A Baker's Dozen

Speaking of hangry, we got something going on at the Truth Network that's going to help the world not be so hangry. Yeah, he's talking about just needing God's Word. He said, please help the Truth Network send Bibles to Africa.

And we know that they need God's Word. We have until the end of the month, just $5 gets a Bible in the hands of a poor, impoverished believer all over the African continent with the help of the Bible League. Just $5.

Just think about that, Robbie. Just $5. So please give. If you can give more than $5, man, we'd love for you to do it. And the number to call is 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD. 1-800-YES-WORD. Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds.

Thank you. Do you ever feel lonely? I mean, even though there's people all around you, well, are you familiar with a baker's dozen?

No, I'm not talking about donuts. Stay tuned as we talk about surrounding yourself with good people. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up. The Russian nightmare.

Why do I always say that? The devil's nightmare. Creating havoc in hell.

That's what I like to call it, I guess. I am here and in studio with a dear friend of mine, and we're going to find out how far we go back. Roy Jones. Welcome, Roy, to the show. Thank you, Nikit.

It's good to be here with you today. And I mean, Turnabout is fair play, Roy. I mean, you have had me. You have your own show, ManTalk.

And you've had me on your show more than one occasion, and it's just been such a blessing to be a part of that show. I thought the least I could do is have Roy on It's Time to Man Up. And you are a man's man, just so you know. I mean, for those who've never met Roy Jones, I mean, he's got quite a story and a background in college football. And he's not a little man, trust me. If you meet him, you'll find out.

Roy Jones is not a little man, so. But tell us about, I mean, when did we meet? I was trying to figure that out, even on the show today. Nick, I believe that was back 2010, the fall of 2010, because it will forever be marked in my memory. It was the same year my son got diagnosed with a sudden death defect in his heart. OK. And he and I had come to hear you at a church over in High Point, North Carolina.

I think it's Greenwood Hills Wesleyan there on North Main. You were speaking at a men's breakfast, in fact, on a Saturday morning. OK. So that's, I think, when we first met. And I just come up and introduce myself. And I had seen you earlier, because you, I think, started your career about the time, maybe a year or two before I came out of college. I think you started in the early 80s, if I remember correctly. I did, 1984. Yep, and I was still playing ball.

The Russian nightmare was born. So I remember seeing you, and my dad was a huge wrestling fan. And so it was just kind of a, my father had passed long before you and I had met, but it just came in touch with him, getting the opportunity to meet you. And of course, with my son being there, you prayed for him.

In fact, you put your hand on his chest and prayed for him there on that Saturday morning. Ten years ago. Yeah. How's he doing today? Ten years later. Well, God has got it. You know, he still, he has a defibrillator in his heart, and it's never had to go off from a failure. And he feels like God, a few years later, another group of men, about 55 men, prayed over him.

And he felt like there was a change that night. So physically, the condition is still there. But we think that God leaves the physical trait there to prove out his healing so that as he never has an issue throughout his lifetime, or he extends him out, that he's saying, look, I've got you through this whole journey. It can be just like a reminder, right? Almost in a sense like Paul's thorn in his side. Exactly. Keeps him dependent upon the Lord, even though the Lord divinely touched him and brought healing to his physical body.

Exactly, Nick. And he just recently had his own first child, so he had a little boy, so I've got a grandson now. And our prayer prior to his birth and even before they conceived was that this defect would not pass down, because it is hereditary, that it would not pass down. So we're just trusting God to keep watch on him and his son. Amen. You just said a key word there, trust.

Yes. Trusting God. And so I, over the last ten years then, so 2010 and ten plus years that we have now known each other, you've opened your home to me, allowed me to peek out at the beautiful Virginia skyline off the back of your house there, and your beautiful home, and your lovely wife Lisa, and you have how many children? We have four children.

Okay. Two daughters and two sons. And one married.

Okay. And one grandson. And one grandson. Can't forget the grandson these days. That's right, that's right. The grandchildren are such a blessing. As you know, you've got quite a few. Yeah, I do. I have a quiver that's filling up faster than I can count.

And it's getting more expensive all the time. Amen to that. As a grandpa. And so I made reference to your athletic proudness. Tell us just briefly about your athletic days. Well, Nikita, I played football in junior high and high school, and then I ran track in high school. As it turned out, I was one of the exceptions, a large guy that could run reasonably fast, so I played outside linebacker and defensive end in high school, and then moved me to the interior in college, played my first year at Guilford, then walked on to NC State a few years later, and I played down there for a couple of years, and then got married while I was still in college. So that was my athletic bit. I was a powerlifter, won state championship in powerlifting while I was in college as a teenager, and then moved in and won class two as a 275 when I turned 20. 275 as in how much you weigh, not how much you lifted. No, no, exactly. It's how much I weighed.

So, folks, you just got an idea of how big this man really is right there. So that was it. And then God just, when I went to NC State, I got lined up with some guys that were Christians, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and that's who I immediately aligned myself with, because I'd gotten saved when I was 13 years old, but I didn't understand what it meant to be a man of God. I just knew what it meant to have salvation in God.

We'll talk about that in just a minute or two. So age 13, was that in a church? It was actually, there was a Boy Scout leader in my neighborhood that was the head of the scout troop. He invited me to come to Boy Scouts, and through the Boy Scouts, they were domiciled at a church, and then they did a church camp every summer, so that's how it all started. It was the church camp through the Boy Scouts.

Age 13, man, and that launched you into a journey that brings you and I together today. Amen. You threw a big 50-cent word out there, domiciled, I'm not even sure what that means, but that's okay.

I can research that, I'll Google that later. You're domiciled at Kamehameha, or Charlotte, or today Winston-Salem. So you're married, you're in college, you're married, you graduate college, and then you launch into, I know you're out in the corporate world.

I am. You work out in the marketplace, you're a marketplace guy, I like to say. Yes, marketplace guy who's just spreading the word of God, and God's using me in that particular location and position in the world, if you will, to spread the word and grow the kingdom. What story comes to mind in that sense, so for the listener out there who's also in the marketplace and wondering, how can I share my faith in the marketplace?

You know, nowadays it can be kind of a touchy thing or whatever, but what would be one story you could share how your faith in the marketplace, how it impacted somebody else's life? Well, you know, that's an interesting question, Nikita, because it's, in most cases for me, it's a part of my everyday conversation, you know, about credit to God or following Christ. Somewhere in the conversation with everybody, it's going to come out not as a, it's deliberate but it's subconscious, you know, deliberate to give the credit. Just a part of who you are.

A part of who I am, right. And so there have been many situations that the door has opened. People knew because of you not giving credit to the Father or saying something about an event or an impact that God had had on my life, all of a sudden someone would stop by and the door would close.

They'd say, is it okay for us to close the door? Probably the most significant thing to share would be my partner, Will Hardy, on the ManTalk radio is that he and I first met in a meeting. He had very little to say in the meeting because he didn't need to in that particular meeting I was a part of. In my first two or three weeks at my current company, God spoke and said, that's a brother in the Lord right there. And something just came over me. So I found out where his office was at and went and knocked on his door and I said, hey, can I come in and talk with you? And he said, sure.

I said, is it okay if I close the door? And he said, sure. And I said, are we brothers? And he said, we are. That was the extent of the start of the conversation, are we brothers?

And he knew exactly what I was talking about and I knew exactly where he was at. Because spirit bears witness with spirit, right? So the Holy Spirit was bearing witness between the two of you.

Amen. And I guess the most significant impact I would have to say that comes to mind right away is that God aligned a man with me when I first started at my current company. And four years back, a second show up of his cancer came into his life, major cancer, ocular melanoma. And he and I had been friends at that point for about four years and God's allowed me to be a part of his life through this journey and through that relationship, he's come to know the Lord and accepted Christ as his personal Savior.

So I'd have to say that's the one that jumps at forefront, Nick. And he knew where I was at and where I've always been and that position's never wavered. It's allowed me to share with him and be a witness to him not necessarily by words but by how I live out my life as you just shared. Through your actions?

Yeah. So sometimes, it's like Sir Francis of Assisi, I think he gets credit for this quote, at all times preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and when necessary use words. Amen. So just live it. Just be salt and light by how we live and conduct our lives. That's a great way to put it. And there was an elderly man that you met a few years back that was in our ministry, died unfortunately last year. But his saying was, he said, Your actions are speaking so loud I can't hear words you're saying.

Your actions are speaking so loud I can't hear words you're saying. And if you think about that, that's really what Christ embodied, wasn't it? He spoke few words but they were very intense words but his actions when he did the miracles and when he put up with the torture and the abuse and all the things he went through.

Yeah, the words he did speak were very profound. You and Will, you create this bond, this brotherhood. And actually that leads you into the show we've referenced, Man Talk. And I love being on the show because kind of the opening of the show is welcome to Man Talk. Yeah, Man Talk radio podcast, a black guy and a white guy. And folks, Will is a black guy and you probably can tell by now I'm the white guy.

And that was our dear friend Robbie. He helped us with that intro and did all the work on that so we give him all the credit for that. And I love that because in the climate in which we live where racial tensions run high, you and Will certainly have bridged the gap, if you will, there and the relationship that you forged being a white guy and him being a black guy and being able to just have fun with that even on your show. And they can hear that through the Truth Radio Network, right?

They can, they sure can. It's a great opportunity to be a part of the Truth Radio Network of listeners and certainly shows along with yours and as many others. And what's really cool about the relationship with Will, and I love him as a brother, he has truly become a dear friend and he has helped to grow me as it relates to seeing through his eyes and what he's grown through. And I think I've helped him as well in some of the things he's seen through my eyes. And to your comment earlier, Nick, about this thing about the current environment we're in, one of the things that Will says, hey, are you looking at what I was going on through the biblical view and are you measuring it up against what the Bible says? He always constantly reminds all of us that we're involved with him in our men's ministry about that, so it's a great challenge for your listeners as well. Yeah, right.

I mean, if the Bible is the standard in which to live by, right? And we want to hold ourselves to that standard. We can look, I'm just so much going through my head, and we're going to take a break in just a minute here, but when we come back, let's talk more about that. You said something key about how you can see through another person's eyes. So for those out there who maybe they don't have any friends of another color, you know, perhaps you befriend somebody who is of another color, another persuasion, if you will, ethnic background, and create a friendship through that and begin to walk in their shoes or see through their eyes.

When we come back, we're going to pick up right there where we left off. We so appreciate our listeners. If you will support this program with a financial gift of any amount, I will send you a personalized copy of my latest book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring in Redemption. Go to Koloff.net.

That's Koloff.net. And make your contribution today. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up here with Roy Jones, just a dear wonderful friend, brother in the Lord. And Roy, before the break, we were just talking about, you know, seeing life through somebody else's eyes. And we were talking, too, just for a point of clarity for our listeners. We were talking about Will. We were. But then you were telling another story about a guy you worked with.

That's great, Nik. Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah, the story about the gentleman with cancer was the second individual at our workplace because you were asking about the impact of work and it just kind of messed right in there, so I appreciate the clarity.

Those were two separate stories. The Will story, Will's been a believer for a long time. Those who have listened to him know his Bible knowledge and recall, he's been walking with the Lord for quite a long time. Yeah, well, and being on your show and just hearing him translate scriptures, I'm like, I can't even touch the knowledge that he has.

That's a fact. So, yeah, so it was another coworker, because I'd asked you the question, you know, how you translate kind of your faith into the marketplace, and that other coworker was the one who ended up coming to the Lord four years ago. And gotcha. I gotcha. So, but let's talk about that for a minute, because I know, you know, your heart, my heart kind of gels together. I mean, you've done a number of things together over the years. We have. You've had me speak. You host an event called The Summit, an annual event called The Summit.

I mean, large events, I mean, as much as seven, eight hundred men. You've had guys like Dr. Tony Evans, General Jerry Boykin, who we've had on the show here. Who are some of the other speakers you've had at The Summit? Well, we had Tim Tebow's father a few years ago. Tim Tebow's dad came and spoke for us, did a good job with us, and then we've had the Benham brothers that you helped us get on the show. Lex Luger. Lex Luger.

The total package. We used him individually, and then we used you guys as a team. Yeah, we tag-teamed for Jesus. We did. We did, and yeah. And then we had Michael Jr., the comedian that was with us.

Oh my gosh. Michael Jr. was with us two years ago. I love Michael Jr.

If you're listening, Michael, keep it up. I love you. And then we've got just a year and a half down the road, but we've got Lee Strobel will be joining us in 2022. Excellent.

Lee Strobel. Excellent. Yeah, and then you've had me MC. In fact, it's funny, you had me MC, and the first time I ever did it, Lex and I were in the car driving home together. He goes, man, how many times have you done that? I go, dude, that was like the first. He goes, get out of here. And I was like, no, like, for real.

I had never MC'd me. He goes, man, you're a natural. He goes, that was amazing.

I don't know about all that, but. Trust me, folks, it was amazing. You didn't miss a beat.

You were well prepared and introductions were great and kept the humor going. It's all spontaneous, though. But that's harder than just speaking, though, for real.

I know. Like, it really is because you've got to engage with every single speaker. So you do the summits, you do a retreat every year. We do. We go to the mountaintop up in Valley Cruces every February. So that's a great event. And we do a morning breakfast, which we talk about on our show, the 1st and 3rd Fridays.

Which is where? 1st Christian Church, 1st Christian Church in Kernersville. They host for us. We have a full breakfast start at 6.50 on Friday mornings.

The 1st and 3rd Friday, and we're done. Hard stop at 8 a.m. 1st time's always free for a guest. It is. 1st time's free. And it's a minimal cost if you're not a guest. That's right.

Very minimal. And it's a good breakfast. I've actually been there and spoke there for you as well. And like I said, we've done a lot together. I've been on the mountaintop with you in the past, on your retreat. And you've come and gotten involved and engaged in some of the things that I've done in the past. Quest event several years ago. And one of these days we're going to get you to the man camp.

Yes, you are. And you're going to get to experience that. And it is a different experience than Quest. I tell guys who've been on a Quest event, it is a different experience.

And that's what it's all about, experiencing God. And your heart for men, I mean, what do you see, Roy, as I know we were talking, in fact, we're engaged in a Bible study together, a men's Bible study. We are. And we were talking at dinner one night, our Bible study dinner, about some of the challenges with men. How do we get men engaged?

How do we keep men engaged? And we were kind of kicking around some different ideas. Do you want to share some thoughts on that?

Sure. Well, for those who are listening, and maybe you know the statistics, maybe you don't, but the church population is made up of 62%, give or take a decimal point, of women. And the other 38% is the men, obviously. And then you take that smaller portion of the men, how many of those men are actually engaged in the church itself, in the body of Christ?

Typically a very low number. And what we found study-wise, if you do the research, if men are honest, they'll tell you they're lonely. They just don't have a really close friend.

In high school, you and I in college had sports, those that went into the military had their military friends in those fellowships. But they get into adult life, and then what they've always been taught is you have to be the provider, you don't cry, you don't show your worries. It's right. But in a different sense, right?

Not in the right sense. So they don't know who to turn to. So what our heart is, and your heart as well, Nick, I know, is to get men to get engaged first, whether it's one man or two or three men. Small group we feel like is a great start. If it's just that one buddy, you just say, hey, Nick. Battle buddy. Yeah, battle buddy, like General Boykin talks about and introduced in his latest book. And that literally goes back to the military, right?

That's what that concept goes back to. And we often say Jesus had the 12, and then my question to a brother is, who do you have? If you don't have the one, the two, or the four that you're leaning on that can ask you the tough questions, then your natural instinct is going to be to gravitate away from the church, because the church is, back to the earlier comment, the church is 62% women, so everything that's typically designed, built, shown, structured is with a lot of female influence, which is not a bad thing having females in, but from a man's attraction, they don't walk into natural finished wood, they don't walk into a hunting den. There's no deer hanging on the wall of the church foyer. No deer head. Not every man's looking for that, you're exactly right. But it's not a masculine environment.

It's setting something. For real, and you know, you mentioned Jesus and His 12, and I like to phrase it this way, perhaps you'll think, of course He always retreated at times, you can see through scripture, to be alone with the Father, but those were specific times, but then I like to say He had His inner circle, Peter, James, and John, so He had the three, and then I like to say He had the outer circle, that included the other nine, right, so the 12, and then there was the rest, right? Hey, let me ask you a question. Have you always been on fire for the Lord like this? No, I was like many men, back to my earlier comment, Nick, I got saved when I was 13, but it took me until 2005, similar to your story, I accepted Christ early on, but I never knew quite what it meant to be a father of Christ. I didn't know what it meant to be a father that was leading his children under the leadership of Christ, and I didn't know what it meant to be a husband to my wife under the leadership of Christ.

So, because I grew up in a home that, you know, that was not a primary piece of our lives, and I'll leave it at that, but my mother had the right heart for it, my dad was a truck driver, so there wasn't a lot of male leadership in the home most days, and it was the way it was. So, God had to do a wake-up call on me, so in 2005, I was going through some old paperwork in a safe, and I don't know, there was a letter in there that had been written to me by Keith Carroll, Dr. Keith Carroll, some 15 years earlier, encouraging me, and I just had my first child talking about what was going to be in front of me following God, and the Holy Spirit just came all over you. Yeah, the Holy Spirit just washed over you, and there was nothing, he said, Roy, what have you done for the kingdom? And it wasn't about do you love me, it was what have you done for the kingdom. And there was nothing that I had put in front of him at that moment in time that wouldn't be consumed in the fire of judgment, you know, in terms of works.

Wood, hay, and straw. Exactly, and I just said, Lord, I don't know where to go, but I'm going to reach back to Keith, and he put me on a journey and mentored me for some 10 years, I guess, and two years after that journey started is when I got into really men's ministry, but that 2005 and actually questions when God jumped on my heart and said, you know, it's time to get off the sidelines. What have you done for the kingdom?

Wow. And folks, for those of you listening out there, it's not about, I mean, you can't earn your way to heaven, you can't work your way to heaven, I mean, salvation is a free gift, right, and you give your life to Jesus, but then because you have a love for the Lord and a heart for Jesus, then you do want to work for the kingdom, so even if you're working in the marketplace like Roy's doing, you still have a heart, you know, as he's launched into this men's ministries, and I know even recently you took a position with your church and spearheading up the men, and that's what I love about you, Roy, is your heart for men, and if people could probably hear the sensitivity of your heart just a minute ago, and what you just said about here's where I was at, you know, I was a husband, I was a father, but I wasn't really walking it out, and that's a part of, I know listeners have heard me talk about man camp before, and our goal and objective on our camp, just like with your conferences and the summit and other things that you put on the retreats, et cetera, is to challenge men to be godly men, godly husbands, godly fathers, as defined the way the Bible defines it, and that's the key, right? We've just got like maybe a minute or so left, Roy, since that time of you 2005, and just us meeting each other, you know, 10 plus years ago, and watching your walk and your journey, I know you've made a tremendous impact on lives. In 60 seconds, what would you challenge men with out there today? What would you say? Well, the first thing would be, men, you need to get an accountability person that you can open up with, that you can walk and do life with, maybe to Nick's point, it's an inner circle of three or four guys, that's so important, so important, because the time will come that you're going to need those men, and if you don't have somebody when that time comes, you're going to be a lost individual. The second thing would be, you need to engage men, if you're listening, you need to engage. You take the step in the natural, God will come along in the supernatural, and He'll map it out.

You don't have to know where you're going or how you're going to do it if you'll just start stepping. And third is be in the Word every day, and be praying with Him every day. And if you're married, you need to pray with your spouse every day, and if you've got children, you need to pray over those children and with those children every opportunity you can.

That's good, Roy. Talking and walking Christian men's ministry, how can people find you? You can come to our website, www.talkam.com, that's T-A-W-C-M-M, Talking and Walking Christian men's ministry.com. We're on the Truth Network, the ManTalk Radio podcast, as well, you can hear us there, Will and I, on an every week basis. And I'm certainly reachable through email at Roy at T-A-W-C-M-M dot com, Roy at T-A-W-C-M-M dot com. If you forget all that, just go ahead and ask for Robbie and he'll get you to me.

Or call Nikita on the show and he'll get you to me. Well, it's been great having you on the show. I mean, I was excited when we were able to line this up, I've been wanting you on for a while. And again, just the kindred spirit that you and I have, our heart for men. And as you're listening, ladies, as you're listening out there, you know, we just encourage you, you know, check out some of these events and some of the things that Roy and even myself, what we're doing, and encourage your men.

If they have your blessing and are encouraged by you, they're more apt to plug in or become a part of some of this. So, and on that note, hey, if you don't know Jesus, today would be a great day to give your heart to the Lord. Amen. We would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, Godly husbands, and Godly fathers.

God appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me. Remember this, it's time to man up. This is Nikita Koloff, and I want to thank Clements Karp for supporting my new show, Man Up, Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the Truth Network. Because you are number one. This is the Truth Network.