Brotherhood Breakfast: 4/18/2026
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Good morning, men!
It is so good to be with you all today. I love when we are able to come and spend time together like this. It reminds me of Acts 2 and the early church.
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
That is exactly what we do here. We fellowship. We break bread together. We get into the Word. We Pray. That’s what the early church did, and they prospered greatly because of it.
I want to speak to you today from the book of Proverbs.
17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Let’s Pray!!!
I want to talk to you this morning about true brotherhood.
We live in a world that teaches us to swipe, scroll, and move on the moment something feels hard. Relationships have become disposable. If it’s awkward, we bail. If it’s challenging, we withdraw. If it requires effort, we ghost. Technology has given us the illusion of friendship without any of the hard work.
But that mindset will never produce biblical brotherhood. Because real brotherhood isn’t convenient - it’s costly.
Iron doesn’t sharpen iron by sitting next to it. It sharpens through friction. Through resistance. Through heat. Through pressure. There are sparks involved. Which means real brotherhood will feel uncomfortable at times. There will be moments where a brother calls you out, not to shame you, but to strengthen you. Moments where truth cuts deeper than encouragement. Moments where you don’t feel applauded, you feel exposed. And that’s exactly where growth happens.
Most men settle for friendships that protect their comfort instead of confronting their complacency. Guys who laugh with them, agree with them, and never challenge them. But those kinds of relationships don’t sharpen - they soften. You don’t need more people who tell you you’re doing great when you’re coasting. You need men who love you enough to say, “You’re made for more than this.”
And here’s the beauty… when it’s forged, it’s unbreakable.
So how do we form these bonds of brotherhood?
We must ADMIT that we need them.
As men, we are built to stand. Matter of fact, God has called us to stand. When God created the very first man, He commissioned Adam to “have dominion over” the whole earth. He was to rule. He was to reign over all of creation in the name of Christ.
But Adam was never meant to stand alone. We read in Genesis 2.18
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Notice that Adam was not alone. Adam had God. Before Eve came into the picture, Adam had God. He was not alone, but he had no other comparable to Him. Sometimes men will allow this excuse to keep them from forming meaningful, biblical relationships. They will say, “I have God. Who else do I need?”
According to God, “It is not good that man should be alone.” You need other humans whom you can relate to; men who you can talk to; men who understand you. You need men who will listen to your struggles and speak to your sin… men who will love you enough to hold you accountable.
I think about Moses and Jethro. God had exalted Moses to a place of leadership over Israel. As the leader, everyone’s issues rolled up to him. Moses was trying to be the sole judge over every single issue of every single tribe. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, finally said to him:
17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good.
18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.
Jethro tells Moses, “You can’t keep this up.” He is not calling Moses weak. He is not degrading Moses in some way. He loved Moses, but he saw what was going on and realized that no man could accomplish what Moses was trying to do long-term by themselves. So he speaks truth into Moses’ life. He tells him to find other godly men to help with the task at hand. Those men would help bare the burden that moses was trying to bare all on his own.
That is true brotherhood. Men coming together… rising together… all for the glory of God.
God has called us to so much more than we realize, but in order to reach that level of calling that God has placed upon our lives, we need godly brothers in our lives to hold us accountable and encourage us to live out the purpose of God in our lives.
We must ALLOW these men to hold a place of accountability in our hearts.
Not only must we come to a place of realizing our need for true brotherhood, we must also allow these men whom God bring into our lives to hold that place of accountability in our hearts.
As men, we do have a tendency to be prideful. We were called to stand… to stand strong, and when we do, how dare someone tell us we could be doing it better? If we are not careful, we will keep the very men whom God has brought into our lives to grow us at arms length, and never allow them to be what God has called them to be… brothers who love us enough to tell us the truth.
Pride is such an ugly sin. Some even say that pride is the foundation of every sin.
18 Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
23 A person’s pride will humble him, but a humble spirit will gain honor.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
The illustration given here is that those who think of themselves with pride will be humbled through their failures and mistakes, while those who operate with a humble spirit will be exalted through their learning and triumphs.
We can learn and grow all by ourselves, but it is at a snail’s pace. If we are ever going to reach the potential of grandeur that God has placed within us, we must allow Godly men to speak truth into our lives. We might not always like what they have to say, but what they have to say is said out of love and is needed in our lives. We must allow these men to hold us accountable.
I heard someone this week say that a dear brother in Christ of his was his canary. (Flesh this out).
We must ASPIRE to be men whom God can use.
We must Admit that we need these relationships. We must Allow men to hold this place of accountability in our hearts. And we must Aspire to be men whom God can use.
In Genesis 18, God tells Abraham His plan to destroy the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah. Abraham begins to plead with God for the sake of the righteous who might be living there. He starts by asking God if He will spare the city if he can find just 50 righteous people living in the city, and God agrees to spare it. But Abraham continues to plead with God and finally gets down to the number 10. He asks God if He would be gracious enough to spare the city if only 10 righteous people could be found. God agrees, but those 10 people were not found and Sodom and Gomorrah fell.
There is another place in Ezekiel that says:
30 So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
Israel had fell into sin. Even the priests and prophets had frown distant from God and were not upholding His Word. So God said that He searched through all of Israel for just a single man… a man who would stand in the gap… a man who make a wall… a man who would honor His Word and stand for what was right… but He found not a single man.
We too are in a day to where God needs men to stand tall and stand firm. He is looking for men who are willing to stand in the gap. He is looking for men of honor, men of courage, men of godly stature. He is looking for men who will live up to their divine purpose, who will take responsibility for not only themselves, but for all His people. He is looking for men who are willing to step into leadership, shine a light into the midst of darkness, and be a voice of reason. He is looking for men to serve right here at Allons Baptist Church. God is looking for men who will stand before Him as Isaiah did and say, “Here I am Lord, send me!”
No one feels worthy of that call… You never will. God doesn’t make mistakes.
You have so much more to offer than you could ever realize. God created You Himself… for greatness. You are a man because God chose for you to be a leader. A man is to be a leader in every aspect of their lives. Stop selling yourself short.
God never calls someone without also equipping them for the calling.
