Communion 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. I'm Danny and we're here discussing the topic of the week and we're Samless in Seattle.

And so we are discussing communion and the, you know, it's been something on my heart and brought up the topic and we've recommended you listen to the first show. Kind of get everything going. This is where we say time to go deeper. Sometimes we just go longer. We just don't go deeper.

But anyway, and go sillier. Yeah. You know, communion brings up lots of emotions, lots of memories, lots of stuff. And, you know, we've talked a little bit about it and talked about, you know, some of the aspects of it. We talked a little bit about the history of it and how that came about with Passover and, you know, the foreshadowing of what Jesus became the culmination of. And so that's kind of what we're talking about and we're going to continue with that, Andy. And we're going to do with, Robby's got a clip and, you know, we had talked about Jesus inviting us to the table and Robby come up with a pretty good clip for this.

Yeah. So, you know, there's a wonderful movie out. It's called The Perfect Stranger. It came out a number of years ago.

There's been two sequels of it since. But essentially the setup was like this, that there was a lady who was struggling in life. She didn't know the Lord.

That'll become obvious when you listen to the clip. And these people from the church next door had been kept trying to witness to her, which was aggravating her. And her husband was supposed to take her to dinner. But as it turned out, she got stood up. She was wanting to go to this Pappino's really fancy Italian restaurant. He got invited to a baseball game, which he took advantage of.

And so she was kind of left holding. He sent her an invitation that she assumed was her husband who was actually going to take her to Pappino's and it was all a big, you know, scam, him going to the baseball game. But when she gets there, it's not her husband.

And so it's Jesus, actually, the real live 100% Jesus. And he has come after her in a very unique way. So I'd invite you to listen to the conversation. If you could imagine that you were unsaved and all of a sudden you're sitting down at the dinner table with Jesus, what would you say and how would you treat that whole thing? But then also listen to how he comes after her heart, which is really fascinating based on where he knew she was.

And we'll talk about that after the clip. Enjoy your dinner. Thanks for meeting me.

I'm really glad you were freed up. Excuse me. Am I supposed to know you?

Good question. I guess the answer is yes. I'm sorry. As far as I can remember, I've never met you.

That's true. Okay. Let's just start over. Your name is? Jesus. My family called me Yeshua. Your family from? Nazareth. Well, actually, I only grew up there. I wasn't born there.

No, no, that would have been in? Beth, yeah. Okay. Look, this has all been very cute, but I've got better things to do than waste my time on some stupid joke. Just who are you anyway? Who put you up to this?

I know I'm not quite what you're expecting. Did my neighbor set this up? Is this what that church does? Hire some actor to tell people he's Jesus?

Is it some creative recruiting tool they use? Because I got to tell you, pal, your costume is not exactly historically accurate. I'm not an actor, and no, your neighbors didn't send me. If you'll just stay for dinner, I know it will mean something to you. Who wouldn't find dinner with Jesus meaningful?

Just last week, I had breakfast with Napoleon, and it was a blast. Look, I got to get home to my family. Thanks for the invitation. Please stay. How many chances do you get to come to Pepino's anyway? If you just stay for dinner, I promise to tell you at the end who set it all up. You know, it just so happens that I got dumped for a baseball game tonight, and I have been thinking about Pepino's manicotti all day. But if you try anything, I swear... Have you selected a wine, sir? I think I'll let my friend decide. Would you care for some wine?

She's been doing a lot of wining so far. Yeah. The thing I find fascinating is it's absolutely wonderful music, a movie. And they do get into some really deep, meaningful conversations as you'll see Jesus comes after or throughout the movie, which is basically the whole thing is this dinner conversation. So he did try something, huh? He did. Well, actually, she tried something, and he responded, however it worked. You know, I couldn't help but reflect my own story, right, that Jesus invited me to the table in his own way. But he did it like he did with her, that he knew that her marriage was struggling, and he knew that she was struggling with some moral issues at work where they were asking her to do some... She was an accountant, and they were asking her to do some things she didn't want to do. And he knew a lot of things in her life that she didn't have answers for, but she at that point didn't have the humility to admit she didn't have answers.

And so much of the dinner is obviously helping her to see that she didn't have answers. Well, in my own life, you know, I wanted to sell more cars. I mean, that was my deal. And so when I bought the tape series, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, my whole mission was nothing to do with meeting Jesus, which I love that line.

Do I know you? I wish you did. But anyway, I certainly didn't. But it said that, you know, in the tape series, the very first thing it said was that if you want a positive mental attitude, in other words, for me, means sell more cars, what you need to do is get up an hour early every morning and read the Bible, which seemed like about the biggest bunch of hoolias I've ever heard in my life.

But I thought, well, man, I spent $110 on this tape set. I'm going to do what it says, even if it sounds crazy. But he said that you got to pray before you read it or otherwise, you know, you got no chance of understanding it.

So like, oh, my goodness. Like, I went into it thinking I really – this is so crazy. I went into it thinking this is going to help me sell cars. And the truth of it is it did help me sell cars.

I can't even believe how it helped me sell cars. But that wasn't the reason why he invited me into it. And not unlike Nicky in this particular movie, you know, he catches up with her. He catches up with me in the book of Job where I'd finally gotten so angry that, you know, I had a lot of questions.

But unlike Job, somebody has to be humbled. And so when he answered out of the cloud, you know, he didn't tell you, Job, here's your answers, buddy. I know you've been wondering.

It didn't work like that. It was like, so Robby, you know, if you're God and you know all this stuff, you know, why don't you make the tide come in just once, you know? And again, just leading you to this place of, oh, my goodness, I'm not God. And there really is a God.

And oh, my word, he has a very high standard. I don't mean it. I'm in desperate trouble.

I'm in desperate trouble. And all of a sudden, the invitation to commune with God himself and the fact that he died, I mean, what communion is about, the sacrifice that he made, we talked about it at dinner. You know, the unbelievable pain, the unbelievable pouring out, the wrath of God being poured on him, all those things so that I could have communion with him so that he would be the firstborn of the dead that would even come after me to begin with. And so, you know, it's more than amazing, the whole thing. But I love the movie, The Perfect Stranger.

A good clip. And it's so much of, from where I sit most of the time, I think about, this is the meal ticket, if you will, not to be punished, I guess, but is to back to the garden, back to real communion where it all started. You know, because that was God's ultimate purpose in Christ, was to get us back in true communion with him. And the only way to do that was a perfect sacrifice, which was Jesus. And so that's kind of the whole premise, to me, of communion, is that God's invitation back into where we were exiled from because we sold our souls to the devil, so to speak.

Harold, you got something? Well, to me, communion is God trying to let us know just how much he loves us, what he did for us. But it's also, to me, joining together with other believers so that it's not just an isolated thing.

I think we can take communion if it's just us, you know. There have been a few times when I've been out at our son's place in New Mexico and off up on the side of the mountain. But one of the ones that was really meaningful to me is I was on a trip out there to visit with them, and Jan wasn't with me. And I had a flight, and I had checked the time.

Now, there's a two-hour difference in time between North Carolina and New Mexico. But I knew at about what time they would be taking communion at Jericho. And as that plane was taking off, gaining altitude, I'm taking communion because I wanted to take it with my fellow Christians back in Knoxville. And that was just so meaningful to me that in that particular instance, I was joining not just God and being amazed at his creation and what he had done for me, but I was also tied back to my brothers and sisters in Knoxville. It was just great to me.

It really sticks out. The fact that you were taken off on a plane kind of adds something to it for me. But, Andy, we're going to continue with being at the table with Jesus in your next clip. So this is from The Shack. And I can't remember this from the movie that much. It's been a while since I've seen the movie.

But great clip. You've probably heard on the show where Mac meets the Trinity. Well, they're sitting down. God the Father, who is this woman's voice, the point of the movie, and maybe I'll always try to bring this up, is that we know him as God the Father, but he has a mothering aspect of him, of how he treats his children. And so they're kind of portraying that in the movie. But she's prepared the meal, and he comments on it, which is a funny part. But you just hear a dialogue here.

I just throw this in here since you're saying it. A lot of people would know that El Shaddai is God. But the word shad, at the beginning of Shaddai, which is just kind of good on the end of it, that's the word breast, which has to do with the compassionate, nurturing side of God. And so a lot of people – he is genderless, so to speak, and he fulfills all of it.

I don't know if we can say this in the after hours, but he transcends gender, which does not mean he's transgender. Let's see if I can get away with it this time. You did good.

You did. You said it exactly right, but I just think that's a gigantic thing that they were risky in doing that in the shack. They were, because there was a lot of blowback from it and all, but if you get the gist of what they were saying – in fact, later on in the movie, God appears as a father to Max, so truly as a father. And she says early on, which was significant, tells him, I'm appearing in a way that you will accept me at this time.

Where he was hung up on somebody, a man that had killed his daughter and had a lot of anger towards God and everybody else, to be honest with you. But anyway, this is kind of a healing aspect of this sitting down and sharing a meal. And it's like a family. They're just talking and the Godhead, each person would make a comment about – or they made comments about his son dating somebody and they liked her. And it's just like sitting down at a family table. He makes a comment about, you know, if you know what I'm going to ask, why do you bother to sit here and listen to it?

And I love the response, and you'll hear that on here. But to me, it's just a – it's communion. It's communion.

Now, I want to make this distinction. Communion, we think the bread and the wine, and that's true, but there's other references. We know communion as sharing fellowship within a meal, but you can have communion, I think, without a meal. I mean, those are symbols of elements of reminding us what Jesus did. And that sets the table, pun intended, for any kind of exchange.

That's not possible if we don't acknowledge the Savior who sacrificed for us, but it opens the door so that we can talk to God and he can talk to us. And that's what you got here. So Josh has a girlfriend now. Me and Allie. I like her. Me too.

I'm especially fond of that laugh of hers. He's still having a hard time believing this is real. You think? How's Kate doing? We, um – we used to be close, but – oh, my God. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to – It's okay. I didn't make it. That's good. That was the best meal I've had ever. Dreaming or otherwise. Thank you. Let me ask you something. I've been telling you all about Josh and Kate and Ann, but if it's real, then you already know everything I'm going to say before I even say it, right?

Yes, but we choose to listen to everything you have to say as if it was for the first time. We love getting to know your kids through your eyes. I'll wash your dryer. I'll take this round. Why don't you show Max some of your handiwork?

Okay. Just that whole exchange was, you know, there was no pretense, and he's just trying to figure things out, and God comes and meets him where he's at, each person. And, you know, it's the best food he's ever had when he said, oh, my God, I don't know if you caught that, but it was like he ate bread of heaven, right?

And it was like, oh, my God, and she was like, well, I didn't make it, right? So just, you know, I like to think that God meets us. If everything that we hear about how God, the whole purpose of the creation was to be able to have fellowship and communion with us, if that was the point, then we're always trying to make sure we're doing everything right and perfect and all that. That's not the point of it.

Behavior modification isn't. It's communion. It's fellowshipping with him. And that's what you see in that clip is just, you know, the person of God coming down to humanity and meeting him where he was at. In that whole movie, God walks him through this idea of how to forgive and understand, not understand, but just walk him through kind of what had happened, and it's a really good movie. It's not what you would expect.

If you haven't seen it, though, I encourage you to watch it. One of the things that happened in that clip, and I love about it, is there's humor. And you've been watching too much old Hollywood stuff about God if you think God doesn't have a tremendous sense of humor. Sam, this is for you, because this is a point he and I agree on. Often there's humor, and when you did the punish, I wanted to jump in there and say, well, he did away with punishment, but I think he appreciates puns, unlike most people.

But God is, we wouldn't have a sense of humor, and some of us don't, if God didn't put it there. The other thing that jumped out at me, and I've heard the clip and saw the movie a couple, three times, because it is spectacular, and it really is, and understanding forgiveness, which is a lot about what communion is about, and we wouldn't have communion if it weren't for, obviously, the sacrifice that he was telling the disciples that night about. And the idea of remembering that and keeping it forefront in our mind, but I love the way that she, when he said, oh, man, this is good, she said, oh, yeah, it's good. I mean, when you think about God saying it's good. Right, yeah. You have no idea. I made it, it's good. Well, there's good.

We throw that word around a lot. But when God declares something good, it's tove, and you know what that means. It means that it has qualities that we won't begin to understand until we're in heaven. And, yeah, and that's the beauty of the excitement of the journey that we're on, that every single time you pick up the word of God, it tastes that much better, right? And every time you truly have that communion at church, it feels that much better, and it's just like you're on this journey that you know, which just keeps getting better and better, and it keeps pointing to cooler things.

It's so easy, Andy, and you made a good point, to get caught up in the do's and don'ts, and the what am I here for's, and my giftings and all that stuff, and that stuff's important. But the reality is that God does want communion with us. No, he's not some needy deity that needs our companionship. God doesn't need anything.

He is everything. But he has chosen in his great love for us to say, hey, I want to commune with you. It's a great honor in that. A lot of honor, and part of what this season of my life, you know, barring the bad diagnosis or whatever that thing, but the reality of it is that long before that, you know, we talk about it on here, you know, God went fishing with Robby. He invited him in to that.

Terry had to help him, if you know the story. But inviting him into everything I do, inviting him into my work day, inviting him into my family time, inviting him into everything, inviting him in because he has invited me to the table. And you wonder that, and it's going to lead me into my clip, which is from the series Picard, one of the Star Trek series. And if you all listen to me in it all, you know I'm a Trekkie. I'm an Andy Griffith, Trekkie nerd, redneck, kind of all kinds of crazy stuff.

Star country. Yeah, yeah, whatever. But in this series is, you know, a guy named Q who is a godlike creature. And he has somewhat tormented Picard most of his career.

But he has Picard's best interest in mind. And this clip shows it because their relationship is coming to an end, but not that ours and God's ever come to an end, but it is about the forgiveness of we learning that despite ourselves, God is able to forgive us. It's us that can't forgive us sometimes. And the invitation at communion is, this is my body. This is my blood that was broken for you because you couldn't do anything about it. And we get into, as you'll hear in this clip, Picard gets into this, what is the meaning of all this?

And I've been there and done that, but we played a clip. We'll talk about it on the other side. But it's a beautiful exchange to me.

Is something going to happen for which I will be required? Must it always have galactic import, universal stakes, celestial upheaval? Isn't one life enough? You ask me why it matters. It matters to me. To me. You matter to me.

Even God's had favorites for Luke, and you've always been one of mine. Q, time's almost out. One last surprise in store. What's wrong?

Colin? Quite the opposite. You know, what a statement.

You matter to me. And that's God's message to us. That really wasn't the forefront of my mind probably till the last five years. I met these crazy bunch of guys who do these things called boot camps and send you out to these covenant of silence, don't let you talk to anybody and that kind of thing. Crazy stuff. Tell us more about these guys.

They sound interesting. Well, you're listening to them. But the reality of that is that what has to come in our heart of hearts, and I think communion is a great place that that happens, is that you realize that you matter to God. God's not on some throne, some lofty place somewhere, and you're not even an afterthought. You matter to him.

That was the whole point of the cross. You matter. And if you don't know him, I mean, investigate.

Because he's worth the investigation. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Yeah.

If you do know him, but you don't know him that intimately, have supper with him. You know what I mean? It's that reality of you do matter to God. We do matter. Our lives do matter. But they matter to him. And that's kind of the whole point to me of communion. We do have a boot camp coming up in Royston, Georgia, on November 20th through 23rd at Camp Little Light.

Is that right? And you can check it out. Register at masculinejourney.org. You can pick up any of our podcasts, our shows there, and you can check us out on Facebook and get into any other podcast location, any of the hot spots. And we will meet you next week here at the same place.