Condemnation-Conviction

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Welcome to The Masculine Journey. We are very glad that you're with us this week. Thank you for joining. We are going to be talking about a topic that we just realized in the last week that we talk about this, but we've never really done a show on it. And so we're actually doing a show on it. It's – go ahead. What is that show, Sam? Well, it's a difference between condemnation, which I'll probably say wrong at least three times during the show. We'll be counting. Thank you.

And conviction, right, and how to know the difference and, you know, who uses those as far as spiritually, you know, God uses one, the enemy uses the other, and how to know the difference and how to avoid being the voice of the enemy. Just lots of things around that topic that, you know, we've kind of touched on, but we've never really spent a full half hour and then with the after hours a full hour, you know, on the topic, and so we're going to do that today. But first, Andy. Yes. How are you? I'm good. Good, good. So what are you doing 20 weeks from now?

Let's see. Is that Thanksgiving? I'll probably be eating turkey. It's actually the weekend before Thanksgiving. Oh, yeah, okay.

You said 20 weeks, not 21 weeks. Right. I got you. I'll be at boot camp. You'll be at boot camp.

That's right. So go masculinejourney.org, register for the upcoming boot camp November 18th through the 21st. What a perfect time to get away right before you go into Thanksgiving. You know, Thanksgiving means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, you know, and certain stages of my life, it meant a lot of stress. And so there's nothing better than to get away ahead of a lot of stress than going to a boot camp and letting God unpack some stuff.

And even if it's not stressful, what a great way to kick off boot camp just by – or kick off Thanksgiving by going and learning a lot of things to be thankful for. Exactly. That's right.

My mind was going, is that you'll have a lot of things to be thanking God for after a week walking with him, yeah. Yeah. Apparently, I have a very abnormal Thanksgiving because I'm always looking forward to having a lot of food with loved ones. Yeah. Is that weird? It's the whole loved ones part, I think sometimes is the weird – the part that can add to stress or, you know, take away from stress depending on how that goes.

Is there love with loved ones or some condemnation? Yeah, exactly. Well, there's always – in every family tree there's, you know, a cousin Eddie, right? You know, sometimes it's one ring out, sometimes it's immediate family, but you get enough rings out on the family tree.

Sometimes you are cousin Eddie. That sounds a little like condemnation. It does.

It does. And that's why we're talking about it. Thank you, Wayne. So we're going to go ahead and start off with a clip. And this clip is from the Andy Griffith Show. And even if you're not from North Carolina, which we are in North Carolina now, we're not all from North Carolina, you got to love the Andy Griffith Show.

I mean, I grew up watching it as a kid in Indiana and I just loved it. There was always a great lesson to it. And in this one, Andy tries both condemnation and conviction with Opie and Opie's just not getting it, right? And so what has happened before this is there had been a charity drive at school and Opie had given a grand total of three cents, which then the teacher told Andy about. Andy was embarrassed and he's going to confront Opie, you know, about, you know, being such a big spender.

So let's listen to his words and how it plays out for him. Too much? I could ask him to give back two cents. Look at him. We better talk about this thing. Now, now, now look here, Opie. You can't give a little bitty piddly amount like three cents to a worthy cause like the underprivileged children's drive.

I was reading here just the other day where there's somewhere like 400 needy boys in this county alone or one and a half boys per square mile. There is? Sure is. I never seen one, Paul. Never seen one what? A half boy. Well, it's not really a half a boy. It's a ratio.

Horatio who? Not whole ratio, a ratio. It's mathematics, arithmetic. Look now, Opie, just forget that part of it. Forget the part about the half boy.

It's pretty hard to forget a thing like that, Paul. Well, try. Poor Horatio. Now look, Horatio is not the only needy boy. Son, didn't you ever give anybody anything just for the pleasure of it? Something you didn't want anything in return for?

Sure. Just yesterday I gave my friend Jimmy something. Now that's fine. What'd you get?

A sock in the head. I meant charity. I didn't charge him nothing.

I meant something for the joy of giving. I enjoyed it. I would have to say that that would have to be one of the top five or if not top five, top 10 funniest little segments from any TV show.

Absolutely. That's my go-to favorite Andy Griffith right there. It just makes you laugh. It's so hilarious. What surprised me when I heard the clip, I'd seen it years before.

I hadn't seen it in a while. I always remembered Andy as never really being condemning. He was the patient dad. He wasn't perfect. He was kind of that dad you throw up there and say, boy, I'd like to be like him.

There's always a lesson every week. Opie just wasn't buying it this time, was he, Andy? No, he wasn't. You're right. Andy didn't normally have that, but he had the external pressure of others in the community of what they felt like. And that's what we do sometimes was we do things that we wouldn't normally do if we have that external pressure.

But he was definitely bringing some condemnation on him. Yeah. When you end up trying to please others for whatever reason, it seems like, oh man, I'm going to try to shame them or do something along those lines.

And that's where you start going even with your own kids. It's so easy to do. Yeah. I just loved when Opie was derailing everything he tried to do. The innocence. It's wonderful.

Did I give him too much? I can get two cents back, dad. Just think about that.

When you're really innocent and you're coming from your heart, you're much less likely to be condemned or condemn others. Yeah. Yeah. Jim, did you want to add something? Nothing important other than I wish Harold were here because he remembers like I do with three cents was a lot of money.

That's true. He probably bought bread back Harold and a car and a couple other things. Well, in my day, you could get three pieces of bubble gum. Yeah, there you go. I'm going to go ahead and go to another clip.

We've got time to get it in before we go to break because I want to set up this topic of condemnation. This is from the movie Hacksaw Ridge. And what's happened prior to this, the dad had been in World War I. I think it was, right. And it was not a good thing for him. He lost all his friends and you'll hear some of that in the clip. And he really turned to alcohol and had a lot of issues when he came back long before PTSD was diagnosed.

He would have been a person that had something like that. And so the next war comes up and his oldest son joins and Desmond, the youngest son, sees the interaction with him and his dad and knows it's not something his dad really approved of. But then Desmond also ends up joining, right. And then we pick up this scene as they're at a graveyard and his dad's looking over the graves of his friends that had died in World War I.

And this is the interchange between him and his son, Desmond. Mama said, come see you here. These three were my best friends. I grew up with them. I got into trouble with them, chased girls with them and enlisted with them. Now my friends are there covered in dirt and grass and eaten by worms.

I don't want to have to visit my sons here. Daddy, I signed up already. I couldn't do otherwise, pop. Everybody else is doing it.

Everybody else. Like everybody else jumps in, does things quick without thinking like the fools we were. You know, when soldiers who live, they live because they can do that. You can't. You got to sit and think and pray about everything.

I mean, look at you. You're doing it right now. You won't be able to live with yourself if you go. No, I won't be able to live with myself if I don't. I'm going to be a medic.

That's going to be my way to serve. See, there you go, thinking it all out. But you figure this war is just going to fit in with you?

Your ideas? Well, I know, I know that's going to be hard. It won't be hard. It'll be impossible. You know, whatever beliefs you have and your crazy head now, they won't ever play out. It don't work that way.

And if by some, I don't know, miracle chance you survive, you won't be given no thanks to God. Andy, part of that, I mean, that was actually a clip that you suggested. See, I didn't say your clip, right?

A clip that you suggested. But part of it as a dad, you can almost hear, okay, I'm trying to protect my son, but there's a lot more going on there, right? Yeah, it is. I mean, his experience was that war didn't work out well for him, and he obviously didn't want that on his kids. But there was a heroic part of the war. There was something Desmond saw about actually trying to save life instead of take life. And, you know, really, that condemnation projected on him. If he would have listened to that, he potentially could have been taken out of what God had intended him for and not really came in and saved these 80 guys that he did later on in the war. Yeah, definitely. Generations were impacted by him listening and following the call placed on his heart. Absolutely.

Right. But how was the dad condemning him in that clip? And anyone can speak to that. You know, where was he using condemnation there? Well, really in his tone. The condemnation came in the words that he was using. It's interesting how condemnation actually hangs with you for a long time.

It's one of the ways you know it's condemnation. I was talking about it earlier. I had an instance where, just today, I said to myself, you know, I'm tired of being a loser.

And I'm not. I've actually been really good at everything. There's that everything, right?

And most of what I've put my mind to, I've been really good at. So now I'm having to go back and address that. But, you know, even going back to what you mentioned with what he did in that movie and how did those words actually possibly play into driving him to go without thinking and just go in and rush in and do what he was called to do?

Absolutely. And one of the things that I'm reading between the lines, but his dad was in, they say, almost certainly in the same unit as his three friends, because that was done through World War One. And he did not, he was not able to save them and he came back with survivor's guilt.

He could do nothing to protect his friends. And so the condemnation he was feeling is what really hit me in that. Yeah. Thank you. As we come back, we're going to talk about how the enemy uses condemnation in our lives to try to drive us away from God and what he does with that. While we're at the break, we'd love for you to go to masculinejourney.org, register for the upcoming boot camp, November 18th through the 21st, the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 18th through 21st. Masculine Heart fall boot camp coming up November 18th through the 21st. Go to masculinejourney.org and register today. Hi, this is Sam with Masculine Journey.

I'm here with my son, Eli. We're going to talk about ways that you can help support the ministry. One way you can go to smile.amazon.com, go to smile.amazon.com. There's information on our website there on how to do that. You go to facebook.com and click the donate button, or you can go to masculinejourney.org and find the donate button, masculinejourney.org, or if you want to mail something in, mail it to P.O.

Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. Welcome back to Masculine Journey. That's a little bump in from the group train. That song is about the danger of words, being careful what you say. If you hear certain things, you need to be able to let them go. Part of that is saying if they're hurting your heart, you need to treat them like firewood and let them burn. That's not totally true, but when we're talking about condemnation, which we're talking about today in conviction, that is true. When we hear those words of condemnation, we need to let that burn. We need to let it go away and not buy into it.

And so when we left, we said we're going to start talking about the enemy. That's his tool. That's one of his top tools is condemnation. So what does he try to accomplish with it, guys? What's he trying to get at? Why does he use that tool and why does he use it so effectively? Well, I'll speak for Robby because he always likes to talk about the whack-a-mole. So basically, it's your glory shining up and that's like there for Desmond.

I can only imagine how bright his spirit was and how easy it was for Satan to spot the glory inside of Desmond of God coming out and what he was going to want to do in his heart for saving people and wanting to be rescuing people. And you can just see like, oh, okay, I'm going to condemn you and you're not the one for this because you're a loser. You can't go do this. You can't fight in a fight like this. This is not your war.

This is not you. You're not built for this, which he wasn't. But he had a completely different thought in his mind of what war was like. War is about saving, like you were saying, rather than being about killing. And it's like, wow, what a different purview that he had.

And that's exactly what Satan wants to do is come in, shut that down, get you in a completely 180 frame of mind from where your destiny really is. Yeah. If you go back and you watch the movie, Hacksaw Ridge, which is based on a true story, watch how many times the enemy comes at him. It's not just the dad, you know, it's his drill sergeant.

It's his, the lieutenants and the colonels and the people around him. Right. You got to say that into a microphone, but yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And what, what you're speaking to well, beautiful things in that movie to me was when everybody was after him, including the government to shut him down and keep him out. His father was the one that came to his rescue to let them know that he had the right to do what he was trying to do. And when that rescue came, even the presiding general over the court was like, you know, condemning him, you know, in the final sentences of sending him out of that courtroom was still condemning constantly.

They would not let up. Yeah. And so he's definitely after, you know, squashing down the glory of God.

Right. So what else is he trying to do with condemnation? What's something that condemnation does at its core? I think a lot of people, it's identity. A lot of people, you know, it's like, you're this people will name you.

And then we also hear it in our minds. You're such an idiot. You're a loser, you know, and really that's the attack in the, the you're an image bear. That's your identity. God's create made you unique, created you. He fearfully and wonderfully made. He made you that way. And the enemy is tacky at that.

I mean, he's did it ever since the garden and he continues to do it. And there's something about our identity identity that's so core to us that it takes us out from about all of life. Really. If you don't feel good about yourself in who you are and not just this self-esteem thing, but who you are in God, you will struggle with accomplishing things of finding your place in this world. I mean, I did it for many years and, and the whole message of identity set me free.

Yeah. I think that if you would have said the word loser and not pointed at Wayne, it probably would have went better for you. But since you said that and pointed at it.

We'll talk after. He wants to defend himself and we won't let him have a microphone. Yeah, that was actually quite funny, but our biggest condemnation often comes from within. I mean, it's the enemy, but we know ourselves too well. Other people don't tend to. So at least in my life, self condemnation has been the worst. And that's the one that's believable because it's coming from somebody you trust. You trust yourself? No, more than I trust most other people though.

But you, even though I don't, I wouldn't really go as far as say, I trust myself with my own thoughts of who I am, where I'm at and stuff like that. But there is something where it's like, you've lived with yourself your whole life. Yeah. And what keeps popping up all the time is those bad nasty things. That's what, for some reason, it seems like when I have memories of the past, that's what seems to rise up first is all the bad things you did, the bad things you thought, the bad things that went on in your life.

And it's just hard to drum up the good thoughts and the cheerful thoughts it seems like for a lot of people. Yeah. Andy, you talked about identity, which is important. Yeah, let's do the disclaimer now that I got a mic back. No, no, no. You've already missed your opportunity. Okay, you're stuck with a loser. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. And you're pointing at it with all your fingers now, so that's not good. It's getting worse.

Just stop. No, but it's a character assassination is what happens with that. It's after your character. One thing that I would challenge you, and Jim, I agree with you, I think it's self-talk, but I would ask God to say, God, I probably didn't originate that thought in my head.

Where did it get originated? Because I promise you, you heard it from someone somewhere, right? And the enemy's just playing it. Yeah, he's saying, okay, see, this is really true about you. See, this is really true about you.

This is really true about you. All those times that you mess up and you slip back into an old routine or whatever, it's just more evidence for him to keep hammering you with the same label. And also going towards what does Father say about you? Who does he call you? What does he say you are? Who does he say you are?

And what's the truest thing? If you take ownership of that lie, of that condemnation that comes in, well, then you're really calling God a liar when you think about it. So that's why it's so important that we do spend time. And it's one of the things we talk about in the boot camp. We allow the men to go in and really seek out what does God say about me?

Yeah, when we send them out for the covenant of silence, one of the things we talk to them about is this whole topic of condemnation versus conviction, because God does not do condemnation, right? And this is not Wayne, but one of the, I was too late to do clips, but one that hit me is in, I forgot the name of the movie. The Shack.

No, it wasn't actually. There's like a thousand movies. But basically it's the younger kid, the kid, that's the kid. But the younger kid is going through the, we don't have a dog, I never got married, blah, blah, blah.

I don't have a truck. And he says, I'm a loser. And that's how we normally will say it within ourselves. But that's not really coming from us. That's coming from the enemy. But we lay claim to it. And that's two thirds of the battle is realizing that it isn't me.

Yeah, we accept it as truth, right? We have about four minutes left in this show. And so I want to go ahead and get to the next clip, because I want to talk about conviction. And in this clip, you have Andy and Opie again, we're going back to them. And Andy has sold a cannon to somebody and he kind of embellished the story about the cannon. And Opie saw him do that. And so he found a cuff link and decided to go tell a story to a shop owner that it was George Washington's button or his cuff link, right?

And sold it to him. And so Andy finds out about it. He's of course upset and he's back into wanting to correct Opie.

And so let's see how that plays out. What's the matter, Paul? The matter is that I got an idea about the idea Jerry got about that cuff link being a button off of General Washington's uniform. And the idea I got is that it's just barely possible that the idea Jerry got could have come from you.

How about? Now come on, tell me the truth. I don't want you lying to me on top of everything else.

Okay, it's barely possible. Do you know what you've done? You've just broken the golden rule and thrown it right out the window and cheated. Oh no, Paul, I didn't cheat at all. Well, what do you call it then?

By being smart, just like you. What? Sure, when I saw how you dickered with that fella for the cannon, I knew how important it is to make up a good story to go with whatever it is you're trading. So I made up the story about George Washington. Ain't that being smart, Paul? No, that's not being smart. That's just lying, lying and cheating.

But didn't you do the same with that fella, Paul? Well, well, well, no. No?

No. What I did was to build up the product so it'd be easier for me to sell. That's what I did. Well, well, well, no. Now, what I did is what we call a little innocent horse trading.

I know, that's what I did. Well, now, no. You see, it's different with you, with grown folks. Why, why we... You know what I think, Paul? What? I think we both broke the golden rule. I think you're right, Opie. Now, I tell you what, you take them skates back to Jerry, and I got a little fencemending to do of my own, all right? All right.

All right. So, Andy, you know, what was it about that clip that really kind of spoke to you about, you know, that's conviction. What's the difference? That was not condemnation there.

So what's the difference? Well, actually, it was. Andy was bringing the condemnation heat. Yeah.

And Opie was bringing back some conviction. Yeah. And he drew out from his dad, he was just trying to compare what the two of them were doing, and he was just saying, look, I just did what you did. But he drew it out by questions to where that asking the questions and kind of comparing the two made it evident to Andy that, yeah, I messed up just as bad. I messed up just as bad. So, yeah.

Yeah. And Jim, you made the point earlier that what happens when people ask you questions? What's the outcome that can happen there? Well, with questions, you will allow conviction to come out of them as long as they're asked in an appropriate way. But with, I'm telling you, you're doing wrong, Sam.

What's your reaction? Oh, yeah, you're gonna get defensive. I'm not gonna listen to you. You don't know what you're talking about.

More times than not. And you'd actually said it differently when we're on the pre-show, but you'd said, when I'm asked questions, it gives both me and God time to work on it. Right? And that's an important part. And the one thing I'll also say about conviction, it's speaking truth, but it's speaking truth in love.

Right? And that's the whole goal is to speak in love to somebody. And as we go through the after hours, I hope that you're able to listen to that. Go to masculinejourney.org to download that. You can go to any podcast place that has it. We're on all the different podcast locations. You can get it there, but we're gonna continue to talk about this and how not to be the mouthpiece of the enemy. And also please go register for the bootcamp coming up November 18th through 21st. It's at masculinejourney.org. We'll talk to you next week. This is the Truth Network.