Truth 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. We are glad to have you with us today. And, Jim, it is your topic.

That's why we put a microphone back in front of you so you could set the topic back up that we've been talking about. I talked so much the first time, I thought I shouldn't talk. Once again, two words are less now. Two words or less. We are looking at the truth.

No, don't steal Harold's line. Yeah. He's going to say it later. Don't be short. The shortest topic is: we are talking about truth.

The short topic. And the reason I was looking at this is looking at my life. I was. Trying to say, well, my definition of truth has changed over the years. And so This is We're all looking at how that has changed in and And There was a word I had that left me, but that's okay because I'm not talking anymore.

Well, that's the truth. As far as we know. As far as we know. And so, first clip of the show would be for Robby, right? Yes.

Okay. Robby, you have the first clip. I am so excited too. At least I get the first clip of the second show, you know, because Andy, you know, shows up. And you get to look at him now.

Yeah, so Jim Henson was, you know, the Muppets guy, and he did this movie called Labyrinth. And this poor young lady is trapped in this maze, trying to find her way out and with nothing but Muppets to help you. And they're kind of smart alley-ey Muppets to go with it. And they're going to give her a lesson in truth and lies that obviously. If you listen to these voices carefully, I would be surprised if you wouldn't resemble some of these voices in your own head.

It sounds awfully familiar to me, but go ahead and play the clip, we'll talk about it. It keeps changing. What am I supposed to do?

Well, the only way out of here is to try one of these doors. One of them leads to the castle at the center of the labyrinth, and the other one leads to certain death. Ooh. Mm-hmm. Which one is which?

Uh He can't tell you. Why not? We don't know! But they do! Oh.

Then I'll ask them. Uh no, you can't ask us. You can only ask one of us. It's in the rules. And I should warn you that one of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies.

That's your own too. He always lies. I do not. I tell the truth. Oh, what a lie.

He's the liar. All right. Answer yes or no. Would he tell me Did this door leads to the castle? Uh what is her reality?

Yes.

Then The other door leads to the castle, and this door leads to certain death. Oh. How do you know? He could be telling the truth. But then he wouldn't be.

So if you told me that he said yes, I know the answer is no. But I could be telling the truth. But then he would be lying.

So if you told me that he said yes, I know the answer would still be no. Wait a minute. Is that right? I don't know. I've never understood it.

No, it's right. I figured it out. I can never do it before. I think I'm getting smarter. It's a piece of cake!

Oh Somehow or another cut out the screen, but it was not door number one. That was. you know, certain doom. And, you know, the That puzzled me till my puzzler was sore. Yeah.

It's puzzled the entire group here, because we had several tell me originally that, oh, I get it.

Well, try again. Yeah. Think again. And she did. It wasn't so easy.

And the point of it is. From my perspective, as I've thought a lot about it this week, I thought. It's interesting to me that A lot of people will quote What is it, 1 John, where it says, you know, no temptation has seized you except that which is common to man. They'll say that that verse is saying that God won't give you more than you'll handle. Mm-hmm.

But the truth is, and I've seen it many times in my own life, that he certainly will give you more than you can handle. alone. And as Jim beautifully made reference to through Henry Backleblackbe's on is that The truth is a person That He can give us the interpretation. And when I think of so many different events in my life that I consider myself to be guilty. or I judge something or a the thing and thing and thing again that I attempted to do on my own only to find out that I had opened the door to the labyrinth and faced certain doom.

You know, it was just you know, that's that's how that works alone.

So the beautiful thing about it is the journey with him. into the truth. you know, is is is more than amazing. And, you know, just this week I was studying some ideas, as you might imagine, in Hebrew. As you gave me time to talk about it, you asked for it, you're going to get it.

I knew there was some kind of word. There was. The word truth in Hebrew is a spectacular word. It really is. And the word is emet, if you're going to pronounce it in Hebrew.

But the beautiful thing is it is the first letter in the alphabet, which is like an A. You can hear the Emmet, that's the A sound at the beginning. Then the Mem is the middle letter, which happens to be the middle of the Hebrew alphabet. And the T that's at the end is Atav, which is the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet or alphabet. And so similar to what Jesus tells you that when he says that I'm the truth, but I'm the beginning and I'm the end.

But he's also, he says, I was and I is and I'm coming to be. I is. The southern version is South Jesus.

South Jerusalem, Jesus. Yeah. However, that works. You get the picture. I do.

But the truth is the truth, like Harold will point out here in a minute. At the beginning, and at the middle at the end.

However, we won't really know the truth until we open the door. Right? I mean, we won't really know what it is until we actually see it. And and so many things that we think we have figured out, we really don't. But we may have a piece of the puzzle, but whatever, if we enjoy that.

in fellowship. Right? Not only with Jesus, but in community. Right? That As w as we Discover truths together, how much more precious is that?

Because, you know, for me and Sam, we've walked together for a lot of years, and Jim as well. And there's certain things that we have discovered in unison that we had no idea, but the fact that I did that with my, you know, essentially my best friend, it's just like, oh my, you know, it's so special to me. And those memories. Are spectacular. Same thing, hopefully with your bride or your soon-to-be bride, whatever you may have, and as the case may be.

You know that it The things that Andy has been discovering, you know, he's not here, so I'm going to speak to him, you know, on sunship. Right. On what. What that looks like, the fact that we can share that with Andy? Right?

As he gets a deeper meaning, he's given us all a deeper meaning. Absolutely. And so, not only is it that you don't get the truth. Alone. You get to the truth with Jesus, but to get the Jews the truth with Jesus in community, other members of your band of brothers or the community that you're walking in can give you spectacular um views on truths that you know, God meant for you to get that way.

Yeah, I think it's truly an amazing journey. And I was at first a little confused about Jim's topic, honestly, because I was like, Harold.

Well the truth is it's essentially the truth because God doesn't change, but certainly The more I have thought about it, it's a spectacular topic from a standpoint of, you know, that. The more I learn, the more I want to learn. And like you said, things are being revealed to you.

So, there you go. I think one of the points you made, Robby, is pretty amazing. As we've all walked together, is You know, when we learn from each other, the truth becomes deeper. It doesn't have to be something, as you said, that Jesus directly reveals to me. But when I see him reveal it through one of my brothers.

You know, it makes it just as almost as big an impact on me. You know, I remember Darren bringing some stuff to us from um Oh gosh, I can't think of his name now. But on Grace. You know, and how my understanding of grace changed just from things that Darren had brought to us in the group. John Lynch.

Yeah, that's who I was thinking. Yeah, it was, you know, on how my understanding of that changed through a brother saying, Hey, this is something I think you really need to listen to, you know, and helps us see things differently. And so our perception and our perspective of truth evolves. Yeah, or the one of the you know spectacular ones to me is You know, one of the ways that you were attacked, or the label that was attempted and put on you by your sister, was shut up, mortarmouth, you have nothing good to say.

Well, anybody who has enjoyed Sam's teaching can clearly see what Satan was trying to do there. And so, through seeing it through your life example, I've gleaned on to that, oh my goodness, you know, I'm made wise, like the psalm says, I'm made wise by my enemies. You know, what is Satan going after? And that was something that we experienced together as a community. It was.

you know, part of what people do. If if if they're hunting after God together, you get to enjoy that. In amazing ways. Absolutely. Rodney, is there more you'd like to add on this topic?

Or you pretty much added out? You added everything you had to add.

Okay, that's good. Harold, what about you? Ha ha ha ha ha. But how could I not say the truth is this? I knew.

I knew you were going to go there because Robby's been setting it up for you. He's been teeing up all up.

Well You know, the truth is That I can't have my truth. And you have your truth. There is THE truth. and that's what we have to seek after. I think far too often in today's world People are trying to have their own truth.

as to po as opposed to what the truth really is.

So to me It doesn't matter. that I'm almost 84 years old. and have gone through all these years, the truth has not changed. my growth and my understanding of that truth probably has changed. But Truth is so important.

And uh I I just I hate it when anybody tries to lie to me. Yeah. Oh and It's uh you know, you you're stealing the truth. When you tell a lie. And uh so It's a very important topic.

And I think that in in all aspects of our lives. We need to have respect for the truth. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Harold. Art, do you have anything you want to add on this subject?

Nope. Terry, what about you? You got anything?

Okay, well, we'll go around the horn. Rodney, you already said no, man. You can't be throwing one in now. But like there. Do you always know what the truth is?

Eventually, you hear it and you're like, oh, that sounded like the truth. You go away. Oh, no, I think it's different tomorrow. It changes all the time in your own mind. Yeah.

You always know who the truth is. You don't always know what the truth is. If it came out of Jesus, how much comes out of Jesus' mouth in this world? What's already written down, and you don't get more, you don't get all the little small things, and it's just constantly a battle. that you have to fight to understand.

And I think it's completely worth it. There are so many things that go on in the world that you like I don't I don't care what he or she said. Yeah. But there's those times when it's like I need to know.

Well, I think it gets back to the askers, the seekers, and so forth. You know, the more you seek, the more you'll find, and so forth. The more you seek, the more you'll find. When you want the truth, you go searching. You do.

That was for my friend Robby. Thank you.

So I'll get to my clip and then we'll get to something else probably. But my clip is from the movie Liar Liar. And so what's going on here is you have I can't remember the guy's name, it's Jim Carrey, he plays the title character in there, and he lies for a living. He's an attorney that makes his money lying and getting his Clients, you know, off of their case, that they win their case by him lying. And his son has his eighth birthday, I think it is, and he has a wish, and he makes the wish his dad can't lie anymore.

And the next morning, his dad cannot tell a lie. But he's in the middle of this court case where this lady had a prenuptial agreement that she signed saying that she would not get any money if she had any extramarital affairs, which she has had some, and he's trying to hide it, but he can't lie about it. And also, there's some audio evidence that she had an affair that he'll allude to. But he figures out a way to do it. And it's not the point that he's getting to, that he's going to make, but it's a point of him interviewing her that I'm going to make afterwards, why that mattered to me and why I chose this clip.

But that's what's happening in this clip. Does that make sense? Almost. Almost. Mostly.

Well, Rodney, it's okay. It's not Bruce Almighty. It's Larry Liar. Or was it again? What's that?

Or was it again? Yes.

I sent you a text explaining it, hopefully, in a way that you can get it.

Okay, well, anyway, back to my clip. It is from Liar Liar, and we're hearing about the court case. And here we go. Mrs. Cole.

Is this a copy of your driver's license? It says here you're blonde, are you? If you don't remember, perhaps Mr. Falk will. Brunette.

We can play the tape again. Maybe it's on there. I'm a brunette. Thank you.

So let's see. Wait, 105? Yeah. Your Honor, I am checking. You would!

Quiet! Oru! Wait. One eighteen.

Alright, fine, fine. I'm 127. Uh-huh. And it says here you were born in 1964, but that's not true either, is it? Is it?

Yeah. Can you tell me what it says here on your birth certificate under date of birth? Your Honor, I object. What does this have to do with anything? Overrule.

Mrs. Cole, answer the question. Nineteen sixty-five.

Now let me get this straight. That would mean that you lied about your age. to make yourself older. But why would any woman want to do that? I changed it so I could get married.

Throw out.

Okay. She'll set you free! My client light of- She was only 17 when she got married, which makes her a minor. And in the great state of California, no minor can enter into any legal contract without parental consent, including. Pre-nuptial agreement.

Pre-nuptial. Agreements. This contract is void. Standard community property applies, and she is entitled to half of the marital assets or $11.395 million. Jordan Faysback, swoosh, and that's the Yeah.

Nothing further, Your Honor.

So what in the world does this have to do with other than the word the truth in there? The truth shall set you free.

Well, Mrs. Cole in this was a willing participant in activities that were true about her. She had extramarital affairs, right? That's a truth about her, but that doesn't tell you the whole truth of a situation. The point that I was feeling when I listened to this was: there are things that I've.

Entered into in my life that I was a willing participant of that were not good things. You know, times that I'd watch pornography or whatever that was, it was not of God's will. And I was a willing participant in those things. You know, but if I believe what the enemy says, and at my deepest core, that I'm a pervert or I'm, you know, whatever the word you're going to use, right? If I believe that's the sum total of my identity and that's the deepest thing about me, then the enemy wins.

But when I go back and I listen to the truth, Jesus tells me the truth of who I am and my identity. And I'm a beloved son of God, right? And through his love, I'm able to overcome that addiction. And I'm no longer that person. And I learned to walk more truly in who I was created to be, that's the deeper truth of the situation.

But the enemy tries to get us to settle for the small truths in life. 'Cause if you'd said that, absolutely. That's who my identity was a part of me. Right, and there's other things that I've done, and there's other things I'm sure you've done, but that's not who you are. What you've done does not equal who you are.

The only way you know who you are is your identity in Christ. And when you can learn to walk in it and accept it and live out of it, all those other labels, those identities, those things can fall off of you. Right, they no longer matter and they no longer have power over you, they no longer have control over you. And so for me, even though it was a silly clip, there was a lot of truth in that of saying, okay, God, you have helped me walk through a whole lot of things that had partial truth. about me and things that I willingly stepped into.

You know, Danny, you're shaking your head. I know that that's something you've probably felt over the years too. But to have God say, no, that is not the deepest thing about you. It never was and never will be. The deepest thing is you're my beloved son that I'm proud of.

Yeah, and I love the fact that it's a very similar court case from a standpoint of because Jesus is our husband, right, then we're not legally bound to the shenanigans that we Agreed to in our former times. And so, how are you said it, case, set, and match? You know, we win, everybody should clap.

Okay, that's right. But it's true. You know, it's the same kind of deal. As the more I thought about that, the more I love your clip because it's exactly like, okay, go for it, dude. Absolutely.

Years ago, we were part of a church and we had a ministry there, and dealing with addictions, and I've talked about it a lot on the show. And there was a time when One of my dear friends was on another board of another ministry. And we had done some things together, and a statement had was made. and some things were put into place. and something we were going to take a part of.

And the way it was presented to me, what was said was facts, it was said, but the context was everything.

Well, I got it in the wrong context. It was a miscommunication. And so ah Took the facts, and the devil had a heyday with me, and we actually. Wrote a letter. I mean, it was a horrible situation.

And we went to the pastor. The pastor. was not happy about it. from our perspective. And we ended up having this meeting.

And it was almost a a a it could have been a total split divide that could have had reprimands and stuff in the church. I mean, it was it was horri bad, bad situation. But when we sat down in a meeting with everybody that was involved, And the truth was revealed. It God led me into a place where I realized that, yes, these things were said, but I had to look at the heart of the people who were behind what was said. And either they were just pulling off the ultimate pose.

And they didn't care a thing about me and a thing about our ministry. That would have had to be true. But I knew it wasn't. Because I'm still good friends with everybody on that board. the other board.

and the one that I was on. And but what it what it took me through was it was a heartbreaking Struggle. But it took me to the other side of truth being revealed. Of, I got to see the Jesus in people. That's what I've got to look for.

And if I know their hearts, and you know, I think about my first boot camp on the team and our incident, you know, that was hard on, I think, harder on you than it was me. But we s Sat down and faced what we were looking at.

So, what was the incident? Just, you know, the audience was talking about. Sam had asked me to respond to a talk. And then he, as we all know, that who talks. Was going through his notes, looking at time and everything, and he skipped a page and he went on about his business fish to talk.

And I'm sitting over there going, Well, I guess he didn't want me to respond. And the enemy, ah, hook me and, you know. Maybe you're not supposed to be a part of this. Maybe you're. And I was sitting there contemplating going to my room, packing my stuff, and leaving.

It was that traumatic. And then we were supposed to be having a covenant of silence, and we broke that too.

So we had broke all kinds of things at that point. But we talked about it. And what I came to the conclusion was I'd been around Sam few months at that point, been to another boot camp with you guys and knew that wasn't Sam's heart. Sam would have never done anything to hurt anybody on that camp, me included. That's not who he is.

And as we talked it through, I think it solidified a friendship and a relationship with not only with Sam, but with all you guys, because I know that I can trust you with my heart. Was the Stapler involved? No. No. People's hearts are pretty safe.

Not as much object. Stapler is a mouse, like a computer mouse. There are tragic episodes of those not making it out of Camp Alive. Yes.

I think it boils down to the truth of Jesus' own words, where he says. If a brother offends you, what is real or perceived, go to him. Often, what we do is we go to Facebook, we go to the telephone, everybody but that person. We don't even go to prayer about it. We don't even go to Jesus about it.

We just make the assumptions. And next thing you know, there's a whole riff in the whole works. Yeah, when I was married and for a very successful season of that marriage, obviously it wasn't ultimately successful. But the way we got through a lot of things was we would learn to ask each other, I heard you say this. Is this what you meant?

And invariably most of the time it was No, I didn't mean that at all. And it could have been the exact words they said, but I had the enemy spin. Of what those words meant, or she had the enemy spin on what those words meant. And I use those in other relationships. You know, as well, I've learned to say, okay, this is what I thought I heard you say.

Is that what you meant? Right? And give them the opportunity. If they say, yeah, that's what I meant, then that's another it's all go now. You know, that's a different story.

But more times than not, it's they go, no, I didn't mean that at all. What I meant was this. And it gets back to I have to trust Somebody what God tells me about a person's heart. More than I trust what I hear or what I feel or what I see sometimes, right, until I can get more clarity. I am so tired right now of saying feelings lie.

And I've said, that's trite. I mean, it is, but it's a truism as well. We can say that to other people, but that one's kind of hard to hear. And to make you feel better, Danny? Uh you may be the only one that ever thought of walking out and driving home during a boot camp, right?

Yeah. I did. Yeah. You had to be talked back, if I remember right. Yeah.

He's not the only one. I knew we all was not alone. Yeah, we've all had always been here either. I was not involved. Yeah, but a boot camp, we had warfare at a boot camp, really?

That could happen? No way. Yeah, no, that wouldn't happen. Anyway, speaking of boot camp, we do have one coming up in November. Good segue.

Again, it is. I try to always get boot camp in there. And the reason I do is I know how life-changing they are. And it's not the camp itself, it's the time you set aside to spend with God. Because I promise you, you will spend more time with God than you do just about any other time in your life.

You know, and that may sound scary to you. There's nothing to be scared about. Worst case, you go out and it's quiet and you get to listen to the birds and you get to watch the squirrels or whatever's going on out there. It's great to get your heart back out in nature. But more importantly, God's going to speak to you sometime there that weekend and maybe multiple times during that weekend.

And that's where you find the real truth. Is in His words. Yes, in His Bible, in the written word, but also in the Word that He shares with you in the midst of quiet time with Him. And I promise you, that's the best place you can go to get some good quiet time.

So go to masculinejourney.org to register for the boot camp this week. Take some quiet time and ask God to show you the truth about your heart, the way He sees you, the way He created you, and then spend some time loving others well. We'll talk with you next week. And again, we're glad that you're with us. We'll see you next week, or talk to you next week, or do something with you next week.

MasculineJourney.org. This is the Truth Network. Yeah.