Four Habits That Build a Legacy of Faith | Father's Day 2026 | Pastor Kurt Brodbeck

Well, I wanna welcome you today, especially I wanna welcome dads. Dads, the fact that you are here, that you are bringing your kids and leading your family spiritually, I want you to know it matters. You know, as we do all these research studies about passing faith onto the next generation, parents, you are the primary influencer on whether your kids will adapt that faith and follow that faith the rest of their life. But dads, although both parents matter, dads, research has shown that your influence actually carries the greatest weight. You are the spiritual leader of your home. There was a study done just here in 2026 about fatherhood and the impact it has on passing on faith, and I just wanted you to see this. It said adults who reported having a very good relationship with their father growing up saw 58% higher odds of weekly church attendance, 45% higher odds of praying daily, and 73% higher odds of believing in God than those who did not have a good relationship with their father growing up. Dads, you, you matter. And so, women in the room, I obviously want to talk to you as well, but today's message, as we jump through our 52-week series

and highlight the historical figure we talk about today, which is King Saul, I do want to talk specifically to men, young boys and men who are any of our campuses today. And so I'm gonna pray before we get started today. And here's what I'm asking, is I'm just asking God to help all of us just hear what He wants us to hear. And if there's anything that's said that is not of Him that would fall away. And for you women in the room, I'm asking that God would clarify in your heart how God wants to use this message in your life and what principles can be applied to you. And also, what is your responsibility in helping the men in your life, whether it be a spouse or a father or a son or a friend, because every one of us play a role in helping men live out their godly vision, right? So why don't you pray with me and then we'll jump into today's message. Father God, I just, I thank you for this church. God, your church, just one of many churches. And God, I thank you for all the churches across the world that are declaring the name of Jesus today. God, would you bless them? And God, today as we speak and we talk together, God, if there's anything in this message that's not of you, would it fall away? But Holy Spirit, would you be working

in each one of our hearts to help us hear what it is that you want us to hear? And God, would today, as we listen to your word, you tell us it will not come back void. Would you use it to change and motivate and move us forward into the people that you are calling us to be? We ask that in Jesus' name, amen. Well, for those of you that are new to Northview, we have been doing a 52-week series on some of the central figures of the Bible, and we're doing it for a couple reasons. The first is because we believe that once you understand the story of the Bible and the arc of the Bible, that you'll be able to read it for yourself, and in doing so, your faith will grow exponentially. Secondly, as we look at these figures in the Bible, there's something we realize pretty quickly. Outside of Jesus, not one of them was perfect. Every one of them outside of Jesus is very relatable to our lives, and we can look at their stories, and we can look at their successes and learn things from them and we can look at their failures and we can learn some things from them. You know, now, today is Father's Day, and it's one of my favorite days because I get to be dad to three amazing kids. Got an 18-year-old son, a 15-year-old daughter, and a seven-year-old son.

The greatest title in my life outside of follower of Jesus and husband to Brooke is dad to those three kids, and I wanna be the best possible dad I can to those kids, but I'll tell you right now that as I was preparing this message, I'm not. Bible is very clear at pointing things out in you, especially as a preacher before you get to share it with other people, and so I want you to know as we go through this, you're not looking at a perfect man up here who's got it all figured out, and we're all in this together, but as we look at the life of Saul, I believe it can help give us a vision for what we should be striving for as men. You know, when my kids were little, I took two different Bible studies by a pastor by the name of Robert Lewis. One was called Men's Fraternity, and the other was called Raising a Modern-Day Man. In both those Bible studies, a similar premise. He says that unless you give a man a godly vision for his life, so dads, unless you define for your sons what a godly vision is for his life, if you don't do it, he will fall to the definition that the culture gives. Unless we are clear with the vision, we will default to the world around us. Today, as we look at the life of King Saul,

we'll see how the nation of Israel actually tries to default to all the other nations around them. But in order to talk about King Saul, first, we need to know the context of the story. So last week, if you're here, Pastor Mark, he briefly talked about Samuel. Now, Samuel was the last judge of Israel. So at this point in time, Israel did not have a king leading their nation. No, God had told them, you don't need a king. You just follow me. I will lead this nation. But there was a cycle, a pattern, and you're gonna see this. Throughout the book of Judges, if you were to read the book of Judges, here's the pattern. Israel would follow God. They would then drift into idolatry. God would allow oppression from their enemies. So Israel would cry out, and so God would raise up a judge, much like Samuel. The judge would clarify and give vision to the nation, either through military action or through prophecy. And all of a sudden, Israel would be able to be delivered. Peace would follow. But what would happen? They'd drift into idolatry. God would allow oppression.

This can all be summed up in one verse in the book of Judges. It's this verse right here. It says, Judges 21-25. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. You know what happens when there is a group that all just do what is right only in their own eyes? It's chaos. Because why? Because every one of us have a bent towards pride. The very first sin in the entire Bible, if you go back to it, and you look at it, it was, well, they ate the fruit. No, it wasn't that they ate the fruit. It was the serpent said to them, here's why you wanna eat the fruit. If you eat it, you will become like God. The greatest sin, the first sin for all of us is this temptation to think that we can do it all on our own, that we have all of the answers. So now we have the nation of Israel, and they want a king. And they're like, let us be like all the other nations. So they come to Samuel, who is the judge, and they say, we want a king. Go talk to God, we want a king. And Samuel's like, no, you don't. You don't need a king. If you do, you'll become like all the other nations around you, and you see what the king does to those people.

But they said, no, we want a king. So that's gonna bring us to God's conversation with Samuel in Samuel chapter eight. So if you have your Bibles, or you wanna look on the screen, we're gonna go Samuel chapter eight, starting in verse six. Says this, but when they said, give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel. So he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord told him, listen to all the people and what they're saying to you. It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them, but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do. Samuel told all of the words of the Lord to the people who are asking him for a king. He said, this is what the king who will reign over you will do. He will take your sons and he will make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendance. He'll take a 10th of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials in attendance. Your men's servants and your maid servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys, he will take for his own use. He will take a 10th of your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No, they said, we want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and to fight our battles. When Samuel heard that all the people said, he repeated it before the Lord, and the Lord answered, listen to them and give them a king. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, everyone go back to his own town. So here we have the nation crying out saying, we don't care what's gonna happen. We wanna be like every other nation. And God said, then let it be.

You know, last week, Pastor Mark talked about God's sovereignty, whether God wills it or God allows it, it's not out of control. And God is going to use every situation. And God used King Saul, who we're talking about today, to move forward his nation, although he allowed it. And so today, what I would hope to do is give us a four-part vision for what it means to be a godly man based on the lessons and failures of King Saul, okay? So here's where we're gonna start. The first one is, this is the first part of a four-part vision for a godly man. A godly man rejects passivity, okay? A godly man rejects passivity and accepts responsibility for what God has entrusted to him. So as we get into the life of King Saul, we'll start with where he was actually anointed king. So Saul, here's what you need to know about him. He was from the tribe of Benjamin, which was the smallest of all the tribes of Israel. His father was a man named Kish. And as we first meet Saul, he is out tending the cattle and the flocks of his father. And he has made a mistake.

He has lost his father's donkeys, and they are now gone. And we encounter Saul as he is wandering the countryside, trying to find the donkeys that have been lost. And his friend comes to him and says, "'Hey, here's what you should do. "'You should go into town. "'There is a godly man there, a priest. "'His name is Samuel. "'You should go and ask him if he could help you, "'and if he could inquire of God "'as to where the donkeys are, "'and maybe you can find them.'" So there we see Saul goes to Samuel, and he comes to Samuel and says, "'Hey, help me find the donkeys.' And Samuel says, "'I have good news for you. "'The Lord has spoken to me, "'and he's told you the donkeys are at home. "'But the Lord has also spoken to me, "'and he has shown me that you "'are to be the first king of Israel.'" And Saul says, "'No, no, no, not me, not me. "'I'm not the right guy. "'I'm just a servant, like, nope, not me.'" And Samuel says, "'Actually, it is you.'" And he anoints him with oil right there. But then he says, "'To prove it, "'I will call all the nation together, "'and we will cast lots before God,

"'and God will select you, "'and all of the nation of Israel "'will realize that you are to be the first king.'" So let's actually read that story now, as Samuel calls together the nation of Israel to cast lots for who's gonna be the first king. So now we're gonna go to 1 Samuel 10, verse 20, if you have your Bible. 1 Samuel 10, verse 20. It says, "'When Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, "'the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. "'Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, "'clan by clan, and Matre's clan was chosen. "'Finally, Saul son of Kish was chosen. "'But when they looked for him, he was not to be found. "'So they inquired further of the Lord, "'Has the man come here yet? "'And the Lord said, yes, "'he has hidden himself among the baggage. "'They ran, and they brought him out. "'And as he stood among the people, "'he was a head taller than all the others. "'Samuel said to all the people, "'Do you see the man the Lord has chosen? "'There is no one like him among all the people. "'Then the people shouted, long live the king.'" Here we have this moment where Samuel is appointed to be king, and where was he?

Hiding. He was hiding. He was passive. He was scared. Samuel had told him, Saul, you are going to be the king. And he was like. Not me. But the Bible also tells us something about him. Bible says that Saul was a head taller than all the other Israelites. The Bible tells us that he was one of the most handsome men. He had all the physical attributes and everybody looked at him and goes, that's a king. That's amazing, he's the guy. And he was like, no, anybody but me. Please don't make it be me, right? He was passive. Man, here's what you need to know. When God placed you, if you are a father, in the family that you are and gifted you the kids that you have, he gifted you and he equipped you to be the father that they needed. Sometimes we try to downplay the significance of us and we say, ah, it's okay, I just let him be. No, we are not to be passive. We are to take hold of the leadership that God has put inside of us and we are to lead our families. God has equipped you, he has called you,

and you may not be passive. Yet this culture, this world that we live in wants to point to men and actually dumb us down. So we watch TV dads and commercials. It's all about the goofiness of a man and how men aren't smart enough and men aren't emotional enough and the men can't care enough. Throw it off. You were gifted and equipped and called and you are not to be passive. Friend of mine this week sent me an email and he put a quote from Teddy Roosevelt in here. And I thought, this is what it means to not be a passive man. Teddy talked about the man in the arena. He said this, it's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error or shortcoming. But who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly

so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. Men, when we are passive, we are negating our responsibility and the gifting and the calling that God has put on our life and we are allowing others to lead in our place and we then are giving up some of the God-given authority that God put in our life to raise men. So when we raise our kids, we are raising them and challenging them to be leaders, not followers. You know, with my kids, every night I pray for my kids and when they were little and my seven-year-old still, we will pray together and I pray the same portion of the same prayer every night over my kids. God helped Corbin to be a leader, not a follower. God helped Quincy to be a leader, not a follower. God helped Keller to be a leader, not a follower. Why? Because when we follow, we allow the winds of culture to tell us which way we should go, but when we step up and take hold of our leadership, God can use us and he wants to use you. But this definition, if that was the only part of the definition of what it means to be a godly man, it would be a warped definition because men who just take charge, but don't do the other four or three parts

of this definition, well, that is toxic masculinity. So we need to balance that with the next part of our definition and that's this. A godly man walks humbly, knowing that leadership begins with submission to God. Now, as we go into our story of Saul, here's one of the coolest things about the Bible, guys. This Bible, written over the course of 1,500 years through 66 books and 40 different authors is one story containing no contradictions, no errors. And so as you look through this Bible, God is foretelling his people and reminding you of his story and his sovereignty through all of it. So we're gonna go backwards in the Bible for just a moment. We're going to Deuteronomy. We're going to 350 years prior to King Saul becoming king to hear what God tells the king about how he is to lead. So we're gonna go to Deuteronomy 17. Deuteronomy 17, verse 14, it says this. When you. Enter the land the Lord your God has given you and have taken possession of it and settled in it. And you say, he's talking the nation of Israel, and you say, let us set a king over us like all the nations around us. Does that sound familiar? Prophetic. Be sure to appoint over you a king

the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them. For the Lord has told you, you are not to go back that way again. He must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law taken from that priest who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees, and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or the left. Then he and his descendants will reign for a long time over his kingdom in Israel." 350 years prior, God is speaking to Moses and says, when the people get to the point that they start to turn their back on me, which they will, and they say, hey, we want a king like all the other nations, here's what the king's to do. First of all, tell him not to make it about himself.

Don't acquire a great number of horses. Don't go back to, what did Saul do? Don't acquire great wealth and think it's all about you. What did Saul do? Well, at first he was passive, but then he sort of started to like this position. And then it started to become about him and his kingdom. And he started to make it all about how he could acquire more and more. And what did this say? It said, the king, he's to write the law on a scroll for himself, and he's to read it daily. As a reminder to him about his God and his God's plans, not about him and his plans. He was to take God's word and to indulge it and to read it so that he could live by it. But he made it all about himself. You know, the Latin word, humilitas, is actually a word that we get two of our English words from. When we put somebody else low, we get the word humiliation or humiliated. But when somebody puts themselves low, we get the word humility. So on a man's weekend, I thought, you know what? Let's talk about two of some of the manliest men of all time, two of the greatest boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis. Now, if you know much about Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali, people thought he was probably great because of his swagger, because of his arrogance,

people said that motivated him to be great. He would say things like, I am the greatest, and I said that even before I knew I was, right? One of his statements is, if you ever dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologize, right? Maybe his most telling statement was, when you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble. There's a story about him, I don't know if it's true, but the story goes like this. He was on a flight, flying to defend one of his heavyweight titles. As they were flying, the captain came over the loudspeaker and said to the flight attendants and passengers, flight attendants, we're about to experience some turbulence, please make sure that the cabin is checked and that all of the passengers are wearing their seatbelts. Story goes that the flight attendant walked back and saw that Muhammad Ali was not wearing his seatbelt. She turned to him and said, sir, you need to put on your seatbelt. And he said, Superman don't need no seatbelt. To which it's reported that she turned to him and said, Superman don't need no plane. Meaning, you need a captain, you need a plane, and you need a seatbelt because you're not as great as you think you are. Now, Joe Lewis, Joe Lewis was another great boxer, born in Detroit, raised in Detroit. As I was reading about Joe Lewis,

it was said that Joe Lewis can knock out a horse with a single punch. which had me thinking, how does he know? That's why we have PETA now. This was in the 30s. That was the bad thing about him. But the story I read was that in 1930s he was on a bus in Detroit. He was sitting on the back of the bus and three white men got on that bus and began to harass him. And he sat there and he took it. Eventually his bus reached his bus stop and Joe Louis stood up only to reveal to the three men just how large of a man they had been harassing. The story is he reached into his pocket and he pulled out a business card and he gave it to him and he walked off the bus and the business card just said Joe Louis, boxer. You see a man who withheld his power in service to others. There's a difference. Humiliation or humility. Humility is not making less of yourself. Humility is knowing who you are and at the same time lowering yourself in the service to others. Unfortunately guys as we look at the cross, well 2,000 years of glorifying the cross of Christ has helped us lose vision for what that cross really means. You know Jesus was the one that was teaching us all about humility. He'd say things like whoever wants to be first well they'll be last but the last should be first. Say the greatest among you should be the very slave of all. In the gospels we read for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life is a ransom for many. Now the cross, there were three forms of capital punishment in the first century.

Did you know that crucifixion was meant to be the most humiliating of them? Of the three forms it was decapitation, burning alive and crucifixion. Crucifixion, the whole purpose of it was to embarrass the criminal. The criminal was stripped naked. There was a whip with pottery and metal taken to whip and rip his flesh and then that man was paraded in front of town naked, bruised and abandoned. Taken to the middle of crown where he was nailed to a cross and posted for all to see while he suffocated painfully in front of every person watching his death. And what was the point? It was so that the Romans could look and say, look at this man, how embarrassing this criminal is. You don't wanna be like him. And everybody in town would walk by and despise him. Now in 1857, there was discovery in Rome of some of the earliest graffiti they had ever found. It's actually dated back to 200 AD and it's this graffiti right here. Cleaned up, it'll look more like this if you can get the next one so you can see it just a little bit better. The inscription here they've translated to say, Alexa Manos worships his God. And if you can see there's a man here who's worshiping and what he's worshiping is the body of a man on a cross with the head of a donkey. People believe this was Alex's friends mocking him, going, look at you, worshiping this embarrassment.

But I want you to contrast this picture and that mocking tone with what Paul said about Jesus in Philippians. It says this, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourself. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. Even death on a cross, he humbled himself. He was not humiliated on that cross. He was humble on that cross. Therefore, God has exalted him. "'to the highest place and gave him the name "'that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, "'every knee should bow on heaven and on earth "'and under earth.'" King Saul, he allowed his position to become his pride in his life and made it about him. Jesus Christ, being the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped

and he lowered himself. Men, we reject passivity, but at the same time, we serve humbly, knowing that God has gifted us, but our job is to be used in service of others. Let's go to the third part of our definition. A four-part vision for a godly man. A man lives in obedience to God, choosing faithfulness over convenience. Now, I don't have time to go through all of Saul's story and I'll try to speed up just a little bit here, but here's the story. You can read it for yourself, a little homework. Start in 1 Samuel 8, read through 31 this week. You'll read the story of Saul. But Saul, he obeyed God many times. He had his high highs, but he had some low lows. And sometimes he obeyed-ish, okay? Samuel had said to Saul, "'Hey, before you go into battle against these nations, "'you need to offer sacrifices to God, "'but you don't get to do it because you are not a priest. "'A priest must do it. "'You are a man of war. "'You have taken much blood. "'You are not holy to enter into God's presence "'and offer these sacrifices. "'It needs to be a priest.'" And Samuel says, "'I'm a priest, so you're to wait for me, "'and I'll offer these sacrifices, and we will consult God.

"'Then we will go to battle.'" And Saul knew that, but he grew impatient, waiting for Samuel to show up and said, "'We gotta go to fight.'" So Saul himself offered the sacrifices. And when Samuel showed up, he says, "'What have you done?' And Saul said, "'Well, I obeyed-ish.'" And Samuel said, "'Obeying-ish is disobedience.'" Parents, do you have any kids that obey-ish? I won't say which one of my kids this one was, but she is good at obeying-ish. When it comes to laundry, in our house, one of the rules or the chores is mom often does the laundry, but then we all put away and fold our own laundry. And so you have to put your own laundry away. And we thought, oh, she's obeying. That was until we were cleaning her bathroom and opened up the bottom of the bathroom cabinet and there were all the clothes piled in there. Not in the closet, not in the dresser, under the sink. When it reached a head was when my wife started to realize, I feel like I keep washing these clothes over and over. And we realized, yeah, she was putting away her clothes. She would pick up the pile, throw them back into that laundry bin, and then just pick out what she wanted as she was doing it, right? And then if they got washed again, that's okay,

because they were twice as clean as they were the first time. Obeying-ish. But parents, how does that feel when your kid's like, I did it? And you're like, not really. What God is looking for us is total obedience, not easy obedience. I often hear people say, well, if I read about Jesus, it says Jesus came to abolish the law so we don't have to follow the old law. But actually, if you read it, Jesus was like, you have heard that it was said, but I am telling you, and he was always extending the law, not to just do the bare minimum, but understand the heart of who God is. Men, our job is not to do the bare minimum when it comes to following the Lord. Our job is to understand God's heart and to obey with total obedience. God is calling us into that total obedience. We'll go into the last one here, and that is a man values integrity above talent, success, reputation, or achievement, because character is what remains when everything else is stripped away. We'll quickly go into the life of Saul. Saul, again, was going into battle, this time against the Amlekites. And in this time, God says, when you battle them,

make sure that you kill all of them and all of their livestock. Saul, you are not to make this about you. You're not to go plunder and make your wealth greater. No, you're to remove these people because I'm providing peace in this land. And Saul went, and he won the battle. But then he decided, no, I'm going to spare some of them, and I'm going to take some of the best of their livestock, their fattened calves, their sheep, because I want it for me, because it helps me. And Samuel came to Saul and says, what is this you've done? And Saul said, what do you mean? I did exactly what the Lord said. And Samuel says, what is that bleeding of sheep that I hear? And Saul said, oh, yeah, that. The only reason we kept that was so that we could offer those to God as sacrifices. But really, no, Saul had actually erected a statue, a monument, in his own honor. And all of it was for his glory. He compromised his integrity. And Samuel says to him, because you have done this, your kingdom is being stripped from you. And God will raise up a man who has a heart after him. And Saul loses his kingdom because he compromised his integrity. Now, I don't know about you. I don't know what kind of a dad you had growing up. But for whatever reason, God blessed me with an amazing one.

I still have him, and he still lives near me. Now, growing up, my parents, we grew up in a town of 4,000 people. Small town, but my parents were serial entrepreneurs. My mom bought a restaurant when she was a junior in high school. Why a bank gave her a loan, I don't know. So they owned a restaurant, and a laundromat, and an ice cream shop. We had a mini golf course. At some point, we had apartments. My dad was the fire chief. My mom was an IT person. They ran another restaurant. And then eventually, when I was in high school, they bought sporting goods stores. And in the back of the sporting goods store, they had these embroidery machines and screen printing. And there was a guy in our church who was kind of struggling. He was going through a moment of struggle in his marriage, and my parents were mentoring them. And he had lost his job. So my dad said, hey, why don't you come work for us at the sporting goods store? We'll teach you how to do the embroidery. So I was a senior in high school. My brother was college age, and he was running the store. And so we worked with him to kind of train him on how to do all of the embroidery and stuff.

And after about six months of him finally kind of understanding and getting good at it, he came to my dad and he said, hey, I'm going to be quitting. My dad said, oh, OK, no problem. What are you going to do? He's like, oh, there's another guy in the church, and he's got the money, and I have the knowledge. We're going to open up our own screen printer and embroidery store. Dad was like, well, it is a town of 4,000 people, and there's already two of them. So a third one, that seems like a little bit of oversaturation for quite a market, but OK. And my dad said, that's fine. Just you know all of our clients. You know all of our pricing. We just asked you wouldn't go after our people. About two, two and a half weeks after he left, the phone starts ringing at the shop. And we start getting calls from our clients saying, hey, we just got a phone calling. He said that we need to switch to him, because you guys are cheating him, and you're dishonest, and your quality is not as good, and your pricing is terrible. My brother and I, we were mad. And we were like, man, all we have to do is tell the truth. You know? And if we do that in a small town of 4,000 people, well, his reputation could be ruined. And we thought the easiest way to do that

is because all we had to do was tell the UPS guy who stopped by the store every day. Because when he stopped by our store, he told us everything that was happening in the rest of town. You just let him know, and he'll let everybody else know. Well, we didn't get there, because my dad stopped by the shop. And he said, hey, I don't know how he knew. I don't know. He's like, hey, we got a family meeting tonight at my house. I was living at home. My brother wasn't, but we both went home. And we sat on the couch. This is the only family meeting we ever had in the history of the Brodbeck family. My dad walked into the room, and he said, hey, I know a lot of people are saying a lot of things. I just wanted to remind you something. You're a Brodbeck. And Brodbecks don't talk bad about anybody. It's the end of the meeting. Man, it was a lesson. But integrity, it matters. Proverbs 10.9 says this, whoever walks with integrity walks securely. But whoever takes trick advice. Your paths will be found out. Proverbs also says this. It says a good name is more desirable than great riches. To be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

Church, our integrity matters. People will watch how we live our life, not just what we say. Parents, dads, your kids are not watching what you say. They're watching what you do. So let's go back to our four-part definition and we're gonna wrap up today's sermon. This is what I believe we can learn from King Saul. A godly man rejects passivity and accepts responsibility for what God has entrusted him to do. He walks humbly, knowing that leadership begins with submission to God. He lives in obedience to God, choosing faithfulness over convenience. And he values integrity above talent, success, reputation, or achievement because character is what remains when everything else is stripped away. At all of our campuses, I'm gonna ask you men to do something just a little bit uncomfortable. I'm just gonna ask you to stand and look at me. As I prepared for this sermon, I wrote down here at the end kind of a charge. And with this charge, I felt like if we were on our feet and we were attentively looking, that maybe God could speak this directly into your life, believing that he gave this to us. I'm not speaking at you, I'm speaking with you as I read this, but men, listen. God is looking for men to step up.

Men who refuse to sit on the sidelines of their own calling. Men who reject passivity. Men who recognize the gifts and strengths they've been given and that they choose to use those in service to the one true king. These men will walk humbly before God. They will live in wholehearted obedience to his word, not just when it's easy, not just partially, but with a sincere desire to honor God in all they do. They will hold their integrity above earthly gain, knowing that character is worth more than success, status, or applause. These are men who remain steady when the winds of culture shift, faithful when no one is watching, and courageous when the moment demands it. Men who leave behind more than success or accomplishment. Men who will leave a legacy of faithfulness that will echo for generations. Ladies in the room, if you would stand, and kids in the room, if you would stand, and if you would just put your hand on a man, I do wanna pray for all of us before we leave. And then after service at all of our campus, it is a miracle prayer weekend. If there's anything that you need prayer for, there will be a prayer team down at the front that would love to pray over you. But I just wanna pray specifically now to close our service with a prayer.

I just wanna pray specifically now to close our service of the men in our lives. God, thank you for entrusting fallen humans with such great responsibility. Thank you for the men in this room who lead their families, lead in their community, lead in their neighborhoods, lead in the business world. God, would you speak to them a message? God, would they experience your favor? Would they be filled with confidence from their heavenly father on this Father's Day, that you have gifted them and equipped them with everything that they need? But God, would they also have a healthy dose of just understanding their position in relation to you so that they could lead with a pure heart in the way that you have asked them and me to lead? Help us, God, to be that kind of a group and that kind of a people. God, bless us for our efforts, even when we don't get it right. God, we thank you for entrusting us. We love you in Jesus' name, amen. In Jesus' name, amen.