Interview With Robby part 2

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. All right, for my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell, so you'll be alerted when we have our next video.

Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. All right, If Not For God with Mike Zwick. Glad to be back here today. I've got my good friend, Robbie Dilmore. Just had another great show, and it's January, Robbie, and it's in the 60s.

I haven't done a show with you all year. We got to do it more often, man, and wanted to give a shout out. I wanted to pause a moment here to thank one of our program supporters, and that's High Point Financial Design over in High Point, North Carolina. We'd just like to say thank you to our friend, Ronnie Kleinert, and his son, Brad Kleinert, and all the folks over at High Point Financial Design for their positive feedback and encouragement of our ministry. With this sponsor shout out, we recognize High Point Financial Design and their investment focus on intentional planning and abundant living, continued blessings to High Point Financial Design and If Not For God. So I thank those guys, and man, it's good to get your finances in order, especially with the new year, if that's something you're thinking of.

Right, and if you are out there getting a new year calendar, make sure you get one that has the fifth month, because if it doesn't, you'll be dismayed. Man, I've missed the Christian car guy. Where have you been, homeboy? If you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, open with us to John chapter 8, and I'm looking at the New King James Version, starting in verse 1, it says, And again, And I've seen two sides to this, Robbie. I've seen the side where they say, See?

He said, Go and sin no more. And, you know, if you're living the wrong way, you need to stop, and what is wrong with you? Well, that's one extreme. And then the other extreme is where they go, See? He didn't say that until the end, and he just focused on loving her, and he forgave her, and, you know, we need to stop judging people, and we just need to be nice to everybody. And what a lot of those people are really saying is, let's not talk about sin.

And so I think both of those can be an extremist position. But I notice, I guess especially when I started the show, Robbie, what a time to start this show at the beginning of 2020. I mean, can you think of another time to start this show than when I started the show back in 2020? But I know a lot of things happened. There was COVID. There was elections going on.

There were rioting. There was all this stuff. And I had an opinion on a lot of that stuff, Robbie, in case anybody didn't realize. One of the mistakes that I think that I made, though, was sometimes I spoke what I believed to be the truth, and many times I still believe that to be the truth, but I may not have done it in a kind way. And so our friend Christy Reel, and you've met her before, but one of the things that she said is she said that she went to a church, and they were always telling her that she was doing wrong, she was doing wrong. And she says one day the Lord spoke to her, and she said he was very kind. I don't know if you remember the interview that we did with Laura Perry at the NRB. It was transgender to transformed.

Oh, yeah, that was one of the most cool—yeah, that was just an amazing interview. And the interview that she did, and she said that the Lord had taken her out of being transgender, taken her out of the relationship that she was in, and there were people who were telling her that she needed to change. She said that one day the Lord spoke to her, and she said it was in the kindest, kindest of ways that she could possibly think of. And she said the Lord spoke to her, and she said, she said, well, I don't want to change my name, and I don't want to have to transition back. And the Lord said, when you stand before me one day, what is the name that I'm going to call you?

And she said, okay, Lord, and she decided to change her name from Jake back to Laura, and she transitioned back from living as a man to living as a woman. So the Lord spoke the truth, but he did it in a kind way. And I wonder if we watch the news, and if they came across and they gave their point, I wonder if they did it in a kinder way.

I don't know how that would work out, because I think some people just want to be angry. Well, you know, it's beyond cool when you think about it, that God is love. I mean, the literal word that is usually translated love in Hebrew begins with the letter Aleph, which pretty much means the Father, you know, like Father Abraham, you can hear that A sound, and it has a lot to do with love. Well, if you go to obviously Corinthians, you know, where it describes love is what? Love is long suffering, and love is, what's number two on the list? Kind. It isn't like an afterthought.

I mean, it's like right there. And, you know, that that is, in and of itself, it's not kind to let somebody put their hand down on a burning stove. I mean, you know, you got to make them aware that what they're doing is really hurting themselves. But are you doing that in a kind way? Because what you're really interested in is their heart, right? Because if they if they lose heart, then they can't face all the stuff that they're going to have to face. And so, you know, the God is a phenomenal encourager, not a discourager. And when you go after somebody in a judgmental way, you know, it discourages. And so, it was a beautiful thing what Jesus did. But it also to me, it's a that's a real lesson in spiritual warfare. That and I think about it often, that if I'm in trouble, you know, I can sense an attack from Satan, then I want to run to Jesus as close as I can get, because I know that if I'm in his presence, Satan can't hang out.

Right? Like, I know that when when if you're if you're in Jesus's arms, literally, then where are your accusers? You can't have any around you. If Jesus is there, right?

It's not even possible. And so I always think about that woman. There she was.

And she's standing there with Jesus. Mission accomplished. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all there is to it.

It's not hard. Yeah. I mean, I well, and I don't think I've talked a lot about this, but on Christmas night, I had a severe attack from the enemy. It was almost I mean, it was crazy. It was, you know, it was it was almost like a whether you call it an oppression or because I mean, it was it was insane.

I was I was actually in the shower. I saw a chicken's foot. I started seeing these black spots. It was like it was almost like I could see into the spiritual realm. And I started to lose my mind. And I called my I called three of my friends called Christy. I called Sharon Hungerford.

You know her. And then I called Tiger and Elena. They called in for a show. I don't know if they've ever been here, but Tiger and Elena, they ended up coming over to my house and they started to pray for me while I was in the car and in there in the backseat of their car. And I remember I was talking and Elena said, don't put yourself down. And I think sometimes we can we can look at something and we say, oh, we're being humble, but sometimes we're really just putting ourselves down and and kind of going back to that Laura Perry, Laura Perry story where she said, you know, the Lord was kind and how do I see you and stuff like that. The Lord didn't sit there and condemn her. Just like just like in John Chapter eight with a woman called an adultery. He was trying to lift her up.

He cared about her and he did it in a loving way. And but I realized that when Elena said that, that so many times I think I'm being humble, but I'm just putting myself down. And if you read the Bible, the word of God says that the enemy, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. And so, you know, maybe sometimes when we're accusing ourselves unnecessarily, maybe we're in agreement with the devil.

That's the sad news. That's exactly when you agree with a lie. If it's not the truth, what's the truest thing about you? Well, if Jesus. I mean, literally, you're you're a good guy if Jesus is in your heart. Yeah, we've got a sin problem and it's always a challenge because I like the way John Lynch puts it.

You know, we think that our sins separates us from God, but it's not even close to the truth. It doesn't because, you know, in fact, it says one hundred nineteen Psalm, now very near, O Lord. And my word is the truth.

Right. And so he could not be more near to you. And, you know, we think that, wait, you know, I've got these problems. I got to get on the other side of it so I can get into this relationship with God.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The closer you get to God, the more he'll help you with your sin problem, because my guess is, you know, I'm it's above my pay grade to solve my sin problem. And there's something in these verses that we read about the woman caught in adultery.

And there is something in Matthew, chapter seven, verses one and two, where it says, Judge not so that you too may not be judged, for in the same way that you judge others, the Lord will judge you. He says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye? And you haven't removed the plank or the log from your own eyes. First, remove the log out of your own eye.

And then you'll see clearly to remove the speck of sawdust from your brother's eye. And we don't know exactly what Jesus was writing in the sand when all of those people decided to scoot or get out of there. But I've heard it said before that maybe he was writing something down that and maybe only those people could see it individually themselves. Maybe he was showing them their own sins and maybe he was showing them what was in their own hearts. And they sat and they maybe, maybe even for a moment, they sat there and they go, Yeah, I guess you're right.

I guess I'm not perfect either. This doesn't mean we don't ever talk about sin. This doesn't mean that we don't stand for righteousness. We absolutely do that.

If you've listened to the show for any length or any period of time, you know that we stand for truth. But at the end of the day, I don't want to ignore Matthew 7, 1 and 2 where, you know, the first person that I'm looking at when I start to, the first person that I see is, Lord, what do you want me to do? David said in the book of Psalms, he says, created me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit in me. And so if there's anybody that I want to fix, Robbie, the first person that I want to fix is myself. Because, you know, clearly that's the only person that we have much say so, you know, that, you know, that we get into that relationship with God. And, you know, we can turn over control to him. Right. And, you know, I love this story of the little boy.

Maybe you've heard me tell it before, but it's one of those that I actually think about every morning of my life, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, who I think plays a huge role in all this. You know, he was that seal that we're left with. Right. And anyway, there was this missionary family and they were on deportation, in other words, raising money. So they go back out to the field and these people had gotten a lake house and they had a son, I guess it was about four or five and a daughter that was six or seven and a niece that they were taking care of.

And she was about 10 or 11. And the two, the daughter and the niece were supposed to be taking care of the little boy. And the father was working in the lake house of this thing. And the little boy, um, they weren't watching him and he went out into a pier that was out into the lake. And the father heard this splash and it comes right out of the lake house.

And the little girls say, Oh no, you know, little Johnny, whatever his name was, fell in the lake. So the father runs down, you know, jumps in the water, started searching for his son, like you would, but the water was real murky and he couldn't see him. And so he's reaching out with his hands as far as he can find, can't find him. He's reaching and he's scared, you know, he's running out of breath. He runs out of breath. He's got to come up for air. And as he comes up for air, he thinks, man, if I got to come up for air, what's my son doing? He's been underwater longer.

Right. And he thinking, and so he goes down again and he searches again with all his mind, you know, reaching out with his hands, trying to find something. And finally he touches a little, Oh, that's my son. And he feels him, but his son has a death grip on the pier that's holding up the dock and he's just hugging it with all his mind. He's got to pry him off that thing in order to get him out. So he pries him off the thing, gets him out, gives him artificial respiration, all the stuff that he would do.

And is okay. So, you know, a couple of hours go by the father sitting with his son on the pier, I mean, on the side of the house and looking out at the water. And he says, son, can you tell me, you know, why were you hanging on to that pier with all your heart, you know, with everything you had, why did you have such a grip on that pier?

And he said, cause I knew you'd come. And when I think about that death grip, you know, I think, am I, and I really, I want to cling to the spirit like that. Like it's all I got.

I got nothing else. Right. I mean, and to some extent, you know, that's the ultimate kindness that Jesus gave us is the father spirit, right?

To be there with us so we can have some to hang on to. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, and when I think about that, in a sense, what I see is that that little boy had faith. That's exactly what he was under water. He was holding on. He didn't know, but he just, he said, I knew you'd find me.

I knew you'd come and get me. You know, the there's a, there's a verse in the Bible when it says that when the son of man comes back, will he find faith? Will he find faith? I mean, I, you know, we, it's funny, you know, we, we have faith and I see this all the time. These motivational speakers, they talk about having faith in a different way. They talk about, Hey, you've got to trust the system. You know, you work really hard. You go out, you work 12 and you got to trust the system that you're going to make the sales. You've been in sales.

I've been in sales. You know, it's a numbers game. It's going to catch up, you know, it's going to work out, whatever. But then some of the but then some of these same people, they won't trust God like that. They won't trust Jesus like that. Let me ask you, there is something in your life that you trust.

I don't, I don't care what it is. I mean, you may trust that you trust your wife or your husband won't walk out, that they won't step out on you. And by the way, you could be wrong.

I mean, I, you know, that's, I hate to say it, but you could be wrong. Uh, you trust that when you get up in the morning and you turn your car, you trust that your car is going to just turn over and turn on, and it's going to get you to work. Well, it may not start up, but we trust these things that are going to happen.

How much trust and how much faith do we have in Jesus? I mean, I, as I'm seeing this happen more and more, I'm, I'm, I'm developing more faith and it's just by what I'm seeing. And it's just by taking that first step. You know, if we're, you know, if you're doing the 40 yard dash, you know, you'll never get to the end of that 40 yards until you take that first step.

And sometimes I wonder, maybe God just wants us to take that first step. And he said, I'll do the rest for you. You know, just trust me, just trust me. I was, uh, I've told you the story before, but I had a terrible weekend. Uh, this was in November of, of 2000 and November of 2019. And I actually was driving down the road.

I got blinded by the sun and I hit somebody. And, uh, that weekend, my son was about 18 months old. If that, I don't even think he was that old. He was just a baby. I mean, he's like a year, a little over a year old, you know, saying mama, dada, whatever, all of a sudden he picks up a little Bible.

He walks over to me sitting down and he goes, read the Bible data, read the Bible data. And so I started to read the Bible heavily. And I was fasting at that time. And, and, and so I asked the police officer who had pulled us over and all that stuff. And the incident had happened. And I said, well, how was the, how was the lady that I hit? And he said, well, Saturday afternoon, this was when my son had given me the, uh, the Bible. He said, things look pretty bad.

He said, but something changed Saturday afternoon. And she's going to be fine. I tell you what, man, wait, I think sometimes we underestimate God. 118 Psalm. And you may know that 118 Psalm is a Hallel. In other words, those are the things that Jesus sang on his way out to the garden of Gethsemane. And if you read 118 Psalm carefully, you'll see that when they said blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Um, when they were saying that on Palm Sunday on his triumphal entry, they were quoting that as Jesus would have quoted it on his way to the garden of Gethsemane, the night of good for, you know, that he was betrayed. But you know, as you were talking about, I couldn't help but think of these verses that are right there. It says it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men. It's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

And then it says, all nations comest about me, but in the name of the Lord, I will. Really, when you think about what that is actually talking about is literally Jesus was completely encircled by people that were thinking that they were going to kill him. And I'm sure they all thought that they had faith.

Right. I'm sure they all thought that they knew what was happening here, that this guy was going to die. Um, if you were standing there that day, I'm sure everybody thought they, they knew what was going on, but Jesus was sitting there.

It's better to trust in the Lord. You know, think about what happened that day. Right. But then think about this too.

Cause you're talking about being kind. And I heard this from actually Dr. Carson, who does a date, the word the other day said, you know, here was Jesus after the resurrection, you just conquered death. Okay. You just conquered death.

Pretty big king of the world. Right. And originally it says he came to seek and to, you know, to save and to serve, but this is after that.

Right. He's come back. And what's, what do we find him doing? He's fixing breakfast.

All right. This is the king of the world, right? He's come back. These guys, by the way, it out fishing rather than gout doing what he asked. What's he doing? He's serving them. He, he is fixing to restore Peter. Right. He's going to have a conversation with them like, Peter, do you love me? Right.

You know, the famous conversation, but before they had that conversation, what did he do? He literally cooked Peter breakfast. And, and you can't miss the kindness of that is, is unbelievable. I mean, this is the, you know, it's one thing to see Jesus before the resurrection is God, but after the resurrection is God, you can clearly see it, but he's still serving.

Right. I mean, it is what he does. And that is, um, it comes back to the kindness that just blows my mind.

It just blows my mind. And I love what Spurgeon, I read this last night. He does this thing called morning devotional.

I like, I couldn't recommend it higher. Um, last night he said, uh, he quoted a passage from Exodus where it says Joseph recognized his brothers. And he said, how cool is it that Jesus recognizes you? He said, our heavenly Joseph has forgotten about how we put him in the pit and said, you know, what you thought for evil God, you for good. And still he recognizes you and he loved you enough to die for you with all the things that went on. So, I mean, how, what an amazing devotion, um, to think about Jesus.

Yeah. You know, one of the things that I was thinking about that, that's a good point that he recognizes us, he knows us and he wants to have a personal relationship. I mean, just to, you know, we get so caught up and I was reading this morning about having a religious spirit about, you know, how do you look? How do you act?

How do you do? And really what it is, is about appearances in front of other people. Um, but maybe the Lord, maybe you've had some tough times. Maybe he's got you in the exact place that you need to be because he wants a relationship with you, because he wants to be with you, because he cares about you. Um, the word of God says in, in Psalm 84, 10 through 12, it says for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. It says, I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness for the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing. Well, he will, he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Oh Lord of hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. And so the word of God talks about how sometimes there's a it's there's tough times as a Christian, we've talked about persecution and we've had our friend, uh, Todd on from voice of the martyrs and how it's difficult to be a Christian. Um, and, and, and we're going to go through tough times, but when I read the word of God, it says the way of the transgressor is hard. The way of the unbeliever is hard.

The way of the non-Christian is hard because if you look at it, you think about it, I don't care how much money you make. I don't care how many rounds of golf you have, how many, how much you can play, whatever without Christ, there's depression. There's deep depression because there's no greater purpose. Now you can, you can come up with a purpose.

You can come up with something fake, something different, something, whatever. But the only purpose, the only real purpose that we have is Christ. And when I was talking to, uh, my friend, uh, uh, pastor cliff Sutton from, it was just like Jesus ministries. And I would recommend if any of you all are listening, check them out Sunday mornings. Uh, I think they have a meeting there.

They meet at 10 o'clock for their service and Tuesday nights at six o'clock over in Burlington, they have a special prayer meeting and it is amazing, but the Lord is using prophecy or what we call words of knowledge. And there have been people who have come up to me, Robbie, and they've told me stuff and I'm like, that was nothing but God, that God, God, I believe God can speak through other people. Does God ever use other people to speak through you?

Oh yeah. I mean, well, dr. Ed would be, you know, and, and certainly Norman Vincent Peele was one who told me to get up an hour early every morning, you know, and, and read the Bible. But I mean, I'll pastor courts at Calvary. I can't tell you all, you know, I can still remember lots of things that he said that got down into my soul. Um, you know, one of which I would not be on the radio today. Um, had he not said, you know, somebody calls is called to preach and, and, and they can't find a church thing, weren't called to preach. And so I thought that was a great way to test whether or not I was called to be on the radio, right.

See if I had a radio show and two came through apparently, cause here I am. Um, and so, yeah, I mean, God's done it in so many different ways, clearly, um, you know, the, the idea of great faith is, is, is what I really, um, you know, our stories, it is our hope really, in listening to these shows that you would hear something that you would recline, recall, make you recall your own story of where God came through. He is coming. He's coming soon.

And tell you what, when he comes back, it's no more, mr. Nice guy. So make sure you're right with Jesus. Ask him to forgive you of your sins right now.

Surrender your life to him and, uh, just pray to pray that to ask him to show himself to you, because if you'll listen, the Lord will speak to you, not for God, not for God. All right. For my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like subscribe and hit that notification bell. So you'll be alerted when we have our next video. So do it. This is the truth network.