Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, guys, welcome to Wednesday. We have been talking about

what to do with this unique strength that God has given us. And so yesterday we talked about

like cultivating a sense of self, like understanding kind of the why beneath the surface of how we are, how we

respond, what we react to, like a knowledge of like my family of origin or like why is it that I

have no patience for this? What's the story back there? What am I telling myself in my mind? And now I want to talk

through really the next two places that you and I were meant to cultivate, the next two places

that we're meant to work. So at first is we've got to cultivate a sense of self.

The second thing we see in scripture is that we're meant to cultivate a sense of self. The second thing we see in scriptures that we're meant to

cultivate a small team. And so most of us, that's going to be marriage. But also on top of

that marriage, there must be a brotherhood that you and I have given ourselves over to. And, man,

I know what it's like. I turned 50 last June.

And if I think back on my life, I can recall these great friendships from childhood.

Man, they were built on play and proximity. I had my crew, man. And then life happened.

Like work happened. Marriage happened. Kids happened happened, weariness happened, and then boom,

if we're not careful, our lives are marked by unwanted solitude and emotional isolation.

And listen, all the data suggests that most of you who are listening to this right now as men are isolated and lonely. What's interesting

in the data here is that it doesn't tend to make us grumpy. It most men who are in this state

describe themselves as just feeling numb. But the Bible says it has a lot to say about brotherhood, like Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 12.

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts.

For if either falls, his companion can lift him up, but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also,

if two lie down together, they can keep warm, but how can one person keep warm alone? And if

...