The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.
So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here, now. Welcome to Masculine Journey. We are glad that you're with us this week.
We have an amazing topic this week, and I'm very biased. I realize that. I think we have an amazing topic. most weeks. I can't say every week.
It depends whether Robby comes with with it or we do. Since Robby's not here, we can pick on Robby. But uh Robby is away at man camp. That's all you need to know. It's better than him being away at Women Camp.
Yeah, yeah. I think that's coming up in a few weeks.
So I don't know if he'll be no. He's a he's at Man Camp, and that's from our uh fr our friend Nikita. That's a camp that he does at the same place that we go, down to Camp Littleite in Royston, Georgia. We'll be down there in just a few weeks, down November 20th through 23rd. We'll be down there for our boot camp, and it goes from Thursday night at dinner time to Sunday at lunch.
And so it's a great weekend, and I'm sure we'll talk more about that throughout the show. We tend to do that quite frequently. And the reason we talk about it so frequently, it's made the biggest impact in our life for most of us, other than our salvation and our intimate walk with God. It's taught us how to walk deeper and more intimately with Jesus. And so it's really been impactful to all of us, and that's why we constantly talk about it and want to share it.
But today's topic, Andy, we're continuing our foundation series, correct? Yep.
So remind us quickly: what is our foundation series? It's Basically, what we believe is a ministry that came from Wild Heart, the book. We've been doing boot camps. There's a lot of topics in there, but it's not limited to that. There's a lot of other things that we believe as a ministry.
And that's just brought a lot of victory in our lives. Yeah, as God's kind of worked on our hearts, we've we've put that into the portfolio of things that we believe and that we want to try to share with people. And so we've been doing that, and we'll continue to do that series until God tells us not to. And so this week's we're talking about one of the boot camp talks that we do. which is called The New Name.
And you're actually doing that talk at this upcoming boot camp, but it has more to do than that. It has to do with yes, it's a new name, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but it's also more importantly your identity in Christ. Right.
Sometimes you can p have people put labels on you and most of the time that's not true. And we live the life like that. The enemy tries to put those labels. But there are times when the label fits the identity, the person. And that's what we're talking about.
When you get a new name, it finally aligns with who you really are, and that's what we're talking about. Yeah, as we talk about the new name, it actually comes from a scripture in Revelation. It's Revelation 2.17. And I need to put my glasses on so I can read it. But it says Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The one who is victorious, I will give them some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. Right, so there is a special name that God has for each one of us. Right.
And it doesn't say that we have to die before we get that. It just says that we will receive it. And so we believe, and God's done this, and we'll talk about it throughout the show and in the after hours, God's given us our names. Right? And it's not that he's given us a new name, he's reminded us of the name that he had in mind for us.
When he sent us to the earth. Right? Because, Darren, you talked about a scripture before the show where it talks about. his plan for us before we were even here. Yeah, in Ephesians he does talk about the fact that Even before we came onto the scene, that before the foundations of the world, God had us, specifically us, not just a mass of humanity, but individually you in mind.
And his purpose was to make you whole and holy So he knew you'd be broken. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to be made whole. He knew you were going to struggle with holiness, or you wouldn't need a lot of help there. And so. But he still focused on that before the foundations of the world.
And that's a very individual, a very personal thing. And The other factor that Comes along with the new name is that all throughout scripture people get new names. I mean Abraham gets a new name. Abram becomes Abraham, and you've got Jacob who becomes Israel. You've got Jesus, who has, I don't know, 742 different names.
All of which speak towards his character of who he is.
Some of them speak to kind of. what he did or the work um that that his sacrifice accomplished. But Most of them focus on his character. God The father didn't really have a name. but what he was called Was all the different things that were his character.
And so this new name concept is, it's not new. And it's not an Old Testament only. No, no. Jesus continues it, right? Peter is called the rock, right?
Before the rock was called the rock, I mean, the rock. Saul becomes Paul. Yeah, exactly.
So it's a concept in which is very, very important. God knew that. He must have known. Obviously, he did that we would buy into a false identity at some point in our life, and we would need to be. Rescued.
from that false identity and given, you know, who our true identity is. Right.
And sometimes those false identities are given to us from other people.
Sometimes they're given to us by ourselves. You know, Sam, you're just an idiot. Right, okay. Most of the time the enemy's behind all of that. Or except personally for me, a lot of times, it's reunited.
Yeah, we need to be reunited with be God. Made us to be. And that brings us to our first clip, Andy. You have it. It's from the show, The Alphas.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about it? Yeah, so Um When I saw this clip the first time, I think I was watching this show, and I don't watch Office All. often but you know m being Andy, my name it kinda perked up whenever Andy, the character, Begins to call himself Drew, and it's because he wants a new identity. He wants to rename himself because he wants it to align better with his better actions. And sometimes there's.
I've wanted a new name because I haven't always shown the best of who I am. It's. You know, it's just trying to escape, kind of almost like to go into a pose because all this junk comes out. And I was having problems at work, and I couldn't identify this. I didn't do what he does on this clip, but he's just struggling with this anger issue that he has, and he's wanting to go hide behind a new name.
Well, he didn't change or anything. And sometimes that's what we do: we want a new identity and we'll go try to make it a way instead of allowing God to speak into our lives and tell us who we are.
So it's her Andy becoming Drew. That's right. Oh. True.
Sorry. Apology not accepted. because it wasn't even necessary in the first place. Several weeks ago, Andy Bernard had an incident. But after five weeks in anger management, I'm back.
And I've got a new attitude. And a new name. And a bunch of new techniques for dealing with the grumpies. Morning Jim. Hey, Andy, how are you?
Good true. What's that? You can call me Drew. No, I'm not gonna call you that. Cool.
I can't control what you do. I can only control what I do. And the True pose. I mean it's just It's just too bad you can't just Get a new name. Yeah.
Uh what what I loved about that though is You could almost see in Jim's character God stepping in, saying, I'm not going to let you off easy. Right, right. You know, no, I'm you're Andy and you gotta learn to live as Andy. Love out of your identity for sure. Yeah.
I mean, they had the name for me. I was Angry Andy. Angry Birds was popular at the time, and it was like they called me Angry Birds or whatever. And I was just going through a lot. I see a meme in the future.
Exactly. Yeah. I hate this vulnerability stuff. Yeah. Why do I do this to a lot of the money?
But hopefully I won't start. Punching any walls or anything, but I mean, it's so true when I saw that. I mean, it's not like exactly, but it was almost like. Um what is it? Art imitates life.
I mean, that's what happened. They say life imitates art, but it was like art imitates life. I mean, that was like. And did I come and Video you, yeah. Video me.
But it was a tough time or whatever. And and that was right about the time, actually, when I started coming to boot camps, probably a year or two after that I got my new name. And but anyway, the the enemy will try to impose things on you. By the actions that you take, and that's what he was doing. He was trying to escape it and do something more positive, but ultimately he wasn't happy with who he was, and he wanted to get out from under that.
Yeah, and the humor in that clip was great, and I loved it, but it it istr illustrated a point that it's not up to us. To change our name, no, no, it's it's up to God to walk with us, right? And in it, and us to trust in Him, be vulnerable to Him, and let Him work in us. You know, one of my favorite scriptures on this topic is the story of Benjamin that His mother was going to name him Ben-Oni. B-O-B-E-N-O-N-I, I don't know how to say it, but it means son of my great pain.
And the father interceded and said, No, I'm going to name you Benjamin.
Son of my right hand. Right.
And that's what the Father does for us all the time, is He steps in and says, I don't care what the world's called you, I don't care what others have called you, even people close to you. Right? I'm going to step in and tell you who you really are in my eyes and what I created you to be. And that's what we're going to try to unpack more throughout this show: how He's done that for us and ways that He can do that for you, and just kind of share those times as we go along. But it's been very impactful to every one of us sitting here as God's done that.
And we'll get into some of your stories as we come back from break here in a little bit. But we've got about a minute before we go into break. Either one of you want to share a little bit before we go to break, and then we'll catch it on the other side. I would just encourage people to think about how you use nicknames with the people that you love. Right.
You know, we give people that we truly love a nickname, right? And it may be silly. I mean, my daughter sitting next to me. Her nickname became Fish Head years ago. We can tell that story later on.
But I used to call her Nisha, and then I would call her Nisha Head. And then one day it just came out Fish Head.
Well, that has become her nickname, and it's an affectionate one, one that she actually appreciates. She came home one day with a bracelet that said fish head on it.
So we do that to people that we love, and God does that to people that He loves. Yeah, absolutely. My daughter is Sydney, and she's been known as Squid, you know, for most of her life. She didn't first appreciate it. I think she was a little bit more.
You said that a lot. Yeah. There's some strange things going on in the universe. That's fishy. Yeah, that's very fishy.
I had to do that on behalf of Robby since he's not here. Yeah, well, you didn't have to, but we appreciate you. Yes, I did. Robby may disagree. We do have a boot camp coming up November 20th through 23rd.
If you're in financial situation where you can't afford to come, don't let that stop you. If God's laying it on your heart, we will help you get there in one way or another. Go to masconjourney.org to register right now, and we'll talk to you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there.
I think sometimes as men, we feel like we're on our own and we've got to do everything ourselves, and the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and it's our job to fix everything and make everything right and have all the answers. And I think when you come here, you just get really honed back in and reminded that God really is for us. That a good father helps you, and a good father makes sure you have all the tools you need, and a good father comes through for you when you need him and you just feel less alone. Register today at masculinejourney.org. Tell me once again who I am to you, who I am to you.
Tell me, lest I forget who I am to you. But I belong to you. Welcome back to Masco and Journey. That is our friend. We don't know him personally, but he's our friend.
We've heard this clip so many times. He feels like a great friend. Jason Gray, and and that's the song Who I Am. Right.
And Andy, you want to talk a little bit about it? We use this at boot camps a lot. You don't want to? No.
Well, I was like. I was like, is he stumped? He didn't know who that was when he kind of paused, and I was going to help you out there. It was a dramatic pause. You got it was.
Bring it up.
Well, yeah, when you get to be a certain age, that kind of just happens naturally that you can't. Yeah, we've had problems with memory tonight. No, we talked about it. I'm sure my phone's going to pop up the reminder anytime now of something I was supposed to tell you during the show. No, that's Jason Gray, and it's such an amazing song, and it's even a better video.
I would encourage you to go to YouTube and watch the video. It's such an impactful video of just illustrating what the world, what the enemy tries to tell you who you are. A product of what's happened to you. You know, I'm broken. I'm no good.
Whatever those labels that you've been given, and how God really sees you. It's such an amazing song and a video to show you that. You know, you speak a lot about agreements. We talked about it in spiritual warfare. There's no greater breaking of agreement than the labels that have been put on you.
Right.
Then, you know, that's that's the greatest there because if you believe what the enemy calls you, You know, you don't have an identity as a son. You don't know who you are. Right.
Well, and in Scripture, you know, Jacob was a great example of that. Right? As he lived as Jacob, which meant deceiver, right? Yeah. He deceived people.
Right.
You know, when he stepped into his new name and acted differently, right? You know, who you believe you are is who how you'll be. You bring up Jacob. One of the things that we usually tell guys is you will wrestle with that new name. That's right.
When God gives you a new name, you will usually wrestle with it, not. And I'm not saying that's what happened to Jacob.
However, Jacob did wrestle with God. And prevailed. And prevailed and came out with a new name, right? And so you got to stick with it sometimes. The first.
You know, a few times I went after this, I didn't, I heard white noise, you know, static. And then my mind started filling in all those names, and none of them were good.
Well, you know, you don't hear because you're so sinful, you don't hear because you're da-da-da-da-da, you don't hear because you're blah, blah, blah. All of those different things, but it's so important. That we unpack this, that you unpack this new name because it's central to.
Well, for me and you're gonna play the clip here in a minute. But for me It was probably the single most important part of this whole process was. Hearing my new name, I did wrestle with it. I actually, you know, just went, Yeah, God, I know. I know that's what you call me.
And I thought it was a bad thing. Um, But after I began to understand that, then that was what allowed me to start walking in more freedom, and then that allowed the rest of my family to start walking in more freedom. This is probably the single most impactful thing that happened for me. Because as I began to walk in that, that allowed my daughter who's sitting next to me to begin to experience that person rather than. the poser that I was before.
Absolutely, and I'm looking forward to getting more of that story here in just a little bit. The clip that's going to play next: I went to this movie reluctantly. My son wanted to go see it. It was a holiday movie. It was called Rise of the Guardians, and it had a bunch of, it had the Easter Bunny, it had all the characters.
I don't think it had the Tooth Fairy, it might have. It had most of those, right? You know, it had Santa, Jack Frost, those are the main characters. Jack Frost was the main character. It had the Easter Bunny, it had other people, and they were guardians.
And the Sandman. And the Sandman. They did have the Sandman. He was important. But yeah, they did have all those.
But this clip, this part of this this show came up and it just hit me. As it came up, and what we have in the scene is Jack Frost is struggling. He's been told he's a guardian, he doesn't want to believe it. He doesn't even know what a guardian does, but he knows that Santa is a guardian, and he goes to meet with Santa. And Santa's a very big person compared to Jack Frost and kind of scary.
He looks kind of mean and intimidating. And so, as you open the scene, you kind of get that feel from it. But as he starts to talk to him, he's talking to him about finding who he is. Finding his identity, that it's important to do that. He uses different words for it.
But as he's doing it, he's using a Russian doll. Dinisha, thank you for telling me what that's called. But it's one of those, if you don't know what it is, like I didn't know what it was, I just knew what it did. It's one of those dolls that you take off one thing and it has another one underneath it, a smaller one, and it has a bunch of different faces. And Santa equates that to parts of his personality, parts of his identity.
And so that's what you're going to hear. But I want you to listen to the clip and we'll come back and talk about it.
Now we get down to text abreast. Text. Who are you, Jack Frost? What is your center? My center?
If Man and Moon chose you to be a guardian, you must have something very special inside. Hmm. Here, this is how you see me, no? Very big, intimidating. But if you get to know me a little...
Well, go on. You are downright jolly. But not Just jolly. I am also mysterious? And fearless?
And caring. And at my center There's a tiny wooden baby. No, sir. What do you see? Uh you have big eyes.
Yes. Big eyes, very big because Because they are full. of wonder that is my center it is what i I was born with eyes that have only They seem to wander in Everything. Eyes that see lights in the The trees and the magic. In the air.
This wonder is what I put into the world and what I protect in children. It is what makes. Makes me a guardian. It is my center. What is yours?
I don't know.
So, what you hear there is a man who knows his identity. Right? And that's what we're talking about. We're talking about God had something in mind. When he made you.
You weren't an accident. If you're an accident by man's eyes, which I was. I was not an expected baby. You know, I could be called an accident. I was not an accident to God.
Right, and he had a reason for making me, and something he meant for me to bring to the world. Just like he did Andy and Grant and Darren and Dinisha and Harold. Art, the director over here, yes, every one of us has something unique that God said, only you can represent my glory to the world in your way. Right, and so that's what I loved about that clip. And here I am watching this movie I didn't want to go to, and I'm halfway balling after this clip because it just hit me so hard that, okay, God.
I have And I'll share my story in the after hours. I have not really accepted the names that you've given me, I've kind of pushed them off. Right, and so it made me dig a little deeper. It took another 10 years for me to really understand it, which we'll talk about in the after hours. But before we do that, I want to go back to you, Darren.
You were sharing a little bit about how this was impactful to you. Can you tell us a little bit more about why?
Well, I've always been. kind of a risk taker, you know. Um which is not good if you're my child, but you know, I've always been a risk-taker and therefore Dinish has moved to a lot of different places in the world. I've moved around. Um But I've taken a lot of risks, not just in moving to different places, but I've taken risks in relationships.
I've taken risks physically in different times. And I thrived on that. I never understood why. I just thought, well, you know, that's just, I like that. You know, I like taking risks.
But at a certain point in my life that became more harmful. than helpful. To others. And so I had begun to believe basically that I was. bad for others, that I wasn't good for the world.
And I was at a boot camp, quite frankly, went by myself, by the way. And it allowed me the time to not have to worry about what the guy next to me was thinking after the. You know, that session or whatever, and I could just go out in the woods by myself anytime I wanted. But during a particular talk, God started Talking. And I had struggled for a couple of years listening and hearing God's voice in the way that I had previously in life.
And so. He began talking, I began writing. Before the night was over, God basically said, Darren, you're dangerous. And I immediately said, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Um, trying to quit, you know, could you help me with that?
Was kind of my thought process, and he was like, No, you don't get it, and I was like, Yeah, I get it, I get it. You know, I've hurt a lot of people, I've done a lot of bad things, and uh. And he said, no, you don't get it. I made you that way. You've been using it incorrectly.
But I made you that way. And not only did I make you that way, I need you to be that. I need you to be dangerous. to the kingdom of darkness. I need you to be dangerous to to the demonic world.
I need you to be dangerous on behalf of. others. And love them well through that. And so, as I began to walk in that, and it took time, it took a long relationship with you, quite frankly, Sam. As I begin to walk with you and Robby and other guys, Mark and Andy and others.
And began to walk in that, and you guys remind me of those things on a regular basis. No, you were born for this, you were created for this. and I begin to walk in in that identity and pose less, But it also was a It was a gauge.
So, when something happened and I felt like being really dangerous, like scary dangerous. um and hurting other people I had to ask myself, no, wait a minute, that that wasn't why I was created. I was created to be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness, not to the kingdom of light, not to my family. And so it allowed me to then gauge that and channel it in the right directions. And I still got to take big risks.
I mean, one of the risks was Calling you and saying, Hey, do you want to start a ministry? I mean, that wasn't really what it sounded like, but that's what happened.
Well, I was going to say, if you would not have listened and taken that risk, we wouldn't be here today. The show wouldn't be here. Right.
You wouldn't be here and and none of this would have taken place. The boot camps wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't be doing those. Nothing would have happened without you stepping into that dangerous place. that you were made to do.
And we thank you for that. But go to masconejourney.org. We're going to go to the after hours. If you don't hear that, you're not listening to us on podcasts. You can go do that.
Go to any podcast location, look up Mascon Journey After Hours, and we'll continue the conversation. We're going to hear Dinish's new name, more about Andy's new name, and more from the rest of us as we go. But first, before we leave, two things: go this week and register for the boot camp coming up November 20th through 23rd. And while you're at it, let God love on your heart so you can love on others well. We'll talk with you next week.
Yeah.
