Hope After Hours

This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours.

A time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours.

Like that's pretty intriguing just the name of it right? And today's topic is where's your go-to for hope? Like where is it that you are hanging on? I remember when the car business was in one of its many downturns and droughts that there was this picture of this little kitten that had its claws dug in and said, hang in there baby. You know so what are you hanging on to when you hang in?

And so you know what do we have back from an amazing journey down under the Jim Graham himself is you know so Jim you know when you got to hang in there baby where do you go? Well one of the things that I witnessed down under were a heck of a lot of sheep and it the friend we were friends we were staying with he's a lead farmer on a very large we'd call it a ranch they call it a farm even though they what they grow is to feed the cattle and the sheep. But the sheep were amazing in their ability when trying to run from danger to run right in front of the danger. That's bad. It was and fortunately the drivers well Andrew was in front of me driving but I just was sitting there it was crazy because they know they had to get away from this machine coming their way but three out of five of the sheep would run right in front of it at the last second so he was being careful not to take out the sheep. You don't want to ram them right?

No you don't. Oh I knew I should have avoided sheep but it did remind me of how how we react to scary things. As humans we are sheep. Go ahead Andy. Oh I was gonna say I was yeah no this is just a new crowd and we just want so Robby is our expert pun artist here I mean we're constantly if if there's somebody's gonna say something Robby's got a response to it so Sam always he's a punny guy. Yeah Sam's good too but Robby happens to be here so I'm gonna that's true. I'm sorry you were talking about sheep which is a great which we are like sheep and one of the things I wanted to do is honor Danny by being him and we're looking at where our hope is and there's a wonderful passage that just about everybody should know at the end of first Corinthians 13 I want to read talk about a little bit and then that'll also lead into the clip assuming you want me to talk that long but let me read that to you and this is from the tree of life version when I was a child I spoke like a child I thought like a child I reasoned like a child when I became a man I put away childish things for now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face now I know in part but then I will know fully even as I have been fully known but now these three remain faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love and it sort of clicked as I looked at this because I was just going to do the last verse but it's important and I never totally saw this that he's talking about when he was a child and we could relate to that as human adults but the the verse 12 the one in the middle says we see in a mirror dimly now we're still children we're still confused by the danger and without the hate the faith and hope here then we don't connect with the love which is God the reason love is greater is because a that is God and b when we are in heaven we don't need faith and hope they're for this world but the love is eternal and one of the what the clip that andy was kind enough to take what I said in a text that I couldn't do it and found a good one that is showing a child 12 13 max maybe 10 or 11 hard to guess encounters the future king in Aragorn and Aragorn they're they're arming all the old men all the old men here I would have had a sword yay and all the children to defend against overwhelming odds they are hundreds against tens of thousands in this battle at least that's the perception and they're stuck against they're in a fortress but the fortress will not hold against that number and they have nowhere to run to so many are in a place of hopelessness and let's listen to them interact and we'll check what is your name the men are saying that we will not give out the night they say that it is hopeless so this is a good sword halle son of hammer there is always hope that uh as I told them in there when I heard it I tingled because this is the future king this is a representation of jesus and he's talking to a child and the wishing you hear is Aragorn taking his sword and showing him he's got the weapon that he needs to fight in this seemingly hopeless battle and does tell him there's always hope and there is always hope however overwhelming the odds against us seem to be and that hope can only come through our lord and savior talking about this earlier the question was posed where's your hope which is the name of the show and the answer is takes well we debated some whether it's two or three seconds but I was corrected when I said two because it's father son and holy ghost and that's where all of our hope is and faith is related to that if we don't have faith in those three and depend on them then there is no hope yeah and there is that sort of the spirit which is the word of god which again speaks to the hope but getting back to your sheep metaphor you know I think it's you know I think it's fascinating that you know jesus is referred to as the good shepherd many many many many times and you couldn't be more right that most of us when we're afraid we run this way and that way and directly right in front of the car had that experience with a donut the other day a donut ran in front of your car it did and I ate it for me it's about as bad as a car you know but in Hebrew the word for shepherd is not unlike David's name it's got very similar letters and some of them are the same letters and it also is very connected to this idea of love which is David's name is the beloved and it's fascinating that David was a shepherd right and but who would better understand his shepherd right than the lord is my shepherd he wrote the 23rd psalm because he was looking for the lord to be his shepherd and you know it's kind of a neat thing that you're talking about where's your hope and everybody agrees it's in jesus but it's in jesus through prayer it's in jesus through his word it's in jesus you know through and I love this idea of the full armor of God is actually I love that song that says it may seem like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by you right like he he completely has you the battle has been won okay it you know it may seem like I'm surrounded but what you're really surrounded by in that armor's case is if you'll you know let go and let God realize that you know there it is so it's an amazingly beautiful thing when terry mentioned the your shod with the gospel of peace right your shoes are the gospel of peace that was my first well it's the first one there too but that's the first one that I love because I am I may not be a peace maker all the time but sometime I'm a peace keeper and I'm always a peace seeker I want peace but what really hit home and the one I need most and work on most was what protects our heart which is the chest plate of righteousness and if we are being sinful and we're stuck in that it's hard to protect our heart I'm not sure if this is true or not but I think the truth there's the hope it's either for the positive or the lord or the opposite the world well put yeah grants yeah is your hope in money is your hope in fame is your love our help for right well said if it's anything else your hope is not only vain but you'll keep seeking it and never find hope in it there you go so andy you're batting cleanup buddy okay so my clip is from the chosen and it's around the campfire and if you've seen the chosen you see the disciples you have peter if you haven't seen the church yeah well what's wrong with you yeah no I mean there's lots of people in fact I talk to people all the time and I go well you know in the chosen they'll look at me like no I would never watch that so well I choose to no no no what is it just I'm saying the chosen is a group this put together a show that really gave insight into the gospels you know pre crucifixion it's leading up to it you've probably seen the chosen last supper advertised in the theaters now but it's basically jesus's life and his interaction with his disciples and what you see is there's some stuff added just using your imagination of what it would be like in the gospels if getting the full story the gospels you know have what was recorded but it's not all the conversation and it's just some ideas of what it would look like and I think sometimes it gives insight into the emotions it almost makes it three-dimensional and in doing so a campfire you know we talk a lot about the community around the campfire you'll go to a campfire when you come to a boot camp and and the disciples are around the campfire and it's not just the disciples it's Mary Magdalene married the mother of Jesus and they're just having a conversation about it essentially is talking about hope or trust what is it and they're talking about money whether you what would you rather have money or something else I think Grant mentioned that purpose you're they're just talking about what their hope is in and even Mary at the end talks about you know just her interaction and how God spoke to her about what you know what he felt about her which is in the essence of what we're getting at it's about a it's about relationship and I guess the thing is is the whole this whole point of you truly can trust in God or all this other stuff and and the testing comes and you can have you could have fully proven God out in this situation but you still I mean David had to go from the bear to the lion that doesn't didn't guarantee that he was going to trust God to take out Goliath now he did like in Robby's clip but just going through that it's life brings one test after another and my problem was I used to have win some and lose some and had a very unstable faith life or hope or my hope was up and down it was variable and not that it's you know rock solid now but it's much more stable and constant but anyway that's as you get into this message that we'll talk about of wild at heart and understanding who you are as a man and and and where your trust you know where there's value in the trust of knowing who you are but who God is and then how that comes together as a man it just helps everything out so I'm just gonna quit rambling here and now it's good because you gotta you gotta I love that when you listen to this clip what you're hearing is a lot of characters from the from the bible so you'll hear them one of them's Peter yeah and and Peter is talking about money to some extent and what you know and and Andrew is it that says you know he's he's the one that poses a question if you had you know would you cut off yeah your arm for a sum of money yeah and then so you're hearing the disciples say this and you hear Mary Magdalene chime in with what her life was like prior to meeting Jesus and then the one that really gets to me in the clip that I love is Matthew now Matthew in the chosen as well as in the bible was a tax collector right and so he was probably extremely wealthy and and in the chosen he's you know autistic so you see this really very unusual character is really good at math not so good at relating with people but a heart that's bigger than all tomorrow and it's it's really a beautiful portrayal of Matthew and my opinion in in in that but here you hear him being of all those that were dealing with money you know here's somebody that laid that down and they were kind of poking fun out of a minute and actually you know just give him a hard time hey you've not had problems with money what's it feel like you know what would you choose right right so all that insights in this wonderful clip from the chosen Andrew I need a mental break do one of your meaningless question games they're not meaningless they're interesting and I've got one I've been thinking about lately what would you do for unlimited money or what would you give up to have all the money you could ever want for the rest of your life meaning would I do something painful yes or crazy would you give up your left hand if you would be rich the rest of your life maybe not a full hand but a couple of fingers sure what about love would you give up ever getting married I don't know Simon is it worth it absolutely but you'll never be so lucky to find someone like Eden so take the money I've never had much money my whole life and I've been happy I don't expect we'll have much money for as long as we're following him but you have had some money before yes are you happier now or then ask Matthew John what that was a bad question you brought up money Matthew's had it we have not I feel better now I don't know if that means happy it's not polite to talk about personal money just a question I think about it sometimes and then I feel guilty for what thinking about things I shouldn't for wanting things I shouldn't care so much about sometimes I feel like I'm living someone else's life like I look at myself from the outside it doesn't always feel like me feels like someone who's trying to live up to the heroes of our history like I have to do something great but I know I'm not great not even more now being with him I understand I feel like I need to not make any more mistakes what do you think I felt you must feel that every day no not anymore he always reassured me and God always made me feel like I shouldn't be burdened so that was married there at the end and you know that's kind of how I felt of you know you had they were like he you must have felt you know insignificant this is Jesus to his mother and it's like no he he didn't make me feel that way he always made me feel comfortable and and you know there were times I mean life and your belief will cause you to believe that you know there you're not significant to him and you know we have plenty of scripture but if you don't believe what that scripture says and for a long time I was I knew the word but there's a time when I didn't believe it there was I felt like you know my namesake Andrew was speaking there and talking about always felt like I wanted to do something great for God but I didn't I felt insignificant and I couldn't and a lot of it has to do with what you put your belief and hope in and a lot of that first of all like I was saying earlier of what this ministry is about is finding out who you are and how God created you and understanding and stepping into your identity and there comes a stability of hope in that a hope that I didn't find consistently because I didn't believe it on a regular basis the word was there but I hadn't I hadn't stepped into to into it to really believe it and a new message came along which was the same old message but it came in a different packaging that helped me believe that I truly am a son of God and that I have a purpose and I have an identity and a name that only God knows for me and he gave it to me and this is the kind of stuff that you'll hear at the boot camp but it is life-changing and my hope my consistency of hope not my open not an up-and-down hope that you can get sometimes I think all of us have had periods of hope but we also have lost hope I mean I think we had some other clips that refer to that once you lose hope that's difficult and you can know God but when God doesn't come through with you the way you think he should at sometimes you lose hope and that's where you have to really you know I mean there are plenty of examples of people in the Bible where they thought God was he they thought God was going to go one way and he went another way Judas being one of the biggest Judas the biggest I mean you think about Moses when he was coming on the scene to save it right and that's what a lot of us do he was going to come on and save things and he ended up 40 years in the back side of the desert you know as a shepherd and then he leads after he finds out who he is and who and what God can do and his identity through God in a burning bush and all that stuff he leads the children of Israel out of Egypt so he had the hope I think one of the biggest idols we've missed and money at one point was my pursuit but I had a friend and a very influential fellow of my life in college named Bill who became a lifetime politician in the North Carolina legislature and he is out of that now but we were talking shortly after that and I was talking about you know politicians getting rich and he said that's that's not the point what they all want is power and control and that might be the most tempting thing that seems harmless but until you realize you have none except through Jesus you're gonna be going after it the wrong way yeah there's there's a multitude of things that can trap us in what we're hoping in that's for sure I think a lot of what we're going through today though we see an escalation of trials for people a lot of them are brought on by the enemy and I think the enemy would love nothing more than to steal our hope and I think that's one of the things that Sam was getting to is we want to see those times where Jesus came through for us and that we're connected to him we're going to see him but that doesn't mean the enemy's going to give up you're going to have a proven faith that he's you know it could be you have to be in this consistently and you can't you can't take a day off from it it is a is it a walk that requires and that's the way he made it I mean that's why we have the story about the man in in the exodus you know I mean the daily bread it can't be oh you know the bread rotted if they didn't pick it up and eat it that day right so but that's where the hope comes from is consistency I believe I mean that's what well it's the journey it is that's what it's interesting as I listen to everybody's discussion is that it isn't forged without a fire right no doubt James is clear on that yeah and so you know as I've heard you know the different testimonies of folks that it was through the testing that you realize that oh okay this this will happen while I'm in this test yeah that test it didn't happen well it was forging something like this is not how to do it the next time right you know what the things you go bad as we talked about you know that you know it's you don't want to be sheepish at the wrong time grant you know at the end you say thank you yeah at the end so you know it's kind of a neat thing to know and again you're if you're not used to this crowd it's a very diverse group age-wise right so you know Vinnie that we heard earlier you know he was in his 80s often Harold is in here Harold is in here and he's in his 80s Jim's in his 70s early someone's soon to be someone's yeah someone's very soon to be but and so we're some of us have have walked through a few fires others of us have walked through fires as younger people like the Terry brothers of and grant oh my goodness is he had his share of of fires as well as Andy and it's fascinating to me when you really look around the room and you and you survey what you know some of these men have been through and here they sit you know talking about the reason why you should have hope that's pretty amazing stuff my fear is for you know those folks who aren't getting out and getting tried in other words if you don't like like David said God isn't with you when you cower you know you got to step up and face your fears and then watch him come alongside you when all the battles you fight are on a computer or on your mobile phone against different candy to demons around there but they are real and the reality is when you're in the fire in life God is loving on you and teaching you to have that faith and that hope in him because that's the only place we'll find and one thing point I want to make too is I did come across pretty intense there and I believe all that and God has brought me through and I did struggle for a long time even though I was in the faith there was things that I just had to learn and the experience has done it but I've also seen God's grace in it and we do make it a little bit more like you know you got to do this perfect or you know he's just looking to slap you on the back of the head and say no not that way I mean God's full of grace in all this I'm just saying that my experience is it's not something that you can go about casually I mean God wants us to you know have the hope that we have in him to really press in to as Robby we were talking offline earlier he was talking about just something chat GPT uh spit out on a question he had but it talked about the burning hearts that he that we will have for God here in this end time and that's I think that's what God so desired he's desired for all of history yeah yeah and you know it's a beautiful thing when you can do that in community and you can do that with a band of brothers and so we're inviting you if you're a lady watching hey you may know a son or you know a husband or somebody that you want to point in a direction share the podcast with them you know we would love to lock arms with them it would be fun and so we do have that boot camp coming up it is the last week in November go to masculine journey radio dot org listen to other podcasts and the joyride featuring keith you don't want to miss out on that this is the truth network