Tribute To Fathers After Hours

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Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We're glad that you're with us this week and we are taking a break from our pillar series. Rodney, you want to tell them what the pillar series is about, not pillar series, is about? Tools of the enemy. And we wanted to make sure that nobody thinks that now we're going into Father's Day that the Father is a tool of the enemy. He is the anti-enemy.

He is the good father, the good shepherd. But we are taking a break this week because we thought it would be really important to talk about fathers. I think that was kind of Andy's idea this year. He's wanted the Mother's Day theme and the Father's Day theme to make sure that we attack those.

They were heavy on his heart, so I think that was a wonderful thing. And we'll be back on our pillars next week. Yeah, we've still got more tools.

Tools of the enemy. And I don't even know how many more we have. We only have a few listed so far, but I think we can still think of a lot more. Yeah, I think God's going to promise. I got that feeling.

Yeah. Andy, welcome back, at least on the phone anyway. I'd love to have you in the studio, but glad to have you at least on the phone. Thank you. I feel welcome. Good, good. We'll try to wear that out next week when you're back.

Enjoy it while you got it. We'll be picking on you next week. Rodney, you have actually the first clip of this one, and you want to tell us a little bit about the clip? Sure. We'll go with the Rifleman.

That's what I had queued up, so that works out well. Yeah, good. The Rifleman, this clip is a show where Mark, the son, had this crazy guy comes through town and says, Mark's his son, and they got this old worn out picture back then. In the Western days, you didn't have very good pictures anyway, but he was claiming, oh, it's him, it's him, it's him.

Mark was confused and kind of down and out about it and was trying to figure things out. This scene is Lucas's dad coming in and reaffirming that, no, I and your mother had you, and you are my son, and you can just probably play it from there. I'm not his son, am I? No, you're not his son. You're a part of your mother and me. I feel sorry for him, but why did he have to pick me for his son? I don't know, Mark, but I'm going to find out. I think maybe he's a little sick in the head.

No, he's sick of the heart, like I'd be if I lost you and spent years trying to find you. That could be a powerful brief. You better get ready for bed, huh? I love you. I know you do. And you have a father-son that live out in the West alone, and they really depend heavily on each other, and it's just a, always is a great TV show for me to watch. I just love Westerns, and you know, you got a father who is big and strong and teaches his son great values, and just seeing the son always kind of take those things on. They have a lot of deep, intimate talks about things. That's one thing I did not get from my father.

I didn't have the deep, intimate talks, but the hard work and always knowing that I was protected and I was safe, always had that. And boy, do you have that in Lucas McCain with Mark, and always knowing that you're safe. If your dad's the rifleman, no, he's the rifleman, the fastest gun in the West kind of thing, you know, you're probably pretty safe, although he gets into a lot of skirmishes. And you're just always laughing at the show when you're like, really, why do you ever set that gun down?

Because every once in a while, you know, it's like, oh, he's too far away from the rifle, you know, that kind of thing, and the intrigue with that. But it's like always somebody coming into their life, and you know, and you just need that, that father that's there to help you and tell you that I love you, and you are a part of me. And that's why I can confirm there at the end, I know you do, is basically confirming to Mark that, yes, you show me love all the time. I get that you, I get that you love me from, even without saying it, I know you love me.

And that's just a great thing to know. Yeah, I really like that clip. My actual favorite part is when he helps him have perspective, you know, when he says he's sick in the head.

He said, no, he's sick in the heart. Yeah. Right. He's teaching him compassion. He's teaching him how to think beyond what's on the surface, and to go deeper into what's some of his story. Yeah.

And what would that story be like? That's the counselor coming out, and you're there, Sam. Is that what that is? Okay. Yeah, it could be.

It could be. Well, Jim, you're actually next with your clip. I want to go ahead and have you do your clip, and then I'll do mine.

Sure. This is after a dinner that a father's had with a son. They've had a very rough relationship. Actually, both sons did off and on. But this is the bad son. The other one's the good son.

And this is their coming back together, and right before the dad leaves for an extended trip. And you can play it from there. So that's it. I've got no choice in the matter. I've given you a life of choice.

This one's mine. At our family dinner, you were right. I could have been a better father to you. Well, now you've forgotten your mysterious ways, just as you're leaving.

No need for them anymore, now that I'm retiring. Which means I can say something I've wanted to for a long time. I love you, son. And I am very proud of the man you've become. I think Amenadiel might like to hear that too.

They already told him. It was an emotional round of God. That really struck home with me in a way that was very personal. My father always showed me his love. I never doubted that I was unconditionally loved through my entire childhood. But he said it more when I was an adult than he said it when I was a child. And the pivotal time, because I'd been a pretty big disappointment to him through the years. But as an adult, when he told me, I'm proud of you, son, that just took me out emotionally for a while. And even now I'm tearing up.

And that was 35 years ago, 40 years ago. But he saw who I had become. And he was proud of me.

And I did it through lots of errors. And what really made me laugh was my father was an excellent golfer. So was my brother, so that they had an emotional golf game sort of had me chuckling at the end of that clip as well.

But that clip was made for me. All right. Well, thank you for sharing.

Appreciate you doing that. Andy, is there anything else you want to share before I get to my clip? You want to talk a little bit more about your experiences with your dad? Yeah, there's so many. Yeah.

Thank you for sure. You touched on some of the adventures. I just want to go over that real quick. But just, you know, there was time when when my mom and dad split up. And my dad, they felt he knew he was going to be away from me for some time. Before he left the state to go find work in another state. He took me on an adventure of three places in North Carolina.

I think it was Grandfather Mountain, Brevard, and then like Wilmington and the coast. And each one of them made an impact on me. And years later, you heard me was I really felt God's father. I felt like he did something very similar and remained and kind of brought it all together on just an adventure trip I was on by myself.

And the gifts that he gave me, they're kind of correlated with what my dad had done. But, you know, God is constantly coming after us through not only himself, but other men, as long as we allow him. And he does that for all of us. We just have to look for it. A lot of times we don't see that sometimes.

Sometimes our pride or our orphan spirit will prevent that. But he really came after me. But just one quick story from when I was a kid that made an impact.

And, you know, I try to think about the past a lot more than I ever did before. What did that do? You know, where was he? And he worked hard.

He was a brick mason, long hours and stuff. And he did take those times to play catch with me and stuff. But one time, I just started playing baseball. I became a pitcher. I could throw harder than anybody, but who knew where the ball was going to end up.

It would go up, you know, halfway up the backstop or whatever. And he really realized that I needed some kind of fathering in that. So he went out and built me this specialized, you know, pitching contraption to just catch the ball for me. I mean, I was the only child, my brother wasn't really involved in sports. So it was kind of his way of giving me something to work with. And he built this frame and put a basketball hoop on it, put a burlap bag on the back of it. And I really worked on it that week, and really improved my pitching.

I pitched a lot more in control. And I just remember, you know, that was the investment that he made in me. But, you know, those kinds of things make the impact. And, you know, God does the same kind of things for us whenever he moves on our behalf, you know, even as adults. And then again, you know, just all my brothers in the ministry and other people that God's brought through my life, the power of being fathered by other men, you know, you really get a sense that you're not an orphan.

And the enemy would love to tell you that you are an orphan. So that's all I got. Thanks, Forrest. We appreciate that. Andy, sorry that they know where that came from. But you actually teed up my clip quite well. Thank you.

The clip I'm going to use is from a movie called We Are Marshall. And it's based on a true story. And that's in West Virginia, right?

Marshall University in Charleston, West Virginia. And in the early 70s, the plane crash took out the entire team, except for two players and one coach who went on a recruiting trip. After the game, they'd played an away game, you know, got on a plane to come back. Two players that lived were not on the trip, they were injured, and they were back home.

And pretty quickly, I think that next year, they decided to start the program again. And one of the most outspoken people against it was one of the people's father who had died. The father didn't die, the son died on the plane.

He was one star football player. And the father was outspoken about not wanting the football program, they needed to let, you know, people be in mourning, all these kinds of things. And, and fortunately, the administrator of the school had some foresight to see, okay, this could be really healthy for the for the town. And, and so we pick up this scene is they're going to have their first home game, they had been playing a couple road games, hadn't played well, but they're gonna have their first home game, no one knows what to expect. And everybody goes. And so as we pick up the scene, you have this father walking into the diner, the father I was talking about that was against everything, whose son died in the crash, walking into the diner, who is talking to the waitress there, who was going to be his daughter in law, the son was engaged to her.

And so they've kind of been this own little family. And he's realized that he needs to speak into her life about something she needs to go do. And so we're going to kind of listen to that he convinces her to leave the restaurant and take a walk with him. And he's going to talk to her about life.

And so we're going to listen to that and then come back. There's nobody eating this town anymore. Not today anyway. You should go. No, my shift ends in a few hours. It's no big deal. It's not what I meant. Must take a walk.

I don't think your customers will mind. You know, I was baptized right here in the Ohio, swam in it all the time when I was a kid. And I was away of the war. I fall asleep at night to the sound of this water.

When my wife died, I'd lay awake at the same sound. If I see this river, I know I'm home. This is my home, Annie. You were going to California with my son. How have you known? I'm his father. I've always known. You should go, Annie.

Things have changed now. I mean, I have responsibilities. I have a job. And you, you're all alone.

Oh, stop, stop. You can't put that on me. You've got to go out there and live your life. If you don't leave now, you never will. You're all out of excuses, Annie. You can't stay for me and you can't stay for your job. Why not?

Because when I tell your boss you left that restaurant unattended, he's going to have to fire you. Grief is messy, Annie. It makes you do things you regret. Sometimes things you'll always regret. I don't. I don't regret it. I don't.

I'm not talking about you. Go, Annie. Go.

Go, Annie. So this weekend I was trying to think of a clip and kind of just got done not really thinking about it anymore and was flipping around the TV and I saw that they had this movie and I'd seen it before and I thought, well, I'd just like to watch it again. You know, it was a great storyline and all that.

And then the scene comes up and I'd forgot all about the scene, you know? And so it reminded me, you know, of the people out there whose dads, you know, may not have been the best dad and was maybe not the best influencer. The dad wasn't even physically there or was physically there but emotionally or mentally absent, right?

But God doesn't let you to stay there. He brings people into your life to father you along the way. One of the things that happened for me last week was my scoutmaster as a kid passed away. He went to school with his sons and he was my scoutmaster for all the years I was in, Boy Scouts, which when you're in a town and you don't have a car, you're in Boy Scouts a long time.

When you're in a small town and not much to do. But just looking back at how he fathered me in ways that I didn't really have eyes to see then, you know, he had, I got into leadership in Scouts, you know, I got voted in as a senior, whatever it was, you know, the highest ranking senior patrol leader. Thank you, you know, and all my friends were excited because like, Oh, now we can really do things the way you know, we want to do. And one of the first things he told me was when you're in leadership, now that you're in leadership, you treat everybody the same, you can't treat anyone differently. And it was hard, you know, because I knew he was right, there's something in what he said, I knew it was right.

And it was great coaching. And it, it cost me for short term, you know, some of those friends, and they eventually came back around, you know, they were mad at me. And, you know, I jumped to the other side, I was not on their side anymore. But that leadership lesson has lasted me through all my leadership situations. You know, even at work, you know, and now, when I've been in leadership roles, I think of that very often and say that was such good advice. And there were so many other things that he did, that I didn't have eyes to see that looking back, you know, through what we do at boot camp with the, you know, who is God sent to father you?

It's really opened my eyes to the people that he brings along and still continues to bring along. And so part of the question for the rest of the show that I want to throw out to you guys is who else has God brought along in your life to help father you, even if you had a great father, and the dad was always there and all that there's still other fathering your dad's not equipped to do? So who's God brought along in your life that you want to honor on this Father's Day weekend?

Robby? Yeah, I had a boss in the car business that was really instrumental in a whole lot of stuff in my life. It was Royce Reynolds. He owned the Crown Group of car dealerships in Greensboro. And he was a, you know, just a boy from Alabama who had gone door to door selling books, Bibles, really, and was a very strong Christian man, which meant nothing to me at the time. He was just pretty much a car salesman.

But he had some very strong values that everybody knew about. And one of the things, you know, that he would always wonder what you're reading, you know, he would, you know, what are you reading, you know, if you're not studying, and then one of his favorite lines, which, you know, stuck with me forever, well, if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. And, you know, it was something that put me on how fun it was to learn again. And I started going through tape series.

And that was what led to me getting the, you know, Norman Vincent Peale's power positive thinking that kind of really put me on the track of the Bible that ended up really changing my life. But in so many ways, he was a man of such integrity, but one more little lesson he taught me, which I've always thought was real classic, because, you know, I went to run the Crown Honda Volvo store, and the Crown Honda Volvo store would always eat up and spit out general managers, because it had a really, really strong service manager by the name of Troy Mills. And so on the way to go put me in as the general manager of that store, he says, now Robby, every general manager I've ever put up here, Troy Mills ate him up and spit him out. So I'm going to tell you the story that me and my brother went horseback riding one time. And when he got up to this bridge, this horse reared up and threw off Jimmy. And I said, Jimmy, you got to get control of that horse. And he goes, all right, Smarty, you show me how to get control of that horse. And so Royce got on the horse, right? He goes up on the bridge, same thing, horse rears up, he's got a log, you know, and he whacks that horse in the middle of the head, kaboom, the horse goes blah, you know, and trots across the thing, you know, like he now understands. And he looked at me and he said, Robby, do you understand me? And I was like, I understand. Well, like a week after I'd been there, I noticed that my sales manager was out there unloading the cars coming off the car carrier. And I'm like, what's up with that? Oh, well, Troy has a new car manager unlocked.

I'm like, he needs to be in here working deals, what in the heck? And so I was like, Zimmerman, get in here. Well, Troy Mills will have my behind. I said, well, I'll have Troy Mills behind, just have him come on in here. Well, it wasn't 10 minutes and Troy Mills was coming in there and he goes, in this dealership, the new car manager unloads the car. And I said, oh, new rules. I said, this dealership, somebody in servicing loads of cars.

I don't care. He is a sales manager. He's got to work deals. And he goes, well, I'm going to call Morgan Mann. Well, Morgan Mann was over all the service departments of all the dealerships. And I said, that's fine. Call Morgan. I said, but I'm going to call Royce in the meantime. Do you want to talk to him? And do you want to hear from him who's boss here? And he, oh no, no, no, no. And it was like, I hit him over the head with that, you know, and I got to tell you that Troy Mills was the best friend and employee after that is like, once he realized that he didn't run the show anymore, you know, it was just, it was just a wonderful relationship, a wonderful, great service manager. But you know, those are the kinds of things that to me, a father like teaches you stuff that just goes down in your heart and you never forget that stuff.

Good boy. Jim. I thought of Bob Shepherd, my first Baptist pastor since when I was young, I swore I wouldn't step foot in another Baptist church. And God laughed and said, want to bet, but had lunch with him one day and I said, wonderful guy.

He was about half my size, but he baptized me and said I was one of the easiest person people he had ever baptized. But Bob encouraged me to just take a course. I had no desire to go into ministry, but they had a new program down at Gardner Webb. He said, just take a course if that's where God wants you to go. And that changed my life. So he had a tremendous impact over a number of years. I mean, our marriage recovered under him and did a lot of growth during our time at that church.

Thanks, Jim. I was sitting thinking about a guy named Pastor Wayne Eller. He's actually from, I think the Kernersville area originally, and he was associate pastor at church in Asheboro that we attended. And we spent countless hours in his office talking about stuff. And he was a pastor that was a friend.

And I could ask questions that probably you wouldn't really want to ask in church. And just, you know, he answered a lot of, and he just fathered me in a way that was just really cool. And he helped me along my journey. And he left the church and started his own ministry.

And we remained friends, still friends to this day. So just Pastor Wayne Eller. Thank you. Andy, you got somebody? I think I'm gonna take a pass on this. Okay. I guess not. Well, you're gonna take a pass or you're not gonna take a pass?

No, I'm not gonna take a pass. I just was realizing, I just started going back through when I did the Sonship Talk and men. And I think a lot of it is, I guess I probably, I had a lot of people to speak into me, but a lot of them were peers. I didn't have older men in my life. And, you know, through coming to the ministry and meeting other men, I've got more of that in my life, but for a long time. You know, you guys have heard me talk about an orphan spirit a lot. It's just, I tried to do things on my own way too much, but I have plenty of men.

I don't really have one to call out, but I think that's something that we as men do sometimes though, is don't get people that, I mean, you can be fathered by somebody that's up here, but I think it's somebody with more experience in life, I think is more beneficial. That is the longest pass I ever heard. I know.

Yeah, it was a deep one, but it didn't, yeah. I know. I give my time back to the little ones to go now. To the gentleman from Milan.

Right, exactly. I'd go with my father-in-law. You know, you're stepping out of one family and joining another one, you're not really sure, excuse me, how that's going to go. And my father-in-law and my mother-in-law just seemed to accept me unconditionally and just loved on me and the family and from day one just kind of felt a part of the family. He was a big hunter and fisherman, so getting to do some of those things with him that I didn't do with my dad just kind of really talked to me and spoke to me. We went on some fishing trips to Canada and things like that and just was able to help him with his yard work and do all kinds of other things because he was always busy working. And we lived near them, very near them, and it was always, I just felt always involved in their life.

And it was just a wonderful time to start a new life with your spouse and everything, with him. Thank you. Well, the homework assignment for this week is if God blazed it on your heart to share something with your dad that he really helped you along the way, please do that. If it's someone else that helped father you along the way, ask God to open your eyes to see those people that he's brought into your life or continues to bring into your life and go bless them this weekend. Have a great weekend. Talk to you next week. This is the Truth Network.