel or Cabzeal, who had done a great who had done great deeds, killed the two sins of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, an oppressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear out from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. These things Baniah, son of Jehoida, did, and he had a name as well as the three mighty men, he was honored among the thirty, but did not attain the reputation of the three. And David appointed him over his bodyguard. I wonder why. 24. And there was Elhanon, son of Dodo of Bethlehem, Shamah the Herodite, Elekhi the Herodite, Hilah the Paltite, Ira the son of Akesh the Tekwite, Abiazar the Anathite, Mabuni the Hushite, Zalmon the Ahohite, Marari the Netophite, Hilleb the son of Bena the Nethaphathite, I am butchering these names, Itai the son of Rabbi, son of Gibeah, of the sons of Benjamin, Saul was from Gibeah, Beniah the Pyrathanite, Hidai of the Brooks of Gaish, Albion the Arbathite, Asmaveth the Barhumite, Elihaba the Shelbonite, the sons of Jeshin, Jonathan, Shamah the Hararite, so there's three Shamas here Ahaiam the son of Sherar the Ararite, Ephelet the son of Ahoshbai, the son of Meccabedite, Elam the son of Athipophil, the Gilanite. Oh man. You talk about a significant character. Athihopal conspired against David when his son, um which one was it? Um Absalom. He switched sides. Yeah. He switched sides and tried to counsel Absalom, and that council got turned to naught, and he went and out, he went out and hugged himself. Because the counsel there there was a reason to we ain't gonna get into all that in this episode. Adopfel, though, guess what? Despite all that, still a mighty man. Now check this out. Uriah the Hittite. Here's what you need to know about that. Solomon is born from Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. There was also some familial relations between Uriah the Hittite, his wife, and Athafel. One of the reasons he switched sides was because of what happened with Uriah the Hittite. These are men of bravery. These are not perfect men. These are not all men of Israel. These are men that might have worshipped foreign gods.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's there's a notion, there's a notion here that these are men who are very acquainted with violence. Yes. But that doesn't necessarily make them violent men. No. And that's and and I'll I'll bring that up here to up to 2025. It's okay to be a man that's acquainted with violence. Matter of fact, um for those of us who are acquainted with violence, there's a lot of people trying to talk us out of that. Um and trying to tell us that uh you know that we don't have to be that and all these other things, uh, which I think is BS. Um, because a man that's acquainted with violence and who is a cap and very, very capable of violence, but yet has the restraint to be um civil and nice, if you want to put it that way. To me, that's that's huge. Yeah. To me, that's bigger than a man who is not acquainted with violence.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh who's who's who's being civil. Because it in that in that case, um you've never had to restrain yourself because you don't you've never had to let yourself go either.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. So anyway. No, I paraphrase uh Dr. Jordan Peterson. A good man is an is not a man that's incapable of violence. A good man is capable of being a monster, but he keeps it under control. And that's what you have here. And even in David, you don't have a perfect man. Yeah. Christ inherits the throne of David, but David is not a perfect, he's a man after God's own heart. He's a man of action, he's a man that, man, if he sees that girl out there, David liked his women. David liked to get his praise on. Doesn't excuse any sin that he ever did. We had to pay a price for those. Right. But more than anything, David was a man of action.
SPEAKER_02:These were men who went into the dark places.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. The other people were afraid of. Man, if I could sum up David's mighty men in one word or one phrase, it'd be this not on my watch. Not on my watch. Whatever else may happen, no matter what our opinions are, no matter where we might differ, when evil comes at the gate, not on my watch.
SPEAKER_02:It's okay to be a manly man in a church today. Um regardless of what some people might say. Um so yeah, it's it's it's totally okay. It's okay to to raise your sons to be manly men, uh, and to also be respectful uh of others. Um because we still need uh mighty men just like David and his mighty men. Wars are gonna continue. We're still gonna need uh a military that serves us, that serves our country. Uh we're still gonna need those things. Um we still need people that are not afraid of the prayer closet, uh, not afraid of the spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare can get ugly. Um it can get nasty too. Um so yeah, we we need we need men to be men in the body of Christ these days, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. All I'm gonna say is if you ain't been there, you don't know. And my my my hope and prayer to God actually is that especially for you guys out there, that you find a group of people that you can trust and that are kingdom-minded enough that you will understand. Right. Yeah, I would agree 100%. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woofoyo.org to find out how to contact us there or subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or even check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're gonna grow, you gotta Wofo Yo. Get in the word for yourself.